Kerstin Rieder

Organizations and their consumers: Bridging work and consumption

The last 20 years or so have seen a far-reaching reconfiguration of the characters that dominate the world of organizations. For much of its life, the study of organizations was dominated by two central characters, the manager and the worker, whose relationship with all its tensions, conflicts and accommodations unfolded with within a broader environment of markets, governments, shareholders, social institutions, technological forces and so forth. In recent years, however, there has been a substantial movement to change the two-actor show into a three-actor show, the organizational dyad into a triad. The newcomer to the stage has been the consumer, a character whose whims, habits, desires and practices are no longer seen as ‘impacting on’ the activities of managers and workers from the outside, but increasingly as defining them. This introduction to the Special Issue on ‘Organizations and their Consumers’ examines the ramifications of the rise of the consumer and the hegemony of global markets for (1) the nature of organizations and their management, (2) the employees and the labour process and (3) the consumers themselves as they increasingly find themselves doing work, usually unpaid, on behalf of organizations.

The Working Customer — A Fundamental Change in Service Work

The idea that customers are active is not new. Customers have always and in many ways, contributed to the process of service provision. They have always had to inform themselves about the products and services on offer, had to get to the point of sale, transport the goods, prepare them at home and to dispose of the wrapping and packaging. Customers have thus never been completely inactive. However, the role of the cus- tomer has been changing substantially over the last century. Enterprises have increasingly been transferring functions from employees to cus- tomers, clients, and patients. Early milestones of this development are outlined below.

Interaktive Arbeit in der Altenpflege: zwischen Arbeitswelt und Lebenswelt

Interaktive Arbeit in der Altenpflege ist Arbeit an und mit Menschen in einem umfassenden Sinne: Einerseits ist der pflegebedurftige Mensch Gegenstand der interaktiven Arbeit. An ihm und fur ihn werden personenbezogene Dienstleistungen erbracht, die Leistungen beinhalten, wie sie auch in den beiden anderen untersuchten Praxisfeldern anzutreffen sind: hotelahnliche Dienstleistungen wie Essensversorgung, Infrastrukturdienstleistungen wie Zimmerreinigung und Aufrechterhaltung der technischen Infrastruktur.

Work stressors and resources in a Swiss orthopedic clinic and their relationship with employees' health and the patient orientation of employees.

QUESTIONS UNDER STUDY At present, the health service system is under pressure to reduce costs. This situation is associated with risks for the health of the employees themselves, as well as for the quality of treatment and care. The aim of the study was to investigate stressors and resources which are present in the interactions of employees with patients at an orthopaedic clinic of a Swiss cantonal hospital and to analyse their relationship to the health of employees and their patient orientation. METHODS A questionnaire was administered to 162 employees of different occupational groups at the clinic (including physicians, nurses and secretaries). In order to investigate the relationships between working conditions, employee health and the patient orientation of employees, correlations were calculated and regression analyses were conducted. RESULTS The results of the study demonstrate that working conditions in the interaction with patients indeed predict health problems, as well as quality of health services provided. Especially stressors in the form of barriers to patient-oriented work are significant predictors of emotional exhaustion, aversion to patients, physical complaints and a (lower) patient orientation of employees. CONCLUSIONS The results of the investigation of the clinic in question led to the formation of health circles, including the participation of different occupational groups, and to the introduction of measures for reducing stressors in the interaction with patients.

Working Customers in the Hotel Industry: And Why They Work

This paper focuses on the emerging trend towards a new type of consumer, the working customer, specifically in the hotel industry. Tasks that were previously carried out by employees are now being continuously and increasingly outsourced to customers. The main aim of this article is to demonstrate the relevance of the customers’ “working conditions”, which play a concomitant role in influencing their willingness to assume the role of the working customer. An empirical study was conducted at Accor Hotels in Germany. 84 customers of Accor Hotels filled out a questionnaire on working conditions and on their role as working customers. A multiple regression analysis was performed on customer willingness to work, using the customers’ working conditions as predictors. The results demonstrate that control, information, ambiance and emotional climate indeed significantly predict an inidivual’s willingness to assume the role of a working customer (adjusted R2 = 0.65). Moreover, one single predictor, namely emotional climate, was revealed as the most significant. Overall, the results confirm the relevance of the customers’ working conditions in influencing their willingness to contribute actively to the process of service delivery. The authors recommend that firms consider training employees in emotion management. The training program Emofit® is recommended for this purpose.

Warum arbeiten die arbeitenden Kunden

In der interaktiven Dienstleistungsarbeit ist die Mitwirkung der Kundinnen und Kunden bei der Leistungserbringung in vielfaltiger Weise erforderlich (Weihrich/Dunkel 2003). Beispielsweise konnen Zugtickets nicht verkauft werden, ohne dass die Fahrgaste Informationen bereitstellen, und ohne das Mittun der Patienten konnen keine Wurzelbehandlungen beim Zahnarzt durchgefuhrt werden.

Arbeitsstolz in Hotellerie und Seniorenzentrum: ein Vergleich

Das Forschungsprojekt Professionalisierung interaktiver Arbeit (PiA) wurde gefordert im Rahmen der BMBF-Bekanntmachung „Dienstleistungsqualitat durch professionelle Arbeit“. Ein zentraler Begriff aus dieser Bekanntmachung ist der des Produzentenstolzes. Der Begriff Produzentenstolz stammt aus der handwerklich und industriell gepragten Arbeitswelt. Er steht fur den Stolz auf die Qualitat der gefertigten Produkte sowie fur einen durch ein gemeinsames Klassenbewusstsein gepragten Kampf um Anerkennung der uberwiegend mannlichen Beschaftigten (Gouthier 2006).

Interaktionsarbeit im Call Center — Interaktive Kontrolle

Eine inzwischen gangige Aussage der Forschung zur Dienstleistungsarbeit ist, dass die Dienstleistungsnehmer als „externe Faktoren“ an dieser Arbeit beteiligt sind. Sie sind nicht allein Konsumenten, sondern anteilig auch Produzenten. Dies wird mit Begriffen wie Ko-Produzent (Badura, 2001; Bussing & Glaser, 2003) oder Prosumer (Michel, 1997; Toffler, 1980) zum Ausdruck gebracht. Allerdings gibt es kaum konzeptionelle und empirische Arbeiten zu der Frage, wie das Handeln des Kunden in den Prozess der Leistungserbringung eingebunden wird (Dunkel & Rieder, 2003).