Managerial practices supporting service quality: a comparative analysis of the inter-relationships among features drawn from TQM, internal marketing and GAP 3 closure strategies

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosoph

Developing a conceptual model illustrating how HRM practices support each other in order to improve service quality

In previous work, it was found that there were six HRM practices, which are most crucial in supporting service quality. The purposes of this paper are, firstly, to clarity the individual relationships among the six HRM practices and to examine how those practices support reach other, and secondly, to develop a model which incorporates all of the inter-relationships among the six HRM practices. Previously, each individual relationship has tended to be considered in isolation in the literature. Therefore, in this paper, the various inter-relationships were unified into a single model. In this new conceptual framework, the six HRM practices are inter-linked so that each of them may have a joint function in supporting service quality. The model can therefore be used to identify problem area(s) in order to improve service quality. For example, since all of the six HRM practices are important in supporting each other, if one or more of these practices are considered to be unsatisfactory, the model will indicate potential practice(s) which may have been causing the problem(s) or which might have been affected by the substandard practice(s). Since the six HRM practices are not stand along items, it is important to pay proper attention to all six practices in order to support service quality. As these inter-relationships are not specific to a certain type of service business, the model is likely to be applicable to a wide range of service industries