Customer satisfaction and quality of service continue to be vital parts of service organizations to gain competitive advantage in the global marketplace. The article identifies how an individual's organizational culture can affect his/her job satisfaction in the context of a large international service organization.

Improving service quality and customer satisfaction continue to be an imperative for service organizations striving to gain competitive advantage in the global marketplace. With increased international competition, greater cultural diversity in the workforce, and the internationalization of consumer tastes and preferences, many large multinational firms in the services sector are seeking ways to deliver quality service on a sustainable basis. For instance, Citibank, in an attempt to become the "premier international financial company of the new millennium," implemented a series of quality initiatives designed to satisfy its customers during every transaction. The emphasis was on creating a quality-based culture, which strives to increase employee commitment. Similarly, Accor, the French multinational hotel chain, focuses on comprehensive HR practices to increase customer value. Their goal is to leverage their nurturing and empowering competencies as a means to improve customer satisfaction.

These global services organizations recognize that there is a strong link between employee performance and customer satisfaction, whereby service employees contribute directly to customers' evaluation of the service. As a result, job satisfaction has received renewed attention in the management literature of the services sector. It is now perceived as a means for improving a variety of work-related outcomes, customer satisfaction in particular.

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