Cette recherche est le résultat de deux travaux d’analyse de l’activité dans deux centres d’appels téléphoniques en Argentine. Un travail de terrain, ainsi qu'une appréciation de plusieurs autres centres d’appels téléphoniques dans différents pays, auront servi de point de départ pour étudier deux grands axes: d’une part, l’étude des conséquences du travail dans les call centers sur la santé mentale et d’autre part, l'analyse des différentes approches de cette problématique en vue de sa transformation. La psychodynamique du travail et l’ergonomie de l’activité proposent différents regards, aujourd’hui confrontés aux questionnaires d’évaluation des risques psychosociaux. Cette thèse vise à mieux appréhender le lien entre l’organisation du travail, le contenu des tâches et les conséquences pour les travailleurs argentins, et compare ces résultats avec ceux d' autres pays où des investigations similaires ont été menées. / This research is the result of a thorough analysis of the work of two call centers in Argentina. This fieldwork, building on call center visits undertaken in other countries, is the starting point for the study of two main issues. Firstly, the study of the consequences of call center work for mental health. Secondly, the study of different approaches that support the development of ways to improve it such work. Work psychodynamics and activity ergonomics are two disciplines that propose different points of view on these issues. Nowadays, they both find themselves confronted by quantitative scales that seek to measure psychosocial risks. The aim of this thesis is to increase knowledge on the relationship between work organization and tasks content and highlight the consequences for workers in Argentina. The thesis shall also compare results of the study with those found in other countries.

Call centres have been described as an enabling resource for enhanced customer service, as a cost saving strategy, and a combination of both. Call centres are people intensive, resource demanding environments with complex management challenges. The call centre industry is growing rapidly and South Africa is fast becoming a desired destination for outsourced call centres. The purpose of this study is to explore the perceptions of outsourced call centre management specifically regarding their roles and challenges experienced when executing their daily activities. This study contributes to the understanding of the challenges outsourced call centre managers encounter and provide suggestions to help address major challenges faced in relation to effective call centre management. The methodology used was of a qualitative nature as data was gathered through semi-structured interviews. Inductive reasoning was applied in this study. The call centre managers were purposively selected for the study based on their experience within the industry. The data gathered was transcribed, coded and organised into themes, categories and sub-categories. The study had five objectives and once analysed the following results were obtained: profiles of call centre management was determined, people management surfaced as a major challenge for call centre managers, numerous strategies are in place to deal with challenges, however they are limited due to company policies, cost efficiency was not the main reason organisations outsource their call centres and finally call centre managers perceive their roles to be the overall responsibility of the call centre, its employees and performance. The results revealed that scientific management principles and continuous improvement are major focus areas within the call centre environment. This is mainly driven by the fact that outsourced call centres have contractual obligations that need to be met otherwise they face financial penalties. The findings also revealed that being a manager in an outsourced call centre today is a dynamic and challenging task with many pressures both internally and externally. The study recommends that outsourced call centre managers be empowered and supported by the relevant support divisions as they assume a great responsibility while operating in a dynamic environment and they play a pivotal role in ensuring the success of outsourced call centres. The main limitation of this study is that it relies on outsourced contact centres situated in the Gauteng area that only services one telecommunication organisations customer queries limiting the ability to generalise to other populations. / Business Management / M. Tech. (Business Administration)

Call centres have been described as an enabling resource for enhanced customer service, as a cost saving strategy, and a combination of both. Call centres are people intensive, resource demanding environments with complex management challenges. The call centre industry is growing rapidly and South Africa is fast becoming a desired destination for outsourced call centres. The purpose of this study is to explore the perceptions of outsourced call centre management specifically regarding their roles and challenges experienced when executing their daily activities. This study contributes to the understanding of the challenges outsourced call centre managers encounter and provide suggestions to help address major challenges faced in relation to effective call centre management. The methodology used was of a qualitative nature as data was gathered through semi-structured interviews. Inductive reasoning was applied in this study. The call centre managers were purposively selected for the study based on their experience within the industry. The data gathered was transcribed, coded and organised into themes, categories and sub-categories. The study had five objectives and once analysed the following results were obtained: profiles of call centre management was determined, people management surfaced as a major challenge for call centre managers, numerous strategies are in place to deal with challenges, however they are limited due to company policies, cost efficiency was not the main reason organisations outsource their call centres and finally call centre managers perceive their roles to be the overall responsibility of the call centre, its employees and performance. The results revealed that scientific management principles and continuous improvement are major focus areas within the call centre environment. This is mainly driven by the fact that outsourced call centres have contractual obligations that need to be met otherwise they face financial penalties. The findings also revealed that being a manager in an outsourced call centre today is a dynamic and challenging task with many pressures both internally and externally. The study recommends that outsourced call centre managers be empowered and supported by the relevant support divisions as they assume a great responsibility while operating in a dynamic environment and they play a pivotal role in ensuring the success of outsourced call centres. The main limitation of this study is that it relies on outsourced contact centres situated in the Gauteng area that only services one telecommunication organisations customer queries limiting the ability to generalise to other populations. / Business Management / M. Tech. (Business Administration)

Leung Cheung-chi. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-78). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter 1 --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Background --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Objective --- p.2 / Chapter 1.3 --- Overview of the Thesis --- p.3 / Chapter 2 --- APPLICATION OF VOIP IN CALL CENTER --- p.6 / Chapter 2.1 --- An Intelligent IP-based Call Center Model --- p.6 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- Major Components --- p.7 / Chapter a) --- VoIP Gateways --- p.7 / Chapter b) --- Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) --- p.8 / Chapter c) --- Operators --- p.8 / Chapter d) --- Monitoring Tool --- p.9 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- Major Functions --- p.9 / Chapter 2.2 --- Experimental Study of an IP-to-IP Call Center - VoIP Application in Education --- p.10 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Architecture --- p.11 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Voice Connection Server --- p.12 / Chapter 2.2.3 --- Call Establishment --- p.14 / Chapter 2.2.4 --- A Preliminary Implementation --- p.14 / Chapter 3 --- THE ACD AND ITS SOFTWARE STRUCTURE --- p.17 / Chapter 3.1 --- Three-Layer Software Structure --- p.17 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- Network Infrastructure Layer --- p.18 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- Call Management Layer --- p.18 / Chapter 3.1.3 --- Application Layer --- p.19 / Chapter 3.1.4 --- Interoperation Between Layers --- p.19 / Chapter 3.2 --- Advantages of Adopting this Software Structure --- p.20 / Chapter 3.3 --- Functional Overview of the ACD --- p.21 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Call Establishment --- p.21 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- Call Waiting --- p.23 / Chapter 3.3.3 --- Call Forwarding --- p.25 / Chapter 3.3.4 --- Routing Mechanism in the ACD --- p.26 / Chapter a) --- "Queues, Operator Groups and Operators" --- p.26 / Chapter b) --- Priority Based Call Routing --- p.28 / Chapter c) --- Routing of New Incoming Calls --- p.29 / Chapter d) --- Assigning Calls in Waiting Queues to Operators --- p.32 / Chapter 4 --- IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ACD --- p.34 / Chapter 4.1 --- Requirements in implementing the ACD --- p.34 / Chapter 4.1.1 --- Asynchronous Method Call --- p.34 / Chapter 4.1.2 --- Transaction Planning --- p.36 / Chapter 4.1.3 --- Failure Handling --- p.37 / Chapter 4.2 --- Available Technologies --- p.38 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- Enterprise JavaBean (EJB) --- p.38 / Chapter a) --- Entity Bean --- p.40 / Chapter b) --- Session Bean --- p.40 / Chapter c) --- Usage of Session Beans and Entity Beans --- p.41 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- COM+ --- p.42 / Chapter 4.2.3 --- EJB vs COM+ --- p.43 / Chapter 4.3 --- Implementation --- p.47 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- Mapping the EJB model to the Implementation of the ACD --- p.47 / Chapter 4.3.2 --- Design of Entity Beans --- p.49 / Chapter 4.3.3 --- Design of Session Beans --- p.51 / Chapter 4.3.4 --- Asynchronous Method Call --- p.53 / Chapter 4.3.5 --- Transaction Planning --- p.55 / Chapter 4.3.6 --- Failure Handling --- p.57 / Chapter a) --- Failure Handling for VoIP gateways --- p.58 / Chapter b) --- Failure Handling in the ACD --- p.60 / Chapter 5 --- AN EXPERIMENT --- p.64 / Chapter 5.1 --- Experiment on the Call Center Prototype --- p.64 / Chapter 5.1.1 --- Setup of the Experiment --- p.64 / Chapter 5.1.2 --- Experimental Results --- p.66 / Chapter a) --- Startup Time for Different Components --- p.66 / Chapter b) --- Possessing Time for Different Requests --- p.67 / Chapter 5.2 --- Observations --- p.69 / Chapter 5.2.1 --- Observations on Experimental Results --- p.69 / Chapter 5.2.2 --- Advantages and Disadvantages of Using EJB --- p.70 / Chapter 6 --- CONCLUSIONS --- p.72 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.76

Abstract not available

Thesis (MTech (Business Administration))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 57-59). Also available online.

This dissertation is concerned with the everyday lives of transnational Indian call center workers when situated within the global politics of voice-based outsourcing. The call center economy gained impetus in early 2000-2001, when multinational corporations began to train young men and women in India to mask their spatial and temporal location, in order that they could serve customers in the US and the UK. Taking calls through the night to serve the work day of Western consumers, these customer service agents were asked to assume a different name, location, and cultural and language markers, as part of the requirements of work. I explore the ways in which these young, middle-class workers located themselves within practices, contentious representations, and material outcomes of this transnational outsourcing economy. Through ethnographic research in Pune, a prominent university town and call center hub in western India, I investigate (1) everyday life in and out of the call center, (2) labor management practices within call centers, and (3) the socio-economic and cultural transformations that accompanied and framed the development of the urban Indian call center economy. This research engages with the machinations of multinational corporations as they incorporate large number of labor forces worldwide into transnational work. It builds on three main bodies of theory - flexible or late capital and flexibility, the South Asian postcolonial nation-state, and affective labor. Through these, I provide a thick description of the history, construction, maintenance and disruption of this site, as also the ways in which this particular story of capital was stabilized. I engage with questions such as, what complex negotiations underlie the ostensible success of new service economies in India? What are its cultural, political and economic determinants and ramifications? What grounds are the claims of state, capital and culture being contested or reified upon, and what do such negotiations mean for service workers within the landscape of urban India? This dissertation shows how the practice of everyday life in this transnational milieu is best explained as the collusion and tension between the contested socio-economic spaces of the new Indian middle-classes and middle-class-ness, and an ungrounded discourse of mobile and flexible capital. The stories of call center workers in this analysis are the stories of particular subjects called upon and striving to be constantly flexible in order to successfully become middle-class and global in the same breath, one often seamlessly overlapping the other. / text

This thesis was the result of a study conducted for the call-centre at the Workers' Compensation Board of British Columbia (WCB). The management at WCB wanted to understand the nature and pattern of calls at their newly opened call-centre. The purpose of this was to provide an efficient customer service while streamlining the flow of calls coming to the call-centre. An extensive data collection exercise was undertaken at the call-centre and two other units of WCB with which the call-centre interacts. The data analysis revealed that a high proportion of calls were related to transfers to these departments. There were also calls related to routine inquiries on claim payment cheques and forms that could potentially be handled by a well designed IVR system. Based on this understanding the development of an effective IVR system was proposed to address the problems that were discovered through documenting the nature and pattern of calls. An extensive review of literature was undertaken to design a new system according to the standard industry guidelines suggested by the best practices and customized to WCB's business needs. Two alternate scripts were developed after analysing the source and purpose of calls to WCB. One was 'person specific' and the other was 'task specific'. The two scripts were tested on students at WCB through a computer-based IVR simulation. The results of the student survey provided evidence that introducing additional options and use of simple and clear instructions in the new scripts could potentially in fact address the problems discovered in the study and they were preferred over the existing WCB script. The IVR simulation is reconfigurable and can be used in future studies to gather further evidence in support of the results obtained in this thesis as well as refine scripts before putting them in a production mode.

Based on a multimodal approach combining elements of ethnographic participant/observer methodology, rhetorical genre analysis, and corpus analysis, this study examines trouble ticket discourse as a genre of digital communication (IText), interpreting the findings through the lens of 18 months the author spent working in the environment.Trouble tickets are the basic form of documentation used in call centers. They record details of all actions and interactions in the call center environment that is the setting for this study. One section employs the Ethnography of Communication as a foundational model to provide a rich description of both text and environment. Trouble ticket text is written in a fragmentary style which internal and external audiences alike find difficult to process.The rhetorical moves analysis (Swales 1990) uses the rich description as a basis for interpreting and explaining its findings. Key findings are that trouble tickets are rhetorical, and that they seamlessly incorporate actions by the automated system into the human rhetoric. The corpus analysis builds on both the rich description and rhetorical moves analysis, finding that trouble tickets use grammatical structures differently than traditional spoken and written communication.This study concludes that trouble tickets are used simultaneously for direct and archival communication, are collaboratively concatenative in generation and that a new model is required for understanding the variation between speech, writing and IText. / Department of English

Thesis (M.Ind.Rel.)--University of Wollongong, 2005. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references: leaf 132-143.