IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/woemps/v31y2017i5p764-781.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Service nepotism in cosmopolitan transient social spaces

Author

Listed:
  • David Sarpong

    (University of the West of England, UK)

  • Mairi Maclean

    (University of Bath, UK)

Abstract

This article examines service nepotism, the practice of bestowing gifts or benefits on customers by frontline service staff based on a perceived shared socio-collective identity. Adopting a micro-sociological approach, it explores the practice as played out in multi-cultural transient service encounters. Given the dearth of existing research and low visibility of service nepotism operating ‘under the radar’, the article assumes an exploratory qualitative research approach to capture it through ‘microstoria’: the sharing of stories by marginal actors, as recounted by West African migrants working in the UK. These stories reveal similarity-to-self cueing, non-verbal communication and the availability of discretionary authority as three salient logics in play. In a highly differentiated multi-ethnic society, service nepotism challenges a very specific customer-oriented bureaucratic ethos that demands impartiality. It also provides contexts for relatively powerless employees to rebalance their relationship with their organizations, thereby addressing a more pressing dysfunction within the market and society more generally.

Suggested Citation

  • David Sarpong & Mairi Maclean, 2017. "Service nepotism in cosmopolitan transient social spaces," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 31(5), pages 764-781, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:31:y:2017:i:5:p:764-781
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017016636997
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0950017016636997
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0950017016636997?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. Bernard Cova & Veronique Cova, 2001. "Tribal aspects of postmodern consumption research: the case of French in-line roller skaters," Post-Print hal-01822648, HAL.
    2. C. Boyd, 2010. "The Debate Over the Prohibition of Romance in the Workplace," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 97(2), pages 325-338, December.
    3. McColl-Kennedy, Janet R. & Sparks, Beverley A. & Nguyen, Doan T., 2011. "Customer's angry voice: Targeting employees or the organization?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 64(7), pages 707-713, July.
    4. Alex Stewart, 2003. "Help One Another, Use One Another: Toward an Anthropology of Family Business," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 27(4), pages 383-396, October.
    5. Chris Warhurst & DENNIS NICKSON & ANNE WITZ & ANNE MARIE CULLEN, 2000. "Aesthetic Labour in Interactive Service Work: Some Case Study Evidence from the ‘New’ Glasgow," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(3), pages 1-18, July.
    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. Rebecca Whiting & Gillian Symon, 2020. "Digi-Housekeeping: The Invisible Work of Flexibility," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 34(6), pages 1079-1096, December.

    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. Ilhan-Nas, Tulay & Okan, Tarhan & Tatoglu, Ekrem & Demirbag, Mehmet & Wood, Geoffrey & Glaister, Keith W., 2018. "Board composition, family ownership, institutional distance and the foreign equity ownership strategies of Turkish MNEs," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(6), pages 862-879.
    2. Colin Lindsay & Ronald W. McQuaid, 2004. "Avoiding the ‘McJobs’," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 18(2), pages 297-319, June.
    3. Jean–Luc Arregle & Bat Batjargal & Michael A. Hitt & Justin W. Webb & Toyah Miller & Anne S. Tsui, 2015. "Family Ties in Entrepreneurs’ Social Networks and New Venture Growth," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 39(2), pages 313-344, March.
    4. Paul, Michael & Hennig-Thurau, Thorsten & Groth, Markus, 2015. "Tightening or loosening the “iron cage”? The impact of formal and informal display controls on service customers," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(5), pages 1062-1073.
    5. Jie Yang & Jieqiong Ma & Hongxin Zhao & Jim Cater & Mark Arnold, 2019. "Family involvement, environmental turbulence, and R&D investment: evidence from Listed Chinese SMEs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 53(4), pages 1017-1032, December.
    6. Hadjielias, Elias & Christofi, Michael & Tarba, Shlomo, 2021. "Knowledge hiding and knowledge sharing in small family farms: A stewardship view," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 279-292.
    7. Simon C. Parker, 2016. "Family Firms and the “Willing Successor†Problem," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 40(6), pages 1241-1259, November.
    8. Sohrab Soleimanof & Kulraj Singh & Daniel T. Holt, 2019. "Micro-Foundations of Corporate Entrepreneurship in Family Firms: An Institution-Based Perspective," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 43(2), pages 274-281, March.
    9. Emilia Nercissians, 2019. "The historical anthropology of the seventeenth century entrepreneurial activities of the Armenian merchants in New Julfa," Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, Springer;UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship, vol. 9(1), pages 1-13, December.
    10. Guidice, Rebecca M. & Mero, Neal P. & Greene, Juanne V., 2013. "Perceptions of accountability in family business: Using accountability theory to understand differences between family and nonfamily executives," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 4(4), pages 233-244.
    11. Bulmer, Sandy & Buchanan-Oliver, Margo, 2010. "Experiences of brands and national identity," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 199-205.
    12. Michiel Verver & Juliette Koning, 2024. "An anthropological perspective on contextualizing entrepreneurship," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 62(2), pages 649-665, February.
    13. Muhammad Amsal Sahban & Subramaniam Sri Ramalu & Ruswiati Syahputra, 2016. "The Influence of Social Support on Entrepreneurial Inclination among Business Students in Indonesia," Information Management and Business Review, AMH International, vol. 8(3), pages 32-46.
    14. Burton, Nicholas & Vu, Mai Chi & Cruz, Allan Discua, 2022. "Our social legacy will go on: Understanding outcomes of family SME succession through engaged Buddhism," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 105-118.
    15. Michael D. Ensley & Allison W. Pearson, 2005. "An Exploratory Comparison of the Behavioral Dynamics of Top Management Teams in Family and Nonfamily New Ventures: Cohesion, Conflict, Potency, and Consensus," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 29(3), pages 267-284, May.
    16. McKeever, Edward & Jack, Sarah & Anderson, Alistair, 2015. "Embedded entrepreneurship in the creative re-construction of place," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 50-65.
    17. De Rosa, Marcello & McElwee, Gerard & Smith, Robert, 2019. "Farm diversification strategies in response to rural policy: a case from rural Italy," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 291-301.
    18. Jean–Luc Arregle & Lucia Naldi & Mattias Nordqvist & Michael A. Hitt, 2012. "Internationalization of Family–Controlled Firms: A Study of the Effects of External Involvement in Governance," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 36(6), pages 1115-1143, November.
    19. Collin, Sven-Olof Yrjö & Ahlberg, Jenny, 2012. "Blood in the boardroom: Family relationships influencing the functions of the board," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 207-219.
    20. Lisa Mainiero & Kevin Jones, 2013. "Workplace Romance 2.0: Developing a Communication Ethics Model to Address Potential Sexual Harassment from Inappropriate Social Media Contacts Between Coworkers," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 114(2), pages 367-379, May.

    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:31:y:2017:i:5:p:764-781. 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.