Call Centres Between Service Orientation and Efficiency: "The Polyphony of Telephony"

Call Centres are not an industry of their own, but a specific type of work organisationwhich can be realised under various conditions: as a part of already existingcompanies, through outsourcing or in the shape of independent service providers. Itis one of the central objectives of call centres to handle customer contacts by phoneas efficiently and economically as possible, by concentrating them in specificorganisational units. Call centres tend to be characterised by a pronounced divisionof labour within companies or between companies, respectively. In many cases, thisis also reflected in the organisation of operations. Tasks tend to be highly standardised,frequently monotonous and with a short time allowed for completion. It isagainst this background that call centre work is often described as a form of “neo-Taylorism” of service activities. At the same time, call centres are claimed to provideexcellent service. There can be no doubt that in the area of so-called “interactiveservice work” social competences and technical skills of the employees have animportant impact on the quality of services rendered.This paper focuses on the question of how call centres manage the dilemmabetween economic efficiency and service goals, and discusses its impact on humanresource management strategies, the quality of work and employee satisfaction. Itshows that workplace quality in call centres differs considerably in practice. Despitethese intricate framework conditions, starting points for an improved work design andcollectively agreed regulation exist and may be turned to good use.