Factors Influencing Service Recovery Performance among Educators of Open and Distance Learning in Malaysia: Exploring the Moderating Effects of Educators’ Job Experience

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Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 led to a global shutdown of the education sector, compelling 1.598 billion individuals to stay home (Aristovnik et al., 2020).This crisis reshaped global education, witnessing a surge in educational technology investments, expected to reach $350 billion by 2025 (Ghada, 2021).Malaysia experienced potential enrolment growth in higher education institutes, reaching 1.6 million by 2023, urging a shift towards distance learning tools (Ken Research, 2019).However, only 5 percent of learners in Malaysia's higher education sector were engaged in distance learning before the pandemic (Mansor, 2003).The pandemic's economic impact, with unemployment rising from 508,200 in 2019 to 826,000 in 2020 Shankar (2020), emphasized the need for sustainable development through human capital investment.A survey indicated that only 72 percent of new learners were willing to Vol 14, Issue 3, (2024) E- ISSN: 2222-6990 To Link this Article: http://dx.doi.org/10.6007/IJARBSS/v14-i3/20861DOI:10.6007/IJARBSS/v14-i3/20861 Published Date: 07 March 2024 continue, with 28 percent deferring or quitting studies (Intan, 2022).Complaints, especially regarding educators' availability and tutorial issues, were on the rise, reflecting the importance of effective service recovery (Frankel et al., 2006).However, limited research focused on educators in open and distance learning, prompting a need for exploration.In higher education, previous research has explored diverse areas, but there is a notable gap in understanding educators' service recovery performance.Successful service recovery is viewed as critical for boosting learner confidence and, consequently, institutions' market share (Siti Intan, 2009).Service failure, defined as a deviation from learner expectations (Bell & Zemke, 1987), necessitates effective service recovery.Recovery actions, while short-term, must be integrated into long-term reliability (Boshoff, 1999).Service recovery aims to shift learners from dissatisfaction to satisfaction, fostering loyalty (Berry & Parasuraman, 1991).Addressing service failures becomes crucial as dissatisfaction can lead to negative word of mouth and potential learner departure.The commitment of learners to an organization strengthens postservice failure resolution (Tax et al., 1998).As the primary contact personnel for the core service, educators' effective service recovery is crucial for maintaining learner satisfaction, retention, and overall institution growth (Swanson & Davis, 2000).In conclusion, the introduction underscores the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education, emphasizing the shift to distance learning.The challenges faced by educators in Malaysia and the importance of service recovery in higher education are highlighted, setting the stage for the proposed study on factors influencing educators' service recovery performance.

Problem Statement
The application of marketing principles in service recovery performance within higher education holds significant potential (Iyer & Muncy, 2008).Unfortunately, studies in Malaysia regarding service recovery performance related to educators are limited.Previous research has explored various organizational, human resource, and personal factors influencing service recovery performance in different sectors, predominantly relying on the Boshoff and Allen (2000) model.However, there is a notable gap in understanding service recovery performance within the education industry, particularly among educators in open and distance learning.In Malaysia, studies on service recovery performance have been conducted in sectors such as hotels, life insurance, telecommunications, and retail, but the education industry, especially the open and distance learning field, has been overlooked.The existing literature, both locally and abroad, lacks consistency in findings and generalizability to the Malaysian educational context.Replication studies using the Boshoff and Allen (2000) model have been common, with variations to suit specific conditions and sectors.
Emotional exhaustion and self-efficacy, crucial aspects of educators' well-being and performance, are underexplored in the context of service recovery.Furthermore, the limited exploration of educators' job experience in open and distance learning settings highlights a gap in understanding how the number of years an educator has worked influences their service recovery performance.The inconsistencies in findings across different sectors and the lack of research specific to the education industry emphasize the need for context-specific investigations.Despite potential limitations associated with focusing on a specific context, delving into service recovery performance within the education sector contributes valuable insights to a neglected area of service research.
This study aims to address these gaps by examining the relationship between organizational factors (top management commitment), work resources factors (rewards, training, customer service orientation, empowerment), and work demands factors (emotional exhaustion, affective commitment, and self-efficacy) concerning educators in open and distance learning.The focus on both part-time and full-time educators within the education industry, particularly in open and distance learning, adds a unique dimension to the research, aiming to introduce empirical literature on service recovery performance in this understudied domain.In summary, this research addresses the scarcity of studies on service recovery performance within the education industry, specifically open and distance learning, providing valuable insights into the organizational, resource, and demand factors influencing educators in achieving better service recovery performance.

Research Objectives
This research study aims to comprehensively explore factors influencing service recovery performance in the educational context.The investigation delves into the intricate relationships among organizational, work resource, and work demand factors, considering the moderating influence of educators' job experience.The primary objectives include examining the correlation between organizational factors, particularly top management commitment, and its impact on service recovery.Additionally, the study assesses the relationship between work resource factors (rewards, training, customer service orientation, and empowerment) and their influence on service recovery.It also focuses on understanding the impact of work demand factors (emotional exhaustion, affective commitment, and selfefficacy) on service recovery performance.The research introduces educators' job experience as a moderating variable, investigating its effect on the correlation between organizational factors and service recovery.Furthermore, it explores the moderating impact of job experience on the correlation between work resource factors and service recovery, as well as its role in the association between work demand factors and the ability to recover from service failures.In summary, the study seeks to unravel the nuanced dynamics of these factors within the educational setting, contributing valuable insights to enhance service recovery practices.

Research Questions
Given the objectives discussed above, this study aims to answer below research questions: RQ1: Is there any relationship between organizational factors (top management commitment) and service recovery performance?RQ2: Do work resource factors (rewards, training, customer service orientation, and empowerment) have a relationship with service recovery performance?RQ3: What is the relationship between work demand factors (emotional exhaustion, affective commitment, and self-efficacy) and service recovery performance?RQ4: Does the educator's job experience moderate the link between organizational factors and service recovery performance?RQ5: Does the educator's job experience moderate the correlation between work resource factor variables and service recovery performance?RQ6: Do educators' job experience moderate the correlation between work demand factors and service recovery performance?

Significance of the Study
This research is pivotal for academia and practitioners in the service recovery domain, specifically within the Malaysian education industry.By examining how organizational factors, work resources, and work demands influence educators' service recovery performance, the study addresses a critical gap in understanding service dynamics in this context.Service recovery is acknowledged as a key element for organizational success, with the study emphasizing its importance in the education sector.
The model developed diverges from traditional frameworks, encompassing organizational, work resource, and work demand factors to provide a more nuanced exploration tailored to Malaysia's education setting.A unique aspect of this research is the introduction of educator job experience as a moderator in service recovery performance.This novel approach fills a gap in the existing literature and adds depth to our understanding of how job experience shapes service recovery outcomes for educators.

Literature Review Top Management Commitment and Service Recovery Performance
Top management commitment refers to the attitude and behavior of the top executives in a firm toward implementing excellent service recovery that will enable the employees to follow their direction and way of working (Boshoff & Allen, 2000).TMC represents an engine in mobilizes everyone in the organization and creates a conducive environment for the successful implementation of service excellence (Dejene, 2018).Top management stands as the front-runner of an organization in which the outcome is a reflection of its capability and commitment to the implementation of service excellence (Njie et al., 2008).According to Aletaiby et al ( 2017), the essential task of the top management is to guarantee and ensure commitment toward service recovery activities.Service recovery performance is reflected by the management's commitment and employees' attitudes toward attaining loyal customers.Employees' attitudes are based on the employees' perceptions of the organization's factors particularly top management's commitment to service improvement efforts (Jenkins, 1992).
H1.The top management commitment will positively influence the service recovery performance.

Rewards and Service Recovery Performance
Rewards mechanisms illustrate an inducement that employee receives from their organization either in the form of financial or non-financial such as social identity, compensation, appreciation, and status (Yavas et al., 2003).Rewards concerns employees' assessment of the financial and non-financial rewards for handling customer complaints well (Babakus, et al., 2003).The needs and wants of employees are satisfied when they identify those rewards from the organization such as recognition, career growth, pay, advancement, and meaningful work meet or go beyond their expectations (Hackman & Oldham, 1980;Locke, 1976).Rewards are one of the crucial elements in encouraging employees to provide excellent services and in motivating the employees when dealing with issues from customers (Yavas et al., 2003;Lewis & Gabrielsen, 1998).RW refers to employee expectations when they provide the best service (Boshoff & Allen, 2000).Based on studies in New Zealand's major retail banks and private major retail banks in Turkey found that the reward practice of frontline employees for service excellence has a direct relationship with service recovery performance (Boshoff & Allen, 2000;Kirkbir & Cengiz, 2007;Babakus, Yavas, Karatepe & Avci, 2003).

Training and Service Recovery Performance
Training is important for employees' service performance effectiveness and as stated one of the strategic requirements for customer retention and revenue for hotels (Magnini & Ford, 2004).Most workforces are not naturally responsive, kind, and reassuring in handling customer problems (Berry & Parasuraman, 1991).Therefore, the work workforce must be trained to take necessary action when things go wrong (Whiteley, 1994).Studies done by researchers, for instance, Salehudin (2019); Norhamizan et al (2017); Emad and Tahreer  (2013); Crawford and Kozub (2011); Yavas et al (2010); Kirkbir and Cengiz (2007); Ardahan (2006); Yavas et al (2003); Babakus et al (2003) on frontlines employees working in the hotel industry and banking sector indicated that there was a strong correlation between employees training variable and service recovery performance.Although some findings found that training of employees has no impact on service recovery performance (Halil & Tanova, 2016;Cojocaru, 2011;Boshoff & Allen, 2000;Yavas et al., 2003;Ashill et al., 2005;Ashill et al., 2006;Rod et al., 2006) but it will make sure that employees do not raise the possible for conflict.Educators should be trained in technical and functional skills, listening to a learner's problem, defusing the learner's anger, and providing tailored responses to decrease the shortfall of service (Boshoff & Allen, 2000) H3.Training will positively influence the service recovery performance.

Empowerment and Service Recovery Performance
Service industries such as the education industry are becoming more challenging.Therefore, empowerment is very crucial and recognized in service sectors as the main factor in providing to increasingly demanding customers (Boshoff & Allen, 2000).Empowerment is among the factors that may influence the service recovery practices of educators.Empowerment involves giving employees the power, responsibility, freedom, and ability to make decisions and act quickly without long command when handling their daily tasks (Yavas et al., 2003).Employee empowerment empowers the employees toward satisfaction of tasks and uses creative intuitive feelings to take fast and fair actions toward the issues (Yavas & Babakus, 2010;Rod & Ashill, 2010).In empowering employees, the management gives up control over various aspects of the service delivery to the frontline employees that can provide quick, freedom for making decisions, and appropriate, committed, and fair responses to unhappy customers (Boshoff and Allen, 2000;Bowen and Lawler, 1992).Empowerment provides frontline employees with the responsibility and authority needed to act quickly without a long chain of command (Lewis & Gabrielsen, 1998).Empowerment refers to frontline employees' feeling of authority and autonomy to handle customer problems (Babakus, et al., 2003).
H4. Empowerment will positively influence the service recovery performance.

Customer Service Orientation and Service Recovery Performance
Customer service orientation is a culture in the firm deriving from strategies, practices, and procedures that support the attitudes of employees in providing service superiority (Ashill et al., 2005).According to Saura et al (2005), customer service orientation is the set of beliefs that put the customer's interest in priority.In comparison, Rod and Ashill (2010) refer to customer service orientation as organization culture in terms of policies and procedures that support employee behavior in delivering service excellence.According to Lytle, Hom, and Mokwa (1998), a strong customer service orientation is needed for the establishment and enhancement of reasonable marketing performance.The culture in a service organization has a significant influence on the organization's ability to provide the best service and service failure recovery effectively (Parasuraman, 1987).Lewis and Gabrielson (1998) highlighted that service organizations employee with a strong customer-oriented culture feels a personal responsibility to deliver excellent service.Various studies showed contracting results in the relationship between customer service orientation and service recovery performance (Ashill et al., 2005;Yavas et al., 2003;Boshoff & Allen, 2000;Crawford & Kozub, 2011;Tran & Vo, 2021) The use of optional behavior will have a strong impact on the service encounter and the customer satisfaction (Boshoff & Allen, 2000).The organization's culture will impact the way employees behave during unusual situations in service recovery.
H5. Customer service orientation will positively influence service recovery performance.

Emotional Exhaustion and Service Recovery Performance
Emotional exhaustion is a mental and emotional tiredness and a feeling of lack of energy (Karatepe, 2006).Emotions are described as mental states whether positive or negative that happen from cognitive appraisals of occurrences or thoughts about those (Bagozzi, 1999).This will reflect significantly on employee quality of working life in the company (Ashill et al., 2009).Evidence from Niriender (2013); Shishi et al ( 2016); Adil and Mushtaq (2021) also discovered emotional exhaustion was inversely related to customer service employees' service recovery performance in the life insurance sector of Malaysia and frontline employees in the Indian banking sector.In contrast, Grobeln (2021); Karatepe's (2006) study showed emotional exhaustion does not influence service recovery performance among frontline employees working in hotels in Poland and Turkey banks.Emotional minds do influence the way employees deal with customers (Bitner, 1992).When educator feels a reduction of emotional resources and thus experience emotional exhaustion from their job and running down of energy will reduce the service recovery performance of the employee.Given the literature review with empirical evidence, the following hypothesis is proposed: H6: Emotional exhaustion will influence negatively on the service recovery performance.

Affective Organizational Commitment and Service Recovery Performance
Organizational commitment refers to the relative strength of an individual identification towards their firm (Karatepe & Tekinkus, 2006).It is consistent with the concept of affective organizational commitment that relates to the strength of the emotional bond of employees to an organization (Allen & Meyer, 1990).Affective organizational commitment is the famous dimension of organizational commitment due to employees' behaviors being reflected in the organization they work for (Boshoff & Allen, 2000).The study by Boshoff and Allen (2000) found a significant positive relationship between affective organizational commitment and frontline employees' service recovery performance in retail banking.Lan and Nugroho (2019) also demonstrated that higher organizational commitment resulted the higher service recovery performance based on an analysis of 282 banking employees working in Indonesia.Although some studies showed contrasting results regarding the influence of affective organizational commitment on service recovery performance (Yavas et al., 2003;Ardahan, 2006;Crawford & Kozub, 2011) committed employees are generally assumed to dedicate more time, more effort, and more of their talents to the firm for which they work (Parasuraman, 1987;Boshoff & Allen, 2000) Therefore affective organizational commitment of educators has an essential function in contributing towards providing better service recovery to learners in open and distance learning environment.Based on the presented evidence above it is hypothesized that: H7.Affective organizational commitment will positively influence the service recovery performance.

Self-efficacy and Service Recovery Performance
Self-efficacy describes the skills, abilities, and confidence of educators to perform various job-related tasks in work workplace and activate sufficient effort to produce successful outcomes such as effective service recovery (Karetepe et al., 2007).Self-efficacy is a crucial element in the quality of services provided by service organizations (Njele, 2019).Employees with higher Self-efficacy will have more confidence and capabilities in their tasks to ensure high service quality (De Jonge et al., 2008).High self-efficacy of employees is associated with higher quality of service delivery according to (Judge and Bono, 2001).Petitjohn et al (1995) stated that high self-efficacy can emphasize questioning, listening, and helping customers solve issues quickly.The greater the self-efficacy of employees the greater the service quality will be provided according to Seow (2013) based on an analysis of service employees working in various service sectors in Singapore.Employees with high self-efficacy feel comfortable communicating error information, are less concerned about image and feeling, and boost self-confidence to perform better during service recovery performance (Xingyu et al., 2020).Even though the findings from Robinson et al (2011) showed that employee self-efficacy was not significantly related to service recovery, efficacious employees play a key role in recovering from service failure (Hart, Heskett & Sasser, 1990).This leads to the following hypothesis: H8.The educator's self-efficacy influence positively affects the service recovery performance.

Educator's Job Experience
An educator's job experience can be defined as either the number of months or years spent in a particular job or the number of times a particular task has been performed (Quinones et al., 1995).The educator's previous work experience defined total years of fulltime work experience (Yuli et al., 2013).While Verhofstadt et al (2017) stated that an educator's work experience is several years an individual has been working regardless of whether it is the same or another job.For this study educator's job experience will be referred to as several years of educator teaching in open and distance learning (Quinones et al., 1995).Educators who have more years of working experience are likely to stay with existing organizations because of time, effort, and entitlement to seniority (Rekha et al., 2018).Uppal, Mishra, and Vohra (2014) stated work experience that an employee holds can help better judgment, and stability, reduce negative work behaviors such as absenteeism, and increase performance in the workplace.Cvetkovic et al (2017) indicated that experienced employees have more wider range of knowledge as well as deliver high-performance work.Based on previous literature there are very limited studies done using educators' job experience as moderators in the service recovery performance.Based on the above discussion, it is thus hypothesized that: H9a: The positive relationship between top management commitment and service recovery performance will be stronger when the educator's job experience is high.H9b: The positive relationship between rewards and service recovery performance will be stronger when the educator's job experience is high.H9c: The positive relationship between training and service recovery performance will be stronger when the educator's job experience is high.H9d: The positive relationship between empowerment and service recovery performance will be stronger when the educator's job experience is high.H9e: The positive relationship between customer service orientation and service recovery performance will be stronger when the educator's job experience is high.H9f: The negative relationship between emotional exhaustion and service recovery performance will be stronger when the educator's job experience is high.H9g: The positive relationship between affective organizational commitment and service recovery performance will be stronger when the educator's job experience is high.H9h: The positive relationship between self-efficacy and service recovery performance will be stronger when the educator's job experience is high.

Conceptual Research Framework
Based on the literature reviewed and theory (equity theory), the proposed research framework is as follows

Research Methodology Research Design
This study employed quantitative research, in which the constructs were operationalized using equity theory to examine the relationships between organizational, work resources and work demands factors and service recovery performance with educator experience as moderator.The relationship can be tested based on the statistical analysis outcome.The result with validity and reliability obtained can provide meaningful interpretations of data for generalization purposes (Creswell, 2015).As a conclusion, this research adopted a positivist paradigm to achieve the research objectives.A causal research design is conducted to identify the extent and nature of cause-and-effect relationships.Causal studies focus on an analysis of a situation or a specific problem to describe the patterns of relationships between variables (Babin et al., 2012).

Unit of Analysis
The unit of analysis is described as what or who is being investigated which includes individuals, groups, or organizations (Babbie, 2007).It is crucial to have a clear cut about the unit of analysis, as the validity of the research depends on the unit of analysis of the research (Babbie, 2010).Yin (2013) proposed that the unit of analysis can be determined based on the research questions of a study.The main research question highlighted in the present study is to understand the factors influencing educators' service recovery performance in open and distance learning environments.The unit of analysis in this study is educators working parttime or full-time in the open and distance learning sector at the OUM.

Population and Sampling Procedure
The population of this study will be the educators from open and distance learning attached to the OUM throughout Malaysia.In stratified sampling, the researcher will divide the population into subpopulations based on the relevant characteristics such as gender, age range, income bracket, and job role and then draw a sample from each sub-group.The management of OUM is to provide relevant information on all the educators involved in ODL such as the total number of educators, their e-mail addresses, and contact numbers.As a result, the sampling frame for respondents is available and the purpose of the study is to test the generalizability of the population Palys & Atchison (2014), probabilistic sampling techniques namely simple random sampling will be applied in this research.

Data Collection Method
The method to conduct the research is through an online questionnaire as it is more cost-efficient, less time-consuming, greater accessible, and hassle-free from public spaces.Therefore, in this study, the data will be collected via an online platform by sending e-mails to educators involved in open and distance learning at the OUM and some other institutions that are practicing ODL.It will include the researcher's email address and mobile phone number in case there are further queries or clarifications about the questionnaire from the educators.The survey questionnaires will be distributed directly to the respective educators attached to the OUM and other institutions especially those involved only with open and distance learning by the researcher through e-mail.The questionnaire will be sent to 750 numbers of active educators.The sample size of 300 educators represents 20 percent of the educators' population sufficient to achieve the research objectives of this study.The random number generator will be used to generate 300 numbers from 1 to 750.In total 300 educators assigned with respective generated numbers are going to represent a sample of educators in this research.

Instruments
The questionnaire will be developed by the researcher as an instrument to obtain information needed for the researcher to explain the relationship between variables.This study will employ the questionnaire with two sections consisting of close-ended questions.Section A will measure the demographic profile of educators (gender, age, level of education, employment status, and educators' experience in open and distance learning.).Section B will measure independent variables namely organization (top management commitment), work resources (rewards, training, customer service orientation, empowerment), work demands (emotional exhaustion, affective commitment, and self-efficacy) factors, and dependent variable (service recovery performance).The measurement scales for each independent and dependent variable are sourced from past literature.

Demographic Profile
Demographic information is the data related to respondents (Salkind, 2010).Demographic data details define the sample of people or organizations in the research (Connelly, 2013).As a result, the demographic data of respondents is important and should be investigated in a very careful manner.For the present study, the demographic information of educators will be collected gender, age, level of education, employment status, and educators' experience in open and distance learning.Educator's experience Measurement items for Independent Variables (IV) will be measured based on a fivepoint Likert scale.Five points Likert type scale consists of (1) strongly disagree, (2) disagree, (3) not sure, (4) agree, and (5) strongly agree will be employed.The five Likert scale will be used to reduce the number of choices, increase response rate and quality, and reduce educators' bored levels (Babakus et al., 2003).
Table 2 below shows the measurement items (4) that will be used for Top Management Commitment (TMC).The measurement items were adapted from a previous study by (Boshoff & Allen, 2000).

Table 2 Measurement Items for Top Management Commitment (TMC)
No Items TMC-1 Senior management of this firm is committed to doing its best for the customer.TMC-2 Senior managers in this firm talk a lot about customer satisfaction.TMC-3 Senior managers' actions back up a verbal commitment to customer service.TMC-4 Senior managers in this firm go out of their way to ensure that customers are satisfied.
Table 3 below shows the measurement items (5) that will be used for Rewards (RW).The measurement items were adapted from a previous study by Boshoff & Allen (2000).

Table 3 Measurement Items for Rewards (RW)
No Items RW-1 If I improve the level of service I offer customers, I will be rewarded.RW-2 The rewards I receive are based on customer evaluations of service.RW-3 Employees in this firm are rewarded for serving customers well.RW-4 Employees of this firm are rewarded for dealing effectively with customer problems.RW-5 I am rewarded for satisfying complaining customers.
Table 4 below shows the measurement items (6) that will be used for Training (TR).The measurement items were adapted from a previous study by Yavas et al. (2003)  Employees in this firm receive training on how to deal with complaining customers.
Table 5 below shows the measurement items (4) that will be used for Empowerment (EP).The measurement items were adapted from the previous study by Yavas et al. (2003).6) that will be used for Emotional Exhaustion (EE).The measurement items were adapted from a previous study by Karatepe (2006).I feel like I am at the end of my rope.
Table 7 below shows the measurement items (5) that will be used for Affective Commitment (AC).The measurement items were adapted from the previous study by Karatepe & Tekinkus (2006).For me, this is the best of all possible organizations for which to work.
Table 8 below shows the measurement items (4) that will be used for Self-Efficacy (SE).The measurement items were adapted from the previous study by Karatepe et al. (2007)  My past experiences and accomplishments increase my confidence that I will perform successfully in this university.SE-4 I could have handled a more challenging job than the one I am doing.
Table 9 below shows the measurement items (5) that will be used for Service Recovery Performance (SRP).The measurement items were adapted from the previous study by (Boshoff & Allen, 2000).

Data Analysis Techniques
All the details collected from the questionnaires will be verified for completeness and transferred into a computer data file.Data collection will be analyzed by using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 29 and Smart PLS 4.0.The following sections discussed each of the steps for data analysis adopted in this study.Descriptive analysis will be carried out using SPSS.The descriptive analysis will provide mean standard deviations and maximum and minimum values for all variables in the study.Descriptive statistics were also performed on the demographic data to understand the profile of respondents in terms of frequencies and percentages.The analysis will identify any biases in the response.Researchers need to ensure that the data will be derived from raw questionnaires need to be out of errors.The researcher will carry out the editing, cleaning, coding, and treating of missing data to check that the data are out of errors using SPSS.

Conclusion and Implications of the Study
In conclusion, this research employs a quantitative research design, specifically utilizing a cross-sectional survey approach, to investigate the factors influencing service recovery performance among educators in the ODL sector in Malaysia.The study aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the relationships between organizational, work resource, and work demand factors and their impact on service recovery performance.Additionally, it explores the moderating effects of educators' job experience on these relationships.

Implications of the Study
• Educational Policy and Practice: The findings of this study can inform educational policies and practices by highlighting key factors that significantly influence service recovery performance.Institutions can tailor their strategies to address these factors, ultimately enhancing the quality of services provided to learners.In essence, this research not only contributes valuable insights to the academic community but also provides actionable recommendations for educational institutions to enhance service recovery practices, ultimately benefiting both educators and learners in the Open and Distance Learning environment in Malaysia.

Figure
Figure 1: Proposed Conceptual research framework

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Professional Development for Educators: Identifying the factors affecting service recovery performance can guide the development of targeted training programs for educators.This ensures that educators are equipped with the necessary skills and resources to effectively handle service failures and enhance learner satisfaction.• Organizational Strategies: Institutions can use the insights from this research to formulate effective organizational strategies for service recovery.This includes refining processes, allocating resources strategically, and creating a supportive work environment that positively influences educators' performance in service recovery situations.• Enhanced Learner Satisfaction and Retention: A better understanding of the factors influencing service recovery can lead to improved learner satisfaction and retention.By addressing these factors, institutions can create a positive learning experience, fostering loyalty among learners and generating positive word-of-mouth.• Contribution to Literature: This study contributes to the existing literature by expanding knowledge on service recovery performance in the context of open and distance learning.It fills gaps left by previous research and offers a nuanced exploration of the relationships between organizational, work resource, and work demand factors.• Future Research Directions: The study opens avenues for future research, encouraging scholars to delve deeper into the dynamics of service recovery in the education sector.Subsequent studies can explore additional moderating factors or delve into specific strategies that prove effective in improving service recovery performance.

Table 6
below shows the measurement items (

Table 6
Measurement Items for Emotional Exhaustion(EE)

Table 7
Measurement Items for Affective Commitment (AC) of the Organization

Table 9
Measurement Items for Service Recovery Performance (SRP)NoItems SRP-1 Considering all the things I do, I handle dissatisfied customers quite well SRP-2 I don't mind dealing with complaining customers SRP-3 No customer I deal with leaves with problems unresolved.SRP-4 Satisfying complaining customers is a great thrill to me.SRP-5 Complaining customers, I have dealt with in the past are among today's most loyal customers.