Service, Workplace

In recent years there have been growing complaints about the weakening emphasis on service among workers. Jokes have long existed about what happened to the service promised by the description “civil servants.” Tradespeople offering service seem to be less and less reliable in keeping appointments. In shops and department stores, banks and post offices, garages and government departments, customer service no longer seems to be as available as it used to be. Ironically enough, the type of work which most often heads the list in complaints about service is the so-called service sector. Typical examples are restaurants whose waiters are untrained, airlines that overbook and auto-repair shops that do not undertake quality work and often overcharge in the bargain. Many now fear that the same kind of decline in quality that took place earlier in the industry field, and led to many of the present problems, is beginning to strike the service sector.

Understanding the Loss of Service

The reasons given for this are many. Some argue that younger people are no longer committed to the work ethic of the previous generation (see Work Ethic). Others point to an overemphasis on scale economies involving downsizing and cost-cutting that has affected both the private and the public domain. Some suggest that schools and colleges are no longer doing their job of training people satisfactorily for the work force. Others regard the deterioration of service as part of the broader weakening of morality and concern for others in society. There is some truth in all of these, but the reasons for the lack of service today go deeper.

It helps to approach the issue from another angle. In all our complaints we tend to lose sight of the fact that this is an issue concerning people. People care deeply about this, even if this is often for purely personal reasons, because we take for granted the association between work and service. This has not always been the case in the West and is still not the case in some cultures. In such settings when little service is forthcoming, people do not complain with the same degree of disappointment or indignation. For this is the way things are, always have been, and ever will be—just a fact of life. Our complaints are more intense precisely because we had hoped for more and want to see the situation changed. In this there is some promise.

Linking Work and Service

In large measure, the link between work and service is a consequence of the impact of the gospel on Western society. The key word used to describe the activities of early Christians was service, generally translated as “ministry.” This is occasionally used of activities in which people were engaged outside the church, and in one place even non-Christians are described as God’s servants when they do their work in ways congruent with the divine purposes (Romans 13:4). This attitude and language gradually permeated other kinds of work and at times even gave rise to new titles for the work people were doing.“Civil service” or “public service” is one such example. Another is the description given to the whole “service sector” which now accounts for some 75 percent of the economy in advanced industrial societies. In places influenced by British political practice even the word ministry is still used of the inner circle of parliamentarians around the prime “minister.” The very frequency of the word service in the wider marketplace of ideas today is testimony to its continuing vitality. Almost five thousand books a year contain the word in their titles.

So we already have in the way we talk an unconsciously acknowledged theological connection between work and service. Improved service in the workplace begins with realizing more fully the link between the two. It will not be enough to try to push people into giving greater service, for unless they view work itself as a form of service and find the language to convey that, all the pep talks, prep courses and pop techniques to improve this will not take us very far. Service has more to do with how we view what we do and who we are ourselves than what we actually do and how we do it. The latter are certainly important but not in themselves sufficient, for without the former any improvements in service are built on rather shaky foundations. So a major part of the task is helping the whole culture of business and the workplace to embrace again a vision of service.

Recovering the Dignity of Service

One of the ways we can do this is to help bring the idea of vocation back into the workplace (see Calling). Although our vocation touches all areas of life, not only our work, there is no doubt that those who see their work in some sense a calling or vocation are more likely to do it more in the spirit of service. This was one of the findings in the survey of senior managers conducted by William Diehl, as recorded in his book In Search of Faithfulness. It is partly because a sense of vocation has been largely replaced by notions of a career, or just the job, that the quality of much of the work people do has also suffered (see Protestant Work Ethic).

But we must also find fresh, practical ways of bringing service and work back into closer connection with one another. This is already taking place in significant contemporary business literature. Much is said these days about the need for firms to place service at the center of what they do. In these highly competitive times, success will go to those who are perceived by the public as really delivering on their offers of service. Some companies make this point by offering to refund some or all of the cost of their product or service if it does not live up to expectations or if it is not supplied in the time promised. This means a lot to customers, who are mostly busy people who do not have time to wait around for deliveries or to keep chasing firms that have not done what they promised.

Another suggested way forward for businesses is to add some extra benefit to the customer on top of what is usually supplied. This is the so-called value-added factor, and customers, especially those who belong to the baby-boom generation, are increasingly looking for this. They realize that these days it is mostly a buyer’s, not seller’s, market and that since buyers are increasingly quality-conscious, they are primarily looking for the best deal they can get. Workplaces that are taking seriously “the search for excellence” (Peters and Waterman), “total quality management” (Deming), “total product concept” (Levitt) or the “principles of completeness” (Crosby) are seeking to equip themselves to do this. Going beyond this is the idea of offering “extraordinary” or “superlative” service (as exhibited in firms like Nordstrom or Federal Express). This means treating the client or customer as a partner in a lifelong relationship of giving and receiving which changes according to the needs and requirements of the person served as much as the challenges and developments in the serving organization.

Increasingly in this literature there is an emphasis on what the person of the worker, as well as the quality of the work, brings to the nature of the service offered. It is not just about the quality of products and services, it is about the quality of those producing them and serving customers. This is especially the case in those occupations that provide services rather than goods but all too easily focus on numbers, revenue or other measurable performance indicators rather than meeting both server and customer expectations. Unless there are internal changes taking place in the lives of the workers themselves, it is only a matter of time before the quality of what they do is affected; in some cases it is affected from the outset as their approach to customers or clients gets in the way of others wanting what they are making or offering.

Servant Leader and Serving Organization

This where the idea of the “servant leader” in the workplace comes in, for such a person can model to others the importance, meaning and practice of service connected with one’s work. This idea was given particular currency in the 1970s by Robert K. Greenleaf (see Leadership; Leadership, Church). This has now undergone significant refinement at the hands of writers like Michael Maccoby, who distinguishes the different ways in which people serve depending on the type of contribution they offer. For helpers service means assisting people, valuing relationships above all and responding to specific needs. For defenders it means monitoring and protecting those who are disadvantaged. For innovators it means creating and implementing a more effective strategy. For newer-style self-developers it means facilitating a problem-solving process with customers and clients that includes an opportunity to learn and grow. These categories helpfully broaden the ways in which we should think of direct service to people. Too often we identify this mainly with the work of the first group. But even with these refinements, we need greater emphasis on such a person being a “leading servant” rather than just a leader—of whatever kind—with a service orientation.

In any case, the whole notion of leadership needs to be broadened to include a more collaborative approach and a recognition of the point at which everyone in the work force can take the lead in some respect or other. This means that we do not necessarily have to wait for designated leaders to take the lead in this or any other area. If they do, fine; if not, someone else can take the lead. But all of us—no matter how ordinary a position we might have or how ordinary our work might appear—can seek to fulfill our responsibility in a genuinely servant-like and service-oriented way. We can do this without seeking permission or affirmation.

We can exemplify service before those around us. We can make informal or formal suggestions about how our own work and the work around us can be improved. We can look for ways of generating discussion on how certain things might be done. We can both stand up for and stand up to our immediate over-seers, for example, helping to conserve their energy, being responsible gatekeepers, defining them publicly, acting in their name, defending them, helping them focus. And we can buffer others from a leader, facing them with hard facts, presenting options and playing advocate when they are in danger of deciding unwisely. Though sometimes this will encounter opposition, forcing us to make some hard choices about how far we can go or whether we might have to change our work, at other times we will find a warm reception for our efforts.

Apart from what they can bring personally to the task, those in positions of leadership can go further and develop an organizational culture, processes and training that will help others see their work as a service. The key here is for them to see themselves as stewards rather than controllers of the organization and everyone in it, exercising rank without privilege, developing partners rather than dependents and granting empowerment rather then entitlement. Practices that enhance service in their organizations include maximizing core workers’ opportunity of designing and customizing policy; reintegrating the managing and doing of work; allowing measurements and controls to serve, not master, core workers; and supporting local solutions rather than consistency across all groups (Block, pp. 64-66). They should encourage people to put service before everything, and find appropriate ways of monitoring, rewarding and improving its quality, consistency and novelty, giving special attention and training to support and front-line service people on whom so much depends. Throughout the process, these leaders should be fully aware that service is not merely about giving someone a useful product or a service, but establishing a relationship with them that will encourage their looking to satisfy similar future needs from the same place.

» See also: Integrity

» See also: Leadership

» See also: Ministry

» See also: Organizational Culture

» See also: Work

» See also: Work Ethic, Protestant

» See also: Workplace

References and Resources

P. Block, Stewardship: Choosing Service over Self-Esteem (San Francisco: Barrett-Koehler, 1993); I. Chaleff, The Courageous Follower: Standing Up to and for Our Leaders (San Francisco: Barrett-Koehler, 1955); P. B. Crosby, Completeness: Quality for the Twenty-first Century (New York: Penguin, 1994); W. Diehl, In Search of Faithfulness: Lessons from the Christian Community (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1989); R. K. Greenleaf, Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness (New York: Paulist, 1977); R. E. Kelley, Power of Followership: How to Create Leaders People Want to Follow and Followers Who Lead Themselves (New York: Double Currency, 1991); M. Maccoby, Why Work: Motivating and Leading the New Generation (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988); B. Patterson, Serving God: The Grand Essentials of Work and Worship (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1994).

—Robert Banks