Skills in service work: an overview

Skill requirements in retail work: the case of high-end fashion retailing

“…In addressing this gap, this article draws on Cockburn's (1983) work which articulates the multi-faceted dimension of skill: as residing in the worker themselves; in what is required to perform a job; and as a socially constructed political concept. The article therefore addresses a gap in engaging with calls for detailed, in-depth studies to highlight the potential diversity in the actual skill content of different front-line service jobs (Gatta et al, 2009;Korczynski, 2005). The article makes a particular contribution in demonstrating the complex nature of analysing the skills requirements of service work, refining Cockburn's typology as a result.…”

“…There are critics who view discussions of soft skills within service work as devaluing the concept of skill due to these being simply personal, 'natural' attributes (see for example Lloyd and Payne, 2009). Others have, however, argued that work reliant on soft elements of skill can indeed be viewed as 'skilled' if systematically analysing such jobs through established skills typologies (Gatta et al, 2009;Hurrell et al, 2013;Korczynski, 2005). We thus analyse the skills requirements of retail work via the typology of Cockburn (1983) integrating soft and hard elements of skill within this discussion.…”

“…Discussions of skill have, however, extended into soft, social and interpersonal skills, which are central to interactive service work including retail (Gatta et al, 2009;Korczynski, 2005). Hurrell et al (2013) define soft skills as, 'non-technical and not reliant on abstract reasoning, involving interpersonal and intrapersonal abilities to facilitate mastered performance in particular social contexts'.…”

“…It is recognised that high-end fashion retail employees must have an appropriate mix of both soft and hard elements of skill. For example, having the required aesthetic and emotional labour (Hochschild, 1983;Nickson et al, 2001;2005) to ensure the 'right' look and the ability to enact high quality customer service needs to co-exist with harder, technical elements, such as having and utilising extensive product knowledge. This mix of skills allows high-end fashion retailers to offer a more personalised service in which employees 'sell', not just serve (Pettinger, 2004).…”

“The People Make the Brand”

“…Gatta, Boushey, and Applebaum (2009) note how the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) classifies low-wage non-professional service occupations as especially reliant on 'people skills' rather than technical or abstract reasoning skills. This is most noticeable for customer-facing employees in interactive services, where service quality has been closely linked to social skills (Korczynski 2005;Nickson, Warhurst, and Dutton. 2005) and the ability to deal with high emotional demands (Burns 1997).…”