Browsing by Subject "Service employee"

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Führung im Dienstleistungskontext : eine Betrachtung aus Unternehmens-, Mitarbeiter- und Kundenperspektive
(2018) Popp, Marion Claudia Helma; Hadwich, Karsten
In the past few years rapid technological development has fundamentally changed the interaction between companies and customers. Many existing companies used this technological progress as an opportunity to strategically realign their organization and reposition themselves in the market. As part of this development, companies increasingly focused on providing (high quality) services as a strategic opportunity to remain competitive in the future. Yet, in order to successfully provide services, organizations need to anchor and continuously demonstrate a "service orientation". Thereby, leadership represents an essential and vital practice to establish and maintain a service orientation within an organization. However, despite the high relevance of the topic for both research and corporate practice, research gaps in the area of leadership in the service context were identified, which are addressed in this thesis. Specifically, three research gaps – from the company, employee and customer perspective – are discussed. Overall, the aim of this thesis is to contribute to the scientific as well as practical knowledge of leadership in a service context by means of a holistic view. The thesis is divided into five chapters. In Chapter 1, the relevance of the topic and a theoretical foundation is presented. Chapter 2 tests the applicability of selected leadership styles for the service transformation process. Therefore, the leadership requirements of the service transformation process are presented, whereupon selected leadership styles are evaluated with regard to the identified requirements of the service transformation process. Chapter 3 covers the conceptualization and operationalization of service-oriented leadership from an employee’s perspective. Performing a scale development process, it is identified that service-oriented leadership manifests in five behavioral characteristics. The developed measurement model is then further validated and empirically verified by additional investigations. Chapter 4 deals with leadership in customer contact from a customer’s perspective. The subject of the chapter is the empirical investigation of the effect of employees’ interaction behavior in different service situations, aiming to identify the employees interaction behavior that promises success for a specific situation. Chapter 5 demonstrates the conclusion of the thesis, whereby the key insights from the company, employee and customer perspective are presented and overarching insights and implications for research and corporate practice are listed. Overall, the work thus provides essential insights into leadership in the service context from a corporate, employee and customer perspective, from which further relevant research needs as well as implications for corporate practice can be derived.