S u m m a r y

Korvajärvi P (1999)

Social interaction and ICT in customer service work

Psykologia 34(5-6):349-358. Helsinki ISSN 0355-1067.

 

The general aim is to analyze social interaction as a resource for management and the employees in a work organization where highly advanced information and communication technology is used. The special target of the investigation is work in a call center. The starting points are discussions about emotional labor and service in call centers. The ethnographic fieldwork, including observations and interviews, and its analysis were carried out using the methods of realistic ethnography. The analysis shows that the emotional labor required by the management does not necesssarily harm the employees as has been argued. On the contrary, in local conditions with a leadership style permitting the employees autonomy, emotional labor can be used as a positive resource by the employees.

 

Key words:

Emotional labor, call centers, autonomy.

 

Päivi Korvajärvi, Ph.D., researcher, Work Research Center, University of Tampere, P.O. Box 607, FIN-33 101 Tampere, Finland.