Service quality orientation: an approach to diffusing mindfulness in SMEs

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to connect mindfulness with service quality constructs and apply the resultant framework, service‐mindful orientation (SMO), to the analysis of strategic perspectives and philosophical orientations of small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana towards service quality management. Design/methodology/approach – This study employed both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods: face‐to‐face interview for the purpose of illuminating inter‐subjective discourses of quality orientation; and questionnaire method that enabled parametric testing of key variables and relationships on 60 service and manufacturing SMEs. Findings – The paper finds conceptual synergy between conventional measures of mindfulness and service‐quality, resulting in the SMO framework. When this framework is applied to gauge strategic orientations, tensions became evident in both the conceptualisation and operationalisation. That an organisation is quality‐minded does not mean that it is quality mindful. Whilst there are subtle differences between manufacturing and service SME groups used in the study, both share a basic commonality in their muddled, cluttered and sometimes confusing approaches to service‐mindful orientation. Research limitations/implications – The concept of SMO is yet to be fully developed to deliver generalisable measures and outcomes. There is certainly a need to advance the treatment to attain theoretic saturation. Also, the sample and design of the study should be seen from the exploratory learning and may be less‐than robust for stable generalizations. Practical implications – There are, potentially, far‐reaching implications arising from this paper. Conceptually, SMO is introduced, not in any taxonomical manner, but as a robust platform within which to analyse, measure and evaluate the futurism of SMEs in terms of success‐readiness and stability. Practically, the battery of measures embodied within SMO are likely to provide the fillip for internal self‐assessments of how ready an individual SME or clusters would be in facing up to both their strategic and operational challenges relating to service‐quality management. Originality/value – By introducing mindfulness from the realm of cognitive science into the domain of service quality, this paper extends the theoretic and discursive dimensions of quality management.