1、中文 2923 字， 1616 单词， 8890 英文字符 原文 Managing both Outcome and Process Quality is Critical to Quality of Hotel Service Material Source: Total Quality Management, Vol. 15, No. 3, 259278, May 2004 Author: Sherriff Ting-kwongLuk& Roger Layton Using room service for investigation, this empirical study demon
2、strates that, additional to the five quality dimensions identified in the original SERVQUAL study, core outcome components constitute a distinct quality dimension crucial for assessment of overall service quality. Effective quality management in the service sector hinges on the management of both ou
3、tcome and process elements. The results reveal that the relative importance of the individual quality dimension to total service quality should vary from service to service. The findings also support that performance scores outperform gap scores in terms of the reliable measurement of service qualit
4、y. The present research can be considered a response to the research question pertaining to the domain of service quality. Using room service as the object for study, it aims to answer the question concerning the adequacy of the SERVQUAL scale in measuring quality of hotel service. The major objecti
5、ve is to identify the dimensions that can comprehensively represent the domain of room service quality and to gauge the relative contribution of individual quality dimension to the overall service quality perceived by customers. In addition, there has been a debate on the measurement issue pertainin
6、g to the type of score, which refers to gap score versus performance score that should be used for analysis. This issue and its implications for quality management have not been discussed much in previous replication work on hospitality service. The present study also aims to compare the use of gap
7、scores (SERVQUAL) and perception scores (SERVPERF) for more effective measurement of service quality. It is believed that the findings will provide insightful ideas for effective measurement and management of service quality in the hotel sector. Not much research on hospitality service recognizes th
8、e importance of outcome attributes to guests evaluation of service quality. Among a few, Johns &Tyas (1996, p. 323) contended that for catering service the food component would a priori be expected to occupy a central role in the service mix. In a similar vein, Genestre&Herbig (1996, p. 74) stated t
9、hat the goods component of the service product must be analyzed in conjunction with the service portion. Richard et al. (1994) shared the same view. As shown in their replication study in the hospitality sector, they added six outcome elements for the measurement of the quality of dinning service. T
10、hey believed that, by combining the notion of process quality with outcome quality, the results would allow for effective management of service quality. Following this line of thought, the present study is designed to examine whether the outcome components will constitute a distinct quality dimensio
11、n critical to the evaluation of hotel service. With regard to the present study, several new items were introduced to incorporate suggestions from managers and room service waiters who had reviewed the questionnaires, replacing a few original items that were considered to be redundant and less relev
12、ant for guests to evaluate room service. These new items were believed to be able to capture the distinctive features of room service. Minor wording changes, according to the daily language for room service by room service providers and guests, were also made. Following the procedures recommended by
13、 Churchill (1979) and Hinkins et al. (1997), the questionnaire was then presented to a panel of expert judges, including an executive from the Hotel Association, two management consultants, four senior human resource managers and food managers, and two professors in hospitality management. In additi
14、on to commenting on the content validity of the items, the panel in fact made constructive suggestions on how to rephrase some of the statements to ensure that potential respondents would understand the questions being asked. The feedback from the pilot study using a small number of guests (23 perso
15、ns) suggested that some items should be revised in order to enhance the validity of the modified measurement scales. The final version of the questionnaire contained. Items for the measurement of room service quality. Sample size is an important issue in relation to the reliability of statistical an
16、alysis. The review of the relevant literature suggests that there is no agreement on the sample size needed to ensure the sufficiency for statistical significance tests. Suggestions useful to guide the sampling procedure for the present study include: (a) The sample size should range from 1 to 4 (Ru
17、mmel, 1970) to 1:10 (Schwab, 1980) as the item-to-response ratio for each set of scales to be factor analysed. (b) A sample of 150 cases is needed for exploratory factor analysis, provided that item inter correlations are reasonably strong (Guadagnoli& Velicer,1988).The present study employed explor
18、atory factor analysis to test the internal consistency of the scale on the basis of the data collected from guests. Because the scale for room service quality contains 24 items, a sample size of a minimum of 240 guests would be required to meet the conservative rule set by Schwab (1980).Hotels in Ho
19、ng Kong are classified into high tariff (A) and (B), and ordinary categories. Findings and Discussion Initially, the researcher subjected all items to scale purification and validation through exploratory factor analysis and an internal consistency test to ensure the appropriateness of the modified
20、SERVQUAL scale and the SERVPERF scale for the investigation of room service. Two types of scores were used for factor analysis-gap scores and performance scores. First, following the Parasuraman et al. procedure, gap scores were calculated by subtracting each individual respondents perception score
21、on an item from his/ her expectation score on that item. A factor analysis on the basis of gap scores was performed to assess the construct validity of the modified SERVQUAL scale. Varimax rotation yielded the most satisfying results in contrast to Parasuraman et al. who found oblique rotation to be
22、 the superior method. The results did not confirm a five-factor solution. Seven dimensions emerged from the final factor analysis and Table 1 lists each item and the dimension on which it loaded. A total of 62.0% of the variance was explained by the seven dimensions and this figure was comparable to
23、 those reported in Parasuraman et al.s studies and most replication studies. Quality of Hotel Service Appeared to be significant predictors of overall quality of room service were Reliability and Outcome. A significant positive correlation between overall room service quality and these three quality
24、 dimensions provides partial support for Hypothesis 1. The effects of the other two quality dimensions on overall quality were minimal and statistically insignificant. The findings indicate that the commitment of frontline service provider, service etiquette, operational skills, and the actual core
25、outcome received more attention from guests and are the important factors influencing satisfaction. The importance of food and drinks to the assessment of catering service has also been reported in previous studies (Johns &Tyas, 1996； Johns & Howard, 1998). On the other hand, in room service encount
26、ers, hotel guests showed little concern about how much effort the room service provider exerted to orchestrating conversation. These findings are inconsistent with the SERVQUAL theory, which states the overall quality of a service is a function of the effects of the five quality dimensions, although
27、 Reliability still appears as one of the important quality dimensions. Possible explanations of our findings include: (a) Customers need product information to form expectations. It is postulated that the lack of pre-purchase information in most services would force the customer to form few expectat
28、ions regarding the service to be purchased and consumed and the tendency was to place greater emphasis on core instead of peripheral components (Zeithaml, 1981). (b) Previous studies found that much of the variance in customers perceived service quality would be explained by peripheral elements only
29、 if there was little information on core components (Iacobucci et al., 1994). The reverse situation was observed in the present study. Detailed information on the core features of room service-food and drinks-was available in the menu or promotional leaflets included in the Welcome Package in each g
30、uestroom. Guests had no difficulty in obtaining this kind of information but not those on peripheral factors such as serving styles and communication skills. The tendency to assess room service on the basis of core elements is expected. (c) Owing to the characteristic of intangibility, customers alw
31、ays feel it relatively difficult to understand and assess the set of components related to the functional aspect of a service. They may prefer to use tangible components as proxies to foretell and/or evaluate the service. Given that the outcome of consuming room service is largely dominated by tangi
32、ble components and that its peripheral elements represent the functional aspect of the service, hotel guests will have a strong tendency to base their assessment on core and tangible peripheral components. The same phenomenon was observed in the study by Johns & Howard (1998) who found that in the case of food-service food and service are articulated by customers as separate components of the whole service package. Managerial and Research Implications Service quality is a core component of the service marketing strategy. Effective
