Abstimmungsprobleme in Dienstleistungsbeziehungen

In interactive service work customers necessarily take part in the service process as co-producers. Consequently, both the customers and the service workers are confronted with problems which can be conceived as social dilemmas. This article shows how these problems arise and how they can be solved. We analyze qualitative data on interactive service work using a rational action approach. The analysis shows that actors find themselves in dilemmatic situations, which would not allow them to achieve the optimal outcome of co-operation, if they would act according to the premises of the theory of rational action. On the other hand it is the interactive nature of co-production itself which not only generates social dilemmas but provides also for the means to resolve them: the mutual monitoring of the actions carried out by service worker and customer supplies them with informations about their willingness to co-operate. This may form the basis to overcome the social dilemmas inherent in service interaction.