Client abuse to public welfare workers: theoretical framework and critical incident case study

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 worker 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

“I love red hair. My wife has strawberry”. Discursive strategies and social identity in the workplace

Coworkers are group members of the workplace community. They build their social identities through their verbal and nonverbal behaviors in everyday workplace practice. During small talk interactions, coworkers engage in specific discourses that serve to tell, and therefore, offer a self-definition of their behaviors within other groups, beyond the workplace. In other words, by telling their experiences as members of other groups, the speakers draw for the interlocutors the self-concept they want to (re)present within the workplace community. In order to convey this self-concept, speakers use determined, recursive linguistic patterns. In this chapter, two specific linguistic strategies are analyzed: my-relative strategy and I-feel-you strategy (Di Ferrante, Small talk at work: A corpus based discourse analysis of AAC and Non-AAC device users, 2013), which fulfill respectively the functions of validating statements—principle of authenticity—and displaying understanding—principle of sympathy. Using a discourse analysis approach within a social psychology framework, linguistic patterns are examined and shown to be exploited as tools used by speakers to build their social identities and affirm their positive image as members of the workplace community

Subjective status and perceived legitimacy across countries

The relationships between subjective status and perceived legitimacy are important for understanding the extent to which people with low status are complicit in their oppression. We use novel data from 66 samples and 30 countries (N = 12,788) and find that people with higher status see the social system as more legitimate than those with lower status, but there is variation across people and countries. The association between subjective status and perceived legitimacy was never negative at any levels of eight moderator variables, although the positive association was sometimes reduced. Although not always consistent with hypotheses, group identification, self-esteem, and beliefs in social mobility were all associated with perceived legitimacy among people who have low subjective status. These findings enrich our understanding of the relationship between social status and legitimacy

Subjective status and perceived legitimacy across countries

The relationships between subjective status and perceived legitimacy are important for understanding the extent to which people with low status are complicit in their oppression. We use novel data from 66 samples and 30 countries (N = 12,788) and find that people with higher status see the social system as more legitimate than those with lower status, but there is variation across people and countries. The association between subjective status and perceived legitimacy was never negative at any levels of eight moderator variables, although the positive association was sometimes reduced. Although not always consistent with hypotheses, group identification, selfesteem, and beliefs in social mobility were all associated with perceived legitimacy among people who have low subjective status. These findings enrich our understanding of the relationship between social status and legitimacy