IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/woemps/v21y2007i1p7-25.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The rhetoric of the consumer and customer control in China

Author

Listed:
  • Jos Gamble

    (Royal Holloway, University of London)

Abstract

This article explores the extent to which the rhetoric of the sovereign consumer and the use of the customer as a device of managerial control have been transferred to the subsidiaries of multinational retail firms operating in China. Based upon data drawn from over 200 interviews conducted at UK and Japanese multi-nationals' stores, in this rapidly internationalizing context it was evident that the notion of the sovereign consumer was ubiquitous and procedures designed to inculcate management by customers or consumer control had been implemented. However, it was equally apparent that the rhetoric of the consumer not only served managerial ends, but also provided a rich and fertile resource for shopfloor workers. Meaningful, socially embedded relationships could also play a crucial role in transactions. Moreover, with respect to discipline and control, employees were fully aware that power lay with their managers, rather than disembodied consumers or even actual customers.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:21:y:2007:i:1:p:7-25
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017007073609
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0950017007073609
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0950017007073609?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marek Korczynski & Ursula Ott, 2004. "When Production and Consumption Meet: Cultural Contradictions and the Enchanting Myth of Customer Sovereignty," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(4), pages 575-599, June.
    2. Andrew Sturdy, 2001. "The Global Diffusion of Customer Service - A Critique of Cultural and Institutional Perspectives," Asia Pacific Business Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(3), pages 75-89, March.
    3. George Callaghan & Paul Thompson, 2002. "‘We Recruit Attitude’: The Selection and Shaping of Routine Call Centre Labour," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(2), pages 233-254, March.
    4. Gamble, Jos, 2006. "Introducing Western-style HRM practices to China: Shopfloor perceptions in a British multinational," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 328-343, December.
    5. 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.
    6. Jos Gamble, 2006. "Multinational Retailers in China: Proliferating ‘McJobs’ or Developing Skills?," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(7), pages 1463-1490, November.
    7. Paul Thompson & George Callaghan & Diane Broek, 2004. "Keeping Up Appearances: Recruitment, Skills and Normative Control in Call Centres," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Stephen Deery & Nicholas Kinnie (ed.), Call Centres and Human Resource Management, chapter 6, pages 129-152, Palgrave Macmillan.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jos Gamble, 2010. "Transferring Organizational Practices and the Dynamics of Hybridization: Japanese Retail Multinationals in China," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(4), pages 705-732, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jos Gamble, 2010. "Transferring Organizational Practices and the Dynamics of Hybridization: Japanese Retail Multinationals in China," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(4), pages 705-732, June.
    2. Fellesson, Markus, 2011. "Enacting customers--Marketing discourse and organizational practice," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 231-242, June.
    3. Gazi Islam & Roberta Sferrazzo, 2022. "Workers' Rites: Ritual Mediations and the Tensions of New Management," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(2), pages 284-318, March.
    4. Phil Taylor & Peter Bain, 2005. "‘India calling to the far away towns’," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 19(2), pages 261-282, June.
    5. Chaney, Isabella & Gamble, Jos, 2008. "Retail store ownership influences on Chinese consumers," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 170-183, April.
    6. Caroline Lloyd & Jonathan Payne, 2009. "‘Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing’," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 23(4), pages 617-634, December.
    7. Jos Gamble & Qihai Huang, 2009. "One Store, Two Employment Systems: Core, Periphery and Flexibility in China's Retail Sector," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 47(1), pages 1-26, March.
    8. 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.
    9. Sharon C. Bolton & Maeve Houlihan, 2005. "The (mis)representation of customer service," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 19(4), pages 685-703, December.
    10. Laura Good & Rae Cooper, 2016. "‘But It's Your Job To Be Friendly’: Employees Coping With and Contesting Sexual Harassment from Customers in the Service Sector," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(5), pages 447-469, September.
    11. Saxena, Gunjan, 2018. "Scarborough based study on bodies’ affective capacities," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 100-110.
    12. 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.
    13. Paul Brook, 2009. "In critical defence of ‘emotional labour’," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 23(3), pages 531-548, September.
    14. Karin Garrety, 2008. "Organisational Control and the Self: Critiques and Normative Expectations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 82(1), pages 93-106, September.
    15. 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.
    16. 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.
    17. Kushagra Bhatnagar & Julien Cayla & Delphine Dion & Gregorio Fuschillo, 2024. "Consumer Sovereignty and the Ethics of Recognition," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 192(1), pages 1-19, June.
    18. Bob Russell & Mohan Thite, 2008. "The next division of labour: work skills in Australian and Indian call centres," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 22(4), pages 615-634, December.
    19. Guillemette de Larquier & Emmanuelle Marchal, 2020. "Les repères de la sélection à l’embauche et leur évaluation. Une exploration de l’enquête Ofer," SciencePo Working papers Main halshs-02943049, HAL.
    20. Pauline Fatien & Dima Louis & Gazi Islam, 2023. "Neutral In‐Tensions: Navigating Neutrality in Coaching," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(6), pages 1485-1520, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:21:y:2007:i:1:p:7-25. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.