Congruence in the assessment of service quality between employees and customers: A study of a public health care delivery system

Using social information processing theory, we examined the congruence between employee and customer assessments of organizations' service quality. The setting was a public health care delivery system. Contrary to expectations, employee assessments of service quality were lower than those of their customers. Also unexpectedly, employees with professional training had less congruent assessments than other employees. As expected, employees with longer tenure and those in departments with stronger customer service work climates had more congruent assessments relative to their customers. The results have implications for both management theory and for managers interested in developing customer-centered organizations.