Volume 2 (2011) Issue 2
pp. 391 - 402
John Walker: Service, Satisfaction, and Climate: Perspectives on Management in English Language Teaching. Bingley, United Kingdom. 2010. Emerald Group Publishing Limited. 285 pp. (ISBN 978-1-84950-996-1)
John Walker attempts to integrate the fields of English language teaching (ELT) and services management by examining services theory and empirical research studies in the context of teaching English as a second language (ESL) at an English Language Teaching Center (ELTC). Although the empirical studies focus on New Zealand, the author fundamentally contends that ELTCs are intermediary service operations which employ educational constructs that illuminate the cross-cultural differences between students who pay for the ELT service and external business managers who create and enforce the education curriculum standards by which ELTCs must abide. Walker’s main objectives are to demonstrate that ELT is, in fact, a service and to determine the extent to which customer satisfaction (students) and service climate (managers, faculty, teachers, and staff) affect the context of ELT in ELTCs. The author structures the book into four parts which comprise twelve chapters:
- Part One: Conceptual and Theoretical Background (Chapters 1-3),
- Part Two: Student Perceptions (Chapters 4-5),
- Part Three: Provider Perceptions (Chapters 6-9), and
- Part Four: Applications and Issues (Chapters 10-12).
Chapter 1 introduces IHIP (i.e. intangibility, heterogeneity, inseparability, and perishability) attributes and explores important characteristics of effective ESL teachers and ELT service providers. Walker argues that IHIP attributes - as well as active listening, interpersonal skills, and empathy towards ESL students - are all predominant components of services literature which should be applied to ELT operations in order to enhance students’ learning experiences. The author commences the defense of this argument through an analysis of IHIP in the context of ELTCs. Regarding intangibility, Walker highlights Fitzsimmons & Fitzsimmons’ (1994) perspective on intangibility and McLaughlin & Coffey’s (1990) arguments concerning tangibility in order to show that the act of teaching / learning is an inherently intangible co-productive service which undergoes tangibilization[1]through the use of ancillary materials, textbook activities, and written lists of learner goals. Walker also claims that heterogeneity and inseparability are fundamental aspects of ELT because each individual student’s acquisition of the English language differs in output level although teachers and students cooperate in the co-production of the ELT service. The author clearly explains that the amount of co-production depends on the perishability of ELTC services with regard to capacity versus demand. Capacity refers to the space available for potential ESL students, and demand embodies the number of students who consistently apply for admission to ELTC programs. Walker concludes the defense of this initial argument (see above) by demonstrating that teachers and administrative staff who actively listen to students’ concerns, possess mature interpersonal skills, and express empathetic thoughts, enhance the efficacy level of ELT operations as well as student satisfaction. This chapter provides solid background information which illustrates why services management concepts are useful in ELTCs. However, analyzing supply (the ability to actually provide a service to students) in addition tocapacity and demand would help substantiate Walker’s main argument because ELTCs must have sufficient space (capacity), enough competent teachers (suppliers), and an adequate number of students enrolled (demanders) to successfully manage service operations.
Chapter 2 probes into different factors which may affect students’ / customers’ / clients’ levels of satisfaction with ELTC services. Walker postulates that students’ expectations, word-of-mouth (WOM), service orientation, and the service milieu are four significant factors which can determine high levels of customer satisfaction. The author cautions readers about the difficulty in assessing the relationship between students’ expectations and customer satisfaction. This is because whenever students establish extraordinary short-term language proficiency goals which they do not attain, they may derogate the quality of the ELT service. However, students’ prior experience with participating in ELT services usually leads to higher levels of satisfaction because they create more realistic expectations of language proficiency (Söderlund 2002). Walker expounds the importance of students’ expectations through analysis of positive and negative WOM. The author furnishes a modified version of Patterson’s (1993) Customer-Disconfirmation-of-Expectations-and-Word-of-Mouth-Cycle model to elucidate how these expectations trigger positive WOM / positive disconfirmation - students recommend ELT services to family and friends - or negative WOM / negative disconfirmation - students do not recommend ELT services. The presentation of this model is indispensable for Walker’s discussion of service orientation because the author outlines certain service provider characteristics such as congeniality, respect, and friendship which stimulate students’ positive perceptions of ELTCs. The author could further bolster the argument in favor of service orientation as an important factor of customer satisfaction by explaining that the personal characteristics of potential teachers should parallel those of psychologically competent service personnel who maintain good rapport with clients (students). Developing this parallelism is quite challenging for ETL managers because they must consider the potential effects of service milieu-clients’ impression of the social and physical environment of ELTCs. Walker emphasizes that positive service milieu is often related to how external administrative procedures affect the ESL classroom environment. This chapter successfully enlightens readers about the need to constantly assess the relationship between students’ perceptions and expectations and customer satisfaction in order to develop more efficient and effective ELT operations.
Chapter 3 exposes readers to the evident lack of research in the field of ELT regarding the service climate. Walker asserts that ELT managers who work at an ELTC should implement positive reinforcement strategies such as reward-incentive programs, supporting teamwork, and being responsive to customer feedback so as to improve the social dynamics of the service climate. The author supports this assertion by first explicating the need for ELT managers to create a service climate in which climate and culture are clearly defined, and then, by analyzing organizational factors which induce favorable customer satisfaction. Although Denison (1996) and Glisson & James (2002) intensify the controversy concerning how to distinguish between climate and culture, Walker deciphersclimate as employees’ acceptance of a set of rational organizational norms and decodes culture as appropriate behavioral tendencies and language use in a workplace atmosphere. The author recognizes that different aspects of a positive service climate, such as being customer-centered, administering effective training programs, and promoting cooperation amongst employees, often generate favorable customer feedback. Overall, this chapter informs readers of structural and organizational advantages of applying service-climate research findings to ELTC operations. However, comparing students’ and employees’ perceptions of the ELTC environment in this chapter instead of in Chapter 8 would help to strengthen Walker’s argument regarding the development of a congenial service climate.
Chapter 4 employs a qualitative analysis to shed light on the imbalanced relationship between students’ expectations and ELTC service provisions. Walker examines thirty-five ESL adult students from five different ELTCs, located in New Zealand, using a focus-group discussion format in order to find out how students’ most salient expectations clash with ELTC service offerings. The author’s first argument refers to the fact that students expect ESL teachers to be not only linguistically competent, but also positive role models who exhibit personal characteristics, such as amicableness, patience, and courtesy. Walker bolsters this argument by showing that students’ preference for ESL teachers to be flexible in both their teaching style and time spent to meet with students individually outside of class, ranks highest on the scale of discussion topic frequency. Schneider & Bowen (1995) further substantiate this argument with their findings related to general service operations which demonstrate that flexibility is a bona-fide feature of effective service provisions. Walker’s second argument declares that service-related provisions, such as ELTC milieu, students’ homestay preferences, and communication between ELTC staff and students, are all additional significant factors which affect students’ expectations. The author upholds this argument by examining the overall consensus of student responses given during focus-group discussions which manifests the following needs: a comfortable learning atmosphere, compatibility of homestay arrangements, more complete information provided about homestay opportunities, multilingual personnel to effectuate more fluent interpersonal communication, and more flexible and organized language-proficiency placement procedures. This chapter affirms that ELTCs should work more systematically and strategically to meet students’ learning needs.
Chapter 5 discusses the results of a study conducted on thirty ELTCs in New Zealand using focus-group discussions and a survey with a Likert rating scale ranging from 1-5[2]. This study attempts to ascertain students’ levels of satisfaction with ELTC services by examining nine general service dimensions: “1. the teachers; 2. the English lessons; 3. the service procedures; 4. communication; 5. the administrative staff; 6. the homestay; 7. the facilities; 8. the activities program; and 9. general aspects of the service” (pp.70-71). Walker contends that although the mean calculations of the survey results show that students are highly satisfied with human attributes of teachers, administrative staff, and homestay experiences, the ANOVA and multiple regression analyses reflect students’ dissatisfaction with organizational characteristics of ELTC operations such as teachers’ communicative competence, the lack of diversity in the student population, and the inability to furnish students with accurate information about ELTC services. The author supplements this argument with meticulous analyses of quantitative findings which show that there is no direct correlation between students’ satisfaction with human attributes and students’ tendency to recommend ELTCs to other people. However, the ANOVA analysis (p< 0.01, pp.85) shows that high levels of student satisfaction represent reliable predictors of the students’ tendency to recommend ELTC services. Walker reminds readers that ELT managers should not fall into the human-resources trap of favoring human attributes in opposition to organizational characteristics because these characteristics greatly enhance the quality of service and the likelihood that students will be indirect marketers for ELTCs via WOM.
Chapter 6 investigates ELTC employees’ perceptions about providing the ELT service to ESL students in five different cities in New Zealand. Walker reviews an empirical study from New Zealand which examines the responses of thirty-two ELTC employees by highlighting the most prominent concerns arousing during interview conversations. The author identifies teamwork support from coworkers, satisfying students’ social / learning needs, and cognizance (i.e. awareness) of ELT as a service as three intangible factors which significantly influence ELTC teachers’ and administrative staff’s perception of ELTCs. Teamwork support encompasses the interpersonal communication amongst colleagues to assure effective problem-solving methods and consistency in organizational procedures. Fulfilling students’ social / learning needs constitutes the maintenance of a comfortable learning environment and the additional time spent with students outside of the classroom to build professional / cordial relationships with them through tutoring, counseling, or academic advising. Awareness of ELT as a service comprises the ELTC employees’ internalization of their organizational roles as service providers who aim to content customers. In addition to explicating these three major factors, Walker maintains that ELTC employees need adequate funding and tangible resources in order to successfully integrate students’ learning experiences, but constant demand fluctuation rates of student enrollment cause ELT managers to exercise more precaution in managing their scarce budgets (Fitzsimmons & Fitzsimmons 1994). The author emphasizes that monetary commerce is in constant competition with ELTCs’ ability to provide students with high quality educational experiences.
Chapter 7 examines non-management employees’ perceptions of the service climate in thirty different ELTCs in New Zealand. Walker argues that this chapter fills in a research gap between service-climate research and ELT by applying empirical service-climate research to the context of ELT in ELTCs. Walker supports this argument by reviewing the findings of a study which focuses on eleven service dimensions dealing with management skills, staff’s ability to provide an effective service, and employment issues. The results of this study demonstrate that non-management employees believe that managers are very knowledgeable about ELT as a service, but that these employees are not pleased with themanagers’ desire to explicitly acknowledge their efforts to provide excellent service. The results also show that non-management employees have a very positive outlook on the service climate in ELTCs with regard to their interpersonal communication with students and their ability to foster high quality service. These results buttress the those mentioned in the discussion of Chapter 5 (see above) which show that students embrace the affable atmosphere created by employees who work at ELTCs. While explicating these results concerning the amicable non-management employee / student relationship, Walker illuminates some of the most important findings of non-management employees’ opinions about service climate in ELTCs which confirm students’ perception (Chapter 5) of low quality resources / facilities services due to the inadequate amount of tangible resources / facilities, such as textbooks, larger classrooms, and audiovisual equipment. The author accentuates the results of this chapter by clarifying that ELTCs in New Zealand are performing efficiently in “soft” service dimensions (p. 141) - those dimensions which deal with personal characteristics of human interaction -, and are performing deficiently in “hard” service dimensions (p.141) - those dimensions which require strategic management expertise.
Chapter 8 expands on the details of the analyses included in Chapters 5 and 7 in order to determine the extent to which students’ and ELTC employees’ views of ELTC service quality in New Zealand complement each other. Walker re-examines the service dimensions analyzed in both of the aforementioned chapters by employing the mean calculations of staff and student surveys which use Likert scales and the Pearson’s product-moment correlation coefficient. The results show that there is a quantitatively significant difference (an evident gap) between how administrative staff and teachers rate students’ perception of ELTC services and how students’ actually rate their own perception of these services. For example, students are not very gratified with the provision of facilities (M=2.70, p=<0.01, pp. 149) and their communication with administrative staff and teachers (M=2.93, p=<0.01, pp. 149), but these employees rate facilities (M=2.96, p=<0.01, pp. 149) and communication (M=3.53, p=0.01, pp. 149) much higher than students. Walker asserts that these results clash with the positive correlation between optimal service climate and student satisfaction (range 0.25-0.66, p=<0.05, pp. 147). Although Johnson’s (1996) findings from the banking industry buttress this positive correlation, the commercial-driven / educational-driven clash between student perception / employee perception and service climate / student satisfaction elucidates the ELT managers’ need to open up lines of student feedback communication between students and managers, students and administrative staff, and students and teachers in order to solidify the organizational operations of ELTC services. Walker concludes this chapter by enlightening readers with an insightful suggestion for future research which explores how the procurement of student feedback and the cross-cultural demographic profiles of students affect the staff-student perceptual gap.
Chapter 9 orients readers to the importance of identity issues concerning ELT managers at ten different tertiary institutions in New Zealand who assist in the management of ESL programs. Walker applies the general services management theory to the content of interview conversations with ten different ELT managers in order to furnish insight into the need for integration between ELT managers’ knowledge, ELT management practice, and ESL teaching contexts. The author contends that a close examination of the following thematic topics would help to effectively achieve this integration:
position and status of the ELT unit within the organizational structure, ELT manager qualifications/expertise, ELT manager roles, student/client issues, [and] staff issues (pp. 159).
Walker begins the defense of this contention through an analysis of ELT managers’ responses to the first abovementioned topic which highlight the structural inconsistency amongst management roles of ELT managers at different institutions. For example, some ELT managers communicate directly with Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) regarding management or administrative issues whereas other ELT managers possess an independent status which requires them to voice their concerns before a management review board. The author also echoes ELT managers’ concerns about their lack of knowledge and uncertainty with regard to their disposition of management skills as well as their inability to carry out multiple management roles simultaneously. This chapter clearly demonstrates the imperativeness of future empirical research which correlates ETL management performance and ESL educational environments.
Chapter 10 explains how to implement five different service-management models by applying them to ELT operations. Walker offers suggestions for employing the following five models in ELTCs in order to ameliorate complex service issues dealing with process gaps and misunderstandings of organizational structure: open-systems model, service-profit chain, service concept, service-system blueprint, and walk-through audit (WTA). Walker presents a modified version of Shostack’s (1984) frontstage / backstage model to demonstrate that through the open-systems model, ELT managers strive to convert student inputs into useful student outputs. The service-profit chain differs from the open-systems model because the former directly associates service value and customer loyalty with an organization’s financial performance outcomes. Walker illustrates how the service concept comprises aspects of both of the aforementioned two models by providing two different ELTC service concept models (Fig. 10.3, pp. 183, Fig. 10.4, pp. 184) which cherish customers’ desires to attend ESL schools to either have fun with the English language or pass internationally recognized examinations. The author also shows in how far a service system blueprint is much more structurally coherent than the service concept by creating and presenting a sample ELT-operations model which displays all of the streamlines, processes, and structures of operation which encompass frontstage and backstage procedures. The WTA differs from the previous four models mentioned because it requires ELT managers and / or external or internal auditors to conduct a real-time assessment of business operations which may constitute interaction with customers and employees. Walker contends that a more effective approach to using the WTA exclusively deals with external third parties who are not familiar with business operations. The author supplements this argument with Fitzsimmons & Fitzsimmons’ (2004) findings which show that perception gaps often occur amongst internal auditors who employ WTAs because they are well-acquainted with business operations. Walker concludes this chapter by synthesizing ELT managers’ and non-management employees’ responsibilities in order to endorse the explicit awareness of business structure and processes amongst all ELTC employees.
Chapter 11 describes the fundamental components of research methodology, applies these components to ELT management research about ELTC operations, and details different opportunities for future research relevant to ELT management of ELTCs. Walker denotes selection of a methodological approach, development of research questions, data collection, and data analysis as major components of integral research investigations. The author claims that using research approaches which encompass both qualitative and quantitative methods are optimal for examining ELT contexts because these approaches produce multifaceted results which help ELT managers to make impartial decisions. Walker sustains this claim with Krueger’s (1994) findings which exhibit research design enhancement due to the integration of quantitative and qualitative methods. Walker also indicates the importance of developing useful research questions which recognize the physical location of the study, the potential subjects who may participate in the study, and the main objective of the study. The author briefly discusses the development of research questions to foreshadow the difficulty which ELT management researchers may have when purporting to collect data using focus-group discussion formats because some research participants who initially agree to attend these discussions do not actually attend them. Throughout the chapter, the author highlights the imperativeness of examining this data, using a combination of dissimilar statistical procedures, such as t-tests, ANOVA, and Pearson’s product-moment correlation coefficient in order to dispel misinterpretations of data results which are based on one type of statistical analysis only.
Chapter 12 reinforces Walker’s main argument which designates ELTC employees as service providers and denotes ELTC students as clients. The author postulates that both employees and students, while immersed in competitive commercial contexts, are co-producers of unique educational experiences which frequently dictate the degree of student satisfaction. Walker solidifies this postulation through the reexamination of research findings on ELTCs in New Zealand, discussed in Chapters 4 through 8, which demonstrate, on the whole, that warranting the anonymity of students who provide feedback, responding to students’ feedback by making organizational and structural changes, furnishing students accurate information about homestay options, and communicating to students in their first language (L1) (when necessary) induces better service quality and high levels of student satisfaction. The author stresses that ELTCs should require students to provide feedback more frequently so that ELTC employees can make prompt changes which affect students’ immediate learning needs.
The book engages the interest of ELTC employees who work at private or tertiary ELTC institutions because it furnishes a substantial contribution to the fields of ELT, ESL, and services management due to the extensive review of empirical research on ELTCs in New Zealand. Comparing the significance of ELTCs’ performance in the “soft” [3] service and “hard” service dimensions through future empirical research is needed in order to explicate the complexity of competition between commerce and students’ educational experiences. If commerce primarily controls both “soft” and “hard” areas, students’ educational experiences must collide with and counteract the relentless pressure of the commercial atmosphere so as to try and fulfill students’ learning needs.
References
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Author:
Zahir Mumin
Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
College of Arts & Sciences, Humanities, Second Floor
University at Albany , State University of New York
[1] The term tangibilization refers to the standardization of service procedures.
[2] 1 = Far worse than I expected; 2 = Worse than I expected; 3 = About what I expected; 4 = Better than I expected; 5 = Far better than I expected (Table 5.1, pp. 70)
[3] Soft service dimensions focus on human attributes of employees and hard service dimensionsconstitute the employees’ ability to apply business knowledge to organizational operations.