Working at the interface

Call-centre labour in a global economy

Bibliographic Data

ID21189752
AuthorsUrsula Huws (0000-0003-0774-1023, corresponding author), Ursula Huws Ursula Huws
Year2009
Volume3
Issue1
Publication date2009-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueWork Organisation Labour & Globalisation (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1745-641X • E-ISSN: 1745-6428
PublisherPluto Journals (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.13169/workorgalaboglob.3.1.0001
OpenAlexW564455008
LanguageEN
Citations received12
References cited11

Introducing this volume, this paper describes the contradictory nature of many aspects of call-centre work, drawing on the results of the EC-funded STILE project to demonstrate the difficulties of classifying call-centre workers. The lack of a clear objective ‘place’ in the technical division of labour and the social order for this transient and poorly-defined workforce is mirrored by a subjective failure, on the part of call-centre workers, to identify themselves as such. This makes it difficult to develop stable collective occupational identities that could form a basis for organisation and representation. Such conflicts are exacerbated by call-centre workers' position ‘at the interface’ between companies and their customers and between the local and the global. Many are also having to deal with the difficult transition from other types of work to call-centre work as the process of ‘callcenterisation’ sweeps through the public sector as well as private companies. The paper concludes by noting that, despite many similarities between call centres across the globe, national industrial relations systems and other aspects of particular locations still make a significant difference to the working conditions of call-centre workers

Business · Call centre · Division of labour · Globe · Political science · Private sector · Public relations · Sociology · Telecommunications · Workforce · Computer Science · Emotional Labor in Professions · Employment and Welfare Studies · Engineering · Labor Movements and Unions · Law · Psychology · Industrial Relations