The Chaplain survey.

Article Type:

Survey

Subject:

Chaplains (Surveys)
Quality control (Surveys)

Author:

Nimon, Kim

Pub Date:

09/22/2010

Publication:

Name: Annals of the American Psychotherapy Association Publisher: American Psychotherapy Association Audience: Academic; Professional Format: Magazine/Journal Subject: Psychology and mental health Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2010 American Psychotherapy Association ISSN: 1535-4075

Issue:

Date: Fall, 2010 Source Volume: 13 Source Issue: 3

Topic:

Computer Subject: Quality control

Product:

Product Code: 9913300 Quality Control Management

Geographic:

Geographic Scope: United States Geographic Code: 1USA United States

Accession Number:

242897538

Full Text:

In the spring issue of the Annals (Nimon, 2010), I put out a call to action "to individuals who are employed as workplace chaplains or whose job relates to workplace chaplaincy to participate in or conduct research to assess and improve the practice of pastoral care in the workplace." In support of this call, I would like to present a survey that chaplains or directors of chaplaincy programs might eventually use to assess the quality of corporate chaplaincy services. As in employee assistance programs, assessing service quality can strengthen the credibility and professionalism of corporate chaplaincy programs.

The survey is based on the SERVQUAL instrument (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Berry, 1988), which was developed for assessing customer expectations and perceptions of service quality in service and retailing organizations. The SERVQUAL instrument contains 22 statements for measuring customer expectations and 22 statements for measuring customer perceptions of service quality. The two sets of statements differ in that one set is framed in the context of expected performance, while the other set is framed in the context of actual performance. The SERVQUAL statements are based on a general model of service quality that presumes five interrelated dimensions: tangibles, reliability, assurance, responsiveness, and empathy (Parasuraman et al., 1988). Service quality for each dimension is captured by computing the difference between the average ratings of a dimension's corresponding perception and expectation statements, respectively (i.e., quality = perceptions - expectations).

Although the SERVQUAL instrument was designed to permit cross-industry and cross-product comparisons, there are industry-specific versions of the instrument (e.g., Pitt, Watson, & Kavan, 1995; Thompson, Cook, & Heath, 2000). Instrument-specific versions may contain rewording of core items and context-specific items to supplement the measurement of core criteria. To develop a version of the SERVQUAL instrument appropriate for corporate chaplains, I engaged the services of key personnel from a national workplace chaplain provider. In reviewing the original SERVQUAL items, we found that two items were not well suited to the corporate chaplaincy domain. In particular, items 1 and 2 from the original SERVQUAL instrument that assessed the quality of equipment and physical facilities did not appear well suited to the daily work of corporate chaplains. We also contextualized the remaining items to corporate chaplains.

At this stage of the survey's development, I would like to engage Annals readers who are interested in evaluating and improving the practice of workplace chaplaincy to help assess the content validity of the survey. As in the original SERVQUAL instrument, the instrument is designed to measure five dimensions of quality: tangibles (items 1-2), reliability (items 5-7), responsiveness (items 8-11), assurance (items 12-15), and empathy (items 16-20). In addition to your evaluation of the core items, I am interested in what items you think should be added to supplement the measurement of core criteria. This could either be additional items to support existing dimensions (i.e., tangibles, reliability, assurance, responsiveness, and empathy), or new dimensions that are specific to the work of corporate chaplains.

I invite readers who are interested in contributing to the content validity of this emerging chaplain service quality survey to e-mail me at kim.nimon@gmail.com. I look forward to your participation.

References

Nimon, K. (2010). Chaplain's Brief: Improving workplace chaplaincy. Annals of the American Psychotherapy Association, 13(1), 71.

Parasuraman, A., Berry, L.L., & Zeithaml, V. A. (1988). SERVQUAL: A multiple-item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality. Journal of Retailing, 67(4), 420-450.

Pitt, L. F., Watson, R. T., & Kavan, C. B. (1995). Service quality: A measure of information systems effectiveness. MIS Quarterly, 19, 173-187.

Thompson, B., Cook, C., & Heath, F. (2000). The LibQUAL+TM: Service quality assessment in research libraries. IFLA Journal, 4, 264-268.

KIM NIMON, PhD, is an assistant professor at the University of North Texas, where the main tenet of her research agenda focuses on improving human performance through the practice of workplace spirituality. She became aware of corporate chaplaincy programs during her doctoral studies and began researching how they fit within the larger context of workplace spirituality. Her research on workplace chaplains has been published by the Journal of Management, Spirituality, & Religion and the International Society for Performance Improvement.

Service Quality Expectations

Directions: This survey deals with your expectations of corporate chaplains. Please show the extent to which you think corporate chaplains should possess the following attributes. There are no right or wrong answers--all we are interested in is a number that best shows your expectations about how corporate chaplains should serve employees.

Service Quality Perceptions

Directions: This survey deals with your perceptions of corporate chaplains. Please show the extent to which you think corporate chaplains actually possess the following attributes. There are no right or wrong answers--all we are interested in is a number that best shows your perceptions about how corporate chaplains are currently serving employees.

EXPECTATIONS

Please respond to ALL the
statements.                  Strongly disagree Strongly disagree

E1    Corporate chaplains    1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
      will be neat in
      appearance and
      dressed
      appropriately for
      our workplace.

E2    Materials associated   1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
      with corporate
      chaplaincy services
      (such as pamphlets
      or brochures) will
      be visually
      appealing.

E3    Corporate chaplains    1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
      will fulfill their
      commitments.

E4    When an employee       1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
      expresses a problem,
      corporate chaplains
      will show a sincere
      interest in solving
      it.

E5    Corporate chaplains    1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
      will perform their
      services right the
      first time.

E6    Corporate chaplains    1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
      will provide their
      services at the time
      they promise to do
      so.

E7    Corporate chaplains    1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
      will provide clear
      and accurate reports
      of their services.

E8    Corporate chaplains    1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
      will tell employees
      when employee care
      services will be
      performed.

E9    Corporate chaplains    1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
      will give employees
      timely service.

E10   Corporate chaplains    1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
      will always be
      willing to help
      employees.

E11   Corporate chaplains    1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
      will never be too
      busy to respond to
      an employee request.

E12   The behavior of        1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
      corporate chaplains
      will instill
      confidence in
      employees.

E13   Employees will feel    1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
      safe in their
      interactions with
      corporate chaplains.

E14   Corporate chaplains    1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
      will be consistently
      courteous with
      employees.

E15   Corporate chaplains    1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
      will have the
      knowledge to answer
      employees'
      questions.

E16   Corporate chaplains    1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
      will give employees
      individual
      attention.

E17   Corporate chaplains    1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
      will be available
      during hours
      convenient to all
      employees.

E18   Corporate chaplains    1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
      will give employee
      personal attention.

E19   Corporate chaplains    1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
      will have employees'
      best interests at
      heart.

E20   Corporate chaplains    1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
      will understand
      employees' specific
      needs.

PERCEPTIONS

Please respond to ALL the      Strongly disagree Strongly disagree
statements.

E1     Corporate chaplains     1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
       are neat in
       appearance and
       dressed
       appropriately for
       our workplace.

E2     Materials associated    1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
       with corporate
       chaplaincy services
       (such as pamphlets
       or brochures) are
       visually appealing.

E3     Corporate chaplains     1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
       fulfill their
       commitments.

E4     When an employee        1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
       expresses a problem,
       corporate chaplains
       show a sincere
       interest in solving
       it.

E5     Corporate chaplains     1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
       perform their
       services right the
       first time.

E6     Corporate chaplains     1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
       provide their
       services at the time
       they promise to do
       so.

E7     Corporate chaplains     1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
       provide clear and
       accurate reports of
       their services.

E8     Corporate chaplains     1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
       tell employees when
       employee care
       services will be
       performed.

E9     Corporate chaplains     1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
       give employees
       timely service.

E10    Corporate chaplains     1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
       are always willing
       to help employees.

E11    Corporate chaplains     1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
       are never be too
       busy to respond to
       an employee request.

E12    The behavior of         1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
       corporate chaplains
       instill confidence
       in employees.

E13    Employees feel safe     1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
       in their
       interactions with
       corporate chaplains.

E14    Corporate chaplains     1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
       are consistently
       courteous with
       employees.

E15    Corporate chaplains     1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
       have the knowledge
       to answer employees'
       questions.

E16    Corporate chaplains     1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
       give employees
       individual
       attention.

E17    Corporate chaplains     1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
       are available during
       hours convenient to
       all employees.

E18    Corporate chaplains     1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
       give employee
       personal attention.

E19    Corporate chaplains     1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
       have employees' best
       interests at heart.

E20    Corporate chaplains     1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7
       understand
       employees' specific
       needs.

Gale Copyright:

The Chaplain survey.

Article Type:	Survey
Subject:	Chaplains (Surveys) Quality control (Surveys)
Author:	Nimon, Kim
Pub Date:	09/22/2010
Publication:	Name: Annals of the American Psychotherapy Association Publisher: American Psychotherapy Association Audience: Academic; Professional Format: Magazine/Journal Subject: Psychology and mental health Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2010 American Psychotherapy Association ISSN: 1535-4075
Issue:	Date: Fall, 2010 Source Volume: 13 Source Issue: 3
Topic:	Computer Subject: Quality control
Product:	Product Code: 9913300 Quality Control Management
Geographic:	Geographic Scope: United States Geographic Code: 1USA United States

Accession Number:	242897538
Full Text:	In the spring issue of the Annals (Nimon, 2010), I put out a call to action "to individuals who are employed as workplace chaplains or whose job relates to workplace chaplaincy to participate in or conduct research to assess and improve the practice of pastoral care in the workplace." In support of this call, I would like to present a survey that chaplains or directors of chaplaincy programs might eventually use to assess the quality of corporate chaplaincy services. As in employee assistance programs, assessing service quality can strengthen the credibility and professionalism of corporate chaplaincy programs. The survey is based on the SERVQUAL instrument (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Berry, 1988), which was developed for assessing customer expectations and perceptions of service quality in service and retailing organizations. The SERVQUAL instrument contains 22 statements for measuring customer expectations and 22 statements for measuring customer perceptions of service quality. The two sets of statements differ in that one set is framed in the context of expected performance, while the other set is framed in the context of actual performance. The SERVQUAL statements are based on a general model of service quality that presumes five interrelated dimensions: tangibles, reliability, assurance, responsiveness, and empathy (Parasuraman et al., 1988). Service quality for each dimension is captured by computing the difference between the average ratings of a dimension's corresponding perception and expectation statements, respectively (i.e., quality = perceptions - expectations). Although the SERVQUAL instrument was designed to permit cross-industry and cross-product comparisons, there are industry-specific versions of the instrument (e.g., Pitt, Watson, & Kavan, 1995; Thompson, Cook, & Heath, 2000). Instrument-specific versions may contain rewording of core items and context-specific items to supplement the measurement of core criteria. To develop a version of the SERVQUAL instrument appropriate for corporate chaplains, I engaged the services of key personnel from a national workplace chaplain provider. In reviewing the original SERVQUAL items, we found that two items were not well suited to the corporate chaplaincy domain. In particular, items 1 and 2 from the original SERVQUAL instrument that assessed the quality of equipment and physical facilities did not appear well suited to the daily work of corporate chaplains. We also contextualized the remaining items to corporate chaplains. At this stage of the survey's development, I would like to engage Annals readers who are interested in evaluating and improving the practice of workplace chaplaincy to help assess the content validity of the survey. As in the original SERVQUAL instrument, the instrument is designed to measure five dimensions of quality: tangibles (items 1-2), reliability (items 5-7), responsiveness (items 8-11), assurance (items 12-15), and empathy (items 16-20). In addition to your evaluation of the core items, I am interested in what items you think should be added to supplement the measurement of core criteria. This could either be additional items to support existing dimensions (i.e., tangibles, reliability, assurance, responsiveness, and empathy), or new dimensions that are specific to the work of corporate chaplains. I invite readers who are interested in contributing to the content validity of this emerging chaplain service quality survey to e-mail me at kim.nimon@gmail.com. I look forward to your participation. References Nimon, K. (2010). Chaplain's Brief: Improving workplace chaplaincy. Annals of the American Psychotherapy Association, 13(1), 71. Parasuraman, A., Berry, L.L., & Zeithaml, V. A. (1988). SERVQUAL: A multiple-item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality. Journal of Retailing, 67(4), 420-450. Pitt, L. F., Watson, R. T., & Kavan, C. B. (1995). Service quality: A measure of information systems effectiveness. MIS Quarterly, 19, 173-187. Thompson, B., Cook, C., & Heath, F. (2000). The LibQUAL+TM: Service quality assessment in research libraries. IFLA Journal, 4, 264-268. KIM NIMON, PhD, is an assistant professor at the University of North Texas, where the main tenet of her research agenda focuses on improving human performance through the practice of workplace spirituality. She became aware of corporate chaplaincy programs during her doctoral studies and began researching how they fit within the larger context of workplace spirituality. Her research on workplace chaplains has been published by the Journal of Management, Spirituality, & Religion and the International Society for Performance Improvement. Service Quality Expectations Directions: This survey deals with your expectations of corporate chaplains. Please show the extent to which you think corporate chaplains should possess the following attributes. There are no right or wrong answers--all we are interested in is a number that best shows your expectations about how corporate chaplains should serve employees. Service Quality Perceptions Directions: This survey deals with your perceptions of corporate chaplains. Please show the extent to which you think corporate chaplains actually possess the following attributes. There are no right or wrong answers--all we are interested in is a number that best shows your perceptions about how corporate chaplains are currently serving employees. EXPECTATIONS Please respond to ALL the statements. Strongly disagree Strongly disagree E1 Corporate chaplains 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 will be neat in appearance and dressed appropriately for our workplace. E2 Materials associated 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 with corporate chaplaincy services (such as pamphlets or brochures) will be visually appealing. E3 Corporate chaplains 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 will fulfill their commitments. E4 When an employee 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 expresses a problem, corporate chaplains will show a sincere interest in solving it. E5 Corporate chaplains 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 will perform their services right the first time. E6 Corporate chaplains 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 will provide their services at the time they promise to do so. E7 Corporate chaplains 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 will provide clear and accurate reports of their services. E8 Corporate chaplains 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 will tell employees when employee care services will be performed. E9 Corporate chaplains 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 will give employees timely service. E10 Corporate chaplains 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 will always be willing to help employees. E11 Corporate chaplains 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 will never be too busy to respond to an employee request. E12 The behavior of 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 corporate chaplains will instill confidence in employees. E13 Employees will feel 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 safe in their interactions with corporate chaplains. E14 Corporate chaplains 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 will be consistently courteous with employees. E15 Corporate chaplains 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 will have the knowledge to answer employees' questions. E16 Corporate chaplains 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 will give employees individual attention. E17 Corporate chaplains 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 will be available during hours convenient to all employees. E18 Corporate chaplains 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 will give employee personal attention. E19 Corporate chaplains 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 will have employees' best interests at heart. E20 Corporate chaplains 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 will understand employees' specific needs. PERCEPTIONS Please respond to ALL the Strongly disagree Strongly disagree statements. E1 Corporate chaplains 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 are neat in appearance and dressed appropriately for our workplace. E2 Materials associated 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 with corporate chaplaincy services (such as pamphlets or brochures) are visually appealing. E3 Corporate chaplains 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 fulfill their commitments. E4 When an employee 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 expresses a problem, corporate chaplains show a sincere interest in solving it. E5 Corporate chaplains 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 perform their services right the first time. E6 Corporate chaplains 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 provide their services at the time they promise to do so. E7 Corporate chaplains 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 provide clear and accurate reports of their services. E8 Corporate chaplains 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 tell employees when employee care services will be performed. E9 Corporate chaplains 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 give employees timely service. E10 Corporate chaplains 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 are always willing to help employees. E11 Corporate chaplains 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 are never be too busy to respond to an employee request. E12 The behavior of 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 corporate chaplains instill confidence in employees. E13 Employees feel safe 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 in their interactions with corporate chaplains. E14 Corporate chaplains 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 are consistently courteous with employees. E15 Corporate chaplains 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 have the knowledge to answer employees' questions. E16 Corporate chaplains 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 give employees individual attention. E17 Corporate chaplains 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 are available during hours convenient to all employees. E18 Corporate chaplains 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 give employee personal attention. E19 Corporate chaplains 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 have employees' best interests at heart. E20 Corporate chaplains 1-----2-----3-----4-----5-----6-----7 understand employees' specific needs.
Gale Copyright:	Copyright 2010 Gale, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.