Perspectives on the Organizational Context of Frontlines: A Commentary

This commentary heartily endorses the organizational frontlines (OF) construct proposed in the special issue of Journal of Service Research. The central goal of the commentary is to facilitate the interdisciplinary focus of the OF construct so appropriately emphasized in the special issue by focusing in on the role of people throughout a service organization. We emphasize in particular how people are involved in every facet of the service organization that eventually impacts the OF including, via the sociotechnical systems construct, the development and implementation of technology used at the frontlines. A three-tier view of service organizations is summarized that includes customers, employees, and management (coordination) tiers—and their interactions especially vis-à-vis the boundary tier (frontlines) of service organizations. In addition, we summarize three contextual human facets of service organizations that impact what happens at the frontlines that were relatively underemphasized in the special issue: service climate, internal service, and the strength of human resource management systems. Finally, we note the importance of attending, through research and practice, to the changes in the roles of people as technology plays an increasing role in many service delivery systems