Investigating the relationship between service providers’ personality and customers’ perceptions of service quality across gender

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to examine the relationship between the personality of the service providers and the service quality performance they provide. The Five-Factor model of personality and the SERVQUAL model of service quality were used to substantiate the hypothesized relationship. Empirical data from 143 pairs of employees and customers indicate that employees with diVerent personality traits perform diVerently on customers' perception of service quality. The results indicated that openness correlated with assurance, conscientiousness was a valid predictor of reliability, extraversion was positively related to responsiveness, and agreeableness signi® cantly correlated with both empathy and assurance. Moreover, the relationship between personality and service quality was moderated by customers' gender. Overall, the outcome of this study can be applied to personnel allocation in accordance with the service quality strategy of a company.

Personality Traits and Customer-Oriented Behavior in the Health Tourism Hospitals in Malaysia

“…They are more prone to exhibit customeroriented behavior. The term conscientiousness refers to employees who are hardworking, organized, reliable, thorough, efficient, persistent and attentive to their work [20]. Nurses who are conscientiousness are good at depersonalizing stressful patient encounters and do not let this experience affect their daily job performance.…”

“…Nurses who possess this trait will display more customer-oriented behavior because they are kind, forgiving, sympathetic and tolerant. Neuroticism refers to an individual's emotional condition where it is related with depressed, worried, angry and unstable [20]. Neurotic nurses treat emotionally stressful encounters as personal attack and easily bothered [23].…”

The Influence of Service Quality on Satisfaction: A Gender Comparison

“…Spathis, Petridou and Glaveli (2004) found that male clients of Greek banks have a more positive perception of the quality of service they receive than do women clients. Also, there are several other examples in the marketing literature that indicate that female customers tend to rate service quality lower when comparison is made for both genders (Lin et al, 2001;Tan & Kek, 2004;Juwaheer, 2011).…”

Personality Traits of Service Providers and Customers' Perceiptions of Service Quality: The Case of Air Cargo Services in the United Arab Emirates

“…Recently, however, some reseachers have attempted to examine explicitly possible linkages between service quality and personality traits of the employees who deliver the services. Lin, Chiu, and Hsieh (2001) found supporting results for such linkages when they studied service quality in four service sectors in Taiwan. However, Al-Mutawa and Ibrahim (2013) found no such linkages when they studied service quality in four Islamic banks in the UAE and they concluded that these effects might be dependent on other factors such as culture, research design, or industry characteristics.…”

“…Regression models were employed to determine the relationship between the five factors of personality traits and overall service quality and its dimensions.The study provided evidence indicating that personality traits do not have their own independent effects on customers' perceptions of Islamic bank service quality. Although Lin et al (2001) found supporting results for such linkages when they studied service quality in four service sectors (not including banks) in Taiwan. Al-Mutawa and Ibrahim (2013) concluded that these effects may be dependent on other factors such as culture, research design, or industry characteristics.…”