Jacob Eskildsen

Enhancing importance‐performance analysis

Purpose – The interpretation of the importance/performance map is based on an assumption of independence between importance and performance but many studies question the validity of this assumption. The aim of this research is to develop a new typology for job satisfaction attributes as well as a new importance/performance map that can be an aid for organizations when they prioritize their improvement actions based on a job satisfaction study.Design/methodology/approach – A typology for possible relationships between importance and performance in job satisfaction studies is developed based on theoretical considerations. This typology is then applied and validated on approximately 10,000 responses from the European Employee Index 2002. Ultimately a new importance/performance map for priority setting in job satisfaction studies is developed based on the new typology for possible relationships between importance and performance.Findings – The result of this analysis showed that the assumption of independence...

The managerial drivers of employee satisfaction and loyalty

The world market is becoming an increasingly diYcult place in which to operate for today’s businesses, making creativity a valuable virtue. This has caused the corporate focus to shift from ® nancial resources to intellectual resources. The employees have evolved from a resource to be exploited to an asset that needs to be nourished, guarded and developed. This is in line with experiences from leading companies that `̀ maintain a work environment conducive to the well-being and growth of all employees and they measure employee satisfaction’’ (Evans & Lindsay, 1999). The change is also re ̄ ected in the move from personnel administration/ management to human resource management (HRM) (Cornelius, 1999). But does HRM in its present form have an eVect on employee satisfaction and loyalty? The aim of this paper is ® rst to construct a structural model that describes the causal linkage between the subsystems of HRM, employee satisfaction and loyalty as well as corporate performance based on theoretical considerations. Second, the aim of this paper is to test the structural model empirically through a survey conducted among 670 human resource managers from Denmark, in which 215 responded. These managers cover private and public companies as well as all the relevant sectors. The statistical technique used is known as partial least squares (PLS), which is a technique well suited for structural equation modelling when the focus is on prediction ( JoÈ reskog & Wold, 1982). This analysis will show to what extent the theoretical model corresponds with the mental models of the managers and also reveal the areas in which Danish companies need to improve their performance regarding HRM.

The criterion weights of the EFQM excellence model

This paper examines the weight structure of the EFQM excellence model. This is done through a survey among 756 chief executive officers from Danish companies who responded to a self‐assessment questionnaire. The data from this survey have been analysed through factor score regression based on confirmatory factor analysis on 5,000 bootstrapped samples. The analysis shows that the perceived criterion weights vary from the current allocation in the EFQM excellence model. This deviation is so substantial that the allocation of weights between the enabler and the result block vary considerably from the actual allocation in the EFQM excellence model. Furthermore, it seems as if Danish companies perceive the enabler criteria as equally important but this is not the case for the result criteria.

The Drivers of Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty. The Case of Denmark 2000–2002

This paper analyses the time dependency as well as industry differences of the drivers of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in the EPSI rating framework. The analysis is carried out on data from Danish mobile phone companies, banks and supermarkets from 2000 to 2002. The analyses indicated that the model structure of the EPSI Rating framework is stable across industries as well as stable across time with respect to the overall effects on customer loyalty. The analyses furthermore revealed that there is an increasing effect of image on customer satisfaction over the three year time span and that service quality is more important for banks than for supermarkets. Finally the overall effect of expectation turned out to be insignificant.

Private versus public sector excellence

This paper analyses the differences between private and public sector organisations in Denmark in relation to the penetration of holistic management models, how companies achieve excellent results and the empirical weight structure of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) excellence model. The results show that the penetration of holistic management models is greater among public organisations. Furthermore private and public organisations do not achieve excellent results in the same way. Private companies put higher emphasis on the systems dimension whereas public organisations put higher emphasis on the people dimension. In relation to the empirical weight structure of the EFQM excellence model two significant differences were found. Private companies put higher emphasis on the criteria “leadership” and “policy and strategy” than public organisations.

The predictive power of intangibles

This paper describes the need for intangible measurements for non‐financial reporting. Nowadays book value accounts for just around one quarter of the market value making the relevance of the balance sheet questionable. There is therefore a need for developing standardized methodologies for quantifying intangible assets and this is already underway. Two recently developed methodologies, The European Performance Satisfaction Index and The European Employee Index, is described in the paper and the benefit of applying these methodologies is exemplified through empirical data. These data stems from Amtsparekassen Fyn which is a medium sized Danish bank that has measured employee/customer satisfaction systematically since 1997 and the data used for this analysis is from the surveys conducted in 2000. The analysis shows that the measures for employee and customer satisfaction are good predictors of financial performance.

Design of PLS-Based Satisfaction Studies

In this chapter we focus on design of PLS structural equation modeling with respect to satisfaction studies in general. Previous studies have found the PLS technique to be affected by things as the skewness of manifest variables, multicollinearity between latent variables, misspecification, question order, sample size as well as the size of the path coefficients (Cassel et al. 1999; Auh et al. 2003; Eskildsen and Kristensen 2005; Kristensen and Eskildsen 2005a,b). In this chapter we expand on these contributions in order to provide the reader with recommendations on all aspects included in designing PLS-based satisfaction studies.

Trends in EFQM criterion weights; the case of Denmark 1998‐2001

This paper examines the criterion weights of the EFQM excellence model. More and more research indicates that the official criterion weights from EFQM do not correspond with the way companies are working. This, of course, raises the question whether or not it makes any sense to compare companies according to an arbitrary weight structure, which has never been empirically tested? In this paper the criterion weights are estimated through the use of a factor scores regression based on confirmatory factor analysis of a number of bootstrapped samples. This estimation procedure is applied on data collected among Danish companies which responded to a self‐assessment questionnaire covering the EFQM excellence model in each of the years 1998‐2001. The overall conclusions are that the allocation of weights is fairly stable for most of the criteria except for one. The weight allocated to “People results” is significantly lower in 2001 than in 1999 and 1998.

The relationship between job satisfaction and national culture

Purpose – This paper aims to focus on the relationship between job satisfaction and national culture. Many studies have reported differences in job satisfaction between countries but none has included national culture as a mediating variable. The paper seeks to attempt to do exactly that by relating data from the European Employee Index™ to Hofstedes national scores on five dimensions of national culture.Design/methodology/approach – The analysis covers 22 nations with a job satisfaction sample size of more than 25,000 respondents. The satisfaction data are subsequently related to Hofstedes national scores on five dimensions of national culture.Findings – The analysis demonstrates that national culture does influence the result of job satisfaction studies.Research limitations/implications – It is important to note that the managerial implications of these findings are limited to some extent. A multinational company conducting job satisfaction studies in different national settings cannot influence the s...

Determinants of absenteeism in a large Danish bank

An empirical study of the determinants of absenteeism in a large Danish bank is performed. The study is based on information from approx. 7,000 employees in 500 different units. Based on a review of the absence literature a model combining the psychological and economic approaches to absence studies is constructed. The model is based on hedonic theory and uses the frequency metric when measuring absence. The results of the empirical study show that there is indeed a significant negative relationship between job satisfaction and absence. Furthermore, the study shows that demographic variables for both employees and employers play an important role for the frequency of absence. One very interesting result is that the absenteeism for employees is very clearly related to observed absence by the unit manager.