...Organization Studies http://oss.sagepub.com ‘Subterranean Worksick Blues’: Humour as Subversion in Two Call Centres Phil Taylor and Peter Bain Organization Studies 2003; 24; 1487 DOI: 10.1177/0170840603249008 The online version of this article can be found at: http://oss.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/24/9/1487 Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com On behalf of: European Group for Organizational Studies Additional services and information for Organization Studies can be found at: Email Alerts: http://oss.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts Subscriptions: http://oss.sagepub.com/subscriptions Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav Permissions: http://www.sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav Citations http://oss.sagepub.com/cgi/content/refs/24/9/1487 Downloaded from http://oss.sagepub.com at SAGE Publications on July 31, 2009 1487 Authors name ‘Subterranean Worksick Blues’: Humour as Subversion in Two Call Centres Phil Taylor and Peter Bain Abstract Phil Taylor University of Stirling, UK Peter Bain University of Strathclyde, UK This article engages in debates stimulated by previous work published in Organization Studies, and more widely, on the purpose and effects of workers’ humour and joking practices. The authors emphasize the subversive character of humour in the workplace, rejecting perspectives which see humour as inevitably contributing to organizational harmony. Drawing on methodologies, including ethnography, which permitted...
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...Marx, employees experience four types of estrangement: Self-estrangement, Estrangement from the product of their labour, Estrangement from their species being, Estrangement from others. Blauner argued two assumptions that differ from those suggested by Marx. 1. Alienation is not inevitable under capitalism. 2. Work has different meanings for different people. Our central proposition is that employees develop coping strategies, which combat alienation through informal processes and action. The five main survival strategies that employees engage in are listed below, Making out Fiddling Sabotage Joking Escaping Article 1: ‘Subterranean Worksick Blues’: Humour as Subversion in Two Call Centres (Phil Taylor and Peter Bain) This article engages in debates stimulated by previous work published in Organization Studies, and more widely, on the purpose and effects of workers’ humour and joking practices. The authors emphasize the subversive character of humour in the workplace, rejecting...
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...What is majority rule? Majority Rule is the control of the majority. It is also the control of an organization or institution according to the wishes or votes of the majority of its members. Bahamian Society before the Establishment of Majority Rule 59 Novembers ago three men came together and form the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP). They were Henry Milton Taylor, William. W. Cartwright, Cyril St. John Stevenson. They began meeting regularly discussing the pros and cons. They invited 7 men to join them but only 6 accepted the invitation. Henry Taylor was the Chairman, William was the treasurer and Cyril became the secretary. The party progressed in Nassau and decided to include the outer islands. When sir. Lynden Piddling came home from law school he joined the PLP party and that was the beginning of the road to majority rule. Sir Lynden Pindling, Randol Fawkes, Auther Hanna, Sir. Milo Butler Sr, Clarence Bain, Samuel Isaacs, and many other women and men planned and strategized to free there people from colonize. At that time racial segregation was a way of life in The Bahamas. The ‘blacks’ were referred to as coloured people. They were schools were coloured children were not allowed to enter. They were places like hotels, shops, and restaurants were colour people were not allowed to dine. There were also churches where coloured people were not allowed to sit in the same pews as the whites. In January 1954 the PLP held its first public meeting. In 1956...
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...Sean Michael Maurice Taylor (April 1, 1983 – November 27, 2007) was an American football player who was a free safety for the Washington Redskins of the National Football League (NFL) for four seasons. He played college football for the University of Miami, was a member of the Hurricanes' 2001 BCS National Championship team, and earned unanimous All-American honors. The Washington Redskins chose Taylor with the fifth overall pick of the 2004 NFL Draft. Due to his ferocious hits, several of his Redskins teammates nicknamed him "Meast," a portmanteau word from the expression "half man, half beast. Taylor played high school football in Pinecrest, a suburb of Miami. He originally began his high school football career at Miami Killian High School, a...
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...Introduction The word recession strikes fear in employees and can change the tides to how people respond and react at work. Do employees feel positive, work harder and have an upbeat attitude at work when they sense downturn in an organization or impeding layoffs? Or do stress levels increase, tolerance levels lower, and morale deplete causing a ripple throughout departments? Some companies have decided to try alternate methods of organizational strategies during recessionary times to improve employee attitudes so that the sinking ship feeling is fed a dose of engagement before employees sea legs give out. It is important for managers to be on top of employee confidence by using communication to enable employees to feel included in how the recession might affect the company, what efforts will be made within the organization to get through the recession and how this will translate to the employees and whether or not they will have a job. There is nothing worse than a department of workers watching an organization make cost cutting efforts, change plans, and restructure teams without communicating to the employees. In recessionary times leadership, communication and a certain level of values being maintained is exceptionally important in order for an organization to survive and have its employees take the ride without increased stress and lower productivity. Schwartz’s 10 Values When we look at personal values in an organizational culture, Kreitner & Kinicki (2013)...
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...Consultancy P.O Box 1234, Kitgum 30th March, 2010 RE: CONSULTANCY MEETING PROFESSION OR NOT - A CASE OF BAIN & COMPANY 1.0 Background information Bain & Company was established in 1973 by a group of seven former partners and managers from the Boston Consulting Group headed by Bill Bain. The company was originally headquartered in Lexington, Massachusetts on Militia Drive. By the end of the decade, the firm's headquarters were in Faneuil Hall Marketplace in downtown Boston. Under Bain's direction, the firm implemented a number of unconventional practices in its early years. Notably, Bain & Co. would work with only one client per industry to avoid potential conflicts of interest. Partners did not carry business cards and clients were referred to by code names to enforce client confidentiality. The company won clients by boardroom referrals rather than marketing, and claimed its consultants worked on increasing a company's market value rather than simply handing clients a list of recommendations. To win business, Bain demonstrated the increase in the price of their clients' stocks relative to the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The firm's founding was followed by a period of growth in the late 1970s and early 1980s as the firm opened offices in Menlo Park, California, London, Munich, Paris, and Tokyo. Another consulting approach used at Bain & Co. was accepting equity in lieu of fixed fees. An estimated 10% of Bain's revenue is derived from this equity participation...
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...Introduction This critical literature review will focus on the impact of the National Minimum Wage on employment. This is an area we have had to familiarise ourselves with more and more throughout the last ten years because of the controversial effect of its instalment in April 1999 and its ever increasing minimum wage amount which causes most concern. The application of a few statistics should help summarise the ever increasing minimum wage and the sheer scale of people affected by its introduction. The national minimum wage has increased by a staggering 59% in the last ten years; from £3.60 in April 1999 to £5.73 in October 2008. (HRM, 2008) According to George Sayers Bain (1999) as from April 1999, the year of its instalment , “some two million low paid workers will gain. To put that into a different context is one in twelve employees; one in three house workers; one in five part time workers. The obvious reason for its introduction was to reduce poverty pay levels while at the same time decreasing the wage differentials of the minimum wage to the median wage of all workers. This is known as ‘the bite’ and is commonly used to assess the effectiveness of the minimum wage. (LPC, Low Pay Commission, 2007) As stated above the intention of this review is to firstly establish the effect of the National minimum wage on employment; justifying it as a positive, negative or mutual effect. Secondly to help incarcerate the purpose even more the retail sector will be focused on...
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...Issues associated with individual attributes and their effect on job performance Name Institution Issues associated with individual attributes and their effect on job performance Individual attributes are defined as the person’s inclination to react to the motivations uniquely and primarily grounded in their professional work environments. The definition suggests that individual attributes are applicable to the particular mission of the workplace. For instance, if a company is concerned with manufacturing tires then a worker's input, which affects tire production, is effectually an individual attribute. Besides, research suggests that business and commercial entities are more probable to engage or employ individuals whose desires and ideals are attuned to the entities mission. Additionally, it can be argued that the composition of the workforce is projected to mirror the nature of the work done by the business entity. It would appeal to personnel who yearn for superior prospects to satisfy higher order needs and motives by executing professional functions. Fundamentally, it is posited that the individual attributes that are habitually seen as the key to inspiring personal conduct (Mills, Bratton & Forshaw, 2006, pp. 89-90; Mullins, 2005, 39-40; Robbins, Millet, Boyle & Judge, 2011, pp. 28-30). Therefore, individual attributes have potentially significant consequences for the professional job performance. There are six key personal attributes that are considered of importance...
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...1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2. INTRODUCTION AND BUSINESS DESCRIPTION 2.1 INTRODUCTION Fast food restaurant, also known as a quick service restaurant (QSR) within the industry itself, is a specific type of restaurant characterized both by its fast food cuisine and by minimal table service. Food served in fast food restaurants typically caters to a " meat-sweet diet" and is offered from a limited menu; is cooked in bulk in advance and kept hot; is finished and packaged to order; and is usually available ready to take away, though seating may be provided. Fast food restaurants are usually part of a restaurant chain or franchise operation, which provisions standardized ingredients and/or partially prepared foods and supplies to each restaurant through controlled supply channels. Arguably the first fast food restaurants originated in the United States with A&W in 1916 and White Castle in 1921. . Today, Filipino-founded fast food chains such as Jollibee, McDonalds, KFC which are multinational corporations with outlets across the globe. Modern commercial fast food is highly processed and prepared on a large scale from bulk ingredients using standardized cooking and production methods and equipment. It is usually rapidly served in cartons or bags or in a plastic wrapping, in a fashion which reduces operating costs by allowing rapid product identification and counting, promoting longer holding time, avoiding transfer of bacteria, and facilitating order fulfillment. In most fast food operations...
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...been employed by others to engage in productive activity. Indeed, managers have largely been interested in maximizing output from available resources. Economists and social scientists have raised questions about the organization of work in relation to issues of the individual and society in general. Historically, the emphasis was on finding the best way in which to manage the human resource through scientific and mechanical means. Frederick Taylor (“Taylorism”) and Henry Ford (“Fordism”) were both looking to make labour more efficient by fitting workers to jobs. To counteract the some of the worst features of Taylorism, the job redesign and human relations movements stressed the importance of an understanding of employees’ social, rather than simply economic, needs. It is easy to see why mentioning “Taylor” and “Taylorism” seems to talk as if it is history – that is, a management idea that existed in the past, but which is now outdated and old-fashioned. Taylor was indeed writing and practicing management at the start of the 20th century. However, his ideas are still alive today. For that reason, this essay will attempt to review a...
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...other leading companies—had gathered at a daylong forum to swap insights that would help them further enhance their loyalty efforts. And what they were hearing from Andy Taylor, the CEO of Enterprise Rent-A-Car, was riveting. Taylor and his senior team had figured out a way to measure and manage customer loyalty without the complexity of traditional customer surveys. Every month, Enterprise polled its customers using just two simple questions, one about the quality of their rental experience and the other about the likelihood that they would rent from the company again. Because the process was so simple, it was fast. That allowed the company to publish ranked results for its 5,000 U.S. branches within days, giving the offices real-time feedback on how they were doing and the opportunity to learn from successful peers. The survey was different in another important way. In ranking the branches, the company counted only the customers who gave the experience the highest possible rating. That narrow focus on enthusiastic customers surprised the CEOs in the room. Hands shot up. What about the rest of Enterprise’s customers, the marginally satisfied who continued to rent from Enterprise and were necessary to its business? Wouldn’t it be better to track, in a more sophisticated way, mean or median statistics? No, Taylor said. By concentrating solely on those most enthusiastic about their rental experience, the company could focus on a key driver of profitable growth: customers who not...
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...HRM 4050 Human Resource Development: Recruitment and Selection Methods to Hire 10 call centre employees in a newly formed department Daniela Pantica Student no: M00452076 Module: HRM 4050 MA Human Resources January 2013 intake Part-time number of words: 3519 Table of Contents I. Introduction 3 UK labour market, HR planning and labour turnover in the current UK economic climate 3 Staff turnover 4 II. Stages of the recruitment and selection process 4 Step 1: Determine if there is a vacancy (Taylor 2005) 5 Step 2: Job analysis (Taylor 2005) 5 Step 3: Job description and person specification (Taylor 2005); 6 Step 4: Application form (Taylor 2005) 7 Step 5: Recruitment methods and media (Taylor 2005) 8 Step 6: Advertising (Taylor 2005) 9 Step 7: Selection methods (Taylor 2005) 9 Step 8: Appointment & induction (Taylor 2005) 11 III. Conclusion 12 IV. List of references 13 Annex 1: Sample of Call Center employee Job Description 14 Annex 2: Sample of Person Specification for Customer Contact Centre Agent 16 Annex 3: Online job advert sample 17 I. Introduction The purpose of this essay is to outline and explain the process of recruitment and selection for hiring 10 call centre employees in a newly formed customer services department in an IT medium-sized company. Specific recruitment and selection theory from different authors will be approached and linked to the relevant environment including call centres, medium-sized IT company...
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...invariably finds that the work can be done more economically by subdivision of the labour; each act of each mechanic, for example, should be preceded by various preparatory acts done by other men." devised a means of detailing a division of labor in time-and-motion studies and a wage system based on performance. http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/Anthro/Anth101/taylorism_and_fordism.htm Frederick Winslow Taylor is a controversial figure in management history. His innovations in industrial engineering, particularly in time and motion studies, paid off in dramatic improvements in productivity. At the same time, he has been credited with destroying the soul of work, of dehumanizing factories, making men into automatons. What is Taylor's real legacy? I'm not sure that management historians will ever agree. extensions of the four principles of management.[2] 1. The development of a true science 2. The scientific selection of the workman 3. The scientific education and development of the workman 4. Intimate and friendly cooperation between the management and the men. Taylor taught that there was one and only one method of work that maximized efficiency. "And this one best method and best implementation can only be discovered or developed through scientific study and analysis... This involves the gradual substitution of science for 'rule of thumb' throughout the mechanical arts." "Scientific management requires first, a careful investigation of each of the many modifications...
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...Administrative management and general management consulting services NAISC CODE: 541611 Introduction This industry comprises of firms engaged in providing operating advise to businesses, such as marketing advice, strategy planning, financial planning, IT support, budgeting etc.8 In this paper various aspects of the industry have been discussed. History The rise of management as a unique field of study, led to the growth of management consulting industry. The first management firm, Arthur D. Little Inc., was founded in 1886. As Arthur D. Little Inc. mainly focused on technical research for the first few years of operation, it can be said that the first management consulting firm was started by Fredrick Winslow Taylor in 1893. Fredrick Winslow Taylor invented the first method of organizing work known as the Taylor’s method. Taylor’s method was used worldwide until the world shifted to the method invented by W. Edwards Deming.1 In the 1930s the ‘ Glass-Steagall banking Act’ led to the growth of the industry, as the demand for advice on strategic and financial planning increased. In the 1950s the management consulting firms not only increased their activities in the United States but also in Europe and Asia. The industry witnessed another wave of growth in the 1980s and 1990s. This is evident from the fact that there were only 5 consulting firms in the 1980s, as compared to about 30 firms in the 1990s. The growth of the 1980s was fueled by the demand in organizational...
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...International Education Programs: Risk Management Albert Einstein once said, “There is no scientific antidote (to the atomic bomb), only education. You’ve got to change the way people think. I am not interested in disarmament talks between nations - What I want to do is to disarm the mind. After that, everything else will automatically follow. The ultimate weapon for such mental disarmament is international education.” Although those words were spoken decades ago, they are most applicable in the current era of our society. Today, international education programs are faced with several socio and macro-economic challenges, particularly in the United States. These dynamics significantly impact the education programs, driven primarily by government intervention. This paper will explore the interrelationship between government, institutions, students, and risk management, and prove that U.S. government interaction negatively impacts the effectiveness of post-secondary international education programs. Antiquated regulations severely limit operational execution and potential innovation, resulting in an increase in both regulatory and financial risks for the participating institutions. Challenges in the regulatory environment are ever increasing, including financial headwinds that significantly limit the regulatory bodies. Such constraints lead to restrictive prioritization of their tasks in order to stay effective. Their priority setting process, understandably non-transparent...
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