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

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