International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences

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The Moderating Role of Gender Difference in The Behaviors of Omantel Frontline Service Employees Connecting The Relationship Between Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction

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Omantel is a leading telecom operator in Oman, where more recently there have been calls from its customers focusing on service quality to increase customer satisfaction, and organizational profitability. Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1988) SERVQUAL Model did not break down the gender construct into male and female ignoring the gender difference in the behaviors of Frontline Service Employees (FSEs). Therefore, the current study adds this breakdown to their theory. This study is an attempt to investigate whether the gender difference (male and female gender) in the behaviors of FSEs at Omantel outlets in Muscat moderates the relationship between service quality dimensions namely: Tangibles, Responsiveness, Assurance, Empathy, Reliability, Job Requirements, Rapport, and Job Satisfaction and Omantel Customer Satisfaction. The target population for this study consists of 384 subscribers who are used to visit or contact Omantel outlets in Muscat (the capital of Oman), but 328 Omantel subscribers responded to the online questionnaire adapted from SERVQUAL scale and used to reach out the respondents who have been selected using non-probability convenience sampling. Structured questionnaire data was analyzed by SPSS SEM and AMOS. This quantitative research found that the behaviors of both male and female FSEs moderated the relationships between all service quality dimensions where female FSEs moderated these relationships stronger than their counterparts.
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