'You gotta lie to it': software applications and the management of technological change in a call centre

This paper advances an extended material analysis to the study of technological change in a call centre. It shows how such an analysis is particularly apropos for understanding the distance that often separates managerial intentions in introducing a new technology from the outcomes associated with how workers utilise it.     

'We have the values': customers, control and corporate ideology in call centre operations

This article analyses the use of normative control through recruitment, work organisation, social events, and bargaining processes within two Australian telecommunication call centres. Rather than arguing that such control reduced employees to 'self-disciplining subjects', it suggests that these control mechanisms embodied significant levels of managerial coercion and therefore attracted varying levels of resistance.     

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

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.     

Shadowboxing with data: production of the subject in contemporary call centre organisations

Tertiary labour is the fastest growing form of work in the West. Additionally, computer and telecommunication mediation of labour is increasingly prevalent. However, little research focuses on subjectivity in technology-mediated tertiary labour. Taking a Foucaultian orientation, this paper describes how desires of subjects and organisations are rendered into power/knowledge and affect subjectivity in one variant of technology-mediated tertiary labour.     

Visible moves and invisible bodies: the case of teleworking in an Italian call centre

Popular images of teleworkers' autonomy, such as 'the electronic cottage', give unrealistic pictures of the control exercised over teleworkers, particularly when these are call centre operators and highly integrated information and communication technology systems facilitate pervasive forms of control. However, this study of Italian home-located call centre operators demonstrates that extensive and multifaceted monitoring practices cannot 'solve' the controversial issue of control.     

Knowing what engineering and technology teachers need to know: an analysis of pre-service teachers engineering design problems

With the rapid advances in civilization, technological breakthroughs, and a globally growing workforce, there is a strong need for engineers capable of working in the 21st century environment (Galloway, The 21st century engineer: A proposal for engineering education reform. ASCE, Washington DC 2008). To help increase the quality and quantity of students choosing to pursue engineering, leaders have called on K-12 education to look for methods of inserting pre-engineering into the K-12 curriculum. Leaders in technology education have responded to the call to develop top quality candidates for engineers by infusing engineering into the technology education curriculum. Teacher preparation programs have used various methods to provide future technology teachers with the required content knowledge in order to effectively teach engineering design within the technology curriculum. One such program uses an ABET accredited engineering curriculum for the content and additional training to strengthen engineering education pedagogy for technology teachers. Students who graduate from this program possess both an engineering degree and technology teaching license. The purpose of this investigation was to ascertain the differences between technology teachers from this program and traditionally trained technology teachers. In particular, how each group incorporates the engineering design process in classroom assignments. Design briefs were gathered from pre-service teachers who graduated from the aforementioned program and compared to design briefs of practicing technology teachers around the United States. The engineering design process was used to develop a rubric to compare the usage of engineering content between the two groups. It was found that students with 4 years of engineering training were more likely to use all steps of the engineering design process. Further examination illustrates that engineering trained technology teachers were significantly more likely to use mathematical and analytical methods to determine optimum solutions. In order for technology education teachers to effectively infuse engineering design into coursework, they need to be familiar and comfortable with the engineering sciences and the design process. With limited engineering design experience, technology teachers are not as likely to use optimization techniques involving mathematical and analytical reasoning. These concepts are critical for engineering students to be successful in college engineering programs and beyond.     

The construction of control: the physical environment and the development of resistance and accommodation within call centres

The paper explores the impact of the physical environment on employee resistance and accommodation. The findings suggest that the physical nature of call centres, whether purpose built or not, can be a focus of employee dissatisfaction and reflect broader, less concrete conflicts. It notes that the advantage of the physical environment as an arena for resistance lies in its tangibility.     

The entrepreneurial imagination and the impact of context on the development of a new venture

This paper sets out to explore the impact of a new venture's context on its development. The study consists of a single case study based on a new venture attempting to exploit an opportunity in the life sciences and charts the impact that the context, in particular actors that the venture are trying to gain resources from, have upon the plans, activities and resources developed by this nascent firm. Spanning the time period of 1999-2006, this case outlines four periods of development of the venture. This accounts for the initial plans of the venture, their struggle to gain venture financing, the development of the venture's technological resources and the attempts to create commercial relationships. The study shows the impact that institutions used in a context have on this venture leading to, among other things, the discovery of IP, finding a CEO and developing a product line.     

The impact of market orientation on the development of relational capabilities and performance outcomes: The case of Russian industrial firms

The article investigates the role of market orientation as an antecedent for the development of relational capabilities and performance in Russian industrial firms. We test the direct role of different aspects of market orientation on business performance in comparison to an indirect and mediated influence via improving a firm's ability to become embedded in relational structures. The results of an empirical study demonstrate the differential impact of components of market orientation - customer orientation, competitor orientation, and interfunctional coordination - as direct and indirect antecedents of relational capabilities and thus subsequently of overall firm performance. It can be shown that in Russian industrial markets competitor orientation directly and positively impacts on performance, while the other two components of market orientation have only a mediated effect on performance via the development of relational capabilities.     

树立和落实科学发展观 促进煤炭工业可持续发展

煤炭是我国的基础能源和重要原料，在国民经济中具有重要战略地位。从我国能源结构看．煤炭将长期是主要能源。党中央、国务院对煤炭工业发展非常重视和关心。去年以来，国务院多次研究煤炭工作，作出了一系列决策部署．确定了以煤炭为主体、电力为中心、油气和新能源全面发展的战略，要求采取综合配套措施，立足当前，着眼长远，远近结合，标本兼治，缓解煤炭供需紧张状况，     

贯彻和落实科学发展观深化改革，加强自律全面推进煤炭工业协调健康发展

近一时期．协会针对煤炭市场变化多次召开座谈会，主动与其他行业交流情况．分析煤炭市场变动趋势，目的是引导全行业认真贯彻和落实科学发展观，坚持走新型工业化道路，抓住机遇，推进结构调整，促进经济增长方式转变，实现煤炭工业全面、协调、可持续发展。     

The impact of OEM supplier initiatives on buyer competence development: The moderating roles of collaborative relationship and competitive environment

This paper explains the impact of original equipment manufacturing (OEM) supplier initiatives, which are proactive and deliberate behaviors, on buyer competence development. It argues that these adaptive and proactive behaviors in the outsourcing relationship have a significant impact on buyers’ competence development. The sample population consisted of 800 OEM suppliers in Taiwan. SPSS was used to examine the causal relationships among the variables. The empirical results indicate that OEM supplier initiatives have a positive effect on buyer competence development. In addition, two of three collaborative relationship variables—information sharing and long-term collaboration—foster the relationship between OEM supplier initiatives and buyer competence development. However, the moderating role of competitive environment has a negative effect on this relationship.     

Land pressures,the evolution of farming systems,and development strategies in Africa: A synthesis

Evidence assembled in this special issue of Food Policy shows that rising rural population densities in parts of Africa are profoundly affecting farming systems and the region’s economies in ways that are underappreciated in current discourse on African development issues. This study synthesizes how people, markets and governments are responding to rising land pressures in Africa, drawing on key findings from the various contributions in this special issue. The papers herein revisit the issue of Boserupian agricultural intensification as an important response to land constraints, but they also go further than Boserup and her followers to explore broader responses to land constraints, including non-farm diversification, migration, and reduced fertility rates. Agricultural and rural development strategies in the region will need to more fully anticipate the implications of Africa’s rapidly changing land and demographic situation, and the immense challenges that mounting land pressures pose in the context of current evidence of unsustainable agricultural intensification, a rapidly rising labor force associated with the region’s current demographic conditions, and limited nonfarm job creation. These challenges are manageable but will require explicit policy actions to address the unique development challenges in densely populated rural areas.     

落实科学发展观 发展先进生产力 促进煤炭工业健康发展

第六次全国煤炭工业科技大会于2005年11月14日～16日在京召开。这次全国煤炭科技大会，是在全行业深入学习、贯彻落实党的十六届五中全会、《国务院关于促进煤炭工业健康发展的若干意见》和全国煤炭工作会议精神的新形势下召开的。会议的主要内容是．回顾“十五”煤炭科技工作．交流煤炭科技工作经验，表彰煤炭科技工作先进集体和个人：分析形势，把握新时期煤炭工业发展方向；研究“十一五”期间煤炭科技发展方向和工作重，点；讨论修改《煤炭工业“十一五”科技发展规划》和《煤炭工业技术政装》，动员全行业进一步落实科学发展观．坚持自主创新，发展先进生产力，全面推进煤炭工业的调整转型，实现。经济增长方式的根本转变．促进煤炭工业的健康发展。中国煤炭工业协会会长范维唐出席会议并作主题报告。[编者按]     

Power, conflict, and cooperation: The impact of guanxi in Chinese marketing channels

This paper tests the impact of guanxi on behaviors among firms in a Chinese marketing channel. Guanxi is operationalized in this paper as emotional closeness and interactive state. We find that the emotional closeness between channel-boundary personnel of firms has a positive impact on their exercise of noncoercive power, a negative impact on their exercise of coercive power, and a negative impact on the perceived conflict between them. In addition, emotional closeness has an indirect but positive impact on perceived cooperation. Interactive state between the boundary personnel of two firms has a positive impact on a firm exercising noncoercive power and a negative impact on perceived conflict between them. At the same time, it is positively related to a firm exercising coercive power. This shows not only the significant influence of guanxi on a firm's channel behaviors but also the constructive effects of both emotional closeness and interactive state on marketing channel behaviors in China.     

Economic growth,telecommunications development and productivity growth of the telecommunications sector: Evidence around the world

This paper studies the relationships between economic growth, telecommunications development and productivity growth of the telecommunications sector in different countries and regions of the world. In particular, this study assesses the impact of mobile telecommunications on economic growth and telecommunications productivity. The results indicate that there is a bidirectional relationship between real gross domestic product (GDP) and telecommunications development (as measured by teledensity) for European and high-income countries. However, when the impact of mobile telecommunications development on economic growth is measured separately, the bi-directional relationship is no longer restricted to European and high-income countries. This study also finds that countries in the upper-middle income group have achieved a higher average total factor productivity (TFP) growth than other countries. Countries with competition and privatization in telecommunications have achieved a higher TFP growth than those without competition and privatization. The diffusion of mobile telecommunications services is found to be a significant factor that has improved the TFP growth of the telecommunications sector in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).     

Biofuels and the poor: Global impact pathways of biofuels on agricultural markets

This study seeks to assess the future impacts of biofuel production on regional agricultural and related sectors over the next decade with a specific focus on the vulnerable regions of developing nations. Using a modification of the GTAP modeling platform to account for the global interactions of regional biofuel and food markets, the analysis shows that biofuel production levels depend on the assumption about the future price of energy and the nature of the substitutability between biofuels and petroleum-based transport fuels. Low energy prices reduce the demand for biofuels and thus require greater government support to meet the desired production targets. At the other extreme, when prices are high and there is scope for substituting biofuels for petroleum-based fuels, the volume of biofuels produced will exceed the mandates. Even when biofuels are being mainly produced in developed countries, our results indicate that there are impact pathways that extend far beyond the borders of the US, Brazil and the EU. Prices of feedstock and non-feedstock commodities rise in developing countries. There is also a rise in value added from the agricultural sector—a gain that is enjoyed by the owners of land and labor, including unskilled. Hence, to the extent that agriculture is a key sector in getting growth started and addressing poverty needs, the emergence of biofuels can (in this way at least) be a positive force.     

Cellular manufacturing: the development of the idea and its application

This article charts the development of the idea of cellular manufacturing (CM) from its beginnings to its present status as a general organizational principle. Using survey data and a case study, an assessment is made of the application of CM and its trends for the future, especially from the human resources perspective.     

A model for relating technology, organization and employment level: A study of the impact of computerization in the Swedish insurance industry

This article investigates effects of computerization in the Swedish insurance industry from 1960–1980. While the technological imperative dictates that many jobs would disappear, it was found that employment actually increased. The authors produce a model relating technology to employment levels and suggest that a range of moderating factors must be considered.