دانلود رایگان مقاله خدمات، نیروی کار احساسی، و تمرکز حواس

Abstract

From the seclusion of monastic life to the noise of Silicon Valley, the ancient practice of mindfulness has ‘come out of the cloister.’ As an antidote to mindless cognition and behavior, the practice of mindfulness–—with its principle of grounding attention in the present moment–—has been shown to have powerful and positive effects at both the individual and the collective level and in fields as wideranging as medicine, schooling, prison programs, law and negotiation, business, and even the army. This installment of Marketing & Technology introduces mindfulness to managers and explores its potential for enhancing the service encounter. We begin by reviewing the two main conceptualizations of mindfulness: the cognitive and the contemplative. We then explore the service encounter from the perspective of emotional labor and show how mindfulness can change surface acting into deep acting, thereby significantly improving the service encounter for both the consumer and provider. We also explore the other benefits of mindfulness and their application to the service encounter: adaptability, flexibility, and creativity. We conclude by sharing resources for managers interested in implementing mindfulness training.

6. Discussion and conclusion

Today, service plays a pivotal role in marketing and firms attach great importance to the improvement of service encounters. Yet, when managers think about innovation in customer service, they usually think about industrial or process enhancements that make service delivery faster or more efficient (Dasu & Chase, 2010). We suggest that managers also pay close attention to subtleties in the interactions between service workers and customers; however, because service value is idiosyncratic, experiential, contextual, and meaning-laden (Vargo & Lusch, 2008), this is not a simple task. Managers need technologies to redesign the soft side–—the psychological aspects–—of service encounters; mindfulness is one such technology. This article introduces the notion of mindfulness to managers and suggests that it can dramatically enhance service encounters in a number of ways. First, mindfulness enables service employees to use deep acting. This not only sidesteps the pernicious effect of surface acting on employees’ well-being, but also heightens positive attitudes and feelings toward their work and to their customers. Second, mindfulness fosters empathy toward others, which in the service encounter translates into a deeper understanding of customers’ expectations; this, in turn, is a prerequisite of superior service. Third, mindfulness training can transform employees’ thinking patterns by rendering them more flexible and creative. With mindfulness, employees are more easily able to adapt to each newly emergent service encounter more easily and generate more skillful and creative solutions. Last but not least, mindfulness can enhance employee job satisfaction and thus reduce the high turnover that is characteristic of so many service jobs (Dane, 2011; Dane & Brummel, 2013).