Measurement of quality is an important area within the services sector. To date, most attempts at measurement have focussed on how external clients perceive the quality of services provided by organisations. Although recognising that relationships between providers within a service environment are important, little research has been conducted into the identification and measurement of internal service quality. This research focuses on the measurement of internal service quality dimensions in the complex service environment of an internal healthcare service chain. The concept of quality in healthcare continues to develop as various provider, patient and client, governmental, and insurance groups maintain an interest in how to 'improve' the quality of healthcare service management and delivery. This research is based in healthcare as a major area within the service sector. The service environment in a large hospital is complex, with multiple interactions occurring internally; health is a significant field of study from both technical and organisational perspectives providing specific prior research that may be used as a basis for, and extension into service quality; and the implications of not getting service delivery right in healthcare in terms of costs to patients, families, community, and the government are significant. There has been considerable debate into the nature, dimensionality, and measurement of service quality. The five dimensions of SERVQUAL (tangibles, assurance, reliability, responsiveness, and empathy) have become a standard for evaluations of service quality in external service encounters, although these have been challenged in the literature. As interest in internal service quality has grown, a number of researchers have suggested that external service quality dimensions apply to internal service quality value chains irrespective of industry. However, this transferability has not been proven empirically. This research examines the nature of service quality dimensions in an internal healthcare service network, how these dimensions differ from those used in external service quality evaluations, and how different groups within the internal service network evaluate service quality, using both qualitative and quantitative research. Two studies were undertaken. In the first of these, interviews with staff from four groups within an internal service chain were conducted. Using dimensions established through qualitative analysis of this data, Study Two then tested these dimensions through data collected in a survey of staff in a major hospital. This research confirms the hierarchical, multidirectional, and multidimensional nature of internal service quality. The direct transferability of external quality dimensions to internal service quality evaluations is only partially supported. Although dimension labels are similar to those used in external studies of service quality, the cross-dimensional nature of a number of these attributes and their interrelationships needs to be considered before adopting external dimensions to measure internal service quality. Unlike in previous studies, equity has also been identified as an important factor in internal service quality evaluations. Differences in service expectations between groups in the internal service chain, and differentiation of perceptions of dimensions used to evaluate others from those perceived used in evaluations by others were found. This has implications on formulation of future internal service quality instruments. For example, the expectations model of service quality is currently the dominant approach to conceptualising and developing service quality instruments. This study identifies a number of problems in developing instruments that consider differences in expectations between internal groups. Difficulty in evaluating the technical quality of services provided in internal service chains is also confirmed. The triadic nature of internal service quality evaluations in internal healthcare service chains and the problems associated with transferring the traditional dyadic measures of service quality are identified. The relationships amongst internal service workers and patients form these triads, with patient outcomes a significant factor in determining overall internal service quality, independent of technical quality. This thesis assists in supporting the development of measurement tools more suited to internal service chains, and will provide a stronger and clearer focus on overall determinants of internal service quality, with resultant managerial implications for managerial effectiveness.

The competition between product and service procedure is more and more alike. Because it is difficult to distinguish the differences between hospitals on both tangible product and service procedure, the most important is service of employee. The service of employee is a competitive advantage and is hard to copy. Azzohlini (1993) mentioned the function quality and response of internal employee were important resources that revealed the discrepancy between each enterprise and the competitive advantage of it. Heskett, et al. (1994) mentioned that the model was related to the concept of service-profit chain. They thought the internal service quality to employees would strengthen the satisfaction, royalty and productivity of employees, then creating high service value. High service value brought out high external customer satisfaction and royalty. That is why the internal service quality is so important to organizational profit and revenue growth. And most of the researchers agree that only satisfied employees can create satisfied customers. In Taiwan, the government has advanced the system of medical insurance, so the need of medical treatment is expanding. The service of hospital includes facility and employee. When the patient enter the hospital for their disease, many employees have to take care of them. The employees are doctors, pharmacists, nurses, administrative staff, and so on. The greater part of employees is nurses. They are the front line to contact with and care for patient. The service of nurse is very important and is hard to copy. Researchers have found many factors of external service quality and developed measuring methods for service quality from the perspective of customers ( Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry, 1985; George & Gronroos, 1989¡F Heskett, 1990). In the meantime, the measurement of internal service quality was hardly mentioned. Yes, some researcher paid attention to this topic. They discussed the significance of internal service quality from other researches or their own observation. But we need more information about it. So this research tries to find the factors of internal service quality and explores the relationship between the internal service quality, the job satisfaction, the service ability and external service quality. After interviewing nurses, we integrated the data of the interviews and the exploration of other research papers to develop the questionnaire. The questionnaire had been filled out by the nurses who work in large-scale hospital. We induce the following results: (1) The factors of internal service quality are as follows: the style of management, the contact with other department, the training, the support of nursing department, the reward, the correct and definite responsibility, the resources, the content of job and the target of hospital. (2) The service ability include the professional knowledge, techniques and attitude. (3) The factors of external service quality about employee include the content of service and the efficiency of service. (4) Because of different personal characteristic, nurses have different recognition to factors of internal service quality except the training and the support of nursing department. (5) The different personal characteristic may brings out different recognition of service ability, job satisfaction. (6) The different personal characteristic may brings out different recognition of factors of external service quality about employee. (7) The correlation between factors of internal service quality, service ability and job satisfaction is positive except the training and the content of job. (8) The regression models that include internal service quality-service ability model, internal service quality-job satisfaction model, internal service quality-content of service model and internal service quality- efficiency of service model are significant. (9) For full model, the structure of model is fit except the direct relationship between internal service quality and external service quality about employee. We think the relationship is transmitted by job satisfaction and service ability.

The management and measurement of internal service quality is a special issue. If managers and specialists of human resource want to improve their internal service quality, they must understand the internal service factors their customers consider important. This study assesses the human resource services quality through viewpoints of the internal customers. The literatures review includes the topics of internal marketing, the roles and functions of human resource department, the concepts and measurement tools of service quality, and evaluation of organizational performance induced by human resource management. This study finds that managers expect the service quality factors are: innovation, completeness, problem solving, reliability, aggressiveness, structure and control, physical resources, and professional ability. From the results, we find the completeness and professional ability are the most important two factors to the managers investigated. They also indicate these two factors have the largest gap between the real and expected level. Most of the respondents think the reliability is good for their HR departments. Structure and control, and reliability of HR service have significant impacts on the organizational performance. The management performance has good mediating effects between the HR service quality and market performance of organizations. For the ¡§Direct Evaluation Model¡¨ and the ¡§Gap Model¡¨ of the internal service measurement, the first one has better forecasting power to both management and market performance.

Globalization creates for companies’ new opportunities for business development, as well as new challenges. One of the most prevailing challenges is the ability to create new products and services in accordance to diverse customer needs and requirements, as well as implementation of new technologies in future lines of products. Therefore, companies realize the importance of the Marketing and Sales (M&S) and Product Development (PD) departments. The interface between those two departments plays a decisive role in realization of customer needs and requirements, and application of the right technologies in new products. The speed and accuracy with which the information between the M&S and PD department is exchanged directly influences success of one’s products on the market. Consequently, companies strive to achieve greater level of cross-functional integration within the interface, by overcoming barriers to integration, and improving the quality of internal services by utilizing computer based Information Systems (IS). The role of IS in supporting cross-functional work environment is growing, thus companies of all size make investment in IS. Nonetheless, these investments very often fail or not bear expect results, due to lack of alignment of the investment with the business. This thesis documents a diagnosis undertaken for the Case Company. In recent years the Case Company experienced rapid international expansions and fast growth, which in turn exposed a whole new range of problems. The existing work routines turned out to be inadequate to maintain international expansion and growth. A great deal of these problems was enrooted directly in the interface between the M&S and PD departments. Therefore, the company realized a need to isolate and eliminate them, and further foster the cross-functional integration and information flows within the interface by implementation of a computer based Information System. The purpose of this thesis is to enhance the understanding of the integration and communication process within the M&S and PD departments at the Case Company. In order to fulfil the purpose the Enterprise Knowledge Development modelling technique was employed. This allowed tracing the problems to their roots, by mapping business processes, goals, rules, actors, as well as clarification of concepts. As a result an objective snapshot of the current cross-functional integration between the M&S and PD departments was created. Further, this snapshot was compared against a great body of literature in the field of Product Development and Management and Process Management. The comparison made it possible to indicate areas for potential future improvements. The proposed change needs aimed at enhancing the internal customer satisfaction. Last but not the least in deep analysis of the current cross-functional relations within the interface made it feasible to suggest (with literature assistance) initial vital functions of a computer based Information System to enhance the integration and information flows within the studied interface at the Case Company. The proposed functionality corresponds to the current, as well as anticipated needs of the interface that has been derived based on requirements of the actors to fulfil goals and satisfy organizational processes.

Research and develop (R&D) can expand scope and depth of the products for enterprises, and extend the life of products, in order to keep the growing up continuously forever of enterprises. Which factors does R&D performance come from? Through References find the research structure whose are ' Internal Service Quality ', ' Working Satisfaction ' and ' Knowledge Management '. And then design the questionnaire, investigate, analyze, and get the real example result. This research regards R&D department of M company of the vehicle curtain industry of Taiwan as the target of check, collect interviewee to above-mentioned four dimensions approval degree, use SPSS software to analyzing, the conclusion is as follows: 1) Knowledge Management is positive influence to R&D performance, but explain that strength is on the low side. It shows it is on although Knowledge Management it is real reason, it have not probing into otherly importantly really (such as patents, R&D ability). 2) Working Satisfaction is positive influence to R&D performance, but explain that strength is on the low side. Shows Working Satisfaction although real reason, have other probing into really important factor (such as marketing ability). 3) Internal Service Quality is positive influence to Working Satisfaction, it is very good to explain strength. Shows that Internal Service Quality is an important real reason, the company should improve Internal Service Quality of R&D department, could improve better Working Satisfaction. 4) Knowledge Management is positive influence to Working Satisfaction, it is good to explain strength. Shows that Knowledge Management is an important real reason, the company should improve Knowledge Management of the R&D department, could improve better Working Satisfaction. 5) Knowledge Management is positive influence to Internal Service Quality, it is good to explain strength. Shows that Knowledge Management is an important real reason, the company should improve Knowledge Management of the R&D department, could improve better Internal Service Quality. This precise inference Internal Service Quality and Knowledge Management of research, in order to influence the important factor of Working Satisfaction, and then offer a administrator to improve and propose. And R&D performance Important factor, not merely two which this research institute mentions constructs the surface (Working Satisfaction and Knowledge Management ), but case Company can is it improve Working Satisfaction and Knowledge Management because of it really to influence R&D performance to have priority, other factors can be improving via the research later on , can promote apparent R&D performance even more.

<p>Globalization creates for companies’ new opportunities for business development, as well as new challenges. One of the most prevailing challenges is the ability to create new products and services in accordance to diverse customer needs and requirements, as well as implementation of new technologies in future lines of products. Therefore, companies realize the importance of the Marketing and Sales (M&S) and Product Development (PD) departments. The interface between those two departments plays a decisive role in realization of customer needs and requirements, and application of the right technologies in new products. The speed and accuracy with which the information between the M&S and PD department is exchanged directly influences success of one’s products on the market. Consequently, companies strive to achieve greater level of cross-functional integration within the interface, by overcoming barriers to integration, and improving the quality of internal services by utilizing computer based Information Systems (IS). The role of IS in supporting cross-functional work environment is growing, thus companies of all size make investment in IS. Nonetheless, these investments very often fail or not bear expect results, due to lack of alignment of the investment with the business.</p><p>This thesis documents a diagnosis undertaken for the Case Company. In recent years the Case Company experienced rapid international expansions and fast growth, which in turn exposed a whole new range of problems. The existing work routines turned out to be inadequate to maintain international expansion and growth. A great deal of these problems was enrooted directly in the interface between the M&S and PD departments. Therefore, the company realized a need to isolate and eliminate them, and further foster the cross-functional integration and information flows within the interface by implementation of a computer based Information System.</p><p>The purpose of this thesis is to enhance the understanding of the integration and communication process within the M&S and PD departments at the Case Company. In order to fulfil the purpose the Enterprise Knowledge Development modelling technique was employed. This allowed tracing the problems to their roots, by mapping business processes, goals, rules, actors, as well as clarification of concepts. As a result an objective snapshot of the current cross-functional integration between the M&S and PD departments was created. Further, this snapshot was compared against a great body of literature in the field of Product Development and Management and Process Management. The comparison made it possible to indicate areas for potential future improvements. The proposed change needs aimed at enhancing the internal customer satisfaction. Last but not the least in deep analysis of the current cross-functional relations within the interface made it feasible to suggest (with literature assistance) initial vital functions of a computer based Information System to enhance the integration and information flows within the studied interface at the Case Company. The proposed functionality corresponds to the current, as well as anticipated needs of the interface that has been derived based on requirements of the actors to fulfil goals and satisfy organizational processes.</p>

This study explores how foreign owned service firms with headquarters in developed markets transfer their service culture into a country with an emerging market like Nigeria. This study is motivated by the need to understand this process considering the unique features of these markets, and the expansion into countries with emerging markets by service firms located in countries with developed markets to take advantage of both natural and human resources. The research uses case studies of two hotels from different firms, both in Abuja, Nigeria, to explore activities that enhance the transfer of service culture from the Headquarters of these hotels based in the USA. Both hotels were investigated through semi-structured interviews, based on elements of internal service quality from the service profit chain model, in addition to documents and observation notes. The finding reveals the process of transferring service culture is difficult and complex because of unique contextual challenges. Some of these challenges were shown to be country specific, while some may be unique to countries with emerging markets. The country specific challenges include; strong religious allegiance and cultural affinity, and unique societal factors. Other factors could apply to any country with an emerging market these include; corruption, inadequate infrastructure, and lack of skilled labour. Similarly this study identified new elements that enabled both firms to address these challenges as well as enhance the transfer of focal areas in their signature service culture. Some of these elements have also been identified to be country specific i.e. inclusiveness and provision of social support, while the remaining three are emerging market specific i.e. transfer of knowledge and skills, accommodating corruption, and improvisation. These new elements also add to the existing five elements of internal service quality, which are employee selection, job description, reward and recognition, tools to serve customers, and workplace design. The study demonstrates the important role that intermediaries can play in achieving accommodations to achieve at least partial transfer of the parent service culture. Overall, the research contributes to management practice by highlighting areas to focus on when attempting to transfer service culture in similar circumstances. This thesis adds to the academic literature on the transfer of service culture from headquarters in a developed country to a unit in a country with an emerging market. It does this by extending concepts from the service profit chain to show how internal elements can enhance or block the transfer of service culture.

近年，由於公車運輸產業競爭劇烈，消費者意識抬頭，使得企業在追求管理策略時，除講究營運績效外，更要重視產品品質、彈性及服務等各種品質項目，台北市公車現有十四家業者經營，業者如欲謀生存，必需設法追求更有效的服務方式及更高的服務品質，才能贏得顧客的青睞，同時也要以具有服務導向行為之員工為要務。為了使公車運輸服務在這個產業當中更具有差異化、創新能力，公司內部必需扮演更強而有力的後勤支援角色，來提供優良的服務品質予員工，同時藉由員工對工作的滿意度及員工對顧客的服務行為，能夠讓公司更具競爭力及提升公司獲利能力，本論文研究以Heskett 服務利潤鏈架構為基礎，並結合內部服務品質八項因子，探討不同公車駕駛員之人口屬性特徵對公車運輸公司內部服務品質的認知與其服務行為的表現是否有差異；再以典型相關分析(Canonical Correlations Analysis)探討內部服務品質與服務行為間之關係為何。 研究結果顯示，內部服務品質認知程度越高，則服務行為表現越好。經統計分析後，綜合以上實證結果，歸納研究結論如下： 1. 人口統計變項中以性別、工作年資及薪資收入之不同與公車駕駛員服務行為有顯著性差異。 2. 內部服務品質與服務行為間具有高度正向相關，由典型相關分析結果得知，角色內服務行為與「管理支持與團隊合作」、「有效訓練」、「溝通與獎賞肯定」及「工具設備」等構面存在有高度的正向關係，而「政策與程序」構面則低度正向關係。故欲提升駕駛員服務行為需從「管理支持與團隊合作」、「有效訓練」、「溝通與獎賞肯定」及「工具設備」等方面著手規劃。 3.內部服務品質之優劣對服務行為表現具有高度正向之預測能力。 關鍵詞: 內部服務品質、服務行為、駕駛員 / As a result of the turbulent rivalry in the bus transportation industry and the raising consumer consciousness, an organization will not only strive for the profits, also further focus on their product quality, elasticity, service and any products that focus on their quality. With 14 rivals in bus transportation in Taipei, any one has to attempt to seek for more effective service ways and higher service quality to meet customers if they want to subsist. In addition, they also regard having the staffs with the service-oriented behavior as the important thing. To have more distinction and creation ability for the bus transportation service in the bus transportation industry, an organization in the internal party has to play a stronger logistic support role to offer their employees good service quality. Meanwhile, by way of employees’ satisfactions to their jobs and their service behavior to the customers, it enables the institution to have more competitive ability. Besides, it is able to gain more profits. This dissertation is going to explore the comprehension of the internal service quality in the bus transportation for different bus driver with different personality, and whether the performance of their service behavior is different in terms of Services Value Chain by Heskett combining with 8 factors of the internal service quality. After that, it is addressed what the relationship between the internal service quality and the service behavior which will be based on Canonical Correlations Analysis. It is showed the more perception of the internal service quality, the better performance of the service behavior. With the above-mentioned results, it makes the conclusion as below. 1. It is obviously diversity for bus drivers’ service behavior among the difference of the demographic variation in terms of the gender, the working duration, and the salary. 2. The internal service quality to the service behavior is with high positive relationship. According to the Canonical Correlations Analysis, the service behavior inside the party to some factors in terms of management supports and team works, effective trainings, communication and awards approval, and tooling facilities are having high positive relationship. Nevertheless, the factor of the policy and procedure to the service behavior are with low positive relationship. Therefore, they have to start from the management supports and team works, effective trainings, communication and awards approval, and tooling facilities if they would like to enhance drivers’ service behavior. 3. The goodness and the badness of the internal service quality to the performance of the service behavior are with high positive predicted ability. Keywords: the internal service quality, the service behavior, driver

This study develops quality evaluation criteria that consider both service provider satisfaction and patient perspective in assessing e-Health services; additionally, it evaluates the impact of these criteria on the performance of e-Health services. Utilizing data from the Tele Care Center in National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH), one of the largest hospitals in Taiwan, this research framework extends the service-profit chain by integrating service triangle concept and emphasizing the relationships among three stakeholders: the firm, the customer, and the employee. The results suggest that the positive relationships among hospital’s business value, physicians’ value, and patients’ value can contribute to customer retention. In sum, this study expects to contribute to literature by providing an e-Health service performance assessment framework, which systematically develops a scale to evaluate e-Health service quality that concerns multiple stakeholders’ perspectives.

The role of purchasing has been evolving during the last years, increasing its strategic importance inside the organization. Traditionally viewed as a supportive function impacting only the bottom-line of the company, the main performance indicators for purchasing were cost-reduction and savings. Nowadays, organizations recognize the importance of the value added generated in the purchasing processes and they are broadening their vision of purchasing as a strategic contributor of value in both economical and intangible aspects.   One of the main intangible value contributions from the purchasing department (PD) of any company is the one provided to its internal customers; measured in the level of internal service quality and customer satisfaction. An adequate internal customer relationship management can translate into advantages for the PD, improving its strategic position in the organization, and in benefits for the company, increasing directly or indirectly its business performance.   The purpose of this research study was to understand how the purchasing department can create value inside an organization, how that value is measured and how it can be increased; being the central focus on the internal customers of the department. This research work was conducted as a single case study performed in a multinational company from the telecommunication industry. Qualitative data was gathered through structured interviews, formal and informal meetings with personnel from the company and a survey to triangulate the information. The objective was to determine the most important value adding factors for the internal customers of the purchasing department and evaluate their satisfaction level.   Two models for assessing the value contributed by the PD were the grounding for developing the tools used in the achievement of the objectives; one of them was based on the SERVQUAL model and the other one on the concept of meaningful involvement. Using inputs from both, a model for evaluating the value added to internal customer was proposed. In addition, the author identified improvement opportunities, related mainly with relationship management in the company and she suggested improvement measures accordingly. Finally, future courses of action were recommended, relating the value added concept with purchasing maturity models.