Custom essays on Call centre in India

The emergence of call centre industry in India is one of the outcomes of the process of globalization and elimination of frontiers between countries in economic terms. At the same time, the development of modern information technologies and telecommunication systems contribute to the fast development of call centres which can operate effectively at the international level. As a result, call centres located in India can work as effectively as call centres located in any other country or region of the world. Therefore, many companies based in the US, Canada, Europe or other countries, outsource call centre services and use services of call centres located in India.
One of the reasons of the growing attention of foreign companies to call centres located in India is the qualification and professionalism of employees working in these call centres. Some specialists (Pal & Buzzanelli, 2008) point out that Indian call centre work involves employees’ providing voice-to-voice service to clients dialling toll-free numbers primarily in North America. They learn American accents, work at night to cater to U.S. time zones, and adjust to an altered social and family life. They are expected to be conversant with day-to-day American issues to the extent that they are able to carry on casual conversations with clients (Pal & Buzzanelli, 2008). In such a way, call centres based in India can offer foreign companies a wide range of call centre services and they can be certain in the quality of services.
c. Job satisfaction
The emergence of call centres raises the problem of the job satisfaction and its correlation to the staff turnover in call centres in India. In fact, the emergence of the new industry naturally raises the problem of the development of effective human resource management, whereas the high staff turnover, which can be currently traced in call centres based in India, may be one of the indicators to the poor human resource management. At the same time, the staff turnover can be provoked by the poor job satisfaction. At any rate, many specialists (Kaushalesh, 2001) argue that the poor job satisfaction can provoke the staff turnover because of conflicts within call centres, unwillingness of employees to continue their work in call centres and others factors. In such a context, it is important to dwell upon the concept of job satisfaction.
As the matter of fact, the concept of job satisfaction relates closely to conditions of work and the workplace environment as well as needs of employees and organizational culture. In other words, the job satisfaction is a complex concept, which is closely intertwined with the functioning of an organization, organizational structure and culture. Traditionally, the concept of job satisfaction is defined as the description of an employee’s attitude to his or her job in terms of his or her content with his or her job (Monge, 1998). Basically, this definition implies that the job satisfaction is the content of employees with their job, including not only their performance and professional duties and functions, but also their workplace environment and interpersonal relationships that exist in their workplace and affect their work on the regular basis.
At the same time, it is possible to refer to some theories which lay the foundation to the contemporary understanding of the concept of job satisfaction. In this respect, it is worth mentioning Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and the two-factor theory. Maslow developed the needs’ theory, which hold the premise that employees have their own needs which may change and progress in the course of their professional development and their career. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs distinguishes two major groups of needs, including physiological needs and deficiency needs. According to Maslow, physiological needs are primary but lowest needs in his hierarchy. What is meant here is the fact that Maslow believed that physiological needs are primary and essential for employees. Employees needed to meet these needs to feel secure and satisfied with their job but these needs are quite primitive and include such needs as the need of food, water, sex, sleep, breathing and so on. In other words, these are basic needs which individuals should have for a normal life and work. Obviously, these needs are crucial for job satisfaction because, if employees are hungry, for instance, they cannot work effectively and, when they think of food but not of their job, they are not satisfied with their job at all. Nevertheless, Maslow insisted that physiological needs are the easiest to satisfy and companies do not always need to make much efforts to satisfy physiological needs of employees.
Nevertheless, in the course of the professional development of employees their needs keep progressing. The next level of needs is the safety needs, which include such needs as employment security, security of property, health, family and so on. In this regard, organizations, such as call centres, can influence the fulfilment of these needs. For instance, employees to feel secure in their workplace and they should be certain in their future in a call centre, for instance, to have a high level of job satisfaction. Therefore, the ignorance of the safety needs may lead to the poor job satisfaction of employees. For instance, if a company, such as a call centre, cannot provide its employees with certainty in their future in the company, employees will feel insecure, uncertain and, therefore, dissatisfied with their job. Or else, if employees do not feel the social responsibility of the company they are working in, they are likely to feel insecure and, therefore, dissatisfied with their job. At this point, specialists (Kotter, 2001) argue that companies can influence the safety needs of employees, at least in regard to the position of employees in companies and their future. In this regard, the staff turnover in call centres based in India is one of the risk factors for the job satisfaction because the relatively high staff turnover provokes the growing dissatisfaction of employees working in call centres in India. Moreover, employees grow uncertain in their future in their workplace in call centres based in India that affect their performance negatively and undermines their job satisfaction.
The next level of needs, which influences consistently the job satisfaction is the love/belonging level. Love/belonging needs involve such needs as the need of friendship, family, love and so on. In other words, when employees reach this level of needs they need positive interpersonal relationships with their colleagues, managers, subordinates and other people they work with. These needs are crucial and specialists (Datta, 2004) argue that the main task of organisations, such as call centres as well as other organisations, is to create a positive interpersonal relationships within organisations and meet love/friendship needs of employees. In such a way, call centres as well as other organisations can help to develop a healthy organisational culture and improve relationships between people working in these organisations. Eventually, if call centres, for instance, meet love/belonging needs of employees they form a healthy organisational culture and increase the job satisfaction of employees.
The next level of needs is the esteem needs, which affect consistently the job satisfaction. Esteem needs refer to the personal and professional development of employees because they need to meet the esteem needs, which includes such needs as self-esteem, confidence, achievement, respect, and others. In such a way, employees need to feel the respect from the part of their colleagues, managers and other meaningful people to increase their self-esteem and to be confident in their future in the organisation, where they work in, for instance a call centre. Naturally, if employees suffer from a low self-esteem or when they do not feel the respect from the part of their colleagues and other people, they naturally start worrying about their position in a company, such as call centre, their performance may deteriorate that may eventually lead to the change of the workplace or firing of employees. In such a way, companies, including call centres, should focus on meeting needs of their employees because the esteem needs mark the high level of the development of employees.
Finally, the last, top level of needs of employees is the level of self-actualisation. The self-actualisation needs imply needs which refer not only to the professional sphere but also to moral values and moral needs of employees. The self-actualisation needs include morality, creativity, problem solving, lack of prejudice, and others. Employees reaching this level of needs are particularly valuable for companies but their job satisfaction is difficult to reach because they cannot always meet their needs, especially in a call centre environment. For instance, an employee working in a call centre and who fails to develop his or her professional career naturally feels dissatisfied and he or she cannot implement his or her innovative ideas or to reach a higher level in his or her professional development. Hence, employees can suffer from the poor job satisfaction that affects their performance and position in the call centre.
Another job satisfaction theory, the Two factor theory, stands on the ground that there are two different groups of factors that influence the job satisfaction, including motivators and hygiene factors (Harindranath, 2002). In actuality, this means that the job satisfaction is influenced not only by the professional development of employees, their needs and wants, but also by the policy of the organisation they work in and organisational structure and culture. Therefore, the job satisfaction turns out to be a two-side way, in which employees closely interact with their company and their satisfaction depends on their professional development and the policy of their organisation.
In actuality, many specialists (Stohl, 2005) lay emphasis on the fact that motivation is of the utmost importance for the job satisfaction. To put it more precisely, they argue that employees need to have a strong motivation to keep working effectively and productively and to feel satisfaction on accomplishing their job or current tasks. At the same time, motivation is often a serious challenge for managers because traditional motivators do not always work. In this regard, it is worth mentioning the fact that the two-factor theory defines motivators as a crucial group of factors. Motivators include challenging work, recognition of employees, bonuses, and other motivators. At this point, specialists (Stohl, 1993) distinguish material and non-material motivators that influence consistently the job satisfaction. Material motivators include financial reward and bonuses and other material rewards. In case of call centres located in India material motivators are very important because employees are salary-oriented and they need substantial financial rewards to feel satisfied and to overcome their poor socio-economic position. However, specialists (Freeman, 2000) argue that material rewards and motivators do not always work and non-material rewards may be even more effective than material ones. For instance, respect may be a good motivator which contributes to the job satisfaction of employees because they feel that the company appreciates their contribution in the organisational performance and that they are important for the company. The recognition of their work and contribution to the organisational performance motivates employees to work better and to focus on their job, which bring them satisfaction.
As for hygiene factors, they are also of the utmost importance in terms of the job satisfaction of employees (Hultin, 2003). Hygiene factors include job security, salary, and other factors. In this regard, specialists (Freeman, 2000) point out that hygiene factors do not bring job satisfaction but they are still important for the job satisfaction because their absence leads to the dissatisfaction of employees with their job. In such a way, hygiene factors contribute to the prevention of the job dissatisfaction and they need to be applied along with motivators to keep employees motivated and satisfied with their job.