Customer orientation among employees in public administration: a transnational, longitudinal study

The relation between ergonomic principles and quality management initiatives, both, in the private and public sector, has received increasing attention in the recent years. Customer orientation among employees is not only an important quality principle, but also an essential prerequisite for customer satisfaction, especially in service organizations. In this context, the objective of introducing new public management (NPM) in public-service organizations is to increase customer orientation among employees who are at the forefront of service providing. In this study, we developed a short scale to measure perceived customer orientation. In two separate longitudinal studies carried out in Austria and the US, we analyzed changes in customer orientation resulting from the introduction of NPM. In both organizations, we observed a significant increase in customer orientation. Perceived customer orientation was related to job characteristics, organizational characteristics and employee quality of working life. Creating positive influences on these characteristics within the framework of an organizational change process has positive effects on employee customer orientation.