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

emotional demands, dissonance in particular. Potential ways to alleviate emotional exhaustion
due to emotional dissonance is to reduce other psychosocial demands, increase rewards, support
and control as conceptualized in the JDR model. Ways to boost job satisfaction are to increase
control, support, and rewards.
(Appears also in Section IV.)
30. Sheeder, Tony and Jennifer Balogh. Say it like you mean it: Priming for structure in caller
responses to a spoken dialog system, International Journal of Speech Technology, 6 (2), 2003,
103–111.
Abstract. In this paper, we report results of a study undertaken to evaluate the initial prompts
of ‘open prompt’ style call-routing applications. Specifically, we examined how placement and
phrasing of examples in the initial query affected caller responses and routing success. We looked
at the comparative effectiveness of placing examples before and after the initial query and of
phrasing these examples such that they promoted either a succinct structure in the form of a
keyword or phrase, or a more complex but natural structure in the form of a question or statement.
Findings indicate that examples encouraging a more natural structure, when presented
prior to the initial query, result in significantly improved routing performance. We discuss this
result in the context of using initial prompts to prime for desired structure in caller responses.
Keywords: Call routing, Call Steering, Natural language, Prompting, Dialog strategy
(Appears also in Section VII.)
31. Zapf, Dieter, Amela Isic, Myriam Bechtoldt and Patricia Blau. What is typical for call centre
jobs? Job characteristics, and service interactions in different call centres, European Journal of
Work and Organizational Psychology, 12 (4), 2003, 311–340.
Abstract. Call centres have been one of the few booming branches in recent years. The main
task of call centre operators is to interact with customers by telephone, usually supported by
computer systems. It has been argued that call centre work is a modern form of “Taylorism”,
because it is characterized by routine tasks, and low level of control for the employees. Moreover,
it has been suggested that there is a high level of stress at work, both with regard to the work
tasks and to the interactions with customers. In the present study, a sample of 375 call centre
employees from eight different call centres was compared with a sample of noncall centre workers
(Nv=v405) in terms of job characteristics, job stressors, and emotional labour (emotion work).
The results showed that call centre workers had worse job characteristics, but were better off
with regard to most job stressors compared to representative comparison groups of no-service
workers, service workers, and workers in human services, respectively. Moreover, compared to
the other groups, customer service representatives (CSRs) had to express less negative emotions,
but were most frequently exposed to states of emotional dissonance. A comparison of the working
conditions of the eight call centres revealed that in most call centres, the working conditions
could be substantially improved. In addition, various call centre parameters, such as inbound
vs. outbound, or inhouse vs. external service centres were examined. The strongest effects were
found for the percentage of time spent on the telephone. With some exceptions, the results
support the view that the majority of call centres have been established to organize mass service
for customers, that the work in the call centres is characterized by routine work and low task
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