Academic service climate as a source of competitive advantage: leverage for university administrators

The psychological climate literature examines links between facets if climate, such as service orientation and a range if individual and organisational outcomes including work attitudes and performance. This study investigated the relationship between the service climate if an Australian university and outcomes important to its' key stakeholders. A measure if service climate was developed for use in an academic setting, and the reliability and criterion validity examined. Questionnaire data were collected from 340 staff and 1196 students. Results showed the measure if academic service climate to be internally consistent and strongly associated with employee work attitudes, and student evaluations. Implications for academic administrators are discussed.