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Erika Andersson Cederholm.

Erika Andersson Cederholm

Professor

Erika Andersson Cederholm.

Tjänstens triad: Från ömsesidig harmoni till dialektisk spänning i tjänstemöten

Author

  • Erika Andersson Cederholm
  • Szilvia Gyimothy

Editor

  • Hervé Corvellec
  • Hans Lindquist

Summary, in English

Models of service encounters are often fraught by reductionism, describing business relationships as mathematical combinations of dyadic constellations. Metaphors of ideal social relationships (marriages or friendships) are highlighted to stress normative aspects of equal, balanced and long-term business partnerships. However, these approaches are limited in their analytical sensitivity, as they cannot address the complexity of multipart relationships, where meanings, roles and relationships are continuously constructed and reconstructed. In order to understand the ambivalent quality of business interactions, this article analyses the corporate travel market by applying Georg Simmel’s depiction of the triad as a specific social form. Triadic constellations and more complex service networks involve dialectic tensions, simultaneously exhibiting for example loyalty and disloyalty, trust and distrust, empowerment and disempowerment. It is argued that a qualitative methodology is more adequate approach to grasp such dynamic and contextual social realities, because (opposed to a quantitative approach) it is not confined to operate with mutually exclusive analytical categories.

Department/s

  • Department of Service Studies

Publishing year

2005

Language

English

Pages

47-63

Publication/Series

Servicemötet - Multidisciplinära öppningar

Document type

Book chapter

Publisher

Liber

Topic

  • Social Sciences Interdisciplinary

Keywords

  • corporate travel
  • service triad
  • service relationships
  • hybrid market

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISBN: 91-47-07598-8