‘We have the values’: customers, control and corporate ideology in call centre operations

Broek, Diane van den

doi:10.1111/j.1468-005x.2004.00124.x

Cited by 29 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Of course, it is still an empirical question, and one that has generated considerable critical scepticism (Mulholland 2004) as to how deeply empathy with the consumer or pride in work pervades the working consciousness of customer service representatives and regulates what they do. As others have suggested (van den Broek 2004), coercive sub‐texts and material interests may still lie behind cultural control and its effects on employees. In these differing emphases, one can see reflected the paradigmatic split between critical management theory and labour process approaches.…”

Section: Call Centres and Management In The Information Economymentioning

confidence: 91%

“…To assume without further empirical inquiry that cultural programs authored by management significantly influence workers raises the sort of issues that were first brought to our attention in ethnomethodological critiques of functionalist treatments of culture. Others express more scepticism about undoing the negative consequences associated with the routinized, low‐discretion work that many call centres exhibit (van den Broek 2004). They refer to the ‘fragility of fun’ in the call centre (Houlihan 2002) as well as to the possibility of labour processes undermining high‐commitment strategies when the latter are rendered superficial by job designs and low‐trust managerial practices (Alferoff and Knights 2001).…”

Section: Human Resource Management and The Call Centrementioning

confidence: 99%

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Call centres: A decade of research

Russell

2008

Int J Management Reviews

109

141

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Call centres have, over the past decade, become a central element in the way information services are produced and delivered to the public. Much as automobile factories or textile mills were treated as both objects of curiosity and as metaphors for their age, call centres have garnered attention both in their own right as a new means of organizing particular types of work and as an important venue from which to undertake the study of other elements of management practice, including human resource management. This paper critically examines all aspects of research that has been undertaken on call centres, from the publication of the first novel pieces of research up to the most recent contributions. A good deal of effort has gone into classifying call centres, comparing the organization of work in them with other types of work and considering the extent of variation between call centres. Depending upon the theoretical lens that is used (e.g. labour process theory, highperformance work systems theory, HR perspectives, gender theory, etc.) different aspects of call-centre work are emphasized and different conclusions regarding call-centre employment and its possibilities are reached. These contrasting results are compared and evaluated in this review. It is also the case that the study of call centres invites critical reflection upon theories of management, and this is also entered into in this paper. Additionally, the continuous spread of call centres into new realms of professional work activity and into new spaces of the global economy throws up challenges that are brought to the reader's attention for our understanding of this approach to managing informational work.

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Section: Call Centres and Management In The Information Economymentioning

confidence: 91%

Section: Human Resource Management and The Call Centrementioning

confidence: 99%

Call centres: A decade of research

Russell

2008

Int J Management Reviews

109

141

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“…show that potential employees are selected on the basis of their likely ability and willingness to internalize and reflect brand meanings (Callaghan & Thompson, 2002;Van Den Broek, 2004) to date there is little or no consideration of the ways in which after joining the organization the brand might continue to be leveraged by managers to both shape employees' responses and sustain their commitment in practices of induction, training and promotion.…”

Section: The Brand and Identitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Brands at Work: The Search for Meaning in Mundane Work

Brannan

Parsons

Priola

2014

Organization Studies

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Brand scholarship traditionally resides within the marketing literature and focuses on organizations' external relationships with customers. However, increasing critical attention in organization studies has focused on the brand in order to understand its impact on the internal dynamics of employment relations in contemporary organizations. Drawing on an ethnography of frontline service work in an IT consultancy call centre, we explore the brand as an internal organizational resource sustaining the process of employee meaning-making activities. Documenting the 'work of the brand', we outline what the brand offers both employees and employers and, in doing so, we theorize the brand at work as a connecting mechanism between processes of identity formation/re-formation and regulation. While employees are encouraged to internalize particular brand meanings (in this case prestige, success and quality), we found that they often willingly buy into these intended brand meanings as a palliative to 'cope' with mundane work. In this way brand meanings are central to producing a self-disciplining form of employee subjectivity. Keywordsbrand, call centres, employee branding, ethnography, identity, organizational control 'All I want in life is a little bit of love to take the pain away.'Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space 'In ev'ry job that must be done, there is an element of fun.You find the fun and snap! The job's a game. And ev'ry task you undertake becomes a piece of cake. A lark! A spree! It's very clear to see that a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.'

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“…The literature supports this although most research focuses on labour process and automated call routing (Deery et al ). Management control is also shown to exist through cultural manipulation in the form of recruiting employees with particular skills or values (van den Broek ; Callaghan and Thompson ) and training regimes designed to inculcate company values and ethics (Townsend ). Fleming and Sturdy () identify a third strategy encouraging employees to ‘be yourself’ at work; demonstrating individualism through dress and manner, infusing their work with distinctive personality traits and regarding work as a ‘fun’ place to be.…”

Section: Choices and Strategies Of Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the Post‐Industrial Assembly Line: A Critical Appraisal of the Call Centre

Lloyd

2016

Sociology Compass

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As a relatively new form of service sector employment, call centres have been an important issue in the sociology of work for two decades. This article offers a critical review and appraisal of call centre literature, drawing upon an existing typology classifying call centre research in four categories: characteristics and organisational features; choices and strategies of management; the effect of work on employees; and the response of employees to working conditions. The article also explores recent developments that utilise call centres as a tool to investigate emerging social theories and other sociological concepts.

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‘We have the values’: customers, control and corporate ideology in call centre operations

Cited by 29 publications

References 17 publications

Call centres: A decade of research

Call centres: A decade of research

Brands at Work: The Search for Meaning in Mundane Work

Understanding the Post‐Industrial Assembly Line: A Critical Appraisal of the Call Centre

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