Be(com)ing normal – not excellent: Service management, the gap‐model and disciplinary power

Abstract

Purpose

Marketing “from the intra‐organizational perspective” has been comparatively untouched by the critical turn in organization studies. The objective of the present paper is to contribute to a critical examination of marketing as a change discourse by focusing on service management scholarship. In particular, the paper focuses upon the gap‐model.

Design/methodology/approach

Foucault's disciplinary power concept is used to analyze how the gap‐model tends to objectify, subjectify and normalize.

Findings

Focusing on service management contributes to the scarce critical examination of marketing in general and the almost non‐existent critical examination of service management in particular. Further, the paper contributes to the investigation of the potential production of subjectivity and normalization as an effect of marketing technologies.

Research limitations/implications

This paper suggests empirical exploration of subjective responses to marketing discourse and associated technologies.

Originality/value

Critical examinations of marketing discourse in general, and service management in particular, are very scarce. Specifically, the paper contributes to the understanding of how service management intends to fixate the subject.

Citation

Skålén, P. and Fougère, M. (2007), "Be(com)ing normal – not excellent: Service management, the gap‐model and disciplinary power", Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 20 No. 1, pp. 109-125. https://doi.org/10.1108/09534810710715315