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Tensions and Variations in Call Centre Management Strategies

In: Call Centres and Human Resource Management

Author

Listed:
  • Maeve Houlihan

Abstract

Call centres have become part of everyday experience and hold a grip on public imagination. Predominantly, the call centre reflects a ‘mass production approach to customer service’ (Batt, 1999; Cameron, 2000). Volume is managed through task routinization, scripting, and a sophisticated information and communication technology (ICT) architecture configured to distribute, manage and monitor calls. Service quality is managed through a mixture of behavioural management and HR strategies. By these means, call centres seek to balance the logics of efficiency and the customer. The tension between these goals is keenly felt due to heightened visibility of cost trade-offs (Korczynski, 2001, p. 83; Sturdy, 2001, p. 7; Wallace, Eagleson and Waldersee, 2000, p. 174). This tension unmasks a series of conflicts: between costs and quality; between flexibility and standardization; and between constraining and enabling job design.

Suggested Citation

  • Maeve Houlihan, 2004. "Tensions and Variations in Call Centre Management Strategies," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Stephen Deery & Nicholas Kinnie (ed.), Call Centres and Human Resource Management, chapter 4, pages 75-101, Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-230-28880-5_4
    DOI: 10.1057/9780230288805_4
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    Cited by:

    1. Xiangmin Liu & Danielle D. van Jaarsveld & Yoshio Yanadori, 2022. "Customer aggression, employee voice and quit rates: Evidence from the frontline service workforce," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 60(2), pages 348-370, June.

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