University education is part of a globally competitive service industry and contributes more to Australia's export earnings than agriculture. This article argues that a deeper understanding of diverse cultural student groups is important for Australian and other universities that wish to differentiate their education service offerings by…

Why do costs in higher education rise more rapidly than prices in general? They do so due to four factors: (1) higher education is a personal-service industry; (2) higher education relies on highly educated labor; (3) because of increased capital usage (in the form of the new technologies), higher education's reliance on highly educated labor has…

Using store-level and aggregated Consumer Price Index data, we show that restaurant prices rise in response to minimum wage increases under several sources of identifying variation. We introduce a general model of employment determination that implies minimum wage hikes cause prices to rise in competitive labor markets but potentially fall in…

This study addresses managers' awareness and familiarity with Total Quality Management (TQM). Eighteen (18) semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with managers working in a variety of service organizations in Greece. The major argument of the study is that although the acronym TQM and some of its concepts and practices are known by a…

Customer orientation is strongly visible in the visions and strategies of most organizations, but how do these visions and strategies move from intentions to practice? This question provides the focus for this research which aims to acquire deeper insights into this process. The point of departure is the change in perspective from a product to a…

As work traditionally located in the private sphere, wedding planning, like other domestic functions, has become commodified. Building upon Hochschild's work on the commercialization of intimate life, this article explores the relationship of feminism to the commercial spirit of intimate life to understand wedding planning as a commodified…

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to identify key factors influencing employee learning from the perspective of owners/managers. Design/methodology/research: Data were gathered from owners/managers in a total of 27 small manufacturing and services firms through interviews and analysed using content analytic procedures. Findings: The…

This paper examines the notion of the student as a customer in a university, focusing on the perceptions of academic staff. Changes in the higher education sector in recent years have significantly reduced the differences between universities and other types of organisations and it has been argued that students have become "consumers" of…

This paper will address the role of early-modern (1550-1800) English servants in the training and education of the children residing in the households in which these servants worked. Some resident servants were employed primarily, if not solely, to educate the children of their masters and mistresses. These tutors, governesses and chaplains are…

This article explores how Greek Cypriot elementary school children construct their identities in relation to Sri Lankan and Filipino women who come to Cyprus as domestic workers. The article focuses primarily on the views of children whose families employ these women; however, the views of children whose families do not employ domestic workers are…

Learning in workplaces is neither ad hoc nor informal. Such labels are a misnomer and do not do justice to the highly-structured nature and complexity of many workplaces where learning takes place. This article discusses the organisational and structural framework developed from a three-year doctoral study into how apprentice chefs construct their…

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to investigate the relative importance of personal-demographic and positional factors in predicting emotional intelligence (EI) among service workers in the Greek context. Design/methodology/approach: The study involved administering Schutte et al.'s SREIT test to employees engaged in retailing, insurance,…

This study is a follow-up investigation of the career and life experiences of battered women two years after shelter exit. Using consensual qualitative research, we interviewed 6 women from our original sample of 13 regarding their career and life adjustments and future aspirations. Results indicated that participants generally reported both…

In the past few years, American companies have turned to customer service as a way to create a competitive edge. This article discusses how several companies train their employees to deal with customers. (JOW)

This study reports the findings from 68 interviews with parents of disabled children who are users of seven key worker schemes in England and Wales. The interviews which lasted for one hour each, were tape-recorded, transcribed and analysed according to both a priori and emerging themes. The findings from this study have implications for policy…