‘Customers were not objects to suck blood from’: Social relations in UK retail banks under changing performance management systems

Laaser, Knut

doi:10.1111/irj.12267

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 43 publications

(75 reference statements)

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“…The industry is noted for PM technologies (Regini et al, 1999) and widespread use of PM (Arrowsmith & Marginson, 2011;Ellis & Taylor, 2006;Gall, 2017). Observers attribute the phenomena of mis-selling in the sector to PM's prevalence (Laaser, 2019). Studies also claim a growing use of electronic systems for monitoring performance in the sector (Lasser & Bolton, 2017).…”

Section: Case Study Background and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance management technologies and trade union responses: A case study from banking

Murphy

Cullinane

2021

New Technol Work Employ

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Literature in the Performance Management (PM) field champions a shift to more continual forms of worker assessment. Advances in data analytic technologies are claimed to support such developments. However, critical literature finds that PM technologies induce malign consequences for workers and that unions should seek to organise an alternative agenda challenging employers. Based on findings from an action research project in retail and operations banking, the paper considers whether organising enables unions to curb PM technologies' more malign features.

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Section: Case Study Background and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance management technologies and trade union responses: A case study from banking

Murphy

Cullinane

2021

New Technol Work Employ

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“…Some studies have recently begun to move in this direction with specific reference to bank work (Carollo and Solari, 2019 ), however we do not know whether and how technology limits or increases the margins of agency in the relational space between workers and customers. Regarding the relationship with customers, another issue to focus on is that of ethics (Laaser, 2019 ). Algorithms that imitate cognition and behavior cannot grasp the ethical choices and moral dilemmas that humans deal with regularly, bringing issues of technology morality to the forefront (Verbeek, 2009 ; Faraj et al, 2018 ).…”

Section: Digitalization Of Relational Space Of Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Through the close examination of the subjective viewpoint of front-line bank workers on the redesign of interpersonal relationships between (a) employees and supervisors, and (b) employees and customers under the lens of “digital governance,” this article contributes to understanding the impact of digital technologies on surveillance practices, work identity conflicts, and challenges for professional ethics in a key working sector regarding digitalization and changes in professional requirements. Recently, some studies have focused on labor relations in banking (Subramanian and Suquet, 2018 ; Carollo and Solari, 2019 ; Laaser, 2019 ; Carollo, 2021 ). However, they do so without examining how relationships in the service triangle are intertwined and shaped by technologies producing specific consequences on the quality of working life (Carreri, 2020 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digitalization of relational space in the service triangle: The case study of retail banking

Carreri

Gosetti

Masiero³

2023

Front. Sociol.

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IntroductionThe article aims to shed light on the process of shaping the relational space of work in the service triangle through the progressive digitalization of work in retail banking industry. It addresses the following research question: how do technological shifts affect the relationships and interactions (a) between employees and supervisors, and (b) between employees and customers? Through a close examination of the redesign of the interpersonal relationships from the subjective viewpoint of front-line workers across these two levels, the paper contributes to advancing the understanding of the impact of technologies on surveillance practices, work identity and professional ethics in a key working sector with regard to digitalization and changes in professional requirements.MethodsThe question is addressed through a qualitative case study of retail banking in Italy. In the (retail) banking sector, the redesign of the relations between supply and demand for services is more sensitive to the changes afforded by digitalization and learning algorithms. The study was conducted with the involvement of workers and trade unionists, with whom we embarked on a constant work of re-articulation through data collection, analysis, and conceptualization. We collected a multiplicity of data for triangulation: interviews, focus groups, documents, and ethnographic notes.ResultsData analysis shows how work processes and interpersonal relationships start to be redesigned across the two levels. At (a) level, two main aspects are found: the measurement of individual performance within the logic of quantification, which reduces employees to a set of measured dimensions, pushing workers into conditions of stress and competition; new surveillance practices and forms of organizational control enabled by technologies and learning algorithms. At (b) level, from being an expert with specific knowledge in the financial sector the bank employee turns into a kind of seller of any product that the algorithm decides to sell, thus ignoring the value of situated experience held by embedded, embodied social actors. Moreover, algorithms enter jurisdictional spaces traditionally controlled by knowledge workers and produce unknown outcomes concerning to whom to sell which products that cannot be clearly understood by workers.DiscussionTechnology contributes to engendering complex identity constructions to maintain, protect, and revise professional identity.

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Predatory Lending in Russia: Survey Data

Frolova

2022

Gumanitarnye nauki

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In this paper, the author explores the problem of the expansion of predatory consumer lending practices in Russian commercial banks. The relevance of the problem of predatory lending is due to the highly negative consequences of its spread, which include an increase in social inequality, excessive growth of the debt burden of the population, the slowdown of national economic growth, the growth of social tensions. The article presents the results of a survey confirming the widespread practices of unscrupulous lending in the practice of commercial banks. The author hypothesizes that the main reasons for the spread of predatory lending include the widespread use of bank staff motivation systems, focused on the fulfilment of the sales plan for individual bank products, and the rigid management characteristic of Russian management. The article offers recommendations for counteracting the spread of predatory lending practices. The article may be helpful for researchers interested in the problems of bank lending, bank employees, employees of the Central Bank and other supervisory bodies.

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‘Customers were not objects to suck blood from’: Social relations in UK retail banks under changing performance management systems

Cited by 3 publications

References 43 publications

Performance management technologies and trade union responses: A case study from banking

Performance management technologies and trade union responses: A case study from banking

Digitalization of relational space in the service triangle: The case study of retail banking

Predatory Lending in Russia: Survey Data

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