Jeffery M. Ferguson

Workplace spirituality and employee work attitudes

One important question in the field of workplace spirituality concerns the relationship of this construct with employee work attitudes. This study attempts to make a rigorous empirical examination of the relationship between workplace spirituality and five prevalent employee job attitudinal variables. It assesses the validity and reliability of the measures used and discusses the results of the analysis, which indicate that each of the three dimensions of spirituality used has a significant relationship with two or more of the five job attitude variables examined. While acknowledging that spirituality at work is an abstract concept, this study attempts to provide some of the first empirical support that there is a positive association between spirituality at work and employee job outcomes. The paper concludes with a number of implications and research directions for both academics and business managers, including the need to investigate the comprehensive impact of spirituality at work on individuals and organizations.

Spirit and community at Southwest Airlines

One important issue is whether spirituality in the workplace can be used only to benefit employees or can it be developed also to the advantage of organizations? The purpose of this article is to articulate a model of how spiritual values can be integrated into organizations and then assess how this model predicts organizational behavior in one company, Southwest Airlines (SWA). The application of this model provides insights into how and under what specific conditions spiritual values can positively impact both profitability and employee attitudes in organizations. Implications for both research and practice are discussed.

Creating Effective Core Organizational Values: A Spiritual Leadership Approach

Abstract Core values have been viewed as one important way that both private and public sector institutions can improve organizational effectiveness and enhance employee attitudes and behaviors. Despite the strong case for the importance of values, many organizations have not gained their full benefits. In fact, core values poorly articulated and implemented can have a significant negative impact on both employees and organizations. This paper seeks to review the business literature to define core organizational values, discuss their impact on employees and organizations, and present the key reasons why most institutions have not developed effective values. Next, it is suggested that a spiritual leadership philosophy is needed for organizational executives to articulate, communicate, and implement truly meaningful and authentic core values. A number of applications of these core industry values to the public sector are provided as well as directions for future research.

How to evaluate and up-grade technical service

Abstract The factory technical support function is known to be critical to a successful field selling effort, particularly in high-technology environments. However, the relationship between technical support and the personal selling function is often characterized by poor communication between the two organizational systems. The literature of internal marketing and service quality provides a rich knowledge base that can be used to improve coordination between factory technical support and field sales. This article reports a study performed in a high-technology industry that applied internal marketing and service quality concepts to improve coordination between factory technical support and field sales. The study is described including managerial actions that were taken in response to study results.

Using a Service Audit Project for Improving Student Learning in a Service-Marketing Course

Service-marketing education provides students customer service skills sought by employers who recognize the relationship between service and profit. Students in service marketing benefit from active-learning activities with actual organizations to apply customer service frameworks taught in the course. The purpose of this paper is to describe an experiential team project taught through collaboration with a local Better Business Bureau (BBB). Descriptions of the class project address challenges with group and experiential-learning projects. The paper provides suggestions for working with a local business organization for service marketing team projects.

An Exploratory Study of the America's Family Program: Using a New Leadership Paradigm to Break the Cycle of Failure

Abstract Millions of U.S. employees work in the service-sector at relatively low wages with little or no benefits or advancement opportunities. Due to high turnover rates, business organizations often limit spending on human resource (HR) practices for these workers. In turn, these employees become less committed to the organization, thereby reinforcing this “cycle of failure.” In this manuscript we present a preliminary study of a new approach, involving a partnership effort among government, non-profits, and business, to break this cycle of failure. This new approach is based on the principles of the new governance model of public administration. Both interview and organizational data are collected to assess the impact of this program on both employees and the organization. Implications for research in business and public administration are discussed, including insights from the emerging spirituality leadership literature into the underlying motivation for developing this type of program.

Using the Big Picture Approach to Integrate Sustainability in Business-to-Business Marketing

Sustainability (or being “green”) has been identified as a key macro megatrend (Lubin and Esty 2010), but many organizations are struggling with how to operationalize the concept of sustainability for a competitive advantage (Nidumolu, Prahalad and Rangaswami 2009). This is particularly important for sustainability business-to-business marketing where there are numerous opportunities for creating a competitive advantage (Sharma, Iyer, Mehrotra, & Krishnan, 2009). The Big Picture marketing framework (Nordhielm 2006) offers one potential way for organizations to address this issue because it provides a framework that promotes a structured, disciplined approach to market analysis and decision-making. This research examines how Ecolab Inc. uses The Big Picture framework to include sustainability variables into its business-to business marketing and new product development processes.

Quality Service in Health Clubs: Do Employees Know What Customers Want?

Understanding customer preferences and expectations is critical to the delivery of quality service. This paper reviews a study which compares customers’ evaluations of service dimensions with employees’ perceptions of those evaluations. The results suggest that in a global sense employees are aware of their overall performance. However, on specific service dimensions employees differ significantly from customers on the perceptions of the quality of service delivered. The paper discusses the marketing implications of the results of the study.

Structure and Locus of Control in Marketing Courses

The interaction of teaching methods with other educational constructs is relatively unexplored in marketing education. This paper describes the construct of class structure and how it interacts with teaching methods and certain student characteristics. The paper also describes how the examination of this interaction may help indicate the appropriate method of instruction.

Suggestion Selling in the Fast Food Environment: Observations and Implications

Suggestion selling in the fast food environment is a popular approach for generating additional sales. This paper reports on restaurant managers’ views on suggestion selling, consumers’ views on suggestion selling, and the results of an experiment that evaluates the technique in the fast food environment. An explanation of the results and some additional research directions are also offered.