Unpacking the Service Triangle

Arranging Power Relations Between Frontline Occupations

Bibliographic Data

ID2362362
AuthorsDilip Subramanian (0000-0002-4674-4764, NEOMA Business School, Reims, France, corresponding author), Jean-Baptiste Suquet (0000-0001-5905-129X, NEOMA Business School, Reims, France)
Year2018
Volume45
Issue1
Pages38-81
Publication date2018-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueWork and Occupations (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0730-8884 • E-ISSN: 1552-8464
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0730888417736095
OpenAlexW2761337868
LanguageEN
Citations received22
References cited57

Service work scholarship has insufficiently acknowledged the diversity of interactive frontline occupational categories within organizations. Nor has it paid enough attention to how frontline workers act collectively to deal with the structural contradictions in the service labor process to actually produce a service. This article studies both these questions using Anselm Strauss' conceptual framework, articulation work. Based on in-depth qualitative research in a major French bank, this article highlights the power relations between two distinct groups of frontline employees responsible for managing customer complaints. It shows how these groups arrange temporary solutions to the structural tensions underpinning their activities. In doing so, this article makes two contributions to service work theory. First, it provides a more detailed picture of the service triangle which is enlarged by these arrangements between different groups of frontline workers. Second, it shows how lateral relations between frontline workers can contribute to the making of a 'fragile service social order

Business · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Qualitative research · Scholarship · Social science · Sociology · Underpinning · Education, sociology, and vocational training · Emotional Labor in Professions · Engineering · Law · Management and Organizational Studies · Marketing