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This empirical survey research aims to identify the dimensions of service excellence culture for hospitals. Ultimately, a measurement tool was developed for hospital service excellence (i.e. HospiSE scale).

The survey research involved qualitative and quantitative approaches in the scale development process. The structured questionnaire was carefully designed after literature review and focus groups discussions. The respondents were employees from the public and private hospitals in Malaysia. A total of 1,558 usable questionnaires were used for the quantitative analysis. The HospiSE scale was empirically tested for reliability and validity through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses.

This measurement-oriented research had identified three dimensions of service excellence culture for hospitals, namely: employee orientation, patient orientation and competitor orientation. The multi-dimensional measure consists of 21 items.

Longitudinal research is required to provide evidence of the causal effects of HospiSE on employee satisfaction and loyalty. The HospiSE scale also requires further verification and refinement.

The parsimonious scale can serve as a strategic and practical measure to evaluate and manage service excellence culture at hospitals. Reliable and valid information can be obtained for fast and cost-effective diagnosis of the service culture for continuous improvement.

The new scale is expected to be an important diagnostic to understand and measure service excellence culture at hospitals. The patients and society at large will benefit from the improved hospital service management.

The multi-item measurement tool is new and it can provide insights into service management, resource allocation and human resource management for excellent hospital service. The measurement development process is contextualized for the hospital services.

Barbados has been driven by agricultural pursuits for most of its existence and successive decision makers have failed to create a tradition or culture with a focus on service. In a move to change this focus in support of a service culture, the National Initiative for Service Excellence (NISE) was launched on November 30, 2004. A highlight of the event was the tripartite commitment made by the leaders of the social partnership (government, labour and the private sector). The purpose of this article is to examine the topic of service leadership – and the role the three leaders must play in achieving service excellence.

This article is as a result of observations and experiences while the author served as Lead Champion for NISE. It is also informed by research on the subject. “Achieving service excellence – customer service strategies for the hospitality/tourism industry in Barbados”.

Barbadians must determine the factors for a foundation that the country needs if it is to have a service excellence culture. The foundation for Barbados might be found in the people of Barbados and in the church which is an influential institution in Barbados.

Behavioural change must start with three leaders of the social partnership. This message is valuable to these service leaders in the journey towards achieving service excellence in Barbados.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical analysis of the importance of service excellence in higher education.

The research upon which this paper is based employed a phenomenological approach. This method was selected for its focus on respondent perceptions and experiences. Both structured and semi‐structured interviews were conducted to collect relevant data on service excellence. The focus of the research study was on achieving and implementing service excellence in higher education. Findings are analysed and results are grounded in relevant theories and the principle of service excellence.

Preliminary results suggest that implementing service excellence establishes a direct link between a workforce and successful competitive strategies. In order to compete efficiently and effectively in their niche market, higher education institutions need to implement service excellence to ensure both internal and external customer satisfaction. A strong institutional culture that values internal customers can help achieve a motivated workforce, loyalty, high performance, innovation and a distinctive institutional competitive advantage.

The qualitative data collected for this study reflect respondent perceptions and opinions. Individuals perceive and experience things differently. Although the service excellence approach is applicable to service organisations, its transferability to other sectors might affect its validity.

The paper investigates how service excellence is achieved in industry and how it could be applied to promote competitive advantage in higher education.

The purpose of the framework here proposed is to introduce an industrial culture within the service organizations. Concepts such as employees empowerment, ownership, continuous improvement, together with the systematic implementation of quantitative methods builds the organizational basis for achieving operational excellence in services, reducing costs and increasing service quality. This has been deployed in two phases: a “hard” phase to support the design of the service and the construction of tangible and intangible elements of the service, and a “soft” phase to support the management, maintenance and improvement of the service delivery. All this has been applied to the hotel service sector where the interaction between tangible and intangible elements of the service are particularly evident.

The framework uses and integrates several methodologies. Quality function deployment (QFD) is largely used in order to support the “hard” phase of the framework. Kano's model of customer requirements has been integrated in the QFD structure by means of an original method developed by the authors, introducing a so‐called non‐quality priority number (similar to the failure modes and effects analysis' risk priority number) that in combination with a so‐called quality priority number drives the decisions for improvement towards operational excellence. Moreover, the “soft” phase of the framework introduces methods such as failure mode and effect analysis and total productive maintenance in order to improve the service organization's operational competence and culture, increasing at the same time the sense of ownership and the commitment for improvement of front line workers.

Through this paper, it has been shown that industrial methods for operational excellence can be adapted and transferred to the service sector with a potential for significant improvements in particular for those services with a high degree of tangible factors. Allowing in this way to achieve outstanding results also without significant investments.

This paper does not have the intention of describing the state‐of‐the‐art of service design and management, but rather it focuses on the transfer of industrial methods and techniques to the service sector.

The value of this paper is related to proposal of a global systemic approach to operational excellence in services, by means of which industrial methods for operational excellence are transferred to the service sector. Only few works in literature have tried to transfer industrial methods for operational excellence to services, however the main value of this paper is not – or not only – in the specific methods proposed, but in their integration in the systemic approach.

Applying servant leadership theory, this study aims to investigate whether servant leadership predicts service excellence of bank employees through mediating role of psychological capital (PsyCap). It also tests buffering role of conscientiousness in boosting service excellence.

The study uses data collected from 224 bank employees. SPSS and jamovi statistics were used for data analysis.

Study findings suggest a significant relationship between servant leadership, service excellence and PsyCap. PsyCap emerged as a mediator, and conscientiousness moderated the nexus between servant leadership and service excellence.

Findings highlight important implications for organisational practitioners. Because servant leadership leads to service excellence, practitioners should consider adopting servant leadership at every organizational level. Further, servant leaders could enhance followers’ PsyCap for creating service excellence. Organisations should use customized training programs and development interventions to enhance service excellence.

This study is one of the few studies to investigate the mediating role of PsyCap as a personal resource and buffering role of conscientiousness for service sector employees. Study generates new insights on employee experiences working in service sectors.

A fundamental aim of the service management discourse is the transformation of the culture of organisations to a culture of consistent and coherent service excellence. The aim of this paper is to analyse the possibility and plausibility of such changes.

The study draws on data from a two‐and‐a‐half‐year study of the introduction of service management initiatives at the public hospital in the county of Värmland in Sweden. Interviews and participant observation are used to gather data. Sensemaking theory is adopted to evaluate the change of service culture.

It is concluded that the programme of service management reform studied here creates heterogeneous and conflicting cultures, rather than the culture of coherent and consistent service excellence that it was supposed to produce.

The study suggests that a shift in focus from “prescription” to “description” is required in research into service culture.

Service organisations are multi‐faceted – thus rendering cultural engineering ineffective. The creation of shared meaning in a common, consistent, and coherent service culture is therefore not usually possible. Managers should concentrate on understanding the culture of their organisations, rather than attempting to change that culture.

The paper investigates an attempt to create service culture. Such a study has not been undertaken in previous research.

This study investigates service excellence and hospitality perceptions in a hospital setting for an exploratory study of the familiarity of hospital administration with the topic of hospitality and service excellence. It is unique from other hospitality and service research in that it considers hospitality and service excellence as separate concepts, and specifically considers hospitality, such as service excellence, as a philosophy that may be transcend its traditional industries of origin. Part of the premise of this study explores how hospitality in a healthcare setting extends past service excellence in offering a service to a patient to create a comfortable and welcoming environment to combat patient anxiety and stress. This exploratory research provides a necessary foundation for more extensive empirical testing of the premise.

Using a qualitative case study, this research measured top management's perceptions of service excellence and hospitality within one community-based hospital located in Orlando, Florida. Three conclusions were revealed: (1) a mixed commitment by top management to concepts of service excellence and hospitality, (2) the terms “service excellence” and “hospitality” were generally discussed as though they were equivalent, and (3) significant external and internal barriers to the delivery of service excellence and hospitality in the hospital setting were identified.

The study has implications for healthcare organizations seeking to implement practices of hospitality and service management to improve overall healthcare service delivery. Additionally, the study of hospitality outside of its traditional industry boundaries may result in the generation of new improvement options/opportunities for traditional managers of hospitality businesses and organizational researchers. The study can be used as a foundation for the formulation of additional studies in the area of service excellence and hospitality applied to other layers in an organization irrespective of industry setting.

Singapore Airlines (SIA) is internationally recognized as one of the world’s leading carriers. This article details the results of a series of in‐depth interviews with SIA’s senior management on their views on what made SIA a service champion, and what it will take to maintain its lead in the industry. Excerpts from there interviews were broadly organized into four sections. They are: “SIA’s perspective of service excellence and key challenges”; “Understanding customers and anticipating their needs”; “Training and motivating the front line”; and “Managing with an eye for detail and profits”. The interviews show what SIA’s senior management sees as their key drivers of service excellence. The drivers are then related to key frameworks and models from the services marketing/management literature. Implications for current and aspiring service champions are derived.

The purpose of this paper is to present a case study of the use of people surveys to enact change in human capital organization and practices in a University library.

The study covers seven years of people surveys and the consequent interventions applied based on this and other data and evidence at the University of York, UK. The case describes measurement of staff’s lived experience, leading to innovation and intervention in management strategies, structures and policies. The research employs a mixed methodology; the paper draws on quantitative evidence from surveys, qualitative evidence from focus groups and desk research on human capital measurement and emotion in the workplace.

The paper describes the findings of investigations across seven years, discusses the available methods for people assessment, and the different theoretical foundations of the engagement, climate and excellence surveys used across the period. Strategic and structural interventions are described and their effectiveness discussed.

The limitations of research in the field of human capital are discussed, including the participant observation of the library director, together with the potential confounding factors affecting data collected during the period of research.

The paper reflects on advances in the understanding and practice of people evaluation in libraries. The development of a people strategy based on evidence, and repetition of surveys to gauge the effectiveness of interventions, with consequent refinement of solutions, appear to have had a real effect on the lived experience, culture and service provided by the case library.

The originality and value of the paper is that it provides a unique long-term case study of people surveys, strategy and structure in an academic research library.

The aim of this paper is to assess the service quality of a small airline, Air Mauritius, using the SERVQUAL model and to determine the relative importance attributed to service quality dimensions by international tourists.

A sample of 140 international airline passengers travelling essentially for a leisure trip was administered the SERVQUAL instrument to determine their expectations and perceptions of service. A combination of in‐flight and mail surveys was used for data collection leading to an overall response rate of 20.2 per cent.

The paper finds that service quality structural dimensions are context‐ and culture‐specific. Four factors are perceived as influencing perceptions of service, service efficiency and affect being the most important, service personalisation, reliability and tangibles the least important. Empathy as a service dimension is valued more than assurance. Customer satisfaction and willingness to recommend the airline is primarily dependent on service efficiency and affect.

The sample size is relatively small and biased towards South African passengers, but the study is exploratory in nature. The starting‐point for service improvements at Air Mauritius is better management of service reliability. The company is able to create high perceptions of service using tangible cues.

The generation of a vision of excellence supported by contact employees' empowerment should improve perceptions of service. There is potentially a link between expectations of service levels at destination and tourists' expectations from the flag carrier.

Often smaller airline companies have to resort to strategic alliances and service differentiation to survive in this globally integrated industry. The paper fulfils the gap in the existing literature on service quality management in small airlines.