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Book part
Publication date: 29 November 2012

Flemming Sørensen and Jens Friis Jensen

This chapter argues that substantial potential exists for service encounter-based innovation in tourism. However, there are also a number of obstacles. Based on theoretical…

Abstract

This chapter argues that substantial potential exists for service encounter-based innovation in tourism. However, there are also a number of obstacles. Based on theoretical discussions on potentials and obstacles, a Knowledge Chain Model of service encounter-based innovation in tourism is developed. It suggests how weak or broken knowledge chains limit companies’ potential for benefiting from service encounter-based innovation. The relevance of the model is illustrated by a comparative case study of four tourism companies. In light of the theoretical frameworks and empirical findings, the chapter suggests how experimental methods can join research and practice to enhance the innovative potential of tourism companies while providing the research community with valuable knowledge.

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Knowledge Management in Tourism: Policy and Governance Applications
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-981-3

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Book part
Publication date: 19 August 2016

Brian Ott

Service work is often differentiated from manufacturing by the interactive labor workers perform as they come into direct contact with customers. Service organizations are…

Abstract

Service work is often differentiated from manufacturing by the interactive labor workers perform as they come into direct contact with customers. Service organizations are particularly interested in regulating these interactions because they are a key opportunity for developing quality customer service, customer retention, and ultimately generation of sales revenue. An important stream of sociological literature focuses on managerial attempts to exert control over interactions through various techniques including routinization, standardization, and surveillance. Scripting is a common method of directing workers’ behavior, yet studies show that workers are extremely reluctant to administer scripts, judging them to be inappropriate to particular interactions or because they undermine their own sense of self. This paper examines a panoptic method of regulating service workers, embodied in undercover corporate agents who patrol employee’s adherence to scripts. How do workers required to recite scripts for customers respond to undercover control? What does it reveal about the nature of interactive labor? In-depth interviews with interactive workers in a range of retail contexts reveal that they mobilize their own interactional competence to challenge the effects of the panoptic, as they utilize strategies to identify and adapt to these “mystery shoppers,” all the while maintaining their cover. The paper shows the limits on control of interactive workers, as they maintain their own socialized sense of civility and preserve a limited realm of autonomy in their work.

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Research in the Sociology of Work
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78635-405-1

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Abstract

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Multi-Channel Marketing, Branding and Retail Design
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78635-455-6

Book part
Publication date: 18 November 2022

Rory Shand, Steven Parker and Catherine Elliott

Public service ethos (PSE) is traditionally associated with public administration, bureaucracy and frontline response. Thinkers such as Aristotle and Weber embedded ideas of…

Abstract

Public service ethos (PSE) is traditionally associated with public administration, bureaucracy and frontline response. Thinkers such as Aristotle and Weber embedded ideas of public virtue and vocation, yet new managerialism, as well as changes to public services management challenge traditional notions of PSE. Recent events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, counter terrorism and government austerity agendas have put PSE back into the public eye. In this chapter we examine the context for a renewed PSE as a crucial aspect of resilience for workers in public services and public management. We focus on three areas that we feel are important for PSE: policy, purpose and pedagogy, and how a renewed PSE can inform pedagogy in the discipline, renewing ideas of vocation in public administration training.

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Reimagining Public Sector Management
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80262-022-1

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Book part
Publication date: 9 November 2017

Sizwe Timothy Phakathi

This chapter provides an extensive review of literature on the interaction between and interdependence of informal and formal working practices in various workplace settings. The…

Abstract

This chapter provides an extensive review of literature on the interaction between and interdependence of informal and formal working practices in various workplace settings. The aim of the chapter is to elucidate the organisational, managerial, human relations and social factors that give rise to informal work practices and strategies, on the shop-floor not only at workers and work group levels but also at supervisory and managerial levels. This chapter helps the reader to understand the informal work practice of making a plan (planisa) in a deep-level mining workplace.

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Production, Safety and Teamwork in a Deep-Level Mining Workplace
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78714-564-1

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Book part
Publication date: 8 June 2020

Patrick Vernon

Since the demise of Delivering Race Equality strategy in 2010 under the last Labour government and with the Coalition (2010–2015), and now the Conservative government at times…

Abstract

Since the demise of Delivering Race Equality strategy in 2010 under the last Labour government and with the Coalition (2010–2015), and now the Conservative government at times have adopted a “color blind” approach to race and health. This raises the fundamental question why is race equality off the political agenda and how black mental health issues can be part of a future strategy. The 2015 Care Quality Commission (CQC) annual monitoring report of the Mental Health Act (MHA; which has also incorporated the learning since the inception of the Act in 1985) further highlighted the overrepresentation of African and Caribbean men and women who are sectioned in secure wards or on Community Treatment Order (CTO) in the psychiatric system over the last 30 years. The CQC have revised the code of practice which recognizes issues around race equality as part of wider perspectives and principles of human rights.

In October 2017, the government established an independent review of the 2007 MHA as a way of providing more safeguards for patients and service users. The review, under the leadership of Sir Simon Wessely which is reported in 2018, provided an opportunity for an informed public debate on the historical and contemporary roles of psychiatry and the experiences of mental health in Britain’s African and Caribbean communities. The review did examine community anxieties about the proportionally larger numbers of black ethnic minorities receiving inpatient care and CTOs, or in the criminal justice system. However, after 30 years of Black History Month in the UK, we still need to ask the question: Are those of African descent overrepresented in these systems? If so, is serious mental illness over diagnosed among these groups due to the persistence of stereotypes rooted in the experiences of slavery, or do they in fact experience distinctive patterns of mental health and illness, perhaps due to the wider fallout of historical enslavem

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The International Handbook of Black Community Mental Health
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83909-965-6

Book part
Publication date: 29 December 2004

Felicity McGregor

The proliferation of inspirational leadership and management publications available in libraries and bookshops suggests that there are many paths to excellence. Much of the…

Abstract

The proliferation of inspirational leadership and management publications available in libraries and bookshops suggests that there are many paths to excellence. Much of the literature is written with a business or corporate audience in mind; however, it is a source of ideas, theories and models that, potentially, can be applied in public or not-for-profit organisations. One theory which has enjoyed a long history of debate and discussion in management studies is quality management, variously referred to as TQM, quality assurance, total quality control or one of the many other alternatives. In this chapter the applicability and potential benefits, as well as the challenges and obstacles, of adopting one version of total quality management in a library setting are examined.

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Advances in Librarianship
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-005-0

Book part
Publication date: 13 March 2023

Ertugrul Uysal, Sascha Alavi and Valéry Bezençon

Anthropomorphism in Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered devices is being used increasingly frequently in consumer-facing situations (e.g., AI Assistants such as Alexa, virtual…

Abstract

Purpose

Anthropomorphism in Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered devices is being used increasingly frequently in consumer-facing situations (e.g., AI Assistants such as Alexa, virtual agents in websites, call/chat bots, etc.), and therefore, it is essential to understand anthropomorphism in AI both to understand consequences for consumers and to optimize firms' product development and marketing. Extant literature is fragmented across several domains and is limited in the marketing domain. In this review, we aim to bring together the insights from different fields and develop a parsimonious conceptual framework to guide future research in fields of marketing and consumer behavior.

Methodology

We conduct a review of empirical articles published until November 2021 in Financial Times Top 50 (FT50) journals as well as in 41 additional journals selected across several disciplinary domains: computer science, robotics, psychology, marketing, and consumer behavior.

Findings

Based on literature review and synthesis, we propose a three-step guiding framework for future research and practice on AI anthropomorphism.

Research Implications

Our proposed conceptual framework informs marketing and consumer behavior domains with findings accumulated in other research domains, offers important directions for future research, and provides a parsimonious guide for marketing managers to optimally utilize anthropomorphism in AI to the benefit of both firms and consumers.

Originality/Value

We contribute to the emerging literature on anthropomorphism in AI in three ways. First, we expedite the information flow between disciplines by integrating insights from different fields of inquiry. Second, based on our synthesis of literature, we offer a conceptual framework to organize the outcomes of AI anthropomorphism in a tidy and concise manner. Third, based on our review and conceptual framework, we offer key directions to guide future research endeavors.

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Artificial Intelligence in Marketing
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80262-875-3

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Ethnographies of Law and Social Control
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76231-128-6

Book part
Publication date: 6 December 2021

Adam Seth Litwin

The COVID-19 pandemic stressed the health care sector's longstanding pain points, including the poor quality of frontline work and the staffing challenges that result from it…

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic stressed the health care sector's longstanding pain points, including the poor quality of frontline work and the staffing challenges that result from it. This has renewed interest in technology-centered approaches to achieving not only the “Triple Aim” of reducing costs while raising access and quality but also the “Quadruple Aim” of doing so without further squeezing wages and abrading job quality for frontline workers.

How can we leverage technology toward the achievement of the Quadruple Aim? I view this as a “grand challenge” for health care managers and policymakers. Those looking for guidance will find that most analyses of the workforce impact of technological change consider broad classes of technology such as computers or robots outside of any particular industry context. Further, they typically predict changes in work or labor market outcomes will come about at some ill-defined point in the medium to long run. This decontextualization and detemporization proves markedly problematic in the health care sector: the nonmarket, institutional factors driving technology adoption and implementation loom especially large in frontline care delivery, and managers and policymakers understandably must consider a well-defined, near-term, i.e., 5–10-year, time horizon.

This study is predicated on interviews with hospital and home health agency administrators, union representatives, health care information technology (IT) experts and consultants, and technology developers. I detail the near-term drivers and anticipated workforce impact of technological changes in frontline care delivery. With my emergent prescriptions for managers and policymakers, I hope to guide sectoral actors in using technology to address the “grand challenge” inherent to achieving the Quadruple Aim.

Details

The Contributions of Health Care Management to Grand Health Care Challenges
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80117-801-3

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