Being professional: organizational control in Indian call centres

Abstract

The relationship between technocratic and socioideological control in organizations is contested among scholars. In an attempt to understand this complex interlinkage, the present study examined organizational control processes in inbound and outbound call centers in Bangalore, India. Relying on qualitative interviews and thematic analysis, the study demonstrated how organizations invoke the concept of professionalism in their employees. Organizational efforts in this direction result not only in employee compliance but also internalization of professionalism such that agents’ sense of self changes to embrace employer-defined professionalism. Socioideological control thus sets the stage for the acceptance and effectiveness of technocratic control. Rather than viewing organizational identities and organizational cultures as additional or separate extensions of the substantive, structural, material dimensions of control, the findings of the study highlight that socioideological and technocratic forms of control build on and feed each other. Nonetheless, the managerial notion of control espoused through the appeal to professional identity continues to be contested.