When a service transaction occurs between a service provider and a customer
there are dimensions of that transaction that are essential to making the customer feel
satisfied with the transaction. Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Berry measured those
dimensions for transactions that occur between the service provider and an external
customer with a survey tool named SERVQUAL. It is theorized that for the external
customer to be satisfied with the service transaction, the employees of the service
provider must also be satisfied with transactions between the employees, or internal
service quality. Those dimensions of internal service quality, or the satisfaction
employees feel with each other, have not been described in a higher education setting.
The purpose of this study was to determine the goodness of fit between the original
SERVQUAL external service quality dimensions and those internal service dimensions
identified by the University of Arizona Sponsored Projects Services Office (UASPSO).
Through the identification of these dimensions a model of the culture of service quality of
the UASPSO was also developed. Sixteen of the 25 Sponsored Projects Services Office
employees were interviewed in 2005 to collect data concerning the validity of the original
SERVQUAL dimensions and any new dimensions that might be identified with respect to internal service quality. Interviews were conducted using qualitative and constant
comparison methods.
Of the original ten SERVQUAL service quality dimensions described by
Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Berry, Access, Communication, Competence, Reliability,
Responsiveness and Understanding the Customer were found to apply to the construct of
internal service quality in the Sponsored Projects Office. Reliability, Responsiveness and
Understanding the Customer were subsumed under the new dimension of Mutualism.
Credibility, Courtesy and Security were found not to apply, while Tangibles applied only
as it supported Access and Communication. Tangibles, Access and Communication were
subsumed under the new dimension of Approachability. All eight dimensions are found
in the task-oriented realm of the processes and procedures of the Office. An additional
five dimensions were also described as applying to internal service quality. Flexibility,
Decision-making and Accountability are evident as task-oriented dimensions.
Professionalism and Collegiality are evident as non-task-oriented dimensions. The study
also described the impact of the culture of the organization on internal service quality.
The managerial implications of this study were also suggested