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Employees as customers judging quality: enhancing employee assessment

Employees as customers judging quality: enhancing employee assessment Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate current practices in employee satisfaction assessment to determine if quality in the production of library services and work systems are being assessed from the employees' perspective. It is grounded in the theoretical perspective that customers judge quality and that employees are internal customers, equally important to assessment efforts as are external customers. The paper argues that employees provide a unique perspective to the assessment of quality that external customers cannot provide and that quality assessment needs to be an additional form of employee assessment from that of employee satisfaction or organizational climate initiatives. Design/methodology/approach – A content analysis of measures in organizational climate surveys gathered from the Association of Research Libraries was performed. Each item of several organizational climate surveys was analyzed for words and phrases identified as associated with quality assessment. Conclusions were made based on this analysis. Findings – Each of the organizational climate surveys examined included some measures of quality, though there was no consistent focus on quality. Quality issues in these surveys included sharing skills, work load issues, and alignment with library vision and mission. Research limitations/implications – This is the first part of an ongoing research project. The next steps include content analysis of employee satisfaction instruments and a Delphi study of quality measures gleaned from this analysis. Originality/value – The paper contends that quality assessment is different than employee satisfaction assessment, but significantly enhances employee assessment in general – providing benefits to both the library and its employees. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png New Library World Emerald Publishing

Employees as customers judging quality: enhancing employee assessment

John B. Harer
New Library World , Volume 109 (7/8): 14 – Jul 18, 2008
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References (28)

Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Emerald Group Publishing Limited. All rights reserved.
ISSN
0307-4803
DOI
10.1108/03074800810888140
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate current practices in employee satisfaction assessment to determine if quality in the production of library services and work systems are being assessed from the employees' perspective. It is grounded in the theoretical perspective that customers judge quality and that employees are internal customers, equally important to assessment efforts as are external customers. The paper argues that employees provide a unique perspective to the assessment of quality that external customers cannot provide and that quality assessment needs to be an additional form of employee assessment from that of employee satisfaction or organizational climate initiatives. Design/methodology/approach – A content analysis of measures in organizational climate surveys gathered from the Association of Research Libraries was performed. Each item of several organizational climate surveys was analyzed for words and phrases identified as associated with quality assessment. Conclusions were made based on this analysis. Findings – Each of the organizational climate surveys examined included some measures of quality, though there was no consistent focus on quality. Quality issues in these surveys included sharing skills, work load issues, and alignment with library vision and mission. Research limitations/implications – This is the first part of an ongoing research project. The next steps include content analysis of employee satisfaction instruments and a Delphi study of quality measures gleaned from this analysis. Originality/value – The paper contends that quality assessment is different than employee satisfaction assessment, but significantly enhances employee assessment in general – providing benefits to both the library and its employees.

Journal

New Library World – Emerald Publishing

Published: Jul 18, 2008

Keywords: Employees; Job satisfaction; Quality assessment; Libraries; United States of America

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