Investigating Critical Factors Affecting the Operational Excellence of Service Firms in Jordan

Abstract

This research has been conducted to investigate critical factors affecting the operational excellence (OPX) of service firms in Jordan. The main factors of interest are leadership, human resource management practices, operations strategy, and involvement culture. This research considered different service sub-sectors including banks, ICT, insurance, aviation, hotels and medical care.

A research questionnaire was developed to test the hypotheses, with 700 questionnaires distributed by hand and email. A total number of 368 were returned, representing a response rate of 53%. Multiple and linear regression tests were then executed to examine the research hypotheses. The multiple regression test showed a high positive impact of the research variables on operational excellence with (R = 83.2%) and (R²=69.2%) where the highest contribution was from operations strategy’, and the lowest contribution was by ‘leadership’. At the same time, when the research factors were tested individually, they all showed high positive impact on operational excellence. It has also been noticed that there are variations in perceptions across services subsectors: hotels recorded the highest mean value across all factors.

In the light of the findings of this research, which are consistent with previous literature, the researchers propose some recommendations to be considered by both academics and practitioners in the field.