Abstract
Work design is an essential component of the operations strategy of any organisation. Total Quality Management (TQM) calls for the adoption of certain behaviours and attitudes which place conflicting demands upon employees. Such conflicts are particularly relevant in service organisations, which expect frontline employees to be able to deliver a highly consistent service while customising it to each customer. Combining such competencies becomes even more difficult when cost-saving measures are added to this scenario. This paper discusses the tensions raised by TQM implementation upon work design in contexts where technology plays an important role in service delivery. Call Centres have adopted complex technologies which tend to direct customers towards well-defined problem categories and within each of them contribute to highly standardised answers. Consequently, customer expectations of individual care might well not be met. These issues are studied using a large Portuguese telecommunications company, where questionnaire surveys were administered to both service users and frontline employees of a Call Centre. The questionnaires use the job description model proposed by Hackman and Oldham (Work redesign. Addison-Wesley, 1980) and, in the customers’ case, the assessment of some service quality determinants is also made. The findings show that customers and employees share the perception that the task is highly significant to the organisation’s success. Overall, customers consider that the five dimensions of the job are more fulfilled, than employees do. There is a need to redesign the job in terms of more autonomy and feedback if employee and customer satisfaction are to be enhanced.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Bowen, D. E., & Lawler, E. E. (1992). The empowerment of service workers: What, why, how, and when. Sloan Management Review, 33, 31–39.
Burns, T., & Stalker, G. M. (1994). The management of innovation. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Castanheira, F., & Chambel, M. J. (2010). Reducing burnout in call centers through HR practices. Human Resource Management, 49(6), 1047–1065.
Clemmer, J. (1992). Charting the journey to higher service/quality. San Jose, CA: Zenger-Miller.
Collier, D. (1990). Measuring and managing service quality. In Bowen, DE, Chase RB (eds) Service management effectiveness: Balancing strategy, organization and human resources. operations and marketing. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Inc.
Dean, A. M., & Rainnie, A. (2009). Frontline employees’ views on organizational factors that affect the delivery of service quality in call centers. Journal of Services Marketing, 23(5), 326–337.
Eskildsen, J. K., & Dahlgaard, J. J. (2000). A causal model for employee satisfaction. Total Quality Management, 11(8), 1081–1094.
Ferreira, J. M., Neves, J. G., & Caetano, A. (2001). Manual de psicossociologia das organizações. Lisboa: McGraw-Hill.
Gil, I., Berenguer, G., & Cervera, A. (2008). The roles of service encounters, service value, and job satisfaction in achieving customer satisfaction in business relationships. Industrial Marketing Management, 37, 921–939.
Grönroos, C. (1984). A service quality model and its marketing implications. European Journal of Marketing, 18(4), 36–44.
Hackman, R., & Oldham, G. R. (1975). Development of the job diagnostic survey. Journal of Applied Psychology, 60(2), 159–170.
Hackman, R., & Oldham, G. R. (1980). Work redesign. Philippines: Addison-Wesley.
Katz, D., & Kahn, R. L. (1966). The social psychology of organizations. New York, NY: Willey.
Lawler, E., III. (1994). Total quality management and employee involvement: are they compatible? Academy of Management Executive, 9(1), 68–76.
Leelakulthanit, O., & Hongcharu, B. (2011). Factors that impact customer satisfaction: evidence from the Thailand mobile cellular network industry. International Journal of Management and Marketing Research, 4(2), 67–76.
Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V., & Berry, L. (1988). SERVQUAL: a multiple-item scale for measuring customer perceptions of service quality. Journal of Retailing, 64, 12–40.
Phelps, L. D., Parayitam, S., & Olson, B. J. (2007). Edwards Deming, Mary P. Follet and Frederick W. Taylor: Reconciliation of differences in organizational and strategic leadership. Academy of Strategic Management Journal, 6, 1–14.
Silvestro, R. (1999). Positioning services along the volume-variety diagonal: The contingencies of service design, control and improvement. International Journal of Operations and Production Management, 19(4), 399–420.
Spinelli, M. A., & Canavos, G. C. (2000). Investigating the relationship between employee satisfaction and guest satisfaction. The Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 41, 29–33.
Spencer, B. (1994). Models of Organization and Total Quality Management: A comparison and critical evaluation. Academy of Management Review, 19(3), 446–471.
Tansik, D. A., & Smith, W. L. (1991). Dimensions of job scripting in services organizations. International Journal of Service Industry Management, 2(1), 35–49.
Victor, B., Boynton, A., & Stephens-Jahng, T. (2000). The effective design of work under total quality management. Organization Sciences, 11(1), 102–117.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Sá, P.M.e., de Sá, A.C.P. (2015). Tensions Raised by TQM Demands Upon Work Design in Technologically Controlled Environments: The Case of a Call Centre. In: Peris-Ortiz, M., Álvarez-García, J., Rueda-Armengot, C. (eds) Achieving Competitive Advantage through Quality Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17251-4_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17251-4_16
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-17250-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-17251-4
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsBusiness and Management (R0)