Abstract
This paper presents a study of the consequences of the transformation of part of the Danish Tax and Customs Administration (TAX) from a traditional white-collar public administration into a call centre. TAX participated in the study using ‘Amica’ testing methods aimed at improving the psychosocial working environment in call centres. The results showed a surprising and rapid development from a situation where employees reported a stressful and unsatisfying work environment to one where the organisation had taken a giant stride towards improving the work environment, involving a major shift in leadership and employee identity. The paper discusses this change from a traditional white-collar model to a ‘mass customised bureaucratic’ production one in a New Public Management setting that focuses on cost reduction, customer orientation, performance monitoring and documentation.
Highlights
Call centres have acted as a pivotal point in the international economic development of the last decade, forming part of a trend towards increasing globalisation and embodying the digital revolution that has contributed to a transformation in worldwide economic conditions (Rainnie et al, 2008)
Technological innovation has reframed the terms of doing business by increasingly making geographical distance something negotiable. (Ellis & Taylor, 2006; Rainnie, Barrett, Burgess, & Connell, 2008)
The supply of labour keeps increasing while the costs of labour keeps decreasing (Bristow, Munday, & Griapos, 2009; Glucksmann, 2004; Taylor & Bain, 2007) and the call centre aims to utilise the existing supply of diversely skilled labour to maximum advantage
Summary
Call centres have acted as a pivotal point in the international economic development of the last decade, forming part of a trend towards increasing globalisation and embodying the digital revolution that has contributed to a transformation in worldwide economic conditions (Rainnie et al, 2008). The supply of labour keeps increasing while the costs of labour keeps decreasing (Bristow, Munday, & Griapos, 2009; Glucksmann, 2004; Taylor & Bain, 2007) and the call centre aims to utilise the existing supply of diversely skilled labour to maximum advantage. These changes are creating new conditions and forms for work, organisation and productivity (Ellis & Taylor, 2006; Rainnie, Barrett, Burgess, & Connell, 2008; Taylor & Bain, 2007), where the organisation has to deliver the highest possible output at minimum costs whilst coping with change, ambivalence and immateriality in the pursuit of innovation. It gives prominence to market-based forms of organisation: privatisation, customer relations, outsourcing, downsizing and industrial production techniques such as lean production
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