Aesthetic labour means that a person with a certain physical aptitude is required. Previous researcher in this field has essentially been focusing on the business benefits from front-line employees as reinforcement to their image. Furthermore, researches have discussed how the employees experience the aesthetic requirements and have found negative effects. Motivation research have, on the other hand, shown that if a person can identify with the requirements it can create wellbeing, through the creation of role identification. Consequently, the research shows different effects of aesthetic requirements, which are this study’s starting point and the aesthetic labour will be illumine with motivations research. The purpose of this study is to illuminate aesthetic labour from a role identification perspective, to understand how the front-line employee is affected by the aesthetic requirements. In the theoretical framework the aesthetic labour will be explained and its negative effects, although also illumined by the research of motivation’s benefits. The method applied has a qualitative approach and the data has been collected by semi-structured interviews with seven employees in retail and the banking sector. The interviews have been transcribed and coded to enable interpretations of the data with the theoretical framework by categorizing and creating themes of the found phenomena. The result yielded four different levels on how the employees identified themselves in their role at work, which creates different reactions to behaviour (active identification, acknowledgment, acceptance and conflicting conciliation). In the discussion these levels where further developed in relation to and with the theoretical framework, concerning how result partially confirms previous research. Furthermore, the study’s findings in the field of aesthetic labour are discussed, which are that employees’ experience of aesthetic requirements is more complex and that additional levels of motivation in the role at work exists. The conclusion summarizes the main points of the study and outlines the study’s contribution of aesthetic labour, which is the understanding that additional levels of motivation in a role at work exists and that employees can be motivated without identification.

Retail work constitutes an estimated 10.5 per cent of the UK workforce (British Retail Consortium, 2011). The literature suggests homogeneity in the nature of HRM in the retail industry with low formal skills, pay and trade union density associated with this context (Skillsmart Retail, 2010; Department for Business Innovation and Skills, 2010). Furthermore, the downward pressure on the working conditions of employees is observed across front-line work in general and this, seemingly does not improve with competitive strategy (Kelliher and Perrett, 2001; Lloyd, 2005; Lloyd, Warhurst and Dutton, 2013). However, the service work literature reveals diversity at the workplace level in the performance of emotional labour (Bolton, 2000) and the different types of customer (Bolton and Houlihan, 2005). Yet there are gaps in the literature related to how the performance of emotional labour compares and contrasts across retail organisations through different management control mechanisms as well as how the employee-customer interaction may explain diversity at the workplace level. The thesis draws on a comparative case approach of four case study organisations in the retail industry each reflecting different market positions in clothing and electrical product markets. A total of 37 semi-structured interviews were conducted with managers and employees across the case study stores. In addition the methodology also included the analysis of the customer perspective which is traditionally missing in the work and employment relations literature (Korczynski, 2009) This included collecting data using eighteen customer shopping reports, a method based on qualitative diaries. The overall aim of the study was to compare and contrast management, employee and customer perspectives across different retail organisation contexts and explore how the nature of HR and the performance of emotional labour are framed and reframed by the dynamics and negotiations that take place between these three actors. The findings reveal homogeneity in the nature of HRM with no improvement in recruitment and selection, training, pay and collective employee involvement going up the quality chain in the retail industry. This confirms other studies in the service industry more generally (Kelliher and Perrett, 2001; Lloyd, 2005; Lloyd et al, 2013). However within this downward pressure on the nature of HRM there were elements of diversity in the management requirements for the performance of emotional labour and the conceptualisation of the customer which shaped the employee-customer interaction in much broader terms than Strategic HR theorists might have assumed. To understand diversity across the retail organisations it was necessary to analyse the nature of employee-customer interactions within the context of management performance strategies. This revealed that many of the nuances between the case study retailers related to the ways the customer shapes, and is shaped, by the performance of emotional labour. The thesis will argue for the continued relevance of the concept of triangular relations which has been recently criticised (Belanger and Edwards, 2013) because it recognises the three actors that shape the performance of emotional labour at the level of workplace relations.

Servicescape is a physical setting where the performance, delivery and consumption are exchanged within a service marketplace. It includes sensory components, such as the theme of the place that has a high impact on customer perceptions and purchasing decisions and providing them with extraordinary experiences (Pine and Gilmore, 1999; Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler, 2009). Therefore, the Disneyization concept which is influenced by the previous was applied as it focuses on providing differentiated services. However, the purpose of this research was to explore how theming and performative labour have been used in Small-Medium-Enterprises (SME) cafés as a differentiation strategy, thus only 2/4 Disneyization principles were looked into. Together with their teamwork differentiation was established against homogenised Fika cafés in Sweden. Three sub-questions have been created to allow the authors to answer the main question accurately. Deductive reasoning has been adapted for theory collection, while qualitative research was used when collecting primary data, through purposive sampling, due to criteria having to be met. A total of seven cafés participated through face-to-face semi-structured interviews. A thematic analysis was followed to analyse, code, review, and define themes. The themes in the findings were cross-referenced with the literature review, thus the use of both interpretive and positivist research has shown slightly different results from previous studies. The findings state that when theming, all cafés cared about the different sensory elements such as interior design, sounds and smell for creating uniqueness. However, different from big enterprises, the passion of owners towards the theme was a significant factor in creating a successful theme as well. Nevertheless, theming alone was found to be not efficient enough as a differentiation strategy. Performative labour is needed to complement it which includes the concepts of emotional and aesthetic labour. Aesthetic labour had not a high effect on differentiating services, rather the extent of its application depends on the place and theme itself. On the contrary, emotional labour, which was connected with the service provided had a significant effect on instead, through interaction. Interaction is what is found to provide a unique service, creating a customer experience, thus loyal ones. Furthermore, the execution of theming and performative labour through a strong team is what creates a differentiation strategy in the face of competitors. Therefore, a Differentiation Strategy (DS) model for SME cafés was developed from the Disneyization model to include interaction and teamwork. The empirical data suggest that if a SME café successfully implements the model, it will create a differentiated strategy for itself.