David M. Lyth

A Synthesised Service Quality Model with Managerial Implications

A synthesised service quality model with managerial implications is presented. This synthesised model is based on the works of the Nordic and the North American schools of service research. The model presents the overall service quality gap as a result of both technical and functional quality gaps. The core of the synthesised model is the idea that management must determine both what customers expect and how they expect to get it. Management must plan, implement and control the service offering to limit, reduce, or eliminate service quality gaps.

A cultural study of ISO 9000 certification

Reports an exploratory investigation of the organizational cultural values supporting and inhibiting certification to the ISO 9000 series of quality standards. As more firms pursue certification to ISO 9000 based quality system standards, the hypothesis emerges of a common cultural profile to support successful certification. This hypothesis was investigated by asking management representatives of firms currently registered to the ISO 9000 standards to evaluate the roles of specific organizational values in their successfully registered firms. A modified version of an existing culture measurement procedure was used to measure culture. Factor analysis identified factors working towards and against attainment of ISO 9000 certification. The results of this study suggest organizations seeking ISO 9000 certification should be decisive, team‐oriented, risk‐averse, and should value stability, pay attention to detail, value high levels of organization and value working in a co‐operative environment with good interpersonal relationships. Offers suggestions for extending this research beyond the current study.

Culture, the built environment and healthcare organizational performance

Healthcare organization performance is a function of many variables. This study measured relationships among culture, the built environment, and outcome variables in a healthcare provider organization. A culture survey composed of existing scales and custom scales was used as the principal measurement instrument. Results supported culture strength’s links with higher performance levels and identified the built environment’s role as a moderating variable that can lead to improved processes and outcomes. Job satisfaction and patient satisfaction were found to be significantly and positively correlated with culture strength and with ratings of the built environment.

Diagnosing culture in health‐care organizations using critical incidents

The critical incident technique (CIT) provides a means to produce rich cultural information from organizational members in an effort to describe the organization’s culture. Very few published studies have used CIT to diagnose culture. In combination with other methods, CIT can be an integral element of a larger study of an organization’s culture. In this study, CIT was used in a US acute care hospital that had recently occupied a new

A systematic supplier selection procedure

181 million replacement hospital having an emphasis on patient‐centered care and a healing environment. Individual CIT “stories” supplied rich detail about the hospital’s culture, providing opportunities to communicate how people behave with respect to the culture. Consequently, CIT results provide specific information on what people do that supports the culture and what they do that works against the culture.

Interactive Services Operations: The Relationships among Information, Technology and Exchange Transactions on the Quality of the Customer‐Contact Interface

Abstract One of the most important decisions that the procurement department of any manufacturing organization has to make is the selection of an appropriate supplier. This selection will commit the organization and its resources to an outsider for a long time to come, and any mistake in their selection could adversely affect the stability of the organization. As firms reduce their supply base and enter into long term commitments with suppliers, this decision becomes even more important. In this paper a systematic procedure for supplier selection is presented that influence all the relevant factors into the decision, and classifies them into critical factors, objective factors, and subjective factors. It offers a procedure that can be used to evaluate the suppliers performance.

Quality Engineering from 1988 through 2005: Lessons from the Past and Trends for the Future

The customer‐contact interface is discussed here. Defined as interactive service operations, it can be divided into two separate levels, first, the service operations interface between the firm and its customers and, secondly, the internal interactions of the firm′s operations driven by technological advancement and more demanding customer expectations. The latter is explored thoroughly with special reference to the management of delivery mechanisms and their concurrent marketing.

Training industrial engineers with an interfunctional computer simulation game

The American Society for Quality’s (ASQ) 2005 Certified Quality Engineer body of knowledge was used as the source for Quality Engineering topic categories. Over 800 articles from the journal were analyzed for length and topical content starting with Volume 1 and continuing through Volume 17. The body of knowledge categories and the percent of articles assigned to each are reported in Table 1: The top three categories comprised 89% of the articles. The percent of quantitative methods articles was the consistent majority for all the articles; and increased over time at a rate of 0.8% per year. See Figure 1 to view the trend. As is evidenced in Figures 2 and 3, changes have been evident in the remaining categories. Category III; ‘‘Planning, controlling, and assuring product and process quality,’’ shows a clear, decreasing trend at 0.53% per year. The quantity of articles in Category I, ‘‘Management and leadership in quality engineering,’’ shows a slight and relatively insignificant decrease of 0.15% per year. There was no change in the volume of Category II, ‘‘Quality systems development, implementation, and verification.’’ The quantity of Category IV articles, ‘‘Reliability and risk management,’’ increased at the rate of Table 1 Certified quality engineer–Body of knowledge categories

Using Desired Culture Analysis to Manage Decentralized Operations

Abstract The role of engineering is changing, many firms operate in a team environment. In response to this change, a computer simulation game was developed which integrated engineering and business students.

Sense-Making of Critical Incidents with Sentiment Analysis and Data Visualization

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to extract lessons and implications for managers in decentralized operations who seek to integrate their organizational culture across all operations. This is accomplished via a case study of the role of culture measurement and resultant action planning in a regional healthcare system in the midwest United States. The systems vision was to provide a seamless patient experience everywhere in the system. Managers in engineering and technical organizations having decentralized functions can learn from this systems experience in using culture measurement to support organizational system integration.