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Management Control as an Employee Resource: The Case of Front‐line Service Workers

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  • Patrice Rosenthal

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper argues that the conception of management control as an employee resource can enhance critical understandings of front‐line service work. The argument is developed first through a critique of the contemporary control literature and its prominent worker images of smiling docility and haggard exhaustion. Seeking to encourage accounts more sensitive to the subjectivity and agency of service workers, the paper calls for more research attention to the question of how these employees experience and evaluate management control in relation to their self‐defined interests. Analysis of the nature of contemporary service work suggests that one such perceived interest is likely to be interactive control, or the capacity of workers to control and influence those parties with whom they directly interact. Based on a close reading of the emerging empirical literature on services, the article explores various ways in which the bureaucratic, technical and normative regulation designed by management to control service workers is used in turn by workers to further their own control and influence over managers and customers.

Suggested Citation

  • Patrice Rosenthal, 2004. "Management Control as an Employee Resource: The Case of Front‐line Service Workers," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(4), pages 601-622, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:jomstd:v:41:y:2004:i:4:p:601-622
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-6486.2004.00446.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Sharon C. Bolton & Maeve Houlihan, 2009. "Beyond the control‐resistance debate," Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 6(1/2), pages 5-13, March.
    2. Fellesson, Markus, 2011. "Enacting customers--Marketing discourse and organizational practice," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 231-242, June.
    3. Jos Gamble, 2007. "The rhetoric of the consumer and customer control in China," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 21(1), pages 7-25, March.
    4. Karin Garrety, 2008. "Organisational Control and the Self: Critiques and Normative Expectations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 82(1), pages 93-106, September.
    5. Michael David Maffie, 2024. "Adversaries or Cross-Organization Co-workers? Exploring the Relationship between Gig Workers and Conventional Employees," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 77(1), pages 3-31, January.
    6. Sylvain Bureau & Jean-Baptiste Suquet, 2007. "Renouveler l’approche de la profession en contrôle organisationnel," Revue Finance Contrôle Stratégie, revues.org, vol. 10(4), pages 17-35, December.
    7. Yong-Jeong Kim & Joo-Hee Lee & Sang-Gun Lee & Hong-Hee Lee, 2021. "Developing Sustainable Competitive Strategies in the Beauty Service Industry: A SWOT-AHP Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-21, September.
    8. Michael David Maffie, 2022. "The Perils of Laundering Control through Customers: A Study of Control and Resistance in the Ride-hail Industry," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 75(2), pages 348-372, March.

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