Kotler, Keller, Brady, Goodman, and Hansen in their book Marketing Management (2009) has argued that “Staff are particularly important in services where, in the absence of clues from tangible products, the customer will form an impression of the company and service through the behaviour and attitude of its staff. Any staff member that customers see or encounter can be classed as a contact person and forms part of the perception of the service.” (p.663). Academic scholars and managerial practitioners also note that there are different factors that may positively or negatively influence service staffs’ service and/or job performance. For example, customer orientation (Brown, Mowen, Donavan, & Licata, 2002), psychological empowerment (Spreitzer, 1995), trust, commitment, co-operation (Chenet, Tynan, & Money, 2000), abusive supervision (Tepper, 2000), etc.

Word count: 2,500

(You must be within the designated word counts by +/-10%)

Your work should be in a creative, critical and evaluative manner. Ensure that your arguments are clear and logical and where appropriate include academic sources, i.e. academic journal papers, which add weight to your points raised. Please show in your list of references an appropriate breadth and depth of references relevant to the topic.

Your work must be correctly referenced throughout in the Harvard format.

Your assignment should be word processed and produced in an appropriate academic style. The font should be 12, and be double spaced. The work should be completed on an individual basis. This assignment is worth 50% of the module.