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The (mis)representation of customer service

Author

Listed:
  • Sharon C. Bolton

    (Lancaster University, UK, s.c.bolton@lancaster.ac.uk)

  • Maeve Houlihan

    (University College Dublin, Ireland, maeve.a.houlihan@ucd.ie)

Abstract

The growth of service work has introduced the customer as a third party to the employment relationship. Yet dominant images of customer relations portray docile service workers offering de-personalized care to sometimes aggressive but otherwise not much more agential customers. This paper seeks to bring humanity back into an analysis of customer service, and to reinterpret customer service interaction as a human relationship. Using labour process analysis and data from call-centre workers and their customers, we rerepresent customers as many-faceted, complex and sophisticated social actors and introduce a new conceptual framework of the roles customers play: as mythical sovereigns , functional transactants and moral agents , thereby offering a more accurate representation of customer service and the role of the actors involved in it.

Suggested Citation

  • Sharon C. Bolton & Maeve Houlihan, 2005. "The (mis)representation of customer service," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 19(4), pages 685-703, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:19:y:2005:i:4:p:685-703
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017005058054
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. George Callaghan & Paul Thompson, 2002. "‘We Recruit Attitude’: The Selection and Shaping of Routine Call Centre Labour," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(2), pages 233-254, March.
    2. Stephen Deery & Roderick Iverson & Janet Walsh, 2002. "Work Relationships in Telephone Call Centres: Understanding Emotional Exhaustion and Employee Withdrawal," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(4), pages 471-496, June.
    3. Marek Korczynski & Ursula Ott, 2004. "When Production and Consumption Meet: Cultural Contradictions and the Enchanting Myth of Customer Sovereignty," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(4), pages 575-599, June.
    4. Heather Höpfl, 2002. "Playing the Part: Reflections on Aspects of Mere Performance in the Customer–Client Relationship," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(2), pages 255-267, March.
    5. Gloria Lankshear & Peter Cook & David Mason & Sally Coates & Graham Button, 2001. "Call Centre Employees' Responses to Electronic Monitoring: Some Research Findings," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 15(3), pages 595-605, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Ali Osman Uymaz, 2016. "The Influence of Transformational Leadership on Personal Branding through the Learning Organization and Consideration of Future Consequences," International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 6(3), pages 1-16, March.
    2. Sharon C. Bolton & Maeve Houlihan, 2009. "Beyond the control‐resistance debate," Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 6(1/2), pages 5-13, March.
    3. Laura Good & Rae Cooper, 2016. "‘But It's Your Job To Be Friendly’: Employees Coping With and Contesting Sexual Harassment from Customers in the Service Sector," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(5), pages 447-469, September.
    4. Ward, Jenna & McMurray, Robert, 2011. "The unspoken work of general practitioner receptionists: A re-examination of emotion management in primary care," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(10), pages 1583-1587, May.
    5. Thomas Andersson & Stefan Tengblad, 2009. "When complexity meets culture: new public management and the Swedish police," Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 6(1/2), pages 41-56, March.
    6. Mary Gatta, 2009. "Restaurant servers, tipping, and resistance," Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 6(1/2), pages 70-82, March.
    7. Anne Junor & John O'Brien & Michael O'Donnell, 2009. "Welfare wars: public service frontline absenteeism as collective resistance," Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 6(1/2), pages 26-40, March.

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