ServiceFriday: Service Reform: Why Service Employees Engage in Sabotage in Refugee Encounters

According to the UN Refugee Agency, in 2019 there were 70.8 million people forcibly displaced worldwide. 25.9 million of these people, over half of whom are under the age of 18, were forced to become refugees and that number is only growing. Refugees often face a litany of challenges including language barriers, finding employment and gaining access to basic services such as health care or banking services.

ServiceFriday: Climate Change Services – Investing in our Environment and Businesses

Climate change sits high on the list as one of the most controversial and critical debates of today. Changes are having to be made, not just in individuals’ lives, but in the management of organizations as well. However, for a variety of different reasons, many businesses are failing to make these changes, and new services are forming to assist with these.

ServiceFriday: Don’t Judge a Healthcare Professional by Their Cover

Used-car salespeople are more often than not depicted as being loud, aggressive, persistent, and male. This is what is known as a stereotype and it’s one aspect of the service industry that can hurt both the customer and service provider. Stereotyping exists when an individual is believed to have matching characteristics or behaviors to a particular group, regardless of the validity or truth of such assumptions. Occupational stereotypes in particular are plaguing the service industry and there are few fields impacted more than the human-centered service systems (HCSSs).

ServiceFriday: Services is an Effective Model for Bringing Products to Lowest Income Populations

Billions of people, primarily in rural areas of emerging economies, comprise what’s called the Base of the Pyramid, those who eke out a living at the lowest income level. The challenges of living on so little leads to non-consumption, where people cannot buy products that would improve their livelihood. Scholars have suggested that service businesses that provide goods on a shared basis might address the non-consumption problem and improve lives.  A study recently published in the Journal of Services Research provides the first empirical support for this concept.

ServiceFriday: Six Key Terms to Attaining Brilliance in Health Service Management

Excellence in health services management is a goal that many health care organizations, hospitals, and other medical care facilities aspire to. Yet, achieving that excellence is not necessarily easily attainable. This begs the question, what are the key factors that characterize not only excellence, but “brilliance” within the field of health care management? Recent research from the Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources takes a look at this issue. 

ServiceFriday: Universities as Drivers of Prosperity

For strategic executives trying to figure out the location for the next expansion of their business, the decision might have just become a little bit easier. In a research paper published in the Economics of Education Review in September 2018, Anna Valero and John Van Reenen examined the economic effect of universities on their surrounding area.

Edge: Helping Youth Get that First Job

The Center for Services Leadership is helping develop a customer service curriculum aimed at youth between the ages of 16 and 24 who are not in school and not working. This is the first time that the Center is involved in delivering customer service education to those who will man the front line.

Co-creating the Arab Spring

On December 17, 2010, Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian street vendor, set himself on fire as a protest against the autocratic regimes in his Arab country. Bouazizi’s act was captured on film and quickly spread throughout the world. The images and film clips of Bouazizi triggered protests and demonstrations against regimes in other Arab countries. Bouazizi set in motion an uprising against Arab regimes that is known as the Arab Spring.