Identity on the line: constructing professional identity in a HR call centre

Abstract

This article applies insights from the social construction of professional identity to an understanding of the 'professional service' call centre representative (CSR). In this case, HR (Human Resources) practitioners found themselves in a CSR role in a newly constituted HR call centre and this research explores how they then (re-)constructed their role as professionals within this context. Through a longitudinal, ethnographic study, three key constructions are identified through which CSRs made claims for a professional identity: 'our work is complex'; 'our work adds value'; and 'our work is unique'. The analysis highlights that a contemporary concern with re-orienting HR to a strategic role may lead to perceived segregation and the renegotiation of professional identities vis-à-vis other groups of HR professionals.Overall, this research challenges accepted norms and definitions of both call centre work and professional identity, suggesting that both are contested and localised constructions achieved through identity work.2

Pushing the Boundaries of Amnesia and Myopia: A Critical Review of the Literature on Identity in Management and Organization Studies

“…While the paper by Alvesson et al . () is a good exemplar of how some organization studies papers may not fully interrogate identity (Hogg and Terry ; Pritchard and Symon ), we can explicate our arguments a little more clearly by drawing on Croft et al .’s () study of nurses. The study takes a traditional view of identity, constructing nurses as having ‘multiple’ identities that result in ‘an emotional attachment to their professional group identity’, which then leads to a conflict with their ‘managerial leader identity’ (p. 113).…”

Credibility lost: attempting to reclaim an expert identity in an HR professional context

“…Moreover, we noted that while the threat might have been initially targeted, it subsequently impacted the whole T&D team whose (individual and collective) claims to expertise became difficult to sustain. It is important to consider that the identity threat itself was embedded within (and an outcome of) other HR professionals identity work, as they constructed their own expert position securing entitlement to assess the T&D team's credibility (see also Pritchard, ; Pritchard and Symon, ). Thus, the threat was embedded within local epistemic community, the HR department, but also deployed professional debates about strategic and transactional HR roles (Thompson, ) within T&D practice.…”

“…The T&D team comprised 15 staff, three of whom had transferred from HR generalist roles during the previous year and two of whom (the T&D senior manager and team leader) resigned within the first month of the fieldwork (see Figure ). The team was part of the 200‐strong HR department of an investment bank which 1 year previously had adopted the ‘three legged stool model’ (Reilly et al ., : ix) with a shared‐services group (including pay, benefits and an HR call centre; Pritchard and Symon, ), HR expert teams (including employment relations, recruitment, compensation and T&D) and HR business partners (Pritchard, ).…”

“…We focus on the team's response to a perceived loss of credibility, triggered by the resignation of two expert members, and explore how they attempt to reclaim a professional, expert identity in the following months. Our observations were part of a larger study of this HR department (Pritchard, ; Pritchard and Symon, ) conducted with an interpretative ethnographic orientation (Yanow et al ., ). Ethnography has long been used to explore local understandings of expertise (Pritchard, ), although is less common in studies of identity work (McInnes and Corlett, ).…”

Examining hybrid nurse managers as a case of identity transition in healthcare: developing a balanced research agenda

“…Identity transition thus represents a focal point for analysis of policy effect upon professional work organisation in relation to the development of hybrid middle managers. This is a research issue into which SoW provides considerable insight (Baldry and Barnes, 2012;Bolton, 2005;Collins et al, 2009;Cooke, 2006;Pritchard and Symon, 2011;Thursfield, 2012).…”