Organizational Perspectives of the Service Role

Certain distinctive characteristics of service indicate that it must be managed differently from production.1 First, given its intangibility, the service process is difficult to measure, control or standardize. This is largely because of the role that employee attitudes and emotions play in customer service behaviors and subsequent customer satisfaction.2 Additionally, service providers are not only being managed but are engaged in management activities themselves vis-à-vis customers. Service providers often supervise the customer in terms of assessing the customers’ ability to participate in the co-production of the service, motivating customers, training them and helping them evaluate the success of their co-production. Additionally, service providers must examine whether or not the service meets the customer’s expectations, and take corrective action if it does not. Human resource management concerns, therefore, focus on interpersonal relationship skills rather than on standardization.1