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Service employees’ cultural values play an integral part in the service encounter. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether frontline employees’ (FLEs) individual cultural values moderate the relationship between service models and work behaviours and whether these behaviours influence their psychological well-being.

Data were collected online from 341 US and Indian respondents who spent at least 40 per cent of their work time interacting with customers. Cultural values were measured as individual-level constructs. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was used to test hypotheses.

Individualism/collectivism significantly moderates the relationship between service models and work-related outcome, in particular organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB), while uncertainty avoidance does not. Collectivism strengthens the positive linkage between the win-win service model and OCB but weakens the association of OCB with the efficiency model. FLEs with the win-win model display more surface acting when they have low uncertainty avoidance and high power distance. Employee psychological well-being is then influenced negatively by surface acting, but positively by OCB.

A more varied sample covering additional countries and a wider range of industries could provide additional insights.

The results of this study are particularly beneficial for service firms that require to satisfy customers by managing culturally diverse FLEs.

Extending the limited research on service models, this study examines the interplay of culture and service models and its impact on FLE work behaviours and the resultant well-being. The findings thus provide greater insights in how service employees’ cultural orientations influence their work behaviours and psychological well-being.

Crowdsourcing delivers creative ideas for the issuing firm, but participants’ engagement in the creative process also creates additional benefits to firms and participating customers. The purpose of this study is to investigate if these spill-over values endure over time. With data from two time point, i.e. at submission and after announcement of the contest winners, we examine the relationship between the degree of a participant’s creative process engagement (CPE) and value creation from a crowdsourcing contest, and how these perceptions of value change over time.

Data were collected from 154 participants in a crowdsourcing contest at two time points with an online survey: at submission, and after receiving feedback (in term of rankings, rewards, and comments) from the community. Partial Least Square path modelling was used to estimate both main and moderating effects.

CPE increases the perceived value of customers (social and epistemic value) and firms alike (knowledge-sharing intention and customer loyalty), though all but epistemic values decrease over time. Disconfirmation of expectations and need for recognition moderate these effects.

This paper is the first longitudinal study that helps understanding the effect of CPE on value creation from crowdsourcing across time. It also uses the theoretical lens of the honeymoon hangover effect to explain how perceived value changes. The resulting insights into the role of customer engagement in crowdsourcing contests and subsequent value creation will be beneficial to the growing research stream on consumer value co-creation and user innovation.

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.

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.

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.

By acknowledging gender‐based dissimilarities in the customer service understanding of frontline service employees, the efficiency of recruitment and training processes will be enhanced.

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.

While researchers in other disciplines seek to determine the impact that humour has in personal interactions, studies of humour in service delivery are lacking. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether it is beneficial to deliberately use humour in service encounters.

This paper provides a comprehensive review of humour research in multiple disciplines to assess the applicability of their key findings to the service domain. By establishing the antecedents, types, and consequences of humour, the authors build a framework and propositions to help service researchers uncover the potential of injecting humour into service interactions.

The authors find that using humour in service encounters is an ingenious affiliative behaviour which strengthens rapport between service employees and their customers. Humour also permits frontline service employees to better cope with the emotional challenges of their work, thus promising to reduce emotional labour and increase well-being. The effectiveness of service recovery efforts may also grow if employees use humour successfully to soften unpleasant emotional reactions and accept responsibility.

The authors explore cross-disciplinary humour research to apply the findings to the use of humour in service encounters. The authors also attempt to identify situations in which humour usage is most promising or beneficial, as well as its main beneficiaries.

Evaluates the research of Dr Mark Huselid of Rutgers Institute for Management and Labour Relations which suggests that companies with sophisticated HR practices are more profitable, have higher productivity and reduced turnover. Lists the evaluation criteria, cites companies with best prractices and draws common themes. Identifies some unique strategies and agrees with the hypotheses.

A few hours before the May 17, 2004 gala to commemorate the legal decision that ended “separate but equal” facilities for black and white U.S. citizens, comedian Bill Cosby heard a radio broadcast that was on his wavelength. As Cosby listened to “Ask the Chief” on May 17, 2004 Washington, DC Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey recounted the number of children who had been the victims of homicide (Schroeder, 2004). A few hours later, Cosby picked up on the discussion with a live audience at Constitution Hall to celebrate the historic verdict of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. During the event, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Legal Defense and Education Fund, and Howard University acknowledged Cosby for his multimillion dollar contributions to historically black colleges and universities.

The formal and informal regulation of employees' appearance is a routine component of organizational life. In our research, we analyze appearance-related employment discrimination lawsuits. These cases involve organizational dress codes, grooming policies, and employers' attempts to regulate employees' appearance with regard to weight, hairstyles, religious attire, body art, and more. Men and women who refuse to comply with appearance norms face termination of their employment, promotion denials, lower wages, transfers, not being hired in the first place, and other workplace sanctions. Our focus on court deliberations and decisions allows us to explore not only the gendered nature of appearance policies themselves but also how the legal system supports, reinforces, codifies, or, conversely, deems unacceptable such policies. Our data demonstrate that organizations and courts are likely to support appearance norms that reinforce traditional ideas about femininity and masculinity.

A READER kindly sent me a recent patent in which Xerox Corp claim a dramatic break through to prevent unauthorized photocopying. JANET SHAW of the Hertis industrial unit at Hatfield has summarized it for NLW: