Vesa Leppänen

The contradictory role of the sales assistant: superordination and subordination

The social relationship between sales assistants and customers has often been described as relatively one-sided one in which sales assistants are subordinate to customers. One of the ways in which the subordination of sales assistants is manifested is when customers treat them badly, for instance in the form of verbal and physical abuse. We suggest that these power relations are not one-sided, but consist of both of the normative subordination that has been described in much of the previous research and of organisational superordination over customers. We also suggest that in many instances, difficult customer behaviour is triggered by this inherent contradiction in the role of sales assistants. When sales assistants perform superordinate actions, customers can respond by attempting to undermine the sales assistants’ superordination and restore normative subordination. The empirical data consist of observations and interviews with employees of a large supermarket and two filling stations in southern Sweden.

Conceptions and norms about directness in service relations: domestic workers and customers

This article analyses service relations between domestic workers and customers; specifically, workers’ conceptions and norms about directives. While previous studies have focused on contexts where asymmetries of power are great, thus resulting in equally asymmetrical forms of interactions, this article reports from a study of a context where asymmetries are smaller. Empirical data consist of 20 semi-structured interviews with formally employed domestic workers in Sweden. This article describes and analyses workers’ experience with customer directives, their norms about how customers should express directives, and how they teach customers their role. Thus, in contrast to previous studies of paid domestic workers, this study shows that smaller asymmetries of power result in less asymmetrical interactions and how domestic workers even execute power over customers.

Emotional Neutrality as an Interactional Achievement: A Conversation Analysis of Primary Care Telenursing

In this chapter I will analyse how emotional neutrality is achieved in social interaction, using the example of how telephone advice nurses in Swedish primary care manage the emotions of clients who call for medical help. The analysis focuses on the concluding parts of the calls, when nurses advise callers about whether they need to see a general practitioner, a point at which it may be especially relevant to display concerns and worries. I will describe how nurses routinely sustain emotional neutrality in this part of calls, while at other times they may allow callers’ concerns and worries to surface. Lastly, the reasons for routinely sustaining emotional neutrality are discussed, primarily in terms of the nurses being organizationally and professionally accountable for their actions.