The order problem: Inference and interaction in interactive service work

Abstract

This article analyses the work of issuing tickets to queuing customers, thereby contributing to the literature on interactive service work. It draws analytical attention to artful practices through which employees infer ticket orders from local configurations of talk, gesture and bodily movement. It reveals not only the practical reasoning deployed by the service worker, but also the agency of the customer in the course of encounters. Drawing upon video recordings of over 200 separate transactions, the demands of remedying problem orders are analysed to reveal how staff infer and clarify social ‘facts’, such as the customer’s age, their nationality, employment status and willingness to pay the higher ‘Gift Aid’ price. An image of interactive service work emerges that emphasizes the peculiar and skilful articulation of sociological categories in the course of apparently routine low-level work. The concept of ‘inferential labour’ is introduced to capture these processes, which resonates with studies of categorization and emotional labour in interactive service work.

The Perils and Promises of Self-Disclosure on Social Media

“…These glimpses fed into front stage selfpresentations although they were not traditionally associated with that realm. We argue that social media presentations can be conceptualised as post-modern forms of performance, in which individuals can intentionally disrupt the boundaries between front and back stage to infer meanings that may not be possible in a traditional organisational performance settings (Llewellyn and Hindmarsh 2013).…”

“…Inferences are arrived at in the mind of the observer, but informed by information provided by the observed. Inference particularly informs social interaction in settings where information is incomplete or imperfect (Llewellyn and Hindmarsh 2013). There are many examples of inference at work in everyday organisational life.…”

“…Studies of the use of inference in organisational settings have focused on the requirement for one party to 'read between the lines' in order to understand the other and take appropriate action (Llewellyn and Hindmarsh 2013;Callaghan and Thompson 2002;Raghuram 2013). The abilities necessary to engage in inferential work are thought to be social and interactional rather than individual and cognitive ones since inference relies heavily on subtle cues that evade straightforward categorisation (Llewellyn and Hindmarsh 2013). For example, judgements may be formed based on age, ethnicity, and family status as well as less tangible factors such as the way another person deports themselves in terms of gesture and tone.…”

Lies, defeasibility and morality-in-action: The interactional architecture of false claims in sales, telemarketing and debt collection work

“…What kind of 'inferential labour' (Llewellyn and Hindmarsh, 2013) does the seller deploy to make sense of the 'no change' accounting? The seller has two options.…”

How Can We Define Mastery? Reflections on Learning, Embodiment and Professional Identity

“…348-364, Oct./Dec. 2015 www.anpad.org.br/bar people perform working practices together or in the same environment (Almeida & Flores-Pereira, 2013;Llewellyn & Hindmarsh, 2013;Mirchandani, 2015;Rosa & Brito, 2010;Styhre, 2004;Tuncer, 2015;Yakhlef, 2010), but again without any specific interest in how work itself is linked to a network of embodied processes that ultimately shape professional identities and vice-versa.…”