Trapped but smilling
Researchers of the world of work have noted that the rise in call centres globally and in SA may signal the return of the panopticon style of management.
Academic Rahmat Omar says in an article ("New work order or more of the same? Call centres in SA") that call centres have been characterised as electronic panopticons.
International call centres are relatively new in SA. The first was established just under a decade ago. Recently, deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka indicated that the country was looking to call centres to help alleviate unemployment.
Estimates of the current size of the industry vary, but there could be more than 65 000 people already employed in SA. According to a recent Financial Times report, SA’s call centre industry is growing more rapidly than any other.
It is safe to say that call centres will be a dominant feature of the service industry of the future. Thus their management models could influence practices for years to come.
According to Eddie Webster, professor of industrial sociology at Wits University, work in call centres has distinctive features. "It is primarily emotional labour. This kind of labour involves the employee exhibiting certain emotional behaviours in order to induce an emotional state in the customer."
Webster notes that the work is routine, much like an assembly line. There are high levels of control and surveillance. Employees have to fake emotions and even a new persona to do the job. Researchers report significant levels of racial and gender-based abuse by customers.
According to trade union federation Cosatu, the work hours are long and shifts irregular. It says the rise of mass call centres in the developing world is also a sign of social dumping – a practice whereby the developed world, as part of the global outsourcing phenomenon, reserves jobs at the lower end of the value chain for semiskilled people in the developing world.
Cosatu’s study indicates that the industry has high levels of stress and depression owing to the pace of work, the hyper-monitoring and surveillance, and the shift work. The staff turnover rate is estimated at 30% – but Wits Business School’s Mike Bendixen, who lectures on call centre management, says he suspects it is higher.
In India, which developed a large call centre industry earlier than SA, rises in depression, suicide and family dysfunction have been noted. Call centre agents in India are asked to adopt a new accent, a new name and a virtual identity. Often this leads to problems, as a daily transition must be made from one identity to the other.
Webster says this has tended not to be the practice in SA, even though voice modulation training does take place in large centres that deal mainly with foreign calls.
He also says the identity issues suffered by call centre employees in India would not come as a big surprise to black call centre workers in SA, as they have a history of generations of dual identities – one for work and one for the rest of their lives.
The more advanced and sensitive social engineering that goes into call centres aims to mitigate the negative social aspects. Methods include having music piped through the building to soften the environment, ensuring proper ergonomics and modern work equipment in good condition, scenic environments with plants and light, as well as addressing work-life balance issues through social clubs and corporate creches.
Bendixen says SA is still at the stage where management – particularly in financial services institutions – protect themselves from negative public feedback by using call centres.
He believes that management needs to address two main issues.
The first is to concentrate on product development and quality, and use the call centres only as a strategic feedback tool, not as a place to dump complaints.
The second issue is that managers in corporations need to enter into discussions with labour over the understaffing of SA call centres.
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