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This study investigates the effect of total quality management (TQM) on customer satisfaction, personnel satisfaction and company reputation.

The study results rely on a structured survey conducted among an extensive sample of Finnish SMEs. In addition to the examination of the relationship between TQM and company performance in terms of customer satisfaction, personnel satisfaction and company reputation, the study takes a view on the possible effects of the industry, the company size and the certified quality system.

The results reveal that two TQM dimensions, namely Customer Focus and Product Management, were related to companies' customer satisfaction, whereas four TQM dimensions, namely Management/leadership, Customer Focus, Personnel Management and Risk Management, were related to personnel satisfaction. None of the TQM dimensions were related to company reputation. The control variables – the industry, the company size and the certified quality system – were not found to affect customer satisfaction, personnel satisfaction or company reputation.

Most previous studies have been based on traditional TQM classification and have not shown the effects of the latest TQM-related dimensions. Compared to previous studies, this work integrates risk management, digitization, system deployment efficiency and stakeholder management into TQM, which has not been implemented in any previous study. The roles of hard and soft TQM factors have been carefully considered in this study; thus, the study does not place too much emphasis on either direction but provides a balanced picture of the performance of the management systems studied. Although there are studies on the effects of TQM on personnel satisfaction, customer satisfaction and reputation, they are based on a much narrower definition of TQM than that in this study. The business environment is constantly changing, but only a few studies have been conducted to extend the TQM approach. This has led to duplication of studies, and the effects of performance-relevant procedures have not been extensively studied in the past as part of TQM. Therefore, the concept of this study brings significant added value to TQM research and returns the TQM concept to the overall level while considering the requirements of the ISO 9001: 2015 and EFQM 2019 quality standards. The study also considers the effects of ISO 9001 certification and EFQM requirements.

The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a study undertaken to understand customer satisfaction and customer retention in business-to-consumer markets. The study investigates the effect of personnel capability and customer satisfaction on customer retention in the banking sector. The influence of the control variable (gender) on customer retention and mediating role of customer satisfaction has also been examined.

The study has used structural equation modeling (SEM) for data analysis across a sample of 409 bank customers of a private bank operating in Jammu and Kashmir state of India. Questionnaires were distributed and respondents were selected through a cluster sampling technique.

The empirical analysis through SEM has confirmed that personnel capability and customer satisfaction have a significant positive impact on customer retention. Customer satisfaction partially mediates the effect of personnel capability on customer retention. Moderation analysis was performed and established that gender moderates the effect of personnel capability on customer satisfaction. It was also found that gender has no effect on other relations. Furthermore, the study shows that personnel capability has a stronger impact on customer retention as compared to customer satisfaction. However, the relationship between personnel capability and customer satisfaction is significant.

The study has been conducted on the customers of a private bank in India. Therefore, generalizations may be limited. As personnel capability is the predictor of satisfaction and retention, individuals with proper social and technical skills – in addition to other skills – should be hired for managing relationships with customers.

The study has added to the understanding of the relationship which exists among the following variables: gender, personnel capability, customer satisfaction and customer retention. These variables have not been studied together previously.

Trust and impersonal trust, in particular, are of significant importance both for organizations and for innovative personnel, who are regarded human assets to organizations. The purpose of this study is to investigate the antecedents and consequences of impersonal trust in organizations.

The population of this study constituted the managers, specialists and personnel of a pharmaceutical company in Iran. Out of a total of 200 questionnaires having been administered, 187 were returned; and structural equation modelling (SEM) was used for data analysis.

The findings of the study indicate that personal learning has a significant positive effect (β = 0.64) on impersonal trust, that interpersonal communication has a significant positive effect (β = 0.14) on impersonal trust, and that organizational justice perception, also, has a significant positive effect (β = 0.14) on impersonal trust. In addition, the findings show that impersonal trust has a significant positive effect both on job satisfaction (β = 0.47) and on innovation (B = 0.42) and job satisfaction has a significant positive effect (β = 0.39) on innovation. Moreover, impersonal trust, through job satisfaction, has a significant indirect effect (β = 0.18) on innovation; and personal learning, through organizational justice perception, does not have a significant indirect effect (β = 0.014) on impersonal trust.

This study is among only a few studies having investigated the antecedents and consequences of impersonal trust together. Also, in a developing country like Iran, impersonal trust has rarely been studied.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the influence that internal marketing, represented by internal market orientation (IMO), might have on the internal aspects (satisfaction of contact personnel) and external aspects (customer satisfaction and perceived quality of service) of organisational performance.

Interviews were carried out with all the cashiers of the 16 branches of a small, local credit institution, and with 160 customers who normally operate with this bank.

The results show that employee orientation or internal market orientation, through the dimension informal generation of information, influences the satisfaction of contact personnel, the quality of service perceived by the customer and, through the latter, the customer's satisfaction. It also corroborates the influence exerted by the contact personnel's satisfaction on the perception of quality and on the satisfaction of the customer receiving the service.

The main limitation of the study is that it analyses a single financial entity, with the characteristics and behaviours that the latter has in its relationship with its employees.

One of the key elements for achieving quality in the service offered by the contact personnel is to achieve their satisfaction. For this, it is necessary for firms to adopt an employee or internal marketing orientation so that the contact personnel come to perceive fair treatment and special attention by managers towards them and their work.

The paper verifies the validity and reliability of the internal market orientation construct (IMO) as a scale of measurement of the internal marketing concept in a different business sector and with a different methodology from those dealt with in the literature. It also demonstrates empirically the influence of IMO on variables internal to the organisation (satisfaction of contact personnel) and external to it (customer's satisfaction and the quality he/she perceives).

Good records management and effective employees contribute greatly to the success of every organization. Like any other employees, records personnel need to be satisfied with their jobs so they are motivated. Unfortunately, records personnel in Ghana are faced with many challenges which negatively affect their job satisfaction. This study aims to examine the issue of job satisfaction among career records personnel in the Civil Service of Ghana.

Civil servants from 27 ministries and the Public Records and Archives Administration Department (PRAAD) were selected for the study. A survey questionnaire was the main data collection instrument used to gather data on selected variables from respondents. The questionnaire was answered by 115 out of 208 respondents: a response rate of 74.5%.

Institutional policy, supervision quality, co-worker relations quality, promotions opportunities, salary levels, benefits availability, the nature of the work itself and reward availability all had a significant and positive relationship with job satisfaction.

The case study findings can be used to inform a working document to help other public sector organizations in policy making regarding conditions of service. It is also directly beneficial to the Ghana Office of the Head of Civil Service and policymakers because the findings will help them to reshape their employment policies to positively affect job satisfaction of members in its records class.

The purpose of this paper is to explore influencing factors that affect the effectiveness of service recovery strategies using social network from operations management perspective. Specifically, the authors study the relationships between social media agent responses to customer complaints, customer emotion changes and customer satisfaction. Furthermore, the authors investigate the roles of recovery speed and failure severity in the service recovery process using social network platform.

The results are based on 347 mini cases drawn from the Twitter accounts of a sample of airlines. Grounded theory approach is used to conduct qualitative analysis using NVivo 9, a qualitative data analysis program. A conceptual framework was developed, then tested using χ² analysis.

Agent responses that do not require customers to take further initiatives for problem solving have positive effects on customer emotion alleviation and satisfaction. In contrast, responses that provide further directions poses negative effect on service recovery outcomes. There is a strong positive linkage between customer emotion change and customer satisfaction. Surprisingly, the direct effect of recovery speed on customer emotion and satisfaction is not supported by the data. Rather, it plays a moderating role in affecting the relationship between agent responses and customer satisfaction. The qualitative data further reveals the pivotal role of failure severity, one of key service failure attributes.

The authors study service businesses’ recovery strategies using social media. A conceptual framework is developed to link agent responses, customer emotion changes and customer satisfaction from the lens of service providers, using an operations-oriented approach. Finding on recovery speed and failure severity reveal that these variables play different roles when service recovery is operated on social media platform as compared to traditional channels. Additionally, relying on tweets as data sources has constrained us from assessing other long-term service recovery outcomes such as loyalty, repurchase intent and word of mouth. The drawback is resulted from the limited information conveyed through tweets, which tends to be short and brief. The study focusses on the airline industry, which limits the generalizability of the findings to other service industries.

The authors highlight the value and potential of service recovery strategies using social network and provide insights for recovery operations where agent responses should be focussing on real time problem solving. The findings support the benefits of empowering social network agents for service recovery operations. Improving recovery speed should be less of a priority as it serves as a qualifier when service recovery is operated via social network. Given the pivotal role of failure severity, it is critical for social network agents to stand in the shoes of the complaining customers, making imminent assessment of the actual failure severity and taking action accordingly in real time. In the meantime, effective communication through social network may help to lower perceived magnitude of failure by customers, which in turn enhance the effectiveness of other service recovery efforts.

This study is the first attempt to investigate the service recovery process using social media from an operations-oriented perspective. The results supports the potentials of employing service recovery strategies using social media.

To investigate job satisfaction of middle and upper level managers working in 5‐star hotels and first‐class holiday villages and to note interests of tourism professionals regarding the subject of job satisfaction.

Questionnaire technique was used for the sample of 102 middle‐ and upper‐level managers. For data evaluation SPSS program was used. T‐tests, correlation, Anova and Scheffe tests were carried out.

According to the findings it can be mentioned that there is a general satisfaction among middle‐ and upper‐level managers in the sample. This finding can be evaluated as being hopeful according to Turkey's working conditions. In Turkey, generally personnel have long working hours, poor physical working conditions, lack of support from their colleagues and by international standards, insufficient salaries. Therefore the research findings are surprising.

The results are limited within the sampled middle‐ and upper‐level managers in 5‐star hotels and first‐class holiday villages, so the results cannot be generalized.

This study can be evaluated as useful information for tourism industry professionals regarding the subject of job satisfaction.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the determinants of consumer loyalty in Islamic and conventional banks in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The study has relevance and importance in a country with a dual banking system. Since the products and services offered by the banks are largely homogenous, customer loyalty is mostly associated with the quality of certain tangible and intangible dimensions of service. It is important for the banks to understand the factors that lead to higher satisfaction and subsequent loyalty among consumers in the context of the UAE.

More than 300 respondents were surveyed to understand the factors that lead to continuing a relationship with Islamic and conventional banks. The data were analyzed using ANOVA and stepwise regression.

The findings of the study indicate that Islamic banks’ customers are satisfied with the Shariah Advisory Board, convenience-related factors such as number of branches, and efficiency-related factors like handling issues on the phone. However, an inverse relationship is found between advice by the personnel and length of association with the bank. On the other hand, the importance of reputation and efficient handling of issues on the phone is highlighted with respect to conventional banks.

The study focusses only on consumers that bank either with Islamic or conventional banks and excludes those who deal with both Islamic and conventional banks simultaneously.

The research has several managerial implications, as the findings of the study not only highlight the factors that banking consumers value the most in the UAE banking sector, but also provide insight into the factors which need immediate attention. These decisions have strategic and resource-related implications for banks. This knowledge will allow banks to align services with their long-term objectives and invest into resources and capabilities that will provide them competitive advantage.

The study allows identification of factors that are valued the most by banking consumers in a culturally and religiously diverse country with a dual banking system.

Communication within a public organization is a fundamental aspect considering its contribution both to organizational well-being and – as highlighted by recent literature – to the improvement of relations with external users. This paper aims at analyzing the relevance of different dimensions of communication and the relationship between communication and citizens' satisfaction.

The study is based on data collected through questionnaires (303; 86%) filled in by the public personnel of an Italian local government to verify the communication dimensions relevance. The authors applied the OLS method to test the relationship between communication dimensions and citizens' satisfaction (deriving from the municipality's customer satisfaction survey system, which collected 3,708 questionnaires).

The authors show that four of the five communication dimensions considered are particularly relevant and that two of them (“interpersonal communication” and “organizational communication”) positively influence the level of satisfaction of users of local public services (citizens' satisfaction), also countering the negative perception of certain sectors (e.g. taxes and local taxation, traffic police). The conclusion also highlights some limitations of the work.

The study brings new insights into the impact of communication (as an element of public employee well-being) on citizen satisfaction, leading to some useful implications for public managers.

Service employees are reported to influence negatively the development of a market orientation hindering thus the service company's effort to become more customer centric. A way to overcome this barrier is the implementation of internal marketing (IM) programs. However, the extant literature reports that the number of companies practicing marketing internally is disproportionate small compared to the number of companies trying to adopt the market orientation concept. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to offer a preliminary insight regarding the antecedents of practicing marketing internally.

To do this, data were collected from 583 first‐line personnel from 29 five and four stars hotels in Greece through personal interviews in order to investigate the impact of company culture and internal‐market orientation (IMO) as antecedents of IM and investigate the effect that the company's culture, IMO and IM have on employee's job satisfaction at the individual's level.

The analysis involved multilevel SEM and demonstrates that the company's culture influences the adoption of the IMO concept, which in turn is an important antecedent to the implementation of IM programs. Moreover, employee's job satisfaction level is directly conditioned by the degree to which the company has adopted the IMO concept and practices IM, although the effect of the former is significantly stronger than the latter.

Various directions for future research open from this study, which address the limitations of this study while facilitating further understanding of how the adoption of the IMO concept can complement the company's espousal of marketing philosophy. For instance, although assessing the impact of the IMO concept adoption and IM practice on the adoption of a market orientation and on customer satisfaction is beyond the scope of the present study, future research towards this direction through an integrated conceptual framework would be particularly helpful and welcome.

The practical implication from this paper is that IM programs, in order to be effective, require that the company is willing to invest in adjusting its culture and also in adopting the IMO concept, which translates to investing in understanding what the employee's value, developing bidirectional communication channels and becoming responsive to the needs of its employees.

This is the first study addressing the role of company culture and IMO adoption as antecedents of IM programs. Hence, it makes a contribution for both scholars and practitioners alike since the former derive a more comprehensive framework of studying further the practice of marketing internally while the latter obtain a more pragmatic picture of the actions required prior to launching an IM program.