Uwarunkowania zachowań projakościowych a innowacyjność w sferze usług / Deteminants of pro-quality behaviour vs. innovativeness in the sphere of services

Abstract

The article introduces and discusses the issue of the pro-quality behaviour of employees of the services sector from the perspective of their personality traits and the impact on innovation. Researchers of human personality issues cite many theories that attempt to explain the concepts of both the personality and the search for the relationship between personality and human behaviour. Pro-quality services employees’ behaviour has to be understood as fully conscious activities which are focused on the continuous improvement of the quality of service offered. These activities also affect the direction of changes and innovations of the services. The idea of improvement and creating new and better solutions is a bridge between the quality and innovation of the employees. Determinants of behaviour in organizations on the employer’s and the employee’s side underpin the development of pro-quality and pro-innovation culture. This study is an attempt to search for the relationship between the personality traits of the employees and their proquality attitudes and innovation in the work environment − the services. The study was conducted at the turn of the year 2013/2014 among the students of the Faculty of Business and Commodity Science at Gdynia Maritime University studying Science of Commodities specializing in preparing to work in the services sector. The aim of this study was to classify personality traits that in the opinion of respondents had a positive or negative impact on the behaviour of pro-quality service sector workers, or had no impact at all. The study involved 335 respondents. Data were collected using a questionnaire. Statistical analysis was developed based on the rate structure. Among the 50 identified personality traits, as defined in the five bipolar-characterised factors, 19 attributes with a positive impact on pro-quality behaviours were selected, 18 had the negative impact on the pro-quality behaviours and for 13 traits there was no strong kind of impact specified.