Exploring the Mediating Role of Organizational Culture in the Service Quality-Student Satisfaction Nexus in Higher Education

HRMARS - While service quality-satisfaction relationships are well-established in Western contexts, the mediating mechanisms through which these relationships operate in Islamic higher education remain unexplored, particularly regarding organizational culture's role as a dynamic, endogenous variable shaped by stakeholder experiences. This study investigates how organizational culture mediates the relationship between service quality dimensions and student satisfaction within Saudi Arabian higher education, addressing critical gaps in cross-cultural service quality research. The research employed structural equation modeling to analyze survey data from 1,534 undergraduate students at Umm Al-Qura University. Service quality was measured using the five SERVQUAL dimensions, organizational culture through Cameron and Quinn's four cultural traits, and student satisfaction via established multi-item scales. Bootstrap methodology with 1,000 samples tested mediation effects at 95% confidence intervals. Results revealed selective mediation patterns that demonstrate cultural specificity in service quality effects. Assurance, empathy, and tangibles showed significant positive relationships with organizational culture (? = 0.393, 0.479, 0.556 respectively) and significant mediation effects on satisfaction (? = 0.237, 0.333, 0.386 respectively). Reliability and responsiveness demonstrated non-significant effects on both culture and satisfaction. The model explained 97% of the variance in organizational culture and 48% in student satisfaction, with excellent model fit indices (RMSEA = 0.057, CFI/TLI > 0.90). These findings extend attribution theory by demonstrating that cultural context fundamentally alters how students process service experiences, challenging universal assumptions about service quality frameworks. The research contributes to organizational culture theory by positioning culture as a mediating mechanism rather than static antecedent, while providing practical guidance for university administrators in culturally diverse contexts. The selective pattern suggests that effective service delivery requires cultural alignment rather than standardized implementation, with significant implications for higher education management in Islamic contexts.