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Linguistic Ethnography of a Multilingual Call Center

London Calling

Johanna Woydack author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Springer Nature Switzerland AG

Published:3rd Jan '19

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Linguistic Ethnography of a Multilingual Call Center cover

This book offers an in-depth examination of communication dynamics in a call center, focusing on the life cycle of a calling script. Linguistic Ethnography of a Multilingual Call Center provides valuable insights into workplace practices.

This insightful work explores the concept of institutional transpositional ethnography, focusing on the journey of a calling script within a multilingual call center environment. Linguistic Ethnography of a Multilingual Call Center delves into how these scripts are produced by corporate management and clients, then recontextualized by middle management, and ultimately applied by agents during phone interactions. This journey highlights the complexities and nuances of communication in a modern workplace setting.

Through extensive original research, the book provides a behind-the-scenes look at a London-based call center. It critiques common practices such as monitoring, standardization, and the employment of low-skilled labor, which often characterize contemporary workplaces. By examining these elements, Linguistic Ethnography of a Multilingual Call Center sheds light on the broader implications of such practices on worker agency and compliance, contributing to ongoing discussions in the field.

This study serves as a vital resource for students and scholars across various disciplines, including management studies, communication, sociolinguistics, and linguistic anthropology. It encourages readers to reflect on the dynamics of language and power in globalized work environments, offering fresh perspectives on resistance and agency within the framework of modern labor practices.

“Johanna Woydack provides a clear ethnographic account, supported by a sophisticated analysis, of the inner workings of a call center in the United Kingdom. The text provides new insights on the roles of standardization and scripts as dynamics of the workplace … . This text will be a useful tool for researchers studying labor markets, capitalist modes of production, customer relations, sales, and telemarketing in service economies throughout the world.” (Amitabh Vikram Dwivedi, Exertions, Society for the Anthropology of Work, April 18, 2022)

“Woydack provides a thorough and critical review of the literature as well as an excellent example of how to bring innovative theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of call centers. Woydack’s book is necessary reading for anyone engaging in linguistic ethnography or qualitative analysis of organizations or institutions as her tracking of textual trajectories throughout the call center provides an exceptionally useful methodological approach for research in contexts where texts can be omnipresent and yet ever-elusive to researchers.” (Grace Fay Cooper, Sociolinguistic Studies, Vol. 13 (2-4), 2019)

“This book provides a unique perspective on the subject. While there are many examples of the script and how team leaders and agents would modify the master script, it would be helpful to have some authentic call samples to illustrate the actual exchanges. Professional communication, sociolinguistics and perhaps also business operation researchers will find this book useful.” (Jon S. Y. Hui, Language in Society, Vol. 48, 2019)

“The book offers a new perspective on the contemporary debate on workplace standardization. The volume will be of interest to students and scholars interested in politeness research and intercultural communication as well as to call centre managers and business communication trainers.” (Sara Orthaber, Discourse & Communication, Vol. 13 (5), 2019)

ISBN: 9783030066390

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

214 pages

Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 2019