Being yourself in the electronic sweatshop: New forms

of normative control
Peter Fleming (2011)
Abstract
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This article extends research about high-commitment management practices in

tightly controlled work environments typified by the call centre. that normative
management systems in such contexts, involving fun exercises and culture
programmes, etc., are more about distracting employee attention
This article develops such an approach by exploring the specific nature and
conditions of such distraction.
reveals how the distractions are partly informed by the dysfunctions of existing
technical, bureaucratic and conventional cultural controls, all of which homogenize
workers.

Introduction
-

While overt controls and performance targets characterize the call centre, the high
level of interactive
customer service often requires a personal touch that these overt controls can
impede (belemmeren)
- A number of studies suggest that this paradox is managed by deploying additional
value-based practices or normative controls in order to enhance the interactive
element of customer service
- This article builds on research that suggests that the use of such high-commitment
practices is more about distracting employees
- The use of high-commitment practices not only detracts attention from the boring
work by injecting non-work themes into the labour process, but also provides a
useful way of capturing the emotional and social skills of workers in a way that can
enhance the quality of the required emotional labour.
- the just be yourself version of normative control aims to personalize customer
service interaction.
- the article first reviews the research on high-commitment management practices
in the call centre and then turns to an emerging variant encapsulated by the
phrase just be yourself
- This kind of liberation management involves what
are now quite familiar fun exercises for employees, but also focuses on the
expression
of unique identities and attributes associated with extra-employment practices
and social
competencies.
Call centre control and its discontents
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control] processes help circumscribe idiosyncratic behaviours and keep them

conformant to
the rational plan of organization . . . The co-ordination and order created out of the
diverse
interests and potentially diffuse behaviours of members is largely a function of
control

Control in the call centre

Given the regimented, standardized and technological nature of the work,

a number of important studies have pointed to similarities with traditional
manufacturing labour processes
call centre employment is micro-managed and highly monitored whereby
coercive performance systems blend with electronic surveillance to form
an electronic panopticon.
Houlihans work (2002) shows that value-based discourses merely aim to
provide workers with an alleviating distraction.
Fun, authenticity and play for example, function as a diversion tactic that
takes attention away from an otherwise alienating work process

The dysfunctions of conventional controls

In order to develop our hypothesis regarding the interactive dynamic

between control and the high-commitment practices, we need to explore
recent permutations in soft
management techniques and cultural control in particular

Just be yourself . . . or else!

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significant way in which employees can apparently be themselves is by

expressing their playful and fun nature
We highlight three elements of the just be yourself approach in recent
management discourse and practice playful expressions of self;
difference and diversity; and authentic selves.
1. Playful expressions of self
Playful celebrations at work provide social support for being yourself
and believing that you matter
2. Difference and diversity
the standardized organization man (Whyte, 1956) is indicative of
controls that demanded conformity, homogeneity and selves devoid of
difference or diversity
3 Authentic selves
many of the exhortations to just be yourself through play and difference
articulated above are captured by the term authenticity or truth of oneself.
The bureaucratic idea that employees must adopt an organizational
persona at work is reversed

The case of Sunray customer service

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just be yourself variant of qualitative high-commitment management

practices. It represents a significant move beyond the archetypical clanlike controls typically associated with this form of management
a United States owned call centre with around 1000 employees based in
Australia.

Access was negotiated and gained through a senior manager who had
connections with the local business school.
Because of the in-depth nature of the interviews, a limited sample of three
human resource managers and 30 telephone agents and managers (18
females and 15 males) was randomly selected and interviewed at various
intervals over the eight months.
the interview schedule consisted of background, framing and focus
questions with a high degree of flexibility retained to allow unpredictable
dialogue flow.
This resulted in four informants being interviewed individually outside
work, in cafes (one to one and a half hours) and in their homes.
Being yourself in Sunray

Sunray can be considered a quintessential liberal organization

The just be yourself management philosophy is communicated to
employees in the slogan Remember the 3Fs: Focus, Fun, Fulfilment, which
is disseminated in team training exercises, away days, recruitment
documentation and appraisal meetings
Indeed, although certainly not generalizable, around half the sample were
positive about the just be yourself

Play, fun and youth

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Making call centre work fun begins with a recruitment strategy that uses
friendship networks to employ overtly youthful employees who have had
little employment experience
young people were seen as more likely to be expressive and playful,
including with identities, rather than impressionable or conformist

Diversity and difference

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According to the Sunray CEO and human resource managers, bureaucratic

formalization and the rule of law are eschewed in favour of a melting pot
of different people and lifestyles
Likewise, the CEO suggests that workers should not hide their non-work (or
even anti-work) identities, but celebrate them in the name of freedom

Authenticity
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Being centred on the latest fashion labels and promoted with the intention
of creating a party-like atmosphere, the ritual of consumption and
shopping is a strong theme of the culture of fun and self-expression

Why just be yourself?

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In this way, we hope to show that the approach does not simply detract
from, but actually reinforces, control
In particular, we argue that the just be yourself distraction is inspired by
the disillusions that derive from these abiding controls
And then, we suggest that this distraction (involving the authentic
person) serves the double function of capturing the sociality of workers so
that more authentic emotional labour performances can be secured.

The persistente of control

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It did not free workers from the call centre controls, but introduced
freedoms around control.
Autonomy around the rules of bureaucracy how one conducts himself or
herself within a formally defined shift or mandatory social event was also
evident in the case. A similar process is inevitable with cultural control
he most conspicuous is technological control such as through call
monitoring technology and the design of office space and equipment to
survey employee interaction\
Sunray also adhered to a rather conventional form of cultural control in
which an attempt was made to align the values, beliefs and emotions with
those of the firm
Every 3Fs activity we undertake is implemented in a controlled way and
adherence is mandatory although individualism and creativity are
encouraged . . . we have one Sunray attitude . . . um . . . but people can
still be themselves. (Human resource manager)

Dysfunctions and detraction

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we suggest the just be yourself approach to identity regulation is a kind

of managed detraction
The functionality of the just be yourself discourse (with varying degrees
of success as the mixed reactions indicate) lies not only in imbuing
individualized sociality into the labour process, but also in obscuring the
harsh effects of traditional controls
The management rationale for the 3Fs was to compensate for the hard
and mundane work required of agents and secured by technical,
bureaucratic and cultural controls

the de-motivating dysfunctions of control that the just be yourself

discourse detracts from, can be seen to derive from the more general ills of
collective conformity evident in each of the traditional controls

The capture of sociality

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identity and normative regulation form an important part of call centre

management given the requirement for happy and authentic customer
service in an inherently alienating environment

he just be yourself philosophy might be considered an additional way in

which the firm mines, captures and screens the social and emotional skills
of the employee

Conclusions
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Call centres play on the disillusions of workers without getting to their

primary cause
This also provides a route in to the sociality of the employees in the form of
positive emotional labour and social competencies, including authenticity
We have argued that this discourse of distraction is related to, but also
distinct from, conventional normative controls given its emphasis on
individualism, unique selves
s, the freedom to just be yourself is not freedom from control, as
numerous management commentators and advocates claim, but
managerially prescribed freedom around control
Its very logic of distraction was noted by some of these employees with
degrees of disdain and resentment, as Houlihan (2002) also found. For
these employees then, a discourse inspired by the dysfunctional nature of
work ironically created its own forms of discontent
The development and extension of this discourse of distraction apropos
identity and sociality also indicates how corporate management can put to
work either through sheer necessity or to garner legitimacy in an
increasingly cynical society the personal attributes of workers, especially
those engaged in interactive emotional labour.
The freedom to express gay identity, for example, should not be
downplayed. But such expressions of individual selves involve the
transcendence of traditional forms of organizational control and
domination.
And they can intentionally or unintentionally reinforce them.