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‘Customers were not objects to suck blood from’: Social relations in UK retail banks under changing performance management systems

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  • Knut Laaser

Abstract

Utilising an analytical framework informed by a moral economy approach, this article examines the social relationships between bank workers and customers in the context of changing performance management. Informed by 46 in‐depth interviews with branch workers and branch managers from UK banks, this article focusses on the interplay of the pressures arising from an intensified and all‐encompassing performance management system and bank workers lay morality. The article seeks to analyse why one group of bank workers engages with customers in a primarily instrumental manner, while another group tends to mediate and engage in oppositional practices which aim to avoid such an instrumentalisation. The article argues that moral economy gives voice to the agency of workers and the critical concerns of the social, economic and moral consequences of market‐driven and purely profit‐oriented workplace regimes.

Suggested Citation

  • Knut Laaser, 2019. "‘Customers were not objects to suck blood from’: Social relations in UK retail banks under changing performance management systems," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(5-6), pages 532-547, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:indrel:v:50:y:2019:i:5-6:p:532-547
    DOI: 10.1111/irj.12267
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Glenn Morgan & Andrew Sturdy, 2000. "Beyond Organizational Change," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-80005-2, March.
    2. Gregor Gall, 2017. "Employment Relations in Financial Services," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-137-39539-9, March.
    3. Deborah Kerfoot & David Knights, 1993. "Management, Masculinity And Manipulation: From Paternalism To Corporate Strategy In Financial Services In Britain," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 659-677, July.
    4. McGovern, Patrick & Hill, Stephen & Mills, Colin & White, Michael, 2007. "Market, Class, and Employment," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199213382.
    5. Paul Edwards, 2015. "Critical social science and emancipation: II, development and application," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(4), pages 275-292, July.
    6. Knut Laaser, 2016. "‘If you are having a go at me, I am going to have a go at you’: the changing nature of social relationships of bank work under performance management," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 30(6), pages 1000-1016, December.
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