In Search of Linkages – Examining the Relationships between Employee Attitudes, Customer Satisfaction and Business Performance

Abstract

Among scholars and business practitioners, there is a continuous debate about whether or not employee attitudes can be directly associated with customer satisfaction and business performance. According to Heskett et al.’s service profit chain and Wiley’s linkage research model it would appear that such a linkage exists. Hypotheses are formulated and statistically tested in the paper, based on the models. Pearson’s correlation analysis is used as a research method. The empirical data are collected from three separate sources of information. The sample comprises 51 workshops of an international service network. Findings indicate that employee satisfaction, leadership and motivation have a positive statistical relationship. However, employee attitudes cannot be linked to customer satisfaction or profitability. Results also reveal that there is a positive correlation between customer satisfaction and profitability. While, on the other hand, employee satisfaction has a negative correlation with productivity. Our findings do not completely correspond to the premise of models presented in the theoretical framework. Implications for the company as well as for future academic research are provided.