CALL CENTERS (CENTRES) - Faculty of Industrial Engineering and ...

on the roles, skills, and competencies of customer agents, are critical. So too are the ways in
which human resource practices are employed in this relatively new and fast-growing form of
organisation.
Keywords: Communications industries, Information technology, Professionalism, Motivation
38. Bagnara, S., R. Bugatti, F. Gabrielli and A. Morawetz. Customer contact centers: Perspectives
in work organisation. WWDU 2002—World Wide Work. Proceedings of the 6th International
Scientific Conference on Work with Display Units, H. Luczak, A.E. Cakir and G. Cakir (Eds.).
Ergonomic Institut fur Arbeits- und Sozialforschung, Forschungsgesellschaft mbH, Berlin, 2002,
79–81.
Abstract. Many people are currently employed in call centres and many more are expected to
work in them in the near future. As shown by an overview of work in call centres carried out
during a European project (Euro-Telework), operators coordinate and take care of the relationship
with customers. They fully represent the company. Their work in practice is based on a
processing of distributed knowledge that is dynamic and continuously evolving. Nevertheless,
they have to face a sort of ‘tayloristic’ organization that hampers knowledge sharing and reduces
the quality of work. Additionally, there is scarce attention to training, retention and career development
of agents. The paper reports a case study where a team-based perspective has been
set out for building and empowering new professional roles in order to make the contact centres
evolve from customer care to customer relationship management structures.
Keywords: Training, Team work
39. Bain, Peter and Phil Taylor. Ringing the changes? Union recognition and organisation in call
centres in the UK finance sector, Industrial Relations Journal, 33 (3), 2002, 246–261.
Abstract. The massive rise in UK call center employment in recent years has been closely
related to developments in the finance sector. This paper analyzes these developments in order
to contextualize the organizational experiences of unions in the sector. Recruitment activity in
both hostile and compliant employer environments, and findings from the first national survey
of call center employees’ attitudes towards trade unionization, are discussed, as the prospects for
union recruitment and organization are assessed. On the basis of the findings reported here, and
on what is known about sectoral developments, it is not possible to make a definitive calculation
of the extent of union membership of density in finance sector call sectors. However, despite
uneven development in relation to individual unions and companies, the research indicates some
growth in both union membership and employer recognition.
Keywords: Studies, Labor unions, Labor relations, Call centers, Recruitment, Memberships
40. Batt, Rosemary. Managing customer services: Human resource practices, quit rates, and sales
growth, Academy of Management Journal, 45 (3), 2002, 587–597.
Abstract. This study examines the relationship between human resource practices, employee
quit rates, and organizational performance in the service sector. Drawing on a unique nationally
representative sample of call centers, multivariate analyses show that quit rates are lower and
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