The importance of customer service is widely emphasized in business today. This book offers the first comprehensive analysis of the organization and dynamics of front-line work. The volume is based on a four-year study of over a thousand employees and eight leading companies in the United States, Australia, and Japan. On the Front Line reveals similarities and differences found in work environments such as variance in authority relations and division of labor as well as significant contrasts between management approaches used in Japan and those used in the United States and Australia. By...