SERVICE ENCOUNTER MISMATCHES: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK INTEGRATING IT AND JOB DESIGN

GEORGE MECHLING AND BEVERLY LITTLE


Abstract

As the services sector becomes a larger component of our national economy, it becomes increasingly critical that the management of service operations is addressed systematically. One concern is the interaction of service employees and the technology making up the job design. Effectively matching job design and technology leads to effective service encounters, while mismatches cause short-run or long run problems for the organization. Organizational mismatches between job design and supporting infrastructure, specifically the information technology (IT) selected, can give rise to the use and exercise of judgment and discretion by service encounter employees that from the viewpoint of the organization or the customer is extraordinary, conflicted. or perverse. Perverse judgments debilitate the organization and degrade the quality of the service encounter. Conflicted and extraordinary judgments ultimately debilitate the organization and may degrade the quality of the service encounter if some customers should perceive others as having received preferential treatment. This paper explores dynamics in managing operations. technology, and human resources that give rise to the exercise of such judgments with the intent to construct a conceptual framework that will explain such judgments and the behaviors that issue from them

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Gibson D. Lewis
Center For Business and
Economic Development
SHSU Box 2056
Huntsville TX 77341-2056
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