søndag den 3. oktober 2010

Cultural encounters - trusting the customer?

My writing consultant tells me that I should never miss an opportunity to write in English.

Therefore, a short story about trust, customer relations and management in New York compared to Denmark.

I shopped for beers and other groceries when this happened:

"Do you have some ID?", the young man asked. "No! I´m 33 years old!" "And I do not have ID with me".

Confused, he turned to his superviser and murmured what he should do? After a while I thought I could buy the beers because the sales person scanned the rest of my groceries but suddenly the supervisor´s boss showed up. He said that it was company politics that everyone should show ID when they buy alcohol. "Everyone, I said, I do not believe you". "yes", he said "everyone". I was furious, and said that, "I don´t even want your beers!"

I took my bags, walked out and never returned.

Days after I talked to the professor I am visiting, Charles Heckscher, about this incidence. He laughed and told me that he also have to show ID. "What!?" I replyed. "Yaeh, I actually asked my son if he could fake an ID for me just too see the reaction." Charles Heckscher is 61 years old.

I can´t stop asking myself why I felt so furious when the sales person asked for my ID. I probably have a tendency to start a discussion with sales persons, which some of my friends can agree upon, but I also interpret the incidence as a Dane being uncomfortable with not being trusted.

What would have happened if the incidence took place in Denmark - of course it would never happen, everyone can buy beer! - but let us say that it could for the sake of the following argument.

Two reasons come to my mind when I consider why the US sales person did not trust me.

In Denmark employment relations build on trust. Supermarkets trust the sales person to judge whether or not he or she should ask for ID, i.e., the sales person estimate if the customer is 18 or more. The sales person I met in the New York supermarket do not have a job with great responsibility, he just follows the rules that the supermarket decides. The supermarket has a clear bureaucratic hierarchy that does not foster a trusting relationship with customers.

What would happen in Denmark if company politics was that everyone should show ID buying alcohol?

Surely, the Danish sales person would not have talked to his supervisor. He would first have started a discussion with me saying that it is company politics that all customers should show ID when bying alcohol. And in the end the sales person would be personally insulted, because I question company politics. And then I would ask for the boss!

Charles Heckscher published a book in 1994 called ´From bureaucracy to post-bureaucracy´. Here he argues, first, that in a bureacracy, which builds on a hierarchy, employees have the responsibility for executing the task of the specific job they occupy. If they meet a problem that demand a solution above their responsibility they ask their supervisors, and if he or she cannot solve the problem then they'll go to their bosses to solve the problem. Second, in post-bureaucracies employees have a responsibility for the whole organization, not just the jobs they occupy. In the spirit of the company misson and vision, employees solve problems according to their own discretions. And as I further argue, with the consequence that they become personal responsible for companies, e.g., championing company politics in discussions with customers and being personally insulted when customers question company politics.

Maybe Charles Heckscher ideas about the post-bureaucracy are better suited for Danish employment relations, at least in Supermarkets. I will try to convince him.

2 kommentarer:

  1. Very interesting - also concerned the relevance of an ID. What does it say if a person is above 21 (or how many years should he be?)? This main purpose for this obligation must be symbolic - and in the end to control. Not control the abuse of alcohol, because that's not possible, but just to control.

    SvarSlet
  2. I think you need to be 18 years old to buy alcohol. But a few days ago I bought a beer in a snall deli without the sales person asking for ID.,,

    SvarSlet