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Improvisational choreography in teleservice work
Jack Whalen1, Marilyn Whalen, Kathryn Henderson
1Palo Alto Research Centre, CA 94304, USA. jwhalen@parc.com
The British Journal of Sociology
|August 13, 2002
Summary
Sales representatives expertly improvise during customer calls, blending telephone interactions with tool use. This craft-like performance challenges traditional views of work routines as rigidly structured.
Area of Science:
- Workplace Studies
- Sociology of Work
- Human-Computer Interaction
Background:
- Call centre sales representatives engage in complex, dynamic interactions with customers.
- Understanding the practical organization of everyday work is crucial for service industries.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze the improvisational choreography of sales representatives' actions during customer calls.
- To investigate how tools and artefacts are utilized in conjunction with telephone interactions.
- To re-examine the concepts of work routines and routinization in light of observed work practices.
Main Methods:
- Naturalistic observation of sales representatives' ordinary work practices in a call centre setting.
- Detailed analysis of turn-by-turn telephone interactions and concurrent tool/artefact use.
- Qualitative examination of improvisational elements in work performance.
Main Results:
- Sales work performance is an improvisational choreography, integrating telephone dialogue with the use of various tools and artefacts.
- Teleservice workers fabricate actions using readily available materials, often strategically arranged for extemporaneous composition.
- The observed work practices resemble a craft-like performance, highlighting contingency in routine production.
Conclusions:
- Traditional notions of 'work routines' and 'routinization' require respecification.
- Work routines are contingently produced results, not fixed structures.
- Call centre sales work demonstrates a sophisticated, improvisational approach to service delivery.
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