the relative influence of organisational commitment and job satisfaction on service quality of...

The relative influence oforganisationalcommitment and jobsatisfaction on servicequality of customer-contact employees inbanking call centres

Neeru Malhotra and

Avinandan Mukherjee

The authors

Neeru Malhotra is a Research Scholar at the School ofManagement, Bradford University, Bradford, UK.Avinandan Mukherjee is Assistant Professor of Marketing atthe Sam and Irene Black School of Business, Pennsylvania StateUniversity, Erie, Pennsylvania, USA.

Keywords

Banking, Call centres, Customer services quality,Human resource management, Job satisfaction, United Kingdom

Abstract

An inter-disciplinary approach is adopted to provide a deeperunderstanding of the human resource-service qualityrelationship. The paper tests the relationships organisationalcommitment and job satisfaction have with service quality ofcustomer-contact employees. Hypotheses are constructed byreviewing literature in the areas of human resource managementand services marketing. A study comprising 342 employees wasconducted in four telephone call centres of a major UK retailbank. Investigates how different forms of organisationalcommitment and job satisfaction influence the service qualitydelivered by contact employees. Findings indicate that jobsatisfaction and organisational commitment of employees havea significant impact on service quality delivered. The affectivecomponent of commitment was found to be more importantthan job satisfaction in determining service quality of customer-contact employees.

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An executive summary for managers and

executive readers can be found at the end of

this article

Introduction

Service industries have recently witnessed several

innovations, one of which is the widespread use of

call centres in the “frontline” of customer service

management. In the past decade, service firms

such as insurance companies, utilities and banks

have extensively used call centres to transact with

their customers. Call centres facilitate remote

human encounters between the end customer and

the service firm employee over the telephone. The

rapid growth of these call centres can be attributed

to technological advances in integrated telephone

computer technology, the convenience factor for

consumers, and substantial cost reductions

achieved by telephone service delivery in contrast

to face-to-face contact in branches (Sergeant and

Frenkel, 2000). Service encounters based on call

centres have raised new issues about the

management of services. Customer satisfaction

with call centre service is “notoriously” low –

according to one study, at only 54 per cent (Anton,

2000). As we observe the growth of call centres in

services marketing, issues like service quality in

such settings are gaining paramount importance.

Scholars in marketing and human resource

management are giving increasing attention to the

personal interaction between the customer and the

employee on the “frontline” of service businesses

(Mattson, 1994).

Call centres seem to have the potential to

completely replace face-to-face customer contacts

through branch networks in services in the future

(Hawcroft and Beckett, 1993). For example,

approximately two-thirds of all customer

interactions with organisations in the UK now

occur through call centres alone (Barker, 1998). In

call centres, customer-contact employees (i.e.

those employees who interact directly with

customers over the phone) are called “call centre

representatives” (CCRs). They are important for

service organisations since they provide “a link

between the external customer and environment

and the internal operations of the organisation”

(Zeithaml and Bitner, 2000). They represent the

company and directly influence the service quality

perceptions of the customer.

Journal of Services Marketing

Volume 18 · Number 3 · 2004 · pp. 162-174

q Emerald Group Publishing Limited · ISSN 0887-6045

DOI 10.1108/08876040410536477

An earlier version of this paper was awarded the “Best

Paper in Services Marketing Track” award at the

Academy of Marketing Conference, 2003. This

award was sponsored by Emerald and The Journal of

Services Marketing.

162

In service industries such as hotels, insurance,

banking, retail, etc., companies are increasingly

paying more attention to customer-contact

employees to achieve the desired profit and market-

share goals. Companies are now adopting a people-

oriented approach as compared to a profit-oriented

approach. Successful service managers recognise the

importance of crucial factors that drive profitability

in this new service paradigm: investment in people,

technology that supports frontline workers,

revamped recruiting and training practices, and

compensation linked to performance for employees

at every level (Heskett et al., 1994).

In customer-contact businesses, the quality of

service delivered cannot be separated from the

“quality” of the service provider (Lewis, 1989).

Because service delivery occurs through human

interaction, customer-contact personnel during

the service encounter largely determine the level of

service quality delivered. All kinds of behaviour

and actions on the behalf of customer-contact

employees during the service encounter cannot be

directed and controlled by management. Hence, it

can be argued that during the “moments of truth”

(Carlzon, 1987) of service encounters, it is the

discretionary behavior of committed customer-

contact employees that will largely determine

service quality perceptions and customer

satisfaction on the external front (Boshoff and

Tait, 1996). Different forms of organisational

commitment have different impacts on service

quality. Further, the job satisfaction of employees

is critical to delivering service quality, as satisfied

customers can only be created by satisfied

employees. The relative influence of different

forms of commitment and job satisfaction on

service quality remains largely unexplored in the

services marketing literature.

In this paper, we argue the importance of the

role of organisational commitment and job

satisfaction in customer-contact employees in

relation to the service quality delivered to

customers. The paper tests empirically the

relationship between the organisational

commitment/job satisfaction of these contact

employees and service quality in the financial

services sector. The relative importance of

commitment and job satisfaction in explaining

service quality is addressed.

Research objectives

Our research was conducted keeping the following

objectives in mind:. testing empirically the nature of the

relationship between job satisfaction and

service quality;

. testing empirically the nature of the

relationship between the three components of

organisational commitment and service

quality; and. testing empirically the relative importance of

the effects of job satisfaction and

organisational commitment on service quality.

It should be noted that apart from job satisfaction

and organisational commitment, there are several

factors (e.g. training, participation, role clarity,

etc.) that affect the service quality of customer-

contact employees. However, our study focuses on

testing the relative influence that organisational

commitment and job satisfaction have on the

service quality of customer-contact employees.

Importance of the study

Recent research studies have attempted to address

the relationship between human resource

management and service quality (Schneider and

Bowen, 1995; Bowen et al., 1999). The concept of

a service-profit chain (Heskett et al., 1994)

connects employee satisfaction and loyalty to

customer satisfaction and loyalty, and ultimately to

profits. Despite the popularity of the service-profit

chain concept, the relationship of employee

satisfaction and loyalty with customer satisfaction

and loyalty remains a complex and unresolved

issue (Silvestro and Cross, 2000).

It is generally observed that organisations pay

insufficient attention to understanding the nature

of the organisational commitment and job

satisfaction of customer-contact employees who

represent the organisation to the customer and can

directly influence customer satisfaction. With

increasing “phone-rage” among customers, a

service job in a call centre has become one of the

ten most stressful jobs in today’s economy (Ruyter

et al., 2001). This has an effect on the commitment

and job satisfaction of call centre representatives.

As a result, turnover of these employees is high,

which in turn affects customer service and

satisfaction (Zeithaml and Bitner, 2000). The high

turnover of call centre representatives poses a great

challenge for service organisations in keeping up

with the quality of service delivered to the

customers. One in ten call centre employers in the

UK faces a “churn” rate of 49 per cent or more –

nearly half of their staff resign during a year! (Call

Centres, 2001).

As call centres are increasingly important for

customer relationship management, customer-

contact employees (i.e. call centre representatives)

are becoming increasingly important to the link

between companies and customers. “It is often

Influence on service quality in banking call centres

Neeru Malhotra and Avinandan Mukherjee


Volume 18 · Number 3 · 2004 · 162-174

163

times that customers view the service quality of the

organisation as a whole based on their interaction

with the CCR” (Burgers et al., 2000, p. 142).

Thus, for customers, the evaluation of a service

often depends on the evaluation of a service

encounter with a contact employee.

To serve customers effectively, each contact

employee has to go through mandatory training

regarding the essentials of customer service and

use of technology. Nowadays, companies are

investing in new technologies like simulation-

based training (SBT) to train their new employees

so that customers get the best quality service

(Anton, 2000). The turnover of these employees

raises concerns for the organisation, such as the

cost of the investment made in these employees,

the recruitment and training costs associated with

hiring new employees, etc.

Most of the research exploring such

relationships has been conducted among

customer-contact employees involved in face-to-

face encounters with customers, such as in hotels,

branches of retail banks, insurance selling agents,

etc. (e.g. Boshoff and Tait, 1996; Iverson et al.,

1996; Hartline and Ferrell, 1996; MacKenzie et al.,

1998; Boshoff and Allen, 2000). Few studies are

available that explore such relationships in

telephone encounters in a call centre environment

(Sergeant and Frenkel, 2000). It would be useful

to explore these relationships among customer-

contact employees in the call centre of a retail bank

(phone encounter), as they aid and support

employees functioning at the branch level and are

as important as frontline (face-to-face) employees

for maintaining the quality of services delivered to

the customers.

In face-to-face encounters, tangible issues like

employee appearance and dress are important

determinants of service quality. People can create

quality perceptions which are related to the

physical characteristics of the contact employee

and the environment where the service takes place

(Burgers et al., 2000). On the other hand, in phone

encounters, issues such as tangibles do not count

and service quality is judged purely according to

the “intrinsic dimensions” (reliability,

responsiveness, assurance and empathy) of service

quality (Boshoff et al., 1994; Boshoff and Mels,

1995). In this context it is argued that these

dimensions can be influenced directly by

customer-contact employees (Zeithaml and

Bitner, 2000). “Interaction by telephone restricts

the evaluation of the service delivery to such an

extent that consumers will have to base their

perceptions solely on the interpersonal traits of the

contact employee” (Burgers et al., 2000, p. 143).

In face-to-face encounters, the customer also plays

a role in creating quality service through his/her

own behaviour during the interaction (Zeithaml

and Bitner, 2000). In contrast, the customer’s role

in influencing service quality during telephone

service encounters is limited, and therefore the

customer-contact employee plays a major role in

delivering a quality service to the customer.

It should also be noted that the majority of

studies in marketing involving organisational

commitment have identified the construct in its

affective conceptualisation only ( Jaworski and

Kohli, 1993; Boshoff and Mels, 1995; Sergeant

and Frenkel, 2000). Affective commitment has

been discussed more extensively in the services

marketing literature as compared to the other two

components, i.e. normative and continuance

(Caruana and Calleya, 1998).

Although commitment is negatively related with

employee turnover, it is important to understand the

nature of commitment experienced by the

employee. “Meyer and Allen (1991) caution that

not all forms of commitment are alike and that

organisations concerned with keeping employees by

strengthening their commitment should carefully

consider the nature of the commitment they instill”

(Meyer et al., 1993, p. 539). Where the benefits of

reduced turnover are obtained at the cost of poor

performance, service quality suffers, since not all

forms of commitment can be associated with high

job performance (Meyer and Allen, 1991; Iles et al.,

1996). Hence, it is the nature of commitment that

counts in the commitment-performance

relationship (Meyer et al., 1989). In this study, we

explore an important question of how different

forms of commitment influence the willingness of

customer-contact employees to engage in

discretionary efforts, which, in turn, is reflected in

their level of service quality.

Also, it is argued that it is not only the nature of

commitment that counts, but also the nature of

performance (Angle and Lawson, 1994; Suliman

and Iles, 2000). To the best of the our knowledge,

the three-component model of commitment has

not been studied with service quality, though

affective commitment has been studied with

service quality (Boshoff and Mels, 1995; Boshoff

and Tait, 1996). In this study, for the first time, we

attempt to test the relationship between the three

components of commitment and the service

quality of customer-contact employees. The

relative importance of the three components of

commitment and job satisfaction in determining

service quality are also tested.

Service quality

Quality of service is essential for customer

satisfaction (Cronin and Taylor, 1992;




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164

McAlexander et al., 1994), repeat purchases

(Schneider and Bowen, 1995), winning customer

loyalty (Zeithaml et al., 1990), and customer

retention (Zeithaml et al., 1996). It also affects

companies’ market share, and thus profitability

(Schneider and Bowen, 1995).

Owing to the characteristics of services, the

quality of services is a more complex issue than

the quality of goods, where the technical aspects of

quality predominate. Moreover, the quality of the

service provider cannot be separated from the

service offered as easily as in the case of goods

(Lewis, 1989). All these make the measurement of

service quality a challenging issue.

The SERVQUAL model (Parasuraman et al.,

1988), also known as the Gaps model, defines

quality as the difference between customers’

expectation and their perception of the service

delivered. It provides a method of measuring

service quality known as the SERVQUAL

instrument/scale. It is the most frequently used

measure of service quality (Mattson, 1994) and is

based on five service quality dimensions (tangibles,

reliability, responsiveness, assurance and

empathy). Over the years, it has been adapted and

applied in various contexts.

The Gaps model examines service quality in

terms of five gaps between expectation and

perception on the part of management, employees

and customers. The difference between

customers’ expectation of a service and their

perception of the service actually delivered is

known as the “service quality gap”, and is a

function of four other internal gaps (gaps 1-4).

Gap 3 is the “service performance gap”, which

refers to the difference between actual service

delivery and a firm’s service quality specifications.

It has significant effects on the “service quality

gap” as service performance is directly correlated

to service quality (Chenet et al., 2000). Since we

are looking at the service quality of the employees

only, and not that of the organisation, it is the

service performance gap that this study considers.

Because service delivery occurs through human

interaction, the customer-contact employees

during the service encounter largely determine the

level of service quality delivered to customers.

Also, in many service firms it is the customer-

contact employees, and not the services

themselves, who provide a source of differentiation

and create competitive advantage (Burgers et al.,

2000).

Job satisfaction and service quality

“There is concrete evidence that satisfied

employees make for satisfied customers”

(Zeithaml and Bitner, 2000, p. 287). In service-

based industries, human resource issues such as

job satisfaction have been found to be antecedents

of customer-oriented behaviour (Hoffman and

Ingram, 1992). People who are in a positive frame

of mind are more likely to be altruistic, helpful and

considerate (Motowidlo, 1984). It is very difficult

for unhappy and dissatisfied customer-contact

employees to deliver exceptional service that

satisfies the customer (Rogers et al., 1994). The

degree of internal customer satisfaction largely

determines the profits of the company through

external customer satisfaction and customer

retention (Reichheld and Sasser, 1990).

The linkages between the internal and the

external customer have been conceptualised

theoretically and developed through the

framework of the “service-profit chain” by Heskett

et al. (1994, 1997). The service-profit chain links

employee satisfaction and loyalty with customer

satisfaction and loyalty, which in turn affect the

growth and profitability of the concern.

Schlesinger and Heskett (1991) have also

demonstrated links in the chain through their

concept of “cycle of failure”. The concept claims

that dissatisfaction amongst staff results in high

staff turnover, which in turn results in poor

training and rewards by the organisation, in turn

resulting in poor customer service.

Job satisfaction has been studied in conjunction

with performance by several researchers (Boshoff

and Tait, 1996; Hartline and Ferrell, 1996;

MacKenzie et al., 1998; Herrington and Lomax,

1999). However, the complexity of the relationship

still remains an issue with researchers. A link

between the two has often been proposed (Petty

et al., 1984; Schneider and Bowen, 1995; Yousef,

2000) and also challenged (Organ, 1977; Vroom,

1964; Silvestro and Cross, 2000). Some

researchers have established a strong positive

relationship between job satisfaction and

performance (Hartline and Ferrell, 1996;

MacKenzie et al., 1998; Yousef, 2000), while some

see no relationship between the two (Meyer et al.,

1989; Boshoff and Tait, 1996).

Zeithaml et al. (1990) argue that employees who

are not suited to their jobs will not be able to

deliver quality service. Boshoff and Tait (1996)

support this argument, but contend that job

satisfaction, rather than what is termed

“employee-job fit” by Zeithaml et al. (1990), is an

important factor in determining service quality.

Employees who are satisfied with their jobs are

more likely to suit to their jobs as well. In fact, job

satisfaction has often been established as an

antecedent of customer-oriented behavior

(Hoffman and Ingram, 1992). Hence, we

hypothesise:




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H1. Job satisfaction has a significant positive

effect on the service quality of customer-

contact employees.

Organisational commitment

While job satisfaction has been a frequently

studied construct (Rust et al., 1996), there has

been comparatively little research examining the

link between organisational commitment and

work-relevant behaviour, other than staff turnover

(Meyer et al., 1989).

Organisational commitment is the extent to

which an individual identifies and is involved with

his or her organisation and/or is willing to leave it

(Greenberg and Baron, 1997). Organisational

commitment deals with the attitudes of the people

towards their company.

Allen and Meyer’s three-component model of

commitment

For a long time, Porter et al.’s (1974) goal

congruence approach conceptualised

organisational commitment as a unidimensional

construct, and defined it as the relative strength of

an individual’s identification with, and

involvement in, a particular organisation. On the

other hand, Becker’s side-bet approach (1960)

focussed on the accumulated investments an

individual stands to lose if he or she leaves the

organisation. More recently, Allen and Meyer

(1990) conceptualised a multidimensional

organisational commitment measure and

proposed a three-component model of

organisational commitment comprising:

(1) Affective commitment: this refers to the

employee’s emotional attachment to,

identification with, and involvement in the

organisation.

(2) Normative commitment: this refers to the

employee’s feelings of obligation to stay with

the organisation.

(3) Continuance commitment: this refers to the

commitment based on the costs that the

employee associates with leaving the

organisation (Allen and Meyer, 1990; Meyer

and Allen, 1991).

Meyer and Allen’s (1991) three-component model

links each component of commitment to specific

work outcomes such as employee retention and

on-the-job behaviour. Each component of

commitment has different behavioural outcomes

(Meyer and Allen, 1991), and is likely to influence

job performance, absenteeism and citizenship

behaviour differently (Somers, 1995). Meyer et al.

(1989) argue that “one might expect the on-the-

job behaviour of those who are ‘affectively’

committed to the organisation to differ from that

of employees whose primary link to the

organisation is based on continuance

commitment” (p. 152).

Organisational commitment and servicequality

“Service quality suffers when employees are

unwilling or unable to perform a service at the level

required” (Zeithaml et al., 1990, p. 89).

Willingness to perform implies the “discretionary

effort” undertaken on the part of employees.

Discretionary effort means the maximum effort

that employees make beyond the minimum level

required to sustain their jobs. During the crucial

service encounter, it is the willingness of these

employees to engage in discretionary effort that

determines the level of service quality delivered

and the satisfaction of the customer (Zeithaml

et al., 1990). Hence, the willingness of employees

to accept and support organisational goals and to

behave in a manner likely to promote them

influences the level of service quality (Boshoff and

Tait, 1996). Any organisation’s success will be

jeopardised if its employees fail to accept the firm’s

missions, goals and objectives (Unzicker et al.,

2000) and fail to believe in what the company

stands for (Congram and Friedman, 1991). Long-

term customer relationships can be built with a

long term committed workforce (Boshoff and

Allen, 2000), as it is unlikely that an organisation

will have loyal customers without loyal employees

(Reicheld, 1996). Hence, the organisational

commitment of frontline employees has an

important role to play in determining the level of

service quality delivered to customers.

Several studies have established a positive

relationship between the affective component of

commitment and service quality (Zeithaml et al.,

1990; Boshoff and Mels, 1995; Boshoff and Tait,

1996). Concepts like service recovery performance

(Boshoff and Allen, 2000) and capacity to satisfy

customers (Sergeant and Frenkel, 2000) have also

been linked with this component of organisational

commitment and studied in the services marketing

literature. Hence:

H2. Affective commitment has a significant

positive effect on service quality.

Although committed employees are believed to

work harder for a firm than those who are not

committed (Zeithaml et al., 1990), research has

yielded mixed results with regard to the

relationship between organisational commitment

and performance. Some researchers have




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established a positive relationship between the two

(Zeithaml et al., 1990; Boshoff and Tait, 1996;

Benkhoff, 1997; Sergeant and Frenkel, 2000),

some see no relationship at all (Mathieu and Zajac,

1990; Ganster and Dwyer, 1995), while some have

surprisingly even established a negative

relationship (Hartline and Ferrell, 1993).

It is interesting to note that most of the research

in marketing has only considered the affective (the

ignoring normative and continuance) component

of commitment as conceptualised in the

“Organisational Commitment Questionnaire”

(OCQ) designed by Porter et al. (1974) (Caruana

and Calleya, 1998). Benkhoff (1997) blames this

lop-sided approach and the lack of attention to the

concept and construct validity of commitment for

the disappointing research outcomes. Benkhoff

(1997) further argues that the lack of a relationship

between commitment and performance is due to

the use of the wrong instrument, i.e. the OCQ.

Allen and Meyer’s three-component commitment

scales can potentially overcome this problem

(Suliman and Iles, 2000; Suliman, 2002).

There are hardly any studies in the literature

which investigate the relationship of the

continuance and normative commitment of

employees with service quality. However, the two

constructs have been studied in relation to job

performance. As regards normative commitment,

some studies have established a positive

relationship between normative commitment and

job performance (Meyer et al., 1993), while some

see no relationship at all (Caruana et al., 1997).

Similarly, some studies have established a negative

relationship between continuance commitment

and job performance (Meyer et al., 1989), some

see no relationship with job performance (Meyer

et al., 1993; Caruana et al., 1997), while some have

proposed a positive relationship with job

performance (Suliman and Iles, 2000).

Since the willingness of employees to contribute

to organisational effectiveness is influenced by the

form of commitment they experience (Meyer and

Allen, 1991), not all forms of commitment can be

associated with high job performance (Iles et al.,

1996). It is argued that an “affectively” committed

employee would be more likely to exert effort on

behalf of the organisation as he/she has a “desire”

to maintain employment in the organisation as

compared to an “obligation” (normative

commitment) or a “need to continue”

(continuance commitment) (Meyer and Allen,

1991; Meyer et al., 1993; Hackett et al., 1994).

Continuance commitment especially is least likely

to correlate positively with performance (Meyer

and Allen, 1991), since the basis of commitment is

purely on the cost-benefit approach. In fact, in the

literature, a negative relationship has mostly been

established between continuance commitment and

performance (Meyer et al., 1989; Allen and Meyer,

1990; Meyer and Allen, 1991; Hackett et al.,

1994). Hence, we hypothesise:

H3. Normative commitment has a significant

positive effect on service quality.

H4. Continuance commitment has a significant

negative effect on service quality.

Also, since most of the research has studied the

relationship between satisfaction and performance

(Rust et al., 1996), “there is concrete evidence that

satisfied employees make for satisfied customers”

(Zeithaml and Bitner, 2000, p. 287). However,

there has been comparatively little research

examining the link between organisational

commitment and work-relevant behaviour, other

than staff turnover (Meyer et al., 1989). Moreover,

the relationship between organisational

commitment and performance has yielded

confusing results, and no conclusive evidence

could be drawn (Benkhoff, 1997). Hence, it would

be useful to study the relative importance of job

satisfaction as compared to the three components

of commitment in their respective relationships

with service quality. Hence, we hypothesise:

H5. Job satisfaction has a more significant

relationship with service quality than the

three dimensions of organisational

commitment.

Based on the above hypotheses, our proposed

model regards job satisfaction and the three

components of organisational commitment as

independent variables and service quality of the

customer-contact employees as the dependent

variable. Since the purpose of this study is to

measure the service quality of customer-contact

employees, and not that of the organisation, the

SERVQUAL (Parasuraman et al., 1988) measure

has been adapted to measure the dependent

variable, i.e. the service quality of the customer-

contact employees. Testing of the relationships

proposed in the model is an attempt to contribute

to the growing body of knowledge establishing

links between the satisfaction and commitment of

employees with the satisfaction and loyalty of

customers.

Methodology

Sample

The research was conducted in telephone call

centres of a major retail bank in the UK. These call

centres were owned and managed by the bank and

were part of its customer service operations. Self-

administered anonymous questionnaires were

mailed to the Head of Customer Services




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167

responsible for each call centre, who further

arranged for distribution of the questionnaires to

the respective call centre employees. Only those

employees who came into direct contact with

customers over the phone were asked to fill in the

questionnaires. Self-addressed pre-paid envelopes

were also provided along with the questionnaires,

and the employees returned the completed

questionnaires directly to the researchers.

The questionnaires were distributed to 710

employees in four call centres. Of these, 380

completed questionnaires were received by the

researchers, generating a response rate of 53.5 per

cent. These in turn yielded 342 useable

questionnaires.

Measuring instruments

The literature discusses four approaches to

measuring the job performance of customer-

contact employees:

(1) Self-appraisal.

(2) Peer appraisal.

(3) Supervisory evaluation.

(4) Consumer evaluation (Behrman and

Perreault, 1982).

Boshoff and Mels (1995) clearly argue that self-

rating is valid in such situations, and correlates

highly with other measures of performance. This

has been supported by other researchers, such as

Churchill et al. (1985) and Pym and Auld (1965).

Service quality is the result of human interaction

between the service provider and the customer.

Customer-contact employees are well placed to

judge effectively the quality of the services that

they deliver (Sergeant and Frenkel, 2000). Boshoff

and Mels (1995) argue that contact employees are

quite aware of the challenges faced by customer

interaction, and that their perceptions of service

delivery should receive more attention. Also, a

high correlation between customers’ and contact

employees’ perceptions of service quality has been

found in several studies (Schneider and Bowen,

1985). Moreover, many studies have effectively

used employees’ perceptions of service delivery

(Schneider et al., 1980; Ulrich et al., 1991;

Jaworski and Kohli, 1991; Boshoff and Mels,

1995; Iverson et al., 1996; Boshoff and Tait, 1996;

Sergeant and Frenkel, 2000; Boshoff and Allen,

2000) in measuring performance.

In this study, call centre representatives

evaluated their own performance in terms of

service quality on a shortened (11 items) and

adapted version of the SERVQUAL instrument

(Parasuraman et al., 1988). Since the “tangibles”

dimension did not play any role in measuring the

service quality of customer-contact employees in

the call centre, no items from this dimension were

selected. Appropriate items were selected from the

other four dimensions of SERVQUAL, and were

linked to a five-point, Likert-type scale ranging

from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree”. Only

those items that pertained specifically to

employee-related aspects of service quality were

selected. The scale was also modified and only

“perceptions” items were used (Cronin and

Taylor, 1992, 1994). The items were selected on

the basis of their relevance to the financial sector

and similar studies conducted using adapted and

shortened versions of the SERVQUAL instrument

(Boshoff and Mels, 1995; Boshoff and Tait, 1996;

Hartline and Ferrell, 1996).

Organisational commitment was measured with

the revised three-component scale of affective,

normative and continuance commitment (Meyer

et al., 1993). The scale (18 items) has been

extensively used by researchers in several studies

(McDonald and Makin, 2000; Jacobsen, 2000).

Job satisfaction, measured by two items, was based

on Hackman and Oldham’s (1975) Job Diagnostic

Survey measure, which has been widely used in

other studies (Daniels, 1999) (see Appendix).

All items in the questionnaire were linked to a

five point Likert-type scale ranging from “strongly

agree” to “strongly disagree”.

Empirical results

The sample comprised 32 per cent males and 68

per cent females. The mean age of the employees

was 30 years, and all were permanent staff in the

bank. Overall, a similar distribution of employees

was found in all four call centres.

The reliability for each of the scales (of the

“Organisational Commitment”, OC;, “Service

Quality”, SQ; and “Job Satisfaction”, JS,

constructs) was found by computing the

coefficient a (Cronbach, 1951). All coefficients a

were found to be greater than 0.7, and therefore

were considered acceptable (Nunnally, 1978).

( JS, a ¼ 0:869; SQ, a ¼ 0:896; AC, a ¼ 0:821;

CC, a ¼ 0:782; and NC, a ¼ 0:854).

In the case of the organisational commitment

scale, a significant correlation existed between

affective and normative commitment (r ¼ 0:537;

p , 0:01), while a weak correlation was found

between normative and continuance commitment

(r ¼ 0:128; p , 0:05). These results are in line

with those obtained by Meyer et al. (1993) and

Meyer and Allen (1991).

In factor analysis, if all the items that are

expected to load together actually do so,

nomological validity is indicated. Also,

discriminant validity is indicated if the factors and

their items are truly different from one another

(Carman, 1990). These two aspects of validity




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168

were also investigated. Principal component

analysis followed by Varimax rotation was

performed on the organisational commitment

scale and the items broadly loaded as expected,

providing support for both nomological and

discriminant validity. Item 2 of affective

commitment did not load significantly, and hence

was deleted from further analysis. The results of

factor analysis are shown in Table I. All 11 items of

service quality loaded on one factor significantly

(see Table II). This finding is in line with some

other studies in the services marketing literature

(Hartline and Ferrell, 1996).

After having established the pyschometric

properties of the instruments used in the study, the

relationships between the constructs were

investigated using correlation matrix and multiple

regression analysis. To eliminate the possibility of

multi-collinearity, the VIF factor scores for the

independent variables were also computed.

Results of the correlation matrix are shown in

Table III, and the results of the multiple regression

analysis are presented in Table IV. None of the VIF

values exceeded 10.

In the regression model, affective commitment,

normative commitment, continuance

commitment and overall job satisfaction were

taken as independent variables, whereas service

quality was taken as the dependent variable. The

results clearly indicate that the model is significant

and holds good. Further analysis of the regression

model explains that the only variables to have

significant standardised b weights were affective

commitment ðb ¼ 0:313, t ¼ 4:68, p , 0:01) and

job satisfaction (b ¼ 0:121, t ¼ 1:76, p , 0:10).

The analysis suggests that the remaining two

components of commitment, normative and

continuance commitment, did not show any

significant relationship with service quality,

although in Table III there is a significant positive

correlation between normative commitment and

service quality (r ¼ 0:203, p , 0:01). Hence, we

accept H1 and H2. H3 is marginally supported,

but H4 is rejected. Also, it is clear from the analysis

in Table IV that affective commitment (as

compared to job satisfaction) displays a more

significant relationship with service quality,

leading us to reject H5. Thus, although job

satisfaction has been the most frequently studied

construct in the literature (Rust et al., 1996),

affective commitment is found to be more

important in explaining service quality.

Implications, future research andconclusions

Our results highlight the importance of

organisational commitment and job satisfaction in

relation to service quality. More importantly, the

results show that of the three components, only

affective commitment has a significant relationship

with service quality. Affective commitment refers

to the emotional attachment of the employee

Table I Factor analysis of organisational commitment

Component

1 2 3

ac1 0.680

ac2

ac3 0.742

ac4 0.781

ac5 0.811

ac6 0.569

cc1 0.589

cc2 0.743

cc3 0.769

cc4 0.787

cc5 0.563

cc6 0.670

nc1 0.587

nc2 0.689

nc3 0.819

nc4 0.718

nc5 0.817

nc6 0.671

Table II Factor analysis of service quality

Component 1

sq1: Understand specific needs 0.657

sq2: When promise, do so 0.754

sq3: Perform service right first time 0.672

sq4: Solve problems speedily 0.743

sq5: Never too busy to respond 0.606

sq6: Give prompt service 0.764

sq7: Explain to customers 0.675

sq8: Treat customers courteously 0.758

sq9: Knowledge and ability to answer

queries 0.594

sq10: Individual attention 0.735

sq11: Behavior instils confidence 0.815

Table III Correlation matrix displaying correlations between jobsatisfaction (JS), affective commitment (AC), normativecommitment (NC), continuance commitment (CC) and servicequality (SQ)

AC CC NC SQ JS

AC 1 0.002 0.537** 0.371** 0.617**

CC 1 0.128* 20.012 0.042

NC 1 0.203** 0.569**

SQ 1 0.295**

JS 1

Notes: *Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (two-tailed);**correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (two-tailed)




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169

towards his/her organisation, and reflects the

willingness of employees to accept and support

organisational goals. Thus, employees who

identify with the organisation and support

organisational goals generally perform well. This

result is in line with the findings of previous

research using the three-component model of

commitment (Meyer and Allen, 1991; Meyer et al.,

1993; Suliman and Iles, 2000; Suliman, 2002).

In future, there is a need to explore the

antecedents of affective commitment and job

satisfaction in a service context, especially in

telephone call centers. Variables like personal

characteristics, work climate, job characteristics,

training, etc., are important in determining the

satisfaction and commitment of employees

(Mowday et al., 1982; Meyer and Allen, 1991; Rust

et al., 1996). Employees wish to remain in and are

willing to exert effort on behalf of the organisation

because of the positive work experiences and

benefits they derive from their relationship with the

organisation. Thus, having established the positive

influence of affective commitment and job

satisfaction on service quality, it becomes important

for organisations to find out what they can do to

maintain and enhance the commitment and

satisfaction of these employees as part of their

internal marketing strategy.

Also, a service organisation should strive

towards developing the affective component of

commitment in employees, as this component has

the most significant relationship with service

quality. Since affective commitment is found to be

even more important than job satisfaction in terms

of relative influence on service quality, research is

required to explore the variables that develop this

particular component of commitment.

Although the present study did not find any

significant relationship between continuance or

normative commitment and service quality, this

may not be the case in other contexts. Since

continuance commitment is related to the “costs

associated with leaving an organisation” (Allen

and Meyer, 1990, p. 13), benefits like pension

funds, etc. (Meyer et al., 1993), and personal

characteristics like age and tenure (Dunham et al.,

1994; Hackett et al., 1994) do develop this

component of commitment. As one spends more

time in the organisation, the costs associated with

leaving the organisation become greater. Hence,

employees must work hard to guarantee continuity

of membership, thus affecting their performance

(Suliman and Iles, 2000). Since our sample was

taken from a single bank and the mean age of the

employees was 30 years with an average experience

in the organisation of around four years, it could be

possible that links with performance may not have

been fully defined and established.

Also, although the normative commitment did

not display a significant relationship with service

quality in the multiple regression analysis

(Table IV), it did display a significant correlation

with service quality (Table III). Again, this could

be a feature of the particular sample chosen, as

previous research has established a link between

this dimension of commitment and performance

(Allen and Meyer, 1990; Meyer and Allen, 1991).

Hence, this dimension of commitment cannot be

ignored, and there is a need for future research to

explore the relationship of normative and

continuance commitment with service quality in

other work settings, such as the call centers of

utilities, insurance companies, etc.

To conclude, research studies have established

the fact that there is a great need to take the

relationship between human resources management

and service quality seriously. We contribute to this

school of thought by demonstrating that the

affective commitment and job satisfaction of

employees have a significant positive influence on

the service quality of customer-contact employees.

Satisfied and committed employees will lead to

satisfied and committed customers. Thus, this

study, adopting an inter-disciplinary approach,

contributes to the growing body of research

establishing and confirming the links between

internal and external marketing.

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Table IV Regression analysis taking JS, AC, NC and CC as independent variables and SQ as the dependent variable

Dependent variable

Independent

variables Hypothesis

Standardised

parameter estimates t value Significance Model R 2

Service quality JS H1 0.121 1.762 0.079 0.145a

AC H2 0.313 4.680 0.000

NC H3 20.032 20.497 0.619

CC H4 20.014 20.275 0.784

Note: aF (4,337df) = 14.331




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Appendix. Instrument items

Organisational commitment

Affective

ac1: I would be happy to spend the rest of my

career with this organisation

ac2: I really feel as if this organisation’s problems

are my own.

ac3: I do not feel a strong sense of “belonging” to

my organisation.

ac4: I do not feel “emotionally attached” to this

organisation.

ac5: I do not feel like “part of the family” at my

organisation.

ac6: This organisation has a great deal of

personal meaning for me.

Continuance

cc1: Right now, staying with my organisation is a

matter of necessity as much as desire.

cc2: It would be very hard for me to leave my

organisation right now, even if I wanted to.

cc3: Too much in my life would be disrupted if I

decided I wanted to leave my organisation

now.

cc4: I feel that I have too few options to consider

leaving this organisation.

cc5: If I had not already put so much of myself

into this organisation, I might consider

working elsewhere.

cc6: One of the few negative consequences of

leaving this organisation would be the

scarcity of available alternatives.

Normative

nc1: I do not feel any obligation to remain with

my current employer.

nc2: Even if it were to my advantage, I do not feel

it would be right to leave my organisation

now.

nc3: I would feel guilty if I left my organisation

now.

nc4: This organisation deserves my loyalty.

nc5: I would not leave my organisation right now

because I have a sense of obligation to the

people in it.

nc6: I owe a great deal to my organisation.

Job satisfaction

js1: Overall, I feel I am satisfied with my job.

js2: I am generally satisfied with the kind of work

I do on this job.

Service quality

sq1: I can understand the specific needs of my

customers.

sq2: When I promise a customer that I will do

something by a certain time, I do so.

sq3: I perform the service right the first time.

sq4: When problems occur, I give them all my

attention in an effort to solve them speedily.

sq5: I am never too busy to respond to the

requests of my customers.

sq6: I give prompt service to my customers.

sq7: I always explain to my customers each and

every step I take to answer their questions,

e.g. why a call needs to be transferred, etc.

sq8: I treat all customers courteously.

sq9: I have the knowledge and ability to answer

customers’ questions.

sq10: When a customer has a problem, I provide

him/her with individual attention.

sq11: My behaviour instils confidence in my

customer.

Executive summary and implications formanagers and executives

This summary has been provided to allow managers

and executives a rapid appreciation of the content of

this article. Those with a particular interest in the topic

covered may then read the article in toto to take

advantage of the more comprehensive description of the

research undertaken and its results to get the full benefit

of the material present.

Call centres are becoming increasingly important

in services marketing. Around two-thirds of all

customer interactions with UK organizations now

take place through call centres alone. But customer

satisfaction with call-centre service is notoriously

low – only 54 per cent, according to one study.

Malhotra and Mukherjee examine the relative

importance of organizational commitment and job

satisfaction on the quality of service provided by

customer-contact employees working in the call

centres of a major retail bank in the UK.

Job satisfaction

With increasing “phone rage” among customers,

and other factors, the job of customer-contact

employee in a call centre has become one of the ten

most stressful jobs in a modern economy. This




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affects the commitment and job satisfaction of call-

centre representatives. As a result, the turnover

among these people is high, which in turn affects

customer service and satisfaction. One in ten call-

centre employers in the UK faces an annual

“churn” rate of 49 per cent or more – in other

words, almost half their staff resign each year. It is

very difficult for unhappy and dissatisfied

customer-contact employees to deliver the high

levels of service that customers should be able to

expect. The research by Malhotra and Mukherjee

confirms that job satisfaction has a significant

positive effect on the service quality provided by

customer-contact employees.

Organizational commitment

Organizational commitment is the extent to which

an individual identifies and is involved with his or

her organization and/or is willing to leave it.

Service quality suffers when employees are

unwilling or unable to perform a service at the

required level. Willingness to perform implies

“discretionary effort” by employees – the effort

that employees make beyond the minimum level

needed to keep their jobs. The willingness of

employees to engage in discretionary effort helps

to determine the level of service quality delivered

and the satisfaction of the customer. Hence the

willingness of employees to accept and support

organizational goals and to behave in a manner

likely to promote them influences the level of

service quality. Any organization’s success will be

jeopardized if its employees fail to accept the firm’s

missions, goals and objectives and fail to believe in

what the company stands for. Long-term customer

relationships can be built with a long-term

committed workforce. In contrast, a company is

unlikely to have loyal customers without loyal

employees.

Previous researchers have identified three types

of organizational commitment:

(1) Affective commitment – which refers to the

employee’s emotional attachment to,

identification with and involvement in the

organization.

(2) Normative commitment – which relates to the

employee’s feelings of obligation to stay with

the organization.

(3) Continuance commitment – the commitment

based on the costs that the employee

associates with leaving the organization.

The research findings

The research by Malhotra and Mukherjee

demonstrates that a call-centre employee’s

affective job commitment has the most significant

impact on service quality, and indeed, that it even

has more impact than job satisfaction. An

affectively committed employee is most likely to

exert effort on behalf of the organization, probably

because he or she has a “desire” to maintain

employment in the organization, compared with

an “obligation” (normative commitment) or a

“need to continue” (continuance commitment).

Continuance commitment, where commitment is

based purely on the cost-benefit approach, seems

least likely to correlate positively with

performance.

Service organizations should therefore strive to

develop both the affective component of

commitment, and the job satisfaction, of the call-

centre employees. Satisfied and committed

employees will lead to satisfied and committed

customers.

(A precis of the article “The relative influence of

organisational commitment and job satisfaction on

service quality of customer-contact employees in

banking call centres”. Supplied by Marketing

Consultants for Emerald.)




Volume 18 · Number 3 · 2004 · 162-174

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