Controlling service work: An ambiguous accomplishment between employees, management and customers

Johnston, Allanah and Sandberg, Jorgen 2008. Controlling service work: An ambiguous accomplishment between employees, management and customers. Journal of Consumer Culture 8 (3) , pp. 389-417. 10.1177/1469540508095306

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Abstract

In order to understand the control of service work, most service literature has focused on its production while treating the customer as secondary. The consumption literature emphasizes the customer’s role but lacks empirical evidence for its claims. Using an ethnographic study of an ‘exclusive’ department store, this article aims to reduce the gap between these two bodies of literature by investigating how employees, management and customers control service work. The findings suggest that the maintenance of class difference combined with competing expectations of managers, employees and customers makes the management of service work highly ambiguous and reveals a continuing instability between managerial practices of control and consumer culture.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Business (Including Economics)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management H Social Sciences > HF Commerce
Uncontrolled Keywords:	aesthetic labour; department store; embodiment; exclusive consumer
Publisher:	Sage
ISSN:	1469-5405
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 March 2016
Last Modified:	12 May 2023 11:58
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/46646

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