Call centers are a very specific type of working environment, wherein the individuals who have chosen to work within the environment and placed side by side, in cubicles placed to create rows, with each individual presented with their own chair, phone and computer, and if the individual is lucky in the company they have chosen, their own headset. Fleming and Sturdy present call centers as electronic panopticons. A panoptic power structure occurs as a result of the micromanagement presented within the call center, and the high levels of monitoring which serve to create the electronic panopticon when used in conjunction with the coercive forms of performance systems that are typically put into place (Fleming & Sturdy, p. 180).
The call center is defined by each of these three distinct components. The micromanagement present within the call center is one of the primary methods utilized in order to create the call center environment, wherein the boss, or overseer, utilizes monitoring techniques which allow them to heavily scrutinize the performance levels of their employees, working to ensure that their metrics are met on a daily basis. These metric systems, wherein the individuals within the call center are required to meet certain numbers on a daily basis, either of resolved issues, of sales, or of a total amount of interactions with customers, serve as a means of allowing those who are doing the micromanaging to be able to create coercive forms of performance, in that an individual must meet a certain quota at minimum, and with additional levels of rewards received after that point is hit. However, if the minimum is exceeded, the individual is expected to meet the new level that they have shown they are able to hit, in spite of it not being within the job description, and for no additional pay. By setting up call centers in such a manner, not only is the panoptic power structure created, but the call center comes to be synonymous with the term “bright, satanic offices” (Fleming & Sturdy, p. 178).
Use your promo and get a custom paper on
"Organization Sciences".
Call Center Regime
Fleming and Sturdy work to describe a call center which utilizes new forms of normative control as a means of distracting employees from the true issues and concerns of the working environment and the policies and procedures that are in place. This type of environment is best described as a humanistic-normative control.
Humanistic-normative management system work to involve fun exercises, culture programs, and the like in order to work to distract the employees’ attention from other controls that are more taxing. Employees are encouraged to be themselves regarding their lifestyle differences, diverse identities, sexualities, and so on, in order to work to distract from the dysfunctionality of the existing technical, conventional, bureaucratic, and cultural controls which serve to not only homogenize the workers, but work to distract employees from the job and the associated issues present with call center work (Fleming & Study, p. 177).
By allowing employees to be themselves and allowing them to work to express their own individualistic styles, it serves as a means of distracting the workers from the poor policies, low pay, and difficult customers by providing a diversion. By providing a “shiny” object, an object for distraction, employees are less likely to work to change their preexisting working conditions, complaining about them, but more interested on discussing the newest tattoo the person sitting next to them has obtained, or commenting on whether or not an individual may get away with blue hair with their specific complexion. This type of call center is more humane, given that it provides a veneer of enjoyment in an otherwise tiring and stressful job, and serves as a means of creating a normative control by which norms are shifted to something outside of the traditional norm, but accepting of the geek and nerd subculture norms and allowing them a place to flourish.
Theories
Taylor’s four principles of scientific management include determining the most efficient way to complete a task, assigning jobs based on the capabilities of workers, monitoring worker performance and providing instruction and supervision regarding performance, and allocating work between managers and workers allowing for the most efficient use of time. McGregor’s Theory X it is the responsibility of management to coerce and control its employees, and through Theory Y it is the responsibility of management to develop employee potential and assist them in realizing their potential through the completion of common goals. Kunda’s engineering culture believes that the corporate culture has specific management techniques which work to mold and shape individuals into the appropriate individuals for the culture of the office that management wishes to present.
The humanistic-normative control discussed by Fleming and Sturdy best shows the application of McGregor’s “Theory X/Y” wherein the management works to coerce and control their employees through the process of offering perks and distractions from the typical work environment, the policies and practices that are put into place within the organization. At the same time, the controls that are put into place, the monitoring systems, the instruction, and the supervision all work to ensure that management is able to see the direction that they wish their employees to go in and are able to provide the necessary pushes in order to get the individuals into a place that is more beneficial to the company through the process of seeing the strengths and weaknesses of the individuals themselves. Furthermore, the two different theories presented by Theory X and Theory Y are shown that in spite of their apparent opposition to each other, they are not mutually exclusive within the call center environment.
- Fleming, P., & Sturdy, A. (2011). ‘being yourself’ in the electronic sweatshop: New forms of normative control. Human Relations, 64(2), 177-200.
