Perceived Reasonableness and Morals in Service Encounters

Nobuyuki Fukawa () and Sunil Erevelles ()

Journal of Business Ethics, 2014, vol. 125, issue 3, 400 pages

Abstract: Companies have a moral responsibility to treat customers fairly. One way for companies to do so is to allow their employees to exercise reasonableness in their interactions with customers. We define reasonableness as a latitude or space that exists around expectations in the delivery of service. In this paper, we explore the concept of reasonableness from a customer’s perspective (i.e., perceived reasonableness) and the role that the morals of service personnel play in customers’ perceptions of reasonableness. First, through an open-ended survey on customers’ unreasonable service experiences, we identify themes of perceived reasonableness. We also discuss the role that the morals of service personnel play within these themes. Second, in order to identify the relationships between these themes, we create a cognitive map and discuss the implications of the identified relationships. Finally, we provide directions for future research on reasonableness. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Keywords: Cognitive mapping; Ethical responsibility; Morals; Reasonableness; Service quality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10551-013-1918-5

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