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Factorial validation of hospitality service attitude
International Journal of Hospitality Management 31 (2012) 944–951
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International Journal of Hospitality Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhosman
Factorial validation of hospitality service attitude Chun-Min Kuo a , Li-Chan Chen b,∗ , Carol Y. Lu c a
Department of Leisure Industry Management, National Chin-Yi University of Technology, No. 57, Sec. 2, Zhongshan Rd., Taiping Dist., Taichung City 411, Taiwan Department of Hotel Management, Minghsin University of Science and Technology, No. 1, Hsinsin Road, Hsinfong County, Hsinchu City 304, Taiwan c Department of International Business, Chung Yuan Christian University, No. 200, Chung Pei Road, Chung Li 320, Taiwan b
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Keywords: Service quality Interaction quality Service attitude Customer satisfaction Hotel industry
a b s t r a c t Numerous studies have shown that service attitude is a cornerstone of the client’s perception of service quality. However, little research has explored the construct of service attitude from the customers’ perspective. This study collected data from two sets of samples consisting of 448 customers from international hotels in Taiwan. Through a rigorous process, the results testify service attitude, the most frequently mentioned sub-dimension of interaction quality, and conclude its four dimensions: Problem-solving, empathy, enthusiasm, and friendliness. Implications for practical applications and research limitations are also provided. Crown Copyright © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction The tourism and hospitality industry markets have expanded because of consecutive increases in income standards. Particularly, the key factor to the success of the hospitality industries has been changing focus from locations and facilities to quality of service (Wright et al., 1994), in which front-line employees play important roles in customers’ satisfaction and emotions (Wan, 2010). Human capital assets, including employees’ knowledge, skills, and service attitude are essential for increasing competitive advantages in the hospitality and tourism industries (Kusluvan et al., 2010). Not only will this research show that service attitude is at least as important as the quality of facilities and skills of the staff, but also that it is critical for customer relations and repeated patronage. From the customer’s perspective, service satisfaction and the primary determinant of repeated consumption depend on the interpersonal quality between customers and first-line staff (Juwaheer and Ross, 2003). Employees’ service attitude positively relates to the customer’s willingness to return (Solomon et al., 1985). There is no exception for the hospitality industry. Service attitude of employees is a vital factor affecting customers’ satisfaction when deciding to stay at an international tourist hotel (Bach and Milman, 1996; Jaworski and Kohli, 1993; Kriegl, 2000; Kuo, 2007; McColl-Kennedy and White, 1997; Siu, 1998; Tas, 1983). From the perspective of industrials and educators, service attitude is one of the key competences that hospitality management
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +886 937 966 952; fax: +886 35593142x3754. E-mail addresses: [email protected], [email protected] (C.-M. Kuo), [email protected], [email protected] (L.-C. Chen), [email protected] (C.Y. Lu).
majors must possess. For instance, Kuo’s work (2004), in which data was collected from 61 managers of international tourist hotels and 20 professors teaching hospitality management in colleges, pointed out: “the proficiency indicators of students majoring in hospitality management are divided into five aspects, including professional knowledge, skills, management, communication, as well as service attitude; especially, the last one is the most important (p. 35).” Similarly, Geller’s research (1985), in which conclusions were drawn from 74 managers of 27 hotels in the U.S., has shown that service attitude ranked first for successful hotels. Yen (2002), the chairman of the leading hotel chain in Taiwan, indicated that professional attitudes are much more crucial than professional skills. Accordingly, service attitude is critical in the hospitality industries. However, few studies have taken further steps to discuss a rigorous scope of attributes contributing to service attitude from the customers’ perspective. Thus, this study attempts to describe the construct of service attitude and present its properties and potential applications.
2. Literature review 2.1. Service quality Service quality is considered to be a strategic tool for increasing efficacious competition in the hospitality industry, as positive quality affects customer satisfaction, stimulates their intention to return and their behavior regarding the recommendation of hotels (Ekinci et al., 2003). Previous researchers have paid a lot of attention to the conceptualization of service quality and have formed various perspectives. Those perspectives which are outlined below include: (1) those introduced by the Nordic School, (2) those based on the
0278-4319/$ – see front matter. Crown Copyright © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijhm.2011.11.002
C.-M. Kuo et al. / International Journal of Hospitality Management 31 (2012) 944–951
disconfirmation paradigm, particularly the SERVQUAL model, and (3) the hierarchical perspective. The first perspective, introduced by scholars from the Nordic School (e.g., Grönroos, 1984), states that service quality contains two key dimensions: functional quality and technical quality. Functional quality indicates how the service is delivered; that is, it defines the customers’ perception of the interactions that take place during the service delivery, while technical quality represents the outcomes of the services, or what the clients obtain from the service encounter (Grönroos, 1984). The second perspective, also known as the “American perspective”, and based on the disconfirmation paradigm, is developed as a SERVQUAL model (Parasuraman et al., 1985), which views service quality as the gap between the expected level of service and customer’s perception of the level of service received. The SERVQUAL model consists of five elements, including tangibles, reliability, empathy, responses, and assurances. Yet, although the SERVQUAL conceptualization dominates the literature, there is still no general agreement as to the nature or contents of its dimensions (Brady and Cronin, 2001). For example, Ekinci and Riley (2001) demonstrate that the SERVQUAL model suffers from conceptual and methodological problems. That is, the SERVQUAL model continues to display a lack of consistency in replicating these five dimensions in different service environments. By applying Q-Methodology and Guttman scaling as an alternative procedure, Ekinci and Riley (2001) state that hotel service quality consists of physical quality, interactive quality, and outcome quality. Especially, the staff’s attitude and behavior, one of nine elements of interactive quality, is the most frequently quoted and has the most statistical significance in the literature. Moreover, Ekinci et al. (2008) have further confirmed the external validity of physical quality and staff behavior/attitude in the hospitality industry. It is obvious that the service quality evaluations are so complicated that they might operate on multi-level processes. Thus, the third approach, named the hierarchical perspective, was well justified (Brady and Cronin, 2001). The hierarchical perspective demonstrates physical environment quality, interaction quality and output quality. In particular, interaction quality is considered a generic element across the services industries and has identified three distinct attributes that contribute to customer perception of interaction quality: employee behavior, such as helpfulness; employee attitude, such as willingness to help; and employee expertise (Brady and Cronin, 2001). In sum, previous literature of service quality is inconclusive on its own dimensions; nevertheless, all of main perspectives regard the physical and interaction quality of the hospitality industry as crucial elements of service quality. The former is fully explored and recognized. In contrast, employees’ service attitude, a subdimension of interaction quality, has not been well-conceptualized and measured (Larsen and Bastiansen, 1991). The validity confirmation of service attitude will not only contribute to the service quality literature but will also offer managerial implications for practitioners. 2.2. Service attitude The operational definition of service attitude, combining the definitions of Larsen and Bastiansen (1991) and Ekinci (2001), is the customer’s perception of the affectivity, competence and behavioral tendency of front-line employees along with a service encounter. Since service attitude involves feelings and behaviors toward customers, it is often regarded as one of the most important blocks of service quality that determines guest’s satisfaction, repeat patronage and intention of recommending hotels (Ekinci, 2001; Ekinci et al., 2008; Kuo, 2007; Liu and Liu, 2008; Tornow and Wiley, 1991). Attitude consists of three major components,
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including evaluation, cognition, and behavior. The evaluative constituent, an attitude component, refers to the individual’s liking or disliking of any particular person or event. The cognitive part involves more than feelings; it also relates to knowledge – that is, what the individual believes to be the case about the attitude component. Finally, the behavioral component indicates an intention to behave in a certain way (Greenberg and Baron, 2003). Schiffman and Kanuk (1994) have similarly illustrated three traits of attitude featuring (1) a variety of mental tendencies through learning, (2) behavioral consistency, and (3) focus on a specific target. Accordingly, Larsen and Bastiansen (1991) define service attitude as a relatively permanent tendency on the part of the employee to behave in a particular fashion toward customers in client–employee interactions. Moreover, service attitude is easily observed by customers (Larsen and Bastiansen, 1991). Also, Ekinci (2001) defines the staff’s behavior and attitude as a degree of demonstrated competence in the performance of their tasks and the quality of empathy displayed in their interaction with customers. Thus, this study follows the views of Larsen and Bastiansen (1991) and Ekinci (2001). Even though researchers have identified the importance of service attitude and have offered preliminary definitions, there are relatively few studies concerning the rigorous scope of service attitude. Particularly, service attitude is at the discretion of the employee. As such, it provides a source of variance toward an expected service attitude. Thus, it is a challenge for managers of hospitality industries to manage the service attitude of the frontline staff. What attributes of service attitude do the guests value most? What elements of service attitude should be stressed in human resource practices to satisfy customers? Findings of this study will be helpful in answering these questions. 2.3. Related research on service attitude Chase and Bowen (1987) mention that service is at the core of various service industries, especially in hotel enterprises. Service providers need to not only satisfy a customer’s mental and physical needs, but also to enable them to acquire a particular kind of feeling. Failure at any point of a service encounter will damage the customer’s experience, which can create a negative impact on the enterprise performance (Liu and Liu, 2008). Thus, it is crucial for staff to build up a good relationship between employees and customers during a service encounter, and excellent service quality mainly depends on employees’ service attitude (Croby et al., 1990). How to require the first–line employees to serve customers with a good service attitude, and how to satisfy clients even beyond their expectations, are therefore critical for researchers and managers in hotel industries to figure out. Since service attitude plays a vital part in the service industries, it has drawn a tremendous amount of attention from researchers. Previous studies related to service attitude focus in two directions as follows. First, multiple-level antecedent factors of service attitude are identified. At the individual level, the employees’ service attitude is dependent on their personalities (Ekinci and Dawes, 2009; Grandey et al., 2005). Personality characteristics congruent with providing good service are variously called “service orientation” (Hogan et al., 1984), “service predisposition” (Lee-Ross, 2000), or “customer (service) orientation” (Brown et al., 2002). Employees with service orientation are apt to be helpful, considerate, dependable, and likeable to meet customers’ needs in an on-the-job context. At the organizational level, practice and policy of human resource management, service climate, and organizational culture are important indicators (Kusluvan et al., 2010). For instance, Chen (1999) indicates that the service attitude of the employee is formed via training and socialization. Heskett and Schelsinger (1994) and
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Yeung (2006) also point out that the employees’ good attitudes require comprehensive HRM practices, such as constant training, strict recruitment, better salaries, and empowerment. Chang (2006) and Teng and Barrows (2009) demonstrate that organizational culture shapes employees’ service attitude. For example, the Ritzs-Carton hotel stresses: “We are the ladies and gentlemen to serve ladies and gentlemen”; the organizational culture directs employees to serve guests in an elegant and neat way (Yeung, 2006). At the external environmental level, cultural values also determine the service attitude of employees. Under a collectivistic culture like Korea, the airline staff treats fellow customers better than foreign travelers (Kim and Lee, 2009; Tsang, this issue). Second, investigations of elements of service attitude accumulated rapidly. Many of the previous studies have identified attributes of service attitude with a laundry list with foci on employees, managers or even hospitality students, rather than on the client’s point-of-view. Moreover, previous studies fail to validate domains of service attitude. For example, Larsen and Bastiansen’s work (1991) investigated 29 hospitality college students, 42 hotel/restaurant staff, and 22 nurses in Norway, but it suffers from a validity problem due to its rather small size of sample and statistics techniques. Furthermore, Ekinci’s work (2001) describes service attitude as a uni-domain with six items based on previous literature instead of on a basic assumption that attitude is a construct with multiple domains (Greenberg and Baron, 2003; Schiffman and Kanuk, 1994). Tsai (1994) divides service attitude into three dimensions, including the physical factors of appearance and hygiene; the performance factors of speed of operation, reaction, professional knowledge, and skills; and the mentality factors of politeness, patience, friendliness, thoughtfulness, and esteem. Additionally, Lin (1999) refers to 5 domains of service attitude of first-line receptionists in a department store, including customers’ requirements, consideration, problem-solving, discrimination, and job principles. From these examples, it is concluded that investigations of elements of service attitude have rapidly advanced, but the results are still not conclusive. In other words, relatively few studies have collected empirical evidence to testify to a valid construct of service attitude from the customers’ perspective. These are all foundations to a client-focused perspective of employees’ service attitude. A client-focused approach offers a balanced and compelling insight since hospitality and tourism industries provide demand-led services. 3. Methodology 3.1. Research structure According to the purposes of this study, the authors adopted a guideline provided by Churchill (1979). The overall process to measure the service attitude construct was divided into two parts. Part one contains the sample of generated items, and part two contains the data collection and purification of measures. Each of the two parts is depicted in Fig. 1 and the developmental details are as follows. 3.1.1. Sample of generated items According to Churchill’s (1979) prescription, the research must be precise in delineating what is included or excluded in the definition. To generate the items sample, two sources were employed: insights from the existing literature, and in-depth interviews. Especially, a 10-item instrument developed by Larsen and Bastiansen (1991) in the nursing and hospitality industries was the sources of the item pool. Additional items were generated from in-depth
Sample of generated items Specify domains of service attitude in the hospitality industry Literature review In-depth interviews Data collection and purification of measures Co-efficiency alpha Exploratory factor analysis (the first sample) Confirmation factor analysis (the second sample) Construct validity Fig. 1. Flow chart of the research structure.
interviews with 10 hotel managers and 10 customers who had stayed in international tourist hotels for further information. Questions from an interview scale were used for in-depth interviews. For instance, “What kind of non-verbal reactions do you think hotel employees should possess?” and “What types of employees’ affectivities do you value most?” Regarding the in-depth interviews with hotel managers, initially 15 facilities were contacted with 10 later agreeing to be involved in the study. Due to scheduling difficulties, 10 field visits were undertaken with 7 facilities. In-depth interviews were conducted with managers of Front Office, Housekeeping, and Food and Beverage. Each interview lasted between 20 min and 1.5 h. With respect to in-depth interviews with customers, the research members accessed them and earned an agreement for an interview in a couch area of the hotel lobby. Due to the compressed time of the customers, 10 interviews were conducted in 3 hotels. Each interview lasted between 10 and 22 min. All interviews were taperecorded, transcribed, and spot-checked for accuracy. Each person interviewed who wished to receive the transcript was forwarded a copy for inspection. Of the three forwarded transcripts, only one was returned with minor editorial comments. The authors (who had industry experience) categorized them into 30 items. All items were also confirmed by 12 senior professors teaching in hospitality programs in the universities. 3.1.2. Purification of measures Initially, 30 items were rewritten to form an original questionnaire that was measured on a 5-point Likert scale. In order to precisely analyze them, we are supposed to target the diversities of all indicators. A high consistency among all is desirable. The consistency of a single item takes a coefficient alpha value 0.3 as a standard. Under this standard, Q27 and Q29 were eliminated from the study. Therefore, the study consisted of 28 items in total. 3.2. Sample profile The subjects of this study were tourists who stay at international tourist hotels. The main reasons for adopting these subjects in the study are that the hotel business belongs to the service industries, featuring cutting-edge service from front-line employees. Consequently, the service attitude perceived by clients of international tourist hotels will be the most representative for the core questions of the research. The study collected data from two samples. The first one was conducted in February 2007. The research members contacted managers of international tourist hotels for permission to use the survey. Questionnaires were distributed to clients when they settled their bills. A total of 224 valid questionnaires formed the
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Table 1 Profile of all participants. Variable
Category
Sample 1 (n = 224)
Sample 2 (n = 224)
Gender
Male Female
100 (44.6) 124 (55.4)
126 (56.2) 98 (43.8)
Marital Status
Married Single Divorced
116 (51.8) 98 (43.8) 10 (4.4)
102 (45.6) 119 (53.1) 3 (1.3)
Education
Junior high Senior high Junior college College Graduate
4 (1.7) 34 (15.2) 41 (18.3) 118 (52.7) 27 (12.1)
10 (4.5) 30 (13.4) 66 (29.5) 84 (37.5) 34 (15.1)
Age
Under 20 21–30 31–40 41–50 51–60 Above 61
11 (4.9) 107 (47.7) 50 (22.3) 40 (18) 0 16 (7.1)
0 65 (29) 106 (47.3) 28 (12.5) 19 (8.5) 6 (2.7)
Purpose
Business Recreation Conference Other
14 (6.3) 144 (64.3) 29 (13) 37 (17.4)
30 (14) 175 (78.1) 12 (5.4) 7 (3.1)
Career
Entrepreneur or boss Manager or above Corporate staff Educator Scientist or engineer association Cultural enterpriser Government employee Housewife or house husband Retiree
8 (3.6) 24 (10.7) 101 (45.1) 18 (8.1) 4 (1.7) 11 (4.9) 21 (9.4) 24 (10.7) 13 (5.8)
6 (2.7) 33 (14.7) 98 (43.8) 32 (14.3) 18 (8.1) 4 (1.7) 13 (5.8) 0 20 (8.9)
Earnings
Under 300,000 300,001–400,000 400,001–500,000 500,001–650,000 650,001–800,000 800,001–1,000,000 Above 1,000,000
43 (19.2) 25 (11.2) 32 (14.3) 22 (9.8) 73 (32.5) 10 (4.5) 19 (8.5)
17 (7.6) 42 (18.8) 62 (27.7) 33 (14.7) 48 (21.4) 22 (9.8) 0
Tour arrangement
Self/secretary/family Tour agency Participation of group tour
165 (73.7) 31 (13.8) 28 (12.5)
139 (62.1) 62 (27.7) 23 (10.2)
first sample. The second survey was conducted in July 2007. The researchers collected data in the airline check-in lobby at the international airport in Taipei. Travelers were confirmed as guests of the target hotels contributing to the second sample. A total of 224 responses were retained for analysis. The profile of participants (Sample 1) is shown in Table 1. Among the 224 respondents, 55.4% were female and 44.6% were male. Most of them were 21–30 years old (47.7%), followed by 31–40 years old (22.3%). Educational levels were fairly high; nearly 65% had received a college degree or post-graduate education. The majority of the respondents were married (51.8%) and 32.8% had an annual personal income in the range of NT $650,001–800,000. Of the respondents, 64.3% had expressed a recreational purpose for their visit. Referring to their jobs, 45.1% were corporate staff. Finally, 73.7% had arranged the tour themselves, or had it arranged by secretaries or family. Regarding the profile of Sample 2, Table 1 illustrates that most of the 224 participants were male (56.2%), with a status of single (53.1%). Most of them were 31–40 years old (47.3%), followed by 21–30 years old (29%). Educational levels were fairly high; over 80% had received a junior college degree or above. Of the respondents, 27.7% had annual personal incomes in the range of NT $400,001–500,000 and 78.1% had been visiting for recreational
Samples (%)
purposes. With respect to their jobs, 43.8% were corporate staff and 62.1% had arranged the tour themselves or had it arranged by secretaries or family. 4. Results 4.1. Sampling adequacy Prior to further analysis, the sampling adequacy test KMO measure of the first sample (n = 224) was performed to determine the fitness of the data. The KMO of this study was 0.95. According to Kaiser (1960), a KMO of 0.70 is midrange. Therefore, the data for this study can be used for exploratory factor analysis (EFA). 4.2. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) This study used principal components as a method of extracting factors. In order to explain and label the factors, this study used the Varimax rotation to revolve the factor axis to make it clearer. Based on Hair and his collegues’ (1998) suggestions, this study kept items with a factor loading above 0.5 to increase its construct validity. There were 4 factors extracted (eigenvalue > 1) from the 28 items of service attitude, with a 68.02% variance explained. Every service
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Table 2 Factor analysis of service attitude (Sample 1 = 224). Dimension
Items of service attitude
Factor loading Factor 1
Dimension 1 Problem-solving
Dimension 2 Empathy
Dimension 3 Enthusiasm
Dimension 4 Friendliness
18. Employees solve problems with patience. 17. Employees figure out reasons for and solve complaints quickly. 13. Employees serve promptly and efficiently. 19. The service is free of mistakes. 15. Employees solve guests’ problems well. 16. Employees listen to complaints carefully and offer an apology. 21. Employees with follow follow-up solutions to guests’ requirements or complaints. 20. Employees stay calm to manage the guest’s issues. 12. Employees handle guests’ demands right away. 23. Employees pay attention to any unpredicted occasions. 14. Employees are active in dealing with any problems. 22. Employees can identify guests’ body language to offer appropriate service. Employees are not prejudiced about the guest’s attire.
Factor 2
Factor 3
0.708 0.679 0.677 0.670 0.660 0.642 0.639 0.587 0.574 0.532 0.521 0.720
25. Employees offer customized service based on individual demands. 26. Employees consider guests’ benefits as their first priority. 28. Employees are active in understanding guests’ needs. 27. Employees are concerned with guests’ safety and privacy. 24. Employees can put themselves in the guest’s shoes. Employees converse with guests gently.
0.683 0.631 0.525 0.519 0.508 0.757
6. Employees are active in providing guests with in-house promotion information. 7. Employees are aware of guests’ needs even during busy times. 5. Employees introduce the hotel’s new facilities or products to the guest properly. 8. Employees behave gracefully.
0.734 0.706 0.548
1. Employees always have a smile. 2. Employees greet you courteously. 3. Employees are well-groomed. 4. Employees are full of energy. 10. Employees are not biased toward the guest’s race or nationality.
Eigenvalue % of variance Cumulative variance % Cronbach’s ˛
attitude variable had a clear factor loading on the four dimensions as shown in Table 2. According to Table 2, the first factor named Problem-Solving had 13 attributes and it accounted for 44.32% of the variance. Empathy (Dimension 2) accounted for 11.23% of the variance in the total solution, with factor loadings from 0.51 to 0.72. It consists of 6 items. Enthusiasm (Dimension 3) accounted for 6.46% of the variance of the total factor solution, and had 4 elements that registered factor loadings from 0.55 to 0.76. Finally, Friendliness (Dimension 4) accounted for 6.01% of the variance of the total factor solution. This dimension had 5 elements with high factor loadings from 0.61 to 0.89.
4.3. Reliability analysis To establish the measurement reliability of the four-dimension factors, an internal consistency reliability coefficient was evaluated using a coefficient alpha measure (Cronbach’s ˛). The results showed that the alpha coefficients of all four factors ranging from 0.81 to 0.91 exceeded the recommended minimum level of 0.70 in accepting the reliability of factors (Hair et al., 1998). Accordingly,
Factor 4
0.774 0.744
0.890 0.843 0.755 0.723 0.610 4.870 44.321 44.321 0.91
1.722 11.228 55.549 0.85
1.473 6.462 62.011 0.82
1.411 6.012 68.023 0.81
the four-dimension factors resulting from factor analysis in this research was proven to be reliable. 4.4. Validity analysis 4.4.1. Content validity Content validity is a tool used to measure the traits that the study needs. In order to test the variables precisely, this study ensures the integrity and importance of the selected items via literature and indepth interviews. Primary items came from literature reviews and they were discussed with professors and hotel managers in the hospitality industry. Some rewritten items were reconfirmed through in-depth interviews. Before the data was collected, two research members assessed the content and relevance of the variables. 4.4.2. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) In order to confirm the dimension structure found in EFA and to verify the reliability and construct validity of the scale, confirmation factor analysis was employed for the parameter estimation. In AMSO 5.0, several indices were available to express fit to the underlying data. All indices of model fitness reached a satisfactory result.
C.-M. Kuo et al. / International Journal of Hospitality Management 31 (2012) 944–951 Table 3 Convergent validity analysis (Sample 2 = 224).
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Table 4 Correlation matrix for measurement dimension of service attitude (Sample 2 = 224).
Dimension
Items
t-Value
p-Value
Dimension
Problem-solving
Empathy
Enthusiasm
Friendliness
8.114 7.526 8.057 7.723 7.514 7.834 7.936 7.684 6.952 6.687 7.054 6.775 6.489
***
Problem-solving Empathy Enthusiasm Friendliness
AVE = 0.541 0.481 0.108 0.353
AVE = 0.520 0.015 0.314
AVE = 0.439 0.116
AVE = 0.457
Problem-solving (0.91)
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 9
8.668 9.736 8.461 8.636 8.542 5.583
***
5 6 7 8
5.421 5.604 5.720 5.817
***
1 2 3 4 10
5.218 5.348 5.941 6.690 5.956
***
Empathy (0.85)
Enthusiasm (0.82)
Friendliness (0.81)
*** *** *** *** *** *** ***
5. Conclusion and implications
*** *** *** *** ***
*** *** *** *** ***
*** *** ***
*** *** *** ***
The method of estimating parameter values is a maximum likelihood. The correlation coefficient of the first variable of each factor is set as 1, so it is excluded from a t-value test. *p < 0.05. **p < 0.01. *** p < 0.001.
First, the 2 value was not significant (p > 0.05), and the NCI was under 2 (a ration of 2 and the degree of freedom). Moreover, other goodness-of-fit measurements indicated a good overall fit for the four-factor model to the data (GFI = 0.915, AGFI = 0.910, CFI = 0.850, and RMSEA = 0.032). In summary, these criteria suggest that the model fit the data adequately. Construct validity is the context to which the indicators accurately measure what they are supposed to measure. Construct validity can be described by convergent validity and discriminant validity. The convergent validity shows that all the loadings of the model were significant and the indicators loaded well to their respective factors. The standardized t-value was tested for each dimension of the model. Table 3 illustrates a significant result; all factor loadings were significantly different from zero as evidenced with a consistently large t-value. Additionally, the variance captured by items versus variance associated with measurement error for the four factors was from 0.81 to 0.91, which exceeds the recommended 0.7. Moreover, the discriminant validity addressed the concept that dissimilar constructs should differ. To establish the discriminant validity, when taking any pair of constructs, the average variance extracted from each construct should be greater than the square of the correlation coefficient between every paired construct (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). On the other hand, if the correlation coefficient existing in certain paired variables is larger than the average variance, it demonstrates that the measured indications may be overlapped with other’s (Anderson and Gerbing, 1998). Based on the results shown in Table 4, these requirements were met since all construct pairs had an average variance ranging from 0.439 to 0.541. The results support the distinction of the constructs included in the model.
The importance of service attitude has drawn attention from researchers in the marketing and hospitality fields. It symbolizes customers’ satisfaction and patronage. Nevertheless, very little research in the hospitality literature investigates the basic structure of service attitude domain from the demand side. The issue of the employees’ service attitude is especially critical for hospitality practitioners because it is difficult for competitors to imitate. If practitioners understand what it is that their guests value most in the employees’ service attitudes, then the industry could develop effective recruitment practices as well as training programs. Based on the guidelines of Churchill (1979), this study implemented a vigorous process to reach the study’s goal. After 20 in-depth interviews with hotel guests and managers, as well as consulting with 12 professional scholars, the study acquired a 30attribute domain of service attitude. Data were collected from two samples with a total of 448 participants who stayed at international tourist hotels. EFA and CFA were conducted to explore and confirm employees’ service attitude structure. Four dimensions were finally identified: Problem-solving, empathy, enthusiasm, and friendliness. The composite reliability of the four dimensions were at least 0.7, which demonstrated acceptable reliabilities. Validity was ensured through the examination of content validity, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. With respect to theory development and our own research findings, this study agrees that an evaluation of service quality is a multiple-level process. Although both of the second-tier level components, physical quality and interaction quality, were identified from various perspectives, service attitude, a most frequently quoted sub-dimension of interaction quality, was not well developed. That is, our findings support the argument of Brady and Cronin (2001) that service quality features multi-level and multidimensional characteristics. The results of this study not only contribute to fill in a research gap, but also offer managerial implications for the hospitality industry’s practitioners and educators. The implications for application of this research are four-fold. Under interaction quality (the second tier of service quality), our findings testify that service attitude (the third-level) consists of four dimensions. First, problem-solving, is the employees’ manners and efficiency in dealing with customers’ requirements or complaints. This means that the varieties of customers’ needs and expectations cause employees numerable obstacles in deciding on suitable reactions. Assistance might equip employees to solve problems during service encounters. For hospitality educators, a problem-solving oriented course design will help students utilize hands-on knowledge and practical skills to fit various occasions in the reality of work life. For hospitality managers, recruitment tools like open-ended “behavioral” questions are useful in revealing job applicants’ quality; for example, “Have you ever disagreed with your clients? If so, how did you handle it?” Moreover, a training tool such as standardization of operation procedure (SOP) can also increase competence and assist employees in managing different situations effectively (Hsiung and Hsieh, 2003). Finally, establishing greater empowerment to improve service quality through problem-solving is a critical practice for developing a good service attitude. Managers,
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for example, could delegate more authority to employees. In doing so, the procedures for quickly addressing customers’ complaints in a timely manner could be simplified. In other words, failure to handle consumers’ complaints promptly provokes consumers’ negative impression on the employee and the service organization (Yuksel et al., 2006). Second, empathy indicates the employee’s concerns for customers. It is the core of a caring relationship. Thus, empathy is important to people-oriented industries. For selection practice, a structured instrument such as the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Reychav and Weisberg, 2009) could be used by interviewers to evaluate an applicant’s inclination for empathy (Cliffordson, 2002). As empathy requires taking the perspective of another person, training programs such as role-playing would be helpful for employees to learn how to put themselves into their clients’ shoes. A reality-stimulation lab is one of the methods to help hospitality students learn how to be empathetic toward special guests. For instance, based on one of the author’s teaching experience in the Hotel Department, students were grouped to emulate the inconveniences caused by physical limitations. After students took turns wearing an eyeshade and tiny sandy bags around their ankles and knees, they then learned to be patient with disabled citizens and seniors by relating to their inevitable slow motions. Third, enthusiasm is a strong and controlled motivation instead of a flash phenomenon (Peale, 1967). It is contagious and psychologically fuels most positive behaviors. In fact, enthusiasm of job applicants was ranked as the second most important characteristic among recruiters (Glassman and McAfee, 1990). Additionally, enthusiasm could be increased with training. What can be done to improve enthusiasm? Training could incorporate oral and written word choices, vocal, facial, physical gestures, and self-visualizations into its programs. These types of training could help employees act enthusiastically, and they would literally become more enthusiastic (Glassman and McAfee, 1990). Finally, friendliness is one kind of mood that is positive and joyful for people. An orientation training to demonstrate the importance of front-line employees is needed. This is because front-line employees act like ambassadors in welcoming visitors from different cultural backgrounds. It is also an incredible “soft skill” to form for a welcoming employee that can be developed via cuttingedging technology (Burns, 1997). Especially for training functions, a package of cross-cultural training programs such as sensitivity training and role playing are recommended, as they are very helpful as strategies for employees who have guest–contact to avoid being misunderstood and hostile toward guests.
6. Research limitation and further studies This study contributes to a reliable and valid construct of service attitude. However, the main limitation of this study is generalizability. First, surveys of this study were targeted at international tourist hotels only. The hospitality industries consist of various components such as leisure, tourism, aviation, restaurants, as well as entertainment parks. Thus, future studies should extend to other related industries. Additionally, the participants of this study came from Taiwan; however, customers’ perceptions toward employees’ service attitude might be different due to differences in cultures. It is recommended that cross-cultural comparison studies be conducted to examine the possibility of generalizing the results on various subjects with different cultural backgrounds. Third, this study identifies elements of service attitude from the customers’ perspective only. The findings contribute to understanding the bottom line of customers’ demands. However, employees’ service attitude can be identified via different observers including customers, supervisors or by the self-evaluation of employees. Thus,
future studies are encouraged to collect data from various sources to gain a comprehensive result and to offer strategies for closing gaps among customers, service organization, and front-line employees. References Anderson, J.C., Gerbing, D.W., 1998. Structural equation molding in practice: a review and recommended two-step approach. Psychological Bulletin 103, 411–423. Bach, S.A., Milman, A., 1996. A novel technique for reviewing a hospitality management curriculum. Hotel and Tourism Educator 8 (1), 37–41. Brady, M.K., Cronin, J.J., 2001. Some new thoughts on conceptualizing perceived service quality: a hierarchical approach. Journal of Marketing 65 (3), 34–49. Brown, T.J., Mowen, J.C., Donavan, D.T., Licata, J.W., 2002. The customer orientation of service workers: personality trait effects on self- and supervisor performance ratings. Journal of Marketing Research 39 (1), 110–119. Burns, P.M., 1997. Hard-skills, soft-skills: undervaluing hospitality’s ‘service with a smile’. 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International hospitality management. The Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 41 (2), 64–71. Kuo, C.M., 2004. Constructing the index of professional competencies of college students in the hotel management department in Taiwan. Journal of Tourism Studies 10 (3), 35–77. Kuo, C.M., 2007. The importance of hotel employee service attitude and the satisfaction of international tourists. Service Industries Journal 27 (8), 1073–1085.
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Solomon, M.R., Surprenant, C., Czepeil, J.A., Gutman, E.G., 1985. A role theory perspective on dyadic interaction: the service encounter. Journal of Marketing Research 49 (4), 99–111. Tas, R.F., 1983. Competencies important for hotel manager trainees. The Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 29 (2), 41–43. Teng, C.C., Barrows, C.W., 2009. Service orientation: antecedents, outcomes, and implications for hospitality research and practice. Service Industries Journal 29 (10), 1413–1435. Tornow, W.W., Wiley, J.W., 1991. Service quality and management practices: A look at employee attitude, customer satisfaction, and bottom-line consequence. Human Resource Planning 14 (2), 105–115. Tsai, H.J., 1994. The study on employees’ the quality of working life and service attitude held by service employees of department stores, convenience stores,fast food stores and restaurants. Master Thesis, National Zhongshan University, Taiwan. Tsang, N.K.F. Dimensions of Chinese culture values in relation to service provision in hospitality and tourism industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management. doi:10.1016/j.ijhm.2010.12.002, this issue. Wan, Y.K., 2010. Exploratory assessment of the Macao casino dealers’ job perceptions. International Journal of Hospitality Management 29 (1), 62–71. Wright, P.M., McMahan, G.C., McWilliams, A., 1994. Human resources and sustained competitive advantage: a resource-based perspective. International Journal of Human Resources Management 5 (2), 310–326. Yen, T.S., 2002. Follow the Wind to Rise. Pao-Ping, Taipei. Yeung, A., 2006. Setting people up for success: How the Portman Ritz–Carlton hotel gets the best from its people. Human Resource Management 45 (2), 267–275. Yuksel, A., Kilinc, U., Yuksel, F., 2006. Cross-national analysis of hotel customers’ attitudes toward complaining and their complaining behaviours. Tourism Management 27 (1), 11–24.
Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
International Journal of Hospitality Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhosman
Factorial validation of hospitality service attitude Chun-Min Kuo a , Li-Chan Chen b,∗ , Carol Y. Lu c a
Department of Leisure Industry Management, National Chin-Yi University of Technology, No. 57, Sec. 2, Zhongshan Rd., Taiping Dist., Taichung City 411, Taiwan Department of Hotel Management, Minghsin University of Science and Technology, No. 1, Hsinsin Road, Hsinfong County, Hsinchu City 304, Taiwan c Department of International Business, Chung Yuan Christian University, No. 200, Chung Pei Road, Chung Li 320, Taiwan b
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Keywords: Service quality Interaction quality Service attitude Customer satisfaction Hotel industry
a b s t r a c t Numerous studies have shown that service attitude is a cornerstone of the client’s perception of service quality. However, little research has explored the construct of service attitude from the customers’ perspective. This study collected data from two sets of samples consisting of 448 customers from international hotels in Taiwan. Through a rigorous process, the results testify service attitude, the most frequently mentioned sub-dimension of interaction quality, and conclude its four dimensions: Problem-solving, empathy, enthusiasm, and friendliness. Implications for practical applications and research limitations are also provided. Crown Copyright © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction The tourism and hospitality industry markets have expanded because of consecutive increases in income standards. Particularly, the key factor to the success of the hospitality industries has been changing focus from locations and facilities to quality of service (Wright et al., 1994), in which front-line employees play important roles in customers’ satisfaction and emotions (Wan, 2010). Human capital assets, including employees’ knowledge, skills, and service attitude are essential for increasing competitive advantages in the hospitality and tourism industries (Kusluvan et al., 2010). Not only will this research show that service attitude is at least as important as the quality of facilities and skills of the staff, but also that it is critical for customer relations and repeated patronage. From the customer’s perspective, service satisfaction and the primary determinant of repeated consumption depend on the interpersonal quality between customers and first-line staff (Juwaheer and Ross, 2003). Employees’ service attitude positively relates to the customer’s willingness to return (Solomon et al., 1985). There is no exception for the hospitality industry. Service attitude of employees is a vital factor affecting customers’ satisfaction when deciding to stay at an international tourist hotel (Bach and Milman, 1996; Jaworski and Kohli, 1993; Kriegl, 2000; Kuo, 2007; McColl-Kennedy and White, 1997; Siu, 1998; Tas, 1983). From the perspective of industrials and educators, service attitude is one of the key competences that hospitality management
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +886 937 966 952; fax: +886 35593142x3754. E-mail addresses: [email protected], [email protected] (C.-M. Kuo), [email protected], [email protected] (L.-C. Chen), [email protected] (C.Y. Lu).
majors must possess. For instance, Kuo’s work (2004), in which data was collected from 61 managers of international tourist hotels and 20 professors teaching hospitality management in colleges, pointed out: “the proficiency indicators of students majoring in hospitality management are divided into five aspects, including professional knowledge, skills, management, communication, as well as service attitude; especially, the last one is the most important (p. 35).” Similarly, Geller’s research (1985), in which conclusions were drawn from 74 managers of 27 hotels in the U.S., has shown that service attitude ranked first for successful hotels. Yen (2002), the chairman of the leading hotel chain in Taiwan, indicated that professional attitudes are much more crucial than professional skills. Accordingly, service attitude is critical in the hospitality industries. However, few studies have taken further steps to discuss a rigorous scope of attributes contributing to service attitude from the customers’ perspective. Thus, this study attempts to describe the construct of service attitude and present its properties and potential applications.
2. Literature review 2.1. Service quality Service quality is considered to be a strategic tool for increasing efficacious competition in the hospitality industry, as positive quality affects customer satisfaction, stimulates their intention to return and their behavior regarding the recommendation of hotels (Ekinci et al., 2003). Previous researchers have paid a lot of attention to the conceptualization of service quality and have formed various perspectives. Those perspectives which are outlined below include: (1) those introduced by the Nordic School, (2) those based on the
0278-4319/$ – see front matter. Crown Copyright © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijhm.2011.11.002
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disconfirmation paradigm, particularly the SERVQUAL model, and (3) the hierarchical perspective. The first perspective, introduced by scholars from the Nordic School (e.g., Grönroos, 1984), states that service quality contains two key dimensions: functional quality and technical quality. Functional quality indicates how the service is delivered; that is, it defines the customers’ perception of the interactions that take place during the service delivery, while technical quality represents the outcomes of the services, or what the clients obtain from the service encounter (Grönroos, 1984). The second perspective, also known as the “American perspective”, and based on the disconfirmation paradigm, is developed as a SERVQUAL model (Parasuraman et al., 1985), which views service quality as the gap between the expected level of service and customer’s perception of the level of service received. The SERVQUAL model consists of five elements, including tangibles, reliability, empathy, responses, and assurances. Yet, although the SERVQUAL conceptualization dominates the literature, there is still no general agreement as to the nature or contents of its dimensions (Brady and Cronin, 2001). For example, Ekinci and Riley (2001) demonstrate that the SERVQUAL model suffers from conceptual and methodological problems. That is, the SERVQUAL model continues to display a lack of consistency in replicating these five dimensions in different service environments. By applying Q-Methodology and Guttman scaling as an alternative procedure, Ekinci and Riley (2001) state that hotel service quality consists of physical quality, interactive quality, and outcome quality. Especially, the staff’s attitude and behavior, one of nine elements of interactive quality, is the most frequently quoted and has the most statistical significance in the literature. Moreover, Ekinci et al. (2008) have further confirmed the external validity of physical quality and staff behavior/attitude in the hospitality industry. It is obvious that the service quality evaluations are so complicated that they might operate on multi-level processes. Thus, the third approach, named the hierarchical perspective, was well justified (Brady and Cronin, 2001). The hierarchical perspective demonstrates physical environment quality, interaction quality and output quality. In particular, interaction quality is considered a generic element across the services industries and has identified three distinct attributes that contribute to customer perception of interaction quality: employee behavior, such as helpfulness; employee attitude, such as willingness to help; and employee expertise (Brady and Cronin, 2001). In sum, previous literature of service quality is inconclusive on its own dimensions; nevertheless, all of main perspectives regard the physical and interaction quality of the hospitality industry as crucial elements of service quality. The former is fully explored and recognized. In contrast, employees’ service attitude, a subdimension of interaction quality, has not been well-conceptualized and measured (Larsen and Bastiansen, 1991). The validity confirmation of service attitude will not only contribute to the service quality literature but will also offer managerial implications for practitioners. 2.2. Service attitude The operational definition of service attitude, combining the definitions of Larsen and Bastiansen (1991) and Ekinci (2001), is the customer’s perception of the affectivity, competence and behavioral tendency of front-line employees along with a service encounter. Since service attitude involves feelings and behaviors toward customers, it is often regarded as one of the most important blocks of service quality that determines guest’s satisfaction, repeat patronage and intention of recommending hotels (Ekinci, 2001; Ekinci et al., 2008; Kuo, 2007; Liu and Liu, 2008; Tornow and Wiley, 1991). Attitude consists of three major components,
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including evaluation, cognition, and behavior. The evaluative constituent, an attitude component, refers to the individual’s liking or disliking of any particular person or event. The cognitive part involves more than feelings; it also relates to knowledge – that is, what the individual believes to be the case about the attitude component. Finally, the behavioral component indicates an intention to behave in a certain way (Greenberg and Baron, 2003). Schiffman and Kanuk (1994) have similarly illustrated three traits of attitude featuring (1) a variety of mental tendencies through learning, (2) behavioral consistency, and (3) focus on a specific target. Accordingly, Larsen and Bastiansen (1991) define service attitude as a relatively permanent tendency on the part of the employee to behave in a particular fashion toward customers in client–employee interactions. Moreover, service attitude is easily observed by customers (Larsen and Bastiansen, 1991). Also, Ekinci (2001) defines the staff’s behavior and attitude as a degree of demonstrated competence in the performance of their tasks and the quality of empathy displayed in their interaction with customers. Thus, this study follows the views of Larsen and Bastiansen (1991) and Ekinci (2001). Even though researchers have identified the importance of service attitude and have offered preliminary definitions, there are relatively few studies concerning the rigorous scope of service attitude. Particularly, service attitude is at the discretion of the employee. As such, it provides a source of variance toward an expected service attitude. Thus, it is a challenge for managers of hospitality industries to manage the service attitude of the frontline staff. What attributes of service attitude do the guests value most? What elements of service attitude should be stressed in human resource practices to satisfy customers? Findings of this study will be helpful in answering these questions. 2.3. Related research on service attitude Chase and Bowen (1987) mention that service is at the core of various service industries, especially in hotel enterprises. Service providers need to not only satisfy a customer’s mental and physical needs, but also to enable them to acquire a particular kind of feeling. Failure at any point of a service encounter will damage the customer’s experience, which can create a negative impact on the enterprise performance (Liu and Liu, 2008). Thus, it is crucial for staff to build up a good relationship between employees and customers during a service encounter, and excellent service quality mainly depends on employees’ service attitude (Croby et al., 1990). How to require the first–line employees to serve customers with a good service attitude, and how to satisfy clients even beyond their expectations, are therefore critical for researchers and managers in hotel industries to figure out. Since service attitude plays a vital part in the service industries, it has drawn a tremendous amount of attention from researchers. Previous studies related to service attitude focus in two directions as follows. First, multiple-level antecedent factors of service attitude are identified. At the individual level, the employees’ service attitude is dependent on their personalities (Ekinci and Dawes, 2009; Grandey et al., 2005). Personality characteristics congruent with providing good service are variously called “service orientation” (Hogan et al., 1984), “service predisposition” (Lee-Ross, 2000), or “customer (service) orientation” (Brown et al., 2002). Employees with service orientation are apt to be helpful, considerate, dependable, and likeable to meet customers’ needs in an on-the-job context. At the organizational level, practice and policy of human resource management, service climate, and organizational culture are important indicators (Kusluvan et al., 2010). For instance, Chen (1999) indicates that the service attitude of the employee is formed via training and socialization. Heskett and Schelsinger (1994) and
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Yeung (2006) also point out that the employees’ good attitudes require comprehensive HRM practices, such as constant training, strict recruitment, better salaries, and empowerment. Chang (2006) and Teng and Barrows (2009) demonstrate that organizational culture shapes employees’ service attitude. For example, the Ritzs-Carton hotel stresses: “We are the ladies and gentlemen to serve ladies and gentlemen”; the organizational culture directs employees to serve guests in an elegant and neat way (Yeung, 2006). At the external environmental level, cultural values also determine the service attitude of employees. Under a collectivistic culture like Korea, the airline staff treats fellow customers better than foreign travelers (Kim and Lee, 2009; Tsang, this issue). Second, investigations of elements of service attitude accumulated rapidly. Many of the previous studies have identified attributes of service attitude with a laundry list with foci on employees, managers or even hospitality students, rather than on the client’s point-of-view. Moreover, previous studies fail to validate domains of service attitude. For example, Larsen and Bastiansen’s work (1991) investigated 29 hospitality college students, 42 hotel/restaurant staff, and 22 nurses in Norway, but it suffers from a validity problem due to its rather small size of sample and statistics techniques. Furthermore, Ekinci’s work (2001) describes service attitude as a uni-domain with six items based on previous literature instead of on a basic assumption that attitude is a construct with multiple domains (Greenberg and Baron, 2003; Schiffman and Kanuk, 1994). Tsai (1994) divides service attitude into three dimensions, including the physical factors of appearance and hygiene; the performance factors of speed of operation, reaction, professional knowledge, and skills; and the mentality factors of politeness, patience, friendliness, thoughtfulness, and esteem. Additionally, Lin (1999) refers to 5 domains of service attitude of first-line receptionists in a department store, including customers’ requirements, consideration, problem-solving, discrimination, and job principles. From these examples, it is concluded that investigations of elements of service attitude have rapidly advanced, but the results are still not conclusive. In other words, relatively few studies have collected empirical evidence to testify to a valid construct of service attitude from the customers’ perspective. These are all foundations to a client-focused perspective of employees’ service attitude. A client-focused approach offers a balanced and compelling insight since hospitality and tourism industries provide demand-led services. 3. Methodology 3.1. Research structure According to the purposes of this study, the authors adopted a guideline provided by Churchill (1979). The overall process to measure the service attitude construct was divided into two parts. Part one contains the sample of generated items, and part two contains the data collection and purification of measures. Each of the two parts is depicted in Fig. 1 and the developmental details are as follows. 3.1.1. Sample of generated items According to Churchill’s (1979) prescription, the research must be precise in delineating what is included or excluded in the definition. To generate the items sample, two sources were employed: insights from the existing literature, and in-depth interviews. Especially, a 10-item instrument developed by Larsen and Bastiansen (1991) in the nursing and hospitality industries was the sources of the item pool. Additional items were generated from in-depth
Sample of generated items Specify domains of service attitude in the hospitality industry Literature review In-depth interviews Data collection and purification of measures Co-efficiency alpha Exploratory factor analysis (the first sample) Confirmation factor analysis (the second sample) Construct validity Fig. 1. Flow chart of the research structure.
interviews with 10 hotel managers and 10 customers who had stayed in international tourist hotels for further information. Questions from an interview scale were used for in-depth interviews. For instance, “What kind of non-verbal reactions do you think hotel employees should possess?” and “What types of employees’ affectivities do you value most?” Regarding the in-depth interviews with hotel managers, initially 15 facilities were contacted with 10 later agreeing to be involved in the study. Due to scheduling difficulties, 10 field visits were undertaken with 7 facilities. In-depth interviews were conducted with managers of Front Office, Housekeeping, and Food and Beverage. Each interview lasted between 20 min and 1.5 h. With respect to in-depth interviews with customers, the research members accessed them and earned an agreement for an interview in a couch area of the hotel lobby. Due to the compressed time of the customers, 10 interviews were conducted in 3 hotels. Each interview lasted between 10 and 22 min. All interviews were taperecorded, transcribed, and spot-checked for accuracy. Each person interviewed who wished to receive the transcript was forwarded a copy for inspection. Of the three forwarded transcripts, only one was returned with minor editorial comments. The authors (who had industry experience) categorized them into 30 items. All items were also confirmed by 12 senior professors teaching in hospitality programs in the universities. 3.1.2. Purification of measures Initially, 30 items were rewritten to form an original questionnaire that was measured on a 5-point Likert scale. In order to precisely analyze them, we are supposed to target the diversities of all indicators. A high consistency among all is desirable. The consistency of a single item takes a coefficient alpha value 0.3 as a standard. Under this standard, Q27 and Q29 were eliminated from the study. Therefore, the study consisted of 28 items in total. 3.2. Sample profile The subjects of this study were tourists who stay at international tourist hotels. The main reasons for adopting these subjects in the study are that the hotel business belongs to the service industries, featuring cutting-edge service from front-line employees. Consequently, the service attitude perceived by clients of international tourist hotels will be the most representative for the core questions of the research. The study collected data from two samples. The first one was conducted in February 2007. The research members contacted managers of international tourist hotels for permission to use the survey. Questionnaires were distributed to clients when they settled their bills. A total of 224 valid questionnaires formed the
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Table 1 Profile of all participants. Variable
Category
Sample 1 (n = 224)
Sample 2 (n = 224)
Gender
Male Female
100 (44.6) 124 (55.4)
126 (56.2) 98 (43.8)
Marital Status
Married Single Divorced
116 (51.8) 98 (43.8) 10 (4.4)
102 (45.6) 119 (53.1) 3 (1.3)
Education
Junior high Senior high Junior college College Graduate
4 (1.7) 34 (15.2) 41 (18.3) 118 (52.7) 27 (12.1)
10 (4.5) 30 (13.4) 66 (29.5) 84 (37.5) 34 (15.1)
Age
Under 20 21–30 31–40 41–50 51–60 Above 61
11 (4.9) 107 (47.7) 50 (22.3) 40 (18) 0 16 (7.1)
0 65 (29) 106 (47.3) 28 (12.5) 19 (8.5) 6 (2.7)
Purpose
Business Recreation Conference Other
14 (6.3) 144 (64.3) 29 (13) 37 (17.4)
30 (14) 175 (78.1) 12 (5.4) 7 (3.1)
Career
Entrepreneur or boss Manager or above Corporate staff Educator Scientist or engineer association Cultural enterpriser Government employee Housewife or house husband Retiree
8 (3.6) 24 (10.7) 101 (45.1) 18 (8.1) 4 (1.7) 11 (4.9) 21 (9.4) 24 (10.7) 13 (5.8)
6 (2.7) 33 (14.7) 98 (43.8) 32 (14.3) 18 (8.1) 4 (1.7) 13 (5.8) 0 20 (8.9)
Earnings
Under 300,000 300,001–400,000 400,001–500,000 500,001–650,000 650,001–800,000 800,001–1,000,000 Above 1,000,000
43 (19.2) 25 (11.2) 32 (14.3) 22 (9.8) 73 (32.5) 10 (4.5) 19 (8.5)
17 (7.6) 42 (18.8) 62 (27.7) 33 (14.7) 48 (21.4) 22 (9.8) 0
Tour arrangement
Self/secretary/family Tour agency Participation of group tour
165 (73.7) 31 (13.8) 28 (12.5)
139 (62.1) 62 (27.7) 23 (10.2)
first sample. The second survey was conducted in July 2007. The researchers collected data in the airline check-in lobby at the international airport in Taipei. Travelers were confirmed as guests of the target hotels contributing to the second sample. A total of 224 responses were retained for analysis. The profile of participants (Sample 1) is shown in Table 1. Among the 224 respondents, 55.4% were female and 44.6% were male. Most of them were 21–30 years old (47.7%), followed by 31–40 years old (22.3%). Educational levels were fairly high; nearly 65% had received a college degree or post-graduate education. The majority of the respondents were married (51.8%) and 32.8% had an annual personal income in the range of NT $650,001–800,000. Of the respondents, 64.3% had expressed a recreational purpose for their visit. Referring to their jobs, 45.1% were corporate staff. Finally, 73.7% had arranged the tour themselves, or had it arranged by secretaries or family. Regarding the profile of Sample 2, Table 1 illustrates that most of the 224 participants were male (56.2%), with a status of single (53.1%). Most of them were 31–40 years old (47.3%), followed by 21–30 years old (29%). Educational levels were fairly high; over 80% had received a junior college degree or above. Of the respondents, 27.7% had annual personal incomes in the range of NT $400,001–500,000 and 78.1% had been visiting for recreational
Samples (%)
purposes. With respect to their jobs, 43.8% were corporate staff and 62.1% had arranged the tour themselves or had it arranged by secretaries or family. 4. Results 4.1. Sampling adequacy Prior to further analysis, the sampling adequacy test KMO measure of the first sample (n = 224) was performed to determine the fitness of the data. The KMO of this study was 0.95. According to Kaiser (1960), a KMO of 0.70 is midrange. Therefore, the data for this study can be used for exploratory factor analysis (EFA). 4.2. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) This study used principal components as a method of extracting factors. In order to explain and label the factors, this study used the Varimax rotation to revolve the factor axis to make it clearer. Based on Hair and his collegues’ (1998) suggestions, this study kept items with a factor loading above 0.5 to increase its construct validity. There were 4 factors extracted (eigenvalue > 1) from the 28 items of service attitude, with a 68.02% variance explained. Every service
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Table 2 Factor analysis of service attitude (Sample 1 = 224). Dimension
Items of service attitude
Factor loading Factor 1
Dimension 1 Problem-solving
Dimension 2 Empathy
Dimension 3 Enthusiasm
Dimension 4 Friendliness
18. Employees solve problems with patience. 17. Employees figure out reasons for and solve complaints quickly. 13. Employees serve promptly and efficiently. 19. The service is free of mistakes. 15. Employees solve guests’ problems well. 16. Employees listen to complaints carefully and offer an apology. 21. Employees with follow follow-up solutions to guests’ requirements or complaints. 20. Employees stay calm to manage the guest’s issues. 12. Employees handle guests’ demands right away. 23. Employees pay attention to any unpredicted occasions. 14. Employees are active in dealing with any problems. 22. Employees can identify guests’ body language to offer appropriate service. Employees are not prejudiced about the guest’s attire.
Factor 2
Factor 3
0.708 0.679 0.677 0.670 0.660 0.642 0.639 0.587 0.574 0.532 0.521 0.720
25. Employees offer customized service based on individual demands. 26. Employees consider guests’ benefits as their first priority. 28. Employees are active in understanding guests’ needs. 27. Employees are concerned with guests’ safety and privacy. 24. Employees can put themselves in the guest’s shoes. Employees converse with guests gently.
0.683 0.631 0.525 0.519 0.508 0.757
6. Employees are active in providing guests with in-house promotion information. 7. Employees are aware of guests’ needs even during busy times. 5. Employees introduce the hotel’s new facilities or products to the guest properly. 8. Employees behave gracefully.
0.734 0.706 0.548
1. Employees always have a smile. 2. Employees greet you courteously. 3. Employees are well-groomed. 4. Employees are full of energy. 10. Employees are not biased toward the guest’s race or nationality.
Eigenvalue % of variance Cumulative variance % Cronbach’s ˛
attitude variable had a clear factor loading on the four dimensions as shown in Table 2. According to Table 2, the first factor named Problem-Solving had 13 attributes and it accounted for 44.32% of the variance. Empathy (Dimension 2) accounted for 11.23% of the variance in the total solution, with factor loadings from 0.51 to 0.72. It consists of 6 items. Enthusiasm (Dimension 3) accounted for 6.46% of the variance of the total factor solution, and had 4 elements that registered factor loadings from 0.55 to 0.76. Finally, Friendliness (Dimension 4) accounted for 6.01% of the variance of the total factor solution. This dimension had 5 elements with high factor loadings from 0.61 to 0.89.
4.3. Reliability analysis To establish the measurement reliability of the four-dimension factors, an internal consistency reliability coefficient was evaluated using a coefficient alpha measure (Cronbach’s ˛). The results showed that the alpha coefficients of all four factors ranging from 0.81 to 0.91 exceeded the recommended minimum level of 0.70 in accepting the reliability of factors (Hair et al., 1998). Accordingly,
Factor 4
0.774 0.744
0.890 0.843 0.755 0.723 0.610 4.870 44.321 44.321 0.91
1.722 11.228 55.549 0.85
1.473 6.462 62.011 0.82
1.411 6.012 68.023 0.81
the four-dimension factors resulting from factor analysis in this research was proven to be reliable. 4.4. Validity analysis 4.4.1. Content validity Content validity is a tool used to measure the traits that the study needs. In order to test the variables precisely, this study ensures the integrity and importance of the selected items via literature and indepth interviews. Primary items came from literature reviews and they were discussed with professors and hotel managers in the hospitality industry. Some rewritten items were reconfirmed through in-depth interviews. Before the data was collected, two research members assessed the content and relevance of the variables. 4.4.2. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) In order to confirm the dimension structure found in EFA and to verify the reliability and construct validity of the scale, confirmation factor analysis was employed for the parameter estimation. In AMSO 5.0, several indices were available to express fit to the underlying data. All indices of model fitness reached a satisfactory result.
C.-M. Kuo et al. / International Journal of Hospitality Management 31 (2012) 944–951 Table 3 Convergent validity analysis (Sample 2 = 224).
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Table 4 Correlation matrix for measurement dimension of service attitude (Sample 2 = 224).
Dimension
Items
t-Value
p-Value
Dimension
Problem-solving
Empathy
Enthusiasm
Friendliness
8.114 7.526 8.057 7.723 7.514 7.834 7.936 7.684 6.952 6.687 7.054 6.775 6.489
***
Problem-solving Empathy Enthusiasm Friendliness
AVE = 0.541 0.481 0.108 0.353
AVE = 0.520 0.015 0.314
AVE = 0.439 0.116
AVE = 0.457
Problem-solving (0.91)
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 9
8.668 9.736 8.461 8.636 8.542 5.583
***
5 6 7 8
5.421 5.604 5.720 5.817
***
1 2 3 4 10
5.218 5.348 5.941 6.690 5.956
***
Empathy (0.85)
Enthusiasm (0.82)
Friendliness (0.81)
*** *** *** *** *** *** ***
5. Conclusion and implications
*** *** *** *** ***
*** *** *** *** ***
*** *** ***
*** *** *** ***
The method of estimating parameter values is a maximum likelihood. The correlation coefficient of the first variable of each factor is set as 1, so it is excluded from a t-value test. *p < 0.05. **p < 0.01. *** p < 0.001.
First, the 2 value was not significant (p > 0.05), and the NCI was under 2 (a ration of 2 and the degree of freedom). Moreover, other goodness-of-fit measurements indicated a good overall fit for the four-factor model to the data (GFI = 0.915, AGFI = 0.910, CFI = 0.850, and RMSEA = 0.032). In summary, these criteria suggest that the model fit the data adequately. Construct validity is the context to which the indicators accurately measure what they are supposed to measure. Construct validity can be described by convergent validity and discriminant validity. The convergent validity shows that all the loadings of the model were significant and the indicators loaded well to their respective factors. The standardized t-value was tested for each dimension of the model. Table 3 illustrates a significant result; all factor loadings were significantly different from zero as evidenced with a consistently large t-value. Additionally, the variance captured by items versus variance associated with measurement error for the four factors was from 0.81 to 0.91, which exceeds the recommended 0.7. Moreover, the discriminant validity addressed the concept that dissimilar constructs should differ. To establish the discriminant validity, when taking any pair of constructs, the average variance extracted from each construct should be greater than the square of the correlation coefficient between every paired construct (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). On the other hand, if the correlation coefficient existing in certain paired variables is larger than the average variance, it demonstrates that the measured indications may be overlapped with other’s (Anderson and Gerbing, 1998). Based on the results shown in Table 4, these requirements were met since all construct pairs had an average variance ranging from 0.439 to 0.541. The results support the distinction of the constructs included in the model.
The importance of service attitude has drawn attention from researchers in the marketing and hospitality fields. It symbolizes customers’ satisfaction and patronage. Nevertheless, very little research in the hospitality literature investigates the basic structure of service attitude domain from the demand side. The issue of the employees’ service attitude is especially critical for hospitality practitioners because it is difficult for competitors to imitate. If practitioners understand what it is that their guests value most in the employees’ service attitudes, then the industry could develop effective recruitment practices as well as training programs. Based on the guidelines of Churchill (1979), this study implemented a vigorous process to reach the study’s goal. After 20 in-depth interviews with hotel guests and managers, as well as consulting with 12 professional scholars, the study acquired a 30attribute domain of service attitude. Data were collected from two samples with a total of 448 participants who stayed at international tourist hotels. EFA and CFA were conducted to explore and confirm employees’ service attitude structure. Four dimensions were finally identified: Problem-solving, empathy, enthusiasm, and friendliness. The composite reliability of the four dimensions were at least 0.7, which demonstrated acceptable reliabilities. Validity was ensured through the examination of content validity, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. With respect to theory development and our own research findings, this study agrees that an evaluation of service quality is a multiple-level process. Although both of the second-tier level components, physical quality and interaction quality, were identified from various perspectives, service attitude, a most frequently quoted sub-dimension of interaction quality, was not well developed. That is, our findings support the argument of Brady and Cronin (2001) that service quality features multi-level and multidimensional characteristics. The results of this study not only contribute to fill in a research gap, but also offer managerial implications for the hospitality industry’s practitioners and educators. The implications for application of this research are four-fold. Under interaction quality (the second tier of service quality), our findings testify that service attitude (the third-level) consists of four dimensions. First, problem-solving, is the employees’ manners and efficiency in dealing with customers’ requirements or complaints. This means that the varieties of customers’ needs and expectations cause employees numerable obstacles in deciding on suitable reactions. Assistance might equip employees to solve problems during service encounters. For hospitality educators, a problem-solving oriented course design will help students utilize hands-on knowledge and practical skills to fit various occasions in the reality of work life. For hospitality managers, recruitment tools like open-ended “behavioral” questions are useful in revealing job applicants’ quality; for example, “Have you ever disagreed with your clients? If so, how did you handle it?” Moreover, a training tool such as standardization of operation procedure (SOP) can also increase competence and assist employees in managing different situations effectively (Hsiung and Hsieh, 2003). Finally, establishing greater empowerment to improve service quality through problem-solving is a critical practice for developing a good service attitude. Managers,
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for example, could delegate more authority to employees. In doing so, the procedures for quickly addressing customers’ complaints in a timely manner could be simplified. In other words, failure to handle consumers’ complaints promptly provokes consumers’ negative impression on the employee and the service organization (Yuksel et al., 2006). Second, empathy indicates the employee’s concerns for customers. It is the core of a caring relationship. Thus, empathy is important to people-oriented industries. For selection practice, a structured instrument such as the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Reychav and Weisberg, 2009) could be used by interviewers to evaluate an applicant’s inclination for empathy (Cliffordson, 2002). As empathy requires taking the perspective of another person, training programs such as role-playing would be helpful for employees to learn how to put themselves into their clients’ shoes. A reality-stimulation lab is one of the methods to help hospitality students learn how to be empathetic toward special guests. For instance, based on one of the author’s teaching experience in the Hotel Department, students were grouped to emulate the inconveniences caused by physical limitations. After students took turns wearing an eyeshade and tiny sandy bags around their ankles and knees, they then learned to be patient with disabled citizens and seniors by relating to their inevitable slow motions. Third, enthusiasm is a strong and controlled motivation instead of a flash phenomenon (Peale, 1967). It is contagious and psychologically fuels most positive behaviors. In fact, enthusiasm of job applicants was ranked as the second most important characteristic among recruiters (Glassman and McAfee, 1990). Additionally, enthusiasm could be increased with training. What can be done to improve enthusiasm? Training could incorporate oral and written word choices, vocal, facial, physical gestures, and self-visualizations into its programs. These types of training could help employees act enthusiastically, and they would literally become more enthusiastic (Glassman and McAfee, 1990). Finally, friendliness is one kind of mood that is positive and joyful for people. An orientation training to demonstrate the importance of front-line employees is needed. This is because front-line employees act like ambassadors in welcoming visitors from different cultural backgrounds. It is also an incredible “soft skill” to form for a welcoming employee that can be developed via cuttingedging technology (Burns, 1997). Especially for training functions, a package of cross-cultural training programs such as sensitivity training and role playing are recommended, as they are very helpful as strategies for employees who have guest–contact to avoid being misunderstood and hostile toward guests.
6. Research limitation and further studies This study contributes to a reliable and valid construct of service attitude. However, the main limitation of this study is generalizability. First, surveys of this study were targeted at international tourist hotels only. The hospitality industries consist of various components such as leisure, tourism, aviation, restaurants, as well as entertainment parks. Thus, future studies should extend to other related industries. Additionally, the participants of this study came from Taiwan; however, customers’ perceptions toward employees’ service attitude might be different due to differences in cultures. It is recommended that cross-cultural comparison studies be conducted to examine the possibility of generalizing the results on various subjects with different cultural backgrounds. Third, this study identifies elements of service attitude from the customers’ perspective only. The findings contribute to understanding the bottom line of customers’ demands. However, employees’ service attitude can be identified via different observers including customers, supervisors or by the self-evaluation of employees. Thus,
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