Submitted by Silvana Teresinha Dornelles Studzinski (sstudzinski) on 2015-05-14T17:57:45Z No. of bitstreams: 1 LizianeSilvaMenezes.pdf: 4918464 bytes, checksum: 2a4190164c3f6313abf6dcd3d0e8a09f (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-14T17:57:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 LizianeSilvaMenezes.pdf: 4918464 bytes, checksum: 2a4190164c3f6313abf6dcd3d0e8a09f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-12-15 / Nenhuma / Estudos demonstram a crescente importância estabelecida pelo mercado ao serviço de atendimento ao cliente. Uma vez que tal processo permite às organizações a compreensão de necessidades explícitas ou implícitas dos clientes atuais e futuros, a partir da sistematização e análise das interações recebidas nos diferentes canais de atendimento, tal movimento tem gerado questionamentos sobre como este pode ser mais bem gerenciado, visando assim qualificar os serviços prestados pelas Centrais de Atendimento atuais. Sendo a Matriz da Qualidade parte do QFD, que é um método que visa aprimorar o desenvolvimento de produtos/serviços a partir da escuta, tradução e transmissão, de forma priorizada, das necessidades dos clientes para dentro da empresa, questionou-se: como esta poderia contribuir para aprimorar os serviços prestados por uma Central de Atendimento? Desta forma, este trabalho se propôs a explorar tal questão, por meio de um estudo que objetivou analisar os resultados da aplicação desta Matriz em tal contexto. Para tanto, a pesquisa foi realizada em três etapas: (i) a primeira, de caráter Exploratório, em que foram identificadas alternativas para resposta à questão de pesquisa, a partir de uma revisão na literatura existente; (ii) a segunda, de caráter Aplicado, por meio de uma pesquisa-ação realizada na Central de Atendimento de uma Instituição de Ensino Superior de grande porte (com aproximadamente 27.000 alunos), localizada no estado do Rio Grande do Sul; tal etapa foi constituída por três fases, sendo que na primeira delas foi feita a aplicação da Matriz como ferramenta para triagem e estabelecimento das prioridades a serem trabalhadas nas etapas subsequentes; e (iii) a terceira para elaboração de análises e conclusões dos resultados. De modo geral, entende-se que os objetivos pré-estabelecidos para o estudo tenham sido atingidos, uma vez que os resultados apresentam uma análise detalhada da aplicação da Matriz em uma Central de Atendimento real, com reflexões e contribuições para pesquisas futuras sobre o tema. Entre as principais contribuições encontradas destacam-se as melhorias realizadas na infraestrutura e nos processos de gestão de pessoas e de falhas da Central de Atendimento estudada, as quais foram percebidas positivamente tanto pelos usuários como pelos gestores da Instituição após a finalização do trabalho, demonstrando assim a efetividade do método utilizado. Visando colaborar para pesquisas futuras, ao término das análises é apresentado um roteiro para possível uso em Centrais de Atendimento que estejam em busca de objetivos semelhantes. Acredita-se também que tal roteiro possa ser visto como uma ferramenta gerencial, sendo útil no apoio ao cumprimento de estratégias voltadas para gestão da qualidade. / Studies show the increasing importance established by the market at the service of customer service. Once this process enables organizations to understand the stated or implied needs of current and future customers, based on the systematization and analysis of interactions received from different service channels, such movement has generated questions about how this process can be better managed, by that means, aiming to qualify the services provided by customer service center nowadays. As the Quality Matrix part of QFD, which is a method that aims to improve the system development of products/services from listening, translating and transmission, prioritizing the needs of customers into the company, it was questioned: How could this help improving services provided by a customer service center? Therefore, this work proposes to explore this question through a study that aimed to analyze the results of the application of the Quality Matrix in this context. With this objective, the survey was conducted in three steps: (i) the first, exploratory, where there were identified alternatives to answer to the research question, from a review of existing literature, (ii) the second, applied, through an action research conducted in the customer service center of a large Higher Education Institution (approximately 27,000 students) located in the state of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil); this step was consisted of three phases, and the first of these was the application of the Matrix as a tool for screening and establishing priorities to be worked on in subsequent steps, and (iii) the third, for the analysis and conclusion of the results. In general, it is understood that the pre-established goals for the study have been achieved, since the final work is a detailed analysis of the results of a Quality Matrix application in a real Service Center, with reflections and contributions for future research on the subject. Among the main contributions found are the improvements made in infrastructure and people management processes, and failures of the customer service center study, which were discerned positively by both users and managers of the institution after the conclusion of the work, in this manner demonstrating the effec tiveness of the method used. Aiming to contribute to future research, at the end of the analysis is presented a roadmap for possible use in customer service center that are seeking similar objectives. It is also believed that this script can be seen as a management tool and is useful in supporting the achievement of strategies for quality management.

Drawing upon case studies of three organisations operating six call centres in Australia, this thesis explores the manifestations and interplay of employee resistance and accommodation in response to five facets of employer control: electronic monitoring; repetitious work; emotional control; the built environment; and workplace flexibility. Accommodation refers to the ways workers protect themselves from and adapt to the pressures that make up their day-to-day experiences of work. Accommodation, unlike resistance, which implies opposition to control, may superficially resemble consent to control. I argue that resistance and accommodation are not polar opposites; rather they are both reflections of the conflict and tensions that lie at the heart of the employment relationship. At the study sites, employees utilised resistance and accommodation both separately and concurrently. An explanation of these seemingly contradictory responses and of the links among accommodation individual resistance and collective resistance lies in the concept of ???self???. In this thesis, ???self??? refers to workers??? perceptions of fairness, dignity and autonomy. I examine how these notions frame worker discontent and promote employee solidarity. ???Everyday resistance???, a concept first developed by Scott (1985) in relation to peasant struggles, is employed to highlight the existence of subterranean struggles in workplaces that otherwise appear to be harmonious. At the study sites, everyday resistance was a multi-faceted, widely employed strategy whose strength lay primarily in its immediate impact. There was, however, no necessary sequential development from accommodation, through everyday resistance to overt, formal forms of conflict. What was evident was that multiple responses to employer control could co-exist and inhibit or promote one another. But it was through organised collective resistance that more formalised gains were made and widely held grievances addressed. I suggest that, although everyday resistance may lay the groundwork for more formal struggles, one should not conclude that traditional collective resistance is ???genuine??? resistance and everyday resistance is simply a second-best prelude to it. Although conflict is always present, its intensity differs. If we are to understand the complexity of worker responses to managerial control, we need to expand the theoretical frameworks within which we analyse and interpret conflict.

The rapid growth of the global economy in the last two decades has created a new economic reality in many municipalities in peripheral regions of Sweden. Having earlier relied on traditional industry as the source of employment, today municipalities in peripheral regions are struggling to survive in a completely changed economic landscape, with new conditions for development. The dismantling of trade barriers, accessibility of new markets for production, and faster and cheaper modes of communication and transportation have combined in changing the conditions for development. While historically peripheral regions have depended on manufacturing firms as a source of employment, indications today show that local and regional development is enhanced through the development of locally acquired relationships that promote knowledge creation and transmission. In the past, the Swedish government had put in place measures to promote a degree of regional parities. These included enticement schemes to industry and the relocation of public bodies. Faced with the global winds of change that have arisen in the last few decades, this approach is becoming unsustainable. The overall aim of this dissertation is to contribute to the research aimed at enhancing regional economic development and to increase the understanding of as well as give insights into local economic development processes aimed at meeting global challenges in a peripheral region. In it I explore the two interrelated questions of 1) what are the mechanisms influencing location of economic activities and industrial policy in peripheral regions? 2) How do these mechanisms manifest themselves in a peripheral region? In this study, three case studies of local development processes in the two municipalities of Ljusdal and Söderhamn, in the geographical region of Hälsingland are presented. The case studies are named the business case, the policy case and the hybrid case to reflect the mechanisms that induced them. / Den globala ekonomins snabba tillväxt under de senaste två decennierna har skapat en ny ekonomisk verklighet i många svenska periferiregioner. Från att tidigare ha kunnat förlita sig på traditionell industri som grund för sysselsättningen, så måste dessa regioner idag kämpa för sin överlevnad i ett mycket annorlunda ekonomiskt landskap, med nya förutsättningar för utveckling. Avvecklingen av handelshinder, tillgång till nya produktionsmarknader samt snabbare och billigare sätt att kommunicera och transportera har tillsammans förändrat förutsättningarna för utveckling. Historiskt sett har sysselsättningen i periferiregioner varit beroende av tillverkningsindustrin, men idag finns tecken som tyder på att den lokala och regionala utvecklingen förstärks av lokalt förvärvade relationer som stödjer skapande och överföring av kunskaper. Förr vidtog den svenska regeringen mått och steg för att befrämja regional jämlikhet. Till exempel skapade man lockmedel för industrin och förflyttade statliga verk. De senaste decenniernas globala förändringar gör dessa metoder otillräckliga. Det övergripande syftet med den här avhandlingen är att bidra till den forskning vars syfte är att gynna regional ekonomisk utveckling och att öka förståelsen av och ge insikt i lokala ekonomiska utvecklingsprocesser som försöker möta dagens globala utmaningar för periferiregioner. Följande två sammanhängande frågor utforskas: 1) Vilka mekanismer påverkarlokaliseringen av ekonomiska aktiviteter och industriell politik i periferiregioner? 2) Hur visar sig dessa mekanismer i lokala utvecklingsprocesser i en periferiregion?I den här avhandlingen presenteras tre fallstudier som beskriver lokala utvecklingsprocesser i de två kommunerna Ljusdal och Söderhamn, båda belägna i Hälsingland. För att reflektera demekanismer som framkallat dem, kallas de tre fallstudierna för företagsstudien, policystudien och hybridstudien. / QC 20100616

Call centers have become a preferred and prevalent means for companies to communicate with their customers. As a consequence of this, the call center industry has seen a huge growth in both volume and scope in the last couple of decades. Operations managers are challenged with the fact that personnel costs, especially staffing, account for over 65% of the cost of running the typical call center. The trade-off between service quality (marketing) and efficiency (operations), thus naturally arises, and a central goal of ours is to contribute to its understanding. We present here a server switching policy for routing of calls to Customer Service Representatives (CSR) in a multi-skilled inbound call center utilizing skill-based routing (SBR). We model the system as a queueing network and propose stochastic Petri net based models for the design and performance analysis of call centers. Our models and experimentations help in identifying practices that result in efficient usage of existing personnel in a call center. In our work, we have considered two types of scenarios in which a multi-skilled SBR call center handling inbound calls can function - (i) with specialist agents only, and (ii) with a mix of specialist and flexible agents. We have developed both these models and compared the rewards obtained from each of them. This analysis helped us answer important issues regarding the routing decision of calls to CSRs, identify the hedging point where one obtains the highest rewards and the impact of varying the strategic and tactical level decisions on the overall call center performance.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Drawing upon case studies of three organisations operating six call centres in Australia, this thesis explores the manifestations and interplay of employee resistance and accommodation in response to five facets of employer control: electronic monitoring; repetitious work; emotional control; the built environment; and workplace flexibility. Accommodation refers to the ways workers protect themselves from and adapt to the pressures that make up their day-to-day experiences of work. Accommodation, unlike resistance, which implies opposition to control, may superficially resemble consent to control. I argue that resistance and accommodation are not polar opposites; rather they are both reflections of the conflict and tensions that lie at the heart of the employment relationship. At the study sites, employees utilised resistance and accommodation both separately and concurrently. An explanation of these seemingly contradictory responses and of the links among accommodation individual resistance and collective resistance lies in the concept of ???self???. In this thesis, ???self??? refers to workers??? perceptions of fairness, dignity and autonomy. I examine how these notions frame worker discontent and promote employee solidarity. ???Everyday resistance???, a concept first developed by Scott (1985) in relation to peasant struggles, is employed to highlight the existence of subterranean struggles in workplaces that otherwise appear to be harmonious. At the study sites, everyday resistance was a multi-faceted, widely employed strategy whose strength lay primarily in its immediate impact. There was, however, no necessary sequential development from accommodation, through everyday resistance to overt, formal forms of conflict. What was evident was that multiple responses to employer control could co-exist and inhibit or promote one another. But it was through organised collective resistance that more formalised gains were made and widely held grievances addressed. I suggest that, although everyday resistance may lay the groundwork for more formal struggles, one should not conclude that traditional collective resistance is ???genuine??? resistance and everyday resistance is simply a second-best prelude to it. Although conflict is always present, its intensity differs. If we are to understand the complexity of worker responses to managerial control, we need to expand the theoretical frameworks within which we analyse and interpret conflict.

The purpose of the research was to determine whether personality and measures of ability would significantly predict job performance of call centre operators in a South African communications company. The Customer Contact Styles Questionnaire (CCSQ7.2), the Basic Checking (CP7.1) ability test and the Audio Checking (CP8.1) ability test were completed by operators as the predictors. Supervisors completed the Customer Contact Competency Inventory (CCCI) for 140 operators as a measure of job performance. Performance statistics were obtained for the sample as additional criterion data. Correlations and multiple regression analysis revealed statistically significant small to moderate correlations between the criteria and the predictors. The research was conducted from a concurrent validity perspective. Further research from a predictive validity perspective is suggested in order to substantiate the findings and to improve the generalisability thereof. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M.A. (Industrial Psychology)

The objective of the research was to investigate an improvement in job performance when role-play is used as a training and assessment tool in a sales call centre environment. The research was conducted by means of a competence assessment used at different stages (Quality Assurance Performance Management Questionnaire). The final stage was two weeks after the learners who had qualified to be sales agents had entered a real working environment. At this final stage, calls were retrieved and rated against the Quality Assurance Performance Management Questionnaire (QAPMQ). A sample of 40 novice sales agents (learners) were selected and randomly divided into the control and experimental groups. The research findings indicated that if planned well, role-play can be an effective training and assessment tool. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M.Comm. (Industrial & Organisational Psychology)

Government call centers (311) were first created to reduce the volume of non-emergency calls that were being placed to emergency 911 call centers. The number of 311 call centers increased from 57 in 2008 to about 300 in 2013. Considering that there are over 2,700 municipal government units across the United States, the adoption rate of the 311 centers is arguably low in the country. This dissertation is an examination of the adoption of 311 call centers by municipal governments. My focus is specifically on why municipal governments adopt 311 and identifying which barriers result in the non-adoption of 311 call centers. This dissertation is possibly the first study to examine the adoption of 311 call centers in the United States. The dissertation study has identified several significant factors in the adoption and non-adoption of 311 government call centers. The following factors were significant in the adoption of 311 government call centers: managerial support, financial constraints, organizational responsiveness, strategic plan placement, and technology champion. The following factors were significant barriers that resulted in the non-adoption of a 311 government call center; no demand from citizens, start up costs, annual operating costs, unavailability of funding, and no obvious need for one.If local government entities that do not have a 311 government call center decide to adopt one, this study will help them identify the conditions that need to be in place for successful adoption to occur. Local government officials would first need to address the barriers in setting up the 311 call centers.

The research describes how post-training supervisory support enhances training transfer in the private sector. Transfer of training principles were identified, after which the participants were interviewed to determine which transfer of training criteria were used by supervisors to enhance training in the work environment. The study population for this research was comprised of call centre supervisors and call centre agents from a company in the private sector in Gauteng Province, South Africa. The study methodology involved qualitative interviews and document reviews. Themes and sub-themes were identified from the data collected. The findings of the study reflected how post-training supervisory support enhances transfer of training. Recommendations were provided that could have a significant impact on organisations’ approach towards ensuring successful transfer of training to the work environment. Suggestions for further studies were made. The study concludes by suggesting a transfer of learning strategy aimed at enhancing transfer to the work environment that should be implemented by organisations. / Adult Basic Education (ABET) / M. Ed. (Adult Education)