| 1. |
- Engen, Marit, et al.
(författare)
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Exploring the role of frontline employees as innovators
- 2015
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Ingår i: Service Industries Journal. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0264-2069 .- 1743-9507. ; 35:6, s. 303-324
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article aims for a deeper understanding of front-line employees (FLEs) and their boundary-spanning role in service organizations’ innovation processes from the vantage points of creativity and service innovation theory. It explores in particular FLEs’ processes of creativity by focusing on how ideas emerge and how these ideas are further managed in the organizations’ innovation processes. It draws on an in-depth empirical study of three units at a large spa and resort hotel. The article demonstrates how FLEs’ ideas are related to the assimilation and utilization of knowledge gained in the customer–supplier interface. Furthermore, it introduces the concept of ‘management by weaving’, which encompasses the middle managers’ roles in the complexity of leading diverse innovation processes in the service organization. By having the roles of facilitator, gatekeeper, and translator, middle managers hold the key position for letting FLEs play the role as innovators.
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| 2. |
- Sundstrom, Erik, et al.
(författare)
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Service innovation as a political process
- 2017
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Ingår i: Service Industries Journal. - Oxon, UK : Taylor & Francis. - 0264-2069 .- 1743-9507. ; 37:5-6, s. 341-362
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Service innovation processes are driven by stakeholders in interaction and are understood and sketched as a value negotiation process that consists of an iterative process of securing potential value in service. While previous research has focused on service innovation as a harmonious closed system, our study explores service innovation as a political process in which stakeholders negotiate to create and secure future value. Data are collected through interviews and participant observations in four different case studies. Our study contributes to the field by illuminating service innovation as a political process and explaining how this is operationalized. The findings also contribute to an understanding of how stakeholder resources impact a chosen strategy; the resulting strategy's impact on the service concept vis-a-vis its potential value; and how several involved stakeholders formulate, negotiate, and secure future potential value, which are the activities that drive a service innovation process.
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