This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Johnston, A. Articles by Sandberg, J. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Controlling Service Work

An ambiguous accomplishment between employees, management and customers

The University of Queensland, Australia, a.johnston{at}business.uq.edu.au

Jörgen Sandberg

The University of Queensland, Australia, j.sandberg{at}business.uq.edu.au

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.

Key Words: aesthetic labour • department store • embodiment • exclusive consumer

Journal of Consumer Culture, Vol. 8, No. 3, 389-417 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1469540508095306


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?