Work-life management for workforce maintenance: A qualitative comparative study

Nowadays, owing to the changing nature of the work environment, with its ever-increasing demands, the quality of working life and its relationship with the individual's wellbeing are recognized worldwide as vital for the workforce. This study analyzes the role of employees' perception of five quality of working life attributes (specifically workplace conditions, working life autonomy, corporate citizenship, remuneration, and workplace diversity and inclusion) in ensuring the individual's wellbeing focusing in particular on workers' perception of work-life balance, working life opportunities, and health and wellness. The results of the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis reveal the same various configurations for the three outcomes that suggest a new perspective towards understanding the factors in employees' working life that enhance their wellbeing, and so improve workforce maintenance. The results have managerial implications related to work-life management for workforce maintenance

The role of social media data in operations and production management

Social media data contain rich information in posts or comments written by customers. If those data can be extracted and analysed properly, companies can fully utilise this rich source of information. They can then convert the data to useful information or knowledge, which can help to formulate their business strategy. This cannot only facilitate marketing research in view of customer behaviour, but can also aid other management disciplines. Operations management (OM) research and practice with the objective to make decisions on product and process design is a fine example. Nevertheless, this line of thought is under-researched. In this connection, this paper explores the role of social media data in OM research. A structured approach is proposed, which involves the analysis of social media comments and a statistical cluster analysis to identify the interrelationships amongst important factors. A real-life example is employed to demonstrate the concept

The moderating effect of environmental dynamism on green product innovation and performance

Environmental management has been researching extensively in the last two decades. Pressure from environmental regulations or policies plays an important role to boost environmental management practices. Nevertheless, the relationship between such pressure and the ultimate firm performance is not very obvious. Although green product innovation has been recognized as a predictor to improve environment performance, there is a lack of discussion in the literature to examine the mediating effect of green product innovation between the aforementioned pressure and firm performance. Additionally, most previous studies adopted a static view which ignores the implications on external dynamic factors in many empirical studies. In this connection, this study contributes to the field of knowledge by filling these two gaps. More specifically, this study: (i) examines the effect of green product innovation on the relationship between pressure of environmental regulations (or policies) and firm performance; and (ii) evaluates the moderating effect of environmental dynamism on the relationship between green production innovation and firm performance. A questionnaire survey is conducted in an emerging country, China, to verify the hypotheses.Institute of Textiles and Clothin

The service-profit chain: An empirical analysis in high-contact service industries

In their well-known conceptual framework of the Service-Profit Chain (S-PC), Heskett et al. (1994) suggest that there are strong relationships among employee satisfaction and loyalty, service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty, and firm profitability. However, there is little empirical evidence on this proposition. In this research, we empirically examine the relationships among employee attributes, operational performance, and business outcomes. We collected data from 210 high-contact service shops in Hong Kong. Using structural equation modeling, we find that most of the postulated relationships in S-PC are highly significant, supporting the S-PC concept. Our findings parallel anecdotal evidence in many service organizations that an increase in employee satisfaction and loyalty triggers a corresponding change in customer satisfaction and loyalty, resulting in significant increase in sales revenues. We provide strong empirical evidence that employee satisfaction and loyalty play a significant role in enhancing the operational performance of organizations in the high-contact service sectors.Service-profit chain Satisfaction Loyalty Firm profitability Empirical research

An empirical study of employee loyalty, service quality and firm performance in the service industry

Taking an operational perspective on the relations between employee loyalty and business performance, we examine the relationships among employee loyalty, service quality, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and firm profitability, and the contextual factors influencing these relationships. We developed a research model grounded in the service-profit chain notion of Heskett et al. (1994) and empirically tested the model by conducting a survey of 210 high-contact service shops in Hong Kong. Using structural equation modeling (SEM), we observed that employee loyalty is significantly related to service quality, which in turn impacts customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, ultimately leading to firm profitability in high-contact service industries. Using multiple-group analysis of SEM, we found that the effect of employee loyalty on firm profitability through service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty is robust under different scenarios of employee-customer contact level, market competitiveness, and switching cost in the sampled shops. This finding supports the generalizability of the observed relationships in various operating contexts.Employee loyalty Service quality Customer satisfaction Customer loyalty Profitability

Employee learning in high-contact service industries

Employee learning is imperative in the dynamic service environment; yet, much is still unknown about its strategic importance. The purpose of this paper is to extend the understanding of learning by focusing on the strategic importance of learning goal orientation (LGO) in customer-contact employees in service industries characterized with high customer contact.Design/methodology/approachThis paper adopts the multi-method approach by conducting two studies in the high-contact service sector. Study 1 is a large-scale, multiple-respondent survey that investigates the associations between LGO and its antecedents and performance outcomes. To supplement study 1, study 2 embraces case studies that identify the managerial supportive practices and outcomes of customer-contact employees’ learning behaviors.FindingsThe results of study 1 demonstrate that employees’ affective organizational commitment does not yield higher-quality services unless the service employees are learning oriented. The findings of study 1 also indicate that management commitment to service quality has positive effects on both LGO and affective organizational commitment. In study 2, the results reveal the practical methods that managers can employ to effectively promote such activities.Originality/valueThis research offers novel insights into research on learning by showing the strategic importance of LGO to enhancing high-contact service firms’ performance and the practical means of fostering LGO in customer-contact employees