PROPOSAL

Proposal

Table of Contents

TITLE OF PROJECT PROPOSAL3

INTRODUCTION3

Rationale of the study4

Background of the study4

Organizational Information6

LITERATURE REVIEW6

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS12

RESEARCH DESIGN12

Literature Selection Criteria13

Search Technique13

Keywords Used14

Theoretical Framework14

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS14

TIME SCALE15

REFERENCES17

Proposal

Title of Project Proposal

Studies have demonstrated a connection between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction. In their 1997 book The Service Profit Chain, James Heskett and his colleagues at the Harvard Business School showed that customers' perception of service quality is a direct result of their interactions with customer-facing employees. For employees, this means that there is a direct link between their actual ability to provide superior service, their perception of that ability and the shared satisfaction that results for them and their customers.

Introduction

Increasing customer satisfaction with service experiences is a function of employee satisfaction itself. Therefore, to optimize customer satisfaction with service experiences, companies must also invest in attracting, acquiring and retaining satisfied, loyal employees that possess the ability to deliver exceptional service to the customer throughout the customer lifecycle(Heintzman Marson 2006 Pp.34-45).

This research report takes a look at the Petrochemical Commercial Company of Iran and attempts to investigate the employees' satisfaction relation to customer services delivery.

Rationale of the study

In the petrochemical sector, research shows that companies with higher employee engagement translates into better services and/or products, more satisfied customers, and ultimately, higher profits. These relationships are described as the Service Profit Chain (Heskett et al., 1994).

Background of the study

Numerous empirical studies show a strong positive relationship between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction (Matzler et al. 1996 pp.12-13). As suggested by this wealth of findings, positive changes in employee attitudes lead to positive changes in customer satisfaction. Some investigations have provided explicit measures of this relationship. For example, a study at Sears Roebuck & Co. showed that a five-point improvement in employee attitudes led to a 1.3 rise in customer satisfaction which, in turn, generated a 0.5 increase in revenues. Schmidt (2004 pp.112-119)reviewed the relationship between financial success and customer and employee variables (e.g., customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, etc.) and found that, depending on market segment and industry, between 40 and 80 percent of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty was accounted for by the relationship between employee attitudes and customer-related variables. Similarly, Piercy (1995 pp.27-28 ) found that perceived employee satisfaction, perceived employee loyalty, and perceived employee commitment had a sizable impact on perceived product quality and on perceived service quality. 

According to their model, employee satisfaction not only affects employee commitment and employee loyalty, but it also has a twofold impact (i.e., direct and indirect) on critical customer satisfaction-related variables. The relationship between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction has received further empirical confirmation from two methodologically strong studies. Specifically, a recent metaanalytic investigation (Heintzman Marson 2006 Pp.34-45), based on 7,939 business units in 36 companies, found generalizable relationships, large enough to have substantial practical value, between unit-level employee satisfaction-engagement and business-unit outcomes such as customer satisfaction, productivity, profit, employee turnover, and accidents.

Finally, Schmidt (2004 pp.112-119) measured the relationship between employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, and profit longitudinally showing that, although the effects of employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction on business profit at a given point in time might not be detectable, they become ...