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

manifest themselves in different ways according to type of work, levels of worker autonomy and
organizational support.
Keywords: Studies, Call centers, Software industry, Work life programs, Working conditions,
Statistical analysis
(Appears also in Section VIII.)
28. Korczynski, Marek. Communities of coping: Collective emotional labour in service work, Organization,
10 (1), 2003, 55-79.
Abstract. This article argues that communities of coping among front-line service workers are
an important part of what Hochschild has called “collective emotional labor” in service work.
The analysis is framed in a sociological understanding of the customer as the key source of both
pleasure and pain for service workers. Irate and abusive customers, who are systematically part
of the social relations of the service workplace, may occasion real pain in service workers. The
structure of workers’ social situation means that they are likely to turn to each other to cope
with this pain, forming informal communities of coping. Drawing an extensive research in four
call centers in Australia and the US, this article highlights this important process in action. The
communities of coping were an important social process in these workplaces, creating informal,
dense cultures among the workforce. These cultures had important implications for how far the
social relations of the workplace were open to management control.
Keywords: Corporate culture, Organizational behavior, Studies, Call centers, Service industries,
Customer relations, Emotions
(Appears also in Section IV.)
29. Lewig, K.A. and M.F. Dollard. Emotional dissonance, emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction
in call centre workers, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 12 (4), 2003,
366–392.
Abstract. The rapid rise of the service sector, and in particular, the call centre industry, has
made the study of emotional labour increasingly important within the area of occupational stress
research. Given high levels of turnover and absenteeism in the industry, this article examines
the emotional demands (emotional labour) of call centre work and their relationship to job satisfaction
and emotional exhaustion in a sample of South Australian call centre workers (NV=v98)
within the theoretical frameworks of the job demand v-v control model, the effort v-v reward imbalance
model, and the job demands v-v resources model. Qualitatively, the research confirmed
the central role of emotional labour variables in the experience of emotional exhaustion and
satisfaction at work. Specifically, the research confirmed the pre-eminence of emotional dissonance
compared to a range of emotional demand variables in its potency to account for variance
in emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction. Specifically, emotional dissonance mediated the
effect of emotional labour (positive emotions) on emotional exhaustion. Furthermore, emotional
dissonance was found to be equal in its capacity to explain variance in the outcomes compared
to the most frequently researched demand measure in the work stress literature (psychosocial
demands). Finally, emotional dissonance was found to exacerbate the level of emotional exhaustion
at high levels of psychosocial demands, indicating jobs combining high levels of both
kinds of demands are much more risky. Future theorizing about work stress needs to account for
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