Role of Internal Service Quality in Performance of Iran's Ministry of Youth and Sports

Abstract

This research has been conducted with the aim of studying the effect of internal service quality on the performance of Iran's ministry of youth and sports. The method used in this research is descriptive-correlative. The current research population includes sport experts of Iran's ministry of youth and sports and all of them were considered as company samples (280 individuals). For this reason two questionnaires of Di Xie's culture of internal service quality (2005) and Cho's organizational performance (2009) were used. Reliability of the questionnaires were surveyed after a preliminary study by the use of Cronbach's alpha and respectively they were (α=0.81) and (α=0.82). For descriptive statistics SPSS 16 software was used. Also LISREL software was used for confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM). Findings showed that the internal service quality with impact factor of 0.48 and amount of t=3.38 affect the organizational performance. The research findings emphasize on the importance of internal service quality as one of the effective factors in increasing the performance level of ministry of youth and sports. Thus leaders and managers of human resources of sports organizations and especially ministry of youth and sports should design and use strategic plans which are proper for the type of performance of organization and provide the base for internal service quality along with improvement of organizational performance.

Full text

Intl. j. Basic. Sci. Appl. Res. Vol., 2 (9), 834-839, 2013
834
International Journal of Basic Sciences & Applied Research. Vol., 2 (9), 834-839, 2013
Available online at http://www.isicenter.org
ISSN 2147-3749 ©2013 VictorQuest Publications
Role of Internal Service Quality in Performance of Iran’s Ministry of Youth and Sports
Seyyed Hassan Harati*, Davoud Jamshid Nejad, Zahra Houshyar, Hadi Nouri, Khalil Badali
Department of Physical Education, Naghadeh Branch, Islamic Azad University, Naghadeh, Iran
*Corresponding Author Email: Harati_1@yahoo.com
Abstract
This research has been conducted with the aim of studying the effect of internal service
quality on the performance of Iran’s ministry of youth and sports. The method used in this
research is descriptive-correlative. The current research population includes sport experts of
Iran’s ministry of youth and sports and all of them were considered as company samples (280
individuals). For this reason two questionnaires of Di Xie’s culture of internal service quality
(2005) and Cho’s organizational performance (2009) were used. Reliability of the
questionnaires were surveyed after a preliminary study by the use of Cronbach’s alpha and
respectively they were (α=0.81) and (α=0.82). For descriptive statistics SPSS 16 software was
used. Also LISREL software was used for confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation
modeling (SEM). Findings showed that the internal service quality with impact factor of 0.48
and amount of t=3.38 affect the organizational performance. The research findings emphasize
on the importance of internal service quality as one of the effective factors in increasing the
performance level of ministry of youth and sports. Thus leaders and managers of human
resources of sports organizations and especially ministry of youth and sports should design
and use strategic plans which are proper for the type of performance of organization and
provide the base for internal service quality along with improvement of organizational
performance.
Keywords: Internal service quality, Organizational performance, Ministry of youth and sports.
Introduction
In nowadays competitive world, organizations are seeking for competition with hard efforts (Porsoltani & Iraji, 2012). In this
endless competition the organizations try to provide high quality services in order to improve their performance. According to what
many researchers believe, organizations interact with two types of internal and external customers (Hauser, 1996). Successful
organizations are the ones that focus on both providing service quality to the customers outside the organization and also the
customers inside the organization. Such organizations are skillful in predicting the changing needs of customers, they focus on their
organizational ability in order to provide high quality services and they consider the internal service quality as a tool for acquiring
sustainable competitive advantage (Azzolini & Shillaber, 1993). The term internal service quality was first proposed by Sasser and
Arbeit (1976). They consider the organizational staff as the internal customers and they say that internal customers’ satisfaction and
providing high quality services among these staff are requirements of providing high quality services to the external customers (Liang
Wang, 2010). Defining the internal service quality Di Xie (2005) states that the internal service quality is a level where an employee
is satisfied with the received services offered by the internal service providers (Di Xie, 2005). Also the internal service quality refers
to the feelings of organizational staff about the quality of services they provide for their colleagues or receive from them (Hallowell et
al., 1996). According to service-profit chain (SPC) Heskett et al (1994), the quality of provided services within the organization acts
as a connector and connects the satisfaction and loyalty of staff to the loyalty and satisfaction of customer and organization growth
and earning profit (Heskett, 1994).
Hallowel et al (1996) believes that organizations that tend toward providing high quality services to the external customers
should improve the quality of services within their organization (Hallowell et al., 1996). According to Zhen You (2003) an important
part of internal service quality is that how the staff of one part of the organization, offer services to the other colleagues in the

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organization. Based on this the amount of quality of services provided within the organization affects the satisfaction of other staff
(Zhen-You, 2003). Meng Xia (2003) states that providing high quality services within the organization results in increase of
satisfaction of staff and this ultimately results in satisfaction of customers outside the organization and it improves the performance of
that organization (Meng-Xia, 2003). Liang Wang (2010) believes that paying attention to the internal service quality is the starting
point for satisfaction of staff, shareholders, external customers and ultimately improvement of organizational performance (Liang
Wang, 2010). Davis (1994) states that the quality of provided services within the organization is considered as one of the most
important components of strategy of service quality in organizations and paying attention to this part in long-term results in costs
reduction and profitability for the organization (Davis, 1994). In this regard, research results of Bellou and Andronikidis (2008)
conducted on 16 great banks of Greece showed that the increase of quality of provided services among the studied bank employees
affected the behavior of their external customers and they are satisfied and this leads to the improvement of banks’ performance
(Bellou and Andronikidis , 2008). The research results of Yue Xia (2009) also showed that the quality of internal services and the
satisfaction of internal customers had a positive effect on the satisfaction of external customers and ultimately they affect the growth
and profitability of the organization (Yue-Xia, 2009). Also some parts of the results of Qin Nan’s research [2009] conducted in the
Taiwanese insurance companies showed that a positive and significant correlation exists between different levels of internal service
quality, job satisfaction of staff and performance of these companies (Qin-Nan, 2009).On the other hand, in a research conducted
about the hospitability industry in Taiwan, Liang Wang (2010) concluded that different levels of quality of internal services have
positive and significant effect on the organizational performance. Also another part of the research results showed that a significant
difference exists between the perception of quality of provided services in these hotels among male and female staff (Liang Wang,
2010). Ming research results (2010) showed that a positive and significant correlation exists between levels of quality of internal
services and organizational performance in Chinese service companies (Ming, 2010).
Nowadays studying the quality of services in different aspects of sport industry such as sports centers, professional sports,
fitness programs, sports spectators, and sparing time, healthy recreation and tourism are incredibly increased and the same as
managers of other industries, managers of sports industries concluded that providing high quality services and customers’
satisfaction are the key of success in these organizations (Chelladuraie, 2003). Despite this Di Xie (2005) states that most of the
sports organizations are looking for evaluating the quality of provided sports services from the perspective of external customers and
the problem which emerges is that the quality of internal services and the interactions between the organizational staff are
overlooked (Di Xie, 2005). In this regard the research findings of Chelladuraie (2003) showed that the quality of services provided
among the staff of sports organization could affect the performance of these organizations (Chelladuraie, 2003). Regarding the
increasing spread of sports and physical activities and their importance in the societies’ health and change of demands and
requirements of the public, the responsibility of sports organizations has become more difficult than the past. The most important
goal of these organizations is to provide high quality services to their customers. In between, factors such as quality of provided
services among the organizational staff could affect the quality of provided services to the external customers and ultimately affects
the organizational performance (Ahmadi, 2007).
Ministry of youth and sports is an organization which is created by the combination of two organizations of Physical
Education Organization and National Youth Organization. This organization is the main and effective institution in all of the sports
activities in the country and it has a broad relationship with other sports and non-sports organizations within and outside the country.
According to its duties in the sports field and activities related to the youth affairs and also for reaching its organizational goals this
young organization needs to provide high quality services to the internal and external customers. The conducted researches about
the quality of sports in Iran are more concerned about surveying the quality of services from the perspective of customers outside the
organization and some of these researches are researches of Ahmadi (2009) and Bahlake et al (2009). Also a few previous
researches studied about the performance in sports sectors of the country, performance of athletes (Narimani et al., 2007), sports
leagues (Elahi, 2004) and coaches (Khabiri, 2002). Despite this, conducting a glancing study which could clearly explain the
organizational performance and its related and effective factors on the sports organizations seems necessary. This study allows the
management of human resources and staff to have special attention toward this matter and to be aware of its role and effect. This
matter clarifies the necessity and importance of studying the role of levels of internal service quality on the performance of Iran’s
ministry of youth and sports and it provides a situation for offering some suggestions based on the research findings.
Methodology
The current research method is descriptive-correlative and it is conducted through field method. The research population
includes all of the sports experts of Iran’s ministry of youth and sports (280 individuals). In order to determine the reliability of the
questionnaires, 40 individuals participated in the preliminary study and they were removed. 240 individuals were chosen as the
research sample, and after distributing the questionnaires, 231 questionnaires were returned. The current research data collection
tools are two questionnaires of internal service quality of Di Xie (2005) and Organizational performance of Cho (2009). The
questionnaire is designed and developed in three parts. The first part is allocated to the personal information including questions
about age, gender, educational level, and work experience. The second part is the internal service quality questionnaire of Di Xie
including twenty one 7-item questions and evaluating the internal service quality in three levels of personal, sectors and
organizational. The method of giving scores to the answers is based on the seven-point value scale of Likert. In this continuum each
of the qualitative values equals one numerical value which begins with number one (completely disagree) and ends with number
seven (completely agree). The score of internal service quality is achieved by the total score of the questions. The method of giving
scores to the answers of this questionnaire is based on the seven-point value scale of Likert. In this continuum each of the qualitative

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values equals one numerical value which begins with number one (completely disagree) and ends with number seven (completely
agree). The score of organizational performance is achieved through total score of questions.
The face validity and content-related validity of the questionnaires were confirmed by the professors who are expert in the
field of sports management and in calculating the reliability, the amount of Cronbach’s alpha for the internal service quality
questionnaire was (α=0.81) and for organizational performance questionnaire it was (α=0.82). SPSS 16 software was used for data
analysis and conducting the descriptive statistics and LISREL software was used for SEM.
Results
The descriptive findings related to the statistic sample showed that 6.1% of the experts were in the age range of 20 to 25
years old, 24.7% were in the age range of 26 to 30, 20.8% of them were in the age range of 31 to 35 and 48.6% of the experts were
in the age range of 36 and higher. Also the educational level of 2.2% of the examinees was diploma, 19% of them associate degree,
67.1% bachelor degree and 11.7% of them master degree and higher. 58% of the examinees had the work experience of 1 to 10
years, 27.3% of them had 11 to 25 year work experience and 14.7% of them had work experience of 21 years or higher.
Impressible factors Impressible and effective factors Effective Factors
Figure 1. Results of structural equation modeling (Impact factor and amount of t value).
After conducting the factor analysis, the SEM analysis was conducted for studying the effect of internal service quality on
the performance of ministry of youth and sports (Figure 1). As it is observable in figure 1, the impact factor of internal service quality
on the organizational performance was 0.48. In the above figure, the amount of t indicates the significance or insignificance of these
correlations (-1.96>t>1.96). The amount of t should be bigger than 1.96 or smaller than -1.96 in order to show the significance of
these correlations between the variables. The amount of t shows that except the effect of variable of internal service quality in the
sectors level and the internal service quality in organizational level other correlations are significant.
Table 1. Model fitting indexes.
Estimation
Fitting index
192.26
Chi square (χ2)
58
Degree of freedom (df)
3.030
Ratio of Chi square to degree of freedom (X2/df)
0.000
Significance level (P-Value)
0.076
Mean squared errors of model (RMSEA)
0.960
Goodness of fit (GFI)
0.970
AGFI
0.980
NFI
As it is observable in table 1, ratio of chi square to degree of freedom is a bit more than 3, but the amount of RMSEA is
less than 0.08. Also the indexes of GFI, AGFI and NFI were more than 0.90 thus they are acceptable and desirable. Generally it
Internal
service quality
Organizationa
l performance
Internal service
quality at
organizational
Internal service
quality at
individual level
Internal service
quality at
sectors level

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could be said that all of the model main fitting indexes also indicate the fitting and appropriateness of the model for extracting the
correlation among the variables 9 table 1.
Table 2. Amount of factor analysis of variables which are indirectly effective on the performance of ministry of youth and sports.
Quality of internal service in
organizational level
Quality of internal service in
the sectors level
Quality of internal service in
the individual level
Effective factors
Impressible factor
0.16 0.24 0.46
Organizational
performance
In table 2 the indirect factor analysis of variables of internal service quality in the individual level, internal service quality in
sectors level and internal service quality in organizational level on the variable of organizational performance are brought.
Discussion and Conclusion
One of the most important challenges in front of the organizations and especially service organizations is the matter of
quality. Quality of the provided services is often studied from the perspective of customers out of the organizations. By proposing two
terms of internal marketing and internal service quality, organizational staffs are also participated in evaluation of quality of services.
Internal service quality is considered as one of the most important elements in effectiveness of modern dynamic organizations such
as sports organizations. Along with this we can refer to this point that demographic characteristics (such as age, educational level
and work experience) is one of the effective factors on the quality of internal services and the organizational performance (Qin-Nan,
2009). Staffs who are working in an organization for several years have valuable experiences and these experiences could help to
improve the individual’s performance and ultimately the organizational performance. In this research, the samples’ age range (34.6)
is an indicator of their middle age. Thus it could be said that the sports experts of ministry of youth and sports are at the starting point
of their field of work and this could be effective on their perception from the quality of internal service and their role in improvement of
organizational performance. 78.8% of the experts had bachelor degree or higher than that. This matter is consistent with this point
that the higher the educational level of the organizational staff, the better the improvement of organizational performance (Ming,
2010). Paying attention to the amount of work experience of the experts showed that 58% of the experts had work experience of 1 to
10 years and this could affect the quality of provided services among the experts and ultimately the organizational performance.
The results related to the statistical analysis of research data showed that between the levels of quality of internal service,
the indirect effect of quality of internal services in the individual level on the organizational performance is more than the two other
levels. In this field we can refer to the Liang Wang’s research (2010) indicating that companies and organizations that start the
quality of internal services from their staff level are also successful at their work (Liang Wang, 2010). The quality of internal services
has been at the center of attention since long time ago in industrial and commercial sectors, and managers of organizations pay
attention to them (Di Xie, 2005) and such matter has recently been at the center of attention in sports organizations and especially in
Iranian sports organizations. About the importance of quality of internal services in individual level, Liang Wang (2010) states that the
secret to success of Tourism industry in Taiwan is educating the staff of these hotels in order to provide high quality services to the
other sectors and their colleagues (Liang Wang, 2010). Also there are several factors that affect the quality of provided services
among the staff of an organization. Di Xie (2005) considers the organizational commitment as one of the most important effective
factors on the quality of provided services among the staff of one organization (Di Xie, 2005). On the other hand, Heskett et al (1994)
consider the satisfaction and loyalty of staff and Qin-Nan (2009) consider the job satisfaction of the staff as important factors in
quality of provided services among the staff of one organization (Hesket et al., 1994; Qin-Nan, 2009). Since the starting point of
quality of internal services in an organization is providing high quality services among the organizational staff and paying attention to
this matter could affect the performance of the organization thus it is recommended to the managers and human resource sector of
ministry of youth and sports to detect the barriers and effective factors on the quality of internal services in individual level, and
provide an appropriate setting for improvement of the quality of provided services among the sports experts of this organization.
Research findings showed that the indirect effect of quality of provided services in the sectors level on the organizational
performance is not significant. Distribution of sports experts in different offices of ministry of youth and sports, non-effective
correlation between the sectors, high number of sectors, and mismatch of the educational certificate of experts of sectors with their
jobs could have been effective in achieving this result. Having sectors that each has its own responsibility for doing tasks is one of
the most important features of organizations. Zhen-You (2003) believes that the quality of provided services by one sector to the
other sectors and staff within one organization affects the performance of organization (Zhen-You, 2003). Hallowel et al (1996)
generally divided the effective factors on the quality of provided services by different sectors of an organization to two categories of
financial and non-financial factors. These researchers state that although the financial incentives affect the quality of provided
services by the staff of one sector, non-financial factors such as goal setting of the sector along with the goals of the organization,
decision making power, and having effective relationships with other sectors have more effect on the quality of produced services by
one sector (Hallowel et al., 1996). Thus it is recommended that the managers of ministry of youth and sports pay special attention
toward the quality of provided services by different sectors of this organization and use methods such as specialization in sectors,
educating the staff of sectors, in service classes, and giving financial and non-financial rewards in order to support the improvement
of quality of provided services by sectors within this ministry. According to the research results, the indirect effect of quality of internal
services on the organizational performance is not significant and this finding is consistent with the research results of Qin Nan (2009)

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and Liang Wang (2010) (Liang Wang, 2010; Yue-Xia, 2009). The quality of internal services provided in the whole organization is an
estimation of provided services by the staff and different sectors of the organization (Di Xie, 2005). Meng Xia (2003) states that when
the quality of internal services in one organization in individual level and sector level are supported and used by the whole
organization they will be effective (Meng-Xia, 2003). Liang Wang (2010) believes that increase of quality of internal services in the
whole organization in long-term could result in the improvement of job performance and reduction of costs and ultimately the
enhancement of organizational performance (Liang Wang, 2010). Regarding the importance of quality of internal services in the
organizational level, it is recommended to the managers and people in charge in the human resources sector of ministry of youth and
sports to make efforts along with supporting and institutionalizing the quality of internal services as a part of the culture of that
ministry. Also making appropriate changes in different sectors of this organization such as the structure of organization and reward
and promotion system could help the improvement of quality of internal services in the ministry of youth and sports and ultimately
result in the enhancement of the performance of this ministry.
Research results showed that generally, the effect of quality of internal services on the organizational performance is
significant, and this finding was consistent with the research results of Yue-Xia (2009), Qin-Nan (2009) and Liang Wang (2010).
Nowadays the researchers consider the quality of services within an organization as one of the most important strategic aspects of
quality of services which in long-term result in the reduction of costs and organization profitability. Relationship and providing the
high quality services among the staff of one organization are the important factors in interaction of these staff with the customers
outside the organization. The customers inside an organization create a part of a cycle which could ultimately affect the satisfaction
of customers outside the organization and lead to success or failure of the organization. Paying attention to the quality of internal
services which affect the other effective variables on the quality of provided services to the customers outside the organization is
depended on the support of leaders and managers of the organization and especially managers of human resources. Regarding the
position of sports in growth and development of physical and mental dimensions of the society in one hand and role of sports as an
industry in economic growth of sports and societies’ organizations on the other hand, paying attention to the quality of services of
such organizations seems necessary. Thus leaders and managers of human resources of sports organizations and especially the
ministry of youth and sports should design and use strategic plans appropriate to the type of activity of the organization and provide
the setting for improvement of the quality of internal services. At the end it should be reminded that in order to acquire awareness
about the status of quality of internal services and organizational performance in other sports organizations, broader researches are
needed.
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