Turning Learning into Performance: How Skill Development Shapes Service Quality
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.48165/pjhas.2026.12.1.3Keywords:
Workplace learning practices, employee skill development, service performance quality, PLS-SEM, skill developmentAbstract
Background: With the increasing emphasis on job-related skills, in service organizations performance quality will more and more be determined by employees’ capabilities to learn how to perform their jobs. While work-based learning is well established, little empirical evidence has been presented to explain how these practices become a source of improved service performance. Objectives: To understand the relationship between learning in workplace and service performance quality, how employee skill development mediates this relationship is studied. Methodology: The study was a quantitative cross-sectional design. A sample of 286 employees working in service organizations and training institution in Tamil Nadu was selected for data collection by a structured questionnaire. A partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique was applied in Smart PLS to test the relationships and mediations presented. Results: The findings reveal that workplace learning practices significantly influence employee skill development (β = 0.883, p < 0.001), and employee skill development significantly affects service performance quality (β = 0.968, p < 0.001). However, the direct relationship between workplace learning practices and service performance quality was not significant (β = −0.042, p > 0.05). The model explained 78.0% of the variance in employee skill development and 86.7% of the variance in service performance quality, confirming a full mediation effect. Conclusion: The study suggests that learning processes affect service performance positively but only if they result in substantive skill development. Focusing on skill-based interventions and experiential learning becomes indispensable for ensuring a sustained impact of performance.References
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