Learning to "Fiddle" Customers: An Essay on the Organised Production of Part-Time Theft
TL;DR: In this article, a lengthy period of participation observation and subsequent semistructured interviewing among the bread salesmen in an English factory bakery showed that the salesmen regularly steal small sums of money from their customers.
Abstract: A lengthy period of participation observation and subsequent semistructured interviewing among the bread salesmen in an Englishfactory bakery showed that the salesmen regularly steal small sums of money from their customers. Paradoxically, although this is clearly (and seriously) theft, the salesmen manage to sustain a def inition of the practice as trifing. This paper shows that the salesmen's adoption of systematic theft (and their definition of it as unimportant) is a rational response to a critical organisational dilemma, and that ultimately, the responsiblity for illegality lies squarely with the bakery management.
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a comprehensive literature review and meta-analysis of the antecedents of trust and consequences of trust in a sales context, concluding that trust has a moderate but beneficial influence on the development of positive customer attitudes, intentions, and behavior.
361 citations
TL;DR: Nursing as an occupation, by its organisation and compromise solution to the training of its recruits, supports a transient approach to nursing work itself and so implicitly supports a lack of commitment to nursing as a occupation.
Abstract: This paper examines the occupational socialisation of British nurses. It uses Bucher and Strauss's notion of segmentation and considers two major segments within nursing: the education segment which, through the colleges of nursing, promotes a 'professional' version of nursing, and the service segment which is concerned with getting nursing work done. Students' accounts of their training were obtained by means of 40 informal interviews. On the basis of these accounts it is argued that the students learn neither the education nor the service segment's version of nursing, rather they learn to recognise when one version is appropriate and the other not and 'fit in' accordingly. The organisation of nurse training is based on a compromise between the two segments whereby the students move between clinical placements and the college of nursing; in this way both versions of nursing are enforceable on the students. The paper argues that nursing as an occupation, by its organisation and compromise solution to the training of its recruits, supports a transient approach to nursing work itself and so implicitly supports a lack of commitment to nursing as an occupation.
97 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined a variety of part-time theft techniques used by waiters in the restaurant trade using a self-report methodology using twelve hypothetical cases of ripping off in restaurants, three potential theft targets are assessed: the restaurant, customers of the restaurant and co-workers.
Abstract: The variety of part‐time theft techniques used by waiters in the restaurant trade is examined using a self‐report methodology. Using twelve hypothetical cases of ripping off in restaurants, three potential theft targets are assessed: the restaurant, customers of the restaurant, and co‐workers. Predictions about the frequency of involvement of these theft activities are tested using a sample of waiters in four “prime rib” restaurants. Hypotheses dealing with working conditions and the ability to neutralize moral controls against theft are presented to explain which waiters will be involved in employee theft. The theoretical implications of “amateur trading” and pecuniary‐based theft are developed in order to show the critical role that theft activities play in the work setting of the restaurant. The findings have implications for the “controlled larceny” solution to the problem of employee theft suggested by some observers.
43 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the role of clients in petty corruption by analyzing actual corrupt exchanges between ordinary citizens and low level public and private employees in post-communist Hungary using a grounded theory approach, interviews reveal how clients from different social strata deal with low level agents in corrupt situations.
Abstract: This qualitative study examines the role of clients in petty corruption by analyzing actual corrupt exchanges between ordinary citizens and low level public and private employees in post-communist Hungary. Using a grounded theory approach, interviews reveal how clients from different social strata deal with low-level agents in corrupt situations. Findings suggest two contrasting forms of low-level corruption: transactions where the client and the agent do not have a prior relationship and where external factors dominate the relationship; and cases with stronger social ties between the actors, where the client has more freedom to structure the transaction. However, a client's social background frequently determines the form of corrupt transaction and the form of resources illegally exchanged in the deal.
41 citations
Cites background from "Learning to "Fiddle" Customers: An ..."
...Ditton details a case study about an English bakery where the sales department required its bread salesmen to cheat costumers, and to return the profit to the firm [22]....
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TL;DR: In this paper, Rhetoric and conversation in service encounters are discussed. But the authors focus on language and social interaction, and do not discuss the role of service encounters in service interactions.
Abstract: (1988). Rhetoric and conversation in service encounters. Research on Language and Social Interaction: Vol. 22, No. 1-4, pp. 93-114.
28 citations
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TL;DR: The concept of commitment is widely used but has received little formal analysis as mentioned in this paper, which contains an implicit explanation of one mechanism producing consistent human behavior. Commitments come into bei...
Abstract: The concept of commitment is widely used but has received little formal analysis. It contains an implicit explanation of one mechanism producing consistent human behavior. Commitments come into bei...
3,705 citations
TL;DR: The functional view of deviancy, which emphasizes rejection of the norms of a social system and the conflict between means and ends, is brought under question because it imputes "ends" to a system as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The functional view of deviancy, which emphasizes rejection of the norms of a social system and the conflict between means and ends, is brought under question because it imputes "ends" to a system. An alternative perspective is presented, advancing the conception that norms are rules that express the nature of social transactions in an organization and are established under a historically specific systems of authority. Under this conception, "deviant" actions do not necessarily imply a rejection of the ends of a total system, but are simply part of the totality of individual transactions in an organization. Thus deviant behavior is the consequent of a plurality of ends as well as the consequent of the conflict between means and ends. The functions of the violation of one specific rule of workmanship in one organization are treated in detail to illustrate the inapplicability of the functional model of deviancy and the viability of other perspectives.
148 citations
99 citations
TL;DR: Evidence is presented which indicates that dentistry was chosen because it combined high rewards with a reasonable degree of access; i.e., a minimax strategy was employed.
Abstract: Self-recruitment to dentistry provides an excellent case of the purposive or negotiated nature of occupational choice, especially of the skilled and professional occupations. Choices were made as compromises between reward preferences and expectancies of access to specific occupations; both of these career perspectives were developed with reference to familial occupational history, especially the occupational status of the father. Evidence is presented which indicates that dentistry was chosen because it combined high rewards with a reasonable degree of access; i.e., a minimax strategy was employed. Medicine, although possessing greater rewards, was rejected because of difficult access; while law, university teaching and accountancy, etc., were rejected because of perceived lower rewards. T nhe investigation described here developed from a longitudinal study of the evolution of the professional in dentistry which is concerned with the recruitment, socialization and initial careers of dental students. As a first phase of this research, the process of self-recruitment or the development of a commitment to study dentistry was studied with a sample of predental students. The present paper describes the development of an occupational choice; i.e., the decision to study dentistry.1 In this study two opposing approaches to occupational choice were considered. As an example of the first approach, Katz and Martin conceive of occupational choice as essentially adven-titio,us in nature.2 This approach characterizes occupational choice as nonrational, spontaneous and based upon situational pressures. Con-tingencies and influences external to the occupational world are seen as bringing about a fortuitous choice of one's life work. In their study of career choice among student nurses, Katz and Martin advance the thesis that ". the decisions which underlie embarkation on a nursing career for at least somte persons revolve around limited, situational contilngencies-in which the matter of nursing-as-career enters only tangentially or not at all. Thus, rational coInsiderations play a mlinlor or absenIt role. Examples of these contingencies are also given
20 citations