Service skill definitions have been over-extended, by equating compliance with skill, and underdeveloped, by not recognising service jobs' invisible social and organisational aspects. Existing approaches to determining service skill levels draw on occupational qualifications and capacity for...

This paper addresses the problem of low-status or ‘bad’ jobs (Kalleberg, et al.2000) in the occupations of truck driver and personal care assistant, and explores skill-based strategies for making these jobs better. The paper grapples with conceptualizations of low status jobs within theories...

There are at least three problems in the measurement of skill - aggregation, dynamism, and codification. Skill is an individual and collective capacity, expressed in performance and reflected in outcomes. Aggregate measures relying on proxies such as occupational entry qualifications may not...

The concept of emotional labour provides an incomplete account of interactive service work, underplaying its invisible cognitive and non-routine elements. In interactive work, from customer service jobs in the fast food industry to 'knowledge work' and at those levels in between on which we...