The Malaysian property development industry contends with economic challenges arising from increased competition and property glut in the market. The situation is further worsen by the onslaught of world disasters for example tsunamis, earthquakes, bird flu pandemic and terrorist attacks, thus weakening the spending power of property buyers and investors. This exploratory research therefore investigated the importance of Emotional Intelligence (EQ) in enhancing customer service for sustainable competitive advantage. Guided by an analytical framework, it reviewed the key issues in the context of customer service within the Malaysian property development industry, the existing challenges faced by Malaysian property development companies, emotional intelligence (EQ) and training and development.The identified research gaps permitted the crafting of three Research Propositions. The combined outputs from the literature review, analysis of the research data and conclusions provided useful insights on the research problem. The case study methodology, supplemented by two other categories of exploratory research, namely experience surveys and one-on-one interviews, were the research techniques used to test the research propositions.The participants involved in the experience survey and one-on-one interviews included Heads of Department from the case-study company, Frontline employees, existing clients and vendors supplying goods and services to the case-study company. The procedure of data analysis consisted of examining, categorising, tabulating and recombining the evidence to address the research problem and the related research questions.The testing, by this research, yielded useful insights on the research problem.First, in order for Malaysian property developers to gain a sustainable competitive advantage, there is a need for fresh emphasis and commitment towards customer service, placing special focus on the development of employees in the area of emotional intelligence (EQ) through the reinforcement of emotional competencies. Despite efforts to enhance customer service through training programmes, the lack of effectiveness needs to be addressed and new measures should be undertaken.Second, the need for Malaysian property development companies to understand the importance of building a service culture and to begin by formulating and implementing a service strategy and it is here that leadership plays a critical role in ensuring the success of every customer service programme throughout the entire organisation. This suggests that new approaches to creating a service culture are necessary, benchmarking with best practices of service leaders around the world, even from different industries. Third, the need for the customer service training model to be reviewed and revamped. It calls for new emphasis on the development of emotional intelligence (EQ) competencies, to ensure training effectiveness and the achievement of customer service excellence through human capital.Finally, the research findings permitted the construct of a policy framework for securing sustainable competitive advantage. The research yielded useful insights for theory and model building. In respect of enhancing customer service to achieve sustainable competitive advantage in the Malaysian property development market, the research findings suggested a Service Culture Development Model that will ensure that customer service excellence can be maintained and delivered consistently, leading to a sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace. In respect of enhancing customer service through the development of EQ competencies in every employee and throughout the organisation, the research findings suggested a new Customer Service Training Model, where EQ competencies development programme becomes the pre-requisite foundational programme for all employees, prior to the training of customer service skill-sets. In order to create a service culture throughout the entire organisation, a customer service-oriented organisation will ensure that all employees, including top management personnel, participate in the EQ development programme.Follow-up research to test a model, based on this framework should further contribute to new theory development in emotional intelligence impacting customer service in the Malaysian property development industry.

Didėjant konkurencijai ir siekiant geriau patenkinti klientų poreikius, darbuotojų žinios ir gebėjimai tampa svarbi paslaugų organizacijos konkurencinio pranašumo prielaida. Tai pasakytina apie visas paslaugų organizacijas. Šios darbo tikslas - išanalizuoti UAB „Čilija“ personalo įgūdžių ugdymą klientų aptarnavimo srityje. Buvo nagrinėjama organizacijos kultūra, jos įtaka darbuotojams, aptarnavimo kultūra bei organizacijos ir aptarnavimo kultūrų ryšys, taip pat analizuojama šių kultūrų vaidmuo klientų aptarnavimo kultūros formavimui ir valdymui. Išaiškėjo, aptarnavimo kultūra labai priklauso ne tik nuo pačios organizacijos, bet ir nuo jos kultūros. Tai yra labai svarbu, nes nuo organizacijos kultūros priklauso ir darbuotojų požiūris į klientus ir aptarnavimą. Tyrimo metu išaiškėjo, jog darbuotojai nori dalyvauti įvairiuose mokymo seminaruose, nes tam yra sąlygos, tačiau kokybiškai aptarnauti daugelį darbuotojų trukdo tai, jog mažai skatinamas komandinis darbas, vadovybės mažai bendrauja ir dalijasi informacija su darbuotojais. Todėl daugelis darbuotojų aiškina, jog jų darbas nepatinka. Tai, žinoma, atsiliepia ir klientų aptarnavimo kokybei. / With growth of competition and trying to satisfy better the client’s needs, the knowledge and capabilities of workers become an important presupposition of competitive advantage of services’ organization. It can be applied to all services’ organizations. The aim of this graduation paper is – to analyze the development of LSC “Čilija” personnel skills in the sphere of client servicing. The culture of organization, its influence to the workers, the culture of service and the relations between organization and service cultures were discussed, also the role of these cultures to the formation and management of client servicing culture was analyzed. It was found out, that servicing culture to a great extent depends not only on organization itself, but also on its culture. It’s very important, because on the culture of organization, the workers view to clients and service depends. During the research, it was figured out, that workers wish to take part in educational seminars, because there are conditions for it, but willing to service qualitatively, the majority of workers face with problem - the team-work is stimulated very poorly, the heads communicate with each other and share the information with workers very poorly. Therefore a lot of workers explain that they don’t like their work. This fact, certainly, affects the quality of client servicing.

The Malaysian property development industry contends with economic challenges arising from increased competition and property glut in the market. The situation is further worsen by the onslaught of world disasters for example tsunamis, earthquakes, bird flu pandemic and terrorist attacks, thus weakening the spending power of property buyers and investors. This exploratory research therefore investigated the importance of Emotional Intelligence (EQ) in enhancing customer service for sustainable competitive advantage. Guided by an analytical framework, it reviewed the key issues in the context of customer service within the Malaysian property development industry, the existing challenges faced by Malaysian property development companies, emotional intelligence (EQ) and training and development.The identified research gaps permitted the crafting of three Research Propositions. The combined outputs from the literature review, analysis of the research data and conclusions provided useful insights on the research problem. The case study methodology, supplemented by two other categories of exploratory research, namely experience surveys and one-on-one interviews, were the research techniques used to test the research propositions.The participants involved in the experience survey and one-on-one interviews included Heads of Department from the case-study company, Frontline employees, existing clients and vendors supplying goods and services to the case-study company. The procedure of data analysis consisted of examining, categorising, tabulating and recombining the evidence to address the research problem and the related research questions.The testing, by this research, yielded useful insights on the research problem.First, in order for Malaysian property developers to gain a sustainable competitive advantage, there is a need for fresh emphasis and commitment towards customer service, placing special focus on the development of employees in the area of emotional intelligence (EQ) through the reinforcement of emotional competencies. Despite efforts to enhance customer service through training programmes, the lack of effectiveness needs to be addressed and new measures should be undertaken.Second, the need for Malaysian property development companies to understand the importance of building a service culture and to begin by formulating and implementing a service strategy and it is here that leadership plays a critical role in ensuring the success of every customer service programme throughout the entire organisation. This suggests that new approaches to creating a service culture are necessary, benchmarking with best practices of service leaders around the world, even from different industries. Third, the need for the customer service training model to be reviewed and revamped. It calls for new emphasis on the development of emotional intelligence (EQ) competencies, to ensure training effectiveness and the achievement of customer service excellence through human capital.Finally, the research findings permitted the construct of a policy framework for securing sustainable competitive advantage. The research yielded useful insights for theory and model building. In respect of enhancing customer service to achieve sustainable competitive advantage in the Malaysian property development market, the research findings suggested a Service Culture Development Model that will ensure that customer service excellence can be maintained and delivered consistently, leading to a sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace. In respect of enhancing customer service through the development of EQ competencies in every employee and throughout the organisation, the research findings suggested a new Customer Service Training Model, where EQ competencies development programme becomes the pre-requisite foundational programme for all employees, prior to the training of customer service skill-sets. In order to create a service culture throughout the entire organisation, a customer service-oriented organisation will ensure that all employees, including top management personnel, participate in the EQ development programme.Follow-up research to test a model, based on this framework should further contribute to new theory development in emotional intelligence impacting customer service in the Malaysian property development industry.

Le financement des activités culturelles par l’impôt subit des mutations qui affectent la substance même du service public de la culture. Tant l’impôt que le service public de la culture sont des vecteurs de cohésion sociale. D’une part, l’impôt relie l’individu à une communauté politique et enracine ainsi le lien social dans un corpus de règles constitutionnelles. Mais au cours de ces dernières décennies, ce lien se délie sous la pression de résistances à l’impôt. L’adoption de nouveaux paradigmes propres à assurer un consentement à l’impôt ne semble pas endiguer l’évitement de l’impôt quand bien même les bonnes pratiques de civisme fiscal sont revalorisées. D’autre part, l’action publique culturelle de l’État, qui constitue un facteur de cohésion sociale autour d’identités culturelles, est dans le même temps fragmentée, au point qu’une multiplication d’instances décisionnaires en matière culturelle a vu le jour au cours de ces trente dernières années. Cet agencement institutionnel, polycentrique, conduit l’État à adopter de nouveaux modèles de gouvernance rendant plus perméable l’hybridation de son action avec le secteur privé. La raréfaction des ressources publiques affectées au soutien des activités culturelles fragilisent, en période de crise, l’accomplissement des interventions culturelles de l’État. Le nouveau modèle de régulation fiscale qui tend à faire prévaloir une légitimité procédurale de l’impôt, à défaut de légitimité cognitive, conjugué au nouveau modèle culturel qui implique une participation croissante de la prise en charge des activités culturelles par le secteur privé, conduit à une remise en ordre de l’action publique culturelle. En faisant appel à des techniques de financement privé notamment sur fond de mécénat, la conservation et la mise valeur notamment du patrimoine culturel sont fragilisées au risque du marché. L’État culturel n’est plus alors correcteur du marché mais se cantonne à une posture d’État stratège. Paradoxalement, la marchandisation des biens culturels, accentuée par des incitations fiscales, se déploie au point de brouiller l’action publique culturelle de l’État catalyseur d’identités culturelles. / The financing of cultural activities through taxation undergoes mutations that affect the very essence of public service culture. Both the tax that the public service culture are vectors of social cohesion. On the one hand, the tax connects the individual to a political community and social ties rooted in body of constitutional rules. But in recent decades, this link penny loosens the pressure resistance to tax. The adoption of new own paradigms to provide consent to taxation does not seem sufficient to stem tax avoidance. On the other hand, cultural public policy of the State, which is a factor of social cohesion around cultural identities are fragmented in the same time, to the point that a multiplication of decision making bodies in the cultural field has seen the day during the last thirty years. This institutional arrangement, polycentric, led the state to adopt new governance models making it more permeable hybridization of its work with the private sector. The scarcity of public resources allocated to support cultural activities weaken in times of cri sis, the fulfillment of cultural interventions of the state. The new tax regulation model that tends to b1ing about a procedural legitimacy of the tax, in the absence of cognitive legitimacy, combined with the new cultural mode! which involves increasing participation of the management of cultural activities by the private sector leads to a reordering of cultural public action. By using private financing techniques including sponsorship background, including conservation and development of cultural heritage value is weakened to market risk. The cultural state is no longer collection of the market but is confined to a strategist State posture. Paradoxically, the commodification of cultural property, accentuated by tax incentives, unfolds as to blur the public cultural action of the catalyst state of cultural identities.

和顧客保持長期關係，對於企業經營是有利的，然而，由於資訊科技的進步與物流效率的提升，顧客越來越來越聰明，要尋找並取得替代產品與服務也越來越容易。在這樣的環境前提下，如何使顧客願意與企業維持長期關係而不轉向競爭者，是企業的一大挑戰。在文獻探討中本文發現，其關鍵是在於要能夠持續與顧客互動並了解顧客，並且將這些了解應用於產品設計、流程設計與組織設計。對於顧客的了解，本文定義其為顧客知識，就成為了顧客關係的基石。不過，由於與顧客的接觸點越多，了解顧客的管道就越多，其整合上有一定的難度，而資訊科技與傳統行銷方法都能夠產生對於顧客的了解，再加上產生並應用對於顧客的了解，以塑造顧客在消費與使用產品與服務時能得到高度的滿意，已經企業所有部門的責任，這樣跨部門的作業也不是一件簡單的事，這些議題都是企業在顧客知識管理上所需面對的。 在過往的文獻中所談的顧客知識管理，很多都混淆顧客資訊與知識，較無探討企業如何加工與顧客互動所得到的資訊，因此無法清楚了解企業在顧客知識管理上所作的貢獻為何。本文就以流程觀點，並以目前市場需求飽和且競爭激烈的人壽保險產業中的一家企業：保誠人壽為例，探討企業內的顧客知識流程，並且探討主要的影響因素，以了解企業在顧客知識管理上所作的努力。 而在本文個案的探訪後，本文還嘗試以服務業作業系統的角度，提出一種顧客知識的新分類：前台作業所需的顧客知識、後台作業所需的顧客知識，並且根據個案中保誠人壽的實際做法，修正文獻探討所提出的顧客知識管理架構，並且提出三種顧客知識管理的類型以及提出其管理重點，以作為實務界與後人研究的參考。 / It is beneficial for an enterprise to keep long-term relationship with its customers. However, owing to advances of information technology and the improvement of logistics efficiency, it is not difficult to search and acquire better products and services to substitute for what they are using now. Under these circumstances, it is a challenge for enterprises to retain their customers. How to do this? The answer in literatures is: to gain more customer insights (defined as customer knowledge in this study) through interactions with customers and apply them in product design, process design and organizational structure design. Therefore customer knowledge is the basics of long-term relationships with customers. But still, there are issues. First, an enterprise may have many contact points with its customers. Then, there are traditional ways versus information technology ways to generate customer knowledge. Finally, an enterprise has to think how to address appropriate customer knowledge to right departments and use them to enhance the total experience when interacting with customers. These are all issues an enterprise has to face with when trying to do “Customer Knowledge Management” (CKM). Most of past studies on CKM did not tell the difference between information and knowledge, thus can not clearly define what contributions an enterprise makes when implementing CKM. This study attempts to investigate practices of CKM in an enterprise in life insurance industry, in which the demand is saturated and the competition is fierce, from a process perspective to manifest how customer knowledge is generated and applied, and what main factors are to affect CKM in an enterprise. After investigation of the case, this study proposes a new framework, from the operation system in service industry, to classify customer knowledge into two categories: customer knowledge needed for front-office operations, and customer knowledge needed for back-office operations. In addition, according to practices in this case, this study will revise the CKM process framework proposed right after the literature review, and will raise keys to successful CKM in CKM processes, for the reference for following studies.