The importance of customer service is widely emphasized in business today. This book offers the first comprehensive analysis of the organization and dynamics of front-line work. The volume is based on a four-year study of over a thousand employees and eight leading companies in the United...

Acknowledgements -- Foreword looking back in order to look forward / Ken Roberts -- Understanding the changing youth labour market -- From the "golden age" to neo-liberalism -- The great transformation and the punitive turn -- Towards a new normality : work and unemployment in contemporary...