Customers as contributors and reliable evaluators of creativity in the service industry

Citation

(2009), "Customers as contributors and reliable evaluators of creativity in the service industry", Human Resource Management International Digest, Vol. 17 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/hrmid.2009.04417bad.009

Customers as contributors and reliable evaluators of creativity in the service industry

Article Type: Abstracts From: Human Resource Management International Digest, Volume 17, Issue 2

Madjar N. and , Oritiz-Walters R. Journal of Organizational Behaviour (UK), October 2008, Vol. 29 No. 7, Start page: 949, No. of pages: 18

Purpose – looks at the impact that customers have on employee creativity in the service sector. Design/methodology/approach – adopting a social contextual perspective, explores what makes employees in a service setting creative. Suggests that to understand how employees develop creativity, the work environment must be taken into account; analyses how customers, as part of the social environment, can encourage employee creativity by offering input and informational resources. Identifies two factors that can strengthen employee creativity – the existence of a safe and supportive work environment and an employee-customer relationship based on trust. Examines the validity of customers’ ratings of service employee creativity and compares and contrasts them with supervisors’ ratings. Presents a relevant literature review; outlines the collection of data drawn from US beauty salons customers and hairstylists. Findings – highlights how the involvement of customers was found to be important for service employee creativity; reveals how customer input and affective trust in the service employed positively contributed to measures of creativity. Research limitations/implications – limited to hair salons; use different samples and settings; suggests areas for future research. Originality/value – examines creativity from the perspective of the customer. ISSN: 0894-3796 Reference: 37AZ409

Keywords: Trust, Innovation, Creative thinking, Service industries, Customer services quality, Employee relations