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...generated, and empirical analysis of the characteristics of jobs in call centers is carried out. This allows us to determine the level and variability of quality of jobs in this sector and to establish whether the reality of these jobs is as good as the forecasts for work in the new economy.
Keywords: call centers * quality of jobs * human resource management
JEL Classification J50 MOO * O50
Introduction and Purpose
In the past, interactions with clients were traditionally personalized and occurred at a local level. However, with technological advances in information systems and the continually falling prices of national and global telecommunications, there has been a significant tendency for companies to establish their relationships with clients through call centers (Batt & Moynihan, 2002). Indeed, according to Bakker, Demerouti, and Schaufeli (2003) about two-thirds of all interactions with customers take place through call centers. This relatively new method of interacting and communicating with clients has brought with it profound changes. Some of these include changes with regard to the design of work and actual working conditions, and with regard to the nature of competition, which nowadays is increasingly on a global scale.
The incorporation of the call center model facilitates the centralization of customer services, making it possible to centrally attend to customers at an international level. However, according to Korczynski (2002), the main logic of the call center model is based on two (apparently) opposing premises: (1) On the one hand, the model is based on a customer orientation and the provision of high quality service, (2) and on the other hand, the model is routed in maintaining costs low (Deery & Kinnie, 2002). These seemingly opposing forces tend to lead to a trade-off situation between quality and costs. The outcome determines the precise model adopted by the organization and affects the quality of call center jobs, towards a "mass production" (lower costs) or a professional service (higher quality) model (Batt & Moynihan, 2002).
This new mode of interaction with customers through call centers is associated with a broad array of change, in labour market dynamics (new types of jobs and models of employment) and in terms of the global nature of competition. This paper examines questions related to the quality of jobs in call centers and how job quality varies across the whole sector. After many years of forecasting that the jobs of the information society would be strictly of high quality, current existing empirical evidence suggests that the precise nature of these jobs is a complex issue and that many of the stereotypical images for which this sector has become known over recent years, such as "electronic sweatshops" (Garson, 1988), are counterbalanced by evidence which contrasts this picture and suggests that call center employment can also be characterized by employee satisfaction and rewarding jobs (Frenkel, Tam, Korczynski, & Shire, 1998).
This paper examines jobs in the information society and the new economy, taking as its focus the call center industry. More specifically, the study analyzes the degree of variability of the quality of call center jobs in Spain. In order to achieve this objective, an index of job quality is generated, and an empirical analysis of the characteristics of jobs in Spanish call centers is carried out. This allows us to determine the level and variability of the quality of jobs in this sector and to establish whether the reality of these jobs is as good as the forecasts for work in the new economy.
Literature Review
The Call Center
As the emergence and dramatic expansion of the call center sector is a relatively recent phenomenon, there is still some degree of discrepancy on the specific definition of precisely what constitutes a call center. In addition, the constant technological developments characteristic of this sector make it even more difficult to define the boundaries of the activities carried out in a call center (FHOM, 2006), so much so that the term "contact" center is becoming increasingly popular in order to express the diversity of means of reaching the costumer regardless of the technologies involved. The traditional view of the call center is of a commercial activity mediated by computer and other information technologies, that allows the efficient classification and distribution or allocation of incoming and outgoing calls, in which call center employees (or operators) communicate with clients (actual and potential), in order to offer a wide range of services including telemarketing, promotion and general commercialization of products and services, including large scale reservation systems, the provision of (internal and external) technical support, the collection of information and so on.
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