The effect of management commitment to service quality on frontline employees' job attitudes, turnover intentions and service recovery performance in a new public management context

We present and test a model of behavioural job outcomes grounded in Bagozzi's (1992) reformulation of attitude theory in the important and novel context of a former public sector government department that has undergone corporatisation. Frontline employees (FLEs) completed a self-administered questionnaire on how factors characterising management commitment to service quality (MCSQ) affect their job satisfaction and organisational commitment, and how these job attitudes impact service recovery performance and turnover intentions. Data obtained from the FLEs were analysed using the SEM-based Partial Least Squares (PLS) methodology. Results suggest there is a significant influence of MCSQ on job attitudes, which in turn influence service recovery performance and turnover intentions. Implications of the results and further research directions are discussed. © 2008 Taylor & Francis