'If you are having a go at me, I am going to have a go at you': the changing nature of social relationships of bank work under performance management. (December 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Laaser, Knut
• Is Part Of: Work, employment & society. Volume 30:Number 6(2016:Dec.)
• Page Start: 1000
• Page End: 1016
• Publication Date: 2016-12
• Subjects: bank work -- labour process theory -- moral economy -- performance management systems -- social relationships at work; Industrial sociology -- Periodicals; Work -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Industrial relations -- Periodicals; 306.36
• DOI: 10.1177/0950017015617686
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0950-0170

Abstract

Over the last three decades work and employment in the private and public sector are increasingly subject to marketization processes. A defining feature of marketized employment is the rise of performance management systems (PMS). This article utilizes a novel framework of Sayer's moral economy approach and labour process theory to explore the changing nature of bank work and social relationships between branch managers and branch workers before and after the implementation of PMS in UK banks. This article illustrates how the social and moral texture of the social relationships between branch workers and their managers deteriorated after the implementation of PMS, resulting in the rise of hostile forms of engagement.