Improving service quality and organisation performance through human resource practices. A case study

In most developed countries, service industry production values exceed those of the manufacturing industry, showing the significance of the former. Although both industries emphasise quality, different characteristics in their services and products make the emphasis on quality, and ways adopted to improve it, differ. From the perspective of the organisation, improvement in service quality (SQ) can be carried out through the service system (including service process and physical environment) and human resource (HR) practices (including job attitude and service ability). Through an indepth analysis of a benchmark company in Taiwan's hair salon industry, findings show: the design of a service process influences the service personnel's job attitude. Similarly, the service process influences the contents of training. Total quality management (TQM) in the service industry requires not just a sound system design, but also a parallel emphasis on training and relevant policies when it comes to HR practices. Only in this way can TQM become efficient, and lead to improvements in job attitude and service ability, and in turn, upgrade SQ, customer satisfaction and organisation performance.