 Emotional labour and surplus value: the case of holiday ‘reps’Panikkos Constanti and Paul Gibbs The Service Industries Journal, 2005, vol. 25, issue 1, 103-116 Abstract: Service organizations are encouraged by the literature [Grönroos, 1996, 1997; 2000; Zeithaml and Bitner, 2000] to consider the manner in which employees perform at the customer/front-line employee interface, as a means to gain competitive advantage. The employee's behaviour requires ‘emotional labour’ [Hochschild, 1983] where the front-line employee has to either conceal or manage actual feelings for the benefit of a successful service delivery. The implication is not necessarily of equality or mutual benefit but of satisfaction for the customer and profit for the management. The article discusses whether the service employee is being exploited in this three-way relationship, and how surplus value accrues and its benefit distributed. Expecting emotional labour from employees can be exploitative, thus increasing the risk of potential deceit, in particular where poor recruitment, training and support recovery accompany the expectations of the emotional labourer. To illustrate this argument, data gathered from in-depth interviews with three holiday ‘reps’ are used. Date: 2005 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:servic:v:25:y:2005:i:1:p:103-116 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1080/0264206042000302432 Access Statistics for this article The Service Industries Journal is currently edited by Eileen Bridges, Professor Domingo Ribeiro, Ronald Goldsmith, Barry Howcroft and Youjae Yi More articles in The Service Industries Journal from Taylor & Francis Journals |
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