On the Front Line

The importance of customer service is widely emphasized in business today. This book offers the first comprehensive analysis of the organization and dynamics of front-line work. The volume is based on a five-year study of over a thousand employees and eight leading companies in the United States, Australia, and Japan.

On the Front Line reveals similarities and differences found in work environments -- such as variance in authority relations and division of labor -- as well as significant contrasts between management approaches used in Japan and those used in the United States and Australia. By examining how work differs among service, sales, and knowledge-based settings, it also shows how bureaucratic, entrepreneurial, and network forms of organization coexist in the informational economy.

Stephen J. Frenkel is a professor in the Australian Graduate School of Management at the University of New South Wales. Marek Korczynski is a lecturer in employment relations at Loughborough University. Karen A. Shire is Associate Professor of Comparative Sociology and Japan Studies at the Gerhard Mercator University Duisburg, Germany. May Tam is a research fellow in the Department of Sociology at the University of Hong Kong.

LIST OF FIGURES

viii

(1)

LIST OF TABLES

ix

(2)

PREFACE

xi

(3)

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

xiv

1. INTRODUCTION

1

(34)

Trends and Forces Shaping Work Organization

2

(11)

Approaches to the Transformation of Work and Organization

13

(10)

Theoretical Framework and Ideal Types of Work Organization

23

(8)

Looking Forward

31

(4)

2. RESEARCH STRATEGY AND METHODOLOGY

35

(25)

Research Strategy

35

(7)

Research Methods

42

(5)

Research Organizations and Workflows

47

(11)

Conclusion

58

(2)

3. WORK RELATIONS

60

(33)

The Medium and the Act of Work

61

(5)

The Act of Work: Service, Sales, and Knowledge Workers

66

(16)

Work Complexity and Work Experience

82

(9)

Conclusion

91

(2)

4. EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS

93

(40)

Structuring Employment Relations

95

(2)

Employment Relations Elements Common to the Three Types of Workflows

97

(4)

Employment Relations in Service, Sales, and Knowledge Work Workflows

101

(18)

Institutional Contexts as Sources of Variation in Employment Relations

119

(11)

Conclusion

130

(3)

5. CONTROL RELATIONS

133

(33)

Management Control in Theory

134

(5)

Management Control in Practice

139

(16)

Worker Participation in Theory

155

(2)

Worker Participation in Practice

157

(5)

Workers' Responses to Control and Opportunities for Participation

162

(2)

Conclusion

164

(2)

6. CO-WORKER RELATIONS

166

(32)

The Postbureaucracy Thesis and Co-worker Relations in the Three Types of Workflows

168

(5)

Interdependencies in Tasks and Learning

173

(14)

Relations among Co-workers in Teams

187

(6)

Co-worker Relations, Job Satisfaction, and Learning Outcomes

193

(3)

Conclusion

196

(2)

7. CUSTOMER RELATIONS

198

(32)

Customer Relations in Theory

199

(6)

Customer Relations in Practice

205

(16)

Customer-Related Outcomes

221

(5)

Conclusion

226

(4)

8. WORK ORGANIZATION: CONSEQUENCES AND CROSS-NATIONAL COMPARISONS

230

(35)

Concepts and Theories of Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment

231

(10)

Comparative Analysis and Discussion

241

(12)

Cross-National Comparisons of Work Organization and Its Consequences

253

(9)

Conclusion

262

(3)

9. CONCLUSION

265

(14)

Imagery versus Evidence

267

(3)

Japanese versus Western Work Organization

270

(1)

The Present versus the Future

271

(5)

Conclusion

276

(3)

APPENDIXES

279

(9)

Appendix 1. Results of Discriminant Analysis

279

(1)

Appendix 2. Definition of Factors, Descriptive Statistics, and Cronbach Alpha Coefficients of Factors

280

(4)

Appendix 3. Gender, Supervision, and Perceived Effectiveness of Service Workers

284

(1)

Appendix 4. Means, Standard Deviations, and Correlations of Independent Variables Used in Service Workflow Regressions

285

(1)

Appendix 5. Means, Standard Deviations, and Correlations of Independent Variables in Sales Workflow Regressions

286

(1)

Appendix 6. Means, Standard Deviations, and Correlations of Independent Variables Used in Knowledge Work Workflow Regressions

287

(1)

REFERENCES

288

(17)

AUTHORS

305

(2)

INDEX

307

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Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials

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On the Front Line

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials

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