Internal Customers Research Articles

Hitting the procurement trifecta : How FHLB San Francisco transformed and aligned procurement, risk and diversity in the middle of a pandemic

Procurement transformations involve a strategic review and realignment of an organisation’s procurement function to address critical operational gaps. This paper focuses on the execution of such transformation activities within a heavily regulated financial services organisation that faced several internal and external gaps. Gaps included a heavy reliance on suppliers to maintain critical operations, increased regulatory oversight and a lack of standardisation and organisational integration within the procurement function needed to service internal customers. A successful transformation for such an organisation required a focus on three primary pillars (workstreams): procurement, supplier diversity and supplier risk. Each workstream addressed a unique set of challenges and, as such, were carried out independently; however, the interrelated nature of these challenges called for strong planning, shared resources and parallel efforts. The results of the initial gap assessments showed a need for procurement team right-sizing (in terms of resources and role definitions), a revision of core policy and standard operating procedures, and a re-evaluation of the technologies that supported both procurement operations and regulatory reporting/compliance. The transformation, embodied by the three pillars above, addressed each of these gaps. This transformation began the reimagining of the procurement function but work in this space is ongoing. Requirements around third-party risk management, supplier diversity and the regulatory landscape will continue to shift and evolve. Regular monitoring of the effectiveness of this transformation must be conducted, and strategic pivots and change management efforts must be undertaken to ensure long-term success.

대형 항공사(FSC)의 전략적 인적자원관리가 승무원의 조직신뢰, 직무만족, 조직몰입에 미치는 영향 연구

This Study aims to propose the practical ways to devote to the general operational strategies for human resources and the development of the airlines by realizing the effects of the strategic management of the human resources of full-service carriers (FSC) on the reliability of the organization, job satisfaction and organizational commitment of the cabin crews. The empirical analysis was analyzed using the SPSS Ver18.0 program after the questionnaire was collected. The survey was conducted for six weeks from August 2nd to September 13th, 2021.<BR> As a result, it has been confirmed that the strategic management of the human resources of FSC has a positive impact on the reliability of the organization, job satisfaction and the organizational commitment of the cabin crews. Based on this study, it is assumed that if the airline forms connections among internal customers and establishes relationships with high levels of trust for the organization through the integrated strategic human resources activities based on the cabin crews along with the business performances of the companies, they will achieve high performance.

THE EFFECTS OF BUSINESS EXCELLENCE TO INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL CUSTOMER OPINIONS IN HEALTHCARE

Aim: Hospitals can determine the strengths of organization and improvement strategies by implementing business excellence models to increase customer satisfaction. The aim of the study is to evaluate the effects of business excellence dimensions on internal and external customer opinions. &#x0D; Methods: The universe of the study is public hospitals in İzmir urban area. Four hospitals included in the study and 488 healthcare workers agreed to participate to study. Survey was developed from the Malcolm Baldrige National Excellence Award Healthcare Criteria. &#x0D; Findings: Factor analysis revealed six business excellence dimensions: strategic planning; workforce focus; process management; customer focus; leadership; and measurement, analysis, knowledge management. Correlation analysis showed that business excellence dimensions have strong relations between each other and internal and external customer opinions. According to regression analysis, customer focus, process management and measurement, analysis, knowledge management effect to the external customer. Workforce focus, process management and leadership effect to the internal customer. &#x0D; Conclusion : In order to improve the internal and external customer opinions in healthcare organizations, hospital managerial teams have to focus on processes and workforce, give importance to be more patient centered and plan their strategies according to customers’ opinions. This study helps the hospitals, in which areas should be focused on primarily when developing policies and strategies; and preparing plans for future developments.

Policies Contribution and Integrated Quality Management to Improve the Quality of Services in Primary and Secondary Education in the Banten of Province 21 St Centuruy The Era of the Revolutionary 4.0

The success of an organization is largely determined by the management model that is applied, sedangkan keberhasilan manajemen ditentukan oleh pemimpinnyaespecially in primary and secondary education which has a central and very strategic role for the continuation of the next higher education. this strategic role will be more effective if educational institutions can implement integrated quality management education services in the 21st century revolutionary 4.0, This management model is considered appropriate, because this management focuses on customer satisfaction, both internal customers and external customers.

Culture of Excellence for Better Internal Service Quality in High Education

The institutions of higher learning are required to provide excellent service to both their internal and external customers. This is a challenge to most of the public universities. In order to achieve this, they need to know and understand the elements that contribute to this excellence. The employees play an important role in providing the best quality of work and serve their customers (e.g., students). The consistently outstanding work performance coupled with the right attitudes among employees help to transform the norm into a culture of excellence (CoE). Good co-ordination and relationship among the management teams and employees will help to serve the employees better. This research aims to help the management teams of the public universities to cultivate and hopefully sustain the CoE for institutional excellence. The dimensions and items of the variables were derived from the related literature and focus group interviews. The structured questionnaire was then designed. The CoE consisted of eight (8) dimensions and 71 items, relevant for the public universities. A measurement model using SmartPLS was developed and the relationship between CoE and internal service quality was investigated. Several implications and recommendations were discussed and proposed for the public universities.

Strategic Human Resource: Enhancing Performance With Six Sigma Approach

Human resource (HR) is the backbone of an organization and hence, there is need to build its underlying capabilities for effective service delivery. Six Sigma aims at improving the effectiveness of processes by collecting data and then using advanced statistical analysis tools to solve the problems. Six Sigma deployment in HR provides consistency in operations and leads to quality excellence by providing better services at lower costs. Six Sigma approach adds more science to the art of HR, which is used to measuring outcomes it can control, rather than those it can influence. Six Sigma deployment in HR transforms typical HR practices with a proactive approach and leads to better, faster and more cost-effective services; improve internal customer satisfaction and greater motivation and job satisfaction of employees. The research develops various framework for Six Sigma deployment in HR and provides case studies of successful Six Sigma deployment in various areas of HR.

Collaborating in a health-care process: partner, not customer

PurposeThe internal customer concept is used with different definitions and purposes in research and in practice – an ambiguity with implications for both scholars and practitioners. The purpose of this study is, therefore, to explore the representation of the internal customer concept in quality management literature and reflect on how the user may affect collaboration in health-care processes, in particular between a service function and health-care staff.Design/methodology/approachA review of the internal customer concept in the literature, followed by a conceptual discussion based on previous studies and theories of organizational discourse.FindingsThree predominant types of relationships related to the internal customer concept were found. The study shows that the ambiguity in the use of the concept may have consequences for the interpretation and application of research results. Potential undesirable consequences with regard to collaboration in processes are discussed.Originality/valueThis study contributes to a new understanding of the internal customer concept in research and practice. As collaboration within and between organizations is increasingly required in many parts of health care, careful considerations become necessary regarding concepts used for relationships to avoid sub-optimization and “us-versus-them” thinking and to strengthen trust-based relationships.

Islamic banking and customer satisfaction in Pakistan: evidence from internal and external customers

PurposeThis study aims to find the determinants of internal and external customer satisfaction of Islamic banks of Pakistan through service quality indicators that are assurance, reliance, empathy, tangibility, responsiveness. Compliance has also been added as a determinant of customer satisfaction. In this study, customers are divided into two groups, internal customers are those who are an employee in the Islamic bank and also an account holder. While external customers are account holders only in Islamic banks of Pakistan.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, a quantitative research approach is used for analyzing the behavior of internal and external customers of Islamic banks in Pakistan. The instrument which is used to analyze the study’s data, is a structured five-point Likert-scale questionnaire. The structural model was analyzed with the help of the partial least squares structural equation modeling approach.FindingsThis study concluded that internal customers of Islamic banking are well aware and have full information and their level of satisfaction is positive toward the bank’s services. While external customers feel satisfied while using the Islamic banking services in Pakistan. Service quality indicators are positively and significantly related to customer satisfaction in the external customer model. On the other hand, some of the indicators are not showing a significant impact on the internal customer multi-group analysis shows a difference of coefficients are insignificant between internal and external customers.Practical implicationsThis study helps policymakers, to understand the behavior of internal and external customers of Islamic banking in Pakistan for creating favorable policies for an interest-free banking service.Originality/valueThis research study provides an analysis of the customer satisfaction of Islamic banks in Pakistan by dividing Islamic bank customers into two groups (internal and external customers). The purpose for dividing Islamic bank customers into two groups is that this study wants to highlight that external customer’s perception is the same as internal customers or not? Before this study, it is difficult to find single research on this topic, whereas only one study is find-out on the factors that affect internet banking adoption among internal and external customers.

Identification of factors influencing the level of maturity of dealerships in Norway process orientation

AbstractThe main purpose of the article is to identify the factors limiting the achievement of higher levels of maturity in the implementation of process orientation elements on the example of automotive sector organizations in Norway. The study uses a systematic review of the literature and opinion poll carried out using the CAWI technique of 48 car dealerships functioning on the Norwegian automotive market. In the surveyed group of automotive sector organizations in Norway, based on the proprietary maturity model, it was shown that most of these are organizations in which business processes are only identified and formalized. The group of factors that prevent the achievement of higher levels of maturity includes the lack of process measurement systems, the lack of employee activation in process improvement, the lack of implementation of the customer‐supplier relationship mechanism in external and internal terms, and deficiencies in the management of knowledge diffusion within the organization. The presented results have been formulated for the examined group of 48 organizations and they cannot be extended to the entire population of authorized services. The theoretical model presented in the article, as well as the attached questionnaire for assessing the implementation of process orientation, enables self‐assessment of the process maturity for organizations operating in the automotive sector, both at the dealership level, as well as manufacturers and importers managing the dealership network. It is also a source of knowledge regarding the functioning of the examined dealership group in the selected market, primarily from the perspective of assessing the orientation of external and internal customers and the flexibility of the organization in responding to changes generated both in the environment and its interior. The theoretical model presented in the article is an innovative approach in assessing the level of the organization's process orientation implementation on the basis of an objectified and not subjective assessment of the respondents. In addition, the assessment model presented in the article was adapter to the specifics of the studied organizations of the automotive sector, which definitely increases the credibility of the obtained results in contrast to the use of universal models.

Product development methodology: non-quality caused in production by mistakes in product development, its measurement and improvement integration in the product development process

A new quality focused product development (NPD) methodology, applying lean manufacturing principles and Industry 4.0 paradigms is described in this paper. This methodology has been tested in a tailor-made equipment manufacturer for the retail sector, where tight product development times are needed. This requires a high agility in the processes, meaning the overlap of phases, the integration of processes, cooperation, and automation of tasks. We have generated a system concept that collects all the manufacturing incidences related to NPD, integrated in workshops stations, creating a system that enables real time data capture and a valuable feedback loop to NPD processes. Its implementation showed an improvement over 10% in the quality of the NPD process in a period of 3 months, an increase of the productivity in both product development and manufacturing areas, and a boost of the internal customer satisfaction in manufacturing area with the product development area.

Coopetition strategies for competitive intelligence practices-evidence from full-service hotels

Our study investigates how coopetition strategies can influence hotels’ competitive intelligence (CI) practices to achieve a stronger competitive advantage. In-depth interviews were conducted with 39 hoteliers from 22 hotel groups in Hong Kong. Participating hotels employed different kinds of CI activities, though they were unaware of this concept. In particular, internal customer intelligence was added to integrated intelligence to better describe CI in the service sector. Still, investing in CI can be expensive and time-consuming since it requires hoteliers to align all insights from their respective intelligence pools toward building a holistic understanding of the results. We propose coopetition as a strategic approach allowing hotels to construct collective actions around CI without losing individual competitiveness. Actual coopetition in CI was only found between sister properties. Hence, we propose a coopetition model in which hotels can collaborate and compete in CI at an inter-organizational level via focusing on sharing open-source information and knowledge.

The Importance of a Continuous Customer Relationship Management on the Profitability of Financial Institutions: A Study of Ghana Commercial Bank Ltd in Ghana

Purpose: the purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) on customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, customer retention and the profitability of financial institutions particularly banks in the service sector in Ghana. Design/Methodology: the study adopted a quantitative research method approach to describe the impact of the CRM on the profitability of service brand offering in the banking sector in Ghana, worthy for generalization. The study sampled four (4) branches of the Ghana Commercial Bank Ltd in a convenient manner in the Northern and Upper East Regions of Ghana. The two branches of the bank namely; the Bolgatanga main branch and the Navrongo main branch were selected in the upper East Region while the Walewale and Savelugu branches were picked in the Northern Region making the total of four branches of the Ghana Commercial Bank Ltd. In all, three hundred questionnaires were administered on customers comprising two hundred and eighty external customers and twenty internal customers. That is, seventy external customers and five employees from each branch selected. Findings: the study found that, the bank is doing well in terms of profitability because of its strong or vibrant CRM policies. The study revealed that a concrete CRM which is grounded on a strong relationship with a customer, conducive working environment, providing a quality and reliable service and being customer friendly lead to customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention and therefore increases the bank’s profit. The customers are satisfied with the services provided by the bank and have decided to remained with the bank without switching off to a different bank. These satisfied customers do recommend the bank and its services to other people who are not customers of the bank and this had resulted in customers trafficking and hence an increased in the profit level of the bank. The study found that CRM; Customer Satisfaction Survey; Customer loyalty; Customer retention and Profitability are effectively correlated. Research Limitation: the study was limited to Ghana Commercial Bank Ltd in the service sector in Ghana. However, the findings can be applied to all banks in the service sector in Ghana because the needs of the banks customers and those in different banks are the same. Practical Limitation: the employees and other important stakeholders in the banking industry think that the responsibility of CRM rests solely on the staff at the marketing department rather than all the staff members of the entire bank. The present study urges all the employees working in the banks to be wary in their word-of-mouth communication with the customer and be ever prepared to offer reliable, satisfactory and quality services to the customers who called in. Originality/value: the current empirical study makes an original contribution to the existing literature by adding knowledge of the impact CRM in the context of banking institution in Ghana, where the moment of truth is highly evident.

The influence of leadership commitment to service quality on hotel employees’ brand citizenship behavior: a mediation and moderation analysis

ABSTRACT Hospitality management research on the linkage between leadership commitment to service quality and employees’ brand citizenship behavior (BCB), especially that examining the moderation effect of cultural orientation, is still limited. Anchored in role modeling and social exchange theory, this paper investigates a model explaining the impact of leadership commitment to service quality on hotel employee BCB. Using a sample data of hotel employees in Vietnam, structural equation modeling reveals an indirect effect of leadership commitment to service quality on hotel employee BCB through two mediators of employee perceived internal customer support and employee perceived training support. Further, the influence of committed leadership to service quality on these two mediators is negatively moderated by employees’ power distance orientation. This paper extends extant literature by explicating the mechanisms through which leadership commitment to service quality affects employee BCB and offers important implications for hotel managers in promoting employee BCB.

The Impact of Establishing Capital Market on Ethiopian Commercial Banks

The paper analysed the implication of establishing the capital market on commercial banks operating in Ethiopia. The study aimed to identify its potential opportunities and main challenges to banks, to see how the capital market is operating in other African countries and to show the necessary preconditions to commercial banks to prepare themselves. The research method employed in the study had both qualitative and quantitative features, and the research was conducted using a mixed research method. Primary data was collected from focus group discussions with experts that have experience in the area, and, furthermore, secondary data were collected from literature and websites. The findings of the study identified the major risk of the capital market to the economy like economic risk to investments, inflationary/deflation risk, market value risk, being too conservative and political crisis by relating with the current situation of country regulation power. The study also investigated the major opportunities of the capital market to meet the financial need for the economy and how it can work with commercial banks. Besides, the study investigated its challenges to commercial banks working with security exchange companies. Many literature analyses confirmed the reputation of capital markets comparative to banks, which cannot explain across-countries deviation in economic growth. And it is better to establish a well-functioning legal framework, which plays a vital role in creating a healthy financial system. The study recommended that commercial banks should modify their business models and create products related to the investment bank and product differentiation that captures the mode of the capital market. And it is better for the commercial banks to empower their human resource, and they shall aggressively work on technology adaptation, work highly on awareness creation for all internal and external customers. Banks’ capital increment should be made before the security market is established to minimise any risk that may come with it.

No Team is an Island: How Leaders Shape Networked Ecosystems for Team Success

Today’s organizations rely on networks of dynamic systems of “agile” teams to get work done. Teams are distributed, transient, and loosely bounded in service of responsiveness and innovation. The key to this new way of doing work is managing the networked ecosystem in which teams are embedded. But in the context of leading multiple teams with fuzzy boundaries and shifting membership, the average overwhelmed manager quickly defaults to what is nearest in urgency: managing internal team dynamics and responding to internal customer demands. Drawn from field interviews with 100 top-performing team leaders, this article presents a framework-for-action to leaders who want to engage the networked ecosystem with intention and precision, including specific tactics for identifying and influencing high-leverage stakeholders.

10-Year Anniversary of the European Proximity Operations Simulator 2.0—Looking Back at Test Campaigns, Rendezvous Research and Facility Improvements

Completed in 2009, the European Proximity Operations Simulator 2.0 (EPOS 2.0) succeeded EPOS 1.0 at the German Space Operations Center (GSOC). One of the many contributions the old EPOS 1.0 facility made to spaceflight rendezvous is the verification of the Jena-Optronik laser-based sensors used by the Automated Transfer Vehicle. While EPOS 2.0 builds upon its heritage, it is a completely new design aiming at considerably more complex rendezvous scenarios. During the last ten years, GSOC’s On-Orbit-Servicing &amp; Autonomy group, who operates, maintains and evolves EPOS 2.0, has made numerous contributions to the field of uncooperative rendezvous, using EPOS as its primary tool. After general research in optical navigation in the early 2010s, the OOS group took a leading role in the DLR project “On-Orbit-Servicing End-to-End Simulation” in 2014. EPOS 2.0 served as the hardware in the loop simulator of the rendezvous phase and contributed substantially to the project’s remarkable success. Over the years, E2E has revealed demanding requirements, leading to numerous facility improvements and extensions. In addition to the OOS group’s research work, numerous and diverse open-loop test campaigns for industry and internal (DLR) customers have shaped the capabilities of EPOS 2.0 significantly.

Mobile Application on Malay Medicinal Plants based on Information Crowdsourcing

Mobile Application on Malay Medicinal Plants Based on Information Crowdsourcing is an application that provides information on Malay medicinal plants. The information in this application is obtained from a crowd of people including researchers, Malay villagers, traditional medical practitioners, and the public who are willing to share their knowledge and information on Malay medicinal plants. This project focuses on the use of Malay medicinal plants that contain nutrients which is good for human health. There are a lot of Malay medicinal plants founded by the researcher that can help to treat human illnesses. This project involves crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing is the best way for people to get information from the researchers and crowd people. This project is related to crowdsourcing information systems. Crowdsourcing information systems are information systems that produce informational products or services for internal or external customers by utilizing the potential of crowd people. This project promotes knowledge sharing and awareness among researchers, Malay villagers, traditional medical practitioners, and local herbs entrepreneurs, and the public towards Malay medicinal plants. This project applies the concept of Wikipedia whereby the information is obtained from a crowd of people. It allows the researchers, Malay villagers, traditional medical practitioners, local herbs entrepreneurs, and the public to share their knowledge and findings on Malay medicinal plants on the internet easily. This project also focuses on motivating the public that there are a lot of Malay medicinal plants that can be used for health care. This project is developed in the Malay language as it provides information on Malay medicinal plants and the target user is Malaysia’s citizens. For future enhancement, this project plan to be developed in English and wider target users from other countries.

Improving internal service: identifying the roles of employee proficiency, adaptivity and proactivity

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to determine the roles of employee proficiency, adaptivity and proactivity in predicting different aspects of internal service.Design/methodology/approachManagers evaluated 142 professional employees on proficiency, adaptivity and proactivity and about six weeks later 2–3 internal customers evaluated each of the employees on dimensions of internal service, namely reliability (i.e. performing dependably and accurately), assurance (i.e. knowledge, courtesy, and the ability to inspire trust and confidence), responsiveness (i.e. willingness to help customers and provide prompt service) and empathy (i.e. caring and providing individualized attention).FindingsEmployee proficiency and proactivity were the main predictors of delivering reliable services. Employee proficiency was the main predictor for creating a sense of assurance. Employee adaptivity was the main predictor of being viewed as responsive. Employee proactivity was the main predictor for establishing a sense of empathy.Practical implicationsIn a given situation, some aspects of internal service will be more important than others. The results will enable organizations to improve internal service in a more effective and efficient manner by developing interventions that are targeted at the specific dimension of interest.Originality/valueThe authors identified the types of employee behaviors that are likely to be most effective in impacting different aspects of internal service.

Participation Status of Charities in Iran’s Health System

Objective: This study aimed to reflect on the participation status of charities at different levels (i.e., prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation) of Iran’s health care system. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was fulfilled in 2019 based on 40 charitable organizations involved in health care services delivery, which were randomly selected from the Iranian Charities Portal (ICP). Data were collected via a valid and reliable researcher-made questionnaire. SPSS software version 16.0 was used to analyze data. Results: Direct and indirect methods of service delivery were used in 63% of organizations. The most important sources of funding were associated with public donations. Furthermore, 94% of charities were evaluating the health care services with internal and external evaluation and customer satisfaction surveys. Conclusions: The charities could be a precious contribution to the health care system. To use this potential as a synergistic factor of the health system, adopting such strategies as creating sustainable funding sources and establishing more coordination between organizations are essential.

골프리조트의 내부마케팅, 조직신뢰, 조직시민행동 및 고객지향성 간 영향관계 연구

This study was performed to suggest the practical measures regarding the management strategy and development direction of the general internal marketing a golf resort by understanding the influence relationship between internal marketing, organizational trust, organizational citizenship behavior, and the customer orientation of employees at a golf resort in Jeju Special Self-Governing Province. The empirical research was carried out from May 17 to May 31, 2021, to code 200 copies of data. The SPSS ver.18.0 program was used to perform frequency analysis, reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and regression analysis. The following are the research results. Hypothesis 1. Among the factors related to internal marketing, it was shown that education training, empowerment, management support, and internal communication except for the compensation system had a significant impact on organizational trust. Hypothesis 2. The organizational trust had a significant impact on the organizational citizenship behavior. Hypothesis 3. The organizational trust had a significant impact on customer orientation. Hypothesis 4. The organizational citizenship behavior had a significant impact on customer orientation. From the research, a positive influence relationship was identified among the variables including internal marketing, organizational trust, organizational citizenship behavior, and the customer orientation of a golf resort. If the golf resort establishes and carries out the appropriate plans to improve the internal marketing activities and organizational trust of the employees from various perspectives, it is considered to be helpful to enhance the company’s service quality through a favorable business flow and the advanced customer service within the organization that is achieved by the employees who are the internal customers of the facility.