Business Research Method

May 15

2012
10353

Impact of employee behavior on customers

Usman hameed

Abstract : In this study we examine whether a workplace can induce good or bad attitudes among its employees and whether any such workplace attitudes affect on customers. This study analyzes responses of hundered employee. The results document the existence and persistence of a genuine workplace effect in how workers view their jobs and organizations. Employee attitudes differ significantly across organization in ways that cannot be explained by randomly drawing workers from a distribution of workers with different innate attitudes. Organizations with less favourable attitudes have higher turnover, lower levels of sales, and lower rates of sales growth than organization where workers have more favourable attitudes. Less favourable branch attitudes are also a significant predictor of subsequent closings. The studys results show that there are happy and unhappy workplaces, as well as happy and unhappy workers, with very different patterns of turnover and productivity in these workplaces. 1.Introduction : Some studies shows linkage between employee behavior on customers. Lise m. Saari and timothy a. Judge(2004) determine employee attitudes and job satisfaction.he worked on three variables causes of employee attitudes and how to measure and influence employee attitudes.they found that research will provide more in-depth understanding of the effects of employee attitudes and job satisfaction on organizational measures, such as Customer satisfaction and financial measures.greater insights on the relationship Between employee attitudes and business performance will assist hr professionals as They strive to enhance the essential people side of the business in a highly competitive, Global arena.effective analysis and interpretation of employeeattitude survey data is necessary inorder to understand the results and, in turn,take appropriate actions to improve employee Attitudes and job satisfaction. Research on employee attitude measurement and statistical analyses is a key contribution of the field of psychology (e.g., edwards, 2001; macey, 1996).mowang,huiliao,yujiezhan and junqishi(2011)discuss daily customer mistreatment and employee sabotage against customers: examining emotion and resource perspectives.he worked on five variables includingcustomer mistreatment. Sabotage against

customers, service rule commitment. Job tenure and supervisory support climate.the findings of their study revealed that the current findings have several important theoretical implications. First, drawing on both emotion-and resource-based perspectives, we found substantial withinsubject variation in employees fluctuation in counterproductive behavior. Specifically,the current finding suggests that an acutetriggering event, such as mistreatment by a customer,may be an important component of the process leading to counterproductive behavior. In this sense, the relatively stable workplace related social and cognitive predictors may account for the overall propensity of an employee to engage in counterproductive behavior, whereas the acute triggering event may activate this propensity and transform it into actual behavior.specifically, previous studies have conceptualized job attitudes (e.g.,mount, ilies, &johnson, 2006), perceived organizational justice (e.g., fox et al., 2001), workplace job stressors, and chronic frustration (e.g., fox & spector,1999; penny &spector, 2005) as proximal predictors of counterproductive behavior.

Dana m. Broach,carolyn s. Dollar and oklahoma city(2002) study relationship of employee attitudes and supervisor-controller ratio to en route operational error rates they work on two variables including error data and analyses and organizational factors.the result of study exibitsthat organizational factors might influence the operational error rate in en route air traffic control at the facility level. This conclusion provides support for including organizational factors in the analysis of operational errors as suggested by hfacs-atc. The regression analysis also suggests that span-of-control, as represented by the supervisor-to-controller ratio, may be related to en route facility operational error rates.on the one hand, the analysis indicated that both Subjective and objective measures might be useful in explaining differences in error rates between centers.similar results have been found in examining organizational and work unit attitudes towards safety and accidents in other settings. For example, zohar (2000) demonstrated an empirical link between perceptions of organizational safety climate and objective injury data. Similarly, thompson, hilton, and witt (1997) demonstrated how perceptions of organizational climate and management roles might affect safety-related outcomes. 1.1purpose statement :

The goal of this study is to contribution in finding employee and customerssatisfaction.the purpose of this study is to understand the employee behavior effect on customers by the application of high motivation level given to the employee inside the organization.this study will support to better understand the higher satisfaction level of employee and customers. 1.2Objectives : To examine the impact of employee behavior on customers To examine the impact of motivation on employee behavior

1.3Significance of study : The study will give us better understading to the impact of employee behavior on customers. The old-style view of employee behavior is very contracted the current study will add the existing study. The importance of observing the effect of employee behavior could be supportive to the human resource managers for enhancing customers satisfaction through employee attitude.by using this study human resource managers can diminish the effect of employee behavior on customers satisfaction. This study is important because,by leading this investigation into significance zones of efficiency of workplace training in terms of employee behavior.the result imitate from the study will be worthwhile in understanding the effect of training, employee motivation, information sharing and employee involvement and on in developing management strategies in the focus organization. By means of this study different organization can boost the level of customer satisfaction and increase their output and success towards the organization. 1.4Research question and hypothesis :

Research question : What is the impact of employee behavior on customers Research hypothesis : H0:there is no relationship between employee behavior and customers H1:there is relationship between employee behavior and customers

2.Literature review : Amanda beat son, Ian lings, Siegfried gudergan (2008) describe employee behavior and relationship quality: impact on customers. They worked on four variables include satisfaction, trust and commitment. Construct and consumers positive behavioral intentions, perceived switching costs. He found that service orientation affects relationship satisfaction and trust, and that the latter influences satisfaction and commitment. In turn satisfaction, trust and commitment have a positive impact on positive behavioral intentions, trust a negative one on activism, and commitment a positive one on. Regarding the relationship among satisfaction, trust and commitment in the met construct of Relationship quality, trust emerges as the focal dimension in this construct as it has a direct Relationship with both satisfaction and commitment. This result is consistent with Morgan And hunt [1994] that highlight the importance of trust in relationship marketing, and in Particular its importance for creating satisfied and committed consumers. The importance of Relationship trust is also ascertained as it also appears to affect all three behavioral outcomes Directly and indirectly: positive behavioral intentions, consumer activism and perceived Switching costs. Ann barrel, Richardfreeman, Casey ichniowski and Morris kleiner (2004) explain thatcan a work organization have an attitude problem? The impact of workplaces on employee attitudes and economic outcomes. They worked on four variables including attitude that affect economic outcomes, data on bank branches and employees, turnover and productivity, workplaces have their own attitudes. He found that there is a genuine workplace effect in how workers view their

jobs and organizations. Employee attitudes differ significantly across branches in ways that cannot be explained by branches randomly drawing workers from a distribution of workers with different innate levels of job satisfaction or attitudes; newly hired workers adopt the favorable or unfavorable attitudes that the branches exhibited before they arrived. Branches with less favorable attitudes have higher turnover, lower levels of productivity, and lower rates of productivity growth than branches where workers have more favorable attitudes. Less favorable branch attitudes are also a significant predictor of subsequent branch closings. This study has examined the responses of thousands of employees working in nearly two hundred branches to the employee opinion survey of a major us bank in 1994 and 1996. The results document the existence and persistence of a genuine workplace effect on how workers view their jobs and organizations. Employee attitudes differ significantly across branches in ways that cannot be explained by branches randomly drawing workers from a distribution of workers with different innate attitudes. Newly hired workers adopt the favorable or unfavorable attitudes that the branches exhibited before they arrived.

Ruth Maria stock, Wayne d. Hoyer (2005) investigate that an attitude-behavior model of Salespeoples customer orientation. They worked on four variables including sales people customer-oriented attitude, customer satisfaction, sales people customer-oriented behavior and length of relationship. The result of his study exhibit finally, to acquire deeper insights into the customer-oriented attitude-behavior link, the current study investigated four moderator effects. Our results show that the customer-oriented attitude-behavior link is stronger when salespeople are more empathetic, reliable, and knowledgeable.in contrast, the link is weaker when job autonomy is restricted. These findings make an important contribution to the literature because they provide deeper insights into the conditions under which customer-contact employees are able to transfer their customer-oriented attitudes into consistent behaviors. Most of the research on customer orientation has conceptualized this construct in terms of behavior. Under this approach, customer-oriented behavior is viewed as the ability of salespeople to help their customers by engaging in behaviors that increase customer satisfaction (Saxe andweitz 1982).

Timothy m.gardner,lisa m. Moynihan,hyeon jeong park and Patrick m. Wright(2001)determine the impact of hr practices on employee attitudes and employee outcomes.they worked on seven

variables including skill enhancing practices, motivation enhancing practices, empowerment enhancing practices, job satisfaction, commitment, absenteeism and turnover.the findings of there study revaled that the relationship among empowerment enhancing hrpractices,work attitudes, and turnover were most consistent with the theoretical model. The relationship between empowerment hr practices and turnover was partially mediated by job satisfaction/organizational commitment. The empowerment index consisted of grievance procedures, participation practices, and communication regarding company goals and performance. The practices that comprise this index closely map the components of the job characteristics model of work motivation. This individual-level theory suggests that work situations with a certain amount of skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback induce certain psychological states. These psychological states are theorized to impact both attitudes (motivation, satisfaction, and organizational commitment) as well as behaviors (performance, absenteeism, and turnover) (hackman&oldham, 1980). Previous researchers have included attitudes and Behaviors in their theoretical models but empirically have only examined the relationship between hr practices and firm outcomes leaving the mediating hypothesis untested. (delery& doty,1996; huselid, 1995; macduffie, 1995). Rashad yazdanifard1, hashimdanbala , wan fadzilah wan yusoff and niyoushanikrousha Dehi(2011) discuss the influence of employee attitudes and company brand on Customers loyalty in global market.they worked on two variables including employee engagement and customer loyality.they found that for a company to gain customer loyalty and satisfying interactions, there is need to ensure that with every contact a customer get with their product, they should ensure that the customer a getting consistently high quality all the time. The customers experience is created by every experience the customer has with your product. What the customers assume when they interact with the product is reliability, responsiveness, understanding, accuracy and obtainability. So to make each interaction sensed satisfying it has to do with the brand promise the company hold and at the same time it cannot be met without the commitment of all employees to meeting these standards.

dr. Vinita sinha (2011) explorethe impact of boss personality and style on employee performance and attitude towards workplace.she worked on three variables including boss personality,employee attitude and employee performance.she find thatif you have the desire and

willpower, you can become an effective leader. Good leaders develop through a never ending process of self-study, education, training, and experience. This guide will help you through that process. Managers expectations of people and their expectations of themselves are the key factors in how well people perform at work. Known as the pygmalion effect and the galatea effect, respectively, the power of expectations cannot be overestimated. These are the fundamental principles that can be applied to performance expectations and potential performance improvement at work. Every supervisor has expectations of the people who report to him. Supervisors communicate these expectations consciously or unconsciously. People pick up on, or consciously or unconsciously read, these expectations from their supervisor. People perform in ways that are consistent with the expectations they have picked up on from the supervisor. in a recent survey, dome by maister (2008) determined that successful organizations score better on virtually every aspect of employee attitudes. In fact, employee attitudes cause financial results and not the other way around. If a business wants its people to make a lot of money for them, then it must set high standards and give employees something they can get excited about. These employees must be managed by someone who is trustworthy, cares about people as well as the business, and acts with integrity. Karen a. Brown a,), p. Geoffrey willis b, 1, gregory e. Prussia (2000) they study predicting safe employee behavior in the steel industry:development and test of a sociotechnical model. They worked on six variables including safety hazard, perceived safety climate,pressure,cavailer attitude towards safety behaviour,safety efficacy and safety workplace behavior. The result of their study exhibit that workplace safety cannot be packaged neatly into an isolated domain within an organization, and that the operations function plays an important role in preventing costly accidents. Safety hazards and production pressures, in particular, fall into the domain of operations managers and appear to influence employees decisions about safe work practices. Most operations managers consider an employees propensity to engage in unsafe work behaviors as a significant outcome variable.our model, and the data that support it, help to

underscore the need for a broader understanding of these issues although the individual performs the act, factors in the operating and social environment play a role in the persons disposition toward safe practices.future research will add to our understanding of safety in manufacturing environments. Hannah koo,l.c. Koo and fredrickk.c. Tao(1998) deem analysing employee attitudes towards isocertification.they worked on four variables including awareness of quality programe,quality success drivers,benefits and perceived strength of the company.the findings of his study revealed that staff attitude is something that management cannot ignore and simply hope the problem will disappear. If not handled properly, problematic issues may erupt to become more detrimental to the organization. If staff perception is correct,then it becomes obvious that some actions Need to be taken. Even if staff perception is incorrect, the issue has still to be addressed Because, from the employees perspectives,they would be correct in making that particular Assumption (i.e. reality is reality, perception is also reality). The correct situation or Message needs to be conveyed to the staff.

Maria vakola and ioannisnikolaou(2005) explain attitudes towards organizational Change what is the role of employees stress and commitment? They worked on three variables including attitudes towards organizational change, employee satisfaction and turnover intentions.the result of his study exibit the relationship between occupational stress and Attitudes towards organizational change. Almost all occupational stressors (apart from Control and resources-communication) were related to negative attitudes to change. Stress created by bad work relationships, overload and unfair pay and benefits can Cause negative attitudes toward organizational change and, therefore, inhibit change Processes. More specifically, lack of a socially supportive environment, as expressed by Bad work relationships, was found to be the strongest predictor of negative attitudes Towards change, as shown in the regression analysis. Further, job insecurity may also Become an obstacle to change, although this scale of the stress measure was not Included in the analysis due to low internal consistency. Employees attitudes towards change is the administration of appropriate human resource functions, such as training (british industrial society,2001). Job security is associated with organizational commitment, which is

Associated with positive attitudes to organizational change (morris et al., 1993).

Lisa hisaenishii,david p. Lepak and benjaminschneider(2008) investigate employee attributions of the why of hr practices: their effects on employee attitudes and Behaviors, and customer satisfaction.hewoked on four variables including hrattributions,attitudes,unitbehaiors and unit outcome.they found that the results of this study provide important insights into the underlying process by which hr practices become reflected in employee attitudes and behaviors, as well as customer satisfaction. As expected based on psychological theories concerning individual differences in cognition, affect, and motivation,employees did not respond uniformly to the same set of hr practices. Although Scholars have converged in their belief that hr practices are associated with organizational Outcomes through their influence on employee attitudes and behaviors (e.g., huselid, 1995;

carla a. Hackworth,crystal e. Cruz,scottgoldman ,dan g. Jack,s. Janine king and paultwohig(2004) elaborate employee attitudes within the federal aviation administration.he worked on five variables including performance expectations, conflict management., communication climate, job-related communication and model work environment.the findings of his study revealed that the faa, by and large, has a committed workforce with a high level of job satisfaction. However, faa employees do not believe that poor performers are held accountable. These areas will need to be reviewed by upper management to understand how best to link accountability, performance, and pay. Performance management is a common problem for many organizations. Follow-up discussions with employees around these issues could afford faa policy makers with important feedback necessary to develop strategic interventions or modifications designed to address these concerns.in addition, the relationship between organizational performance and employee attitudes has been examined. The efforts of sears, roebuck and company in the 1990s to transform the companys financial slump included several interventions implemented to create an employee-customer-profit model. Rucci, kirn, and quinn (1998) reported causal linkages between employee attitudes at sears and profit. Lise m. Saari and timothy a. Judge(2004) determine employee attitudes and job satisfaction.he worked on three variables causes of employee attitudes and how to measure and influence

employee attitudes.they found that research will provide more in-depth understanding of the effects of employee attitudes and job satisfaction on organizational measures, such as Customer satisfaction and financial measures.greater insights on the relationship Between employee attitudes and business performance will assist hr professionals as They strive to enhance the essential people side of the business in a highly competitive, Global arena.effective analysis and interpretation of employeeattitude survey data is necessary inorder to understand the results and, in turn,take appropriate actions to improve employee Attitudes and job satisfaction. Research on employee attitude measurement and statistical analyses is a key contribution of the field of psychology (e.g., edwards, 2001; macey, 1996). Mo wang,huiliao,yujiezhan and junqishi(2011)discuss daily customer mistreatment and employee Sabotage against customers: Examining emotion and resource perspectives.he worked on five variables includingcustomer mistreatment. Sabotage against customers, service rule commitment. Job tenure and supervisory support climate.the findings of their study revealed that the current findings have several important theoretical implications. First, drawing on both emotionAnd resource-based perspectives, we found substantial within-subject variation in employees fluctuation in counterproductive behavior. Specifically,the current finding suggests that an acute Triggering event, such as mistreatment by a customer,may be an important component of the process leading to counterproductive behavior. In this sense, the relatively stable workplace related social and cognitive predictors may account for the overall propensity of an employee to engage in counterproductive behavior, whereas the acute triggering event may activate this propensity and transform it into actual behavior. Specifically, previous studies have conceptualized job attitudes (e.g.,mount, ilies, &johnson, 2006), perceived organizational justice (e.g., fox et al., 2001), workplace job stressors, and chronic frustration (e.g., fox & spector,1999; penny &spector, 2005) as proximal predictors of counterproductive behavior.

Dana m. Broach,carolyn s. Dollar and oklahoma city(2002) study relationship of employee attitudes and supervisor-controller ratio to en route operational error rates they work on two

variables including error data and analyses and organizational factors.the result of study exibitsthat organizational factors might influence the operational error rate in en route air traffic control at the facility level. This conclusion provides support for including organizational factors in the analysis of operational errors as suggested by hfacs-atc. The regression analysis also suggests that span-of-control, as represented by the supervisor-to-controller ratio, may be related to en route facility operational error rates.on the one hand, the analysis indicated that both Subjective and objective measures might be useful in explaining differences in error rates between centers.similar results have been found in examining organizational and work unit attitudes towards safety and accidents in other settings. For example, zohar (2000) demonstrated an empirical link between perceptions of organizational safety climate and objective injury data. Similarly, thompson, hilton, and witt (1997) demonstrated how perceptions of organizational climate and management roles might affect safety-related outcomes.

2.1MODEL :
Employee behavior Motivation Customers

3.Data/ methodology :

3.1Data :

3.1.1Paradigm : Positivism: Positivist assumes that true knowledge is based on experience of senses and can be obtained by observation and experiment. Positivistic thinkers adopt scientific methods as a means to generate knowledge.

Interpretivism: Interpretive researcher also focus on the specific context in which people live and work in order to understand the historical and cultural setting of participants.the understanding or meaning of phenomena ,formed through participant and their subjective veiws, make up this paradigm when participants provide their understanding, they speak from meanings shaped by social interaction with others and from their own personal histories. The interpretative paradigm supports the belief that reality is constructed by subjective perception and predictions cannot be made.

Pragmatism Pragmatism is not committed to any one system of philosophy and reality .the researcher are free to use from both qualitative and quantitative assumption methods, techniques and procedure of research that best meet their need.

3.1.2Population and sample :

The study is about the impact of employee behavior on customers.for this purpose I taken data from 100 respondants.

3.2Methodology :

Descriptive statistics:

Descriptive statistics is the term given to the analysis of data that helps describe, show or summarize data in a meaningful way such that, for example, patterns might emerge from the data. Descriptive statistics do not, however, allow us to make conclusions beyond the data we have analysed or reach conclusions regarding any hypotheses we might have made.

Inferential statistics:

With inferential statistics, you are trying to reach conclusions that extend beyond the immediate data alone. For instance, we use inferential statistics to try to infer from the sample data what the population might think. I have used both methodology in this study.because both qualitative and quantitative is used for research.the use of quantitative and qualitative approaches in combination provides a better considerate of research problems that any approached alone.. Data has been examined through Histogram, Descriptive Statistics, Single Box Plot, Correlation and Regression.

4.Limitation and delimitation: There are some limitations in conducting the research on impact of employee behavior on customers Limited financial resources Lack of resources for conducting survey Conducted only in Lahore The study will be limited to check the employee behavior on customers only in Lahore.

References: Amanda beatson, Ian lings, Siegfried gudergan (2008) describe employee behavior and relationship quality: impact on customers. Dana m. Broach,carolyn s. Dollar and oklahoma city(2002) . Lise m. Saari and timothy a. Judge(2004) edwards,2001; macey, 1996).mowang,huiliao,yujiezhan and junqishi(2011) Ann barrel, Richardfreeman, Casey ichniowski and Morris kleiner (2004) Ruth Maria stock, Wayne d. Hoyer (2005) Timothy m.gardner,lisa m. Moynihan,hyeon jeong park and Patrick m. Wright(2001) Rashad yazdanifard1, hashimdanbala , wan fadzilah wan yusoff and niyoushanikrousha Dehi(2011) dr. Vinita sinha (2011) Lisa hisaenishii,david p. Lepak and benjaminschneider(2008) Mo wang,huiliao,yujiezhan and junqishi(2011) carla a. Hackworth,crystal e. Cruz,scottgoldman ,dan g. Jack,s. Janine king and paultwohig(2004) Dana m. Broach,carolyn s. Dollar and oklahoma city(2002) , thompson, hilton, and witt (1997)