Customer Satisfaction Criteria in Construction Performance Measurement
This paper presents a critical review of Rashvand and Majid's (2013) article "Critical Criteria on Client and Customer Satisfaction for the Issue of Performance Measurement," published in the Journal of Management in Engineering. The critique summarizes the article's central argument — that businesses, particularly in the construction sector, should incorporate client and customer satisfaction criteria into performance measurement rather than relying solely on profitability. The paper evaluates the study's strengths, including its rigorous literature review and quantitative methodology, while noting its weakness in not addressing other performance measurement dimensions. The critique concludes with a recommendation for using the article as a foundational reference while acknowledging the authors' own call for further research.
- Why This Article Was Selected: Rationale for choosing this customer satisfaction article
- Summary of the Article: Overview of research aims, methods, and findings
- Strengths and Validity of the Study: Evaluation of methodology and evidentiary support
- Limitations of the Research: Gaps in scope and performance measurement coverage
- Recommendation for Use: Guidance on applying the article in management research
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What makes this paper effective
- The critique follows a clear, logical structure — rationale, summary, evaluation, and recommendation — making it easy to follow and well-organized for academic purposes.
- The writer directly integrates quoted evidence from the source article to support evaluative claims, demonstrating proper use of APA citation within a critique framework.
- The paper honestly identifies both strengths and weaknesses of the source study, which is the hallmark of a balanced academic critique rather than a simple summary.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates the technique of balanced critical evaluation: it affirms the source study's methodological rigor and practical value while clearly articulating where the research falls short. By quoting the authors' own call for further research, the critique uses the source's limitations against itself in an academically honest way, strengthening the reviewer's credibility.
Structure breakdown
The paper is divided into five sections: a rationale for article selection, a summary of the article's aims and findings, an assessment of the study's validity and evidentiary grounding, an examination of its limitations, and a practical recommendation for how the article should — and should not — be used in management research. The structure mirrors a standard article critique format appropriate for undergraduate business or management coursework.
Why This Article Was Selected
The article by Rashvand and Majid (2013), entitled "Critical Criteria on Client and Customer Satisfaction for the Issue of Performance Measurement," was chosen because it provided insight into how customers and contractors view the concept of customer satisfaction differently. It is important to be able to manage performance according to the same criteria that clients are using, since the customer is ultimately the party that matters most for the business. While a contractor may value profitability as the main criterion for evaluating performance, the customer is likely to place value elsewhere — and a business should be mindful of that distinction. This article was selected to obtain a clearer understanding of that dynamic.
Summary of the Article
This article argues that in order for performance to be measured most effectively, businesses should take into consideration the needs of clients and customers more than they currently do. At present, businesses mainly focus on their own internal needs as the criteria for establishing performance goals, with profitability serving as the primary measure of how well a company has performed. However, this can be a misguided set of criteria, as profitability does not necessarily guarantee longevity.
A better measure of long-term performance would be client and customer satisfaction. Rashvand and Majid (2013) arrive at this conclusion by conducting "a comprehensive literature review of performance measurements for client and customer whereby the data were analyzed, using the metrics which are the aggregate number of each customer and client-satisfaction criteria occurring in previous study" (p. 10). Their aim was to demonstrate that client and customer satisfaction are the two main measures that businesses should use to ensure that construction projects are performing at optimum levels.
As clients and customers are the two key stakeholders in construction projects, their criteria should serve as the measure of performance. The researchers found, after collecting and analyzing their data, that expectation and perception are the two main drivers of satisfaction criteria in roles where satisfaction is required. For that reason, considering the customer's and client's satisfaction criteria is what a business must do to perform successfully.
Strengths and Validity of the Study
The strength and validity of this study are evident in the fact that it supports its aims with quantitative data and a rigorous research methodology. The researchers cover ample ground in their review of the relevant literature and support their thesis with evidence from previous studies. They then present various charts, graphs, and explanations detailing precisely how data was collected and analyzed, leading them to their conclusions.
The study's validity is further grounded in the evidence obtained from the literature review, data collection, and data analysis. The findings demonstrate that there is a genuine need for client and customer satisfaction to be incorporated into performance measurement so that businesses can better serve clients and customers, rather than focusing solely on profitability. If the customer is satisfied, it generally follows that the company will achieve profitability as well, provided costs are managed appropriately. The study's key strength is that it makes a compelling case for why customer and client satisfaction criteria should be considered as a performance measure.
References
Rashvand, P., & Zaimi Abd Majid, M. (2013). Critical criteria on client and customer satisfaction for the issue of performance measurement. Journal of Management in Engineering, 30(1), 10–18.
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