Job Standardization Research Articles

Job standardization and service quality: A closer look at the application of total quality management to the public sector

Existing research results about the relationship between total quality management and service quality in the public sector are controversial. This study focuses on the core concept of TQM--job standardization--and, using the National Tax Administration of Taipei in Taiwan as a source of data collection, a significantly positive relationship between job standardization and service quality is found. The results also suggest that the service quality construct for the business world is different from that for public sector organizations. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

Occupational Aspirations of Lower Class Negro and White Youth

Two circumstances suggest counterbalancing trends. One is the levelling effect on work roles of ubiquitous large-scale formal organizations. The contemporary professional is increasingly an organization man, subject to job standardization procedures, personnel policies, and other structural coercions. His degree of participation in public matters may be much like that of other types of organization man; he may be resented as a member of the larger category of white collar workers, technicians and specialists. Second, professionals with deviant orientations to work may most readily come to the public's attention. The public may generalize to all professionals and believe them to be not very different from other categories of workers. The outcomes of this study demonstrate the fruitfulnes of re-casting generalizations derived from the study of particular groups as hypotheses for further research under changed conditions. One prospective possibility is t duplicate the technique used in this and in Dubin's study with other work groups, thereby broadening our knowledge of the several ways in which participation in and commitments to work and work activity may affect the other role behaviors of occupational and professional specialists.