Journal of Management Studie.

s 39:2 March 2002

0022-2:^80

'WE RECRUIT ATTITUDE': THE SELECTION AND SHAPING OF

ROUTINE CALL CEN I RE LABOUR*
GEORGE CALI_A<;IIAN
The Open Unwer.sity
PAUL THOMPSON

University of Stmthdyde

ABSTRACT

Call centres are growing rapidly and are receiving attention from politicians, policy
makers and academics. While most of the latter focus on w(jrk relaiions., notably
patterns of control and surveillance, this paper explores the role of recruitment,
selection anci training in the shaping call centre labour. The paper uses data from
a case study of a c all centre (Telebank) to argue thai the increa.sed .significance of
social competencies within interactive service work gives these procedures greater
salience and that they are used by management to address the indeterminacy of
labour, in part, outside the labour process. Primary data from management and
customer service representatives is used to examine and contrast tbeir respective
perceptions of recruitment, selection and training. The paper shows the contested
and contradictory tendencies assot iate(i with how a particular company idenlilies
and then uses social competencies, lensions in the labour process between the
mobilization of employee attributes and the deliberate moulding and standardization of .such competencies is merely part of wider and unresolved tension.^ concerning the contested nature of emotional labour and the demands of quantity'
and C]uality in the management o^ call centre work.

INTRODl'CTION

Call centres represent important new forms of work; both in terms of the increasing size of the sector and number of employees (Datamonitor., 1998) and through
the nature of the labour process. Understandably, therefore, eall centres are
attracting an increasing amount of aeademie attention. Equally unsurprisingly
the work process and its attcndaiil eonlrol and employment relations has been the
primary focus of debate (Eernie and Metcalf, 1997; Erenkel et al., 1998). Given
that these employees will be working in an environment where job tasks are
often highly scripted and performance is closely monitored, some authors have
Address for reprints: George Callaghan, SiafT Tutor in Social Sciences, I'he Open Lfni\rrsity, 10
Drumshcugh (Jardeiis, Edinburt^h KH!i 7(^1, UK {G.S. Callaghan@opcn.a( .uk).
BIrt.kwcl! Piiiilislicrs Lid 20112. Pulilislicd by Blarkvvrii Piiblisht-rs, 108 C:<mlc> Road. (Jxti.rd ( ) \ 4 IJl' I'K
and ;i")(( Main Sued. Maiden. MA 02148, U.SA.

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G. CALLAGHAN AND P. THOMPSON

pointed to the similarities of this work to assembly line produetion (Taylor and
Bain, 1998).
Researehers do, of course, recognize the important differences from classic
manual and white collar work regimes. Most significantly the labour and product
of call centre work is relatively intangible. Though this is not exclusive of factor\'
work, the emphasis is almost exclusively on the quality of communication. Call
centre work is a good example of interactive service sector work, which Leidner
(1993) defines as work involving face-to-face or \'oice to voice interaction with customers. In such work the management of particular attitudes and feelings sometimes summed up in the term emotional labour - are combined with product
knowledge in order to maximize the quality and quantity of output, often measured in terms of customer satisfaclion (laylor, 1998).
So far, however, little attention has been paid to call centre recruitment, selection and training by critical researchers. This is surprising given that call centres
are part of a wider trend towards in( reasing service work in the economy. In such
work, empathy towards the customer plays a key role in recruitment, induction
and training (Korczynski et al., 1999). For HR managers this means that: 'The
aims arc to select staff with the required auittidinal and behavioural characteristics, induct them into a qualit\' culture and, equally important, but often neglected,
retain their ser\ices . . . selection often focuses on attitudes to flexibility and customer service rather than skill or qualification levels' (Redman and Mathews, 1998,
p. 60). Restated in the language of labour process theory, recruitment and training may be being used to address a.spects of the indeterminacy of labour - the
gap between purchased potential and profitable outcomes normally addressed
through rules and control structures in situations of routine work (Thompson,
1989). Suitable employees arc thus screened in, as well as unsuitable ones selected
out. Call centres, like many other ser\'ice areas, are putting considerable emphasis on attempting to identify potential employees who are predisposed to become
effectixe customer seivice representatives. This makes call centres an excellent
location in which to examine the relationship between the move to interactive
service sector work and explore the effectiveness of human resource policies.
Part of the explanation for the existing limited attention, is that issues of selection and training have normally been the domain of personnel specialists or writers
in Organization Behaviour, leaving organization theory out of the picture (lies and
Salaman, 1994, p. 203). Within the mainstream beha\'ioural literature there has
been growing recognition of a movement from job to competency-based organizational requirements, particularly in the service sector (Lawler, 1994); which, in
turn, leads to the use of a wider variety of psychometric and other assessment
techniques such as work sampling (Pearn and Kandola, 1988). An increasing
number of studies are also trying to rectify a situation where 'little research has
directly examined the personality characteristics of performance in jobs where
interactions with others is a critical component' (Mount et al., 1998, p. 161). The
focus of attention has been on utilizing the traditional five factor taxonomy of personality measures - extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism
and openness to new experience in order to develop more effective predictors
of job performance in a service or sales context (Vinchur et al., 1998). Service orientation is assumed to be a stable pattern of personality characteristics that can
be used to identify individuals predisposed to effective customer interactions, and
who would benefit from further training (Frei and McDaniel, 1998, p. 3).
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While Telebank did not use personality testing, the underlying assumptions
about fit between personal characteristics, suitability for training and potential performance are very similar. In this respect, the findings of such studies that there
is a positive association between emotional stable, friendly and conscientious personality characteristics and eflective service orientation - are pertinent. However,
there are limitations in the approach ibr our purposes. The job analy.ses that
inform many studies tend to rely on constructs that describe required qualities polite customer relations, respon.siveness, friendliness - rather than the underlying
substance of work relations (Frci and McDaniel, 1998, pp. 4-5). This tendency is
exacerbated by the predominance of meta-analyses in which in-depth data on
work eonditions is limited, and the spread of data samples covers a wide and often
heterogeneous number of service work situations. For example, of the 11 studies
examined in the meta-analysis of Mount et al. (1998), only one corresponded to
the tv'pe of service interactions typical of call centres.
There are, of course, alternative approaches within the recruitment and selection literature. While the dominant psychometric, job-eentred approach has a
capacity for innovation and Hexibility, the basic assumption of a relatively stable
set oi tasks to which individuals with equally fixed attributes or traits are matched,
has been challenged (lies, 1999). Social process perspectives argue that assessment
judgements are less the result of neutral instruments and objective, C]uantifiable
{processes, than the interplay between the selection process and the nature of the
individual (l)achler, 1989, 1994). Such perspectives are holistic, person-centred
and geared towards identifying individuals within a complex network of relationships, focusing on broader social competencies such as openness, flexibility and
(apacity for change. This is held to be driven, in part, by border economic and
occupational changes: 'in an increasingly interdependent and service-oriented
economy, there are multitudes of jobs and job categories, which, because of their
embeddedness in complex inter and intra organisational relationships, change
their fundamental meaning relatively rapidly' (Dachlcr, 1989, p. 56).
Such a foeus on different and more fluid types of behavioural competencies for
new types of work, often in services, can be useful. However, while the desire to
conceptually disrupt the orthodox 'matching' of jobs and people is understandable, the problem is that some of the above analyses make very questionable
assumptions about the nature of work, which are unlikely to be meaningful beyond
the expectations and experiences of managers and graduates. In particular the
assertion is that the new competenc ies arise from requirements to eope with varied,
empowered, more spontaneous and autonomous work; entrepreneurial and other
leadership qualities; and personal development within fast-changing portfolio
careers (lies, 1999; Macdonald and Sirianni, 1996). lies and Salaman (1994,
p. 210) argue that 'There has been a shift to employee autonomy, self-monitoring
and devolved decision-making in a less stable, more uncertain and more dynamic
environment. This has led to greater emphasis on such skills and qualities as
teamwork, openness, adaptability, broader vision, tolerance of ambiguity;
self-confidence, a positive orientation to change, an ability to see multiple perspectives, a desire to improve, develop and take on responsibility, and a wish to
seek out and act on performance feedback.' In short, criteria most ea.sily found in
high-end jobs.
It is important to develop frameworks of analysis that ean address the recruitment and training issues associated with the growth of low and middle range
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G. CALLAGHAN ANT5 P. THOMPSON

service work. Traditionally, routine workers are identified through both formal and
informal channels, but they are mainly selected through one recruitment filter the interview (Wiudolf, 1988). The training that has then taken place is often perfunctory, focusing on achieving work targets, or learning from other employees.
Yet as we have seen that situation is changing. Il is increasingly recognized that
there has been a shift towards 'extra-functional' skills to cope with new organizational requirements (Flecker and Hofbauer, 1998), or as part of the growth of
teamwork (Thompson and Wallace, 1996). Such trends have considerable significance for processes of skill and competence formation and therefore for selection.
As Crouch et al. {1999, p. 222) note, 'These changes lead employers to seek in new
recruits both a continuing ability to learn and what they usually call "social skills",
which might mean anything from ability to co-ordinate and secure co-operation,
through ability to communicate effectively, to simple willingness to obey orders.'
Call centres and service work more generally is at the forefront of such shifts.
However, as we have indicated, there are few critical studies of the role of rec ruitment and training in identifying and shaping such abilities.
The perceived centrality of social skills and competencies has led management
at Telebank to use rigorous selection and training procedures more usually associated with high discretion jobs. This trend is confirmed in the call centre case
studies of Belt et al. (2()()()), who also highlight the gendered basis of some managerial constructions of social skill. Our emphasis is not on the effectiveness of particular policies and techniques. Rather, that in the absence of traditional indicators
such as labour market institutions, qualifications and formal skill hierarchies,
recruitment and training processes are a useful window into the actual dynamics
of work relations in an indu.slry segment where the formation of competencies
takes place 'in-house'. Or as Arzbabacher et al. (2000, p. 17) put it, '. . . call centre
work requires particular skills and competencies for which the demographic
characteristics of their prospective workforce are not sufficiently predictive. Thus,
sophisticated recruitment procedures have been established.'
The article reconstructs managerial rationales underpinning those processes,
contrasting these with employee experiences of selection, training, and of work
more generally. In developing such contrasts, we aim to shed Hght on the characteristics, appropriateness and inconsistencies of selection and training processes,
when set against the low discretion, high suiveillance work, flat employment structures, and the demands of emotional labour.

MKTHODOLOGY

The research for this paper tracks the recruitment, selection and training processes
in one telephone banking call centre. Telebank has five hundred customer service
representatives fCSRs) dealing with around twenty thousand incoming calls a day.
Eighty per cent of these CSRs are full time, working 35 hours a week within the
bank opening hours of 8.00 a.m. to 10.00 p.m., Monday to Sunday. The full time
shift pattern involves 6.5 hours of work per day, with one hour for lunch and two
15-minute breaks (although both the rest periods ean be exchanged fbr overtime).
The remaining 20 per cent of staff are described as 'key-time' (part time) employees, working a variety of shifts.
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In particular the case study looks at the way in which the employee attributes
are recognized and valued by management, and the mechanisms by which they
are selected and shaped, before tracking progress to the training area known as
the 'paddling pool', where employees proceed after they have negotiated those barriers. A qualitative case study can help explore both formal and informal processes
that my be hidden in more quantitative analyses and develop conceptualizations
that can aid further research.
The material on recruitment includes interviews with 14 recruitment and training managers, non-participant observation of the recruitment process and analysis of recruitment literature. Data on training is from detailed non-participation
of Telebank's six week training programme. This material is supplemented with
data drawn from 24 intt-rviews with customer service representatives (CSRs). The
24 were drawn from two teams of 12 from different work areas. We do not claim
that the individuals in the teams were 'typieal', but would argue that this is less
significant given our research objectives and a work context of relative task homogeneity. Constructing a 'sample' in this way allowed greater depth and crosschecking of data among a group of people used to working together.
Data collection took two main forms: taped semi-structured intcr\'iews and
detailed non-participant observation of recruitment and training. The hrst round
of interviews focused on all levels of management, in particular recruitment and
training managers, some of whom were interviewed more than once. The themes
identified in these sessions were then used to inform the construction of semistructured interviews for CSRs. In all cases the interviews vi'ere transcribed. By
establishing common themes across the two sets of inter\-iews we were able to
analyse the data in a systematic way, examining, in particular the contrasting perceptions of recruitment, training, work skills, control and related issues. Such contrasts formed and important means by which we were able to evaluate the gaps
and inconsistencies b<'tween managerial objectives and employee experience.
In addition, eaeh stage of the recruitment process was observed, including the
decision making post-interview discussions between recruiters. Similarly, time was
spent obsei"ving the six weekly training ])rogranmies. Finally a research diary was
kept, containing additional observations and contextual comments.

WORK RELATIONS AT TELEBANK

It is important to recognize from the outset that there is considerable variety in call
centre work. The major determinants of that variety are the extent to which calls
are inbound or outbound and therefore responding to requests for information and
action or concerned with telesales and marketing, the complexity and variability
of the product, the depth of knowledge required to handle the service interactions
and the extent to which this knowledge is contextually bound. As Taylor and Bain
(1998) note, despite these variations there are substantial similarities in the call centre
labour process based on the integration of telephone and computer technologies
and the entering and retrieval of data to manage the service interaction.
The Telebank office, described in recruitment literature as a 'brand new building set in excellent, landscaped surroundings', is functional in both interior and
exterior design, and forms part of a growing industrial park. The workplace is split
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G. CALLAGHAN AND P. THOMPSON

CONTROL

TASK

REWARD

Teclmual

Vanety
HOVo on 3 task.s:
account info
account action
charge cjueries

Ferki

monitcjring
- data collection
- machine pacing

- subsidized mortgages

- 20% passed on
Normative

I}ucret.ion

Performance related

- self-regulation
- teams

- none

- 6 month appraisal, up
to 10% of salary as
one-off payment
- status rewards
pa\Tnent in kind

Bureaucratic

Depth n/ knowledtie

Basic pay

- limited scripts
- feedback and appraisal
on corf standards

- limited, cookery cards

and added in^edicnts

- 10,500, reached in 3
stages of 80%, 90% and
100%

Complexity of knowledse

Projiression

~ limitrd

- flat structure
internal labour market
with 3 categories: CSR,

TC.TL-'
JVhies:

'Cookery cards: an alphahrtieal index containing details of prot edurcs: added ingredients: a id err nee Hlr for
more complex prori'diires.
'TC: team toacii: TL: it'ani leader.
1. Work lelalioiis at Telebank

into open-plan sections where CSRs work in teams of 12. Workers are segregated
into rows by having partitions in front, but have some space at either .side. This is
said to cut noise levels while minimizing the feeling of containment. Each team
has control over the visual appearance of surrounding workspace, and they are
encouraged to design a colour scheme for 'their' area.
Within this environment CSRs take around 120 calls per day. Each call lasts
around 3 minutes 30 seconds and is split into three elements: talk time (160
seconds); post call or 'wrap up' time (20 seconds); and time between calls described by one manager as 'white space' - (4 seconds). Each of these categories
is electronically recorded and measured. As figure 1 shows, 80 per cent of these
calls are dealt wiih by CSRs, with the remaining 20 per cent being passed immediately on to another area of the bank. Of this 80 per cent some two thirds relate
to requests for straight account information (sue h as balances) and recjuests for
simple actions (such as transfers between accounts) and are handled completely by
CSRs. The remaining third are partially dealt with by CSRs before being passed
on to colleagues for further action. The emphasis, then, is on short and simple
calls. It is important for this detail to be provided, as it facilitates an c\a!uation
of the appropriateness of recruitment and training objectives in the context of
particular work relations. These are set out in figure 1.
The labour process at Telebank is, then, structured to control and organize
relatively routine tasks. But, as we shall see, recruitment, selection and training
processes reflect the 'balance' of competing requirements of delivering quantity
and quality' (Taylor and Bain, 1998).
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CALL CENTRE I J V B O U R

Numeracy
Keyboard

Sense of humour
Positive attitude

'"Uieney
Krillnisiasni

Warmth
lone

Communication

Pilch

Figure 2. Characteristics and competencies

RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION

Telebank's selection process is thorough: a job and person specification are

designed; appropriate recruitment channels selected; application forms collected
and analysed; telephone interviews given; role plays assessed; two person structured interviews undertaken; references and credit checks collected and, finally,
job offers made. In a recent analysis the recruiters found that from 231 initial
responses, only seven applicants got through. This, of course, includes people who
decided not to complete the application form, but for every 100 who do, only ten
are offered a place on the six week full-time training programme.
Telebank management believes that they require a particular mix of skills. This
is less based on technical abilities (such as keyboard skills), but also social competencies that are more difficult to identify, yet crucial to Telebank's labour process.
This section investigates how the recruitment process is used to assess such social
and technical characteristics and competencies.
As figure 2 shows, Telebank's recruitment process is designed to assess applicants in three areas: personality traits; communication (especially verbal) skills;
and, with less emphasis, technical skills. There is some overlap between personality and communication skills, most obviously between energy and enthusiasm, but
it was felt that the differences, which exist, make separate clusters conceptually
useful. The following section identifies what management is looking for in more
detail and describes the mechanisms for operationalizing their objectives. This is
then compared to employee perceptions of skill requirements gathered through
inteiviews with C'SRs.
Characteristics and Competencies

On technical skill, Telebank managers look for keyboard skills, basic numeracy
and the ability to move around a system. The application form assesses the first
two through questions on previous experience and education while the third,
descried by Frenkel et al. (1998) as navigational competencies, is measured through
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G. CALLACHAN AND P. THOMPSON

role playing. In these the candidate is a travel agent and has to navigate through
a paper system containing information on holiday destinations, flight times and
prices in order to answer a call and complete enquiry and booking forms.
Testing for such technical skills, however, forms only a small part of the selection process. More time and thought is put into assessing social characteristics and
competencies. As figure 2 illustrates, Telebank management is looking for certain
personality traits, one of which is a 'positive attitude':
Customer service. That's not a skill. That's in you. It's the attitude towards customer service. Alertness, ability to use the keyboard and understand the software and understand the products . . . A positive attitude towards working.
Because the customers' calls coming through are work. A positive attitude, and
enjoy what you do. (Manager 5)
Some people are maybe not as fast round a keyboard, so they may struggle in
achieving peer group average handling time for calls. But we can do something
about that, we can use team coaches or leaders or training teams when available to develop that individual in those areas. It's very dilTicult to change somebody's attitude. (Manager 2)
Personality is given priority in this recruitment process. To management good customer service requires a positive attitude and, importantly, this cannot be taught,
it is part of someone's personality. Manager 5 does not see a 'positive attitude' as
a learned ability, it is simply 'in you', while Manager 2 is less concerned with technical competencies, where training can be given, than with possessing the correct
attitude or belief When probed further management linked attitude to energy and
enthusiasm:
To fit into the category you need to be first of all, very, very enthusiastic. You
need to really want to do it, because it's a tough six weeks training. You need
to be positive, the whole company is geared towards a positive attitude, again a
can-do approach, not 'I've never done that before, but yes, let's give it a ba.sh,
let's try it.' (Manager 4)
But we recruit attitude. You can tell by talking to someone during interview
whether they smile, whether their eyes smile. If you smile during your interview
and yoti are enthusiastic, you'll be okay. (Manager 1)
The other characteristic that emerged during research was a sense of humour.
Prospective CSRs are told in the information provided with the initial application
form that a sen.se of humour is one of the necessary 'attitudes', and this also arose
during discussions with managers who gave examples of how humour has been
used by CSRs:
It depends on the customers, the more experience they have the best they can
judge the type of customer they've got on line. For example, one of my girls
[sic] who was reminding a customer when they went to collect their draft to
take ID, the customer said, 'Oh, will a mask and a gun be good enough'. And
once the customer has given you that lead in, that was it. The conversation just
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deteriorated into hysterics. But people do try and bring their personality into
their conversations, because that's the person you're speaking to, the customer.
(Manager 8)
This quote shows that not only is it advantageous for CSRs to possess a sense of
humour, it is equally important that they know when to employ this humour. They
have to 'read' the conversation and decide when it is appropriate to engage in
})anter. This combination of humour, positivity and attitude are seen by the senior
call centre manager as being crucial to competition:
1 think the communication skills are the most important, very important. The
difference between what they do and what the people on the phones in other
banks do, is down to their personality, their communication skills. That is the
only substantive differentiator between the banks - the personality of the individuals on the telephone. That's the highest skills. Their guys know all about
banking products, my guys know all about banking products. Their guys will
have to know about systems, my guys will have to know about systems. That's
all roughly the same. The difTerentiator is how they communicate with that customer. It is the overriding skill that they\'e got to have. {Manager 6)
The priorities of recruitment emerge strongly from this quote. Product and systems
knowledge are pre-requisites for the job; personality and communication skills the
crucial differentiating qualities. The comments made by the head of Telebank
are strikingly similar to those made by an insurance company manager quoted by
duller and Smith in their work into customer/worker interactions in service firms:
Customer service is one of the top important fat tors in our competitive position. The survivors in the insurance industry are determined more by their
service than by their produet. The products are the same, with a few exceptions.
Once there's a product innovation by one company, it's not long before everyone has it. People will pay more for good service; it's the cutting edge. It will
determine who makes the cut and who does not. (Fuller and Smith, 1991, p. 7)
Personality is clf^arly seen as adding value in financial service customer interactions. But it is not enough to simply possess 'personality', CSRs must know
how to communicate this personality. Communication competencies include
verbal tone, pitch, fluency and energy and enthusiasm. 1 hese last two link the personality and communication clusters in figure 2. Extracts from comments relating
to communication include:
What I'm trying to tap into is what's going on inside them, and what tells me
most about what's going on inside them is their body language in particular,
their language and the way they use their voice. Now most people say dress,
that's going to be the first thing that you look at. Not necessarily so . . . what I
really am looking for is fluency, how well are they talking . . . If I'm not hearing
energy and enthusiasm, what I'm looking for is energy drop. Energy drop is
where you've got someone who's started a sentence, sounded quite bright, and
then it drops off. And also looking for sentence shape, are they melodic, are they
using good pitch, or are they monotonous, have they got the one tone they
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G. (lALLAGHAN AND P. THOMPSON

always speak at. Are they too musical, do they give a little squeak at the end of
the sentence? (Manager 7)
Recruiters assess how the vocal qualities of tone, pitch and warmth combine with
energy and enthusiasm to produce fluency and rapport. The connection with personality is revealed in the comments of Manager 7 who uses verbal clues to assess
'what'.s going on inside them'. Iliis extract also hints at another important competency - consciousness of one's abilities which was apparent in earlier material on humour, but here is related to knowledge of one's energy levels. This is
where the relevance of acting comes in - a good CSR is someone who has an
awareness of tone and pitch, someone who consciously uses their voice as a tool
to shape and control conversational mood. The worries that managers have with
potential employees who suifcred 'encrg>' drop' during interviews are part of a
wider set of concerns about telephone skills:
You're looking for self-motivated individuals who are prepared to be themselves
at work, who really do want to talk to people. You need people who can make
conversations, and build rajjport and think about what they need to change in
themselves in order to build rapport with people. (Manager 7)
What managers appear to be doing is evaluating candidates on the extent to which
they have internalizxd managerial service norms, tjr who have the potential to consciously manipulate their individual characteristics and competencies in order to
produce convincing customer ser\nce. Candidates need to be able to 'make' conversations and 'build' rapport, to adapt and change depending on the t>pe of conversation. CSRs must be able to act, to manage and regulate their feelings.
In comparing managerial and employee perceptions, the most consistent themes
to emerge from the question, 'what kind of skills do you think are necessary to do
this job?' were patience, tolerance, level-headedness, sense of humour, listening,
flexibility and emotional self-management. Interviews with CSRs therefore
revealed some continuity with management on perceptions of skill requirements.
In particular, there is common ground that social rather than technical competencies and knowledge are primar>'. But the emphasis was often different. CSRs
were much more likely to associate job requirements with surviving stressful and
repetitive work, rather than applying a pariicular set of personality characteristics
to the enthusiastic pursuit of customer service:
Patience with the customer . . . to let them go through it at their own pace . . .
weeding it out with probing questions to find out what they want. It's patience
and knowing where to direct it. (CSR 13)
You've got be very tolerant, I think. You have to be able to take a deep breath,
the customer is always right, kind of thing. But it's very repetitive. I've been here
for six months now and it's very mundane - just waiting for the next beep!
(CSR 8)
It's somehow being level headed. They can't see us so we can actually take the
mickey out of them while they're trying to speak to us. I don't think there is a
skill involved, you can train a monkey (CSR 1)
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However, the difference between management and employees may be less than
it appears. Stripped of the rhetoric of 'passionate belief in customer service',
the following c[uote makes clear that the characteristics of the labour process
at the low-end of the financial services market drives much of the selection
process:
At the end of the day, a call centre job is boring, it's call after call, day after day,
week after week, month after month. There is very little variety. Now for
someone to be able to cope with that, the challenge there is, each customer is
diflerent and therefore you have to treat each customer differently, that's where
the challenge comes. You have to be tenacious and you've got to have energy,
and that energy has got to last if you're full-timer say from 9 to 5 pm at the
same constant level of energy. You have a passionate belief in customer service
and all that entails. (Manager 6)
The next section moves on to look at how these initial abilities are systematized
through training.

TRAINING

There is a constant stream of employees going through initial training at Telebank, with teams of around 16 new employees undergoing a programme every
six weeks. This training covers communication skills and products and systems. For
four weeks the trainees are in a dedicated training room while the final two weeks
are spent in the 'paddling pool'. Subsequent training is either voluntary, or - if
performance is poor - compulsory.
In relation to products and systems, trainees are given a reference folder that
.specifies what they can and catmot do. In addition they receive an alphabetical
index containing details of procedures (known as 'cookery cards') and a reference
file for more complex procedures (known as 'added ingredients'). This reference
material is complemented with classroom based training, where they are taken
through the bank's computing systems. Trainees are taught how to navigate
through these systems (Frenkel et al., 1998), for example, moving from a screen
with account details to one with standing order details, and about the main
banking products. Trainees are continually reminded about the limited amount of
control they have over a customer's account and instead are trained in passing on
information, either to customers or colleagues elsewhere in the bank.
Figure 3 illustrates that the training in products and systems is complemented
by training in communication. Indeed, given the limited role of technical expertise and procedural knowledge, the emphasis is firmly on training in social competencies. We have split this into two parts managing a conversation (techniques
of conversational control) and managing yourself (control over one's energy and
enthusiasm). Together these begin to give trainees an awareness and influence over
the regulation and management of feelings categorized as acting.
They are taught two techniques to control conversation: the conversation cycle
and the eight elements of conversation. The training manager gave the following
comments on the first of these, whieh is worth quoting in full:
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G. CALLAGHAN AND P. THOMPSON

Banking products
Systems

Technical knowledge
Conversational
cycle

Managing a
conversation

Figure 3. iraining mechanisms

We also use some training models . . . it's called a conversation cycle but basically it's a model to help build rapport with people. What you say is that you
need to inform the customer what you're doing. If you don't inform the customer they become very unsure. So the cycle starts oil with 'inform' . . . So you
just listen very clearly to the other individual and on the back of it you will write
them into the conversation by asking a question. The second stage of the conversation cycle is 'invite' and it would be when someone answers a telephone
call here, they say something like 'Good morning, it's Trish from Customer Services Centre, how can I help you?'. So you've got your very simple idea, and on
the back of it you've got a question . . . You then listen to the customer and after
you've got the response you need to do the final bit of the cycle, which is to
acknowledge what they've said, and this is where you start to build empathy. At
that point you need to be saying, thank you, or I'm sorry, some kind of acknowledgement of what they've said. If someone says I want to order some money,
I'm going to Australia to see my daughter, 'Oh, wonderful'. They then need to
retain that information so at the end of the call they say, 'Have a really good
time' . . . It's about using the elements of your voice and using that to control
the conversation to help build rapport. (Manager 7)
In contrast to the training in products and systems, where they have very limited
autonomy, during conversations with customers they are encouraged to be proactive. The other procedure is known as the eight elements of conversation. These
are exchanging ideas, using the first person, stating intention, giving attention,
duplication, understanding, acknowledgement and providing conversational space.
The CSRs are trained to use one or both of these to guide the conversation. The
need for conscious awareness which emerged from the data on recruitment is also
apparent here - to use these conversational eontrol tools successfully CSRs need
continual concentration. One practical use of such techniques is to pacify irate
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customers. The skill here is not to take customer comments as personal, rather to
distance oneself from any anger and use specific procedures to calm the situation
and regain control. Comments from CSRs show how difficult this can be in
practice:
If they raise their voice at me, I keep the same volume in my voice. It can be
quite nerve-wracking. As I said, with the businessmen they can be quite sharp
and it can be quite demeaning to you, because you're there to do a job and they
won't let you do it. But I try to keep the tone and volume of my voice about
the same, so that they're not getting at me. Maybe they have a grievance with
the bank, but it's not with me. (CSR 5)
In addition to managing the conversation, CSRs are taught to manage themselves.
And here managers again emphasize energy and enthusiasm:
We also do a rapport session. We talk about rapport to start with, if you are in
or out of rapport. Then what happens is we get them to talk to each other on
a subject, one has to disagree with the other one totally, they don't like the
subject at all, really think it's dis,gusting. What happens there is we will come
round the room and review them, and take notes. Then we get them to be in
rapport with someone and go round the room again. It's amazing when you
turn and say to them when you're in rapport you do similar characteristics, so
if someone does that the other one will do it. We actually get a couple of them
out walking round as well. And that's how we get them to think about it. And
by being enthusiastic you gain rapport with that person. (Manager 3)
Here trainees are being shown the power of pretence. In the rapport session the
trainers emphasize how much trainees enjoy seeing people copy each other's physical gestures; the trick, they are told, is to establish similar rapport over the phone.
In another example trainers deliberately vary their voice and actions in order
to produce particular feelings; trainees are then shown how the eight elements
of conversation can be similarly used to influence the emotional context of a
conversation.
While employees don't necessarily recall or use all elements of such training,
they do find it useful in managing conversations, as well as in using what one CSR
called 'detective skills' to direct customers and navigate their way round systems.
However there is considerable scepticism about the significance or nature of
'building rapport':
I can see it (building rapport) is important, but most customers just want to come
on and get their query dealt with, they don't really care whether you're they're
best friend with them at the end of the call. (CSR 2)
Rapport is undermined both by the routine nature of the tasks and the relendess
pace of work. Rather than put more of themselves into the interactions, many
C^SRs close aspects of themselves down: '1 here is one part of your brain that does
go into repetitive mode just so that you can deal with the repetition over and over
again' (CSR 4). Rapport requires time and discretion, qualities that are heavily
constrained by the nature and extent of call monitoring.
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Surveillance of calls is undertaken by the 'Researcli Department' (who do

random checks and respond to eustomer complaints) and by Team Leaders (who
listen to at least five calls per week). Statistics on how many calls, how they are
handled and where they are directed, are collected and graded as a basis for feedback and discipline. Out of every 10,000 calls the target is that only three should
produce complaints. Not surprisingly, adverse reaction to 'the stats' was the most
consistent feature of CSR interviews. Contrasts with expectations at interview and
in training were noted:
What they don't tell you when you come to the interview is the emphasis they
put on stats. They are very statistics oriented - how long your average call is,
your average wrap time . . . the emphasis in the call centre and other call centres
is on the number of calls, the quality of the calls, yes, but not this rapport thing
where you chat with someone. (CSR 1)
I thought that each customer was supposed to have individual needs, so you've
got to ,give them time . . . But it's 'we need to bring those down, let's look at
bringing your stats in line with everybody else's'. It's on top of you all the time'.
(CSR 12)
Quality is more likely to be handled through *call coaching', which begins in dedicated training rooms and then moves to real calls:
5 and 6 is our paddling pool area. Once they've taken a live call on the Friday
of week 4, Monday of week 5 they then go on the phones and take live calls
from the customers. Then on the Tuesday we call coach. The way to do that is
we listen to some of their calls from a distance and they don't know we're listening to them, and we also tape their calls. What the coach will do is then write
up notes on how they handled the call. The coach is listening for communication, for energy, enthusiasm in the voice. When it dips, what sort of things can
they do . . . (Manager 3)
As mentioned earlier, under-performing CSRs can be sent back to the training
area to improve their skills. During a conversation with one such CSR we were
told that he had been taken off the phones to work on his tone, which went down
when he didn't know the answer to the customer's question. This CSR was working
through an interactive CD-ROM and said that during the early part of this
programme he was told to leave his problems at the door and be energetic and
enthusiastic with every customer that people are not interested in a CSR's nonwork life. Though coaching is experienced as adding to work pressure, CSRs do
distinguish it form the 'disciplinary'' role of the Research Department and can see
benefits:
It's really good having a one to one with someone who's listened to your calls.
You never just get negative feedback. I might be a bit biased that way, because
I left McDonalds because we didn't get any feedback. It was just 'you did that
wrong'. (CSR 5)
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DISCUSSION

There appears to be a double paradox about Telcbank's experience of selecting

and shaping its labour force. In the first place, why create such a structure process
of systematic selection and training lor a routine job with modest pay and a flat
promotion structure? Havinj^ had discussions with the bank's UK call centre executive, we know that this is a question that has exercised them. The heavy investmcnl in recrLiitment and training at Telebank and other call centres is certainly
compatible with an HRM emphasis on these processes as strategic levers in a tnore
dynamic organizational environment {Hamel and Prahalad, 1994) and where customer service is seen as an explicit part of the profit chain {St hneider and Bovven,
1999). Similarly, the social process perspective discussed earlier, cmj^hasizes recruitment and training as facilitating employee autonomy, negotiated interactions, open
learning and space for the idiosyncrasies of employees (Dachler, 1989), given that,
as lies (1999, p. 20) says, 'Work no longer comes in bite sized chunks'. Yet work
at Telebank is precisely that and little of the rest of the characteristics of high performance work systems are present.
A rationale could also be pro\ ided by a more orthodox psyelutlogical approach
of matching personality and job characteristics. However, despite the rigorous
application of a combination of old and new techniques to identify and utilize
.social competencies, Telebank, like mosl of its competitors suffers from high levels
of labour turnover, and if our interviews are anything to go by, high levels of
employee dissatisfaction. It is, of eourse, possible that particular technicjucs are
inappropriate or being applied wrongly, with the result that the wrong employees
are being selected. For example, employees with higli sot lability may become frustrated by the close controls and requirements it)r speedy completion of calls (Frei
and McDaniel, 1998, p. 4). It is equally plausible that in lt)w discretion, scripted
service interactions, the influence of" personality traits on behaviour is likely to be
weaker (Mount et al., 1998, pp. 152 -3).
Regardless of the balance of such explanations, the widespread reporting of high
turno\er and low morale in the industry, with turnover at an average of 18% (IDS,
1999; Pertemps, 1999), suggests that, at best, mis-matching is not the only thing
going on. What else that may be can begin to be identified by examining the second
paradox - the tensions between how the company idenlilies and then uses social
competencies. Within the dominant industry self-perception, recruitment and selection is framed in terms of spotting 'personality' and 'naturals', and emphasizes
the importance of the associated ct)mmunication and other competencies for
maintaining competitive advantage. Setting aside the vexatious question of how a
particular company can have such an advantage if all their competitors are doing
the same thing, Telebank has an additional problem - management action is not
consistent with that self-perception. In practice they appear not to 'trust' their
tjwn process or judgements about individuals in that new employees are clearly and
continually trained to act, both in respect to conformity to scripts and techniques
of conversational control. This contradiction is not lost on employees:
They (CSRs) are all different personalities, but they're trying to mould them
into a Telebank person. Like robots, and they're always pushing, pushing, and
if they keep pushing, I'll be out of the door soon. (CSR 13)
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'Building rapport' is central to the training process. Yet it is exactly that - built
through techniques such as coiuersational control. Furthermore, while training
emphasizes rapport and the quality of the call, once in the labour process the fbcus
is on call quantity; as one CSR said, 'all you're worrying about is getting this person
off the phone'. In other words, Telebank not only recruit attitude, they shape and
dictate it.
If something else is needed to examine the gap between rationale and outcomes,
and understand the tensions and conflicts arising from the double paradox, we
would argue that the concept of emotional labour is a useful vehicle, l'^motional
labour was popularized by the work of Hochschild (1983) into the way airline cabin
crew are taught and told to manage their emotions in order to present a pleasant
and (literally) pleasing Mace\ Staff must suppress feelings of tiredness or irritation
and, Hochschild argues, if this is done consistently and in a concentrated way
workers can move beyond 'surface acting' and actually change their own emotions,
a process known as 'deep acting'.
The relevance of emotional labour and managing feelings in service sector wtjrk
has been confirmed by other researchers, including work into hospice nurses
(James, 1989), the role of sexuality in ofi-course betting shops (Filby, 1992) and
Ogbonna and Wilkinson's (1990) work on customer service in supermarkets. It has
also surfaced in passing in some of the better known studies of call centres (Taylor
and Bain, 1998), and in more detail in Steve Taylor's researeh into a telephone
sales operation of a British airline. He comments that, '. . . service sector employers are increasingly demanding that employees deep act actively work on and
change their feeling to match the display required by the labour proeess . . .'
(Taylor, 1998, p. 98).
One problem of much of the adaptation of Hoehsehild is that her somewhat
one-dimensional concept has not been significantly extended. That task has been
undertaken by Bolton (2000) who has categorized emotions in work in a manner
that distinguishes diHerent ways in which they are managed. The most important
distinction for our purposes is between a pecuniary category (the sole foeus of
Hochschild), whereby emotions are managed for commercial gain; and a philanthropic dimension in which emotions are managed as a 'gift'. T he tensions between
them (as well as between other categories that are not rele\ant here) makes
emotions as well as the conventional 'effort bargain' (where labour power is transformed into profitable labour), a contested terrain between workers and managers.
It also means that far from being passive providers of emotional labour, employees are acti\c and skilled emotion managers in their own right. T he use of a
qualitative case of the approach has allowed us to take these insights and add to
our understanding of bt)th call centre work and emotional labour. This has been
done by tracking the tensions emerging fVom ret ruitment, selection and training,
and analysing the 'negotiation' between workers and managers over the utilization
of emotions in ser\'ice delivery.
Certainly for management, the ideal Telebank employee is stjmeone who is
perceived to be able to deep act
a person who has substantial resources of
'personality' aud (au draw on and manage these emotions in a systematic (yet
convincing) way.
Tone gi\es away just about everything that's going on in your mind . . . if a
customer is stupid you need tt) become quite clevt-r in your acting abilities , . .
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enthusiasm and tone give away your mood, if you are five minutes from the end
of a shift, or ha\ inj^ a bad day . . . you'll have to fight these reactions, shut them
out, push them out. The good thing is if you can do this eventually you will be
able to change yourself. Or on the 'bad days' unless it is very serious put up
with it. (Training manager, from non-participant observation)
CSRs are also acutely aware of the need to provide emotional labour:
It's inside me 1 think. I try to think, if that was me how would I feel? I try to
look at it from their point oi" view. {CSR 7)
I find that you just separate your two worlds so that you're not all uptight
answering phones. You've got to try and separate the two. 1 manage all right,
but stjme days it can be tough . . . But I've gf)t two kids, and if you're wound
up before you come in here, you try to switch off and it's quite difhcult.
(CSR 11)
I sit on the phone and put a face acro.ss to the public. Some people can't distinguish between stopping their emotions. Some people come in here feeling
really down, and go on the phone feeling down. Other people ean switch.
(CSR 3)
Interviews, then, consistently reveal that CSRs are aware of the need to vary their
face, but there is little evidence of deep acting, of employees actually changing
themselves. Rather they act as competent emotion managers and make t akulative decisions about their degree of engagement and enthusiasm. Given the pressure of the labour process and the emphasis on call quantity, many CSRs deliver
only surface acting:
My way of handling it is coming in and saying to myself, 'I do my shift from 2
to 10, it's not a career, it's a job. I answer the phone and that's it'. By not looking
for anything more than that, that's my way of handling it. When I first came
in, I thought it was maybe just me, but speaking to other people it's the same.
(CSR 8)
1 here is one part of your brain that does go into repetitive mode just so you
can deal with the repetition over and over again. (CSR 4)
This 'satisficing' strategy is linked to the prominence we have shown that CSRs
place on patience, tolerance and stamina in discussions of skills necessary ibr the
job, in contrast to managerial talk emphasis on 'personality' and rapport. It is inieresting to note that in a recent suivey of agents by a leading recruitment consultancy, 'handling pressure' was the top characteristic identified by call centre agents
for successful work; whereas 'very litde reference was made to overall personality'
(Pertemps, 1999, p. 13). In low trust conditions, where emotional labour is prescribed and monitored, a response of surface acting can he seen as a defensive
form of resistance (Sturdy, 1998, p. 32). However a more aetive form of contesting the emotional terrain arises when CSRs decide to provide philanthropic emotional labour. This was a consistent feature of interviews:
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At the weekend, on a Saturday, you get old women or men phoning and they
just want to talk. It's great, I love getting these calls . . . (CSR 9)
We have our regulars that call. . . And they'll call once or twice in the night and
sit and talk for a wee while, they just want a bit of company I just feel you can't
cut them oil. You know they just want a blether. (CSR 11)
We get a lot of people who are on their own, they're pensioners. They ask for
a balance, and then they will want a chat 'wliat's the weather like?' Vm quite
happy to chat to them, but it's always in the back of your mind, got to watch
my average handling time. I think you're setting a better example for the bank.
(CSR 21)'
An emphasis on CSRs as an active agency, aware of managerial demands and
capable of inserting iheir own conceptions of appropriate emotional labour,
counteracts the fashionable depiction of call centre employees as self-disciplined
subjects of electronic sur\eil!ancc {Fernie and Metcalf, 1997). Nevertheless, the
outcomes of conflicting emotional pressures on employees are crucial to explainijig some of the negati\e behavioural outcome facing the industry. Sociological
and psychological studies have shown that work in which there is a significant gap
between demands of ser\ ice work in terms of customer contact, and a poor service
climate with little flexibility and job autonomy, can lead to increased stress and
burnout (Hochschild, 1983; Morris and Feldman, 1997; Schneider, 1980). This
has been confirmed more recently with reference to call centres. Using survey data
from almost 500 telephone service operators, Deery et al. (2000) found that the
negative effects of dealing with difficult customers and scripted interactions was
significantly associated with emotional exhaustion and in turn, employee absence.
In contrast, employees who spent longer with customers on calls, or who had supportive team leaders, experienced lower levels of burnout. Our study demonstrates
that the gap between recruitment and training messages and subsequent experience of work exacerbates such tensions and pressures.

CONCLUSION

This case study has deepened an understanding of the formation of social competencies in interactive ser\ice work that can aid further research into the underdeveloped area of skill formation (see Becker, 2000). It has raised related questions
about the character and appropriateness of recruitment, selection and training
processes in call centres. The recruitment and selection process is used to identify,
through experience or predisposition, the existence of social competencies functional to service interactions. Training and subsequent control systems are then
used to make those competencies appropriate to the particular workflow:
'Fhc work demands that CSRs must be continually energetic and enthusiastic
and the selection process aims to identify 'suitable workers'. In this respect, the
care taken over recruiting individuals predisposed by ability or orientation to work
in the prescribed manner may not be as misplaced as it appears. Telebank management knows that this is highly demanding, repetitive work and on occasions
gives applicants a candid, if not blunt, description.
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It can be a very mundane job. When the customer asks you for ihe 70th time
on a PViday, can I have my balance, it'.s a special kind of" person who can say,
'Certainly' and ofT they go again. (Manager 8)
We are not arguing that management has a 'hidden agenda' in reeruitment and
selection, but that the mixed messages refiect the complex tensions across goals
and means in call centre operations. While recruits may not be 'special' in the
sense that Telebank management uses the term, the rigour of selection and training may have something to do with identifying people with survival as well as communication skills; not least those who have the stamina and guile to get through
120 repetitive calls a day while being scripted and scrutinized.
This is consistent with our earlier argument that reeruitment and training in
call centres may be being used to address aspects of the indeterminacy of labour.
Furthermore, what we have observed is consistent with wider re.search. Summing
up a variety of 'empowerment' studies, largely in the service sector, Hales (1999,
p. 7) notes that one of the key eoncomitants of empowerment is, 'ex-ante control,
in the form of careful employee recruitment and training to seleet "empowerable"
employee.s and to ineulcate the skills and attitudes conductive to exercising
"responsible" choice'.
Yet, we have also shown that attempts to identify and utilize social eompetencies is a problematic and uneven process. The indeterminacy of labour eannot be
addressed .solely or primarily outside the labour process. I h e tight job speeifieation and extensive surveillanee of CSRs demonstrates that unambiguously As
a result, the tension in the labour process between the mobilization of employee
attributes and the deliberate moulding and standardization of social competencies
is merely part of a wider tension between the 'demands' of quantity and quality
(Taylor and Bain, 1998). In one sense these tensions are the .service interaetion
equivalent of the control-engage dilemma of management in more eonventional
manufacturing settings. But what is distinctive about this process in interactive
service work is continual negotiation and re-negotiation over the transformation
of emotional labour power into serviceable product. This has been a further area
in which the case study has been able to develop conceptual resources that could
aid further research, for example by foeusing on the ways in which .supervisors and
team leaders manage the boundaries of the emotional eflbrt bargain through
eoaching and social support.
There remains, of eourse, the perennial issue of how far it is possible to generalize from a single ca.se study. We recognize that there is considerable market
segmentation in the sector, ineluding more complex high-end activities within and
aero.ss eall centres (Frenkel et al., 199H). The skills required and the associated
fbrms of work organization will undoubtedly differ from the pattern identified at
Telebank (see, for example, Batt, 1999). Nevertheless, studies show that employment growth has been concentrated in high volume operations, characterized by
large workplaces and routine work ('Iaylor and Bain, 1998; Datarnonitor, 1998).
l\irthermore, we have demonstrated that our findings are consistent with much of
the other research on interactive service work.
That problems of low morale, high turnover and poor external image are
reeognized as important and ean be observed by anyone attending meetings of
industry associations. What ean or will be done about it is another matter. While
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G. GALIAGHAN AND P. THOMPSON

ing labour, whether that be lessening surveillance or extending discretion, others

appear to have learned to live with the status quo. A call centre manager recently
admitted on BBC Radio Scotland that if companies got two years out of employees, they would consider it a reasonable return on investment.
Uncertainty within the industry about how to deal with its problems of work
organization, recruitment and retention is hardly surprising given its age, growth
patterns and contradictory pressures. Nor are the strategic choices of management
at companies such as Telet>ank likely to be static or permanent. Encouraging customers to manage their accounts through the internet is already a trend, and it
may be, for example, that an increasing proportion of routine transactions will be
handled through interactive voice recognition technology. This would facilitate
organizational restructuring, allowing the switehmg of some staff to higher
value, outbound activities. Nevertheless, we should not underestimate the continued economies of scale from centralized, high-volume eustomer management
(Roncoroni, 2000), nor the financial pressures on companies in a sector where
labour constitutes around 60 per cent of total costs (Stock, 1999). In this context,
the experience of companies such as Telebank is likely to prove a useful guide
to the dynamics of work relations and human resource policies in a key segment
of the call centre industry for some time to eome.

NOTE
The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the ESRC for the project, 'Socioteehniciil systems and call centres', ref no R000222799.

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