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Strategies (ISRS): The role of self-efficacy
F. Farook, C. Mason & T. Nankervis
Swinburne University of Technology, Victoria, Australia
ABSTRACT: This conceptual paper aims to assess front-line employees' performance in Integrated
Service Recovery Strategies (ISRS) by incorporating the self-efficacy theory. Service recovery is a vital
tool for service business following service failure. Integrating customer and employee in the recovery strat-
egies alleviates the effectiveness of recovery management. Self-efficacy is incorporated in the framework
to capture employees' service performance using SERVPERF. This study will employ the mixed method
technique for data collection; combining online questionnaire and interview. Front-line employees and
middle managers of hotels are the samples for the study. Front liners are the first and primary contact
that customers deal with throughout their service encounters. Hence they are the most relevant person-
nel approach in order to obtain the data and answer the research question. The results of the study will
contribute to the existing body of knowledge of services marketing; particularly in service recovery which
lacks in studies focusing on employees.
Keywords
:
service recovery, self-efficacy, hotel, service performance
1 INTRODUCTION
to rectify the failure and are bound to experience
similar effects as customers would (Lin, 2010).
The integration of employees and customers in
the recovery process ensures a more effective and
efficient recovery management by service provid-
ers. The concept allows recovery to be managed
proactively by achieving the benefits of success-
ful service recovery to the customers and employ-
ees. Utilizing Albert Bandura (1977) self-efficacy
theory, front-line employees' performance in ISRS
will be assessed based on the SERVPERF.
Hotel development is rapidly increasing in Malay-
sia, especially the development of international
chain hotels. In an effort to provide service of the
international standard, hotels should be aware
of service failure given the nature of the service,
which is intangible and inseparable. Service fail-
ure must be recovered for several reasons such as
avoiding negative word of mouth, enhancing cus-
tomer satisfaction, building customer relationship,
loyalty and impact on profits (Bitner, Booms &
Tetreault, 1990). Service recovery is the attempt
by the service provider to correct mistakes and
bring the customer to the state of satisfaction after
the failure. Traditional service recovery literature
mainly emphasizes recovery satisfaction from the
customers' perspective while studies on employee
satisfaction are relatively scant (Lin, 2010).
An integrated approach to service recovery gives
the organization a new opportunity to maintain
dissatisfied clients, recover employee and learn to
prevent or reduce the likelihood of future error
(Johnston & Michel, 2008; La & Kandampully,
2004; Michel, Bowen & Johnston, 2009). Employ-
ees, especially the front-liners, experience job dis-
satisfaction, stress and demotivation when service
failure occurs (Yoo, Shin & Yang, 2006). They have
a high level of interaction with the customers on
a daily basis and when failure happens, they have
2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1
Service recovery strategies
Zero defects in service are an unattainable goal
(Cranage, 2004; Hart, Heskett & Sasser Jr, 1990).
A failure in the service process at any point usually
destroys the customer's perception of the whole
experience (Cranage, 2004). Service failures are
inevitable and occur in both the process and the
outcome of service delivery (Lewis & McCann,
2004). Lewis and McCann (2004) added that the
inseparability of production and consumption
means that failures occur at the point of consump-
tion. Service failure can put companies out of busi-
ness if attention is not paid to this problem.
Thus, businesses have a second chance to cor-
rect the mistake with service recovery and bring
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