'Fun and surveillance': the paradox of high commitment management in call centres

Much of the research into telephone call centres has focused on the coercive employment systems which are adopted in these organizations. This appears to contrast with the high levels of customer service and satisfaction which are often required for them to be successful. Our research, which is based on two case studies of call centres studied in depth, challenges this 'satanic mills' image. We explore the ways in which both companies sought to balance the pressures in the product and labour markets and employee needs to develop strategies which combined elements of commitment and control. They developed sophisticated human resource practices, which resembled the high commitment management approach, while, at the same time, maintaining a highly controlled and measured work environment. Consequently, there was a greater alignment between their HR practices and control systems, the needs of employees and the high quality of interactions with customers expected. This suggests that high commitment practices are not automatically associated with extensive employee discretion, as has been argued in the manufacturing sector. HR practices of this kind can be used to offset some of the worst features of call centre working. These findings illustrate the variety of HR practices in call centres and suggest some possible reasons for this diversity.     

差序氛围感知对员工创新行为的影响

中国社会中普遍存在的差序氛围，深刻影响着个体心理与行为机制。基于认知—情感加工系统框架，从社会信息加工和社会交换理论视角出发，构建差序氛围感知影响创新行为的双重中介模型，包括以创新自我效能感为代表的认知路径和以情感承诺为代表的情感路径，探究特质性调节定向在认知和情感路径间的调节作用。通过结构方程模型对273份员工数据进行分析，结果发现：差序氛围感知对创新行为有显著负向影响；创新自我效能感和情感承诺在差序氛围感知与创新行为间起双重中介作用；特质性调节定向增强了差序氛围感知和创新自我效能感、情感承诺的关系。     

Employee work values and organizational attachment in North Mexican maquiladoras

Maquiladoras in Northern Mexico are currently plagued by low organizational attachment among production workers. Workers often feel little psychological commitment to their maquiladora, and turnover rates in the plants average about 10 per cent per month. In this study we examine the role that work values play in maquiladora workers' attachment to their organizations. An analysis of data from 227 production workers in two maquiladoras reveals that the upward-striving value (a desire continually to seek a higher-level job) is positively associated with turnover intentions and negatively associated with organizational commitment, while the social-status-of-job value (the perception that a good job merits respect) is positively associated with organizational commitment. The findings offer guidance to managers and management scholars attempting to understand and combat the organizational attachment problem in Northern Mexico.     

Triumphs and tragedies: expectations and commitments upon repatriation

Building on and extending the literature on organizational commitment, this study examines the relationship between repatriates' work and non-work-related expectations and their commitment to their parent companies and new local work units after completing international assignments. The results, based on a sample of 174 repatriates and 92 partners within five US multinationals, indicate that positive, linear relationships exist between certain work and non-work expectations and commitment to the parent company and local work unit, while significant, nonlinear relationships exist between other expectations and these commitments. These results have both theoretical and practical implications, which are discussed.     

Self-coordination in time inconsistent stochastic decision problems: A planner–doer game framework

Time inconsistency has been a thorny issue in many economic and financial decision making problems, especially when risk measures are involved in performance criteria. We develop in this paper a two-tier planner–doer game framework with self-coordination. By aligning the global interest of the planner and the local interests of the doers by applying suitable penalty functions, a degree of internal harmony (measured quantitatively by the expected cost of self-coordination) can be achieved by the self-coordination policy. We establish an axiom system for modified preferences, under which the self-coordination policy can be obtained by solving a corresponding optimization problem. We then apply our game framework successfully in dynamic mean-variance portfolio selection.     

Student satisfaction and commitment towards a blended learning finance course: A new evidence from using the investment model

The present study uses an amended version of a well-known investment model to investigate the levels of satisfaction and commitment of finance students enrolled on a blended e-learning programme. First, it presents new empirical evidence for the validity of each construct and validates the proposed investment model. Second, it examines whether students’ grade point average (GPA) scores influence their levels of satisfaction and commitment the course. A random sample of 100 undergraduate students enrolled at King Khalid University in Saudi Arabia was surveyed using both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The proposed investment model was suitable for predicting the levels of student satisfaction and commitment in a blended learning environment, especially finance courses. However, the levels of satisfaction and commitment among students did not reach the proposed cut-off point for high commitment/satisfaction, which implied that levels of student satisfaction and commitment were only in the middle of the range. Specifically, the results showed a significant negative correlation between the level of satisfaction and GPA score, but a significant positive correlation between student commitment and GPA score. The study also highlights areas in which further research and analysis is recommended.     

Industrial brand value and relationship performance in business markets — A general structural equation model

This paper develops a general model of industrial brand value and relationship performance in business-to-business markets from the perspectives of consumer and industrial marketing literature. The structural equation model integrates the analysis of industrial brand value and relationship performance. The model describes the extent to which supplier-buyer transaction performance is influenced by the eight important factors: supplier competence, purchasing value, customer satisfaction, switching cost, brand trust and loyalty, relationship quality, commitment, and transactional performance.The general model is applied to organizational buyer groups of comprehensive industrial markets (Electronics, Chemicals, Equipment, etc). The analysis finds that supplier competence directly affects purchasing value and customer satisfaction, and via purchasing value and customer satisfaction, it indirectly affects commitment, switching cost, brand trust and loyalty. The managerial implications of the study results are also discussed.     

Building customer relations over the Internet

While previous marketing activities were primarily focused on increasing market shares in terms of a mass marketing based on single transactions, the past few years saw a paradigmatic shift towards relationship marketing. This change in viewpoint is based on the finding that the establishment and maintenance of long-term relationships have a decisive influence on corporate success. In this study, the authors present a critical theoretical and empirical analysis of the contribution the Internet can make to successful relationship marketing. The study focuses on the influence that important characteristics of the World Wide Web (WWW), such as its interactive structure and constant availability of information, can have on key variables of relationship marketing, i.e., commitment, satisfaction and trust. For example, the authors provide empirical proof of potential withdrawal of trust on the part of the customers if their expectations with regard to these characteristics are not met.     

Conflict handling, trust and commitment in outsourcing relationship: A Chinese and Indian study

This paper presents a theoretical and empirical model that identifies conflict handling typologies which affect trust and commitment in B2B outsourcing relationship. Three typologies of conflict handling namely integrating, accommodating and compromising were examined for their effects on trust and commitment of Chinese and Indian human resource (HR) outsourcing service providers. The paper also considered the moderating effect of culture in the relationship. Data was collected from Chinese and Indian firms providing HR outsourcing services and analyzed using factor and hierarchical multiple regression analyses. We found both similarities and dissimilarities in the outcomes of the study. Specifically, conflict handling styles are significantly associated with trust and commitment. Trust mediates in the association of conflict handling styles with commitment. The impact of compromising conflict handling on trust and commitment is moderated by culture — significantly higher for the Chinese service providers compared to the Indians. Culture has also a direct impact on commitment but not on trust. Theoretical, cultural and managerial implications of the findings are presented.     

Flexibility in industrial service relationships: The construct, antecedents, and performance outcomes

Exchanges between service providers and their customers on business markets increasingly take place in the form of long-term business relationships. These relationships are governed through formal or informal agreements. However, actors are bounded in their rationality and find it impossible to contemplate all possible future contingencies. The more formal and detailed the contracts they conclude, the likelier it becomes that at least one actor is going to perceive a need to adjust the initial agreement as environmental events unfold. In this case, the actor relies upon his partner's flexibility. This paper deals with service providers' flexibility and presents empirical results from the market research sector including outcome variables (satisfaction, trust, commitment) and determinants of service provider flexibility (uncertainty, relationship-specific investments, mutuality, long-term orientation). Empirical results suggest that service provider flexibility is an important determinant of customer satisfaction, trust, and commitment.