Service Workers: Human Resources or Labor Costs?

In: The annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Band 544, Heft 1, S. 68-82

Abstract

In this article, I describe the work performed by service providers, defined broadly, and the changes in this work engendered by an increasing reliance on encounters as a form of service delivery. This delivery mechanism facilitates the view of service providers as labor costs to be managed and reduced rather than human resources to be nurtured and developed. The provision of services by encounters may be a prelude both to the substitution of machine providers for humans and to large-scale unemployment.