Self-Service in the Labor Process

Abstract

Consumers not only consume. They are increasingly being used by retail and service organizations to perform work-like tasks in the manner of quasi-employees. To explore this role of consumers in the labor process, we use the term consumptive labor and focus on one prevalent form of consumptive labor: self-service. Business organizations obviously benefit from self-service, primarily through increasing the amount of labor during the workday, without incurring additional labor costs. However, it is less apparent why consumers so willingly participate in self-service given that, unlike employees, they are not bound by a contractual agreement or compensated with a wage. What is the perceived benefit of self-service to consumers? We propose a theory of the labor process that synthesizes the works of Michael Burawoy and George Ritzer and suggests that organizations manufacture consent of consumers to self-service by appealing to their desires for a “McDonaldization” of consumer experience. From this theory, we derive and test hypotheses using data from a survey of 519 college students. Results lend support to this theory. The majority of the sample preferred to use self-service when it was available. Moreover, the stronger their belief that self-service enables them to put into practice the principles of McDonaldization, the stronger respondents’ preference to use self-service and the greater their actual use of self-service. We conclude by critically analyzing issues relating to self-service, illuminating problems and issues associated with the essence of the social relations of self-service but which consumers do not easily recognize in its ostensibly favorable appearance.