The Classroom as a Service Encounter: Suggestions for Value Creation

Abstract

Marketing is concerned with the satisfaction of customer wants and needs while achieving one's own organizational (or self ) goals. A basic premise behind this orientation is that organizations survive and prosper because they do a better job creating and adding value for their customers than do competitors (Levitt, 1960). Furthermore, the marketing literature recognizes that services (as opposed to tangible products) entail certain unique characteristics that necessitate the employment of a different set of strategies. This article applies the precepts of a market orientation, specifically as they relate to services marketing, in an analysis of management education as a service encounter between the professor and the students. We suggest that this perspective provides a fresh look at how we as management faculty can do a better job creating and adding value for our constituents.We should emphasize at the outset that we are promoting student consumerism (e.g., Delucchi & Smith, 1997) here. In recognizing that students have 484 . We are grateful to the editor and the anonymous reviewer for their encouragement and helpful suggestions.

The Student - as - Customer Metaphor: A Deconstruction Using Foucauldian Constructs

“…According to Chung and Mc Larney (2000) this means that student needs must be catered for to develop effective educational programs and this in turn carries an expectation that Faculty staff will engage in continual improvement and customize educational experiences. Subsequently, use of this metaphor encourages teaching staff to improve and be responsible for the quality of their teaching (Zell, 2001).…”

“…However, academic principles do not sit well with this metaphor and a number of concerns have been raised by both academic and general staff in Universities globally (Halbesleben & Wheller, 2009;Martin, 2008;Zell, 2001). The inseparable nature of services and consumer, necessitates the intimate involvement of students in the service provision creating a number of challenges and tensions (Chung & Mc Larney, 2000). Essentially, the concept of quality is problematic and relative to the perceptions of the different stakeholders (Houston, 2007) while the implementation of business processes, such as quality management tend to reinforce control, reduce leadership discretion while focusing a narrow selection of stakeholders (Ulrich, 2001).…”

“…According to Chung and Mc Larney (2000) there is an implicit, hidden orientation in this metaphor that places the wants of the students as the central focus, around which the school revolves and according to Schwartzman (1995) this is not just semantics but leads to a change in the higher education culture. Foucault (1980) argued that our views of the world are constructed through social structures and practices associated with regimes of power where individuals may have some measure of creativity, which is limited by a regime of power.…”

“…Satisfaction from a student perspective is the attainment of grades that satisfy their desired outcome not some academic standard of learning and for this reason students interests play a more central role to the point where they marginalise other stakeholders (Krehbiel, McClure & Pratsini 1997;Rovenpor, 1995). In the situation where a University in the name of quality, focuses on customer satisfaction derived from students evaluations any negative evaluations can seriously affect an academic's career and prospects of promotion (Chung & Mc Larney, 2000). As a result, many academics feel forced to issue higher grades to students (Carlson & Fleisher, 2002), effectively 'inflating' the students' grade.…”

“…Whilst it is important to address the needs of the consumer, a service can only be effectively provided if the provider is true to their purpose or mission (Chung & Mc Larney, 2000). When a university embraces grade inflation (Baker, 1994;Lanning & Perkins, 1995), the assessment process fails to provide the appropriate checks and balances in terms of ensuring that the students have achieved the requisite level of knowledge.…”