Client Abuse to Public Welfare Workers: Theoretical Framework and Critical Incident Case Study

TY - JOUR

T1 - Client Abuse to Public Welfare Workers

T2 - Theoretical Framework and Critical Incident Case Study

AU - Strøbæk, Pernille Solveig

AU - Korczynski, Marek

PY - 2018/8

Y1 - 2018/8

N2 - We analyse a case study of workers’ experience of client abuse in a Danish public welfare organisation. We make an original contribution by putting forward two different theoretical expectations of the case. One expectation is that the case follows a pattern of customer abuse processes in a social market economy – in which workers are accorded power and resources, in which workers tend to frame the abuse as the outcome of a co-citizen caught in system failure and in which workers demonstrate some resilience to abuse. Another expectation is that New Public Management reforms push the case to follow patterns of customer abuse associated with a liberal market economy – in which the customer is treated as sovereign against the relatively powerless worker, and in which workers bear heavy emotional costs of abuse. Our findings show a greater match to the social processes of abuse within a social market economy.

AB - We analyse a case study of workers’ experience of client abuse in a Danish public welfare organisation. We make an original contribution by putting forward two different theoretical expectations of the case. One expectation is that the case follows a pattern of customer abuse processes in a social market economy – in which workers are accorded power and resources, in which workers tend to frame the abuse as the outcome of a co-citizen caught in system failure and in which workers demonstrate some resilience to abuse. Another expectation is that New Public Management reforms push the case to follow patterns of customer abuse associated with a liberal market economy – in which the customer is treated as sovereign against the relatively powerless worker, and in which workers bear heavy emotional costs of abuse. Our findings show a greater match to the social processes of abuse within a social market economy.

KW - client abuse

KW - coping

KW - liberal market economy

KW - market economies

KW - New Public Management reforms

KW - public welfare workers

KW - social market economy

U2 - 10.1177/0038038516672626

DO - 10.1177/0038038516672626

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0038-0385

VL - 52

SP - 762

EP - 777

JO - Sociology

JF - Sociology

IS - 4

ER -