scholarly journals Precariousness and call centre work: Operators’ perceptions in Portugal and Brazil

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 243-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hermes Augusto Costa ◽  
Elizardo Scarpati Costa
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Economic Performance ◽  
Comparative Research ◽  
The Other ◽  
Call Centre ◽  
Work Process ◽  
Call Centres ◽  
Subjective Perceptions ◽  
Common Trend

We present comparative research on operators’ perceptions of the work process in two telecommunications call centres, one in Portugal and the other in Brazil. We argue that, despite the different pace of economic performance in recent years in Portugal and Brazil, there is a common trend towards casualization. Despite differences between the two call centres, both case studies show a process that imposes standardized behaviour. By exploring the subjective perceptions of call centre operators, we contribute to the ‘pessimistic’ (but probably more realistic) strand of literature on call centre work.

Call Centre Evolution in the Digital Government

2011 ◽  
pp. 3980-3986
Author(s):  
V. Ambriola ◽  
S. Bertagnini ◽  
L. Pratesi
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Information Service ◽  
The Other ◽  
Call Centre ◽  
Digital Government ◽  
Call Centres ◽  
Administrative Service ◽  
Relevant Role ◽  
Front Office ◽  
Back Office

Public administration is undergoing a radical transformation. Citizens, rather than administrative documents, will be the primary and active subjects of the process of service supply. A new attitude toward administrative service is emerging. Citizens interact with public administration through new channels such as unified administrative counters, multifunction administrative counters, citizen liaisons offices, and Internet. Furthermore, having in mind the goals of shortening the distance between citizens to public administration and improving efficiency and efficacy of public bodies, the use of call and contact centres is quickly spreading out. It is worth to recall the recent case of Allô Service Public, the unified call centre of the French public administration, which on its first day of activation has been contacted by more than 100,000 people, more than any optimistic expectation. For a public administration, a call centre represents a simple way for interacting with citizens. Call centres provide many advantages such as improved efficiency, increased hours of operation, and reduced costs. The main advantage for citizens is that call centres can provide the information they need, as fast as possible and reducing waiting time. Call centres and contact centres are based on an innovative use of the phone channel, on one side, and on multi-channel strategies of access to service and information, on the other side. The combination of these two aspects allows public administration to develop and activate new modes of managing interaction with citizens. A phone-based information service is often the first channel chosen by citizens that want to get in touch with a public body. Call centres, on the other hands, have a relevant role for implementing the link between front-office and back-office services.

scholarly journals From Black-and-White to Shades of Grey: Research of a Call Centre Employment

1970 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vivienne Hunt ◽  
Erling Rasmussen ◽  
Felicity Lamm
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Comparative Studies ◽  
Comparative Research ◽  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Call Centre ◽  
Employment Practices ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Call Centres ◽  
Comparative Nature

Call centres are a growing phenomenon worldwide. These have prompted extensive research especially from those concerned with the labour processes and employment practices used in these workplaces. Much of the call centre literature is based on comparative research, attempting to analyse the employment environment and making claims about call centre work in general. However, the classification of call centres is not simple and straightforward and the mainly comparative nature of the call centre research is problematic because of this complexity. Many of the comparative studies do not take in the wider perspectives of the organisation, the location, the sector or the division of labour. This paper presents findings from six New Zealand case studies chosen to represent the diversity of the New Zealand call centre sector. The analysis of the findings shows mixed evidence regarding employment outcomes but clearly demonstrates that work in call centres can be very positive for women who work there.

Call Centre Evolution in the Digital Government

2011 ◽  
pp. 158-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Ambriola
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Information Service ◽  
The Other ◽  
Call Centre ◽  
Digital Government ◽  
Call Centres ◽  
Administrative Service ◽  
Relevant Role ◽  
Front Office ◽  
Back Office

Public administration is undergoing a radical transformation. Citizens, rather than administrative documents, will be the primary and active subjects of the process of service supply. A new attitude toward administrative service is emerging. Citizens interact with public administration through new channels such as unified administrative counters, multifunction administrative counters, citizen liaisons offices, and Internet. Furthermore, having in mind the goals of shortening the distance between citizens to public administration and improving efficiency and efficacy of public bodies, the use of call and contact centres is quickly spreading out. It is worth to recall the recent case of Allô Service Public, the unified call centre of the French public administration, which on its first day of activation has been contacted by more than 100,000 people, more than any optimistic expectation. For a public administration, a call centre represents a simple way for interacting with citizens. Call centres provide many advantages such as improved efficiency, increased hours of operation, and reduced costs. The main advantage for citizens is that call centres can provide the information they need, as fast as possible and reducing waiting time. Call centres and contact centres are based on an innovative use of the phone channel, on one side, and on multi-channel strategies of access to service and information, on the other side. The combination of these two aspects allows public administration to develop and activate new modes of managing interaction with citizens. A phone-based information service is often the first channel chosen by citizens that want to get in touch with a public body. Call centres, on the other hands, have a relevant role for implementing the link between front-office and back-office services.

Job burnout in ambito socio-sanitario e produttivo: I call center sono i piů bruciati?

RISORSA UOMO ◽  
2013 ◽  
pp. 467-482
Author(s):  
Laura Petitta ◽  
Simona Manno ◽  
Anna Concetta Rinaldi
Keyword(s):  
Call Center ◽  
Job Burnout ◽  
The Other ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Call Centre ◽  
Healthcare Organizations ◽  
Call Centres ◽  
Healthcare Settings

This contribution has investigated job burnout and interpersonal strain by administering a self-report questionnaire to 1032 subjects from healthcare (503) and productive organizations (529), and, within the latter, 159 from a call centre. Two ANOVAs investigated the differences related respectively to the type of organization: (a) healthcare and productive organizations; (b) healthcare, call centres and other productive organizations. Surprisingly, healthcare organizations display lower levels of job burnout and interpersonal strain as compared to the productive organizations. Nevertheless, call centre' operators, separated by the other productive organizations, displayed higher levels of job burnout and interpersonal strain as compared to employees from other productive organizations, and especially by those from the healthcare settings.

Economic Performance and Public Finance in Kenya, 1960-2010

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kempe Ronald Hope
Keyword(s):  
Public Finance ◽  
Economic Performance ◽  
Emerging Economy ◽  
The Other ◽  
Government Investment ◽  
The Past ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Private Savings ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Real Growth

Countries with positive per capita real growth are characterised by positive national savings—including government savings, increases in government investment, and strong increases in private savings and investment. On the other hand, countries with negative per capita real growth tend to be characterised by declines in savings and investment. During the past several decades, Kenya’s emerging economy has undergone many changes and economic performance has been epitomised by periods of stability, decline, or unevenness. This article discusses and analyses the record of economic performance and public finance in Kenya during the period 1960‒2010, as well as policies and other factors that have influenced that record in this emerging economy. 

The Propaganda Feedback Loop

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yochai Benkler ◽  
Robert Faris ◽  
Hal Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Feedback Loop ◽  
The Other ◽  
Hillary Clinton ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
The Public ◽  
False Reporting ◽  
Media Ecosystem ◽  
Crowd Out ◽  
Selection Of

This chapter presents a model of the interaction of media outlets, politicians, and the public with an emphasis on the tension between truth-seeking and narratives that confirm partisan identities. This model is used to describe the emergence and mechanics of an insular media ecosystem and how two fundamentally different media ecosystems can coexist. In one, false narratives that reinforce partisan identity not only flourish, but crowd-out true narratives even when these are presented by leading insiders. In the other, false narratives are tested, confronted, and contained by diverse outlets and actors operating in a truth-oriented norms dynamic. Two case studies are analyzed: the first focuses on false reporting on a selection of television networks; the second looks at parallel but politically divergent false rumors—an allegation that Donald Trump raped a 13-yearold and allegations tying Hillary Clinton to pedophilia—and tracks the amplification and resistance these stories faced.

scholarly journals Ethnic Hatred and Universal Benevolence: Ethnicity and Loyalty in Precolonial Myanmar, and Britain

2021 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 310-338
Author(s):  
Victor Lieberman
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Popular Sovereignty ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Pressures ◽  
Legal Equality ◽  
The One

AbstractInsisting on a radical divide between post-1750 ideologies in Europe and earlier political thought in both Europe and Asia, modernist scholars of nationalism have called attention, quite justifiably, to European nationalisms’ unique focus on popular sovereignty, legal equality, territorial fixity, and the primacy of secular over universal religious loyalties. Yet this essay argues that nationalism also shared basic developmental and expressive features with political thought in pre-1750 Europe as well as in rimland—that is to say outlying—sectors of Asia. Polities in Western Europe and rimland Asia were all protected against Inner Asian occupation, all enjoyed relatively cohesive local geographies, and all experienced economic and social pressures to integration that were not only sustained but surprisingly synchronized throughout the second millennium. In Western Europe and rimland Asia each major state came to identify with a named ethnicity, specific artifacts became badges of inclusion, and central ethnicity expanded and grew more standardized. Using Myanmar and pre-1750 England/Britain as case studies, this essay reconstructs these centuries-long similarities in process and form between “political ethnicity,” on the one hand, and modern nationalism, on the other. Finally, however, this essay explores cultural and material answers to the obvious question: if political ethnicities in Myanmar and pre-1750 England/Britain were indeed comparable, why did the latter realm alone generate recognizable expressions of nationalism? As such, this essay both strengthens and weakens claims for European exceptionalism.

scholarly journals Zero-Tolerance in Catalonia: Policing the Other in Public Space

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Lundsteen ◽  
Miquel Fernández González
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Zero Tolerance ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Effects ◽  
Main Argument ◽  
Sociocultural Practices

AbstractRecent studies have argued for more nuanced understandings of zero tolerance (ZT) policing, rendering it essential to analyze the significance and actual workings of the policies in practice, including the context in which they are introduced. This article aims to accomplish this through a comparison of two case studies in Catalonia: one in the neighborhood of Raval in Barcelona and one in Salt—a municipality in the comarca (or county) of Girona. We identify a transformation in the use of ZT policies in Catalonia and a contradiction between their social effects and proclaimed objectives. This article attempts to address how specific sociocultural groups gain power and privilege from these policies. The main argument is that a set of commonsensical ideas have become hegemonic, which allows and naturalizes certain sociocultural practices in urban space, while persecuting others, fundamentally pitting two categories against each other: the desired civil citizen and the undesirable and uncivil stranger.

The socio-economic and demographic characteristics of port cities: a typology for comparative analysis?

Urban History ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Lee
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Urban Development ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Comparative Research ◽  
Common Factors ◽  
Demographic Characteristics ◽  
Port Cities ◽  
Dominant Ideology ◽  
Merchant Capital ◽  
History Of

ABSTRACTThis article addresses a range of conceptual issues relating to the history of European port cities in order to construct a framework for comparative research. Port cities played a key role in European urban development and their growth was often determined by common factors. Particular attention is paid to the demography of port cities, their specific labour markets and the dominant ideology of merchant capital. The article establishes a basis for analysing case studies of individual port cities and for exploring their location within the overall process of European urbanization.

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