Search results
1 – 10 of 724Tali Seger-Guttmann and Hana Medler-Liraz
Scholars have acknowledged gender-role ideology as a central factor in flirting style. This study aims to exam the combined effect of flirting type and flirter's sex on positive…
Abstract
Purpose
Scholars have acknowledged gender-role ideology as a central factor in flirting style. This study aims to exam the combined effect of flirting type and flirter's sex on positive and adverse customer reactions.
Design/methodology/approach
In Study 1, participants (N = 555) were divided into four scenario conditions in a 2 × 2 between-subjects experimental design: server sex (male vs female) and flirting type (authentic vs fake). Study 1 scenarios explored positive customer outcomes (i.e. loyalty and tip size). Study 2 applied the same research design, presenting participants (N = 404) scenarios relating to negative outcomes (i.e. anger and sense of threat).
Findings
The findings revealed that the flirter’s sex significantly moderated the relationship between flirting type and customers’ (the targets’) reactions.
Originality/value
This research offers three primary contributions. First, it elaborates on the dynamics of flirting in service settings (i.e. face-to-face interactions between the service provider and customer). Second, as the effects of flirting on its targets have been reported as equivocal (perceived as pleasing and flattering or, in contrast, annoying, deceptive and misleading), this study explores its positive and negative customer-related outcomes. Third, the study seeks to better understand the impact of a flirting service employee’s sex on customers’ outcomes.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to present a next step in Greta Foff Paules' groundbreaking analysis of control‐resistance in service work by exploring the work practices of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a next step in Greta Foff Paules' groundbreaking analysis of control‐resistance in service work by exploring the work practices of restaurant servers in regard to ways they resist and reshape the tipping system that structures their work life. Specifically, the author explores how workers will attempt to manipulate the system to elicit higher tips from customers and when servers forgo an economic tip, so that they can exercise dignity and self‐respect. Central to this analysis is to highlight the space in between Paules' notions of “getting” and “making” a tip. In this space, servers can exercise resistance and still acknowledge the humanness of the customer.
Design/methodology/approach
The research methodology is participant observation and interviews.
Findings
Restaurant servers see their ability to manipulate the tipping system as routes to exercising agency and resistance in work interactions. Moreover, servers see their ability to earn tips (and even forgo tips) by both capitalizing on the organizational structures and capitalizing on the customers' human nature.
Research limitations/implications
The research focuses on servers broadly, and not on distinctions within groups of servers (i.e. sex differences, age differences or restaurant types).
Originality/value
This paper furthers the understanding of the tipping practice, which is historically viewed in terms of status inequality and control. In contrast, the author highlight how workers in practice, are able to use the tipping system to resist customer and manager demands, assert their creativity, agency, and self‐dignity, and still treat the customer as a social being.
Details
Keywords
Michael Lynn and Glenn Withiam
The purpose of this paper is to outline the business issues surrounding tipping and its alternatives, to summarize what is known about those issues, and to identify questions in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to outline the business issues surrounding tipping and its alternatives, to summarize what is known about those issues, and to identify questions in need of further research.
Design/methodology/approach
Objectives are achieved via conceptual analysis and review of relevant literature.
Findings
The paper finds that voluntary tipping, service charges, and service‐inclusive pricing offer different sets of costs and benefits, so that no one policy is always the best. The principal benefits to service firms of voluntary tipping are that it lowers nominal prices, increases profits through price discrimination, motivates up‐selling and service, attracts talented workers, and lowers FICA tax payments. However, tipping also motivates discrimination in service delivery, gives servers surplus income that could go the firms' bottom line, increases the risk of income tax audits, and opens firms up to adverse impact lawsuits.
Practical implications
No one tipping policy is always the best. Service industry executives and managers should carefully weigh each of eight different issues (outlined together for the first time here) to identify the best tipping policy for their circumstances.
Originality/value
Tipping has received little attention in service marketing. Furthermore, there is no good, published source of guidance to help service industry executives and managers make decisions about tipping policies. This paper addresses these voids by providing and discussing a comprehensive list of the pros and cons of tipping and its alternatives from a business perspective.
Details
Keywords
Leah Shumka and Cecilia Benoit
The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence of social suffering among a non-random sample of Canadian women working in socially and economically marginalized…
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence of social suffering among a non-random sample of Canadian women working in socially and economically marginalized “frontline” service occupations. Participants identified a number of health concerns that they link to the everyday suffering they endure – i.e. feeling inadequate, incompetent, lonely, self-conscious, disenfranchised or dissatisfied. The complex etiology of these women's suffering bars many from finding appropriate health care. As a result, there are health disparities among our vulnerable populations. While they often articulated a desire for alternative/complementary care, the Canadian health care system does not currently fund these services and many of the women are unable to afford the out-of-pocket costs.
Christine Mathies and Marion Burford
Despite widespread acknowledgement of the importance of employees to the success of service firms, research into how well frontline service staff understand service remains…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite widespread acknowledgement of the importance of employees to the success of service firms, research into how well frontline service staff understand service remains scarce. This study aims to investigate what constitutes good customer service from the viewpoint of frontline service employees and to explore gender differences in particular.
Design/methodology/approach
The data were collected from 876 frontline employees across a wide range of service industries. An automated text analysis using Leximancer explored general and gender‐specific patterns in employees' customer service understanding.
Findings
Irrespective of gender, frontline service staff share the perception that the pillars of good customer service are listening skills, making the customer happy, and offering service. Males have a more functional, outcome‐oriented interpretation of customer service; females focus more on the actual service interaction and emotional outcomes.
Practical implications
By acknowledging gender‐based dissimilarities in the customer service understanding of frontline service employees, the efficiency of recruitment and training processes will be enhanced.
Originality/value
This study contributes to limited work on service models of frontline staff and shows that gender can explain some differences. This study also adds another dimension to the understanding of gender effects in services, beyond its influence on customers' quality perceptions and behaviours. The results are important for services marketing research and for managers in charge of recruiting and training frontline service staff.
Details
Keywords
Based on an ethnographic study of a restaurant called the “Hungry Cowboy,” I examine how servers make use of sexual harassment claims within a sexually overt work culture…
Abstract
Based on an ethnographic study of a restaurant called the “Hungry Cowboy,” I examine how servers make use of sexual harassment claims within a sexually overt work culture. Focusing on the dynamics of a specific case, I explore how participation in sexual talk and touch provides positive rewards for some workers, operating as a source of craft pride, while laying the groundwork for exclusion of other workers. This study reveals how intersectionality plays out in the day-to-day behaviors and practices that make up workplace cultures, how white workers use a gendered tool to filter racism, the intentional manipulation of workplace culture by workers, and the unintended outcomes of sexual harassment laws.
This chapter discusses the design of the LHS and the steps taken to ensure data privacy and security. Usage of the application programming interface (API) is discussed, paying…
Abstract
This chapter discusses the design of the LHS and the steps taken to ensure data privacy and security. Usage of the application programming interface (API) is discussed, paying attention to how an Electronic Health Record (EHR) provider would use the API. Finally, the clinician’s interaction with the system is discussed.
Details
Keywords
Lynn K. Bartels and Cynthia R. Nordstrom
This study aims to examine the impact of applicant weight and sex, job type and employer attitudes on employee screening decisions.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the impact of applicant weight and sex, job type and employer attitudes on employee screening decisions.
Design/methodology/approach
Participants rated one of four job applicants on their hiring suitability for four different entry‐level jobs with high or low visibility and physical demands. Applicants varied in sex and weight as depicted in a photograph, but their job applications were identical.
Findings
Results showed that overweight women experienced weight discrimination when applying for a job that was high in both visibility and physical demands.
Research limitations/implications
Future research should examine weight discrimination in other racial and ethnic groups and with higher‐level jobs. Future research could also examine hiring decisions using a within‐subjects design to allow comparison across job applicants.
Practical implications
Employers' perceptions of applicant weight may lead them to make biased decisions about individuals who are overweight during the hiring process particularly for jobs that are high in visibility and physical demands.
Social implications
There has been an alarming increase in obesity rates in the USA, but there is limited legal protection against weight discrimination. Employers who make stereotyped assumptions about individuals who are overweight may be missing out on valuable workforce talent. Similarly, individuals who are overweight may face discriminatory obstacles in finding work.
Originality/value
This study systematically manipulated two important job characteristics: visibility and physical demands and used a sample of adults as raters.
Details
Keywords
Olivier Klein, Camila Arnal, Sarah Eagan, Philippe Bernard and Sarah J. Gervais
In many countries, service workers' (e.g. restaurant staff, bartenders) income depends highly on tips. Such workers are often female and targeted by sexual harassment. The purpose…
Abstract
Purpose
In many countries, service workers' (e.g. restaurant staff, bartenders) income depends highly on tips. Such workers are often female and targeted by sexual harassment. The purpose of this paper was to investigate whether the mode of compensation (tips vs. no tips) could play a causal role in the perceived legitimacy of sexual harassment.
Design/methodology/approach
In an experimental study (N = 161), the authors manipulated the source of income of a fictional female bartender (fixed income vs. smaller fixed income + tips) as well as whether she or her boss chose her (sexualized) clothing. The authors then asked male participants in an online survey to imagine being her customer and to form an impression of her.
Findings
The bartender was viewed as more sexualized, more manipulative and sexual behaviors toward her were perceived as more legitimate when she received tips. Further, the effect of tipping on the legitimacy of sexual behaviors was mediated by perceptions that she was manipulative. The target was perceived as more manipulative when she chose her clothes than not.
Research limitations/implications
The study is an online scenario study and, as a consequence, assesses only judgments rather than actual behaviors.
Practical implications
Encouraging fixed salaries rather than tipping could reduce the occurrence of sexual harassment.
Social implications
The present work suggests that tipping may play a detrimental role in service workers' well-being by contributing to an environment in which sexual harassment is perceived as legitimate.
Originality/value
To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study showing that mode of compensation can increase the objectification of workers and legitimize sexually objectifying behaviors toward them.
Details