Service Quality: The Key Role of Service Climate and Service Behavior of Boundary Employee Units

Abstract

This study simultaneously tests the influence of two resources that boundary employee units can use to improve service quality. The first is the boundary employee units’ perceptions of organizational values oriented toward creating a good service climate. The second is the boundary employees’ competences oriented to providing the service, that is, their own service behavior during service transactions. Moreover, organizational climate and organizational facilitators are also analyzed as antecedents of the two resources. The sample consisted of 117 boundary employee units aggregated from 349 boundary employees and 1,157 customers. Structural Equation Modeling analysis confirmed that service quality perceived by customers can be predicted by both service climate and service behavior perceived by boundary employee units. Moreover, organizational facilitators and organizational climate are significant antecedents for higher levels of service climate. Therefore, results confirm the importance of both roles in improving customer perceptions of service quality.