Chapter 2

REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND STUDIES

This chapter presents the various literature and studies. These were collected

articles mostly from the internet and some had been gathered from read sources. All had

provided the researchers with ideas and principles that were helpful in the development

of study.

The researchers also made use of different reading materials related to the present

research study. These materials such as books, journals, magazines, thesis and other web

articles were essential in broadening the knowledge of the researchers. These would also

a guide to the researchers to achieve the target objectives by getting ideas on other related

studies and would make improvements as possible.

The Concept of Employees Behavior

Ethical behaviours of employees are a good start to initiate and maintaining good

rapport with customers. According to Roman and Ruiz (2015), ethical sales behaviour in

a sales relationship setting refers to the behaviour of the salesperson towards the

customers. Similarly, ethical behaviour is further explained as the fair and honest actions

of the employees that ultimate facilitate a long term relationship between employees and

customers that is grounded on loyalty and trust. As employees of the service industry

especially those dealing with sales has the most interaction with customers, their actions

and behaviour has weighty effect on the general opinion of the public towards the

company (Mantel, 2012).

On the other hand, customers who experienced good service and were

satisfied with what the business offered will have higher chance of purchasing again in
the business. Due to this kind of situation, we will ensure that the customers will be

satisfied with our offers. According to Olson and Bokor (2015), the performance of an

enterprise is determined by the business strategy it adopts. Strategies which result in high

performance are identified with activities that generally lead to success in the industry;

that is key success factors. Researchers have identified such initiatives to include

emphasis on product quality, product and service innovations, development of new

operating technologies, and discovery of new markets Activities associated with high

performing strategies also include emphasis on customer service and support, extensive

advertising, and use of external finance because high performing strategies involve

initiative-taking, hence referred to as proactive strategies (Robinson & Pearce, 2018).

By being ethical in the eyes of the customers, there stand a better chance for

customers coming back to the store or outlet. Inarguably, there are a stronger pressure for

employees in fast food restaurants especially those on the front line taking orders as they

are the sales representatives of the store or outlet. As sales representatives, they have to

meet monthly sales target and thus may resort to unethical behaviour such as pushing for

sales and providing false information about the product to meet the target (Alburaibee,

2012).

In addition, Krepapa et al. (2013) indicated that employee’s behavior significantly

effects customer’s perception about a services provided in a certain establishment to build

an interpersonal relationship towards their customers. More so, Boles et al. (2011)

advocated that service organizations with very positive attitude towards service oriented

employee behavior continuously strive for culture with highest priority to customers

need.
 According to Gatignon and Xuered (2017), employee behavior in service

establishment are the activities that employees should undertake in identifying,

evaluating, understanding and responding to customer needs boom the business and get

the attention of the customers to patronage their services base on the behaviour of their

employees in a good pleasant and a good manner in entertaining a customer.

A study that cites the importance of employee behaviours during service

encounters was conducted by Bulgarella (2015) who reviewed the relationship between

financial success and customer and employee variables (eg customer satisfaction,

employee satisfaction, etc) and found that, depending on market segment and industry,

between 40 and 80 per cent of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty was accounted

for by the relationship between employee attitudes and customer related variables.

Being in a restaurant with good ambiance, reasonable price, and good quality

of food will be more likely to attract more customers. Different reactions from

the customers are inevitable that’s why negative feedback from the customers

may occur. If this happens, our business ill immediately perform an action by fixing

what they want to be fixed and by giving them freebies. This situation may

result in positive responses for our business and may increase our sales over time. The

study of Wanja (2015) entitled “Strategic Management Practices Applied by Fast-food

Franchises in Nairobi City County Kenya to Enhance Performance”. The study tries to

find out the strategic management practices being used by fast-food franchises in Nairobi

to enhance performance. This results from the gap which existed on whether the fast food

franchises apply different strategies at the same time or only one strategy at a time to

survive in new markets, grow and make profits. The study concludes that the most
common strategy formulation practices were articulation of a vision and mission

statement. Majority of the franchises had an extremely high capacity to implement the set

strategies as well as staff competency. On strategy evaluation, level of participation in

strategy evaluation by Board of Directors and management staff was high. This shows

that the franchises are committed to applying strategic management practices to steer

their operations in the Kenyan market (Wanja, 2015).

Liljander (2010) highlighted the importance of contact employees ’behaviours

during service interactions in the hotel industry when he indicated that a major focus in

any hotel should be the personal linkage between the service provider and the customer.

He stated that more attention should be given to the service providers on the front-line

(desk clerks, waiters, door and bell men, maids and stewards) interacting with the

customer. The study established that the management needs to have a positive rethink

towards the use of strategic management and have the right resources as the success of a

business or strategy depends primarily on the value judgment, energy and skill of its top

managers 44 and the strategic implementation within the context and parameter of the

uncertainty and ambiguity of the environment subjected to volatility. Wanja (2015) added

that the study further established that strategic training is recommended to top

management and all employees in the fast food franchises in order to enhance their

performance. Also it recommended that top management should undertake a

comprehensive study and adoption of strategic management in all and every aspect and

areas of its concern so as to synergies, restructure, re-engineer and reposition its

operations and thus enhancing competitiveness and performance.

 Service Quality was proposed by by Parasuraman et al. (1988) as a service quality

model for quantifying the magnitude of the gap between what consumers expect and their

views of employees behavior. The SERVQUAL approach categorizes service quality into

five dimensions: reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibles.

Tangibles

According to Parasuraman et al. (1991), tangibles are physical facilities

(equipment, personnel, and communications materials). Customers will evaluate the

service's quality based on its outward appearance. The term "tangibles" refers to the

actual facilities, tools, and machines needed to supply the service, as well as

representations of the service, such as statements, cards (debit and credit), transaction

speed, and efficiency. According to Parasuraman et al. (1988), tangibles are just as

important as empathy. The authors claimed that it is prudent to include operating hours in

the empathy component; further, the reliability dimension might incorporate overdraft

privileges (Agbor, 2011). Sharmin et al. (2016) classify tangibles as a unique element,

demonstrating cultural consistency. Many authors agreed that services are intangible and

they are hard to conceptualize. It is pivotal to agree, services are overall experiences

consumers received whether the decoration and infrastructure of the tapsilogan

establishment that consumers to feel the experience about the provided services of their

employees.

According to Tamwatin et al. (2015), tangibles are the appearance of service

facilities and human resources when delivering organizational communication material

that is directly related. According to Moon (2013), tangible is a concern and attention

given by the organization to consumers. If the tangible aspect given by the company is
satisfactory, we can be sure that reliability will be formed when dealing with consumers.

Good reliability is the ability of the organization to provide services that are in

accordance with what is promised by using physical facilities owned by the organization

Martini et al. (2018). The ability of an organization to provide physical facilities that can

support organizational goals can create the ability of employees when performing

services in accordance with the agreed time Moon (, 2013).

The tangibles represent the restaurant’s physical attributes, which are usually

noticed first by customers when they enter the restaurant. Yüksel & Yüksel (2012)

examined tourist satisfaction with restaurant services and their study revealed that

“service environment” such as seating arrangements, music decoration, is the critical

determinant in shaping customers’ behavior. A recent study undertaken by Chow et al.

(2017) investigating restaurant services in the Chinese context reveals that interaction

with staff and the physical environment are the more important than the outcome quality

in predicting service quality for restaurant customers. Similarly, Ryu & Jang (2017)

explored the combined effect of atmospheric variables on behavioral intentions in upscale

restaurants. Their findings revealed that ambience (e.g. music, aroma and temperature)

and employee appearance had the most important influence on customers’ emotional

responses, which in turn affected customers’ post-dining behavioral intentions. In their

investigation, Han & Ryu (2019) findings suggest that a restaurant firm should carefully

design the physical environment to improve the customer’s perceived reasonableness of

the price. The authors further indicated that creative use of physical design in a restaurant

operation would be essential in enhancing specific marketing objectives such as positive

customer perception of quality, positive evaluation of experience, and positive attitudes.

Bitner (2012) coined the term services cape to denote the physical elements of the service

environment. According to Bitner the service scape consists of three tangible factors that

influence customer perceptions of quality resulting in their level of satisfaction and

repatronage behaviors. The service scape factors include ambient conditions (e.g.,

temperature, noise, odors), spatial layout and functionality (e.g., arrangement of

furnishings and their relationship to customer and employee needs), and signs, symbols

and artifacts (e.g., signage and de´cor which facilitates a desired image or mood), The

service scape takes on greater importance for patrons who spend extended time in the

facility (e.g., restaurants, theatres, sporting events) as opposed to services that have a

quick transaction (e.g., bank, dry cleaners). Their findings indicated that the tangible

factor (service scape) was more important to bank and restaurant customers than the four

intangible factors in determining quality. Further, the tangible factor was found to

influence the intangible constructs of service quality. This research contradicts the work

of Parasuraman et al. (1988) who found that the intangible factors were significantly

more important than the tangible factor. In addition, Reimer and Kuehn (2005) have

revealed the critical influence and larger role that the tangible environment plays in the

service quality determination of customers.

A researcher suggested that it does require weight on tangible and intangible

assets (Narangajavana & Hu, 2018). Some studies argued what restaurants aim to deliver

might be differing from what consumers receive as in result (Lee & Hing 2015). This

makes a very valid point, the different types of consumers’ desire differently thus

sometimes tapsilogan restaurant fail to deliver its intended value to consumers and result

in disappointment. This factor is appreciated by valued consumers to assure service

quality (Zeithaml, Parasuraman, and Berry; Budhathoki, 2018). Tangibility refers to the

cleanness of the rooms, restaurants and other areas, the clean and proper uniform, used by

the employees, usage of disposable gloves and etc (Abdulla et al. 2017). Tangibles,

amongst all other five dimensions, think over the most significant element for the

consumer. It gives physical representation of pictures of the services that clients,

especially new clients, will use to assess the quality. In spite of the fact that tangibles are

frequently utilized by service providers to reinforce their reputation, give congruity, and

sign quality to client, most organizations unite together tangibles with other in order to

establish a service quality technique for the company (Anwar & Balcioglu, 2016).

Numerous fast food restaurants are nowpaying attention on studying, assessing and

implementing the marketing strategies with the aim of gaining maximum market share of

customers and improving customer retention to improve the monetary performance for

the organization. Customer satisfaction, contentment, retention, quality and excellence

are global matters that influence all organizations (Lasser& Winsor, 2010).

Johnston (2015) argues that the intangible aspects of the staff client relationship

have a significant effect, both positive and negative, on quality service. Bebko (2010)

proposes that the significance of tangible components is lowest for services with the

lowest share of tangibility, and highest for services with the highest share tangibility.

Shostack (2012) proposed a molecular model, among others, for hotel companies as well.

Service quality in hotel business has both a tangible and intangible basis, so that the

tapsilogan product is a mixture of elements not necessarily of the same type (Jones,

Lockwood, 2014). The molecular model can be changed successfully in the case of a

hotel product, given that it comprises a range of separate, but mutually linked elements,
such hotel and room design, food and drink supply, employees’ service, the overall

ambience and atmosphere.

Reliability

As per Parasuraman et al. (1994), reliability refers to an organization's capacity to

execute a service accurately the first time. Additionally, it demonstrates that firms make

an effort to keep promises and pay attention to results. The SERVQUAL service quality

model's first dimension is reliability. According to Lam (2012), reliability is the most

important dimension of the service quality model. Armstrong mentioned that reliability is

the ability to perform the service in a way that it was guaranteed to consumers accurately

and dependably (Kotler and Armstrong, 2012). This can be illustrated that the service

provider delivers the promised quality service to a consumer without making any mistake

in the first place to delight the customer. This dimension emphasizes service delivery,

price, and issue resolutions (To, 2018). Parasuraman et al. (1988) revealed that reliability

was the most important and empathy the least important dimension across wide array of

service types. The importance of reliability dimension stated in different study contexts

Zeithaml and Klefsjö (2016). However, Chowdhary and Prakash (2017) concluded that

tangibles are more important for services with more tangible aspects (e.g. restaurants),

while reliability might be valued more with intangible nature of services. Further,

services targeted at the close communication with the customer require more assurance

and empathy as compared to others.

The restaurant service quality is difficult to evaluate, because the assessments are

made on both the service outcome and on the process of service delivery. Previous
researches suggested that food quality, physical environment and service are the major

components of overall restaurant service quality (Chan and Han 2010). Among these

attributes, food quality is the most important dimension of the restaurant experience

(Sulek and Hensley 2014). Although there is no consensus on the individual attributes

that constitute food quality, the researchers focus on presentation, healthy options, taste,

freshness and temperature (Namkung and Jang 2018). Similarly, Wu and Liang (2019)

stated that service encounter in restaurant settings consists of three main elements:

environmental elements (e.g. design, music, lighting), employees (e.g. professional skills,

reliability) and customers (e.g. interaction with other customers). Robert & Wowor

(2011); Uyoga (2018) states that reliability has a positive effect on customer satisfaction.

This means that the ability to provide promised services promptly, accurately, and

satisfactorily can affect customer satisfaction. Yousuf (2017) said that the reliability

aspect of service quality has an influence on customer satisfaction. The same thing was

stated by Famiyeh et al. (2018) that reliability is the company's ability to provide services

in accordance with what is promised accurately and reliably. The relationship between

reliability and customer satisfaction is reliability that has a positive influence on customer

satisfaction. The better consumer perceptions of company reliability, the highest

customer satisfaction will be.

When examining key service dimensions in restaurant industry, authors report

somewhat different results. Andaleeb and Conway (2006) reported a four-factor solution,

interpreted as responsiveness, food quality, physical design and price. Kim et al. (2019)

identified five factors, labeled as food quality, service quality, price and value,

atmosphere and convenience. Marković et al. (2010) revealed seven dimensions for
expected service quality (cleanliness and appearance of facilities and staff, assurance,

individual attention, satisfaction and loyalty, basic demands, responsiveness and

reliability) and two dimensions for perceived service quality (overall dining experience

and restaurant ambience). According to Gupta et al. (2017), the link between customer

satisfaction and repeat buying is an important contributor to a restaurant’s profits.

Hence studies investigating these links have been numerous and the literature

reveals evidence of strong relationships between customer satisfaction with various

restaurant attributes and repeat-purchase intentions (Stevens et al., Cheng, 2015). Other

studies have established the relationships between service quality, customer satisfaction

and behavioral intentions, namely intention to return and to recommend. Qu (2017) found

that food quality in Chinese restaurants was the most important determinants of

customer’s decision to return, followed by cleanliness, value, price and convenience,

which ranked second, third, fourth and fifth, respectively. Namkung & Jang (2018) also

investigated how food quality is perceived in relation to satisfaction and behavioral

intentions in mid-to upscale restaurants. Their study showed that overall food quality

significantly affected customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions and also revealed

that the relationship between food quality and customer behavioral intentions was

mediated by satisfaction. Ladhari et al. (2018) investigated determinants of dining

satisfaction and post-dining behavioral intentions, and concluded that perceived service

quality influenced customer satisfaction through both positive and negative emotions.

In its broadest sense, reliability means that an organization delivers on its

promises – promises about service provision, pricing, delivery and problem solving

(Jordaan & Bitner, 2013). In restaurants, reliability may be characterized by adherence to

customer requests regarding the preparation of menu items, reservations of tables and

accurate billing among others. Responsiveness refers to the willingness of service

providers to provide prompt service and help customers. This dimension emphasizes

attentiveness and promptness in dealing with customer questions, requests, problems and

complaints (Lee & Johnson, 2017). Responsiveness is communicated to customers by the

length of time they have to wait for assistance, answers to questions, or attention to

problems. That is to say that service quality may be enhanced through responsiveness if,

for example, patrons are timely assisted with the wine list and menu, or if staff responds

appropriately to a customer’s request for prompt service (Zeithaml & Bitner, 2013).

In a way, the service provider should keep his promise to consumers especially in

the quality of water, price, services he offered. Reliability is an especially crucial quality

to achieve particularly in the restaurant industry (Wu and Mohi, 2015). This implies

reliability is essential when it comes to foods and services provided in a tapsilogan

restaurant. Many scholars showed that it’s an important component of the service

industry through which consumers attain good expectations (Budhathoki, 2018).

However, consumers are sensitive when it comes to service they are most likely to revisit

to a tapsilogan restaurants that keeps its promise if it’s not consumers can easily annoyed.

In addition, the service businesses required to be conscious of consumer expectation of

reliability (Kalidas, 2017).

Saraei and Amini (2012) showed a correlation among the items in the

questionnaire indicated the reliability of the questionnaire. Saraei and Amini found that

the total quality service in the same questionnaire was valid and reliable. The findings

indicated that all items on the SERVQUAL model of the previous research results were
significant with a 99% confidence level (Lopez-Alarcon, 2003). Boyle, Samaha,

Rodewald, and Hoffmann (2013) stated that reliability tests the internal consistency of an

instrument, test-retest coefficient of the instrument, and the validity test the accuracy of

the data. A Cronbach’s alpha test identified the reliability of an instrument (Boyle et al.,

2013). Previously, testing of the survey was essential to determine whether a gap existed

between service quality and customers’ intention.

More so, Lopez-Alarcon (2016) previously tested the reliability of this survey and

recruited 230 customers to participate in the process, which reportedly received 230

completed surveys. Lopez-Alarcon tested the dimensions of customer satisfaction of the

banks in Boca Raton, FL as it related to the SERVQUAL model. The results for customer

service and the banking industry satisfaction showed a 99% confidence level, showing a

high ikelihood of validity (López-Alarcón, 2003) – significantly higher than Barret et

al.’s (2014) guideline of coefficients ranging between .70 – .89 showing a strong

correlation. Lopez-Alarcon added that the 10 dimensions of customer satisfaction were

responsible for 51.6% of the variance in the total of customer satisfaction.

Responsiveness

According to Parasuraman et al. (1994), responsiveness of willing personnel

entails informing clients of when tasks will be completed, giving them undivided

attention, promoting services, and reacting to their demands. SERVQUAL 1994 placed

responsiveness as the third dimension. Responsiveness is providing to the request of

consumers without hesitation and willingness to help them within a short amount of time

(Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry, Karki, and Panthi, 2018). It’s necessary for

businesses to focus and vigilant in handling consumer orders, questions, and issues (Lee
and Johnson, 2017; Zeithaml & Bitner). This can be drawn that delivering prompt service

to consumers and facilitating consumers with anything they requested play important in a

tapsilogan restaurant to satisfy consumers with full service. Munusamy et al. (2010) state

that responsiveness is the desire of employees or staff to help customers and provide

good service and responses. The motivation of employees to solve problems faced by

customers when using the services has a positive effect on customer satisfaction. Saad

Andaleeb & Conway (2006) states that responsiveness has a positive effect on consumer

satisfaction. This means that the higher the responsiveness that consists of the willingness

and speed of employees in providing services to customers without having to be asked by

customers, customer satisfaction will increase. Consumer perceptions of employee

responsiveness, such as the speed and accuracy of service personnel in answering

problems experienced by service users, consumer satisfaction, will also be higher

(Mahamad & Ramayah, 2010). Siddiqi (2011) said that the responsiveness aspect of

service quality has an influence on customer satisfaction.

Responsiveness, according to Kara et al. (2015), is the ability of service providers

to help and provide fast and appropriate services to consumers with clear delivery.

Responsiveness can be used as a guideline to assess the reliability of a company.

Reliability is the ability to provide promised services that are reliable, accurate, and

reliable (Lau et al., 2013). Good responsiveness indicates that the reliability aspects of the

company's employees are very good.

A researcher said the quality of service may be developed through responsiveness

for instance; consumers are aided with the menu and wine, or if employee replies

properly to a consumer’s order for quick service (Zeithaml and Bitner, 2003; Carrillat,
Jaramillo, and Mulki, 2007; Omar, Ariffin, and Ahmad, 2016). Some said it is imperative

to service providers can respond to consumers effectively (Tcvetkova, 2017). The service

responsiveness can be enhanced by the repetitive point of the process of the delivery and

staff attitude directs orders of consumers (Ramya, Kowsalya, and Dharanipriya, 2019).

However, consumers are likely to complain if they do not get what they request in time

especially in the tapsilogan industry, among high competition consumers are changeable

for new schedule of delivery where special service offered.

According to Armando (2015) , successful service providers are able to meet and,

whenever possible, exceed consumers ’needs and wants in delivering services, due to

certain specifi c characteristics of services (eg intangibility, simultaneity, variability and

perishability) and to the human element, in particular the ‘ face-to-face ’interaction with

the customer. In addition, Kong and Jogaratnam (2017) confirmed the fact that employee

personalisation and courtesy were significant predictors of customer satisfaction.

Another study that cites the importance of employee responsiveness during

service encounters was conducted by Bulgarella (2015) who reviewed the relationship

between financial success and customer and employee variables (eg customer

satisfaction, employee satisfaction, etc) and found that, depending on market segment and

industry, between 40 and 80 per cent of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty was

accounted for by the relationship between employee attitudes and customer related

variables.

Recent research also studied the relationship between employees and customers

during service encounters. Subramony et al. (2014) found a positive relationship between

employees ’ internal service effectiveness and customers ’ service quality perceptions,

while Nicolini and Silvia (2016) stated that customer evaluation of the service received is

shaped by factors linked to the psychological interaction established during the exchange

transaction, and by factors connected to technical-specific characteristics of the service.

Paull (2018) conducted a study in the airline industry and found that employees and

customers did not share the same point of view when it came to defining a successful

interaction, as 92 per cent of employees stated that they were exceeding customer

expectations, while only 26 per cent of customers agreed with them.

Assurance

Assurance has been characterized as the politeness and knowledge of staff, as

well as their capability to instil confidence and trust in clients (Parasuraman et al., 1994).

The scholars' perspectives on the importance of assurance in terms of service quality are

diverse. Gronroos (2018) ranked assurance first, while Parasuraman et al. (1994) placed it

fourth. Assurance entails informing and listening to clients in their local language,

regardless of their educational level, age, or nationality. According to Parasuraman et al.

(1994), assurance refers to the employees' attitudes and behavior, as well as the staff's

ability to provide friendly, confidential, courteous, and competent services.

Assurance may be ensured if, for example, patrons are able to trust the

recommendations made by the waiter, feel confident that the food is free from

contamination and voice any concern without fear of insult or recrimination. Empathy is

the caring and individualized attention an establishment provides to its customers like

treating customers as individuals. The essence of empathy is by conveying, through

personalized service, that customers are special and unique (Zeithaml & Bitner, 2013).

Customers want to feel important and understood by the organizations that provide
services to them. Employees in restaurants may show empathy to customers by greeting

them by name, knowing their dietary requirements / preferences, and being understanding

/ sympathetic towards their problems (Zeithaml & Bitner, 2013).

Assurance indicates the courtesy, knowledge, accuracy, performance, and staff to

ensure belief and confidence in their patrons (Carrillat, Jaramillo, and Mulki, 2017;

Ramya, Kowsalya, and Dharanipriya, 2019). It’s pivotal for employees to behave

wellmannered, proficient, knowledge about the food, being friendly and helpful give

consumers feel the sense of belonging and safe about the tapsilogan restaurant. Another

researcher illustrated that assurance is linked with unknown outcomes of service in

impending time (Zeithaml, Parasuraman, and Berry, 1990; Budhathoki, 2018).

Liljander (2011), highlighted the importance of contact employees assurance

during service interactions in the hotel industry when he indicated that a major focus in

any hotel should be the personal linkage between the service provider and the customer.

He stated that more attention should be given to the service providers on the front-line

(desk clerks, waiters, door and bell men, maids and stewards) interacting with the

customer. Assurance ability of the employee to make customers feeling confidence in the

organization, when the patrons feel the service needs to improve this dimension will be

very important (Omar, 2016). Assurance shows in the restaurant as a very knowledgeable

and friendly staff and feel secure in financial transactions from customers (Aftab et al,

2016). Assurance is also defined as the knowledge and courtesy of the employees and

their ability to express the confidence and trust the company offers to its customers.

Assurance (including security, courtesy, competence and credibility): It is correlated with

good information and manners of staff as well as their traits and skills to provide the

confidence and ensure trust to the clients (Karki, 2018).

In addition, Arnette et al. (2012) mentioned that in the hotel sector, because most

hotels rely on their employees to deliver superior service, tapsilogan employees can be a

source of competitive advantage. They further stated that service quality, customer

satisfaction and loyalty are influenced considerably by the beliefs and actions of hotel

employees, and that by providing outstanding service, hotel employees can enhance the

image of the hotel and the level of perceived and actual service quality. Furthermore in a

similar point of view, Mattsson and Lemmink (2014) examined the notion that, as a

customer, everyone has experienced positive and negative emotions during service

delivery. They found that low-skilled contact staff may not be able to cope with

emotional situations when the entire image of the service firm is at stake. Because

emotions are intangible, difficult to control and instantaneous, they have both short-term

and long-term effects on customer perceptions.

Empathy

Customers must believe that the entity delivering services prioritizes them.

Empathy entails showing concern, paying close attention to individuals, and giving

services to clients (Parasuraman et al., 1994). Empathy is fundamentally about conveying

the sense that the customer is unique and special. According to Parasuraman et al. (1994),

quantitative research that have defined service quality model aspects have measured

empathy using security, credibility, and access.

Empathy is the way employees treat consumers with full attention and care for

their needs by providing personalized consideration toward consumers (Zeithaml,

Parasuraman, and Berry as cited by Morshidi, 2016). Theorists highlighted that it’s the

essence of empathy to convey through individualized service to treat consumers as

special (Zeithaml & Pandit, 2016). Explain in a way, employees serving to consumers

decently by full attention to make them feel delightful and warmth whether in restaurants

or any service industries. Armstrong concluded that empathy is when a business offered

to its employees to interact with personalized attention and care to its valued consumers

(Kotler and Armstrong, 2012). The key implications are drawn from this in restaurants,

consumers like to be treated as they are important and understood by the employees or

service providers to them. Some studies mentioned staffs in the restaurant industry may

empress empathy to customers by saluting by name, recognizing consumers’ preferences,

being understood towards their issues (Zeitham & Qadeer, 2016). For example, when

thinking about empathy in tapsilogan restaurant that come in mind are convenient dining

location, cordiality of employees, decency of service, pieces of advice in the menu,

offering a glass of wine or drink, selective music and convenient operating hours, etc.

Researchers dictated this dimension helps to add positive affect in the consumers’

feelings as they will accept that business has achieved their response during decision

making. This recognition from consumers helps business to conquer a better rank in

market competition. (Zeithaml, Parasuraman, and Berry, 1990; Budhathoki, 2018). Thus,

it showed it is pivotal that the service providers should put an effort to know and

remember the preferences, needs and wants of consumers. Empathy is the personalized

caring and which providing by organization to its customers, the essence of the empathy

is to perform a special service for customers (Omar, 2016). Empathy is willingness to

respond in suitable way that simulates customers' emotions any time (Shaffer, 2008).
Empathy is defined by the extent to which customer care and individual considerations

are offered by an organization (Armstrong, 2012). Empathy (including understanding,

access, and communication with clients): It indicates to personnel and individualized

caring, attention as well as understanding that the organization grants for its clients

(Karki, 2018). Customer’s satisfaction is the customers' evaluation based on consumption

experiences either goods or service (Cronin & Taylor, 2012). While other researchers

defined customer satisfaction is their judgment about characteristics of product or

services which provide a pleasurable level of consumption associated with fulfilment

(Omar, 2016). Customers' satisfaction is customers' evaluation to quality of delivered

services and products as good as they expect to be (Choi, 2011).

Gronroos model was considered general model, it never provided any technical

tool to measure the functional and technical quality (Baharun et al., 2012). Gronroos

determined three main components of service quality which are: technical quality or

outcomes which means what clients receive, functional quality that related with the way

of receiving service by customers, and image which is built by functional and technical

quality and some factors influence like (marketing communication, mouth word,

ideology, tradition, pricing and customer needs) (Ghotbabadi, 2012).

The Concept of Customer Gratification

The Customer gratification is for the most part associated with service feature in

the tapsilogan business. The customer gratification was one of the most important factors

for a successful business. Building a long-term partnership between the customer and the

food establishment guarantees not only the customer loyalty to the tapsilogan busineses

but also indicated the quality of services and products. Customer gratifications leaded to a
lot of effects and it was known to be an indicator of a business future income and profit

(Forozia, Zadeh, & Gilani, 2013). Furthermore, customer gratification has become the

determinant and predictable aspects of success, therefore, the business was not able to

compete with their competitor without the satisfaction of customers (Forozia et al. 2013).

According to Susskind and Chan (2000), three components contribute to overall customer

gratification with the restaurant: good food, good service and a pleasant setting. Kalra

(2001) explains that dinning out has become an integral part of customers’ lifestyle, thus

experienced customers have raised their expectations with regard to quality, good service,

well-cooked food and no dirty interiors, while seeking a better value for their money.

Several researchers have attempted to test the SERVQUAL framework in measuring

customer satisfaction in the restaurant industry

Thus, customer gratification is considered to be an important factor for increasing

profitability and maintaining the position of the organization. Reichheld and Sasser

(2010) report a strong relationship between customer defection rate and increased profits.

According to their research, reducing the defection rate by just 5% generates between 25

and 85% more profits for the organization depending on the pertinent industry (Reichheld

et al., 2020). Most investigations suggest that organizations should keep hold of their

loyal customers as a competitive asset. Nowadays, due to increased employment of

women outside the home and extensive changes in lifestyle, the use of restaurant food

and fast food is growing in the Iranian restaurant industry, and this can provide a very

good market for this industry. On the other hand, competition is also increasing in the

restaurant industry in Iran. Emergence of new chain restaurants, including Superstar,

Avachi, Pedar-e Khub, etc., and their dedication to opening new branches is an indication
of this issue. With increasing competition between restaurants, attracting new customers

can no longer guarantee profits and success, but retaining existing customers is of more

importance. In fact, a competitive environment provides customers with more alternatives

to choose from. Thereby, they can select their favorite option from several alternatives.

Consequently, customer loyalty is considered to be a vital factor for success,

continuation, and profitability of the restaurant industry.

Other studies on customer expectations and service quality perceptions in the

restaurant industry have revealed certain important attributes, such as low price, food

quality (food taste and nutrition properties), value for money, service, location, brand

name, and image (Pettijohn et al., & Howard, 2018). Sulek & Hensley (2014)

investigated the relative importance of food, physical setting, and service in a full-service

restaurant and food quality was found to be the most important factor influencing

satisfaction and the only factor predicting behavioral intention. Namkung & Jang (2017)

evaluated the relationships of individual attributes that constitute food quality (e.g. food

presentation, menu variety, healthy options, taste, food freshness and temperature) with

customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions. The findings revealed that food

presentation, taste and temperature were significantly related to customer satisfaction

whereas food presentation, taste and healthy options (instead of temperature) were

significant predictors of behavioral intention.

Zeithaml and Bitner (2018) define gratification as a judgement that a product or

service feature (or the product or service itself) provides a pleasurable level of

consumption-related fulfilment. Choi and Chu (2011) consider satisfaction as an

evaluation by customers that the food or service they have received is at least as good as
it is supposed to be. Customer satisfaction is critically significant as it reflects subjective

customer evaluations of the attribute performance associated with the consumption

experience (Cronin & Taylor, 1992). As for customer’s outcome behaviors, loyalty can

be measured using positive word of mouth, revisit intention and willingness to

recommend, which were taken from Mattila (2001) and Evanschitzky et al. (2006).

Andaleeb and Conway’s (2006) study showed that customer satisfaction is significantly

affected by the responsiveness of the employees, price and food quality. Kim et al. (2009)

researched that five extracted restaurant dimension (food quality, service quality, price

and value, atmosphere and convenience) had a significant effect on overall customer

satisfaction. According to Wu and Liang (2009) employees of restaurants affect customer

satisfaction. The research of of Liu and Jang (2009) indicated that food quality (taste,

food safety, menu variety, food presentation), service reliability, environmental

cleanliness, interior design, and neat and well-dressed employees significantly influenced

customer gratification.

Josiam (2014) conducted a study on student run restaurants in USA found that

there were six restaurant attributes that generate repeat customers which are food quality,

consistency, menu variety, an attractive price-value relationship, ambience, and

cleanliness. They believe that the restaurant that focuses on these attributes can raise the

level of customer loyalty and retention. In spite of the fact that there is no guarantee that

satisfied customers will revisit the restaurant, yet experience proved that 90 per cent of

the dissatisfied customers will not revisit the restaurant (Stevens et al., 2015). Chou, Wu,

and Huang (2014) suggest that service quality is perceived as the most important factor
and managers of restaurants should further understand customer behavior to improve

service quality in order to create value and satisfy customers.

According to Zeithaml (2018), perceived value plays an important role in the

consumer purchase decision making, suggesting that behavioral intentions are

consequences of perceived value. When customers perceive high levels of value from

consumption experiences, they tend to express positive behavioral intentions. Customers

who have previous experiences that they perceive as highly valuable in terms of efficient

and economical aspects will be more likely to have revisit intentions (Swinyard, 2013). In

the service industry, word-of-mouth is one of the most powerful forms of

communication. This is because they seek information and during the information-

seeking process, customers often see word-of-mouth information as more reliable as the

third-party’s opinion is based on their experiences.

Chin and Tsai (2013) attempted to establish a service quality evaluation model for

luxurious restaurants in international hotel chains. They argued that reliability is the chief

evaluation dimension which followed by empathy. Crucial indicators include maintaining

and cleaning the environment and facilities regularly and delivering guaranteed and

timely service. In another study, Vanniarajan and Meharajan (2012) identified important

Dineserv factors in the restaurant industry and measuring the impact of various Dineserv

variables in each factor on the overall service quality in the restaurant industry. They

concluded that confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the existence of six Dineserv

factors in restaurant industry namely; relationship benefits, empathy, communication,

food quality, price fairness, and tangibles. Moreover, further analyses showed that food

quality had the strongest influence on the overall service quality. The authors of this
paper have employed a similar version of Dineserv measure for dining quality developed

by Stevens et al. (1995) , although Vanniarajan and Meharajan (2012) have made

reference to the same article, yet the effort of Stevens and his colleagues was not well

stated in this paper. The authors of this article went further by giving the same title of

Stevens’ article to their paper.

Polyorat and Sophonsiri (2010) have reached similar conclusions when they

examined how each dimension of service quality may exhibit different effects on

customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in the chain restaurant context. They surveyed

395 Thai undergraduate students and found that the service quality dimensions of

tangibles and empathy have significant influences on customer satisfaction and customer

loyalty while the other three dimensions, namely reliabilities, responsiveness, and

assurance do not. In addition, customer satisfaction appears to mediate the influence of

service quality dimensions on customer loyalty. Ramseook-Munhurrun (2012) in his

study examined the influence of the service quality dimensions on customer satisfaction

and behavioral intentions within the restaurant context in an island economy, Mauritius.

Factor analysis was performed to determine dimensions that are likely to influence

customers’ restaurant service evaluations. Based on the analyses, three distinct

dimensions were identified by the customers including food quality-reliability,

responsiveness-assurance-empathy, and tangibles. Multiple regression analyses were then

employed to examine the relative importance of the three service dimensions in

determining satisfaction judgments and customers’ behavioral intentions. The results

support the links between service quality dimensions, satisfaction and behavioral

intentions respectively.
 Tripathi and Dave (2014) tried to explore the underlying key dimensions of

service quality in restaurants. The study was conducted in New Delhi and its adjoining

cities wherein the restaurant customers were surveyed using a structured questionnaire.

He used factor analysis to find out the underlying dimensions of service quality. The

dimensions he extracted are cultural orientation, aesthetics, ambient settings, empathy,

privacy and entertainment, first impression, reliability, and responsiveness. He concluded

that the Indian market was contextually different in contrast to various other countries

where such research studies have been conducted. He believed that his study provides

departure from previous studies and presents greater insight into the service quality

factors as perceived by the consumers in India.

Cheng (2015). For instance, food quality is the critical attribute influencing

repeat-purchase intentions in full-service restaurants, while waiting time is the most

important attribute in quick service restaurants (research focusing on full-service

restaurants. Most studies that show strong links between customer satisfaction and repeat-

purchase intentions typically employ cross-sectional data. Nevertheless, marketing

researchers argue that one should take into account the dynamic properties of such links

(Rust and Kennett 2010).

Previous research by Swan & Oliver (2019), has suggested that word-of-mouth is

a consequence of the customers’ emotional responses to consumption experiences. The

more customers value the affective aspects of a dining experience, the more likely they

will be to have the intention to spread positive word-of-mouth. Willingness to

recommend is also a positive behavioral intention derived from the perceived value of

consumption experiences (Bowen & Ladhari et al., 2018). It is also found that customers
who perceive their experiences in terms of value, either hardness or utilitarian, tend to

express their opinion by recommending the same experience to others. In a restaurant

setting, when customers perceive the value of the dining experience highly in terms of

cognitive aspects and affective, they are more likely to recommend the restaurant to

others.

According to Khristianto, Kertahadi and Suyadi (2012), customer gratification is

commonly viewed as a result of comparison between the consumption expectation and

experience; and customer gratification is achieved when the final deliverable (i.e.,

experience) meets or exceeds a customer's expectation. Gratification and loyalty are the

key elements that determine the success of market concept implementation (Khristianto

et al., 2012). Satisfied customers are most likely to have the intention to repurchase if the

service provider reached or exceeded their expectation (Alam & Yasin, 2010).

Identifying the variables of customer gratification is significant as it acts as a benchmark

of the business performance, and it also serves as guidelines for future improvement

(Alam & Yasin, 2010). Guo et al. (2012) have identified eight determinants of customers'

gratification, which are website design, security, information quality, payment method,

e-‐-service quality, product quality, products variety and delivery services.

On the other hand, Mustafa (2011) presents user interface quality, information

quality, perceived quality and perceived privacy for his framework. For the purpose of this

study, the effects of website design, security, e-‐-service quality and information quality on

customer gratification are examined. Subsequently, the influence of customer

gratification one-‐-loyalty in online shopping environment is also tested. According to Zairi

(2010) the feeling of pleasure and expectation fulfillment is known as Satisfaction. If the
product will not satisfied customer feelings they will be dissatisfied, and if product

satisfied them after the use customer will be satisfied and become loyal to that product or

brand. In other words customer satisfaction is goods or services which fulfill the

customer expectation in terms of quality and service for which he paid. If Customer

satisfaction develops they will become loyal to that product or brand and their loyalty

will be good for the company in sense as a Profit. Customer satisfaction is the part of

marketing and play important role in the market. In any organization satisfaction of

customer is more important, because if your customer is satisfied with your services or

products, your position will be good in the market. Oliver (2018) describe in his study

that customer satisfaction is the part of marketing and play important role in the market.

In any organization satisfaction of customer is more important, because if your customer

is satisfied with your services or products, your position will be good in the market. In

old times customer satisfaction was not too much important and people were not focused

on quality. But now a day’s competition is taught and customer is aware of all the

products and companies due to education and learning environment and this is the reason

that every business is concern to fulfill properly customers need and wants.

Veloutsou (2015) describes in his study regarding customer satisfaction tangible

products and services, there is a distinction. This distinction between tangible and

intangible goods becomes coz different factors of customer satisfaction, and that is why

they should be treated separate and distinct Churcill (2012) customer gratification has

overall reaction of expectation of consumption with a product or service on the base of

perception, evaluation and psychological reaction. According to Kottler (2019)

gratification is the sum of attributes of product or service. Kurniawan (2010) customer

satisfaction can change over the period of time, it is a dynamic process. The individual’s

perception about the product’s or service’s performance Leeds to customer satisfaction

Tat, Sook-Min, Ai-Chin, Rasli, & Hamid (2011).

Huang (2011) gratification is different form of activities for attracting and getting

attention of customer to purchase the product or service through personal selling, public

relations, sales promotions and advertising. According to Kurniawan (2010) promotion of

product or service helps in the best way to builds relationship with customers, because

everyone is looking for the best suitable deal for them. Takeuchi (2012) quality is

standard of something which consumer measure against the other different things; quality

can be measured by giving grade, merit, attributes etc to the products or services.

Consumer can not differentiate between the quality and its requirements. Service quality

is evaluated when the out customer compare his/her perception and expectation of service

delivery Gronroos (2014). By recognized the need of measures of service quality many

researchers most often use service quality to measure customer satisfaction Zeithaml

(1985). For evaluating and estimating various dimensions of service quality is the

instrument accepted as standard Kurniawan (2010).

Moreover, Schwager (2007) describe in his study that in the new millennium

providing customers a unique experience is the major key to capture the market and

wining their hearts and mind. Satisfaction or dissatisfaction is the consequences of

customer’s consumption or experiences of services or expectation. Kurniawan (2010)

branding is one of the factors which has been identified repeatedly customer choice in the

selected product. Branding has impact on purchase decision of consumers. The more a

brand is succeeded in their earlier period the more value for its brand can be generated.
Kurniawan (2010) company formal introduction today is branding. Brand is a set of

guidelines or a promise in customer’s mind Brand is a product which adds other

dimensions some way to differentiate it from other products Boukili (2018). Brand helps

the customer the product and how he describes the company to others, opportunities can

avail by branding. Brand is described by the American marketing association as a “name,

sign, symbol or combination of them to identify and to differentiate the goods and

service, or sellers from their competitors”.

Similarly, Lim (2010) Customer’s ultimate gratifications may have significant

affect of atmosphere. Physical surroundings are helpful to create image in the mind of

customer and to influence their behavior. Physical atmosphere of the restaurants have the

significant impacts on the customers satisfaction. Lightning, furnishing, sent, music and

different other atmospheric factors among them influence on customer satisfaction.

Skindaras (2019) there are millions of products in this world having different prices.

Pricing a product is difficult thing to do. Prices are set according to the value of the

product. Price from marketing mix Han (2009) state that one of the most flexible element

that changed quickly. In the literature of Khan (2011) marketing the most important

factor indicated for customer satisfaction is price, because most of the customers estimate

the value of the product or obtained service through price. Lim (2010) for the customer it

is not necessary that a better quality can be a better taste, if customer like the taste of food

he/she will be willing to pay for the it. Based on previous researches, in customer

satisfaction and taste, there is a significant correlation found between them. Researchers

found that Good taste of food has positive influence on customer’s satisfaction and it also

increase the customer’s retention rate which is also depends upon customer’s satisfaction.
Therefore, restaurants focus is on taste of the food and services that has influence on

customer’s satisfaction.

For tapsilogan owners, it is important to understand specific decision-making

criteria customers use for restaurant selection in order to be able to affect customers’

selection decisions. According to Kotler et al. (2011), customers seek “a set of benefits”

with various capabilities for satisfying their needs. Many marketers consider product

packages for restaurants in which food and beverages are only a small part of the

package. If customers also view restaurant services as a package, they will consider

multiple criteria for choosing restaurants (Sloan, 2014). For the tapsilogan businesses, it

is important to understand the attributes which influence customers’ decisions to return to

a restaurant for another meal (Soriano, 2002). By understanding these factors, it is

possible to satisfy customers’ expectations and prevent their defection, leading to

plentiful profits for the restaurant. So far, various investigations have been conducted

regarding factors influencing customer loyalty in the restaurant.

In question (the issue of loyalty) (Hyun, 2010). For example, in the automotive

industry where 85 to 95% of customers had expressed their satisfaction, only 30 to 40%

actually repurchased the same brand or make of the car (Oliver, 2019). Thus, customer

loyalty is considered to be an important factor for increasing profitability and maintaining

the position of the organization. Reichheld and Sasser (2010) report a strong relationship

between customer defection rate and increased profits. According to their research,

reducing the defection rate by just 5% generates between 25 and 85% more profits for the

organization depending on the pertinent industry (Reichheld et al., 1990). Most

investigations suggest that organizations should keep hold of their loyal customers as a
competitive asset. Nowadays, due to increased employment of women outside the home

and extensive changes in lifestyle, the use of restaurant food and fast food is growing in

the Iranian restaurant industry, and this can provide a very industry. Table 1 shows some

of the research works on this topic and the factors investigated in those studies.

Accessibility

Accessibility is one of the elements for the industry in planning their strategy to

penetrate the market. A tapsilogan’s location is as crucial to its success as great food and

service offered by them. It will influence many parts of the tapsilogan including the

menu.

According to Baker (2010), the dimensions of accessibility are authorization,

opportunity or right to access the services. In his study, accessibility includes ample

parking space, location easy to access, convenience to handicapped person, accessible to

washrooms, the restaurant entrance and reachable Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi). With this

comfortable accessibility which provided by the tapsilogan operator, it will attract the

customers to choose their tapsilogan restaurant for them to dine in as well as to enjoy

eating the varieties of the menu being offered. Tapsilogan in particular are often places

where people meet to socialize, yet many restaurants are not accessible to all individuals.

A 2010 Survey found that only 48% of people with disabilities dined out more than 2

times a month, compared to 75% of people without disabilities (Kessler, 2010).

Accessibility for all is recognized as a basic necessity and all over the world

attempts to ensure including to reach, to enter, to move around, to use (Masood and

Shaheen, 2014) In other words, accessibility refers to a barrier-free environment. A

barrier-free environment is a space designed to be free of obstacles. That allows free and
safe movement, function and access for all, regardless of age, sex or conditions, a space

or a set of services that can be accessed by all, without obstacles, with dignity and with as

much independence as possible (Ferneeuw, 2015). Malik (2012) measured the gap

between the service expectation and service perception of customers in relation to the

service delivered by four service industries (banking, transport, courier and

telecommunications) and checked the impact on their satisfaction. His findings confirmed

that service quality has a positive influence on customer satisfaction. Ahmed et al. (2010)

found a significant and positive relationship between four dimensions of service quality

(tangibles, reliability, responsiveness and assurance) and customer satisfaction. In their

study, empathy showed a significant but negative relationship with customer satisfaction.

Yarimoglu (2011) defines access as approachability and ease of contact the

service is easily accessible by telephone, the waiting time to receive the service is not

extensive, there are convenient hours of operation, and the service facility is in a

convenient location. Access means the ease and convenience with which customers can

use the services that banks offer. Approachability and ease of contact are the two most

important elements of accessibility. Research has shown that greater accessibility to

services results in increased customer satisfaction. As one of the dimensions of service

image, accessibility may have a significant direct or indirect influence on a bank’s

customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Accessibility provides a measure on performance between land usages with

transportation systems. House residents are more interested in accessibility to workplace,

schools, shops, health services and recreation areas. Merchants pay more attention to

accessibility to customer, while the owner of industry depend on accessibility to labor

market and a provider of raw materials, as well as ease transportation (Black, J., 2014).

Accessibility indicators include time, distance and transportation costs (Tamin, Ofyar Z.,

2010). Ahmed et al.'s (2010) research revealed a significant and positive relationship

between the service quality dimensions (tangibles, reliability, responsiveness and

assurance) and customer repurchase intention. Ali et al. (2010) concurrently indicated

that better service quality has a significant impact on consumer satisfaction. Omotayo and

Joachim (2008) examined the construct of customer intention by investigating the chain

of events in retention from the customer satisfaction and customer service perspectives.

Their findings revealed that the higher the level of service quality, the higher the levels of

customer retention. Ahmad et al.'s (2010) study investigated the impact of service quality

delivered by cellular companies on customer retention and found that service quality has

a positive and significant relationship with customer retention.

The ease accessibility to mall can create customer gratification because it can

reduce transportation costs and time. Research of Ernawati and Laksono (2008) show that

health centre’s accessibility and equity services create fairly high level of satisfaction,

exceeding the expected level of satisfaction in JPKMB by 70%. The findings were

reinforced by Jannang (2010) that accessibility can enhance customer gratification.

Communication

Communication management in this sector of tapsilogan restaurant is significant

for the development of businesses strength that lies in human resources (Woś A., 2016).

It is mainly employees that have impact on an enterprise and its image. It strengthens the

rapports between individuals in the organisation, gains the loyalty from employees, and
improves their engagement and productivity. However, most enterprises only focus their

effort on nurturing the external communication (with an attempt to establish strong

relationships with their customers and suppliers) and underestimate the importance of the

organisation’s internal communication (Roehler 2017). Studies show that 70% of crisis

situations at enterprises of the food industry are caused by employees’ actions. Thus, it is

concluded that creation of an enterprise’s image should begin from inside. Care about

good communication with employees will reduce the risk of crisis situations and will

work to the benefit of the food establishment.

In addition, communication is not simply a series of acts to transmit the

information, but it continuously takes place as a systematic process of which messages

are being exchanged so that two or more people can reach the same knowledge and

understanding (Louis A. as cited in Rayudu 2010). The organisation or social system

regardless of its structure, scope or magnitude becomes consolidated through a process of

communication. When the process of information reciprocation runs smoothly, all

departments of the organisation can function as a solidary unit even if the organisation is

multinational (Chester Barnard, as cited in Rayudu 2010). Communication is not easily

obtained due to the existence of barriers. Appearing during the communication process,

barriers prevent the message from being transmitted, or distort meanings of the message,

causing the misunderstandings. The barriers are results of local effects (the environment

where communication happens) or from personal effects of the sender and receiver.

Working under very hot or cold conditions, the staff may feel tired and distracted,

which results in barriers in their communications at work. Besides, lack of time is another

barrier. The sender is unable to arrange the message thoroughly according to his intention
with time deficiency. In addition, the receiver’s ability of decoding the message is limited

(Guo & Sanchez 2015, 87). As Bovée and Thrill (2017), internal communication is

regarded as a process of exchanging information and ideas within an organisation”. The

effective internal communication helps to establish the respect atmosphere among the

individuals within the organisation, to keep employees engaged in the business. Effective

work performance of the organisation hence remains while high values are provided

consistently to customers and partners (Argentie 2019)

Communication is defined when the exchange of information occurs between

people with similar status or equality of relationship in the same department or different

departments of an organisation (Rayudu 2010, 271). When the job requires the

cooperation between colleagues of a department or of many departments, horizontal

communication is performed in order to share information, to reach mutual knowledge

and understanding, to solve conflicts or problem if they exist, and to establish the

rapports (Harris 2002, 241) Employees who share similar positions in the hierarchy of an

organisation often are emulous to become the one who is better at job. Important

information is hidden or withheld by colleagues who perceive each other as rivals. It

hence blocks flows of the horizontal communication (Urmilla 2008, 40). Same as in

downward communication, various levels of organisational hierarchy result in the

communication barrier in which the information is either distorted or dropped out.

Besides, status block is another factor to the barrier. Status block happens when the

superiors find it difficult to perceive new ideas or suggestion from their employees. In

their opinions, the employees are considered to be lack of experience. Likewise, the
employees hesitate to send true messages to their managers for that may cause the

negative impression on the bosses (Rayudu 2010, 267; Harris 2002, 236).

Employees communication is a broad concept, which comprises all activities of

communication that take place within an organisation. Communication in the

organisation operates as the systems transmitting the data and information (in the past

and present) in particulars patterns within the organisation. For the business

organisations, there are three main categories of communication existing at workplace

including internal communication, external communication and informal communication

(Rayudu 2010, 4). In this study, the internal communication and informal communication

will be studied to observe the communication process from the organisational

perspective. When an organisation holds effective internal communication, its employees

become motivated and empowered. That means the employees need to know their roles

in the business success, they need to receive feedback of what they do in order to see if

the work goes well or not. And as a part of the organisation, they would like to be asked

for their ideas or opinions to improve the business (Nelson, 2010). As Bovée and Thrill

(2000, 7), internal communication is regarded as a process of exchanging information and

ideas within an organisation”. The effective internal communication helps to establish the

respect atmosphere among the individuals within the organisation, to keep employees

engaged in the business. Effective work performance of the organisation hence remains

while high values are provided consistently to customers and partners (Argentie 1998,

128; “2009/2010 Communication…” 2009, 3). Internal communication of an

organisation is formed by three parts known as upward communication, downward

communication, and horizontal communication.

Competence

Competence is a capacity that exists in a person that leads to behavior that meets

the job demands within the parameters of organizational environment, and that, in turn

brings about desired results. Boyatzis (2012) conducted a study on approximately 2000

managers and he identified and assessed hundred potential competencies.

However, Spencer and Spencer (2013) define competency as an underlying

characteristic of an individual that is casually related to criterion referenced effective

and/or superior performance in a job or situation. This indicates that there are certain

identifiable traits that constitute a person’s characteristics and level of performance in a

job situation. Underlying characteristic means the competency is a fairly deep and

enduring part of a persons personality and can predict behavior in a wide variety of

situations and job tasks. Casually related means that a competency causes or predicts

behavior and performance. Criterion referenced means that the competency actually

predicts who does something well or poorly, as measured on a specific criterion or

standard.

It is commonly understood that competency is a combination of knowledge, skills

abilities and other characteristics which are required for successful job performance.

Practically, Competency is a broad concept. It helps a person to perform better in

practical form. It is the transformation of knowledge, skills and attitudes to performance

for a particular task successfully. Competency is helpful in distinguishing the superior

performers from other performers.

On the other hand, most of the studies on competencies recently conducted by a

number of researchers in Korea have failed to clarify the concept of ability in explaining
the relation between human resources management and organizational achievement, and

have only emphasized the methodological aspect in devising competencies. While these

studies are academically significant in relation to the method to devise competencies, the

devised competencies are insufficient to be used as a basis for explaining connection

between organizational achievements. Therefore, a more accurate establishment of the

concept based on the understanding of the intermediate effect that individual

competencies of corporate employees have on organizational achievement is particularly

needed (Dubois&Wang, 2013).

In order to overcome the limits of the foodservice industry in this fiercely

competitive market, positive research on human resources management activities is

necessary, and at the same time, the systematization of measuring apparatuses of

resources must be achieved. To fully utilize employees, the best resource in the

foodservice industry, to increase corporate competitiveness, studies should be conducted

on ability-based human resources management and evaluation factor devising and

relation with organizational achievements (Valentine & Fleischman, 2018).

Accordingly, this study will research the practical frequency of competencies by

type in restaurants, which is a center of the foodservice industry, and examine the

association between the individual competencies of employees in the foodservice

industry and job satisfaction and organizational commitment, which are organizational

achievement factors, in order to suggest effective implications for ability-based human

resources management.

An examination of previous studies shows that the individual competencies of

corporate employees are greatly associated with job satisfaction and organizational
commitment, which are an organizational achievement. In other words, it can be assumed

that making the foodservice industry more competitive and maintaining its status should

be based on the individual competencies of corporate employees, which will lead to

increase in achievement. In consideration of the factors above, this study has established

the following study model in order to understand and verify the connection between the

individual competencies of employees in the foodservice industry and job satisfaction

and organizational commitment.

Chung-Herrera, Enz, and Lankau (2013) explored the required competencies of

successful leaders in the Travel and Leisure industry, and listed 99 competency items, 28

competency dimensions, and 8 factors. In order of importance, the factors include self-

management, strategic positioning, implementation, communication skills, relationships,

leadership, and industrial knowledge.

Potočnik Topler (2017) stresses the importance of linguistics` competence as a

part of a communication skills set for the positive perception of a destination by

customers. Many of these competencies can be labelled as “soft-skills”. The importance

of soft skills in managing Human Resources in the Travel and Leisure industry was

researched by (Spowart, 2011). They (he) proposed four categories of soft skills that can

be identified and also related to competencies` clusters that managers need for

performing their jobs. These are: (1) Leadership/people/ relationship skills, (2)

Communication, (3) Management and organisation and (4) Cognitive skills and

knowledge.

Very similarly, (Wong & Lee, 2017) identified that commitment and awareness of

quality are two of the most important competencies within Human Resources
management in the Travel and leisure industry. With sustainability being a very

important concept within the Travel and Leisure industry, it is seen as an important

competence (Pereira, 2017).According to Business Dictionary, competencies means, a

group of related abilities, commitments, knowledge, and skills that enable a person (or an

organization) to act effectively in a job or situation. Competence shows sufficiency of

knowledge and skills that enable someone to act in a wide variety of situations. For Hager

and Goncsi (2016) employee competence is the ability for satisfactory accomplishment of

some task or competent performance, this ability includes ‘knowledge’, ‘skills’ and

‘attitudes’ or the personal characteristics that cause competent performance.

Competency models that are integrated into an organization’s talent management

processes have been used to improve employee engagement and reduce turnover intent

across many different industries (Ravichandran & Mishra, 2018). However, competency

models and integrated talent management processes are not widely used throughout

organizations in the restaurant industry (Shai et al., 2016).

Sewell and Dacre (2010) also agreed that higher education institutions are highly

responsible for supplying potential employees or entrepreneurs into the competitive labor

market. Hence, there is no doubt that the educational institutions have a strong correlation

with the hospitality industry to provide the fresh graduates who are well-equipped in

competencies demanded by the industry.

The industry has been changing dramatically because of globalization,

advancement in technology, and changes in the economic landscape, thus leading to the

required competencies identification in the hospitality industry became important (Weber

et al. 2019). According to Singh and Pathak (2016), competencies can be grouped into
five categories, which were managerial competency, functional competency, core

competency, career stream competency, and technical or professional competency. On

the other hand, Sanghi (2016) described that competency could also be distinguished into

two natures, including threshold competencies and differentiating competencies. He

mentioned that threshold competencies were the elementary characteristics that

employees should have in order to be minimally effective, without differentiating the

superior from average performers. While differentiating competencies are the factors that

discern outstanding from average performers.

According to Allen et al. (2015), competencies can be categorized into specific

competencies and generic competencies. Specific competencies were the clusters of prior

cognitive conditions that a person should possess to be able to perform sufficiently in a

given extensive territory (Weinert 2011). They usually referred to the profession or field-

specific skills and knowledge associated with the work tasks in the work environment.

For the generic competencies, they were the skills or techniques such as the ability to

learn (conceptual competency), communication, and teamwork skills that ought to be

harness for better achievement in the work environment (Thompson et al. 2017).

In addition, Perdue and Woods (2012) studied the concepts of management

competencies and found that they could be used to address trends, challenges and

developments in the service industry, including restaurants, and that they are needed to

address the knowledge, skills and abilities required by successful managers and leaders in

all sectors of the hospitality industry. Some organisations look at competencies as a

benchmark for measuring the skills that an individual has, compared with the skills that

the individual needs for a particular job.

 Competencies could be used to distinguish between more effective and less

effective employees’ performance, based on the assumption that competencies facilitate

the identification of the skills that an employee needs to be effective in a certain position.

A well designed and utilised set of competencies brings numerous benefits to its users,

for example, systematic use of competency assessment facilitates succession planning,

training and development, recruitment and selection, and performance appraisals

( Koenigsfeld et al., 2012).

Rao and Palo (2012) agree that competencies form the main foundation and basis

for addressing certain major issues in the organisation such as the development of job

descriptions, helping with the recruitment of employees, training and career development.

Employees require competencies for managing themselves, and competencies thus offer

opportunities for self-assessment, getting feedback on performance, managing other

people and tasks, and influencing the manager’s responsibility in setting objectives,

planning, taking decisions and organising work in the organisation. However,

management competencies are seen as a snapshot in time and must be updated over time

to incorporate new roles and trends in the tapsilogan restaurant industry (Koenigsfeld et

al., 2011).

Cardy and Selvarajan (2016) conclude that competencies are important in an

organisation because they can guide the direction of the organisation; they are

measurable; they can be learned, developed and improved; and they also distinguish and

differentiate the organisation from others and constitute a key to competitive advantage.
 Furthermore, in order for a restaurant industry to succeed in its mission and goals,

the managerial competencies should match the strategic intent. Lastly, competencies help

to integrate management practices throughout the organisation.

Management competencies could be of value to both the organisation and the

individual, as they can help in building a competency domain model. Organisations can

identify the competencies of managers based on the model in order to design training and

development programmes geared toward specific organisational and managerial needs.

Individuals may make plans or decisions regarding their career, professional development

and/or continuing education based on competency levels across the domains (Porter,

2015).

Hana and Jiri (2012) state that competencies can be clustered according to related

knowledge, skills, abilities and characteristics that affect a major part of an employee’s

job and correlate with performance that will lead to achieving a competitive advantage. A

competency dimension gathers the individual skills and abilities that correlate with the

competencies needed to successfully perform the task in accordance with the

organisational missions, vision and strategies (Campion et al., 2011). The management

competencies were categorised according to dimensions/domains in order to help identity

management competency skills that are specific to the tapsilogan industry.

The overarching perspective of competency at an individual level has been

defined as the underlying work-related characteristics such as knowledge, skills,

attitudes, beliefs, motives, and traits. Previous studies pointed out that these

characteristics play a pivotal role in fostering managerial abilities including problem

solving, analytical thinking, and leadership (Chen & Naquin, 20016). The concept of
competency has broadly been viewed in two different ways; one is the strategic

perspective at the organizational level and the other is central to the domains of human

resources at the individual level (Chen & McLegan, 2017). From a strategic point of

view, competencies can be regarded as a firm's competitive advantage that competitors

can never copy, including functions, processes and routines (Cardi & Kochanski, 2016).

For example, customers' knowledge of products or services in current market places can

be incorporated into creating new products or services by establishing the knowledge

system (Canziani, 2011). It must not only be exclusive but also difficult to duplicate by

other competitors. Grant (2010) also mentioned that competitive advantage can be

produced when a firm's business strategy is combined with organizational internal

resources or capabilities. For this, human resource is a vital factor in transferring

knowledge and skills into outputs (Phillips, 2019).

Competencies have been one of the focal points of discussion within Human

Resources Management for the past two decades. They can be found in different

textbooks (Bratton & Gold, 2012; Snell, Morris, & Bohlander, 2015) provided for

scholars and academics, as well as books intended for managerial use (Collins & Porras,

2005; Prahalad & Hamel, 2006). Competencies was made in the mid-1970s, when it was

proposed to test people for their competencies rather than their intelligence (McClelland,

1973). In this sense, competencies were defined as knowledge that an individual has

gained (McClelland, 1998). Understanding of competencies evolved through time, and

various researchers added additional content to competencies.

Chung-Herrera, Enz, and Lankau (2013) explored the required competencies of

successful leaders in the Travel and Leisure industry, and listed 99 competency items, 28
competency dimensions, and 8 factors. In order of importance, the factors include self-

management, strategic positioning, implementation, communication skills, relationships,

leadership, and industrial knowledge.

Potočnik Topler (2017) stresses the importance of linguistics` competence as a

part of a communication skills set for the positive perception of a destination by

customers. Many of these competencies can be labelled as “soft-skills”. The importance

of soft skills in managing Human Resources in the Travel and Leisure industry was

researched by (Spowart, 2011). They (he) proposed four categories of soft skills that can

be identified and also related to competencies` clusters that managers need for

performing their jobs. These are: (1) Leadership/people/ relationship skills, (2)

Communication, (3) Management and organisation and (4) Cognitive skills and

knowledge.

Very similarly, (Wong & Lee, 2017) identified that commitment and awareness of

quality are two of the most important competencies within Human Resources

management in the Travel and leisure industry. With sustainability being a very

important concept within the Travel and Leisure industry, it is seen as an important

competence (Pereira, 2017). Based on the related research, we can conclude that

competencies are a mixture of knowledge, abilities, skills, experiences, and values of an

individual gathered during their primary socialization, various levels of education and

work life.

Courtesy
 Courtesy is practiced by everyone throughout the world-class organization, and

courteous behavior is viewed as underpinning every interaction. Employees treated

internally with respect and honor will most often give that same treatment to customers.

According to Rick Suttle (2016), the owner of the tapsilogan restaurant is usually

the manager in charge of a fast-food chain or restaurant. Managers may have one or more

assistant managers to help run various shifts, depending on the restaurant’s hours of

operation. The roles, courtesy and responsibilities of a fast-food manager can include a

number of functions. The following roles and responsibility of a fast-food managers are:

Meeting financial goals, managing daily operation, hiring and firing, training, resolving

customer complaints, bank duties and community events.

Wildt (2016), a fast-food manager must meet the sales and profit goals of the

restaurant in a good service and timely manner to achieved it’s goal for courtesy.

Increasing sales can often be accomplished by simply improving the speed of customer

service at the drive-thru or in the dining area or ensuring the customers are served only

hot food with the proper portions. Keeping labor costs down and minimizing food waste

can help drive higher profits.

In a study conducted by Mercader, et al. (2014) entitled “Leadership Styles and

Courtesy of Managers of Selected Business Firms of Tapsilogan in Batangas: Instrument

in Achieving the Corporate Goals of the Company”, majority of the respondents uses the

democratic style of leadership. The study concluded that the basis in selecting the

leadership style of the respondents in the nature of the business that includes courtesy and

uniqueness of the businesses. All of the respondents believe that their leadership style

contribute to the success of the business. The study found out that the majority of the
respondents believe that to be a good leader, a manager should possess the quality of

being a good planner and decision-maker as his best quality David (2013), followed by

being positive-thinker than a good problem solver, being democratic individual, being an

opportunity maker and lastly, being risk taker. The particular study recommended that

managers must be given training and seminar to upgrade their knowledge and abilities in

managing the business. The manager must also motivate and encourage his subordinates

to perform their jobs more efficiently and effectively thorough good human relations.

Democratic style of leadership should also be considered as an approach in managing the

business.

Another study related to leadership styles and fast-food tapsilogan restaurant is

conducted by Bagui, et al. (2019), “Effects of Civil Status to the Leadership and Courtesy

Style Exhibited by the Managers of Fast-food Chains in Batangas City”, which concluded

the civil status does not affect the leadership style to uphold courtesy that was exhibited

by the managers of the fast-food chains in Batangas City. The study recommended that

the managers must exhibit the highest degree of professionalism in the performance of

duties and they should not let domestic and personal issues to negatively affect their

leadership. Every business experiences different problems that affects the business

operation and hinders it from achieving the goals of the company (Lim, 2013).

The study by Jang (2015) was to find out whether perceived value significantly

affects consumers’ purchase intention and courtesy. Additionally, the study examined if

there are any significant differences in perceived value for different fast-food restaurant

brands and attempted to identify which fast-food restaurant is perceived to be the industry

leader. A total number of six fast-food restaurants (McDonalds, Tapsilogan, Starbucks,

Wendy’s, Burger King, and Taco Bell) were selected. Findings showed that among the

five perceived service value dimensions, Starbucks is the leader in terms of quality,

emotional response, and reputation.

An article entitled “Fast-food Industry Analysis 2013 – Cost and Trends” presents

the main problems experienced in the fast-food industry. The fast-food industry is not

without its challenges, especially in the US. From rising food costs, economic recession

and changing perception about health, many fast-food franchises have been feeling some

heat. But rather than flee in this challenge, the fast-food industry has been adopting new

practices and offering new products. Modern society is on the go, and there is plenty of

demand for a quick bite at all times of the day. As cited by Neal (2019), there have been

challenges for the fast-food industry in recent years that have been pressuring profit

margins. Fast-food companies have responded by adopting healthier choices and had

some measure of success, but the shadow of bad press still hangs over the industry.

Rising commodity prices have also significantly crunched man fast-food franchises. In

such a fiercely competitive space it is impossible to force a price increase on customers,

so profit margins are often south of 10%.

The study entitled “The Role of Financial Planning and Budgeting in the

Entrepreneurial Success of a Fast-food Chains and Restaurant”, conducted by Padrilan, et

al. (2010) found out that establishing goals used in controlling is the most important

function of financial planning in order to achieve the entrepreneurial success of the

business and majority of the participants agreed that improving the resource allocation is

the common function of budgeting. Lin & Wu (2010) states that giving control in

business is the most common effect of financial planning while being aware of the
business cost is the most common in budgeting. As a conclusion to these findings,

financial planning affects success by controlling business, having systematic decision

making, reducing risk and having motivation and good communication tool.

Credibility

A study conducted by Wu & Mohi (2015) discussed the findings of helping a fast-food

restaurants formulate and implement effective marketing management strategies to cope with the

keen competition in the restaurant industry as well as to boost their profit margins. The fast-food

industry is highly competitive and dominated by large companies. Smaller businesses must be

savvy in developing marketing strategies that drive consumer traffic. This entails staying in

constant touch with customers.

One of the best ways for smaller fast-food companies to stay in touch with their

companies is through marketing research. A small fast-food company must know what key

customers want and will buy before developing marketing and advertising strategies. The purpose

of their study is to enhance an understanding of service quality in fast-food restaurants by

developing a conceptual framework and measurement scale. Based on an extensive literature

review, qualitative and empirical research, a multi-dimensional and hierarchical model of service

quality for the fast-food restaurant is proposed (Wu & Mohi, 2015).

When top-level management holds a strong credibility to the success of a

restaurant, this will directly impact employee productivity; ultimately inspiring them to

perform a better quality of service. Reeves & Hoy (2013) also expressed the same

feelings, that “Employees who believe the manager of their restaurant is committed to

service quality may be motivated to provide higher quality service simply because they

perceive this to be important to the manager” (Reeves & Hoy, 2017, p. 57). Workforce

may witness management commitment through actions taken by managers and

supervision plays an important role in employee motivation of any organization. High

centralised supervision leads to job satisfaction and employees motivation.

Dissatisfaction with management or supervision leads to job frustration (Billingsley &

Cross, 2012, p. 466). Importance is placed on the idea that employees would experience

maximum satisfaction if the managers of the organization assessed tasks beforehand and

offered to co-operate with employees in accomplishing the specific tasks (Ting, 2017, p.

328). It is clear that a strong relationship between managers and their employees should

increase overall job satisfaction and motivation; though there is a chance that this might not

work. In that case, the only risk would be a minimal change in job satisfaction.

Most people prefer a type of job in which they feel relaxed and happy;

consequently, if the job itself is difficult and operates under complex working conditions,

employees will not be satisfied with their job. This idea is supported by Miller (2018),

who states: “job conditions are more strongly related to job satisfaction” (Miller, 2012, p.

361). Satisfaction of a job for any employee also depends on developing a strong

relationship with their colleagues. Oshagbemi (2019) also noted that “satisfaction with

co-workers behaviour is an important component of overall job satisfaction” (Oshagbemi,

2019, p. 90). Therefore, managers should estimate and deal with all problems that may

affect the work environment and the friendly relationships of co-workers.

In the food industry, according to Kanyan, et al. (2016) it is important for an

organization to leverage their customer's satisfaction and this can be achieved through

superior customer service. The goals of this study were to investigate the causes and

problems faced by the selected restaurant and to provide suggestions on how to improve

the slow customer service based on the numerous domains of operations management. A

local restaurant in Kuching, Malaysia was selected for the case study. Slow customer

service has been identified as the main problem. The causes of this problem were
identified and classified into four categories which involved people, environment,

equipment/materials and method/procedure. This study also offered ways to improve its

operational performance and overcome the problem of poor service operations. The

alternatives offered include (1) Quality Function Development which helped in

determining what will satisfy the customers and where to put the quality effort, (2) Total

Quality Management (TQM), (3) process focus which uses service blueprint to strengthen

the interaction between customers and the restaurant, (4) layout, (5) human resource

management, (6) practice of good supply chain management, and (7) maintenance to get

the most benefits and trouble-free services out of the restaurant equipment by performing

regular maintenance. This paper hopes to provide relevant insights for service quality and

customer satisfaction improvement for restaurant service operations (Bearden, 2013).

A study conducted by Wu & Mohi (2015) discussed the findings of helping a fast-

food restaurants formulate and implement effective marketing management strategies to

cope with the keen competition in the restaurant industry as well as to boost their profit

margins. The fast-food industry is highly competitive and dominated by large companies.

Smaller businesses must be savvy in developing marketing strategies that drive consumer

traffic. This entails staying in constant touch with customers. One of the best ways for

smaller fast-food companies to stay in touch with their companies is through marketing

research. A small fast-food company must know what key customers want and will buy

before developing marketing and advertising strategies. The purpose of their study is to

enhance an understanding of service quality in fast-food restaurants by developing a

conceptual framework and measurement scale. Based on an extensive literature review,

qualitative and empirical research, a multi-dimensional and hierarchical model of service

quality for the fast-food restaurant is proposed (Wu & Mohi, 2015).
 A case study on Tapsilogan by Sotunbo (2010) was aimed to focus on

strategies for improving profitability and credibility in the fast-food industry. The study

approaches profitability from perspective employers, managers and employees. To

evaluate an exact nature of the company situation and recommend a solutions that will

continuously prosper the industry and project the company to achieve greater profit. The

key outcome involves evaluation of tapsilogan profitability improvement from the

perspective related to total quality management, leadership styles and implementation of

objective oriented results and corporate policies system. According to Sotunbo (2010),

the other outcome of this study includes a detailed overview of the common trends in the

industry. The study recommended to the company to initiate motivation as a strategy to

attain corporate goals. High levels of motivations are directly connected to high levels of

productivity. This will give the employees the motivation to complete tasks to a high

standard and a desire to further excel in the future in order to gain a higher salary and of

course, the feeling of achievement. Another highly recommendation in the dissertation is

managing performance of workforce (Malik & Ghaffor, 2019). Managing performance of

an employee and manager involve the use of appraisal method which are vital to the

company overall performance and productivity.

A study by Mc Neal et al. (201) attempted to explain this as the biggest and

exciting element of fast-food achievement. In this research, one will always question why

fast-foods companies have outlets almost all over the place. The response was quite

simple, owing to the fact that this had been an aspect of their marketing strategy. Global

recognition and high visibility was a definitive idea of fast-food outlets. With the big
signs, posters, billboards, and advertisement illuminating the town, the fast-food

industries are undeniably come to stay.

The tapsilogan is responsible for serving safe food to customers with it’s credibility

roles to provides good services towards their customers. One case of food poisoning is

enough to permanently tarnish a restaurant's reputation. There are ways that restaurant

managers can protect their customers and reputation where supply chain management is

concerned. Firstly, a restaurant needs to check the supplier's background. All food

distributors and suppliers are supposed to be inspected regularly. A restaurant can go

through the supplier's local health department to obtain inspection results to make sure

that they are in compliance. The suppliers need to check whether they employ strict

record keeping and food safety management practices. Better communication is vital to

ensure that the restaurant will receive the supply at the right time to avoid insufficient

raw material that will affect the operational performance especially during peak hours.

Through modern technology, information technology has played important roles in

inventory control, supply chain management and knowledge - based managementw

(Shimmura et al., 2010).

The study, “Fast-food Chain in Batangas City”, which conducted by Barbosa, et

al. (2014) was aimed to identify the level of satisfaction of the customers in the services

offered by the fast food chain business and to know the problems encountered by the

employee on management and customers. The management of restaurants may consider

the action plan that was devised by the researchers. An article entitled “Food Service

Industry in Philippines” conducted by Arboleda (2010) that food is a basic necessity. The

industry which deals with preparing food items or products refers to the food service
industry. The food service industry is and will always remain in high demand because of

its genre. These industries include restaurants, fast-foods, school and hospital cafeterias,

catering operations, food carts and food trucks etc. Restaurants and fast-foods mainly

contribute to the food service industry.

According to the article Martinez (2013), restaurants and fast-foods are meant for

same services except that restaurants offer a large menu including a variety of cuisines as

compared to fast-foods, which usually offers a small menu with quick service. As cited

by Sanchez (2010), another difference between a restaurant and fast-food is, restaurants

offer meals that are cooked and prepared and is eaten at the premises while fast-food

usually is pre-cooked meals or serves meals that are cooked easily. Diners may eat it

inside the store or they can order their food “to-go”. In fast-foods you usually pay before

eating unlike full service restaurants.

Synthesis and Gaps of Literature

The researchers’ review of related literature has been made, it was observed

that the studies were focused on the managing ways of a fast-food chains and tapsilogan

restaurant businesses including the managers’ lived experiences in a way of having the

general profile of them. The researchers also used internet and books to resolve and

provide answers on the problems that will take a different specification. However, the

locale, time and respondents involved differed from this undertaking as the present study

will be conducted among selected tapsilogan in the City of Dapitan, Zamboanga del

Norte. It is against this background that the study is set to find out the relationship

between employees behavior and relate to the customer gratification within the peripheral

City of Dapitan.This study aimed to shed light on tapsilogan business in employees

behaviour and managing practices for customer gratifications that are hoped to be great

importance to the future managing career of the researchers. The readers will have knowledge of

the services that are commonly encountered by the tapsilogan businesses.