THE IMPACT OF HUMAN ERROR ON DELIVERING SERVICE QUALITY

Abstract

This paper opens a new avenue for investigation of quality issues in services. We take the viewpoint that a substantial portion of service failures is the result of human error in the delivery process. Drawing upon the Generic Error Modeling System (gems) from the cognitive science literature, we develop a framework for understanding the role of human error in service failures. An empirical investigation assesses the applicability of this framework to services, identifies which error mechanisms are important sources of service failure, and clarifies how the different roles of customers and providers affect the errors made by each.

Keywords

SERVICES QUALITY HUMAN ERROR

References

Anderson

J. R.

(1983), The Architecture of Cognition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.

Baars

B. J.

(1983), “Conscious Contents Provide the Nervous System Coherent Global Information” in Consciousness and Self‐regulation, Davidson

Schwartz

, and Shapiro

(eds.), Plenum, New York.

Broadbent

D. E.

(1984), “The Maltese Cross: A New Simplistic Model for Memory”, The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 7, 1, 55–94.

Card

S. K.

Moran

T. P.

, and Newell

(1983), The Psychology of Human‐Computer Interaction, Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ.

Chase

and Stewart

(1994), “Make Your Service Fail‐Safe”, Sloan Management Review, 35, Spring, 35–44.

Chase

and Stewart

(1995), Mistake‐Proofing: Designing Errors Out, Productivity Press, Portland.

Coyne

(1989), “Beyond Service Fads—Meaningful Strategies for the Real World”, Sloan Management Review, 30, Summer, 69–76.

Davenport

T. H.

(1993), Process Innovation: Reengineering Work Through Information Technology, Harvard Business School Press, Cambridge, MA.

Embrey

D. E.

(1986), “Approaches to Aiding and Training Operators' Diagnoses in Abnormal Situations”, Chem Ind, 13, July 7, 454–459.

10.

Gall

(1990), “An Analysis of Nuclear Incidents Resulting From Cognitive Error Paper presented at the 11^th Advances in Reliability Technology Symposium, University of Liverpool, April 1990.

11.

Hammer

(1990), “Reengineer Work: Don't Automate, Obliterate”, Harvard Business Review, 90, 4(July‐August), 104–112.

12.

Hernstein

and Murray

(1994), The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life, The Free Press, New York.

13.

Kelley

S. W.

Hoffman

K. D.

, and Davis

M. A.

(1993), “A Typology of Retail Failures and Recoveries”, Journal of Retailing (Winter 1993), 69, 4, 437.

14.

Kirwan

and James

N. J.

(1989), “The Development of a Human Reliability Assessment System for the Management of Human Error in Complex Systems”, Reliability Brighton Metropole.

15.

Klemmer

(1971), “Keyboard Entry”, Applied Ergonomics 2, 1, 2–6.

16.

Luchins

A. S.

and Luchins

E. H.

(1950), “New Experimental Attempts at Preventing Mechanization in Problem Solving”, Journal of General Psychology, 42 (pt. 2), April, 279–297.

17.

Meshkati

(1996a), “Organizational and Safety. Factors in Automated Oil and Gas Pipeline Systems”, in Automation and Human Performance: Theory and Applications, Parasuraman

and Mouloua

(eds.), Laurence Erlbaum Associates, Mahevah, NJ, 427–441.

18.

Meshkati

(1996b), “Cultural Context of Nuclear Safety Culture: A Conceptual Model and Experimental Study Invited Paper for the Second International Conference of Human Factors Research in Nuclear Power Operations (INCPO2), Berlin, Germany, November 28–30.

19.

Miller

and Porter

(1988), “Errors and Biases in the Attribution Processes”, in Social Cognition and Clinical Psychology, Abramson

(ed.), Guilford Press, New York.

20.

Norman

(1981), “Categorization of Action Slips”, Psychological Review, 88:1, January. Norman, D. (1988), The Design of Everyday Things, Doubleday, New York.

21.

Pew

R. W.

Miller

D. C.

, and Feehrer

C. S.

(1981), “Evaluation of Proposed Control Room Improvements Through Analysis of Critical Operator Decisions NP 1982, Electric Power Research Institute, Palo Alto, CA.

22.

Potash

Stewart

Dietz

P. E.

Lewis

C. M.

, and Dougherty

E. M.

(1981), “Experience in Integrating the Operator Contribution in the PRA of Actual Operating Plants”, Proc. of ANYENS Topical Meeting on PRA, American Nuclear Society, New York, 1054–1063.

23.

Rabbitt

(1968), “Three Kinds of Error‐Signaling Responses in a Serial Choice Task”, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 20, 2, 179–188.

24.

Rabbitt

(1990), “Age, IQ and Awareness, and Recall of Errors”, Ergonomics 33, 10/11, 1291–1305.

25.

Rasmussen

(1983), “Skills, Rules, and Knowledge; Signals, Signs, and Symbols, and Other Distinctions in Human Performance Models”, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics , SMC‐13, 3, May/June.

26.

Rasmussen

(1987), “Cognitive Control and Human Error Mechanisms”, in New Technology and Human Error, Rasmussen

Duncan

, and Leplat

(eds.), John Wiley & Sons, New York, 53–62.

27.

Rasmussen

Pejterson

, and Goodstein

(1994), Cognitive Systems Engineering, John Wiley & Sons, New York.

28.

Reason

(1987), “Generic Error‐Modeling System (gems): A Cognitive Framework for Locating Common Human Error Forms”, in New Technology and Human Error, Rasmussen

Duncan

, and Leplat

(eds.), John Wiley & Sons, New York, 63–83.

29.

Reason

(1990), Human Error, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

30.

Reason

and Lucas

(1984), “Absent‐Mindedness in Shops: Its Incidence, Correlates and Consequences”, British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 23, 121–131.

31.

Reason

and Mycielska

(1982), Absent Minded? The Psychology of Mental Lapses and Everyday Errors, Prentice‐Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

32.

Sanderson

and Harwood

(1988), “The Skills, Rules and Knowledge Classification: A Discussion of its Emergence and Nature”, in Tasks, Errors and Mental Models, Goodstein

L. P.

Anderson

H. B.

, and Olsen

S. E.

(eds.), Taylor & Francis, New York, 21–33.

33.

Shiffrin

R. M.

and Schneider

(1977), “Controlled and Automatic Human Information Processing. II. Perceptual Learning, Automatic Attending, and a General Theory”, Psychological Review, 84, 2, 155–171.

34.

Sellen

(1994), “Detection of Everyday Errors”, Applied Psychology: An International Review, 43, 4, 475–498.

35.

Swain

A. D.

and Guttmann

H. E.

(1983), A Handbook of Human Reliability Analysis with Emphasis on Nuclear Power Plant Applications, USNRC‐Nureg/CR‐1278, Washington, DC 20555.

36.

Walker

and Truly

(1992), “The Critical Incident Technique: Philosophical Foundations and Methodological Implications”, in Marketing Theory and Applications, Allen

C. T.

et al. (eds.), American Marketing Association, Chicago, IL.

37.

Wagenaar

and Groeneweg

(1987), “Accidents at Sea: Multiple Causes and Impossible Consequences”, International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, 27, 5–6, Nov‐Dec, 587–598.

38.

Wehner

and Stadler

(1994), “The Cognitive Organisation of Human Errors: A Gestalt Theory Perspective”, Applied Psychology: An International Review, 43, 4, 565–584.

39.

Whalley

S. P.

(1988), “Minimising the Cause of Human Error” in 10th Advances in Reliability Technology Symposium: University of Bradford, Libberton

G. P.

(ed.), Elsevier, New York.

40.

Woods

D. D.

Pople

H. E.

, and Roth

E. M.

(1990), “The Cognitive Environment Simulation as a Tool for Modeling Human Performance and Reliability”, Nureg/CR‐5213, USNRC, Washington, DC.

41.

Zapf

Mair

Rappensperger

, and Irmer

(1994), “Error Detection, Task Characteristics and Some Consequences for Software Design”, Applied Psychology: An International Review, 43, 4, 499–520.