Vocational curriculum for Australian service industries: standardised learning for diverse...

The debate over the adequacy of competency-based training (CBT) to meet the needs of service industries is far from over. In Australia, the national training package qualifications (which are CBT based) are well entrenched, with competency elements growing like bacteria on a buffet Developed

by industry for industry, this framework appears to have had little impact on training practices in the workplace. Enterprise training is not linked to the National Training Framework (Smith, Oczkowski, Noble, & Macklin, 2002). In colleges, atomistic customer service outcomes delivered in standardised, context-free conditions do little to meet the needs of service industries, tourism and hospitality in particular. Sociocultural approaches point to the context embeddedness of workplace learning, including the diversity of social interactions within the organisation and with customers. The industry is also a dynamic one, with ongoing changes to the tourism product (which includes service) to meet increasingly sophisticated expectations. Customers, including international visitors whose contribution is one of the country's largest sources of foreign income exchange, are looking for unique and culturally authentic experiences. Curriculum reform is an urgent priority if vocational training in colleges and workplaces is going to meet the emerging needs of this competitive services sector.

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How do we reconcile the model of a national vocational curriculum framework with the concept of a post-industrial service economy? While we have a highly prescriptive framework for delivering vocational training, in which competencies are described in detail, we also have demands for a more flexible, responsive workforce. In the tourism industry in particular, research tells us that customers are looking for unique experiences. In Australia, the strategic plans of tourism commissions developed by the states and territories are typified by the following quote (emphasis added):

   Western Australia offers a unique mix of Indigenous,
   European and Asian cultures. This fusion
   and creative expression of cultures coupled with
   our breathtaking natural landscapes and bio-diversity
   provides a competitive advantage in attracting
   visitors looking for unique and engaging experiences
   (Department of Culture and the Arts, Government
   of Western Australia, 2004, p.3).

A Google[TM] search of tourism web sites in Australia reveals 919 potentially unique experiences. Are we, however, training our tourism workforce by following standard recipes? Does our training package framework encourage the development of service professionals able to deliver these 'unique and engaging experiences'? Peter Renshaw (2003) wants us to define worthwhile learning and valued communities, 'Our role as educators is principally to clarify what is worthwhile learning and what sort of communities we should be learning for and within' (p. 23). Using the illustration of the slow food movement, he asks whether we should, as part of this vision, preserve and resist losing parts of our culture. Thus, in theorising the what, when, why and how of learning, we should also be developing a view of what is important and valuable. What is important and valuable is not necessarily new. As globalisation contributes to increasing homogenisation of cultures, a likely future trend is a renewed interest in maintaining cultural diversity. Culture is a tourism asset, and a strategic approach to tourism training would see cultural elements integrated into the curriculum.

A vision for the future of the tourism industry is needed and this should be reflected in vocational training. According to the World Tourism Organization (2004), tourism development is crucial to the economic development of the Asia Pacific region:

   Human capital is considered to be one of the
   pillars on which the development of tourism rests
   ... it goes without saying then, that lack of
   trained and skilled manpower could deal a significant
   blow to the growth of tourism ... governmental
   laxity and corporate profit-conscious
   attitudes towards tourism education and training,
   as well as lack of trainers and teaching staff,
   have been identified as some of the factors
   responsible for inadequate professionalism in its
   tourism industry (p. 3).

One might also suggest that competency-based customer service training does not adequately meet the needs of the tourism industry, or indeed any other service industry in Australia.

This article provides a background to the current training package framework for customer service training in Australia. It examines the characteristics of post-industrial workplaces in which customer service is a key component. Contemporary theoretical frameworks for workplace learning and vocational training are discussed and recommendations provided for a curriculum better suited to developing service professionals. Finally, the role of context and situational variables are explored, with a focus the development of tourism and hospitality curriculum that is more suited to lifelong learning in a dynamic industry.

National Curriculum

In 1992 all states, territories and the Australian Government agreed to the establishment of the Australian National Training Authority (ANITA) and a cooperative federal system of vocational education and training with strategic input by industry. In 1994, a stronger and more coherent industry training advisory structure emerged. The late 1990s saw the establishment of the National Training Framework and the development of training packages, the tourism and hospitality industry being the first to introduce competency-based training in Australia. This approach has also been implemented in the United Kingdom, Scotland, New Zealand, Indonesia, South Africa, United States, Canada and several European countries. There are several aims, which are to make training more relevant to industry needs, establish consistency in training delivery across the nation, allow for portability of competency units and qualifications for individuals, allow for recognition of prior learning for informally acquired skills, and be able to apply economic models to vocational training expenditure.

Shaping Vocational Curriculum

Developers of national vocational training frameworks that are derived from industry input are at pains to point out that competency units are not curricula; that instead a curriculum describes a learning pathway for the learner to achieve the outcomes of the units and the qualification sought (ANTA, 2002). In practice, however, the rules and reporting requirements of the framework often preclude the development of an innovative curriculum and assessment practice.

Butler (1999) describes current vocational education as a commodity to serve the economy and suggests that 'education policies are better read as economic policies' (p. 14). She goes on to point out that:

   ... although these changes have constructed a curriculum
   response from educational institutions, it
   is important to recognize the calculated way in
   which educators have been isolated from the
   major policy and decision-making forums and
   boards associated with the contemporary turn in
   vocational education (Buffer, 1999, p. 19).

Reforms to Australian vocational training (led by industry) have, ironically, had little direct benefit in the workplace. Smiths et al.'s (2002) extensive study of 584 enterprises has shown that

   ... the VET system, with its focus on technical,
   job-related training, may not be well placed to
   deliver the kind of training that employers need.
   Thus, enterprises are compelled to provide the
   training themselves and in so doing, do not turn
   to the VET system to meet their requirements ...
   Competency standards are not being used to
   inform most enterprise training and much of the
   training remains uncredentialled (Smith et al.,
   2002, p. 8).

Instead, most enterprises use a training needs analysis to identify training needs and provide informal, specific training on-the-job.

The result of the past decade of training reform in Australia is a qualification system developed by industry, for industry, used predominantly by educational institutions as a quasi-curriculum. Reid and Johnson (1999) propose the following definition of a curriculum: 'The curriculum is all those discursive practices which affect what and how students learn, and what and how teachers teach' (p. ix). Curriculum-making development is a political process with some voices more dominant than others. It is time for educators to re-enter this debate and reclaim the territory.

The Use of Generic Competencies

Each training package contains units of competency, sometimes also referred to as competency standards. The units are determined mainly by industry, but also sometimes by enterprises. Each unit of competency contains elements of competency, performance criteria, a range of variables and an evidence guide (ANTA, 2002). Elements of competency are the basic building blocks of a unit of competency. They describe, in outcome terms, functions a person is able to perform in a particular area of work. The elements combine to make up the unit. Performance criteria are evaluative statements specifying what is to be assessed and the required level of performance.

A 'range statement' links the required knowledge and organisational and technical requirements to a context. It describes any contextual variables that will be used or encountered when applying the competency in a workplace situation. An evidence guide directs the assessment of a unit of competency or learning outcome (ANITA, 2002).

The OECD project Definition and Selection of Competencies: Theoretical and Conceptual Foundations [DeSeCo] questions whether a set of competencies can be developed for '... a successful life and effective participation in different fields of life--including economic, political, social and family domains, public and private and interpersonal relations, and individual personal development' (as cited in Rychen & Sagalnik, 2001, p. 2). At global and political levels, defining and assessing learning is seen to be important. A number of generic competencies are identified in the text by Rychen and Sagalnik, enabling comparisons between countries. In this case, a 'successful life' appears to carry a subtext of employment in a global and homogenous economic environment. However, as Hager (in press) explains, '... as best available theoretical accounts of learning at work suggest, the contextuality of actual work processes severely curtails naive expectations of unproblematic generic transfer' (p. 4). Nonetheless, the model developed for this project clarifies the concept of context. Context is shown in the theoretical and conceptual foundation of the DeSeCo (Rychen & Sagalnik, 2001) work as both the immediate surroundings and the larger socioeconomic and political environment. This is illustrated in Figure 1.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

Most of the debate to date has centred on the internal structure of a competence as it is shown in Figure 1. The aim of this article is to analyse, more closely, the role of context in planning vocational training, and in assessing customer service performance in the tourism industry.

   In a study conducted by the National
   Centre for Vocational Education
   Research (NCVER), Gibb (2004) identifies
   customer service skills as common to
   various listings of generic skills. The
   author points out that many assessors are
   more confident assessing generic skills
   when they occur as discrete units of competency
   and indeed ANTA has gone
   further to develop Generic Competencies
   for Customer Service (ANTA, 2004a).

Recognising Prior Learning

Recognition of prior learning (RPL) involves the assessment of previously unrecognised skills and knowledge an individual has acquired outside the formal education and training system. Under Australian Qualification Guidelines (ANTA, 2004a), recognition of prior learning removes the need for duplication of learning. In 2004, 10 industry skills councils were formed, including Services Industries Skills Australia (SISA) which covers 640,000 businesses across sectors including retail, wholesale, sport and recreation, tourism and hospitality, hairdressing, beauty therapy, and funeral services. According to Australian Training 'a priority for SISA is rationalizing the Training Packages across its sectors' (2004, p. 5). The transferability of customer service competencies across these sectors is somewhat problematic. For example, an element such as 'establish customer contact' would vary considerably across the contexts of a new hairdressing customer looking for highlights to a recently bereaved person making an appointment to see a funeral planner.

This sets up a dilemma: should one readily accept customer service skills transfer from one industry context to another (or indeed from one vocational qualification to another) since the unit code number for the generic service competency unit is the same? Repeated learning and unnecessary assessment could be avoided if this were so. Alternatively, do we recognise the situatedness of the competence developed in one context and the potential lack of transfer to another context, thus refusing to accept the portability principle or recognition of prior learning?

Contextualisation of Competency Units

Hager and Smith (2004) describe context as 'the surroundings in which work is done and the possible influences that these surroundings have on the way it is done' (p. 34). The role of context can be regarded as minimally influential, influential but controllable, or decisively influential. Arguments for strong contextuality come from sociocultural theorists who stress the inseparability of the individual and the social, and Hager and Smith (2004) point out that positivist, individualistic approaches to defining competence are counterproductive. Since post-industrial service industries are inherently social, it would appear that the situatedness of workplace decision-making needs to be recognised.

However, the option of 'contextualisation' provided by training package guidelines is unhelpful in this respect. According to the development guidelines:

   Contextualisation involves additions or amendments
   to the unit of competency to suit particular
   delivery methods, learner profiles, specific
   enterprise equipment requirements, or to otherwise
   meet local needs. With contextualisation the
   integrity of the intended outcome of the unit of
   competency must be maintained. Any contextualisation
   of units of competency must not remove
   or add to the number and content of elements
   and performance criteria (ANITA, 2004b, p. 60).

Were these guidelines to permit a greater level of contextualisation, the issue would be the level at which contextualisation would occur--at the level of service-based industry, organisation, workplace or customer service interaction? The question is thus one of defining the 'community of practice' (Lave & Wenger, 1991).

One final quality assurance requirement of training package implementation is assessment validation, a process of identifying how each element is assessed. An informed discussion is held between assessors on 'whether the task does in fact assess what it has set out to assess and whether there are any gaps that would require additional evidence' (Booth, 2002, p. 11). The age-old practice of sampling in assessment, which occurs in nonCBT environments, appears to further handicap efforts to develop contextualised, holistic training and assessment.

In summary, the emerging curriculum issues related to contextual factors in workplace performance are:

* micro level descriptors of customer service performance elements

* requirements for assessment of every element

* lack of integration of competencies, including hard/soft competencies

* focus on individual performance when sociocultural features of the context are integral to decisionmaking and workplace performance.

Activity Theory Capturing the Richness of Service Provision

Beckett and Hager (2002) refer to 'post-modernity's interest in local practical differences' (p. 71), particularly for occupations involving people and symbols. These authors use the metaphor of the swamp to illustrate the messy, confusing problems that are part of daily work. Activity theory is a model of artefact-mediated and object-oriented action developed by Russian theorist Vygotsky and his colleagues in the early 1900s. This 'new psychology' does a great deal to capture the richness of workplace practice and can assist with conceptions of curriculum. For example, customer service can be seen as an object that is socially and culturally defined by provider, employer and consumer. A Russian colleague of Vygotsky's, Leont'ev (1981/1947), following Marx, introduced the concept of work as a division of labour, performed as a collective activity; this too reinforcing concepts of work as interactions between human beings and their environment.

Engestrom (1999) used this theoretical framework to view organisational learning as collaborative learning. Following the work of Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995), Engestrom studied small organisational teams to analyse learning processes. The analysis used theoretical tools from cultural-historical activity theory, which are characterised as follows: activity theory is deeply contextual and seeks to understand specific local practices and activity theory is developmental, seeking to influence qualitative changes in human practices.

The research, based on shop floor teams working in California, shows the emergence of problem solutions using detailed discourse analysis and theoretical constructs such as activity, object and artefact. In particular, four types of artefacts are illustrated:

* what artefacts (used to identify and describe objects)

* how artefacts (used to guide and direct processes)

* why artefacts (used to diagnose the properties and behaviour of objects)

* where to artefacts (used to envision the future development of objects including social systems).

For example, a hammer can be used as a what artefact in relation to nails but as a where artefact if used as a symbol of workers' power (Engestrom, 1999, p. 382).

Engestrom proposes an expansive learning cycle or spiral. According to the author, 'The process of expansive learning should be understood as construction and resolution of successively evolving tensions or contradictions in a complex system that includes the object or objects, the mediating artefacts, and the perspectives of the participants' (Engestrom, 1999, p. 384). The value of this theoretical perspective is in the description of problem finding as part of the ongoing reconstruction process, with solutions at best partial, described as 'arbitrary points along the way' (Engestrom, 1999, p. 381).

With this in mind, another model developed by Engestrom (1999) is adapted to show customer service as the object of activity, with relevant mediating artefacts such as manuals, texts, concepts and tools (see Figure 2). For example, one hotel uses the slogan 'we are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen' which is an example of a mediating artefact. Searle's study of discourse in the airline industry shows that:

[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]

   One of the most striking findings was the textualisation
   of all workplaces. However, when workplace
   documents were compared across sites, it
   was found that not all texts were used at all sites.
   Further, those apparently 'generic' texts, which
   were common to several sites, varied in terms of
   their language features-letterhead and layout in
   motels, or fare constructions and ticketing codes
   at airports. For workers, the reading and writing
   skills used were in relation to purposeful, goal-oriented,
   highly contextualised activities (Searle,
   2003, p. 65).

As Figure 2 illustrates, the activity system model can be used to analyse the customer service environment by identifying 'appropriate' customer service as the object (which is dynamic and socioculturally defined) and by developing an understanding of the various mediating artefacts such as manuals, texts, concepts, tools and symbols that are used to establish the service ethos. The conventions of the communication between service provider and customer are illustrated as policies, procedures, norms and behaviours.

Stevenson (2003) uses activity theory to derive principles that might guide vocational learning. These principles are to proceed from the learner's sense of vocation; to situate learning in concrete, functional, purposive settings; to focus primarily on the capacity-to-do; to engage in understanding interrelationships in learning/working activity systems; to share meanings; to relate meanings so derived to other activity systems and the wider community; and to build connections among meanings and different renditions of meanings, together with a facility of operating upon such interconnections (Stevenson, 2003, p. 44).

Workplace Learning

In attempting to better understand 'learning' and more specifically 'workplace learning', the concept that is most problematic is 'informal learning'. Many theorists seem to focus on the concept of informal, tacit learning (Boud, 1998; Boud, Walker, & Deakin University, 1991). By using the term 'informal learning', with its implied opposition to 'formal', the inference will be drawn that this kind of learning is low status, low value, incidental learning. This may be because most theorising is done by academics whose focus is on formal, structured learning. However, this binary opposition is unsatisfactory.

Learning that occurs in the workplace (whether structured, intentional, explicit or implicit) is vitally important for the continued survival of the organisation or small business. It is this learning that allows individuals to adapt, change and contribute (both as individuals and as social groups) in the workplace environment, and at the same time allows the organisation to adapt, change and meet organisational goals--in this case appropriate customer service provision. While these outcomes are sometimes implicit, they are vitally important, making the difference between success and failure. For example, the award of Chefs Hats by the Sydney Morning Herald's Good Food Guide shows that the survival of many of these restaurants rests on these reviews. Few, if any, of these businesses, or the senior individuals working in them, are likely to participate in any formal learning. However, to meet expectations of superb service and cutting edge cuisine, learning in these enterprises has to be highly adaptive, creative and open-ended. As Beckett and Hager (2002) point out, sometimes an appropriate outcome is only regarded as successful after the event. In this case, the critic is the judge of success, and the public the contributor to the bottom line. Accounts of workplace learning should recognise:

   ... that learning and performance are embodied
   phenomena; that they are shaped by social, organizational
   and cultural factors, thereby extending
   beyond the individual; and that they seamlessly
   integrate a range of human attributes that is much
   wider than just rationality. In doing so they tend to
   problematise or seek to re-theorise learning (Hager,
   in press, p. 8).

New Curriculum for the New Workplace

Beckett and Hager (2002) provide examples from aged care to illustrate the diversity of behaviour of residents with dementia. While tourists are slightly more predictable, a group with 10 different countries of origin provides challenges in terms of the responses deemed appropriate in the circumstances:

   Competence is then the inference from a diversity
   of evidence, via judgement of fitness, rightness
   and appropriateness. Such judgements are
   saturated with values, and in that way, they are
   not only context bound, but culturally driven ...
   Skills are socially located and advanced when
   their significance is apparent. Integrated competence
   gives prominence to this social location
   and to the location of the individual within that
   social location. That is why context specific
   judgements are intended to be integrable and
   organic. The whole person is a fairly specific
   setting and is more likely to demonstrate an
   authentic competence than a behaviouristic, but
   context-free, tabulation of technique (sometimes
   called 'tick 'n flick' or 'check-listing') (Beckett &
   Hager, 2002, pp. 57-58).

While the training package framework makes it clear that competency units are not the basis for teaching but should form the basis for assessment of vocational outcomes (ANTA, 2002), in practice assessment drives teaching. The challenge for classroom teachers is to develop integrated, problem-based case studies or scenarios for developing the judgement required for future work. The situatedness of these case studies is a key component, and it becomes ever more evident that workplace context needs to be created for classroom learning and assessment. This is where the training package framework provides least guidance for the assessor and where identification of artefacts and other dimensions of the service activity need to be identified to enrich instruction.

The object 'customer service' is seemingly impossible to define and it is right that this should be so as there are multiple perceptions, perspectives and variables at play. However, the actions undertaken to achieve this object can be judged by assessors, peers and indeed the learner, for their appropriateness, at least historically and culturally. In the field of leadership theory it has long been acknowledged that 'one best way' theories are not valuable and that situational/contingency theories are more useful to managers dealing with diverse problems, staff and clientele (Blake & Mouton, 1984; Hersey, 1985; Yukl 2002). In the same way, service industries need to develop know-how in relation to the complex and dynamic workplace environment.

Mapping Service Contexts for Curriculum Implementation, Teaching and Learning

A more sophisticated understanding of the artefacts (texts, symbols and tools), rules (policy and procedures) and the community involved in service environments (servers, customers, team members, critics) can contribute to the development of more constructive learning environments that better replicate the messy and confusing problems faced in the workplace.

The model for customer service context dimensions illustrated in Table 1 has emerged from pilot research of induction programs for new employees (both experienced and inexperienced) in the tourism and hospitality industry. In Engestrom's terms, these are the why artefacts on which judgments might be based in client interaction.

The pilot research has demonstrated that customer service cannot be labelled 'generic', that it is highly situated and, as an object, is highly contested. Multiple, simultaneous cues, such as those illustrated in Table 1, need to be part of the decision-making process, at individual, team and organisational levels in response to customers' needs and expectations. This has important implications for the development of an appropriate curriculum for learning. Competency units carry associated 'range of variables' statements and the question here is whether one can adequately describe the different contexts for customer service in curriculum documents? Is it also the role of the teacher to use an instructional methodology that encourages learners to become more sensitive to context variables?

Implications for Teaching Practice

Langer (2000) uses the construct of mindfulness to describe learning where attention is given to new signals. As the learner moves from novice to expert, it is necessary to move from mindless, routine service scripts to becoming open to new information, acknowledging subtleties and contradictions. According to Langer, 'mindfulness is a flexible state of mind in which we are actively engaged in the present, noticing new things and sensitive to context' (Langer, 2000, p. 220).

This is highly relevant to teaching in the area of customer service as it points to the development of multiple perspectives. In developing service expertise, learners need to be more aware of their cultural context for communication and remain responsive to the idiosyncratic ways in which customers respond, given wide range of contextual factors at play. The aims are for learners to become more attuned to the organisation's service ethos and to their individual service interactions with customers. This includes close attention to the cues provided by customers, particularly those from different cultural backgrounds. By being 'in tune' with the many different contextual variables, the learner is able to make more sophisticated judgments about appropriate responses to the customer in any given context.

Conclusion

Tourism and hospitality contexts differ markedly, from budget one-star motels to five-star luxury resorts, and from 1-minute encounters at fast food outlets to week-long guided eco-tourism adventures. The current approach taken to vocational education and training is to enlist the help of industry to define customer service in the form of competency units. In doing so, customer service has been divorced from its context and this article argues that customer service is so deeply situated that this should not occur.

Customer service is part of almost every tourism and hospitality encounter, whether dealing with internal or external customers. More attention needs to be paid to the multitude of contextual variables that help the service professional to make decisions. These need to be made explicit in training through the use of concepts, artefacts, case studies and illustrations. Competency-based training, which is assessment-driven, has a skills focus and seldom supports the use of case studies, problem-based learning and other delivery and assessment methods that focus on knowledge development and intellectual analysis. Curriculum, which is pedagogically based on educational philosophies that see learning as a lifelong process, would support the tourism industry better than competency-based attempts to define the indefinable, 'unique and authentic customer service'.

Further, an understanding of context and sensitivity to situational cues is largely based on knowledge and experience. Training providers need educationally devised curriculum that enables them to develop the analytical skills and knowledge required for customer related decision making. Highly prescriptive behavioural skills-based competency units do not serve this purpose. 'Good service' and 'authentic service' are sociocultural concepts that are dynamic. It is the author's view that curriculum, developed by qualified educators (in consultation with industry), would better serve the long-term needs of the tourism and hospitality industry. A minimalist, rather than prescriptive, approach would also engender more flexibility and responsiveness to changes in the customer service and economic environments. Educational curriculum describes a learning pathway, at best it allows for the development of a wide scope of knowledge, high levels of analysis, and increased understanding of trends and issues in the industry. In a competency-based environment, theories and concepts that should form the basis for learning are largely absent. In conclusion, customer service involves spontaneous decision-making based on multiple contextual variables. Prescriptive, behavioural competency units do not serve the development of sophisticated, analytical and situationally appropriate responses to customers or to the delivery of an authentic or unique style of service.

References

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Lynn Van Der Wagen

North Sydney Institute of TAFE, Australia

Correspondence

The author is currently enrolled in an EdD in the Faculty of Education at the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia.

Lynn Van Der Wegen, 11 Boree Road, Forestville NSW 2087, Australia. E-mail: lynn@aphid.net

Table 1
Contextual Factors for Customer Service Decision-Making

Context dimension

Customer profiles,     Variable,              Consistent, known,
  market segments      unpredictable, e.g.,   e.g., regular cafe
                       cruise ship clients    customers, same
                                              orders

Emotional state of     Fatigued or elated,    Unemotional, e.g.,
  customer             e.g., delayed          pensioner ordering
                       passenger/bridal       fries
                       couple

Duration of service    Lengthy, continuous    Short, transient
encounter              customer               encounter, e.g.,
                       relationship, e.g.,    restaurant customer
                       Contiki tour group     paying bill

Number of variables    Highly technical or    Few variables to
in customer decision   complex, e.g.,         consider, e.g.,
process or service     convention booking     overnight booking for
provision              5000 delegates         a motel

Competing demands      High level, multiple   Quiet, ample time,
                       customer demands,      single customer,
                       e.g., checkout peak    e.g., Bed and
                       simultaneous group     Breakfast morning
                       departure and arrival  meal

Significance of        Risk level high,       Insignificant, low
customer's decision    expense high,          relative 'cost',
(perception)           important decision,    e.g., takeaway coke
                       e.g., Commonwealth     order
                       Games bid

Social and cultural    Values motivate        Limited value inputs,
features               product/service,       e.g., free city bus
                       e.g., indigenous       route
                       cultural tours,
                       ecotourism
                       educational tours

Relative importance    Customer is crucial    Transient customers,
of customers to        to business success    loyalty not vitally
business survival      or failure, e.g.,      important for
                       signing of event       survival, e.g., train
                       naming rights sponsor  station fruit juice
                                              bar

Physical work          Stable, well           Temporary, ill
environment            equipped, e.g.,        defined, potentially
                       five-star hotel        unsafe, e.g.,
                                              community event

Clarity of work roles  Shared responsibility  Singular role,
                       for customer, team     independent, e.g.
                       reliance, e.g., dive   coffee cart operator
                       adventure

Policy and procedure   Complex policy,        Simple policies,
                       multiple procedures,   rules, procedures,
                       empowered to vary,     e.g., fast food
                       e.g., travel agency    hygiene practices
                       group reservations

Business environment   High risk, multiple    Low risk, low
and legal context      legal implications,    competition, e.g.,
                       safety risk, e.g.,     tourism information
                       adventure tourism      office