Author, as appears in the article.: Alarcon, Amado; Ubalde, Josep; Mc Heyman, Josiah
Department: Gestió d'Empreses
URV's Author/s: Alarcón Alarcón, Amado / UBALDE BUENAFUENTE, JOSEP
Keywords: Work Quality Monitoring Linguistic standardisation Line Language skills Labor process Job categories Human-resource management Globalization Employment conditions Call centres
Abstract: © 2020 Brian Towers (BRITOW) and John Wiley & Sons Ltd The article shows how linguistic criteria have become central when defining job categories in the outsourced call centre sector in Spain. Language occupies a central role in the production processes of informational capitalism: in call centres, language functions as the raw material, scripts as tools and conversations as a product. Yet the ways in which linguistic production affects key elements of job categories have received little attention. Drawing on in-depth interviews in the call centre sector, the analysis of scripts and collective agreements, this article shows how trade unions and workers are pushing to adapt Fordist arguments based on job autonomy to informational production, arguing that job categories may depend on linguistic autonomy from the scripts during the labour process.
Thematic Areas: Strategy and management Sociologia i política Planejamento urbano e regional / demografia Management of technology and innovation Management Interdisciplinary research in the social sciences Human factors and ergonomics General o multidisciplinar Ergonomics Economia Ciencias sociales Business and management Administração pública e de empresas, ciências contábeis e turismo
licence for use: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/
ISSN: 1468005X
Author's mail: amado.alarcon@urv.cat
Author identifier: 0000-0003-4640-2681
Record's date: 2025-02-19
Paper version: info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion
Licence document URL: https://repositori.urv.cat/ca/proteccio-de-dades/
Paper original source: New Technology Work And Employment. 35 (1): 97-113
APA: Alarcon, Amado; Ubalde, Josep; Mc Heyman, Josiah (2020). Language as raw material, scripts as tools and conversations as product: effects of linguistic production on job categories in outsourced call centres. New Technology Work And Employment, 35(1), 97-113. DOI: 10.1111/ntwe.12156
Entity: Universitat Rovira i Virgili
Journal publication year: 2020
Publication Type: Journal Publications