Alice Freed and Susan Ehrlich (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195306897
- eISBN:
- 9780199867943
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195306897.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
This volume is a study of question use in institutional discourse, the first volume of its kind to make questions and questioning the explicit focus of its investigation. It brings together studies ...
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This volume is a study of question use in institutional discourse, the first volume of its kind to make questions and questioning the explicit focus of its investigation. It brings together studies that bridge a wide range of institutional settings from traditionally studied contexts such as medicine, law, and the mass media to little‐considered settings such as call centers, new types of counseling environments, and helplines. In the introduction, the editors draw upon the research in the assembled chapters to identify commonalities in the use of questions in a variety of institutions; this in turn provides the basis for drawing generalizations about the use of questions. The goal is not only to expand the understanding of questioning and answering in institutional discourse but also to document the ways that social change has both transformed the nature of institutional encounters in more traditional settings and increased the sorts of institutional encounters in which people engage, particularly those associated with service‐related activities. The volume contributes to a comprehensive definition of questions that includes both functional and sequential considerations, extends our understanding of the relationship between questions and their role in institutional discourse, and addresses the nature of ordinary versus institutional talk.Less
This volume is a study of question use in institutional discourse, the first volume of its kind to make questions and questioning the explicit focus of its investigation. It brings together studies that bridge a wide range of institutional settings from traditionally studied contexts such as medicine, law, and the mass media to little‐considered settings such as call centers, new types of counseling environments, and helplines. In the introduction, the editors draw upon the research in the assembled chapters to identify commonalities in the use of questions in a variety of institutions; this in turn provides the basis for drawing generalizations about the use of questions. The goal is not only to expand the understanding of questioning and answering in institutional discourse but also to document the ways that social change has both transformed the nature of institutional encounters in more traditional settings and increased the sorts of institutional encounters in which people engage, particularly those associated with service‐related activities. The volume contributes to a comprehensive definition of questions that includes both functional and sequential considerations, extends our understanding of the relationship between questions and their role in institutional discourse, and addresses the nature of ordinary versus institutional talk.
Anna Kristina Hultgren and Deborah Cameron
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195306897
- eISBN:
- 9780199867943
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195306897.003.0015
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
This chapter, written by Ann Kristina Hultgren and Deborah Cameron, is concerned with questions in telephone interactions between customers and service personnel (“agents”) in a Scottish call center ...
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This chapter, written by Ann Kristina Hultgren and Deborah Cameron, is concerned with questions in telephone interactions between customers and service personnel (“agents”) in a Scottish call center that is part of a large insurance company; the data involve inbound calls initiated by the customers. The company imposes standards on the agents relating to both efficiency and customer care, applying the same closely controlled strategies to both. The inherent tension between the two sets of objectives puts agents in the position of constantly trying to determine what balance will be acceptable to their superiors. The chapter considers how these conditions affect the use of questions between agents and customers. The authors conclude that power in this interaction belongs to neither of the participants but is located rather in the call center system. [129 words]Less
This chapter, written by Ann Kristina Hultgren and Deborah Cameron, is concerned with questions in telephone interactions between customers and service personnel (“agents”) in a Scottish call center that is part of a large insurance company; the data involve inbound calls initiated by the customers. The company imposes standards on the agents relating to both efficiency and customer care, applying the same closely controlled strategies to both. The inherent tension between the two sets of objectives puts agents in the position of constantly trying to determine what balance will be acceptable to their superiors. The chapter considers how these conditions affect the use of questions between agents and customers. The authors conclude that power in this interaction belongs to neither of the participants but is located rather in the call center system. [129 words]
Alnoor Bhimani
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- August 2004
- ISBN:
- 9780199260386
- eISBN:
- 9780191601231
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199260389.003.0007
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Financial Economics
This chapter argues that organisational control and accounting’s role in it has become an increasingly digitised and technologically enabled process. New centres of calculation have emerged within ...
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This chapter argues that organisational control and accounting’s role in it has become an increasingly digitised and technologically enabled process. New centres of calculation have emerged within post-industrial organisations which, in turn, are facilitating more disembedded and intensified forms of accounting control. This post-industrial phenomenon of organisational control is examined by drawing on a case study of an Australian call centre.Less
This chapter argues that organisational control and accounting’s role in it has become an increasingly digitised and technologically enabled process. New centres of calculation have emerged within post-industrial organisations which, in turn, are facilitating more disembedded and intensified forms of accounting control. This post-industrial phenomenon of organisational control is examined by drawing on a case study of an Australian call centre.
Virginia Doellgast
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801450471
- eISBN:
- 9780801463976
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801450471.003.0004
- Subject:
- Sociology, Occupations, Professions, and Work
This chapter examines organizational restructuring in major telecommunications firms or corporate groups, along with their implications for employees working across networked call centers. ...
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This chapter examines organizational restructuring in major telecommunications firms or corporate groups, along with their implications for employees working across networked call centers. Telecommunications employers have used restructuring measures such as outsourcing, subsidiary creation, and consolidation of jobs in both the United States and Germany to reduce costs, often with the effect of weakening or avoiding collective agreements. Managers either moved work or sold locations to call center subcontractors with substantially lower union density, few collective agreements, and in Germany, weaker works councils. Using a number of case studies, this chapter compares the strategies adopted by labor unions and works councils at major telecommunications firms toward organizational restructuring, and their effects on management strategy and worker outcomes. It shows that organizational restructuring not only had a disorganizing effect on industrial relations institutions in the telecommunications sector, but also has made it more difficult for unions to establish new institutions across the more decentralized “production networks” used by companies to organize their call center work.Less
This chapter examines organizational restructuring in major telecommunications firms or corporate groups, along with their implications for employees working across networked call centers. Telecommunications employers have used restructuring measures such as outsourcing, subsidiary creation, and consolidation of jobs in both the United States and Germany to reduce costs, often with the effect of weakening or avoiding collective agreements. Managers either moved work or sold locations to call center subcontractors with substantially lower union density, few collective agreements, and in Germany, weaker works councils. Using a number of case studies, this chapter compares the strategies adopted by labor unions and works councils at major telecommunications firms toward organizational restructuring, and their effects on management strategy and worker outcomes. It shows that organizational restructuring not only had a disorganizing effect on industrial relations institutions in the telecommunications sector, but also has made it more difficult for unions to establish new institutions across the more decentralized “production networks” used by companies to organize their call center work.
Simon Head
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195179835
- eISBN:
- 9780199850211
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195179835.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Behavioural Economics
In the great boom of the 1990s, compensation to the top level of management soared, but the wage levels of most Americans barely grew at all. This stagnation has baffled experts, but this book points ...
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In the great boom of the 1990s, compensation to the top level of management soared, but the wage levels of most Americans barely grew at all. This stagnation has baffled experts, but this book points to information technology (IT) as the prime cause of this growing wage disparity. Many economists, technologists and business consultants have predicted that IT would liberate the work force, bringing self-managed work teams and decentralized decision making. The book argues that the opposite has happened. Reengineering, a prime example of how business processes have been computerized, has instead simplified the work of middle and lower level employees, fenced them in with elaborate rules, and set up digital monitoring to make sure that the rules are obeyed. This is true even in such high-skill professions as medicine, where decision-making software in the hands of HMO's decides the length of a patient's stay in hospital and determines the treatments patients will or will not receive. In lower-skill jobs, such as in the call center industry, workers are subject to the indignity of scripting software that lays out the exact conversation, line by line, which agents must follow when speaking with customers. The book argues that these computer systems devalue a worker's experience and skill, and subject employees to a degree of supervision which is excessive and demeaning. The harsh and often unstable work regime of reengineering also undermines the security of employees and so weakens their bargaining power in the workplace.Less
In the great boom of the 1990s, compensation to the top level of management soared, but the wage levels of most Americans barely grew at all. This stagnation has baffled experts, but this book points to information technology (IT) as the prime cause of this growing wage disparity. Many economists, technologists and business consultants have predicted that IT would liberate the work force, bringing self-managed work teams and decentralized decision making. The book argues that the opposite has happened. Reengineering, a prime example of how business processes have been computerized, has instead simplified the work of middle and lower level employees, fenced them in with elaborate rules, and set up digital monitoring to make sure that the rules are obeyed. This is true even in such high-skill professions as medicine, where decision-making software in the hands of HMO's decides the length of a patient's stay in hospital and determines the treatments patients will or will not receive. In lower-skill jobs, such as in the call center industry, workers are subject to the indignity of scripting software that lays out the exact conversation, line by line, which agents must follow when speaking with customers. The book argues that these computer systems devalue a worker's experience and skill, and subject employees to a degree of supervision which is excessive and demeaning. The harsh and often unstable work regime of reengineering also undermines the security of employees and so weakens their bargaining power in the workplace.
Sunil Bhatia
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780199964727
- eISBN:
- 9780190690243
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199964727.003.0006
- Subject:
- Psychology, Social Psychology
This chapter analyzes how call center workers, who are mostly middle- and working-class youth, create narratives that are described as expressing modern forms of “individualized Indianness.” The ...
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This chapter analyzes how call center workers, who are mostly middle- and working-class youth, create narratives that are described as expressing modern forms of “individualized Indianness.” The chapter demonstrates how call center workers produce narratives of individualized Indianness by engaging in practices of mimicry, accent training, and consumption; by going to public spaces such as bars and pubs; and by having romantic relationships that are largely hidden from their families. The narratives examined in this chapter are created out of an asymmetrical context of power as young Indians work as “subjects” of a global economy who primarily serve “First World” customers. The interviews with Indian youth reflect how tradition and modernity, mimicry and authenticity, collude with each other to dialogically create new middle-class subjectivities.Less
This chapter analyzes how call center workers, who are mostly middle- and working-class youth, create narratives that are described as expressing modern forms of “individualized Indianness.” The chapter demonstrates how call center workers produce narratives of individualized Indianness by engaging in practices of mimicry, accent training, and consumption; by going to public spaces such as bars and pubs; and by having romantic relationships that are largely hidden from their families. The narratives examined in this chapter are created out of an asymmetrical context of power as young Indians work as “subjects” of a global economy who primarily serve “First World” customers. The interviews with Indian youth reflect how tradition and modernity, mimicry and authenticity, collude with each other to dialogically create new middle-class subjectivities.
Virginia Doellgast
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801450471
- eISBN:
- 9780801463976
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801450471.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Occupations, Professions, and Work
This chapter examines the strategies employed by U.S. and German telecommunications firms and their subcontractors to reorganize call center jobs in hope of improving the productivity and quality of ...
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This chapter examines the strategies employed by U.S. and German telecommunications firms and their subcontractors to reorganize call center jobs in hope of improving the productivity and quality of customer service and sales. Matched case studies in these two industries show that despite similar strategies and objectives, managers in each country established very different employment systems. Labor unions in the United States were unable to prevent managers from intensifying monitoring and discipline to increase productivity. In contrast, unions and works councils in Germany used their strong codetermination rights to promote a more professional, or high-involvement, model of work design that safeguarded employee autonomy and discretion. This chapter highlights the importance of strong institutional supports for workplace democracy in encouraging management to adopt high-road approaches to reorganizing jobs and motivating workers.Less
This chapter examines the strategies employed by U.S. and German telecommunications firms and their subcontractors to reorganize call center jobs in hope of improving the productivity and quality of customer service and sales. Matched case studies in these two industries show that despite similar strategies and objectives, managers in each country established very different employment systems. Labor unions in the United States were unable to prevent managers from intensifying monitoring and discipline to increase productivity. In contrast, unions and works councils in Germany used their strong codetermination rights to promote a more professional, or high-involvement, model of work design that safeguarded employee autonomy and discretion. This chapter highlights the importance of strong institutional supports for workplace democracy in encouraging management to adopt high-road approaches to reorganizing jobs and motivating workers.
Jeffrey J. Sallaz
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- August 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190630652
- eISBN:
- 9780190630690
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190630652.003.0008
- Subject:
- Sociology, Economic Sociology
Straight Filipino men are underrepresented (at approximately 15%) in the call center labor force. Gendered norms about Filipino masculinity, this chapter argues, have established English-language ...
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Straight Filipino men are underrepresented (at approximately 15%) in the call center labor force. Gendered norms about Filipino masculinity, this chapter argues, have established English-language fluency as a feminine, or even gay, trait. “Real men,” so to speak, work with their hands and bodies rather than with their voices. Still, many Filipino men do pursue and obtain call center jobs. They do so as means by which to establish roots in the Philippines rather than migrate abroad. To work in the industry, however, straight men must be able to deflect various challenges to their masculinity. Case studies of male workers are used to illustrate this dynamic.Less
Straight Filipino men are underrepresented (at approximately 15%) in the call center labor force. Gendered norms about Filipino masculinity, this chapter argues, have established English-language fluency as a feminine, or even gay, trait. “Real men,” so to speak, work with their hands and bodies rather than with their voices. Still, many Filipino men do pursue and obtain call center jobs. They do so as means by which to establish roots in the Philippines rather than migrate abroad. To work in the industry, however, straight men must be able to deflect various challenges to their masculinity. Case studies of male workers are used to illustrate this dynamic.
Jeffrey J. Sallaz
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- August 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190630652
- eISBN:
- 9780190630690
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190630652.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Economic Sociology
The call center industry is booming in the Philippines. Around the year 2005, the country overtook India as the world’s “voice capital,” while industry revenues are now the second largest contributor ...
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The call center industry is booming in the Philippines. Around the year 2005, the country overtook India as the world’s “voice capital,” while industry revenues are now the second largest contributor to national GDP. This ethnographic study traces the assemblage of a global market for voice over the past two decades. New information technologies developed during the 1990s and 2000s fed Western firms’ appetite for cheap, English-speaking workers in offshore locales. An initial attempt to build a stable labor market for voice in India failed, owing in large part to gendered norms regarding work and mobility. In the Philippines, in contrast, there is a remarkable affinity between workers and firms. Decades of failed development policies have produced for educated Filipinos a dismaying choice: migrate abroad in search of prosperity or stay at home as an impoverished professional. Offshored call centers, in this context, represent a middle path. Drawing upon case studies of sixty Filipino call center workers and two years of fieldwork in Manila, this book shows how call center jobs allow Filipinos to earn a decent living and stay at home. Filipina women and transgender Filipinos in particular use their voices as strategic resources. Call centers are for them lifelines and lifestyles. Taken as a whole, this study advances debates concerning global capitalism, the future of work, and the lives of those who labor in offshored jobs.Less
The call center industry is booming in the Philippines. Around the year 2005, the country overtook India as the world’s “voice capital,” while industry revenues are now the second largest contributor to national GDP. This ethnographic study traces the assemblage of a global market for voice over the past two decades. New information technologies developed during the 1990s and 2000s fed Western firms’ appetite for cheap, English-speaking workers in offshore locales. An initial attempt to build a stable labor market for voice in India failed, owing in large part to gendered norms regarding work and mobility. In the Philippines, in contrast, there is a remarkable affinity between workers and firms. Decades of failed development policies have produced for educated Filipinos a dismaying choice: migrate abroad in search of prosperity or stay at home as an impoverished professional. Offshored call centers, in this context, represent a middle path. Drawing upon case studies of sixty Filipino call center workers and two years of fieldwork in Manila, this book shows how call center jobs allow Filipinos to earn a decent living and stay at home. Filipina women and transgender Filipinos in particular use their voices as strategic resources. Call centers are for them lifelines and lifestyles. Taken as a whole, this study advances debates concerning global capitalism, the future of work, and the lives of those who labor in offshored jobs.
Virginia Doellgast
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801450471
- eISBN:
- 9780801463976
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801450471.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Occupations, Professions, and Work
This chapter examines the extent to which the case studies discussed earlier are representative of broader trends in the U.S. and German call center industries, as well as of international ...
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This chapter examines the extent to which the case studies discussed earlier are representative of broader trends in the U.S. and German call center industries, as well as of international developments. Survey data show that Germany's call centers were more likely to adopt high-involvement practices, but take-up of some of these practices was strongest where both labor unions and works councils were present. At the same time, patterns of inequality were similar. Average pay and working conditions differed between call centers, with subcontractors having low pay and low collective bargaining coverage in both countries. A comparison of survey results from other countries in North America and Europe also show within-country variation in wages and working conditions, but countries varied somewhat in the structure of union and works council representation as well as in patterns of outcomes.Less
This chapter examines the extent to which the case studies discussed earlier are representative of broader trends in the U.S. and German call center industries, as well as of international developments. Survey data show that Germany's call centers were more likely to adopt high-involvement practices, but take-up of some of these practices was strongest where both labor unions and works councils were present. At the same time, patterns of inequality were similar. Average pay and working conditions differed between call centers, with subcontractors having low pay and low collective bargaining coverage in both countries. A comparison of survey results from other countries in North America and Europe also show within-country variation in wages and working conditions, but countries varied somewhat in the structure of union and works council representation as well as in patterns of outcomes.
Jane Lockwood, Helen Price, and Gail Forey
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789622099470
- eISBN:
- 9789882207264
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789622099470.003.0012
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
This chapter provides an overview of some of the current practices and issues relating to English language and communication, based on research in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry ...
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This chapter provides an overview of some of the current practices and issues relating to English language and communication, based on research in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry since 2004. It also discusses call center discourse in the Philippines, describing preliminary findings relating to features of these interactions and communication problems commonly faced by customer service representatives (CSRs). It also considers what the language implications are of this globalized movement offshore, and what kind of research could inform the development of language support programs for its workforce, initiatives that can better respond to and accommodate the diversity and complexities of the BPO context.Less
This chapter provides an overview of some of the current practices and issues relating to English language and communication, based on research in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry since 2004. It also discusses call center discourse in the Philippines, describing preliminary findings relating to features of these interactions and communication problems commonly faced by customer service representatives (CSRs). It also considers what the language implications are of this globalized movement offshore, and what kind of research could inform the development of language support programs for its workforce, initiatives that can better respond to and accommodate the diversity and complexities of the BPO context.
Rosina Márquez Reiter
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748637201
- eISBN:
- 9780748651559
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748637201.003.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, English Language
This introductory chapter first sets out the purpose of the book, which is to explore the activities that human beings, in their roles of service providers and customers, engage in to supply and ...
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This introductory chapter first sets out the purpose of the book, which is to explore the activities that human beings, in their roles of service providers and customers, engage in to supply and demand a service over the phone. It looks at the way in which language, understood as a cultural tool, mediates action and how this, in turn, reflects socio-cultural practices. It discusses service encounters over the phone, call centres and intercultural communication, and the ordinary-institutional continuum. The chapter then considers previous research on openings and closings in institutional calls.Less
This introductory chapter first sets out the purpose of the book, which is to explore the activities that human beings, in their roles of service providers and customers, engage in to supply and demand a service over the phone. It looks at the way in which language, understood as a cultural tool, mediates action and how this, in turn, reflects socio-cultural practices. It discusses service encounters over the phone, call centres and intercultural communication, and the ordinary-institutional continuum. The chapter then considers previous research on openings and closings in institutional calls.
Rosina Márquez Reiter
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748637201
- eISBN:
- 9780748651559
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748637201.003.0003
- Subject:
- Linguistics, English Language
This chapter provides an analysis of the sequences found in the openings of the inbound and outbound calls, using Zimmerman's (1984, 1992) model as a point of departure. The calls in question are ...
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This chapter provides an analysis of the sequences found in the openings of the inbound and outbound calls, using Zimmerman's (1984, 1992) model as a point of departure. The calls in question are nonemergency calls, that is, they are calls in which a telephone agent aims to sell a specific commodity, in this case a holiday unit, to a (prospective) client. Given the more negotiable nature of the institutional setting examined and the fact that, in most cases, there is, or has been, an existing relationship between the client and the company, the participants' orientation to pattern the interaction as quasi-formal or informal should not come as a surprise. The chapter is divided into two main parts. The first presents the analysis of the inbound calls; the second analyzes outbound calls. In both cases, the in-house rules for receiving and placing calls are discussed before offering the structural account of the calls themselves. The chapter concludes with a summary of findings.Less
This chapter provides an analysis of the sequences found in the openings of the inbound and outbound calls, using Zimmerman's (1984, 1992) model as a point of departure. The calls in question are nonemergency calls, that is, they are calls in which a telephone agent aims to sell a specific commodity, in this case a holiday unit, to a (prospective) client. Given the more negotiable nature of the institutional setting examined and the fact that, in most cases, there is, or has been, an existing relationship between the client and the company, the participants' orientation to pattern the interaction as quasi-formal or informal should not come as a surprise. The chapter is divided into two main parts. The first presents the analysis of the inbound calls; the second analyzes outbound calls. In both cases, the in-house rules for receiving and placing calls are discussed before offering the structural account of the calls themselves. The chapter concludes with a summary of findings.
Jeffrey J. Sallaz
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- August 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190630652
- eISBN:
- 9780190630690
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190630652.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Economic Sociology
The lives of five workers, in three countries, can tell us much about the world of work today. Ashley, a young American, takes a job in a call center following a family tragedy, but quits it as soon ...
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The lives of five workers, in three countries, can tell us much about the world of work today. Ashley, a young American, takes a job in a call center following a family tragedy, but quits it as soon as she is able. Mina, an Indian woman, must leave the industry because the men in her life believe that a “call center job equals a call girl job.” Daisy, from a rural province in the Philippines, desperately seeks call center work as a way to achieve independence. She aspires to be like her cousin Belle, a proud and sophisticated transgender call center agent. Joy, meanwhile, forgoes her dream to migrate and become a nurse in order to stay in the Philippines and make a decent living answering calls.Less
The lives of five workers, in three countries, can tell us much about the world of work today. Ashley, a young American, takes a job in a call center following a family tragedy, but quits it as soon as she is able. Mina, an Indian woman, must leave the industry because the men in her life believe that a “call center job equals a call girl job.” Daisy, from a rural province in the Philippines, desperately seeks call center work as a way to achieve independence. She aspires to be like her cousin Belle, a proud and sophisticated transgender call center agent. Joy, meanwhile, forgoes her dream to migrate and become a nurse in order to stay in the Philippines and make a decent living answering calls.
Kiran Mirchandani
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801450648
- eISBN:
- 9780801464140
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801450648.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Occupations, Professions, and Work
This chapter examines the economy of familiarity that runs through constructions of customer service workers in India. Like the economy of difference, the economy of familiarity occurs when ...
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This chapter examines the economy of familiarity that runs through constructions of customer service workers in India. Like the economy of difference, the economy of familiarity occurs when familiarity is put to work by “involving circuits of production, exchange and consumption.” In the case of the Indian customer service industry, familiarity works to create an “imagined kinhood” between workers in India and those in the West. Such a kinhood is enacted through the notion of professionalism, which is actualized in work processes in India through processes of control. This chapter explores the labor processes through which Western work norms are enacted in Indian call centers. It shows that becoming an ideal transnational customer service worker involves a constant process of enacting, revisioning, and resisting distinctions between the West and India, modern and backward, progressive and traditional. Finally, it argues that Indians are positioned as a model workforce for transnational service work through a well-orchestrated public relations machinery.Less
This chapter examines the economy of familiarity that runs through constructions of customer service workers in India. Like the economy of difference, the economy of familiarity occurs when familiarity is put to work by “involving circuits of production, exchange and consumption.” In the case of the Indian customer service industry, familiarity works to create an “imagined kinhood” between workers in India and those in the West. Such a kinhood is enacted through the notion of professionalism, which is actualized in work processes in India through processes of control. This chapter explores the labor processes through which Western work norms are enacted in Indian call centers. It shows that becoming an ideal transnational customer service worker involves a constant process of enacting, revisioning, and resisting distinctions between the West and India, modern and backward, progressive and traditional. Finally, it argues that Indians are positioned as a model workforce for transnational service work through a well-orchestrated public relations machinery.
Rosina Márquez Reiter
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748637201
- eISBN:
- 9780748651559
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748637201.003.0002
- Subject:
- Linguistics, English Language
This chapter outlines the research perspective adopted and describes the ways in which the data for this study were collected. The data for this book was obtained from the Latin American call centre ...
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This chapter outlines the research perspective adopted and describes the ways in which the data for this study were collected. The data for this book was obtained from the Latin American call centre operations of a multinational holiday exchange company, which is run along similar lines to time shares organisations worldwide. The discussion covers data and ethics, documentary analysis, non-participant observation, interviews and telephone conversations.Less
This chapter outlines the research perspective adopted and describes the ways in which the data for this study were collected. The data for this book was obtained from the Latin American call centre operations of a multinational holiday exchange company, which is run along similar lines to time shares organisations worldwide. The discussion covers data and ethics, documentary analysis, non-participant observation, interviews and telephone conversations.
Kiran Mirchandani
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801450648
- eISBN:
- 9780801464140
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801450648.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Occupations, Professions, and Work
Transnational customer service workers are an emerging touchstone of globalization given their location at the intersecting borders of identity, class, nation, and production. Unlike outsourced ...
More
Transnational customer service workers are an emerging touchstone of globalization given their location at the intersecting borders of identity, class, nation, and production. Unlike outsourced manufacturing jobs, call center work requires voice-to-voice conversation with distant customers; part of the product being exchanged in these interactions is a responsive, caring, connected self. This book explores the experiences of the men and women who work in Indian call centers through one hundred interviews with workers in Bangalore, Delhi, and Pune. As capital crosses national borders, colonial histories and racial hierarchies become inextricably intertwined. As a result, call center workers in India need to imagine themselves in the eyes of their Western clients—to represent themselves both as foreign workers who do not threaten Western jobs and as being “just like” their customers in the West. In order to become these imagined ideal workers, they must be believable and authentic in their emulation of this ideal. In conversation with Western clients, Indian customer service agents proclaim their legitimacy, an effort the book calls “authenticity work,” which involves establishing familiarity in light of expectations of difference. In their daily interactions with customers, managers and trainers, Indian call center workers reflect and reenact a complex interplay of colonial histories, gender practices, class relations, and national interests.Less
Transnational customer service workers are an emerging touchstone of globalization given their location at the intersecting borders of identity, class, nation, and production. Unlike outsourced manufacturing jobs, call center work requires voice-to-voice conversation with distant customers; part of the product being exchanged in these interactions is a responsive, caring, connected self. This book explores the experiences of the men and women who work in Indian call centers through one hundred interviews with workers in Bangalore, Delhi, and Pune. As capital crosses national borders, colonial histories and racial hierarchies become inextricably intertwined. As a result, call center workers in India need to imagine themselves in the eyes of their Western clients—to represent themselves both as foreign workers who do not threaten Western jobs and as being “just like” their customers in the West. In order to become these imagined ideal workers, they must be believable and authentic in their emulation of this ideal. In conversation with Western clients, Indian customer service agents proclaim their legitimacy, an effort the book calls “authenticity work,” which involves establishing familiarity in light of expectations of difference. In their daily interactions with customers, managers and trainers, Indian call center workers reflect and reenact a complex interplay of colonial histories, gender practices, class relations, and national interests.
Kiran Mirchandani
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801450648
- eISBN:
- 9780801464140
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801450648.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Occupations, Professions, and Work
This chapter examines transnational customer service work as a new touchstone of globalization and situates it within contemporary social configurations of race, gender, nationalism, and class. It ...
More
This chapter examines transnational customer service work as a new touchstone of globalization and situates it within contemporary social configurations of race, gender, nationalism, and class. It first provides an overview of several histories that provide elements of the “map” to account for the remarkable growth of the Indian call center industry; these histories include the establishment of schooling infrastructure during colonial rule, state economic and immigration policies, and capital investments in the West aimed at cultivating opportunities for lower labor costs. The chapter proceeds by considering the recent growth of India's technology-related service industry in relation to the broader trends of the transnationalization of service work. It explains how the globalization of service work offers a window into the microprocesses of global economic capitalism. It also analyzes the lived experiences of call center workers and how they straddle three kinds of borders: class borders, citizenship borders, and the borders between production and social reproduction.Less
This chapter examines transnational customer service work as a new touchstone of globalization and situates it within contemporary social configurations of race, gender, nationalism, and class. It first provides an overview of several histories that provide elements of the “map” to account for the remarkable growth of the Indian call center industry; these histories include the establishment of schooling infrastructure during colonial rule, state economic and immigration policies, and capital investments in the West aimed at cultivating opportunities for lower labor costs. The chapter proceeds by considering the recent growth of India's technology-related service industry in relation to the broader trends of the transnationalization of service work. It explains how the globalization of service work offers a window into the microprocesses of global economic capitalism. It also analyzes the lived experiences of call center workers and how they straddle three kinds of borders: class borders, citizenship borders, and the borders between production and social reproduction.
Kiran Mirchandani
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801450648
- eISBN:
- 9780801464140
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801450648.003.0007
- Subject:
- Sociology, Occupations, Professions, and Work
This chapter examines how cultural cloning is facilitated through time, with particular emphasis on the ways in which customer service agents are required to occupy the same temporal space as their ...
More
This chapter examines how cultural cloning is facilitated through time, with particular emphasis on the ways in which customer service agents are required to occupy the same temporal space as their customers. In call centers, time is controlled via notions of professionalism that are closely associated with the clock. Due to their long shifts and night work, customer service agents often perform their duties in a state of physical exhaustion. Given the synchronous nature of transnational customer service work, agents' jobs follow Western clocks, and many of them cite their night-time shifts as the most challenging feature of their jobs. This chapter discusses the social and organizational responses to the challenges involved in working at night. It shows how time norms like punctuality and time management are presented to agents as universally superior naturalized dimensions of Western work cultures. It also considers the gendered nature of time in relation to night work.Less
This chapter examines how cultural cloning is facilitated through time, with particular emphasis on the ways in which customer service agents are required to occupy the same temporal space as their customers. In call centers, time is controlled via notions of professionalism that are closely associated with the clock. Due to their long shifts and night work, customer service agents often perform their duties in a state of physical exhaustion. Given the synchronous nature of transnational customer service work, agents' jobs follow Western clocks, and many of them cite their night-time shifts as the most challenging feature of their jobs. This chapter discusses the social and organizational responses to the challenges involved in working at night. It shows how time norms like punctuality and time management are presented to agents as universally superior naturalized dimensions of Western work cultures. It also considers the gendered nature of time in relation to night work.
Kiran Mirchandani
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801450648
- eISBN:
- 9780801464140
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801450648.003.0004
- Subject:
- Sociology, Occupations, Professions, and Work
This chapter examines the ways in which national interests are defined and nationalisms exercised through calls between Indian customer service agents and Western customers. Through training and work ...
More
This chapter examines the ways in which national interests are defined and nationalisms exercised through calls between Indian customer service agents and Western customers. Through training and work process, the difference between India and the West is enacted to allow Indians to be “understood” by Westerners. Overall, this difference is constructed not only in terms of language and culture but also in terms of nationalist policies and histories. Before discussing how nationalist discourses are expressed in relation to Indian customer service work at call centers, this chapter considers how Indian customer service workers are distanced in terms of their physical location. It also looks at the dramatic shift from locational masking to the open acknowledgment of work in India in the context of Western debates on outsourcing occurring between 2003 and 2004.Less
This chapter examines the ways in which national interests are defined and nationalisms exercised through calls between Indian customer service agents and Western customers. Through training and work process, the difference between India and the West is enacted to allow Indians to be “understood” by Westerners. Overall, this difference is constructed not only in terms of language and culture but also in terms of nationalist policies and histories. Before discussing how nationalist discourses are expressed in relation to Indian customer service work at call centers, this chapter considers how Indian customer service workers are distanced in terms of their physical location. It also looks at the dramatic shift from locational masking to the open acknowledgment of work in India in the context of Western debates on outsourcing occurring between 2003 and 2004.
