HRM – A Service Perspective: Towards a Customer‐focused HRM

Abstract

First presents a brief overview of some research demonstrating a link between employee perceptions of the service firms for which they work and customer perceptions of the service quality they receive from those same firms. Followed by discussion of a framework that provides some insight into what customer‐focused HRM might look like. The framework focuses first on the kinds of strategic choices service firms must make (like whether to emphasize speed or tender loving care). Then some implications for HRM of these choices are outlined with research implications. Finally, it is argued that customer‐focused management in general (simultaneously of marketing, of HRM, of operations, etc.) might enhance competitiveness in the marketplace.