But there are also sceptical voices that view the imagery of the internal customer as
yet another marketing ploy aimed at increasing profits through the use of emotional
labour (Fineman 1993; Hochschild 1983; Taylor 1998). Emotional labour is the
most insidious form of control which relies on the subtle management of individuals’
emotion via rules, sanctions, peer pressure, training programmes and other so called
autonomous personal strategies which centre on meeting the needs of the customers
rather than on the need to achieve the goals of the firm.
One of the branch managers said: