Research Stories

by Carrie Barnett

Shakespeare was probably right—the world's a stage and most people play carefully defined roles. Some people provide services. Consider local the local beat cop, your hair stylist, the couple who run the corner dry clean cleaners, a real estate agent, and many others. Each is very aware of the differences between their role on the job and their personal identity.

"We have mirrors so we can check to see how others see us," says Thomas Williams, bell captain for the Scottsdale Fairmont Princess Resort. There's something else that Williams says is just as important: "It's a sign that says, 'It's show time!'"

Playing a role involves knowing when and how that role's being played. Boundaries are set between you and your clients or customers. Blake E. Ashforth is a management professor at Arizona State University's W. P. Carey School of Business. He and his colleagues interviewed 105 different "service agents." They asked each person about the ways in which he or she manage the line between whom they "really are" and their working title. The results were published in Group & Organization Management.

Ashforth says that getting in and out of a role may appear to be simple, but it involves complex adjustments. People use cues, including physical and psychological transitions, to prepare themselves for their work-related roles. Commuting time and even uniforms can enhance those transitions.

Boundaries often blur as we pursue the illusion that our service agents are also our friends. Blurring happens frequently, according to Ashforth, even though it is difficult to transcend. "The initial relationship always colors the following relationship in some way," he says.

Most companies prefer the predictability of prepared scripts for interactions with customers. "But allowing people to improvise on the fly helps create unique resolutions and a more personalized approach for each customer—that's what sells," Ashforth adds.

This story was excerpted from the Knowledge @ W. P. Carey web site.