Organizational Obstacles: Links with Financial Performance, Customer Satisfaction, and Job Satisfaction in a Service Environment

A model was developed to describe the roles of organizational obstacles (social and technical) in relation to three types of performance outcomes (customer satisfaction, financial performance, and employee job satisfaction), as well as to various moderators associated with different job types (e.g., customer contact, organizational commitment). In a test of this model, employee perceptions of organizational obstacles were measured in a retail banking environment. For employees in highest contact with customers (i.e., tellers), reports of co-worker obstacles, work environment obstacles, and workbreak scheduling obstacles were associated with lower levels of customer satisfaction. However, there was very little relationship between tellers' perceptions of obstacles and tellers' job satisfaction. For employees in positions associated with more experience and commitment (i.e., account representatives), information timeliness obstacles were linked with higher customer satisfaction, while materials, workspace sharing, and work environment obstacles were linked with lower customer satisfaction. Also for account representatives, the majority of obstacle types negatively affected their job satisfaction. These results are interpreted and discussed and managerial implications are examined.

[1]  Richard B. Chase,et al.  The Customer Contact Approach to Services: Theoretical Bases and Practical Extensions , 1981, Oper. Res..

[2]  John P. Campbell,et al.  JOB SATISFACTION: ARE ALL THE PARTS THERE? , 1983 .

[3]  R B Chase,et al.  Where does the customer fit in a service operation? , 1978, Harvard business review.

[4]  T. W. Lee.  How job dissatisfaction leads to employee turnover , 1988 .

[5]  Lawrence H. Peters,et al.  Measuring work obstacles: Procedures, issues, and implications. , 1988 .

[6]  G. L. Shostack,et al.  Service Positioning through Structural Change , 1987 .

[7]  Karen A. Brown,et al.  Performance obstacles for direct and indirect labour in high technology manufacturing , 1988 .

[8]  Anat Rafaeli,et al.  When Cashiers Meet Customers: An Analysis of the Role of Supermarket Cashiers , 1989 .

[9]  Frank L. Schmidt,et al.  Implications of a measurement problem for expectancy theory research , 1973 .

[10]  Richard B. Chase,et al.  DESIGNING HIGH‐CONTACT SERVICE SYSTEMS: APPLICATION TO BRANCHES OF A SAVINGS AND LOAN* , 1984 .

[11]  T. Mitchell.  Motivation: New Directions for Theory, Research, and Practice , 1982 .

[12]  Rikard Larsson,et al.  Organization and Customer: Managing Design and Coordination of Services , 1989 .

[13]  P. L. Wright.  Teller Job Satisfaction and Organization Commitment as They Relate to Career Orientations , 1990 .

[14]  M. Walton.  The Deming management method , 1986 .

[15]  L. H. Peters,et al.  Situational constraint effects on performance, affective reactions, and turnover: A field replication and extension. , 1984 .

[16]  Paul S. Goodman,et al.  Designing Effective Work Groups. , 1988 .

[17]  B. Schneider,et al.  Development of the work-facilitation diagnostic. , 1988 .

[18]  Thomas J. Peters,et al.  Thriving on Chaos: Handbook for a Management Revolution , 1988 .

[19]  Denise M. Rousseau,et al.  Developing an interdisciplinary science of organizations , 1979 .

[20]  B. Schneider,et al.  Employee and customer perceptions of service in banks: Replication and extension. , 1985 .

[21]  W. Edwards Deming,et al.  Out of the Crisis , 1982 .

[22]  B. Schneider.  Employee and Customer Perceptions of Service in Banks. , 1980 .

[23]  Paul S. Goodman,et al.  Impact of Task and Technology on Group Performance , 1986 .

[24]  R. Kaplan,et al.  The balanced scorecard--measures that drive performance. , 2015, Harvard business review.

[25]  Ricky W. Griffin,et al.  Perceived Task Characteristics and Employee Performance: A Literature Review , 1981 .

[26]  Karen A. Brown,et al.  A Comparison of Just-in-Time and Batch Manufacturing: The Role of Performance Obstacles , 1991 .

[27]  W. Pasmore,et al.  Sociotechnical Systems: A North American Reflection on Empirical Studies of the Seventies , 1982 .

[28]  Paul S. Goodman,et al.  Technology and Organizations , 1990 .

[29]  Richard J. Schonberger,et al.  Building a chain of customers , 1990 .

[30]  Thomas W. Lee,et al.  Voluntarily Leaving an Organization: An Empirical Investigation of Steers and Mowday's Model of Turnover , 1987 .

[31]  J. C. Flanagan.  Psychological Bulletin THE CRITICAL INCIDENT TECHNIQUE , 2022 .

[32]  Charles L. Hulin,et al.  Adaptation, persistence, and commitment in organizations. , 1991 .

[33]  V. Zeithaml.  Delivering Quality Service , 1990 .

[34]  B. Schneider,et al.  Facilitating Work Effectiveness. , 1989 .

[35]  P. Senge.  THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE , 1997 .