This book contains a simple but powerful definition of services based upon a separation between back-stage and front-stage activities. Services deal with front interactions, production and manufacturing with back-stage operations. Teboul uses this distinction to systematically explore the important issues of the field.

This book contains a simple but powerful definition of services based upon a separation between back-stage and front-stage activities. Services deal with front interactions, production and manufacturing with back-stage operations. Teboul uses this distinction to systematically explore the important issues of the field.

In this carefully detailed and rigorous study of the social processes of labor negotiations, the author uncovers the pressures and motivations felt by negotiators, showing why the bargaining process persists largely in its traditional form despite frequent calls for change. Raymond Friedman approaches labor negotiations with a conviction that negotiators are situated in a social network that greatly influences bargaining styles. In this carefully detailed and rigorous study of the social processes of labor negotiations, he uncovers the pressures and motivations felt by negotiators, showing why the bargaining process persists largely in its traditional form despite frequent calls for change. Friedman first focuses on the social structure of labor negotiations and the logic of the traditional negotiation process. He then looks at cases where the traditional rituals of negotiation were set aside and new forms emerged and, in the light of these examples, addresses the options for and obstacles to change.In an unusual twist Friedman describes the persistence of the traditional negotiation process by developing a dramaturgical theory in which negotiators are seen as actors who perform for teammates, constituents, and opponents. They try to convince others of their skill, loyalty, and dedication, while others expect them to play the role of opponent, representative, and leader. Friedman shows that the front-stage drama fulfills these needs and expectations, while backstage contacts between lead bargainers allow the two sides to communicate in private. The traditional labor negotiation process, he reveals, is an integrated system that allows for both private understanding and public conflict. Current efforts to change how labor and management negotiate are limited by the persistence of these roles, and are bound to fail if they do not account for the benefits as well as the flaws of the traditional rituals of negotiation. For negotiation scholars, Friedman's perspective provides an alternative to the rational-actor models that dominate the field; his dramaturgical theory is applicable to any negotiations done by groups, especially ones that face political pressures from constituents. For labor scholars, this is the first integrated theory of the negotiation process since Walton and McKersies's classic text, and one that helps unite the four elements of their model. For sociologists, the book provides an example of how a dramaturgical perspective can be used to explain the logic and persistence of a social institution. And practitioners will appreciate this explanation of why change is so difficult. Organization Studies series

A notable contribution to our understanding of ourselves. This book explores the realm of human behavior in social situations and the way that we appear to others. Dr. Goffman uses the metaphor of theatrical performance as a framework. Each person in everyday social intercourse presents himself and his activity to others, attempts to guide and cotnrol the impressions they form of him, and employs certain techniques in order to sustain his performance, just as an actor presents a character to an audience. The discussions of these social techniques offered here are based upon detailed research and observation of social customs in many regions.

Two-Faced Racism examines and explains the racial attitudes and behaviours exhibited by whites in private settings. While there are many books that deal with public attitudes, behaviours, and incidences concerning race and racism (frontstage), there are few studies on the attitudes whites display among friends, family, and other whites in private settings (backstage). The core of this book draws upon 626 journals of racial events kept by white college students at twenty-eight colleges in the United States. The book seeks to comprehend how whites think in racial terms by analyzing their reported racial events.

This book deals with how companies can involve customers or users in order to learn with them in the field of service-based business development. It presents a variety of customer-involvement approaches, methods for learning with customers, and the results of case studies conducted in both service and manufacturing companies focusing on value-creation through services.Based on research carried out by several research groups around the world, as well as on illustrative cases, the book creates new actionable knowledge regarding customer-involvement which will be useful for both practitioners and scholars.Benefits for readers include: an understanding of the business potential of learning with customers and other users; an overview of the fields of new service development and customer-involvement with regard to concepts, theoretical frameworks, and models, in addition to strategies and techniques for involving users in fruitful ways during the innovation process; an illustration of the cases based on the results of empirical studies; and managerial implications and guidelines regarding how to manage customer-involvement during the different phases of the new service and business development process.

Outlines ten practical principles for increasing the effectiveness of any business organization, based on the author's years at Disney World.