Abstract

Title: The Moment Of Truth; A study of service quality assurance

Authors: Fanni Helminen and Linda Elsborg

Level: Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration, C-level.

Advisor: Lars- Johan Åge and Jens Eklinder Frick

Date: 2014- June

Purpose: Quality assurance has become a vital concept and an important tool to ensure that employees are able to deliver high service quality. The purpose of this study will be to elucidate how service companies can apply the use of sevenfundamental features supporting service quality in their quality assurance; recruitment and selection; training, teamwork; empowerment; performance appraisals and rewards; communication, and culture (of the organization). Furthermore, we will illustrate how the type of business entity, organizational structure and organizational resources afflicts the seven features.

Method: Method: We will, from a hermeneutic point of view, apply and qualitative deductive research method. Data have been collected through a case study. The data have been transcribed and the analytical method has been selected based on the conducting purpose. The analysis is based on Miles & Hubermans (1994) general model for qualitative data processing and will connect the results to the theoretical references. The analysis has divided into two parts; a detailed analysis which examines how the chosen study object works with the seven features and one where the reflections on the service company's individual organizational capacities will illuminate the effect of the seven features and present the organizational properties affected by them.

Results & Conclusion: The study has given us a foundation of practical examples of how the quality assurance of service businesses can be operationalized. The study showed that the service company's individual organizational capacities have an effect of the seven features supporting service quality. What emerged during the study was that the type of business entity and organizational resources could not be linked to a flexible and customer-oriented quality assurance. However, we could see that the choice of organizational structure, more specifically a service-oriented organization structure, resulted in a more flexible and customer-oriented quality assurance.

Contribution: By presentinghowone of Sweden’smost successfulservice companies within the health and sports industry works withthe sevenfeatures, and how the company’s individual organizational conditions effects that work, the study can be seen as a foundationof new thoughtsand ideas. Based on the result and conclusion of this study we contribute additional ideas on how management teams can work in order to become more customer-oriented and adaptable to customer'srapidly changingneedsand demands.

Future Research: Oursuggestion for further researchisto develop the work on the seven features supporting service quality by focusing on other service industries. Additional suggestion for future research is to investigate otherorganizational conditions than the three already highlighted in this study. By focusing on other service industries and organizational capacities the future study might contribute to a bigger and more comprehensive picture about how service organizations work in order to reach a customer-oriented and flexible quality assurance of services.

Keywords: Quality assurance, service quality, quality activities, service company’s individual organizational conditions