The Role and Effect of Job Satisfaction and Empowerment On Customers’ Perception of Service Quality: a Study in the Restaurant Industry

Abstract

Empowerment, job satisfaction, and customer’s perception of service quality have been extensively researched in a multitude of industries. Although the service quality literature points out the importance of managing service quality from both customers’ and employees’ views, only a few studies have jointly considered an employee—customer research design. This study examined the answers from 474 restaurant contact employees and their 1,259 customers to determine the effects of empowerment and job satisfaction on customers’ perception of service quality. The uniqueness of this study is in its service quality variable used in the structural model. Whereas previous research based the service quality variable on the SERVQUAL conceptualization and measurement, this study conceptualized customers’ perceived service quality variable according to the “hierarchical approach” model and used the performance-only index for its measurement. Findings suggest that empowerment and job satisfaction have a significant impact on customers’ perception of service quality. Implications of the findings are discussed in detail.

The Influence of Employee Empowerment on Employee Job Satisfaction in Five-Star Hotels in Jordan

“…These findings were consistent with previous empirical studies that showed that a significant relationship between structural empowerment and job satisfaction (e.g. Fulford and Enz, 1995;Dickson and Lorenz, 2009;Gazzoli et al, 2010;Pelit et al, 2011). This study also provides a support for the significant effect of psychological empowerment on employee job satisfaction (R 2 = 0.26, p<0.000).…”

“…Dickson and Lorenz (2009) confirmed that empowerment has a positive relationship with job satisfaction. Similar results were argued by Gazzoli et al (2010), they found that restaurant staff empowerment has a significant influence on job satisfaction. More recently, Pelit et al (2011) found that both behavioural empowerment and psychological empowerment have significant influence on job satisfaction in hotels, but the influence of whole empowerment is much greater when is combining both behavioural empowerment and psychological empowerment together.…”

“…Fulford and Enz, 1995;Dickson and Lorenz, 2009;Gazzoli et al, 2010;and Pelit et al, 2011) or correlating the psychological dimension of empowerment and job satisfaction (e.g. Spreitzer, 1996Spreitzer, , 1997Hancer and George, 2003;Hechanova et al, 2006;Patah et al, 2009;Pelit et al, 2011) rather than focusing on the two dimensions of empowerment jointly.…”

“…Thus, the previous studies have highlighted the significant relationship between empowerment and job satisfaction (e.g. Fulford and Enz, 1995;Spreitzer, 1996;Hancer and George, 2003;Hechanova et al, 2006;Dickson and Lorenz, 2009;Patah et al, 2009;Gazzoli et al, 2010;Pelit et al, 2011). When employees perceived they are empowered and that lead them to have more positive emotional states and their overall attachment to the environment of work (Fulford and Enz, 1995).When empowerment is implemented properly at workplace, it can be effective in improving job satisfaction, performance and productivity (Sashkin, 1984), and therefore empowerment may contribute to enhance job satisfaction (Fulford and Enz, 1995).…”

“…participate in decision-making, provide new ideas, and present better ways of doing work), and those employees are more motivated and more productive in the work (Kemp and Dwyer, 2001). Research suggests that empowerment can enhance job satisfaction (Salazar et al, 2006), particularly in the hospitality industry (Hechanova et al, 2006;Dickson and Lorenz, 2009;Patah et al, 2009;Gazzoli et al, 2010;Pelit et al, 2011) and thus a way to improve workplace environments, reduce employee turnover, and help organisations function effectively (Erstad, 1997).…”