STRATEGIC POSITIONING, HUMAN CAPITAL, AND PERFORMANCE IN SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS: A CUSTOMER INTERACTION APPROACH.

This article argues that taking into account the presence of the customer during service production can yield valuable insights for researchers and practitioners concerning the linkages among strategic positioning, human capital, and organizational performance in service organizations. As customers of a service firm interact with its production process, the variance in their demands creates uncertainty for the organization. In response, service organizations may alter aspects of production in order to process the required levels of uncertainty. A major element of service production is human capital. When customers introduce a high degree of variability into the service production process, service organizations may be able to address this variability when their employees are proficient at diagnosing problems, thinking creatively, developing novel solutions, and so on; that is, when they possess high levels of skill, knowledge, and expertise. This is consistent with human capital theory which contends that ...