ABSTRACT
The great variety and heterogeneity of the service sector are reflected in the equally differentiated reality of service-sector work. The researchers engaged in the project in which this volume has its origins encountered this diversity in a number of different ways. The qualitative studies, which focused on activities at the customer interface, were carried out in areas of the service sector that could not have been more diverse. All the three major types of service work identified by Reich (1991) were represented, from ‘symbolic analysts’ via ‘in-person service workers’ to ‘routine workers’ in so-called ‘simple’ service jobs. Furthermore, the study included a wide range of different countries, with very different systems of labour regulation. It was precisely this diversity that induced us to look for common trends in the changes taking place in the work process. This is the subject of this chapter.
