Work Habits and Customer Service in Post‐Communist Poland: Some First‐hand Observations

Abstract

Addresses customer service and work habits in post‐Communist Poland, based on seven weeks of observation in 1991. Has two purposes: to warn Westerners about problems in starting or taking control of a Polish business or becoming partners with Polish interests in an established business; and to prod Poland into tearing out the roots of this problem – homo sovieticus – which are deeply embedded in the Polish economic order. Homo sovieticus is a human whose spirit has been systematically destroyed by a system designed by and for Stalin and erected in his name and memory. Customer service in Poland has been influenced by two factors: the shortages of the former command economy and the role of state enterprises as industrial welfare agencies. As to work habits, there is no solidarity among those who labour in the same workplace nor is there any teamwork in the workplace or the marketplace.

Citation

O'Boyle, E.J. (1993), "Work Habits and Customer Service in Post‐Communist Poland: Some First‐hand Observations", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 20 No. 1, pp. 16-23. https://doi.org/10.1108/03068299310145504