Wedding Castle

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landscape, as well as furniture, equipment, temperature, etc.

5. Why are service employees critical to the success of any service organisation?

The service employee represents the organisation and is the force that keeps the delivery system going. His/her words and actions are seen by the customer as those of the organisation.

6. What is emotional labour?

Emotional labour is the process of regulating both internal feelings and external expressions in alignment with organizational goals (Grandey, 2000, p. 97) and has a major impact on a broad range of organizational outcomes, including customer relations and employee performance (Chebat, Filiatrault, Gelinas-Chebat, & Vaninsky, 1995; Tsai, 2001; Gountas, Ewing, & Gountas, 2007; Giardini & Frese, 2008; Martin, O’Neill, Hubbard, & Palmer, 2008; and Kaltcheva & Parasuraman, 2009). Essentially, there are two major types of emotional labour strategies that employees use, either surface acting, a change in outward emotional displays but without a change in inner emotional feelings, and deep acting, an attempt to change internal feelings to mirror external emotional display rules (Grandey, 2000)

Source: http://www.aabri.com/manuscripts/121412.pdf

Arlie Hochschild created the term ’emotional labour’ in 1983 to describe the things that service workers do that goes beyond physical or mental duties. Showing a genuine concern for customers’ needs, smiling, and making positive eye contact are all critical to a customer’s perception of service quality. These types of activities, when they’re essential to worker performance, are emotional labour.

Two emotional labour techniques:

Surface acting – You fake, or pretend to have, an emotion by using unnatural and artificial body language and verbal communication. Smiling and using a soft tone of voice help you show emotion that you don’t feel, or hide emotion that you do feel.

Deep acting – You control your internal emotions, directing them to believe that you actually are happy, and enjoying the interaction with the other person. Rather than feel like you’re pretending, you convince yourself you’re not experiencing a negative reaction.

Source: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMM_44.htm

7. Describe the five dimensions of service quality in relation to the role of the employee in the delivery process.

- Reliability

Reliability depends on handling customers’ services problems; performing services right

the first time; provide services at the promised time and maintaining error-free record.

Furthermore, they stated reliability as the most important factor in conventional service

(Parasuraman et al., 1988). Reliability also consists of accurate order fulfilment;

accurate record; accurate quote; accurate in billing; accurate calculation of

commissions; keep services promise. He also mentioned that reliability is the most

important factor in banking services (Yang et al., 2004).

- Responsiveness

Responsiveness defined as the willingness or readiness of employees to provide

service. It involves timeliness of services (Parasuraman et al., 1985). It is also involves

understanding needs and wants of the customers, convenient operating hours,

individual attention given by the staff, attention to problems and customers‟ safety in

their transaction (Kumar et al., 2009).

- Empathy

Parasuraman et al. (1985) defined empathy as the caring and individual attention the

firm provides its customers. It involves giving customers individual attention and

employees who understand the needs of their customers and convenience business

hours. Ananth et al. (2011) referred to empathy in their study on private sector banks as

giving individual attention; convenient operating hours; giving personal attention; best

interest in heart and understand customer’s specific needs.

- Assurance

Parasuraman et al. (1985) defined assurance as knowledge and courtesy of

employees and their ability to inspire trust and confidence. According to Sadek et al.

(2010), in British banks assurance means the polite and friendly staff, provision of

financial advice, interior comfort, eases of access to account information and

knowledgeable and experienced management team.

- Tangibility

Parasuraman et al. (1985) defined tangibility as the appearance of physical facilities,

equipment, personnel, and written materials. Ananth et al. (2011) referred to tangibility in

their study of private sector banks as modern looking equipment, physical facility,

employees are well dressed and materials are visually appealing.

Source: http://www.wbiworldconpro.com/uploads/dubai-conference-2013-april/banking/1364462871_607-Niveen.pdf Proceedings of 20th International Business Research Conference

8. Explain the sources of conflict.

9. Explain the role of the customer in the service delivery process.

(1) the customer as productive resource;

It recognizes that customers contribute inputs, much like employees, which impact the organization’s productivity both via the quantity and quality of those inputs and the resulting quality of output generated (Mills et al., 1983).

Example: In contributing information and effort in the diagnoses of their ailments, patients of a healthcare organization are part of the service production process. If they provide accurate

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