Customer-oriented Performance Research Articles

Evaluating the performance of water distribution network deterioration using customer-oriented performance indices

ABSTRACT Water distribution networks (WDNs) are an essential urban infrastructure, with their performance directly influencing societal well-being. Our study applied to a real network model that employs a 24-h simulation with 1-h time steps and evaluates the impact of leaks and loss in the pipe cross-sectional area on WDN hydraulic performance as experienced by end users. Adhering to a UK utility's 20-m head pressure requirement as the water main benchmark, we present two new customer-oriented performance indices (CPIs) centred on network reliability and pressure deficit severity. The new CPIs adeptly quantify network performance degradation due to pipe deterioration. This degradation translates directly to a poor customer experience, highlighting the potential for these CPIs to pinpoint areas of the network where performance levels are compromised. Furthermore, the CPIs identify individual pipes within the network where defects would severely impact network performance and the sets of pipes which, when simultaneously experiencing defects, would lead to a more severe loss in network performance. Results show that the CPIs capture relatively small performance declines and identify sensitive pipes impacting network performance, providing insights for optimised inspection and maintenance intervention to provide better customer service.

Why do frontline employees speak up on behalf of customers? The influence of supervisors versus coworkers and the role of intrapersonal factors

Customer-Focused Voice (CFV) – an employees' discretionary expression of constructive ideas that challenge the status quo with the aim to benefit the customer - has been shown to improve service effectiveness. While the importance of supervisors in promoting employee voice is widely acknowledged in the literature, the relative impact of coworkers on voice behaviors is still unclear. To address this knowledge gap, we propose that supervisor support, coworker relationship quality, and intrapersonal employee factors combine to influence the extent to which frontline employees engage in CFV and the role that CFV plays on performance outcomes. The results reveal that supervisors and coworkers influence CFV through their effect on psychological safety, and these indirect effects are significant at higher levels of perspective taking self-efficacy. Perspective taking self-efficacy acts, as well, as a critical moderator to determine the extent to which psychological safety impacts in-role and customer-oriented performance.

When do frontline service employees feel more grateful?

PurposeDrawing from the social exchange theory, the job demands-resources theory and the employee–organization relationship framework, this article aims to investigate underlying mechanisms through which organizational resources impact frontline service employees’ (FLEs) core service performance and customer-oriented organizational citizenship behavior (OCB).Design/methodology/approachAn empirical study was conducted based on a multi-source data from 211 employee–customer pairs, with structural equation modeling used to test hypotheses.FindingsFLE felt gratitude toward the firm fully mediates the impacts of supervisory guidance and employee-oriented relationship investment in influencing employees’ service performance and customer-oriented OCB. The study further finds that when the perceived job autonomy is low, providing supervisory guidance is more effective in eliciting employee gratitude than employee-oriented relationship investments. In contrast, when the perceived job autonomy is high, employee-oriented relationship investment elicits higher employee gratitude than supervisory guidance.Research limitations/implicationsFirst, as cross-sectional pair data were used to test the proposed hypotheses, a stronger case might be made for the use of longitudinal data. Second, the current study uses a large variety of industries to study the phenomenon of employee gratitude and customer-oriented performance. Third, given recent globalization trends, it is increasingly important for researchers to address how the knowledge gained within an US context is applicable on a global scale. Finally, the two types of organizational resources included in the study are both positive resources.Practical implicationsThe findings offer insights about how firms can strategically invest organizational resources to favorably influence FLE gratitude and customer outcomes as well as how job autonomy plays a role in leveraging the impacts of those resources.Originality/valueThis study is one of the few to advance our understanding of how FLE felt gratitude serves as an intervening mechanism through which functional and social resources invested by service organizations lead to desirable customer outcomes. In addition, this study explores the moderating role of FLE perceived job autonomy, suggesting the contingent nature of organizational resources in affecting customer-oriented FLE behaviors, which was rarely attended in previous research.

Social network relationship, supply chain resilience and customer-oriented performance of small and medium enterprises in a developing economy

PurposeWhile the concept of supply chain resilience has received lots of scholarly and policy interest over the past few years, empirical research examining its sources and outcomes remains inadequate, particularly, in the context of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Grounded in the resource-based view and social capital frameworks, the study examines the relationship between social network relationship, supply chain resilience and customer oriented performance.Design/methodology/approachThe study develops and empirically tests a research model that proposes social network relationships and customer-oriented performance as the antecedent and outcome respectively of supply chain resilience. Data was obtained from a survey of 110 SMEs in Ghana.FindingsThe findings of the study suggest that a firm's external and internal social networks can be leveraged to enhance its supply chain resilience and customer-oriented performance. Supply chain resilience was also found to enhance customer-oriented performance. Additionally, supply chain resilience was found to significantly mediate the effect of social network relationships on customer-oriented performance.Originality/valueThis is the first study that empirically explores and establishes the relationship between social network relationships, supply chain resilience and customer-oriented performance to the best of the authors’ knowledge.

Dissecting supply chain integration: impact of integration quality on customer-oriented performance

Supply chain integration (SCI) has been touted as an important strategy for obtaining competitive advantage. In the context of the mobile telecommunication service (MTS) industry, this study examines how different dimensions of SCI relate to customer-oriented performance measures, including customer satisfaction, customer relationships, switching costs, and customer loyalty. Building upon the service profit chain framework, this study proposed and tested seven research hypotheses in two dimensions of SCI: upstream (i.e. phone provider and MTS provider) and downstream (i.e. MTS provider and application provider) integrations. As part of these efforts, this study developed a new instrument to measure the quality of upstream and downstream SCIs. The dataset with 158 upstream and 130 downstream integrations in the Taiwanese MTS industry was then analysed by using a structural equation model. The results confirm the impacts of upstream and downstream SCIs on customer loyalty and the mediation effects of relationship quality, customer satisfaction, and switching cost. This study also discovers differential effects of upstream and downstream integrations on customer-oriented performance: the upstream integration serves as an order qualifier in the marketplace, while the downstream integration is the order winner for MTS providers. Several suggestions are made regarding the measurement of SCI and improvement on SCI strategies to achieve customer loyalty in the MTS industry.

Performance analysis of a hybrid bike sharing system: A service-level-based approach under censored demand observations

We investigate a hybrid bike-sharing system. We carry out a usage pattern and demand analysis on the booking data of the system and include the effects of censored demand in a service level analysis. Service levels are used as meaningful measures for evaluating the customer-oriented performance of bike-sharing systems. Our results show that service levels are overestimated when ignoring unobservable, censored demand effects. Furthermore, there are significant differences between free-standing and station-based bikes. Based on these results, an adjusted incentive and reposition policy could increase the booking number of free-standing bikes and thus customer satisfaction as well as the system’s profitability.

Motivating Nurses' Organizational Citizenship Behaviors by Customer-Oriented Perception for Evidence-Based Practice

There is a gap in the literature about the influence of customer-oriented perception on nursing personnel's organizational citizenship behaviors. Organizational citizenship behaviors are the type of contextual behaviors that are difficult to observe and measure as such behaviors are usually generated in quite subtle and unpredictable ways. This study tested the hypothesis: Customer-oriented perception is associated with increased organizational citizenship behaviors for nurses. If nursing personnel's customer-oriented perception can increase their willingness to display organizational citizenship behaviors, it may facilitate hospital operation and enhance organizational effectiveness. A cross-sectional design using a questionnaire survey of nurses in 10 medical centers was used. Five hundred copies of the questionnaire were distributed, and 232 effective copies were retrieved, with a valid response rate of 46.4%. Structural equation modeling was performed in SPSS 11.0 and Amos 7.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) statistical software packages. The main finding was that favorable customer-oriented perception is associated with increased organizational citizenship behaviors for nurses. Extensive training and customer-oriented performance evaluation are proposed in the hope of creating customer-oriented perception among nursing personnel and subsequently inspiring the display of organizational citizenship behaviors.

Approximation of the probability distribution of the customer waiting time under an (r, s, q) inventory policy in discrete time

We study a single-item periodic review (r, s, q) inventory policy. Customer demands arrive on a discrete (e.g. daily) time axis. The replenishment lead times are discrete random variables. This is the time model underlying the majority of the Advanced Planning Software systems used for supply chain management in industrial practice. We present an approximation of the probability distribution of the customer waiting time, which is a customer-oriented performance criterion that captures supplier–customer relationships of adjacent nodes in supply chains. The quality of the approximation is demonstrated with the help of a simulation experiment.

Customer-Oriented Maintenance Decision Support System: Developing a Prototype

Performance of highway maintenance units has been traditionally measured by output or production rates. Today, more and more highway agencies are incorporating customer-oriented performance measures to evaluate their maintenance management processes. The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) has been adapting and applying private-sector business practices to the management of its maintenance functions. The department initiated a maintenance business planning (MBP) project several years ago to focus on rethinking highway maintenance from the customer’s perspective. A prototype decision support system (DSS) was developed that builds on the MBP by modeling performance measurement parameters and implementing analytical processes that can support MnDOT’s maintenance managers in responding to customer needs. The DSS uses input, output, outcome, environment, and customer data from existing databases to measure efficiency and effectiveness of maintenance activities, as defined by the customer. The pilot system focuses on two of seven groups of maintenance products and services—clear roads and attractive roadsides. The prototype DSS displays data in formats useful for evaluating maintenance work processes, benchmarking work units’ performance, evaluating efficiency and effectiveness in meeting customer needs, and deploying resources. Models that calculate the value added to customers in terms of road-user costs (i.e., travel time and accident costs) and customer willingness to pay for attractive roadside products were developed and incorporated in the DSS. If fully implemented, the DSS can be a powerful tool for maintenance decision making that can be applied to other state maintenance agencies.

The Fall and Rise of TQM at a Public Mental Health Hospital

Public mental health care is undergoing a period of fundamental change as it attempts to adapt to an environment characterized by increasing fiscal constraints, the need to demonstrate effectiveness of services, and consumer empowerment. Total quality management (TQM) provides a framework that enables mental health care to meet these demands. The author provides his perspective on a public, multipurpose psychiatric hospital's (Georgia Regional Hospital at Augusta) experience in making the transition from quality assurance to TQM. Successful implementation of TQM rests on clinical staff's viewing TQM as a useful mechanism for achieving agreed-on patient/customer goals. Staff cannot simply do what they have been doing, but now do it better; there needs to be an understanding of what "better" means. TQM'S INTRODUCTION AND REINTRODUCTION: When first introduced in 1992, TQM was viewed by staff as the latest variant of quality assurance--and was therefore unsuccessful. When reintroduced in 1993, TQM contributed to the development of a psychosocial rehabilitation program. The staff's active involvement in establishing patient-specific goals was critical to the program's success. The hospital's Performance Improvement Committee has spearheaded the monitoring of treatment programs and the development of critical paths. In developing critical paths, the treatment team sets goals for patients' improvement both within the hospital and postdischarge and for treatment processes. The keys to a successful TQM program are effective leadership, a clear organizational mission, customer-oriented performance goals, staff empowerment, and the application of the scientific method to the workings of the organization.

Human resource management, information technology, and the competitive edge

Executive Overview Global competition is putting increasing pressure on U.S. managers to make faster and better business decisions. Investments in information technology are often touted as a critical means of speeding up and improving management decision making. Yet it has proved distressingly difficult to realize the potential of information technology investments. This is particularly so in business areas such as Human Resources (HR), though the longer lead times traditionally associated with changes in HR systems mean that it is a prime candidate to benefit from information technology. To pull into the lead in global competition, managers must control labor costs, motivate employees to high quality, customer-oriented performance, and continuously search out new and better ways of doing both. These objectives must be met in the face of shrinking head count and a global environment in which employees are more culturally diverse and located throughout the globe. Even the relatively routine tasks of emplo...