Organizational Effectiveness, Service Quality, and Related Aspects in its Services

MA-Thesis / Master von Rainer Bubenheim

Abstract:

Services in the field of information technology (IT) are an emerging and expanding market. The quality with which they are delivered to the customer and the effectiveness of their provision determine the economic success of an enterprise to a large extent. Therefore, the dissertation centers around service quality and organizational effectiveness.

Introducing, the characteristics of services in general - intangibility, inseparability, heterogeneity, and perishability - and the rote of projects in IT services are explained. Then, organizational effectiveness is defined as internal efficiency plus adaptability to external demands. Two models are compared showing that organizational effectiveness consists of several factors - e.g. motivation, management leadership, or structure - which indeed can be measured via a particular diagnosis questionnaire. Analogously, two service quality models are put forth. They reveal that total quality is comprised of the technical quality of the service outcome (objective quality) and the functional quality of the process (subjective quality). Likewise, service quality can be evaluated by regarding ten determinants and graphically displaying them in an importance-performance grid.

Relating to both points above, aspects in marketing (internal, interactive) and operations (service as a basic function and as one objective) are considered.

The so-gained theoretical insights are practically applied in an investigation of an IT service department for which specific recommendations are deduced. Generally, results suggest that service quality and organizational effectiveness are somehow related and commonly influenced by organizational structure, customer orientation, as well as management, leadership, and motivation. The discussion of these points finally leads to the conclusions that (1) a matrix structure in IT services is more apt than any other one, (2) a people-oriented management style is of crucial importance for motivating people and reaching performance, and (3) orientation towards the customer and marketing the buyer-seller interactions decisively influences the perception of service quality.

Table of Contents:

	List of Figures	ix
	Preface and Acknowledgements	x
	Prologue	1
1.	Introduction	3
2.	Managing Services and Organizational Effectiveness in Business Administration Literature	5
2.1	General Characteristics of Services	5
2.2	Organizational Effectiveness	9
2.3	Service Quality	15
2.4	Marketing and Operations Aspects in Services	20
2.4.1	Internal and Interactive Marketing	20
2.4.2	Customer Service vs. Resource Utilization	23
3.	Examination of an IT Service Department in Practice	29
3.1	Organizational Framework	30
3.1.1	General Overview	30
3.1.2	Role and Structure of the IT Department	31
3.2	Current Situation Analysis	33
3.2.1	Organizational Effectiveness	33
3.2.2	Service Quality	39
3.3	Preliminary Conclusions and Recommendations from Practice	43
3.3.1	Inference Resume	43
3.3.2	Suggestion A: New Approach to Project Management	45
3.3.3	Suggestion B: Better Leadership Behaviour/Qualification	47
3.3.4	Suggestion C: More Orientation towards the Customers	48
4.	Discussion	51
4.1	Organizational Structure in IT Services	51
4.2	Management, Leadership, and Motivation	55
4.3	Customer Orientation and Service Quality	59
4.4	Total Quality Management	62
4.5	Implications for Further Research	65
5.	Conclusions	67
	Epilogue	69
	Appendix 1: Questionnaire and Results of the Organizational Diagnosis	70
	Appendix 2: Classification Scheme and Distribution of the Answers in the Organizational Diagnosis	72
	Appendix 3: Queries and Results of the Customer Interviews on Service Quality	73
	Bibliography	74