The Indian Call Center Experience: A Case Study in Changing Discourses of Identity, Identifictaion, and Career in a Global Context
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-2008
Keywords
call centers in India, identity, identifications, discourse, organizational communication, work, career
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1177/0021943607309348
Abstract
This study examines the processes by which workers in a particular Indian call center located in Kolkata expanded on, negotiated, and chose among an array of possible, especially new, identities and identifications and the ways that these choices affected changing social discourses. Our case study depicted a workplace that was simultaneously casual and urgent, temporal and spatially free and constrained, situated in both Indian and U.S. cultures, and oriented toward business and night-club ambiances. Within this particular workplace, call center employees (re)constructed and negotiated among an array of discourses that bracketed opportunities for particular identities and identifications. Through these negotiation processes, they (a) engaged in strategic identity(ies) invocations and (b) reframed work, career, and family discourses and practices.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
No
Citation / Publisher Attribution
International Journal of Business Communication, v. 45, issue 1, p. 31-60
Scholar Commons Citation
Pal, Mahuya and Buzzanell, Patrice M., "The Indian Call Center Experience: A Case Study in Changing Discourses of Identity, Identifictaion, and Career in a Global Context" (2008). Communication Faculty Publications. 617.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/spe_facpub/617
