Managing customers as employees of the firm
- 1 June 2004
- journal article
- Published by Emerald in Personnel Review
- Vol. 33 (3), 351-372
- https://doi.org/10.1108/00483480410528878
Abstract
This paper discusses the role that customers play as human resources in service‐based organizations. These involve situations where a customer replaces a more traditional employee (ATMs, self‐serve gas stations), or situations where the customer serves as a strategic partner by providing resources, particularly information, that are critical for the performance of the service exchange (consulting, health care, physical fitness training). After discussing the conditions under which a customer acts as a “partial employee” of a firm, we turn to a discussion of how human resource functions apply to partial employees. Research propositions are offered to guide future research in customer labor contributions.Keywords
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