Social interactions with customers, patients, clients, citizens, learners or similar groups are part and parcel of nine million employees’ daily work in Germany. Such social interactions in the context of paid employment are integral to many jobs and occupations. Many workers do not merely interact with groups outside their organisations, but also internally, for example with their colleagues or leaders. Existing research on interactive work underlines the particular challenges and demands coming along with this type of work Additionally, current developments like digitalisation have an impact on interactive work, too.
The ways in which interactive work is addressed and approached varies between different academic disciplines, countries, and occupational groups. Furthermore, interactive work is subject to changes in response to current societal and technological developments. Nevertheless, there is some common ground between the various kinds of jobs that involve interactive work.
Characteristics of Interactive Work
While there is no standard definition of interactive work, there are some defining features of this type of work.
- Interactive work includes micro-level exchanges or social interactions between at least two people in the context of paid employment. At least one person is acting in a professional capacity (i.e. doing his/her job) while the other(s) can be considered the employee’s counterpart. Such social interactions at work may happen directly face to face, but could also be technically mediated or supported; some of these social interactions may take place only once while others may happen repeatedly over a period of time.
- When performing interactive work, employees may need to exert influence over their counterpart’s physical or mental state and/or processes (e.g. perceptions, attitudes, intentions, feelings). In order to successfully perform interactive work, employees may need to find out what their counterpart needs, wishes, aims, and expects.
Interactive work can therefore be understood as a process in which people perceive each other reciprocally and interact socially in order to achieve particular aims. Our research puts the focus on the employees performing interactive work. As this type of work comes along with specific job demands, it should be designed in a humane and health-promoting way. Moreover, it requires a number of competences and appropriate training.
Designing Interactive Work in a humane way
Interactive work means working with other people: these people have their own interests, opinions, feelings, expectations, and concerns. Their conduct and actions are proactive and self-determined. Their experiences and behaviour have to be taken into consideration when performing interactive work – which is different from working with objects (e.g. operating a machine or bending a piece of steel).
Thus, interactive work often requires collaboration: the employee and his or her counterpart need to liaise for a particular purpose, to ‘co-produce’ or even ‘co-create’ a particular service. Depending on the concrete situation and context, this creates more or less strong relationships of mutual dependence. The quality and success of the performed interactive work is therefore not just in the hands of the employee.
These reflections underline why interactive work can be considered a specific type of work. It comes along with particular job demands that differ from other forms of work, such as industrial work. These jobs’ demands need to be taken into consideration when assessing the occupational hazards characterising interactive work.
