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Customer Violence and Employee Health and Safety

Author

Listed:
  • Carol Boyd

    (University of Glasgow, UK c.boyd@mgt.gla.ac.uk)

Abstract

This paper seeks to extend current perspectives on occupational health and safety (OHS) by integrating `emotional labour' into OHS debates. We focus on the growing incidence of customer violence in the airline and railway industries and how this intensifies the demands made on employees' emotional labour. We argue that, just as physical labour is considered in terms of volume and intensity, so should emotional labour. Moreover, we argue that high demands on emotional labour may be equally detrimental to employee health. Based on 1173 questionnaire responses, we explore the nature of demands on emotional labour and the related OHS outcomes. We also explore a range of secondary literature which examines the external and internal factors of work organization that have contributed to a rise in customer abuse, where we argue that customer abuse is perpetuated by a range of cost-rational and profit-centred policies. The paper concludes by arguing that, as a factor in OHS, emotional labour is likely to be shown equal disregard to physical labour in terms of management's relative freedom to utilize (exploit) these as far as possible, regardless of possible health and safety implications.

Suggested Citation

  • Carol Boyd, 2002. "Customer Violence and Employee Health and Safety," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 16(1), pages 151-169, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:16:y:2002:i:1:p:151-169
    DOI: 10.1177/09500170222119290
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    Cited by:

    1. Seib, Charrlotte & Fischer, Jane & Najman, Jackob M., 2009. "The health of female sex workers from three industry sectors in Queensland, Australia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(3), pages 473-478, February.
    2. Brown Johnson, Nancy & Anderson, Jonathan R, 2004. "5. Airline Employment, Productivity, And Working Conditions Following Deregulation," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 79-108, January.
    3. Fiona Edgar & Alan Geare & David Saunders & Maike Beacker & Ilai Faanunu, 2017. "A transformative service research agenda: a study of workers’ well-being," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(1), pages 84-104, January.
    4. Richard Godfrey & Joanna Brewis, 2018. "‘Nowhere else sells bliss like this’: Exploring the emotional labour of soldiers at war," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(6), pages 653-669, November.
    5. Minjeong Kang & Taeshik Gong, 2019. "Dysfunctional customer behavior: conceptualization and empirical validation," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 13(4), pages 625-646, December.

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