Attracting customers through practising gender in call-centre work

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Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation

Volume 3, Issue 1

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Attracting customers through practising gender in call-centre work

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Author(s): Päivi Korvajärvi

Publication date (Print): Summer 2009

Journal: Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation

Publisher: Pluto Journals

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate and analyse various ways in which gender is used as a resource when call-centre firms and their employees create customer relationships. Drawing on interviews in a case study call centre it argues that men and women are understood to work differently from the point of view of attracting customers. Men are found important as individuals and through technology-related services, whereas women are conceived as resources through their association with certain products, not as individuals. Thus female gender as a resource is embedded in the commodified products.

Content

Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (doi): 10.13169

Journal ID (publisher-id): workorgalaboglob

Title: Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation

Publisher: Pluto Journals

ISSN (Print): 1745641X

ISSN (Electronic): 17456428

Publication date (Print): Summer 2009

Volume: 3

Issue: 1

Pages: 131-143

Article

Publisher ID: workorgalaboglob.3.1.0131

DOI: 10.13169/workorgalaboglob.3.1.0131

SO-VID: 98b818c8-bf55-4192-914d-34300d058d50

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All content is freely available without charge to users or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission of the publisher or the author. Articles published in the journal are distributed under a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

History

ScienceOpen disciplines: Sociology,Labor law,Political science,Labor & Demographic economics,Political economics

References

Adkins, L. (2002) Revisions. Gender and Sexuality in Late Modernity , Buckingham & Philadelphia: Open University Press
Adkins, L. (2005) ‘The New Economy, Property and Personhood’, Theory, Culture & Society , Vol 22, No 3:111–131
Cameron, D. (2000) Good to Talk? Living and Working in a Communication Culture , London: Sage
Casey, C. (1995) Work, Self and Society , London: Routledge
Frenkel, S.J., M. Korczynski, K.A. Shire & M. Tam (1999) On the Front Line. Organization of Work in the Information Economy , Ithaca: Cornell University Press
Gherardi, S. & B. Poggio (2007) Gendertelling in Organizations , Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School Press
Gray, A. (2003) ‘Enterprising Femininity. New Modes of Work and Subjectivity’, European Journal of Cultural Studies , Vol 6, No 4:489–506
Hochschild, A.R. (1983/2003) The Managed Heart. The Commercialization of Human Feeling , Berkeley: University of California Press
Jackson, S. (2006) ‘Gender, Sexuality and Heterosexuality. The Complexity (and Limits) of Heteronormativity’, Feminist Theory , Vol 7, No 1:105–121
Koivunen, T (2006) Asiakastyön ruumiillisuus yhteyskeskuksissa [Corporeality of the customer work in call centres], Työelämän tutkimus-Arbetslivsforskning, Vol 4, No 1:1–11.
Korvajärvi, P. (2002a) Locating gender neutrality in formal and informal aspects of organizational cultures, Culture and Organization , Vol 8, No 2:101–115.
Korvajärvi, P. (2002b) ‘Gender-neutral gender and denial of the difference’ in B. Czarniawska & H. Höpfl (eds) Casting the other: the production and maintenance of inequalities in work organizations , Routledge: London:119–137.
Korvajärvi, P. (2004) ‘Women and technological pleasure at work?’ in T. Heiskanen and J. Hearn (eds) Information society and the workplace: Spaces, boundaries and agency ,Routledge:London:125–142.
Martin, P.Y. (2006) ‘Practising Gender at Work: Further Thoughts on Reflexivity’, Gender, Work & Organization , Vol 13, No 3:254–276
McDowell, L. (1997) Capital Culture , Oxford: Blackwell
Misztal, B.A. (2000) Informality. Social Theory and Contemporary Practice , London: Routledge
Misztal, B.A. (2005) ‘The New Importance of the Relationship between Formality and Informality’, Feminist Theory , Vol 6, No 2:173–194
Taylor, P., G. Mulvey, J. Hyman & P. Bain (2002) ‘Work Organization, Control and the Experience of Work in Call Centre’, Work, Employment and Society , Vol 16, No 1:133–150
Warhust, C., D. Nickson, A. Witz, & A.M. Cullen (2000) ‘Aestethic Labour in Interactive Service Work: Some Case Study Evidence from the “New” Glasgow’, The Services Industries Journal , Vol 20, No 3:1–18
Webster, J. (2005) ‘Women in IT Professions: Corporate Structures, Masculine Cultures’, Symposium on Gender & ICT: Working for Change . Manchester. Accessed on February 1, 2005 from http://ict.open.ac.uk/gender/papers/.
Witz, A., C. Warhust & D. Nickson (2003) ‘The Labour of Aesthetics and the Aesthetics of Organization’, Organization , Vol 10, No 1:33–54

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] Adkins, L. (2002) Revisions. Gender and Sexuality in Late Modernity , Buckingham & Philadelphia: Open University Press

[2] Adkins, L. (2005) ‘The New Economy, Property and Personhood’, Theory, Culture & Society , Vol 22, No 3:111–131

[3] Cameron, D. (2000) Good to Talk? Living and Working in a Communication Culture , London: Sage

[4] Casey, C. (1995) Work, Self and Society , London: Routledge

[5] Frenkel, S.J., M. Korczynski, K.A. Shire & M. Tam (1999) On the Front Line. Organization of Work in the Information Economy , Ithaca: Cornell University Press

[6] Gherardi, S. & B. Poggio (2007) Gendertelling in Organizations , Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School Press

[7] Gray, A. (2003) ‘Enterprising Femininity. New Modes of Work and Subjectivity’, European Journal of Cultural Studies , Vol 6, No 4:489–506

[8] Hochschild, A.R. (1983/2003) The Managed Heart. The Commercialization of Human Feeling , Berkeley: University of California Press

[9] Jackson, S. (2006) ‘Gender, Sexuality and Heterosexuality. The Complexity (and Limits) of Heteronormativity’, Feminist Theory , Vol 7, No 1:105–121

[10] Koivunen, T (2006) Asiakastyön ruumiillisuus yhteyskeskuksissa [Corporeality of the customer work in call centres], Työelämän tutkimus-Arbetslivsforskning, Vol 4, No 1:1–11.

[11] Korvajärvi, P. (2002a) Locating gender neutrality in formal and informal aspects of organizational cultures, Culture and Organization , Vol 8, No 2:101–115.

[12] Korvajärvi, P. (2002b) ‘Gender-neutral gender and denial of the difference’ in B. Czarniawska & H. Höpfl (eds) Casting the other: the production and maintenance of inequalities in work organizations , Routledge: London:119–137.

[13] Korvajärvi, P. (2004) ‘Women and technological pleasure at work?’ in T. Heiskanen and J. Hearn (eds) Information society and the workplace: Spaces, boundaries and agency ,Routledge:London:125–142.

[14] Martin, P.Y. (2006) ‘Practising Gender at Work: Further Thoughts on Reflexivity’, Gender, Work & Organization , Vol 13, No 3:254–276

[15] McDowell, L. (1997) Capital Culture , Oxford: Blackwell

[16] Misztal, B.A. (2000) Informality. Social Theory and Contemporary Practice , London: Routledge

[17] Misztal, B.A. (2005) ‘The New Importance of the Relationship between Formality and Informality’, Feminist Theory , Vol 6, No 2:173–194

[18] Taylor, P., G. Mulvey, J. Hyman & P. Bain (2002) ‘Work Organization, Control and the Experience of Work in Call Centre’, Work, Employment and Society , Vol 16, No 1:133–150

[19] Warhust, C., D. Nickson, A. Witz, & A.M. Cullen (2000) ‘Aestethic Labour in Interactive Service Work: Some Case Study Evidence from the “New” Glasgow’, The Services Industries Journal , Vol 20, No 3:1–18

[20] Webster, J. (2005) ‘Women in IT Professions: Corporate Structures, Masculine Cultures’, Symposium on Gender & ICT: Working for Change . Manchester. Accessed on February 1, 2005 from http://ict.open.ac.uk/gender/papers/.

[21] Witz, A., C. Warhust & D. Nickson (2003) ‘The Labour of Aesthetics and the Aesthetics of Organization’, Organization , Vol 10, No 1:33–54