ESRC Project: Managing call centres Knowledge, learning and subjectivity at work in consumer products and financial services; executive summary

Full report at m02/39280SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:m02/39281 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Keeping up appearances: recruitment, skills and normative control in call centres

This book looks at human resource management in call centres from an international perspective and uses research from leading academics in the field. The characteristics and features of working in a call centre are examined, followed by the effects that this type of work has on employees and their responses to it. It also looks at implications for employers and policy makers. This chapter examines recruitment, skills and normative control in call centres

Multinational retailers in China: proliferating 'McJobs' or developing skills?

Much has been written on the nature of skills and the extent to which there is increased skills development or a deskilling of workers in modern workplaces. This paper broadens the debate and explores these issues in the novel context of UK- and Japanese-invested retailers' operations in China. Data derived from over two hundred interviews at twelve retail stores in six Chinese cities and questionnaires completed by almost eight hundred employees elicited contextualized accounts of interactive service workers' own perceptions of their training and skills development. It was found that these firms made a substantial contribution to skills development, fostered and enhanced both directly by company training and also through experiential workplace-based learning. It might be, however, that this constitutes an essential but 'one-off' increase in skills in transitional economies such as that of China

What Happened Next? A Follow-Up Study of the Long-Term Relevance and Impact of a Collaborative Research Project

Focusing on the impact of management research has increasingly triggered reflections on collaborative modalities that may generate more engaged and impactful research. Continuing this debate, this chapter aims to contribute to foundational knowledge in the realm of collaborative research. The social nature of the collaborative relationship and process, as well as criteria for impact and the role of key actors, appear to enhance the generation of relevant results, determining impactful courses of action that develop even in the long term. This chapter draws on follow-up interviews on the long-term relevance and impact of an earlier collaborative research project, illustrating the relevance of actionable knowledge and its long-term impact in an organisation. In this context, the discussion emphasises the social nature of the collaboration, while the implications focus on relationships between collaborative research and the development of soft skills and entrepreneurial human capital