Taylorism, targets and the pursuit of quantity and quality by call centre management

Bain, P.M. and Watson, A.C. and Mulvey, G. and Taylor, P. and Gall, G. (2002) Taylorism, targets and the pursuit of quantity and quality by call centre management. New Technology, Work and Employment, 17 (3). pp. 170-185. ISSN 0268-1072 (https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-005X.00103)

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Abstract

The paper locates the rise of the call centre within the context of the development of Taylorist methods and technological change in office work in general. Managerial utilisation of targets to impose and measure employees' quantitative and qualitative performance is analysed in four case-study organisations. The paper concludes that call centre work reflects a pardigmic re-configuration of customer servicing operations, and that the continuing application of Taylorist methods appears likely.

ORCID iDs

Bain, P.M., Watson, A.C., Mulvey, G., Taylor, P. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8842-5350 and Gall, G.;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)