Gender,choice and constraint in call centre employment

This paper examines the genderised experience of employment in call centres. While existing studies have acknowledged structural and agential constraints on women in the workplace, this paper goes further by illustrating the gendered nature of career choice and progression in a context which, in certain respects, appears to have benefitted women's desires for advancement. Drawing on quantitative and in‐depth qualitative data from four Scottish call centres, the study provides evidence of gender inequality shaped by structural and ideological workplace and household constraints.     

Diffusing 'best practice' in multinational firms: prospects,practice and contestation

This article explores the possibilities and problems of transferring best practice within multinational enterprises. Following a discussion of the literature on the transfer of best practice, we draw on a case study of ABB to highlight some of the issues and problems involved. In particular, we focus on the use of benchmarking as a powerful tool for the diffusion of best practice in ABB. We conclude that under certain conditions the case for the transfer of best practice within multinational enterprises is relatively sound and that the use of internal benchmarking can be a highly effective method of producing such organizational change. However, any form of diffusion has to take into account (a) the local cultural and institutional context and (b) the ability and incentive of local managers to implement best practice.     

‘Too scared to go sick’—reformulating the research agenda on sickness absence

This article argues that our understanding of absence and absenteeism, deriving from seminal studies in the sociology of work and employment, has been overtaken by hugely significant developments in political economy, regulation and employment relations. A new research agenda that addresses the changed organisational politics of absence management and the consequences for employees is urgently required.     

When Rule Makers Become Rule Breakers: Employee Level Outcomes of Managerial Pro-Social Rule Breaking

We extend Morrison’s (2006) construct of pro-social rule breaking (PSRB) in two important ways. First, we explicate the processes through which PSRB may have unintended negative consequences. Second, we provide a conceptual model intended to guide future research into PSRB. The model discusses the mechanisms through which managerial PSRB may lead to negative employee outcomes. Specifically, we propose that when managers engage in PSRB, more complex processes (perceptions of organizational justice, attributions of management by employees, and psychological contract violations) mediate the unintended employee level outcomes of managerial PSRB.     

The shakedown

Customer Strategy Solutions, a California-based developer of order-fulfillment systems, is facing a shakedown. Six months after the firm's CEO, Pavlo Zhuk, set up a software development center in Kiev, local bureaucrats say the company hasn't filed all the tax schedules it should have. Moreover, Ukrainian tax officials claim that the company owes the government tax arrears. Zhuk is shocked; he and his colleagues have done everything by the book. This isn't the first time Zhuk has encountered trouble in Ukraine. In the process of getting the development center up and running, a state-owned telecommunications utility had made it difficult for Zhuk to get the phone lines his company needed. Senior telecom manager Vasyl Feodorovych Mylofienko had told Zhuk it would take three years to install the lines in his office-but for a certain price, Mylofienko had added, the lines could be functioning the following week. Even as the picture of rampant bribery and corruption in Ukraine becomes clear, Zhuk still doesn't want to pull out of the country. Of Ukrainian descent, he has dreams of helping to modernize the country. By paying his programmers more than they could make at any local company, he hopes to raise their standard of living so they can afford three meals a day without having to barter, stand in queues for hours, or moonlight. And yet, he isn't sure he can keep compromising his principles for the sake of the greater good. Should Customer Strategy Solutions pay off the Ukrainian tax officials? Commenting on this fictional case study are Alan L. Boeckmann, the chairman and CEO of Fluor Corporation; Rafael Di Tella, a professor at Harvard Business School; Thomas W. Dunfee, the Kolodny Professor of Social Responsibility and a professor of legal studies at Wharton; and Bozidar Djelic, the former finance and economy minister of Serbia.     

Reviews

”THE GEOGRAPHY OF ECONOMIC CHANGE“ Martin and Rowthorn (eds), 1986: The Geography of De-industrialisation. London: Macmillan, £30 cloth, £8.95 paper.

Champion, A. G. et al, 1987: Changing Places. London: Edward Arnold, £7.95 paper.

“WHAT FUTURE FOR THE LOCAL STATE?” Simon Duncan and Mark Goodwin, 1988: The Local State and Uneven Development. Cambridge: Polity Press, £8.95 paperback.

“THE 'SEEDS' APPROACH”

(1) All Change: A study of Bus Transportation Planning, Deregulation and Privatisation in seven towns; Consultant Dr P. A. Stanley; March 1987.

(2) After Chernobyl: A safe energy policy for the South East; Consultant Adrian Atkinson; May 1987.

(3) Troubled Waters: Water services in the South East Region; Consultants Dr J. Rees and Dr M. Synott; May 1987.

(4) Jobs Plan Workshop [W.P.2]; Oxford City Council; May 1987.

(5) Opportunities for energy conservation in Brighton and Harlow council housing stock: G. Matthews, S. Hodgkinson and M. Fergusson.

(6) Defence Electronics Conference [W.P.1]; Stevenage DC; November 1987.

(7) British Rail Services in the Southampton Area (W.P.3]; Consultant Helen Dawson; February 1988.

(8) Right Lines?: A study of British Rail Services in the South East; Consultant Helen Dawson; September 1988.

(9) South-South Divide; SEEDS 1987.

All published by SEEDS, The South East Economic Development Strategy.

“INDUSTRIAL RESTRUCTURING — PROCESSES AND POLITICS” Irene Hardill, 1987: The regional implications of the restructuring in the wool textile industry. Aldershot: Gower, £25.

Bo Strath, 1987: The politics of deindustrialisation. The contraction of the West European shipbuilding industry. London: Croom Helm.     

Selective perception,unions and organisational change

This article uses a large scale body of survey data to investigate the proposition that reported management perceptions of the extent to which unions constitute a constraint on organisational change will vary systematically according to certain personal and organisational characteristics. The resulting evidence of selective perception has a number of implications for survey work that seeks attitudinal based responses to questions, particularly from a single management respondent per employment establishment.     

Road Pricing: Solving the Technical Problems

How would road pricing work? Peter Hills and Phil Blythe, of Newcastle University, explain the technical developments which make a variety of road pricing schemes a genuine possibility.     

Hotel characteristics and occupancy trends: Yorkshire and Humberside hotels, UK, April 1982–March 1984

This study extends the analysis of hotel occupancy in Yorkshire and Humberside, UK, hotels reported in the March 1985 issue of this journal, and confirms the ‘stability’ of the three previously identified dimensions of occupancy performance which reflect differences in overall occupancy levels, intensity of seasonal fluctuations, and length of season. The focus shifts to the identification and interpretation of longer term trends in occupancy performance. The results of a questionnaire survey of hotels are used in a stepwise regression model to relate occupancy trends to a range of ‘predictor’ variables measuring different aspects of the hotels and their management.