Service climate and employee wellbeing in higher education

Abstract

A growing emphasis on the discourse of ‘student as customer’ has increased the salience of the concept of service climate in universities and anecdotal evidence suggests that this may have placed increased pressure on staff. This study investigated the relationship between service climate and psychological well being in a sample of 340 university staff. Questionnaire data was analysed using structural equation modelling and showed that a positive service climate was negatively related to jobinduced tension and positively related to job satisfaction. Job-induced tension also mediated the effects of service climate on psychological dysfunction and job satisfaction. Implications for management of university stakeholder relationships and directions for future research are discussed.