The Service Climate - Customer Satisfaction Link: Boundary Conditions of Service Attribute and Mediation Effect of Service-oriented Organizational Citizenship Behavior

Abstract

Drawing on service climate theory, this study examined the mediating effect of service-oriented organizational citizenship behavior on the relationship between service climate and customer satisfaction, and the moderating effects of three potential factors for service core attributes (customer contact frequency, service intangibility, and service employee interdependence) on service climate-customer satisfaction link. The research objective in this study is banking service industry in Taiwan. Sample data from 40 branches will be collected from employees, customers, and their supervisors. In this study constructs with three sources (e.g., customers rated customer satisfaction, and contact employees rated their perceived service climate, and service-oriented organizational citizenship behavior in individual level, while their supervisor rated service attributes in work unit level) will be measured in order to reduce the possibility of same source bias. Confirmatory factor analysis, reliability, correlation and regression analyses and hierarchical linear modeling were conducted to test research hypotheses. The results showed that (1) a positive, direct relationship is expected between frontline contact employees’ perceptions of climate for service and customer satisfaction; (2) service-oriented organizational citizenship behavior of employee does not mediate the relationship of service climate on customer satisfaction; (3) service employee interdependence moderates the relationship between service climate and customer satisfaction, this relationship will be significantly stronger when service intangibility is high.