The impact of employee empowerment on service quality and customer satisfaction in service organizations: a case study of Länsförsäkringar bank AB : The impact of employee empowerment

Abstract: COURSE: Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration, 15ECTS AUTHOURS:Peters Silvia Chigozirim. Elham Mazdarani. Flugsnappargatan 6, 3tr. Nybohovsbacken 99, 9tr. 72472, Västerås. 11764, Stockholm 0737225113. 0709391923 SUPERVISOR: LEIF SANNER TOPIC: The impact of employee empowerment on service quality and customer satisfaction: a case study of Länsförsäkringar AB. BACKGROUND: Considering the nature of service delivery and particularly intangible-dominant services, employee empowerment becomes a very important issue to organizations producing services. In that, the customers and the employees are, engaged simultaneously in the production of the service. This inseparability is what is considered by the organization in choosing how best to serve its customers, either by the traditional method or through the empowerment approach. The inability of the management to control the service encounter makes the employees responsible for the quality of service delivered to the customers. In order for the management to trust that the employees are successful in dealing with their customers, the management has to give the employees the authority and necessary support to succeed at it, which is referred to as employee empowerment. The practice of which can directly affect the quality of services delivered, and customer satisfaction. PURPOSE: The purpose of this research is to ascertain the extent to which Länsförsäkringar Bank AB practices employee empowerment in their organization and how it impacts on service quality and customer satisfaction. RESEARCH METHOD: This research is based on a qualitative study. The authors’ have used both primary and secondary data to make a qualitative analysis, since this is a single-case study to enable them to fulfill the purpose of the research. CONCLUSION: Based on this research, the authors have found out that employee empowerment practices at LFB enable the employees to influence customers’ perception of service quality positively, due to their control over the service delivery process, which leads to customers’ satisfaction. Moreover, LFB extensively practices employee empowerment through the actions and practices of human resource management and top management. The nature of the organizational structure also influence the character of the services delivered through their employees regarding the free flow of information all around the bank.