Five Takeaways on How Frontline Employees Improvise
Interviews in three countries and a survey of 417 U.S. service workers show that going off script is routine. Here is what managers should know.
Service firms standardize for efficiency, and customers arrive with problems the standard process never anticipated. A study led by Steven W. Rayburn, chair of the Department of Management, with Sidney T. Anderson of the Department of Marketing and colleagues in Israel, Japan, and Virginia, asked frontline employees what improvisation means to them and what makes them more likely to do it. The full summary covers the study in detail. Here is what stood out.
The five takeaways
- Improvisation is routine, not exceptional. Employees described it as constant and said it is simply part of the job. Scripts and monitoring are unlikely to stop it.
- It is triggered by the situation. Employees define improvisation as a spontaneous, responsive, and discretionary effort to solve an unexpected customer problem in real time.
- Confidence and customer focus drive it. Self-efficacy and a personal commitment to customers predicted improvisation. Knowing the role well did not, on its own.
- Empowerment gives it room. Employees who feel authorized to act for the customer improvise more, and a clear customer-first climate tells them what the improvising is for.
- Fear of being judged did not stop it. Employees improvise even when a failed attempt could count against them. Restrictive managers do not prevent improvisation, they push it out of sight.
Rayburn, S. W., Luria, G., Yagil, D., Fujikawa, Y., Anderson, S., & Mohan, M. (2025). Frontline employee improvisation: Uncovering its meaning, practice, and impact in service industries. Journal of Service Research. Advance online publication. 10.1177/10946705251399830
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