Playing the Part: Reflections on Aspects of Mere Performance in the Customer–Client Relationship

Heather Höpfl

Journal of Management Studies, 2002, vol. 39, issue 2, 255-267

Abstract: The paper seeks to address the ways in which organizations are selective in the aspects of employees which they want and value, and those which are implicitly rejected by the organization. As such, the paper considers Diderot’s famous comparison between acting and whoring in order to give emphasis to what might be termed ‘performed synedoche’ in the employee role. The paper draws on a range of examples from service occupations in order to explore what ‘performed synedoche’ might mean in practice. It concludes with a discussion of the necessary hypocrisy of certain aspects of the service role and examines the psychological costs which attach to this type of performance.

Date: 2002
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