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An Empirical Study Of Job Design In The Australian Call Centre Industry, Jane Murray, Peter Jordan, Bradley Bowden

Jane Murray

Call centres provide organisations with the ability to service customers cheaply and conveniently over the telephone. However, the way in which work is organised has generated considerable debate. While some researchers emphasise the efficiencies gained, others focus on the human costs. In this article, we outline an empirical study of call centre work design within the framework of Hackman and Oldham's Job Characteristics Mode (JCM). The findings of the study indicate call centre employees lack skill variety and autonomy and that call centre operators dislike electronic monitoring and experience conflict between servicing business requirements and customers.

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