組織服務氣候與顧客關係之探討

Organizational Service Climate and Customer Evaluations

摘要

過去的研究證實組織服務氣候對於顧客服務結果具有正面影響力，其中更 提出組織服務氣候與服務品質間具有中介機制的看法，認為組織服務氣候對服務 品質的影響是透過員工行為所傳遞。因此，本研究以服飾店之店主管、店員及顧 客為研究對象，來探討組織服務氣候與服務結果間的行為中介歷程。研究結果顯 示員工的助人行為和意見表達的確扮演著組織服務氣候與服務結果間的中介角 色，其中，當組織服務氣候程度愈高，員工的助人行為會愈多，因而讓顧客知覺 到較好的滿意度與提昇忠誠度。因此員工之助人行為，解釋了組織服務氣候影響 服務結果的中介歷程。

關鍵詞：服務氣候、任務績效、助人行為、意見行為、顧客滿意度、顧客忠誠度

Abstract

Past research has demonstrated that organizational service climate positively affects customers’perceived service quality which indicates that the higher the service climate is, the better customers’perceived service quality. However, researchers also pointed out that there could be a mediating mechanism between service climate and service outcomes. Results from attire store employee-manager dyads indicated that employees’helping and voice behaviors served as mediators between organizational service climate and customer satisfaction. Service climate elevated the degree to which employees demonstrated helping and voice behaviors.

Helping in turn resulted in customer’s superior evaluation of service perceptions.

Thus, this study helps understand the mechanism through which service climate affects customer service evaluations.

Keywords: service climate, task performance, helping behavior, voice behavior, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty

With the rapid change of a global market, customer service has attracted significant attention from both the businesses and research community. Service climate has been regarded as one of the significant factors influencing customer outcomes.Serviceclimaterefersto employees’shared perceptionsofthepolicies, practices, and procedures that are supported and expected in regard to customer services (Schneider, Parkington, & Buxton, 1980). It was found to relate to

customer-evaluated service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty (e.g., Liao & Chuang, 2004; Schneider et al., 1980; Schneider, White, & Paul, 1998). While this literature is prominent, very little effort has been made to examine the mechanism through which service climate leads to customer outcomes.

We believe that behaviors of front-line employees who are placed at the organization-customer interface and represent the organization to the customers play a pivotal role in this relationship. While empirical evidence has shown that higher employee service performance resulted in favorable customer evaluations of the service encounter, higher satisfaction, loyalty, increased purchases, and frequency of future visits (e.g., Bell & Menguc, 2002; Borucki & Burke, 1999; Bowen, Siehl, &

Schneider, 1989; Liao & Chuang, 2004), a more complete and integrated picture depicting the association between service climate and customer outcomes is needed.

While service climate is positively related to favorable customer outcomes, this relationship probably willnotexistwithoutthetransition ofemployees’behaviors.

The current study contributes to customer service literature by examining the meditating role of employee task performance, helping, and voice behaviors in the service climate-customer outcomes relationships. We draw on the social information processing theory (Salancik & Pfeffer, 1978) and the social exchange theory (Blau, 1964) to support this proposition. According to the social information processing theory, employees rely on cues from their work environments to interpret events and understand expectations regarding their behavior and its consequences. When there is a climate for service, employees have come to the understanding that superior service is expected, desired and rewarded. Therefore, other things equal, they are more likely to provide better service. The social exchange theory, on the other hand, suggests a reciprocal relationship formed by mutual and equal treatments between two parties.

With the organization providing good service-related training, reward, and other practices to foster the climate, employees will perform better in return. Further, based on extant empirical evidence (e.g., Liao & Chuang, 2004) we expect superior

individual performance to contribute to desirable customer outcomes.

Another contribution of our study is that we examine employee helping and

voice behaviors in addition to the more frequently studied service-focused task

performance. Just like general OCB may serve to lubricate the social machinery of the

organization (Bateman & Organ, 1983; Smith, Organ, & Near, 1983), reduce friction and increase efficiency (Borman & Motowidlo, 1993; Smith, Organ, & Near, 1983), helping and voicing such as helping coworkers with service-related tasks and making constructive suggestions about how to improve service, will help create consistent and constantly-improving service. Finally, we test the model using structural equation modeling based on data from the managers, employees, and customers of over 100 apparel stores in Taiwan. This study represents the type of linkage research that Bowen and Waldman (1999) has called for to pull together different sources of data to

“betterunderstand therequirementsand consequencesofcustomer-driven employee performance”(p.178).We focus on the individual level of analysis.

Methods

One hundred and nineteen managers, 335 employees, and 570 customers from 119 stores of three franchise apparel chains operating in Northern Taiwan were invited to participate in the study. We intended to choose the chains that are similar in the style of the apparel they sell and the way they serve customers. All franchisers are centrally owned but maintain certain latitude of individuality in terms of human resource and marketing activities such as recruitment, selection, incentive rewards, store promotion plans, and so on. To ensure anonymity, we offered a recycle box to collect sealed envelopes from the managers and employees. Customer surveys were administered at site by trained research assistants. To encourage participation, cooperation from headquarters was secured and a gift was given to each individual participant. A total of 119 (100%) manager surveys, 285 (83%) employee and 285 (50%) customer surveys consist of the final usable sample. The demographic

breakdowns of the samples follow: eighty-seven percent of the manager sample was female, the average age was 28 years old, and the average tenure was 2 years;

eighty-seven percent of the employee sample was female, the average age was 23 years old, and the average tenure was 9 months; sixty-eight percent of the customer sample was female and the average age was 26 years old.

Measures

Managers evaluated store customer service climate with 7 items from

Schneider, White, and Paul (1998). Employees assessed their own service-related task

performance with 7 items from Borucki and Burke (1999) and helping behaviors and

voice behaviors with 7 and 6 items respectively adapted from Van Dyne and LePine

Data Analyses

We estimated a measurement model, a structural theory model (a complete mediation model), and two rival models (partial mediation and no mediation models).

Results and Conclusion

SEM results indicate that the measurement model fits the data well. Among the structural models specified, the theory model fits the data the best. Tests of the path coefficients reveal that service climate is positively related to helping, voice, and task performance. Helping behavior is in turn positively and voice negatively

predictive of customer satisfaction. Finally customer satisfaction is related to customer loyalty.

In summary, the results support the notion that service climate translates into superiorcustomerperceptionsviathemediation ofserviceemployee’shelping and voice behaviors. This finding confirms the critical role of the quality of

employee-customer interactions and underscores the importance of fostering a citizenship environment for service employees to render further favorable customer outcomes.

計畫結果自評

本研究的發現可做為企業提昇服務品質的參考。企業除了加強有形產品的吸引力 之外，更應提昇服務人員互助的行為，用以提高服務的傳遞，對於服務品質的提 升亦有所助益。另外讓員工知覺到組織內的服務氣候是提升員工績效最有效率的 做法。因此，本研究對提升服務品質提供另一種思維，企業除了重視第一線的服 務人員的素質外，更重要的是由組織本身做起，如此更能獲得顧客的滿意，贏得 市場之競爭優勢。

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