Call Centre Work: Smile by Wire: Special Issue of the European Journal of Work and Organisational Psychology, Vol. 12 Issue 4 (European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology)

In our current 'service economy' delivery of services is a major task for industry. Organizations are looking for ways to be accessible to their customers, to be able to promptly answer questions customers may have, or to provide reliable and up-to-date information. This has resulted in the creation of specialized departments for customer contacts: the call centre. Call centres can harbour jobs of different levels of qualification, ranging from unskilled people who are providing standard information (sometimes even reading from prescribed scripts) to frequently asked questions, to highly qualified personnel who deal with unique complex problems. Most articles compiled in this Special Issue are concerned with the working conditions at call centres. Zapf et al. report results of a comparison of a variety of variables between call centres and different kinds of jobs (service jobs, non-service jobs). Bakker et al. show that different kinds of working conditions have different kinds of effects; whilst job demands affect absenteeism via health problems, job resources affect turnover via involvement. Grebner et al. show how a great variety of resources and stressors including aspects of emotion work, which Zapf et al. have identified as particularly high in call centre jobs, are related to health outcomes in call centres. Dollard and Lewig found similar results in Australian call centres, showing that the effects are similar across countries and cultures. Finally, Shah and Bandi present a case study from India (a country where, given the low level of wages and high level of people's qualifications in ICT, many organizations have set up call centres), in which the demand for personnel development in high-knowledge customer-contact-centres is vividly described. This study explicitly shows that there is no technological determinism since the work of the agents in the study is relatively enriched. Book Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 2 Copyright......Page 4 Call centres: High on technology—high on emotions......Page 6 REFERENCES......Page 10 What is typical for call centre jobs? Job characteristics, and service interactions in different call centres......Page 12 Sample......Page 19 Instruments......Page 20 RESULTS......Page 22 DISCUSSION......Page 31 REFERENCES......Page 35 Working conditions, well-being, and job-related attitudes among call centre agents......Page 40 Comparison sample......Page 46 Measures......Page 47 Data analysis......Page 49 Comparison of working conditions, well-being, and job-related attitudes between call agents and the comparison sample......Page 50 Working conditions predicting well-being and job-related attitudes......Page 51 Job design......Page 55 Working conditions, well-being, and the specific role of emotional dissonance......Page 56 Strengths and limitations......Page 57 REFERENCES......Page 58 Emotional dissonance, emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction in call centre workers......Page 64 EMOTIONAL LABOUR......Page 66 EMOTIONAL LABOUR AND ORGANIZATIONAL STRESSORS AND RESOURCES......Page 68 Survey sample......Page 70 Measures......Page 71 Statistical treatment......Page 73 Descriptives......Page 74 Hierarchical regression analyses......Page 77 Role of emotional labour......Page 80 Levels of emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction......Page 82 Methodological considerations......Page 83 CONCLUSIONS......Page 85 REFERENCES......Page 86 Dual processes at work in a call centre: An application of the job demands—resources model......Page 90 JOB DEMANDS—RESOURCES MODEL......Page 91 HEALTH IMPAIRMENT PROCESS......Page 92 MOTIVATIONAL PROCESS......Page 94 Measures......Page 96 Analyses......Page 98 Model testing......Page 99 Dual processes at work in a call centre......Page 104 Limitations......Page 106 Practical implications and suggestions for future research......Page 107 REFERENCES......Page 108 Capability development in knowledge intensive IT enabled services......Page 114 CHARACTERISTICS OF REMOTE TECHNICAL SUPPORT WORK......Page 115 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY......Page 116 CASE BACKGROUND......Page 117 Employee training and development......Page 118 Employee mentoring......Page 119 Service delivery process......Page 120 CONCLUSION......Page 121 REFERENCES......Page 122 European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology Volume 12, 2003, Contents......Page 124 European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology Volume 12, 2003, List of reviewers......Page 126 European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology Volume 12, 2003, Author index......Page 130 This Special Issue is concerned with the working conditions at call centres, which harbour jobs of different levels of qualification. Title from e-book title screen (viewed on August 30, 2005).