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Contribution to the AMICA expert panel, Copenhagen September 3/4, 2007
Call centres: a global or embedded
production model? The 'Global Call Centre
Industry' project
PD Dr. Ursula Holtgrewe, FORBA, Vienna ([email protected])
The research question
 To what extent are CCs
▫ a globally convergent production model for services
 OR / AND
▫ embedded in societal institutional configurations or
varieties of capitalism that explain variation?
The Global Call Center Industry
Project (www.globalcallcenter.org)
 comparative study in 21 countries
 management survey of CCs in 17
countries (n=2,477)
 case studies and site visits
 co-ordination:
Rose Batt, ILR School, Cornell Univ.,
David Holman, Sheffield University,
Ursula Holtgrewe, FORBA
 immaterial franchise structure with decentral funding (so far, € 1,000,000 + x)
The theory perspective: What
shapes company strategies?
embeddedness
 varieties of capitalism
 National business,
employment,
innovation systems
convergence
 Globalising competition



 service cultures
 gender regimes and
flexible labour markets


information and
communication technology
Deregulation (finance, telco)
strategies mediated by global
consultancies and service
providers
service logics and dilemmas
 customer segmentation
women's employment
Global Similarities
• Young companies, median age 8 years
• 86% serve national markets.
• 2/3 are Inhouse-CC.
• CC have an mean 49 employees, but ¾ of CC
agents work in CC > 230 employees.
• Flat hierarchies: 12% of employees are team leaders
or managers.
• 71% of CC employees are women (exception India
with 50%).
Differences I
“co-ordinated market economies”(AT, DK, DE, FR, IL, NL,
ES, SE) have better jobs
▫ Lower turnover
▫ Higher wages
▫ Higher discretion
▫ More outsourcing
▫ more part-time work
▫ And more presence of unions!
BUT: CC use nearly all the forms of flexibility that a CME
employment system has to offer: e.g. Freelancers in
Austria.
Differences II
B2B CCs have better jobs
▫ Higher wages
▫ Lower turnover
▫ More discretion at work (large business centres)
▫ Less frequent monitoring
▫ More permanent full-time employment
▫ More teamwork
▫ Less union presence!
Differences III
Outsourced CC have worse jobs
▫ Higher turnover
▫ Lower wages
▫ Less discretion at work
▫ More monitoring
▫ More precarious employment (part-time, fixed-term, agency
workers)
▫ Less union presence and less union influence!
GCC: general findings
• CCs are NOT a picture of convergence.
• Size and internationalisation are limited.
• Outsourcing abroad follows language lines, India
is a special case
• Unionisation exists and positively influences
working conditions.
• Outsourcing “works” and limits union influence
• “embedded escapes” of CCs from collective
agreements and regulation.
• The global electronic sweatshops do not represent
the entire picture!
Conclusion from GCC
• Good jobs in call centres are possible.
• Institutions and union presence make positive
differences
• BUT in co-ordinated market economies there is no
reason to feel too smug!
• Outsourcing (not necessarily abroad) and costcutting strategies may massively challenge previous
gains
Outsourcing: some examples
from Germany
• The company agreement of an independent
provider:
▫ performance-based pay not regulated, criteria agreed with
customers
• This year‘s strike at Deutsche Telekom
▫ Outsourcing  sale of CC to independent providers 
establishment of own CC subsidiary with lower wages etc.
Outsourcing: some examples
from Germany
• A service provider working for T-mobile
▫ Competes and is networked with all the large ones (Walter,
arvato, vivento)
▫ Performance and quality measures agreed with customer
▫ One monthly suggestion for improvements is part of contract
with T-mobile
▫ Process defined by T-mobile (50-60 e-mails/day)
▫ Customer requires 2/3 full-time employees
„and the process
changes by the hour, I
could say” (CEO)
What to do?
• Embed CCs in relational value chains, rather than
being captive to large customers
• Build, value and retain customer service expertise
(across customer segments) in the dimensions of
▫ Skills
▫ Discretion
▫ high-trust working environment (use of monitoring)
▫ use of agents‘ problem-solving capabilities