Problems in Call Centres

Call centres are controversial (Richardson and Howcroft, 2006). On the one hand, they may help businesses and employees, but on the other they may cause operational and labour problems (Ellis and Taylor, 2006; Houlihan, 2002; Richardson and Howcroft, 2006). Employees respond in various ways to call centre work. Optimism generated by predictions of spectacular expansion has been tempered by more critical assessments of call centres. The popularity and growth of computer-enabled customer contact centres has spawned powerful images seeking to capture the essence of this form of work organisation. For example, call centres have been characterised as “electronic sweatshops”, “electronic panopticons”, “dark satanic mills of the twenty-first century”, ‘‘battery farms’’ and “assembly lines in the head” (Fernie and Metcalf, 1998; Taylor and Bain, 2000; Rose and Wright, 2005; Wegge et al., 2006). These characterisations delineate the nature of work in call centres. Call centres are considered to be dead-end jobs that are poorly paid, closely monitored and highly routinised. Although this is far from a uniform picture, it is clear that the purpose of call centres is to deliver customer service at the lowest possible cost (Deery and Kinnie, 2002:4). They seek to rationalise the work process through the extensive use of advanced information technology and to

standardise service encounters with functionally equivalent and interchangeable service providers. This has important implications for worker wellbeing. The pressure to maximise call volume and minimise costs may lead to jobs that limit employee discretion and fail to make full use of workers’ skills. Most call centres operate on an engineering model and are run like a production line. Jobs are narrowly constructed, interactions with customers are tightly scripted and electronic surveillance is widespread. Employees often have very little free time during their working day and are presented with few opportunities for respite from the constant emotional demands of the job (Deery and Kinnie, 2002).

Research on call centres has demonstrated that high job demands (workload, call volume, concentration, problem solving, role ambiguity) and low job resources (control over method, timing and interactions, social support, participation, supervisor relationships, skill utilisation) are associated with various indicators of poor psychological wellbeing such as anxiety, depression, emotional exhaustion, psychosomatic complaints, absenteeism and turnover (Wegge et al., 2006). In addition, poor work station design, prolonged computer use, repetitive physical movements of computer-based work, and job demands have been linked to musculoskeletal disorders of the wrist, neck, shoulder and back (Holman, 2005; Schleifer, Galinsky and Pan, 1996). A study of 936 employees in 22 call centres argued that upper body and lower back disorders are mediated by psychological strain. Using logistic regression and structural equation modelling, Sprigg et al. (2007:1456) found that the relationship between workload and musculoskeletal disorders of the upper body and lower back was largely accounted for by job-related strain.

Writers on the experiences and behaviours of call agents (Knights and McCabe, 1998; Taylor, 1998; McKinlay and Taylor, 1996) identify themes such as stress, disengagement, resistance, emotional labour and reduced space for “escape” (Houlihan, 2000:230). These workplace experiences are thought to contribute to high levels of staff turnover in the call centre industry (Holman, 2005:111). Baumgartner, Good, and Udris (2002), for example, examined 242 call agents in 14 call centres in Switzerland and found high levels of turnover (annual rates of between eight and fifty per cent) and absence. In their sample, the most frequently cited reason for call agents leaving was monotony (Sprigg and Jackson, 2006:197). The United States Department of Labor has reported costs from musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) of more than $50 billion a year (Coovert and Thompson, 2003). The most recent equivalent figure for the United Kingdom is £5.7 billion, with MSDs accounting for some 11.6 million lost working days a year (Health and Safety Executive, 2005, cited in Sprigg, Stride and Smith, 2007:1456).

Other studies, however, present a quite different image of call centre work. Research on call centres in Germany (Holtgrewe, 2003) and in several other countries (Batt, 1999; Kinnie et al., 2000; Frenkel et al., 1999; Van den Broek, 2003; Wray-Bliss, 2001) suggests that it is inappropriate to lump all call centres together. Call centres cannot easily be characterised as offering badly paid, monotonous and simple service work (Weinkopf, 2006:58). Dormann and Zijlstra (2010:306) argue that call centres are indeed the result of a modern rationalisation process, but that does not mean that all people working in call centres have little variety and no control over their work.

For example, Frenkel et al. (1998, cited in Deery and Kinnie, 2002:4) point to a greater diversity in call centre work, revealing environments in which jobs provide challenge and interest and where the skills of front-line workers are acknowledged and valued. Evidence suggests that call centres offer a number of organisational and employee benefits (Sprigg and Jackson, 2006:197). With regard to organisations, they may provide various business advantages, such as greater efficiency, a high degree of flexibility and responsiveness, reduced dependence on employee skills and substantial cost savings (Houlihan, 2000:228). Call centres may reduce the cost of existing functions, improve customer service facilities and offer new avenues for revenue generation, such as exploiting customer databases for direct selling (Holman, 2003:123). By using call centres, large organisations may reduce their core employee numbers and costs, while still benefiting from continuous, and in some cases extended, service provision (Burgess, and Connell, 2006:2). Indeed, call centres are a good example of how networking and business-to-business relationships can generate significant financial and efficiency gains (Burgess and Connell, 2006:5). Economies of scale, overhead reductions and new selling opportunities are facilitated by the distinctive integration of telephone and computer technologies such as ACD systems, which enable remote customers to be connected in real time to service centres, and are realised through novel forms of labour utilisation and work organisation (Batt, 1999; Holman, 2005; Taylor and Bain, 2006).

In terms of call centre employees, several studies have been less negative, especially those directly comparing call centre employees with those in other occupations. For example, in a study of 339 Swiss call centre employees, Grebner et al. (2003) compared

call agents with a group comprising five occupations (cooks, sales assistants, nurses, bank clerks and electronics technicians) and found similar levels of wellbeing and less intention to quit among call agents (Sprigg and Jackson, 2006:197). The results of a study by Holman (2003:129) show that call centres are not all “electronic sweatshops” and that levels of wellbeing are similar to other work environments. Call centre work is not inevitably stressful for employees. Cross-national studies conducted by Frenkel et al. (1998, 1999) and also reported in Korczynski (2002:95) suggest quite high levels of overall satisfaction, with nearly three quarters of respondents reporting some satisfaction with their job. The greatest satisfaction appears to be derived from customers (“helping people”) and from the camaraderie and social support that develops in the work environment (Deery and Kinnie, 2002:9). There is evidence, for example, that some find this form of service work greatly rewarding, enjoying the social interaction and peer support that exists in many centres (Deery and Kinnie, 2002:9).