Enhancement of Service Quality with Job Standardisation

Abstract

This empirical study examines the relationship between job standardisation and service quality. Data used herein comes from service contact-employees and customers at 105 branches of 35 service-oriented firms in Taiwan. Results obtained from three different levels of data, i.e. service contact-employees, customers and branches, indicate that job standardisation is positively related to the perception of service quality. This finding corresponds to a conceptual model of service quality developed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry 1985:45. In addition, we speculate that service contact-employees meet with situations involving task uncertainty that moderate the relation between job standardisation and service quality as perceived by customers; however, this hypothesis is not supported by our empirical results. Furthermore, results of this study indicate that customers who are unacquainted with a service or product believe job standardisation influences.