Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 84-86).

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Housing Management

Thesis (M.A.)--Bowling Green State University, 2009. / Document formatted into pages; contains ix, 66 p. Includes bibliographical references.

Call Centres employ frontline staff commonly known as service consultants who interact with customers within the service oganisation.In order for organizations to ensure that they derive satisfaction from interactions with frontline employees as part of their main objectives, they make use of a human resource practice widely known as performance appraisals or assessments in order to determine if employees’ performance during their interactions with customers produce organization’s desired outcomes i.e. satisfied customers. Organizations use performance appraisals for multiple purposes chiefly amongst them being developmental and administrative. This study sought to investigate perceptions held by employees towards the purposes or objectives of the system employed in their organization to assess their service interactions with customers, their perceptions of fairness of the system, and how such fairness relates to their satisfaction with the assessment outcomes. A survey approach was used to collect data and the instrument used was a self-administered questionnaire. There were 410 questionnaires distributed via email to employees working within service assurance call centres situated in Bloemfontein, Cape Town and Gauteng. A total of 117 questionnaires were returned by the respondents. Data collected was managed and analysed using the SPSS program. The findings of the study indicated that employees perceive the uses of assessing their service interactions with customers as both developmental and administrative, perceive fair outcomes and procedures used in determining the outcomes, they are satisfied with assessment outcomes, view the system used to assess their interactions as effective and trustworthy. The fairness of outcomes and procedural fairness variables were found to be strongly and positively related to satisfaction with assessment outcomes. Both fairness variables were found to have a unique contribution towards the prediction of the satisfaction with assessment outcomes variable. The main recommendation of the study is that management need to consider increasing fairness in the decisions involving employees’ performance as it has been found that such increase results in a positive increase on the employees’ satisfaction with outcomes generated from the assessment or evaluation of their service interactions with customers. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2010.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Denver Seminary, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 200-206).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Denver Seminary, 1992. / This is an electronic reproduction of TREN, #090-0157. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 200-206).

In the new economy customers are becoming more demanding, therefore organizations should embrace services as excellent opportunities to differentiate themselves from their competitors. Internal marketing is a tool that service organizations can utilize to ensure that they build a sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace. Organizations who successfully want to improve and implement internal marketing need to identify employees’ perceptions and expectations on the concepts of services, organizational capital, and communication within the organization. The internal marketing challenge is not an easy one. It is an ongoing process through which organizations have to change operational procedures and convince management and employees to alter their behaviour and beliefs. Organizations which succeed internally will excel externally. / Prof. C.J. Jooste

M.Comm. / Previously the engine components industry relied on being in the game by competing on product availability, product quality and pricing. The cost of not having customer driven strategic plans created certain drawbacks. These include: the use of crisis management (companies being reactive rather than proactive), diverse directions being taken and redundancy, loss of competitive edge and openness to outside influences. Local component manufacturers have to reduce their dependence on OEM manufacturing alone. This means that they will have to move into the after market, locally and overseas, and export more to foreign OEMs and component producers. Those who do not make the transition will have to diversify or close their doors. The result is that South African engine component companies do not only have to adapt to the reality of pricing pressure of intense competition, but also have to adapt to the increased service expectations of customers on all levels. Service quality can be defined as the extent of discrepancy between customers' expectations and their perceptions (Zeithaml, et al, 1990: 19). The question arises whether engine component companies in the current climate are basing their competitive advantage on a customer-orientated culture with an inner driving force. Service quality is an abstract and elusive concept, because it is intangible, heterogeneous and inseparable from production and consumption. In the process of growing towards customer retention and moving away from the initial concept of just providing customer satisfaction through product availability, product quality, basic service and pricing, superior service quality must be obtained. The measurement of perceived service quality within the engine component industry has not received much attention up till now. This dissertation addresses the problem of measuring the current quality of service (in the engine component industry), and provides guidelines on closing existing gaps. The objectives of the study can be summarised as follows: To assess the service expectations of engine component suppliers' customers. To assess customer perceptions of the performance of the engine component suppliers. To assess which customer - orientated strategies are perceived to be employed by engine component suppliers. To assess how engine component suppliers can narrow or eliminate the customerprovider gaps that exist.

M.Comm. / The objectives of this study are : To determine customers' perception of service quality of international telecommunications carrier services delivered by Telkom in the business-tobusiness relationships with carriers in Europe; To establish whether differences in service quality exist among the selected business customers; To identify and examine customers' needs and expectations regarding the service delivery by Telkom; To assess how well Telkom is currently performing relative to specific customer needs and expectations; To determine some of Telkom's strengths and weaknesses

Managing cultural differences in today’s work environment has received the attention of researchers all over the world. What has received far less attention is the managing of the cultural differences between service provider workers and customers and how this is perceived to lead to achieving great service quality. This research project focuses on the cultural differences between culturally diverse South African service provider workers and South African customers, with some reference to international customers. The questionnaire used in this research includes questions embodying the service quality instruments developed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1988) and Hofstede’s (1991) cultural dimensions. The questionnaire was completed by 81 students of the East Cape Midland College in the Nelson Mandela Metropole. A Pearson’s correlation coefficient was calculated for each service quality instrument and each cultural dimension. The resulting correlation coefficients were analysed and a positive or negative correlation between each service quality instrument and each cultural dimension is shown. The implications of each positive and negative correlation are shown and how it impacts on perceived service quality delivery. The implications for service quality management are shown, followed by recommendations for the management of a culturally diverse workforce.