Abstract:
Some portray call centres as "the new sweatshops"; others argue that employee resistance
makes managerial control far from perfect. However, both are essentialist positions which
attribute outcomes to innate features of call centres per se. We argue against this in favour of
a contextualist position which recognizes different types of call centres and different types of
"outcomes" due to the interactive effect of call centre features and their context. We found
that ING Direct call centre operators recognize monitoring of their work but overwhelmingly
describe their work as 'fun'. We analyse the contextual elements which contribute to this
position including the limited financial products, the inbound nature of calls and the wider
culture, hr and reward systems which prevail.
