Do Satisfied Employees Mean Satisfied Customers?

Author(s): Satoris S. Culbertson

Source: Academy of Management Perspectives, Vol. 23, No. 1 (Feb., 2009), pp. 76-77
Published by: Academy of Management
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27747496
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 76 Academy of Management Perspectives February

RESEARCH BRIEFS
28 studies that directly linked an individual em
Do Satisfied Employees Mean Satisfied ployee's satisfaction levels with satisfaction levels
Customers? and service quality ratings of an individual cus
tomer. Their findings revealed that, across studies,
higher levels of employee job satisfaction were
Research Brief bySatorisS. Culbertson, Assistant indeed related to higher levels of customer satis
Professor of Psychology, Kansas State University
faction as well as higher customer ratings of ser
Think about your last interaction with a service vice quality.
But Brown and Lam did more than focus solely
provider. Was that person helpful? Was he
on the direct relationship between employee sat
pleasant? Did she seem to be enjoying her job?
isfaction and customer responses. They were also
Or was the person disgruntled or strike you as
interested in understanding when employee satis
being unhappy to be at work? Now consider the
impression these experiences left on you regarding
faction was most likely to lead to positive cus
your overall assessment of service and the organi tomer responses. One area they examined was
whether there were differences in the types of
zation. How would you rate the service quality you
received? Did you find yourself satisfied overall, or service jobs that employees held. The two types of
were you dissatisfied in some way? jobs examined were those in which a service is
In a nutshell, these are the questions tackled by performed on a person (e.g., medical care), and
Steven Brown and Son Lam of the University of those in which a service is performed on posses
Houston in their recent meta-analysis. As Brown sions (e.g., television repair). Brown and Lam felt
and Lam aptly note, service providers are viewed that personal services would be considered more
as "the organization" in the eyes of customers. "up close," with customers better able to observe
They're the most direct form of contact in many the processes and outcomes of service delivery.
service situations, so interactions with an em Consequently, they expected employee job satis
ployee can either enhance or sour customer satis faction to relate more strongly to customer satis
faction. And whether such interactions are good faction and customer-perceived service quality in
or bad may depend on the employee's attitude. personal services than in services performed on
Presumably, an employee with a positive attitude possessions. This was indeed the case.
toward his job will behave in ways seen as more Another area Brown and Lam examined was
pleasing to customers. This is what Brown and the type of relationship the employee and the
Lam set out to determine. They examined how customer have with one another. In particular,
employee job satisfaction relates to customer sat they were interested in differences between busi
isfaction and customer ratings of service quality. nesses based on individual service encounters
The impetus for their study was the realization (e.g., fast food restaurants) and businesses where
that if customers leave an organization with a bad relationships are formed with a service provider
taste in their mouths, the financial repercussions (e.g., family physician practices). They predicted
for the organization could be significant. Not only that employee job satisfaction would translate
may there be a loss of sales at that moment, but into greater customer satisfaction and higher per
the ripple effects of negative word of mouth that ceived service quality in businesses where a rela
may follow could hurt the firm down the line. tionship is formed with customers. Surprisingly,
To examine how employee satisfaction relates however, they found that the relationship be
to customer responses, Brown and Lam examined tween employee satisfaction and customer satis

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 2009_Research Briefs_77

and customer responses. And while it may s

faction did not differ for these two types of busi
nesses. counterintuitive, businesses where customers
Even more surprising, the relationshiplikelybetweento see a different service provider every t
employee satisfaction and customer-perceived (e.g., in
sera fast food restaurant) may benefit
vice quality was actually stronger in businesses
most from management efforts to foster emplo
based on individual encounters than in businesses
job satisfaction.
where relationships are established with the Indeed,
ser perhaps management should th
vice provider. Brown and Lam suggested twice
that before
in embracing the traditional ma
businesses with individual encounters, service
that the customer is always right. As Brown
Lam note,
transactions are relatively simple (e.g., ordering at when management sides with cust
a fast food restaurant). As a result, the effect
ers, of
theanresult may be demoralizing for employ
In other
employee's satisfaction level may be clearer and words, management should exercise
tion
more straightforward to a customer. On the and pick their battles when faced with
other
hand, in businesses where relationships
tomerare
complaints. After all, when employees
formed, service transactions are typically much they are more likely to provide bet
satisfied,
more complex?in short, there may be many service and, ultimately, engender high
customer
other factors that affect customer satisfaction and satisfaction. And that is a winning pr
customer
perceived service quality. osition for companies, employees, and custom
Finally, Brown and Lam examined whether alike. the
link between employee satisfaction and customer
satisfaction is explained by customer-perceived
Source: Brown, S. P., & Lam, S. K. (2008). A meta-analysis
service quality. That is, does being satisfied withlinking employee satisfaction to customer
of relationships
responses.ser
their jobs lead employees to provide better Journal of Retailing, 84, 243-255.
vice? And if so, would this be reflected in the
customers' ratings of service quality, which, in
turn, would result in higher customer satisfaction?
Brown and Lam's findings suggest that this is
indeed the likely pattern.
Absenteeism: Escaping an Aversive
Brown and Lam's work sheds light on a variety Workplace or Responding to Resulting
of methodological issues of interest to researchers.
Illness?
Generally speaking, they found stronger relation
ships when studies were conducted at the business
unit (vs. individual) level of analysis and when
Research Brief by SatorisS. Culbertson, Assistant
global measures of job satisfaction (vs. satisfaction
Professor of Psychology, Kansas State University
with specific job facets) were used.
So what does Brown and Lam's research mean
It's well known that excessive workplace absentee
for organizations? First, they suggest that ism when
can be quite costly to organizations. Conse
weighing decisions about organizational change,
quently, reducing absenteeism is a goal for many
management should consider the reactions of em
companies. In doing so, management should target
ployees. If a decision might create feelings
factors that ofcause employees to be absent. Work
dissatisfaction (e.g., because of work place
schedule
strain is one such factor that has received a
changes or pay cuts), management maygreat want deal to
of attention because of its supposedly
reconsider how to implement the change in ways
strong relationship to workplace absenteeism. But is
that minimize those feelings?if they implement
absenteeism just a simple reaction to an aversive
it at all. Additionally, management may want or
workplace, todoes it reflect something more com
plex? Instead, might absenteeism be a response to
take extra steps to foster employee satisfaction in
jobs involving personal services as these theshowed
psychological and physical illnesses caused by
the strongest link between employee satisfaction
factors such as workplace strain?

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