Search results

Although services research has made extensive use of metaphors, there is a need to understand the way metaphors incorporate assumptions about the phenomenon under study, the focus of research attention and managerial implications. Defines metaphors as a transfer of information from the familiar to the unfamiliar, emphasizing the cognitive rather than literary properties of metaphor. While several metaphors have been presented in the services literature, factory and drama metaphors predominate. An analysis of recent publications suggests that use of factory or drama metaphors reflects an implicit model of services, and researchers blend factory and drama metaphors to take into account the human qualities of service inputs. Addresses concerns expressed by those who criticize the use of metaphor in social science research and suggests that metaphors can contribute to increased creativity in services research.

The recent world refugee crisis has mobilized societies all around the globe and has led to the multiplication of initiatives calling for support to refugees. Given the fact that one-third of the displaced population were children, measures for their immediate integration into schools were taken in most European countries. Although in Greece children with refugee experience first attended schools in 2017, teachers were not adequately prepared to cope with students who had lacked schooling for many years and with whom they couldn’t easily communicate due to language barriers. New teaching methodologies were needed for pre- and in-service teachers to bridge the gap between existing knowledge and the needs of refugee students. In this context, the authors designed a project called “Literacy through Drama” in the reception class of a public school in Volos, Greece involving 12 pre-service teachers. The findings of the study highlight that drama-based informal learning may provide opportunities for pre-service teachers to develop valuable knowledge about learners in authentic settings and pedagogy in practice. Faculties of education could facilitate effective community partnerships with organizations that work with refugee families and children and the school system and propose holistic curricula which include refugee student experiences. Moreover, pre-service teachers could gain skills and knowledge in supporting refugee students, identify refugee students’ needs, communicate in creative ways, and overcome deficit beliefs about refugee students.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the critical role that context plays in measuring service quality.

This study replicated an experiment methodology to show that customers perceive an airline service drama as a sequence of scenes. A series of focus groups were then conducted to identify the context-specific set of service quality expectations that customers hold for each of these scenes. Finally, Formal Concept Analysis (FCA), a mathematical modeling technique, was applied to these findings to graphically illustrate how customer expectations for airline service quality vary by service scene.

Results from this study indicate that static measures of service quality are apparently inadequate in explaining customer expectations during more enduring service encounters. The FCA hierarchical model developed in this study revealed profound differences in customer service expectations across the six airline service scenes. These results suggest that more advanced methods for measuring service quality are necessary for service encounters that are longer in duration.

This research brings into question a broad spectrum of research which fails to recognize that customers use different reference points in time to evaluate service quality.

Researchers and practitioners need accurate and reliable measures of service quality but the findings suggests that measurement specificity and diagnostic capability should not be sacrificed in the pursuit of more robust instruments.

This is the first study to empirically demonstrate that customers perceive the airline service encounter as a sequence of scenes. It is also the first study to mathematically model service quality dimensions using FCA.

The purposes of this paper are: to explore the nature of indirect social learning that takes place “backstage” among frontline contact persons; and the link between backstage learning and front‐stage performance.

The paper presents a conceptual framework that is then applied in an empirical study using ethnographic research techniques (participant observation, informal conversations, and interviews) among car salespersons and car‐service advisors.

The study finds that backstage learning has a significant qualitative influence on the front‐stage behaviour of personnel in a service context. Moreover, a key finding of the study is that backstage learning is not always of a constructive kind; indeed, backstage learning can be non‐constructive by engendering thinking and behaviour that has an adverse effect on service culture and service quality.

The study shows that interactions among frontline contact persons should be encouraged through informal gatherings where social bonds among individuals can be formed. However, managers also need to be aware of the potential for adverse effects from a non‐constructive social‐learning process.

This study contributes to the service‐management literature by developing a social perspective on learning within service management. Moreover, the paper develops the “drama metaphor” in service performances in terms of backstage activities and processes.

Examines the “dramaturgical” view of the service encounter to understand the service consumption experience. Illustrates this by demonstrating how the drama metaphor is applicable and useful in understanding perceived quality in health care services. Presents a strategic model of the medical encounter. Suggests impression management guidelines and, from a practical standpoint, serves to stimulate the imaginations of physicians and health care administrators on managing evaluations by paying attention to certain characteristics of the medical encounter.

Service quality and the service encounter/experience have been identified by Fisk et.al., as two of the most prominent areas in the services marketing literature. They also go on to suggest that future research will focus on longer term service experiences and on the relationships between service experience issues and quality. This paper focuses upon these issues in reporting the initial results of an exploratory study of customer perceptions of service experience and quality among Association Football spectators in the UK.

HOW good do costs and workloads in library X look when set against those of comparable libraries?

Describes using drama to raise some of the main health issues facing young people, inform them about local services and give them an opportunity to explore their fears and anxieties about accessing services in a rural area. The drama was targeted at 14‐15‐year‐olds on two consecutive years. In the first year, the drama was performed by actors; and the second year, the script was re‐written and performed by college students. The effectiveness of each year’s production was evaluated. Both years’ productions were seen by about 800 young people. In both years the evaluation showed that the drama was successful in informing young people about local health services and addressed their main anxieties; but in the second year, many of the young people commented positively on the age of the cast and how they identified with both them and their portrayal of the issues. As a result, the drama has become a regular yearly event in the secondary schools in this rural area.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the use of drama in the context of professional learning for sustainability, and specifically, a drama workshop on sustainability for in-service teachers. The workshop was designed to explore environmental problems from several perspectives, by using drama techniques like bodily expressions, visualisations and role-play.

Data are drawn from questionnaires evaluating the effects of a drama workshop delivered in Helsinki in 2017. In total, 15 in-service teachers answered open-ended questions. Responses from experienced teachers were chosen as particularly interesting in relation to work-based learning.

The findings demonstrate that drama work contributes to education for sustainability in terms of increased self-awareness, critical reflections and signs of transformation; experienced professional learners bring their workplace context into the university, which enriches teaching and learning; and sustainability is a non-traditional subject in need of non-traditional teaching approaches.

The results of this small-scale study are only valid for this particular group.

The study gives an example of how applied drama can contribute to learning for sustainability in higher education.

This paper contributes to a growing literature concerning how drama allows participants to work on real problems, from a safe position in a fictive situation, providing both closeness and distance. When students become involved in an as-if situation, it leads to increased motivation and practice-oriented learning. As the content of sustainability can be challenging, drama work offers a meaningful context in which concepts and issues can be explored. Fictive situations may contribute to more realistic learning experiences.