H.

P NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY, SHIMLA

2018-2019

SOCIOLOGY ASSIGNMENT

RESEARCH PAPER ON “The Study of Call Center: A

Comparative study of the Call Center in Metropolitan Cities
and Small Cities”.

COURSE: B.A.LL.B(HONS)

SEMESTER: 4TH

ENROLLMENT NO. 1020171831

SUBMITTED BY: DUSHYANT PRATAP SINGH

SUBMITTED TO: DR. AMIT CHATURVEDI

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Every project big or small is successful largely due to the effort of a number of wonderful people
who have always given their valuable advice or lent a helping hand. I sincerely appreciate the
inspiration; support and guidance of all those people who have been instrumental in making this
project a success.

I, Dushyant Pratap Singh, the student of Himachal Pradesh National Law University
(Shimla), I am extremely grateful to Himachal Pradesh National Law University (Shimla) for
the confidence bestowed in me and entrusting my assignment.

First of all a very special thanks to my respondents, my sister who helped me for all the
telephonic interviews because of his enthusiasm and positivity I am able to use the information
in this project.

I also extend my gratitude to my Project Guide, Dr. Amit Chaturvedi, Assistant Professor in

Sociology who assisted me in compiling the project.

I would also like to thank all the faculty members of H.P. National Law University
(Shimla) for their critical advice and guidance without which this project would not have been
possible.

Last but not the least I place a deep sense of gratitude to Respondent of my project , my family
members and my friends who have been constant source of inspiration during the preparation of
this project work.

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Table of Contents

 Aims and Objectives

 Introduction
 The Study of Call Center
 Conclusion

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AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

This assignment aims to provide a perspective is to document and analyse the discourse as it
circulate on the Customer Care Service Center in contemporary north India, through this paper
I specially focus on the customer care service centre at Agra and the customer care service centre
in Metropolitan cities. And by using this study I choose to discuss the issues which dismantle the
conventionally held notion about the customer care service center by the people and also what
discourse arises when it comes to customer care service center. And some live examples of
particular discourse, when this new institution of customer care service center was introduced in
Agra. And also study how it is now a center for the local economy. And identify the influential
factors for joining and getting a job at this place becomes important for local people. This study
has been done by interviewing various persons who are directly or indirectly connected with the
customer care service center and also some online sources has been used for using the data
regarding these organisation

INTRODUCTION
Title of this research paper is The Study of Call Center: A Comparative study of the Call
Center in Metropolitan Cities and Small Cities. These organisations are also known as B.P.O,
Customer Service Center, etc. But the word “Call Center” has been used in the title because these
organization are commonly known as Call Center and the people in small cities knows these
organisations by this name. So it is because of this reason that how people perceive these
organizations in small cities the word “call center” is used.
This research paper makes an attempt to interpret the discourse related to call center when it is
introduced in a new city from the metropolitan cities. Through this research paper I would study
how the discourse takes place regarding the person who worked in these organizations. This
paper is based on simple, ordinary research question. It is an attempt to study ‘why, how, and
when’ the discourse changes from cities to cities and also the analysis of how it impact a
woman’s life either her marriage or her professional life. Call center is a modern idea and is a
macro-narrative. This paper also brings forth the idea that we are never free of our social and
cultural norms and prejudices that we have been carrying with us. This paper will help us

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understand the way in which our social prejudices become visible in conversations, like
patriarchy.
This research paper will try to problematise the whole modern idea regarding Call Center. With
the help of this research paper, one can understand how the conventional understanding of Call
Center can be dismantled.
At first the conventional definition of call centers has been discussed and then on analysing, it is
revealed that calling creates power structures within a call centers and the element of patriarchy
in the conversations, that how the call transfer to senior is asked by the customer. This paper also
tries to unfold how the modern idea of calling, which is a meta narrative leads to various
problems. This paper is related to the role of modernisation in the changing conception of jobs in
call centers and other organisations. This paper is based on the various life experiences shared by
the people working in the call centers or indirectly related to them. Objective of this research
paper is to present a picture of the modern organization, its role and consequences with unbiased
of any social and cultural background.
The paper produced in the following pages is based on intensive analysis. This paper is basically
divided into three sections. The first section deals with an introduction of research paper. The
second section is further divided into sub-sections which makes an attempt to analyze everyday
understanding of the organization, also explain the discourse, circumstances under which persons
work in them and functions which they serve. The last section of paper, i.e, the third section
makes an attempt to apply the sociological perspective of call center using concepts and
techniques borrowed from the Post-Modernism and putting into use what has been taught to us in
the course. It deals with various aspects of the course that have been practically examined. I use
the various concepts such as psycho-analysis, gender theory, post-modernism theory, power
structure concept, discourse and publics, etc.
I had many experiences regarding with persons working in call centers and their families. Before
starting with the analysis of call center I would like to give a brief introduction of call center.
This paper also presents the economic aspect of the call center and its surrounding. How the
small economies flourish around them. The interviews also shows that how the working and
perspective of the people is different in different cities. It can also be seen in the following
paragraphs the role of women in these organization as well as the gossips about them.

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Modernity has certain characteristics and had promised us something but it rather created
problems. Discontent with modernity is the central idea of our course. In post-modernism we are
reproducing something we know from the society. So this research paper starts with the
understanding call centers, structure, discourses about and economy.

THE STUDY OF CALL CENTER

BPO or Call Center as an organisation

As call center is a part of BPO( Business Process Outsourcing) and in metropolitan cities people
who work in call center usually on asking them about job they say “I am working in BPO” as it
sounds big and helped them to maintain their status. And they try to hide that they are working in
call center. So it is important to understand the term BPO as well as the working of Call Center.

The idea of Business outsourcing has its roots in the 'competitive advantage' theory propagated
by Adam Smith in his book 'The Wealth of Nations' which was published in the year 1776. Over
the years, the meaning of the term 'outsourcing' has undergone a change. 'outsourcing' is the
process through which one company hands over part of its work to another company, making it
responsible for the design and implementation of certain business process under the requirements
and specifications of the outsourcing company. This outsourcing process is beneficial to both the
outsourcing company and the outsourcing service provider.

What is outsourcing? Outsourcing is contracting with another company or person to do a

particular function. Almost every organization outsources in some way. The outside firms that
are providing the outsourcing services are commonly called, service providers. Currently,
outsourcing takes many forms. Organizations still hire service providers to handle distinct
business processes, such as benefits management. But some organizations outsource whole
operations. The most common forms are Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO) and
Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). Business process outsourcing encompasses call center
outsourcing, Human Resources Outsourcing (HRO), finance and accounting outsourcing, and
claims processing outsourcing. Most major MNC’s worldwide derive their cost advantage by
outsourcing this vital part of their Call Centers to outside outsourcing organizations. Therefore
areas like call centers given to third party. The organization pays the outsourcing call center

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organization a fixed rate per call received or made or based on a fixed collection targets
achieved. This process outsourcing reduces the transaction cost to the original company many
folds, whereas this outsourced work creates a new outsourcing industry worldwide having
several billions of USD as their turnover and employing millions workforce, but the scenario is
different for different cities in small cities like Agra the salary of an agent is just Rs. 7000 while
in metropolitan cities it ranges from Rs.14000 to Rs.16000. Because in Agra daily 100 to 200
people came to the office for interview so the work force they are getting is much more than
other cities, because people do not have jobs in these small cities. So it is the third parties who
appoint the employees and it is for profit making, so giving less then what it is given by the
MNCs. So outsourcing is a western culture which is brought in India, and over the period of time
Indian working culture is totally transformed into U.S, Britain or other countries work culture.

Fears of the people from Call Center: Impact on Society

One of the most discussed concerns of the respondents regarding Call Centers. Its impact can be
felt in different areas. If we talk about our society, then we can notice and observe the changes
brought by call centers either they are night shift or relationships. It has challenged cultural
values such as the patriarchal family, and premarital sex.

The exposure to a work culture like this is leading persons to challenge hierarchies at home and
in society, by interviews it is clear that this is the fear in the minds of families. Because that they
have independent incomes, they feel more confident to challenge traditional values and customs.
As in call center one can get a job after 12th as well with good communication skills. Some of the
people who link call centers with Live-in relationships and casual sex among call enter
employees and also alcoholism and drug abuse. This problem linked by them with financial
independence at an age when they don‘t have the maturity to handle it.

Most of the work at call centers and BPO operations is at night, because they have to interact
with U.S or Britain natives and there time varies from Indian time zone. So employees tend to
lose touch with their family, friends, and neighbors, whose waking hours are different. ―You
start hanging out with a different set of people with whom you don‘t really have very deep ties.
The person is no longer a vibrant and active part of a family or neighborhood. One of the
respondent from the family advised the son not to take a night shift but it is not his discretion.

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People also thought that financially independent children now want their parents to treat them as
equals. Parents have to redefine their roles, or lose their positions altogether. Parental authority is
already weakened, and the more parents try to assert their authority, the more likely it will be
completely broken.

The following can be the summarized fears of the people from Call Center:

 Impacting family and society culture (drug abuses, premarital sex, alcoholism, rave
parties) etc.
 Breaking the biological laws (night shifts-depression, frustration, anxiety etc.)
 Multiple relationships (affairs)
 Immoral Behavior

Women Employees in Call Center

India has more working women than any other country in the world. Of the entire workforce of
400 million, 30-35 per cent is women, and of these, only 20 percent work in urban India. This
figure can largely be attributed to the growth of the IT-BPO industry, which is one of the largest
recruiters of a qualified workforce in recent times, says the study done by NASSCOM. But still
some cases coming in picture.

The case of BPO employee gang raped in capital, BPO employee became the victim of gang rape
in New Delhi at midnight on Nov 24 2011. A 30-year-old Manipuri girl was abducted and raped
while returning from job. The victim was dropped by her office cab near her house at 1am. She
was allegedly abducted by a group of people and was raped in a moving car 1. This is not the first
case that any BPO employee became the victim of gang rape or sexual harassment while
returning home from work at midnight.

Pratibha case in Bangalore, is also among the case of BPO working where the girl was raped and
killed by her cab driver; however, the accused faced the verdict recently. BPO employee did
suicide on the job, while communicating on the phone with the customer she got so much
frustrated that she pierced the sharp pencil in her neck and due to severe bleeding died on the
spot.

1
Report by Telegraph India Online.

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When this was discussed with the respondent who is an independent divorcee regarding calls in
morning shift, She replied “we are upset from less sleep at night and as u sit on chair and log in,
calls process begin and some customers are so rude in chatting that they abuse us frequently, for
a man he can handle but for a women its impact can be on her dignity, beside it work load, target
completion add more to it, in all this process women think to get rid from it, is to commit suicide,
somewhere her family relation also affect her working and if all is well at home them everything
is well in workplace too.”

Another case came into news was the Udyog Vihar call Centre murder case, the killings
happened after an argument over rejection of a leave application turned into a bloody brawl on
Saturday. Police took him on three days' police remand. According to police, executive Sunil
Kumar, 25, was denied leave on Sunday for his son's birthday by his superior, Mukesh Bisht. A
heated argument followed and things didn't end there.2

So all these cases are from the metropolitan cities, so the call center job in metropolitan cities is
different and also the fears of the families in metropolitan cities are also different but in the small
cities it is not the case. There is a discourse and gossips regarding someone’s daughter working
at call center.

Call Center in NCR

The respondent is working as a manager in a BPO Blackstone Hewitt, In my conversations with

him, the topic of the night shift came up frequently and he in conversation often referred to the
inherent shock to their biological clock after continuous night work. Working “night in and night
out,” their daily rhythm lost its rhythm; they felt chronically sleep deprived, he referred to some
of his friends who have been suffering from insomnia. It can be said that this have the combined
effect with the biological shock and social shock.

On asking about the nights in Gurugram, he replied that, As nights of Gurgaon(he used Gurgaon
instead of Gurugram so the same is used by me) are attached directly and unavoidably to the
days of other places (i.e. Chicago, London, or New York, Britain, etc), the cabs running between
Gurgaon and Delhi driven by needs of a digitally interconnected and timely opposite to other
international cities, have turned the streets into a strange clash of the local with international; the

2
Report by Telegraph India Online.

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local as simultaneously belonging to Gurgaon and to New York. The combination of a strict call
center schedule decided primarily by the business hours of, say the United States, and the
relatively peaceful nighttime streets of Gurgaon have made call center cabs gravely neutral to the
world around them. Also the night life was one of the main point of discussion, he talked about
their nightouts to various places outside Delhi, one of them was Murthal, and it is not that only
men went on the night outs but also the women were also the part of these night life. On asking
about the live-in-relationship or relationship, he replied that it is common in NCR these days.

Most of the conversation between me and the respondent was in English, so it is also important
to note that the communication in the international call centers is also the most important aspect.
So our conversation move on to the training and language aspects. As it is evident that, the first
major hurdle in global communication integration is speech itself, an important part of life world
perspective. Cultural differences manifest themselves in speech and accent of employees, an area
of communication which must be addressed before any dialogue between Indian workers and
their foreign clients is possible. He said, It becomes important to train the agents in the pace,
emphasis, and pitch of their second language, i.e., English, while also seeking to neutralize the
thickness of regional accents. So I asked about what neutralize actually means, He move on to
voice and accent trainers in most of the call centers engage in what they call accent
neutralization, which seek to lessen the influence of regional accents on their English, and
reflecting a recalibration of sociocultural particularity to the requirements of global integration.
As India has many regional languages belonging to several linguistic families, including the
languages, the slang in India changes every district or region. Individually, major languages are:
Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Oriya, Punjabi,
Assamese, Maithili, etc. While preparing the agents for global communication, accent
neutralization programs are geared toward reducing the effects of agents’ first languages on their
English. In numerous interactions, he frequently brought up the term neutral accent. During the
interview, I asked him, that there is no such thing as a neutral accent because you cannot change
accent. “Well, there is. Do you hear how I’m speaking? Plain and neutral English.” He replied
that it is very important for the organisation to train its employees in neutral accent. The creation
of a neutralized space for communication across cultures, it is a way to bridge the bay between
different lifeworlds. What he actually meant by Indian English was a kind of English where it is

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hard to detect the influence of such regional Indian languages as Bengali, Tamil, Telugu,
Malyalam, or Hindi while also staying free from British or American influence.

So it can be inferred that they are living with the adopting two sets of identity that is social
identity derived from primary social life which they learn from childhood by growing up in
society and a fake neutral identity accomplished through cultural neutralization. This new
identity, neutral to their sociocultural world, agents required to adapt to a way of speech that is
more common in American culture, particularly in the telemarketing culture which is largely
invented in the United States. While some of this knowledge and training is generic to
telemarketing or call center industry worldwide, but its basic ingredients derive from social
norms and values of North American culture that are foreign in India. So by adopting a foreign
culture we are in a way moving to neutralize the culture and living a duel life which remained in
between.

Call Center in Agra

Call center in Agra is totally different from the call centers of the metropolitan cities. It can be
inferred from the interviews that people have a bonding which is personal rather than
professional. Also most of the working people in these call centers are young. It is from its
establishment a boon for the independent women, and the students. Most of the persons who are
working in the call center are the students who are working for their education and feeding their
families. The people at these organizations are from the lower middle class families.

Interviewing a woman employee from the call center:

When I first met her I told her the purpose of the interview for what and why I am collecting this
information and started asking question “why she chose to work at this place?” A simple reply
was given by her that there are no jobs in Agra and also this job is giving the safest environment
to the women. Because of this reason there are most of the women workers, I think 60%-70% are
women workers at this place. “It must be difficult for you to do a night shift in cities like Agra”?
She replied that” this is the best part of working here that women have the last shift of 8PM that
is that have to left office before 8PM. Also no one is allowed to enter the premises of the
building except the employees. “Have you completed your studies?” No, I as pursuing my
graduation as my father is a small farmer so I am staying with my younger brother for job and

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also helping him in his studies.” “What is your experience of calling?” We have to sit on the
desk for eight hours and in that period we have to always be on call. We are not always in the
same mood but we have to be polite. Sometimes local customers teases us on call they call even
after they don’t have any issue, they even abuses us on call and we are not allowed to cut any
call from our side, so we have to either transfer those calls to a male.

Also the feedback of the employee is taken into consideration, if four “NO” came in our monthly
feedback than we have given a warning, then next month we are fired if found so. “What about
your family are they allowing you?” Yes, off course, how I can do a job without their
permission. I again asked her that they know about call center? Yes they don’t have any problem
but as you know our society, our neighbours have more problem with I am working in a call
center. So when I started working in call center one of my relative came to know about that, she
called my father and asked my father to stop me to work here. (In her actual words: Call center
ek sahi job nahi hai, humein pta chala hai ki vahan ka mahol achha nahi hai). So even she was
not able to describe what is wrong in doing job over here.

“Do you have any incident which occurred in call center?” She describe a incident of his relative
who is a clerk in a court in Gurgaon, his marriage was fixed with a girl from Gurgaon, she was
working in a call center, so they started talking on phone and so affection was there. But the
boy’s family was agree on her doing night shift at call center and some people from their
relations filled their ears with some rumors that call center mai ye hota hai wahan ki ladikiya ke
aashik hote hain, etc,etc. In between the girl went on night outs and don’t share anything to the
boy. So he was frustrated, and went into depression. What about the other employees? Most of
them are of young age that is college going students. Some of my college friends are also
working here. So it is giving us an opportunity to work with studies. “Most of them must be from
Agra”? Yes, majority is from Agra, but people from nearby towns and districts also came here
daily by bus. So it is a hub now for the people over here as well as outside this city, not only
boys are coming here but majority is of the girls. So these girls must be wake up at 4AM for a 6
or 7 AM shift.

“There must be some training program after interview”? Yes, training is given to us for taking
calls, how to talk to customer and also language training is also given but here it is a domestic
call center so English language is not used frequently. And no special training is given to us for

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language. I asked her about her family and professional life that if there is any effect on them?
She replied that “family and professional life are different but here our team is of sixteen people
and we knows everyone’s family and attended family functions together, so it is also a family
here.

So it was an exhaustive interview which gave the reflection of the call center and its working in
the domestic environment like Agra. Also an important aspect noticed by me was the local
economy which started flourishing after the establishment of call center over here. The shops
which are around that area are Tea & Cigarette, Pan wala, Chhole Kulche, Sweets Shop, leather
formal shoes shop, etc. So it is important to notice that all these shops are small that is a low
investment shops and these people are always busy because of the rush. So I notice that the chai
wala was always surrounded by the customer in formals wearing ID cards and having chai. So it
was the place where they refresh their minds. So it gave rise to local economy.

CONCLUSION

The issue which evolves out of this intensive research work is that in call center by adopting the
language and timeline of other nation, workers adopted the psycho-social change in personality
at work, raising an important but hard to answer question: whether such shifts in personality
spilled into non work situations of family and social life.

The use of emotions was one of the most important aspects of both telemarketing and debt
collection calls. It was clearly visible in cases where agents were trained on how to react to
negative responses from consumers; also the change pertained to emotions, namely, “Be polite
and friendly;” Despite long training sessions, all agents found it difficult to change or
“neutralize” their accents. It was not easy to turn a socially sculpted identity into a set of
manufactured events, for accents are seamless expressions of the body, linking movements of the
larynx, tongue, teeth and neural wiring.

It can be noted that the work life in the call center in metropolitan cities is different from the call
center in the small cities. The women in call center doing their jobs due to the safety, while in
metropolitan cities it can be seen that there are many cases of crimes against women. Also the
fear of people regarding the live in relationships is dismantled in the small cities. When it comes
to the change in the culture, language is in the metropolitan cities but it is not the same in small

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cities, people used to talk in their native language, while in big cities they remain in their system
life that is dual personality. So language can be seen as a power structure. Also the economies
which flourish near the call center are different except the chai- cigarette wala, there are
restaurants more.

Patriarchy can also be seen in the call center as well, when a call received by a women the
customer used to tease them, while when the call is transferred to a male the attitude of the caller
is totally different.

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