The consideration of the impact of the dissertation services industry on the academy is a welcome piece by Jeffry L. White. White raises interesting questions and calls on educators and researchers to think deeply about the role they play in encouraging or combating the use of this industry by graduate students. In this piece, I respond to White's…

This Conversation Currents features Chef Kevin Gillespie, owner of Atlanta restaurant Gunshow, contestant on Bravo's "Top Chef Las Vegas" in 2009, and food activist for various organizations. He shares his journey to becoming a chef, ways to integrate healthy foods in schools, and the role of literacy in nutrition.

Higher education is at a crossroads, not only in the U.S. but also globally. This challenge is prompting an immigrant union to once again take up the labor movement's historic role of speaking for the common good and the broad interests of working people. Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 615 represents 18,000 property service…

Discusses the importance of feedback in service occupations and looks at Thomas J. Connellan's six principles on the use of feedback, reward, and recognition. (JOW)

Describes the retail sales, hospitality, and tourism occupations and what they involve and how to get into them. Includes salary information. (JOW)

Discusses ways to embed customer service learning and customer loyalty including making customers think, examining every aspect of customers' service encounters with staff, providing follow-up, making learning fun, and involving customers in your business. (JOW)

Employers place less emphasis on experience and much more on adaptability. They want people who can learn. However, at the lowest stratum of the service sector, jobs are being dumbed down so that a worker has only to obey commands of smart machines ("Touch french fry icon now"). (Author/JOW)

Identifies domains of unethical service communication and proposes a research agenda for examining service ethics. Calls for research to explore service ethics among different occupational groups, investigate effects of unethical practices on service providers and customers, and identify characteristics of organizational climates which foster…

Describes what nurse practitioners do, where they work, benefits and drawbacks to the job, and educational requirements. Lists additional sources of information. (JOW)

If market economies are to emerge from the ruins of the Soviet empire, people need training in almost everything. Efforts are being made in the areas of management, service, accounting, and police work. (Author/JOW)

Fidelity Institutional Retirement Services Company reorganized, automated, and reengineered all systems related to service delivery. They created a model for the development of associates called Service Delivery University and committed each associate to 80 hours of development per year. (JOW)

A meeting of more than 200 representatives of manufacturing and service companies, leaders of associations, labor officials, education and human resource personnel was convened to discuss the proposed framework for developing national, voluntary, industry skill standards. Consensus on this issue is far from being achieved. (JOW)

This symposium includes the title article by Daniel Nelson and "Unions Need to Confront the Results of New Technology" (Dennis Chamot); "Technological Change and Unionization in the Service Sector" (Cynthia B. Costello); and "Globalization and the Worldwide Division of Labor" (Harley Shaiken). (SK)

Suggests a particular way to think about the issue of quality in training, an approach that relates quality to customer satisfaction. Distinguishes between training efforts that are good but not as complete as one would like and those that are second rate. (JOW)

Dramatic changes in the labor force mean that businesses will have to become more flexible to compete in the 1990s. Advances in automation, baby boomers, and women entering the labor force are increasing the demand for adult education. (Author)