LITERATURE REVIEW 1 Service Culture
The 2015 International Conference of Management Sciences ICoMS 2015, April 23, UMY, Indonesia | 183
service companies Bitner, Booms, and Mohr, 1994. Basically, manage contacts between employees and
customers in service activities involving administrative mechanisms brought by employees of the results of the
companys service culture. Employee behavior will be different in each organization depending on their
cultural background.
Service culture play an important role as the organizations identity. Attitudes and behavior of
employees is a reflection of the culture of service instilled by the organization. Therefore, the service
culture is believed to have significant influence in shaping the performance of the service employees in
public institutions in Indonesia. Although there is urgency in investigating the factors that affect the
service culture within the organization, particularly in the public sector, but not many studies have attempted
to investigate. By doing a synthesis of previous research, this study is expected to provide a new measurement
scheme that evaluates the service culture of public sector organizations. In addition, this study also aims to
investigate the relationship between the service culture to service innovation and organizational performance in
public institutions in the City of Bengkulu.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Service Culture
Service culture is very important to create an organization that focused to the customer and
considered as a source of competitive advantage to the company Hallowell et al., 2002. Before we talk about
service culture, we need to understand about organizational culture. Service culture constitute values
and norms that derived by the organizational culture.
In general, the concept of organizational culture is used to describe the norms and values agreed together upon
by members of the organization. According to Grönroos 2000, culture is a concept that explains why people do
certain actions, think the same way, appreciate the same goals, the same routine, and even share the same jokes
because they are members of the same organization. There are many definitions of organizational culture that
has been created by experts Beyer and Trice, 1987; Thompson and Wildavsky, 1986, but in general,
organizational culture is defined as a pattern of beliefs and values agreed together that gives meaning to the
members of the organization and the rules of conduct in organization Davis, 1985, Deshpande and Webster,
1989. In simple language, organizational culture can be referred to as the way we do things in the organization.
Organizational culture reflects the values inherent in the organization. Organizational culture is not always
clearly visible, but organizational culture can be perceived.
Organizational culture can also be seen as an internal climate of the organization. Grönroos 2000 concluded
that the organizational climate depends in part on how the internal relations between employees in an
organization to function. Employee perceptions of organizational climate are about what is important in the
organization Schneider and Bowen, 1995. This perception arises because employees are given goals to
be achieved in their work and how the exercises are done in the organization. Therefore, service providers
must manage the internal climate of the company so that internal consumer can serve external customer well and
can develop a positive attitude towards the provision of services. Attitude towards service delivery can develop
if the employee feels that the internal routines, guidance for action, and reward systems indicate that focus on
good service is important.
Service culture or a culture of service is defined as a business that puts service as a core organizational
culture Curtis and Upchurch, 2008; Teare, 1993. The views are almost same was conveyed by Grönroos
2000 which defines the service culture as a culture where respect for good service grows, and the provision
of services to internal and external customers is considered as a way of life and is considered as one of
the norms of the most important for everyone.
According to Zeithaml et al. 2009, this definition has implications on the behavior of employees. First, the
culture of the service will be there if there is an appreciation for good service. This expression does not
mean that the service provider has an advertising campaign that emphasizes the importance of the service,
but people know that services are well appreciated and assessed
.
The second point of this definition confirms that the service is provided to internal and external
customers. Promising excellent service to external
customers is considered not enough. Everyone in the organization deserves the high quality of services.
Employees who are satisfied with the internal services will be more likely to be able to meet and satisfy the
needs of external customers . Finally, in a culture of
service, good service is the way of life of all people and it is natural for a good service is an important norm in
the organization.