WORKPLACE COMMUNICATION

Workplace Communication

Workplace Communication

Introduction

Incoming call centres, as a channel of customer service production, have been progressively embraced by Australian companies since the 1970s to play a key role in achieving business efficiencies. Consequently, in order to deliver this key business objective as a critical success factor, the management of efficiency and its measurement in tangible terms becomes integral. While an efficiency directive is not unique to call centres, the structured and controlled management of people and process resulting in the detailed, monitored measurement of customer service representatives' (CSRs) performance does set call centres apart. Korczynski claims in Deery and Kinnie (2002) that “call centre work in infused with two logics, a need to be cost-efficient and a desire to be customer-orientated” (p. 4).

The research examines the dichotomous or pluralistic nature of these logics, as competing or complementary dynamics. The notion of two logics provides a frame within which constructions of meaning can be examined. The relayering of constructions of meaning, in relation to the privileging of quantitative (as cost-efficient logic) and qualitative (as customer-orientated logic) measurement in call centre performance management, is explored through two key research constructs - contextuality and pedagogy.

Contextuality, in this research, is presented holistically as an ethno-cultural dynamic which has evolved from historic-scientific and social-political underpinnings shaping contemporary call centre practices and procedures, the essence of which is the management of efficiency through quantitative and qualitative performance measurement. Pedagogy, as a consequence, is viewed as the medium for (re)constructions of knowledge and meaning which is examined through a lens of contextualised ethno-pedagogical “cultural texts” in relation to the two logics of cost-efficiency and customer-orientation. This proposal examines the nature of workplace ethno-cultural texts and, as pedagogical conduits, their ability to influence the relayering of knowledge and meaning constructs in the prioritisation of work based quantitative and qualitative performance expectations. Texts are reviewed at five major cultural teaching and learning junctures in the employment of a call centre customer service representative (CSR) - recruitment, induction training, on the job training, performance review and self-regulation in the workplace - in terms of three significant influences -structure and management control of the text, workplace socialisation and semiotic literacy.

Call centres

There are two major classifications of call centres - incoming and outgoing - determined by the contact initiator. In incoming call centres the customer initiates the call to the call centre whereas in outgoing the contact is initiated by the call centre to the customer, which is generally known as telemarketing. This research is specific to incoming call centres. As reported in Crouch (2004, 2005), call centres numbered over 2,000 in Australia in 2004, employing more than 160,000 people (Taylor, 2004). In the 1990s there was an annual growth in call centres of 24 percent in Australia (40 percent globally) with businesses conducting 66 percent of commercial transactions through call centres, which percentage was expected to rise to 75 percent by early 2000s (Deloitte and Touche Consulting Group, 1998 in conjunction with ACA Research). With a shift away from traditional shops fronts, ...