INTERNAL SERVICE QUALITY AND THE PSYCHOSOCIAL WORK-ENVIRONMENT - AN EMPIRICAL-ANALYSIS OF CONCEPTUAL INTERRELATEDNESS

There is a need to integrate service quality concepts with concepts fr om other research fields, such as the psychosocial work environment, t o help us better understand and create a basis for quality control in services. The main aim of this paper is to explore empirically the rel ationships between the psychosocial work environment and internal serv ice quality. We use concepts and measures derived front psychosocial w ork environment theory and service quality theory respectively Data we re collected from 555 employees in a Swedish computer service company using questions from a Stress Profile as well as from a Quality Profil e. All 52 items from the Stress Profile and 20 items from the Quality Profile were entered into a factor analysis. The main result of the st udy is not the exact outcome of the factor analysis per se, but rather the point that questions derived from two different research fields a ppear to measure different mental representations of work conditions. Clearly interdependence exists between the psychosocial work environme nt and internal quality It is quire common to map and restructure serv ice processes in order to improve internal quality in an attempt to so lve quality problems created by organisational changes. We suggest tha t it should be equally important to take measures to increase work sat isfaction by improving psychosocial work conditions.