Steve Taylor
(2002) 'Attacking the Cultural Turn: Misrepresentations of the
Service Encounter'
Sociological Research
Online, vol. 7, no. 1,
<http://www.socresonline.org.uk/7/1/taylor.html>
To cite articles published in Sociological Research Online, please reference the above information and include paragraph numbers if necessary
Received: 20/11/2001 Accepted: 18/3/2002 Published: 31/5/2002
Employees brought their personalities and idiosyncrasies to work and found unique and enjoyable modes of self-expression in the workplace...Customers themselves were often aware of the attitudes and individual serving styles of the employees and seemed to appreciate the individuality this entailed...it was necessary for employees to be themselves (original emphasis).
high levels of the kind of customer-oriented behaviour sought by management...(staff) discretion and responsibility have increased noticebaly...Moreover, this new discretion was not accompanied by any increase in human or technological surveillance.
For TQM to transform employees, some form of constant coercion or incentive seems to be required. But coercion contradicts the spirit of empowerment, trust or openness that are seen as central features of a TQM culture
The vast, vast majority of the agents we select are women...we are looking for people who can chat to people, interact, build rapport. What we find is that women can do this more, they're definitely more natural when they do it anyway. It doesn't sound as forced, perhaps they're used to doing it all the time anyway...women are naturally good at that sort of thing. I think they have a higher tolerance level than men (male selector, STL).
If a man's having a go at you...don't get ruffled, you've got to keep your cool...He can really talk to you how he wants. Your job is to deal with it...just take a few deep breaths and let the irritation cool down ...think to yourself he's not worth it (my emphasis).
You can't let yourself be impolite towards a customer or feel angry with them....As we are always told, they pay our wages...I suppose it's something that I learnt to do since I came here...you're taught to think about the customers, to think about what they're like and to try and get on with them whatever they're like.
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