Consumers' Reports: Management by Customers in a Changing Economy

Linda Fuller and Vicki Smith
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Linda Fuller: Department of Sociology University of Oregon EUGENE OR 97403-1291 USA
Vicki Smith: Department of Sociology University of Oregon EUGENE OR 97403-1291 USA

Work, Employment & Society, 1991, vol. 5, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: Under recent conditions of economic competition, customer/worker interactions increasingly are a source of profitability in service firms. Companies may employ refined methods for making these interactions a source of information about workers' performance. This paper investigates how managers and employers use customer feedback to monitor, evaluate and discipline service workers. We argue that management by customers may deepen and complicate authority and power relations in the workplace, and may also give rise to new forms of workplace conflict.

Date: 1991
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:woemps:v:5:y:1991:i:1:p:1-16

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