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Controlling routine front line service workers: an Australian retail supermarket case

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  • Robin Price

Abstract

Food retail is known for its use of flexible labour and for the centralisation of functions at head office, resulting in a reduction of managerial autonomy at store level. This article employs a typology of controls developed from labour process scholarship to explore how retail managers negotiate the control of their predominantly part-time workforce. Using an Australian supermarket chain as a case, and mixed methods, the article demonstrates that supermarkets use a multiplicity of forms of control across their workforce. For front line service workers, the article identifies a new configuration of controls which intersects with employment status and acts differentially for checkout operators on different employment contracts.

Suggested Citation

  • Robin Price, 2016. "Controlling routine front line service workers: an Australian retail supermarket case," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 30(6), pages 915-931, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:30:y:2016:i:6:p:915-931
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017015601778
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Griffith, Garry R. & Wright, Vic, 2009. "Chapter 2: The Case of Australia," Structural Changes in Food Retailing: Six Country Case Studies 60673, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Food System Research Group.
    2. Florence Jany-Catrice & Steffen Lehndorff, 2005. "Work organisation and the importance of labour markets in the European retail trade," Post-Print halshs-00199997, HAL.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Pedro Mendonça & Dragoș Adăscăliței, 2020. "Trade Union Power Resources within the Supply Chain: Marketisation, Marginalisation, Mobilisation," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 34(6), pages 1062-1078, December.
    2. Jonathan Payne & Caroline Lloyd & Secki P. Jose, 2023. "‘They tell us after they've decided things’: A cross‐country analysis of unions and digitalisation in retail," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(1), pages 3-19, January.
    3. Alex J Wood, 2018. "Powerful Times: Flexible Discipline and Schedule Gifts at Work," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 32(6), pages 1061-1077, December.

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