The Work and Employment Module - Essay Example

Introduction This paper is in partial fulfilment of the Work and Employment module. It involves the summary of three major articles written by ities in the field. The summaries focus on the concepts and theories of employment. It does this by identifying and incorporating political, economic, social and technological aspects of the contemporary British and Global society to provide an explanation of the labour related issues in the articles. Outsourcing of Call Centre Functions to Indian Firms The research conducted by Taylor & Bain (2005), identifies that call centre functions of large UK businesses are being extended to agencies in India. This is part of the globalization of job functions and the internationalisation of work functions. Taylor & Bain compare this development to the outsourcing processes of European and North American manufacturing job functions to the Far East. According to economic geographers, firms choose to outsource for a number of reasons. First of all, a business might want to outsource because of the proximity to cheaper skilled labour in a given job function. Secondly, a business might want to outsource because of advanced support services. The third reason is that the cost of property might be low. Finally, there might be regional clusters of the function in question that leads to labour specialisation in the given function which makes it an ideal destination for outsourcing. In the case of UK call centres, the main reason for outsourcing is in the fact that there were massive cost savings opportunities in this. This is because India offered a fairly cheaper labour market that could render the same quality of call answering services that UK call centres could offer. This therefore means that the businesses could cut down labour costs and in the long run, increase profits and maximise shareholders returns. Also, the UK businesses studied stated that Indian call centre staff members were more dedicated and hence more efficient than UK call centre workers. This is because the call centre job in the UK provided massive opportunities to the Indians at the same level and the remuneration was a big motivator, although it is just a fraction of what is paid to their UK counterparts. The research of Taylor and Bain also identified that the main factor that aided the outsourcing of call centre work functions by UK businesses to India lies in the concept of Taylorism. Taylorism advocates for the division of work and specialisation. This concept became quite common between the 1950s and the 1980s. After reforms of the 1980s in most Western nations, most organisations particularly public sector entities and large corporations had to cut down costs by closing down unproductive departments. This led to the outsourcing of several functions to external entities. In the late 1990s to the early 21st Century, the outsourcing sector became more competitive and international outsourcing agents entered the competition. Thus, businesses outsourced their services to nations where they could cut down costs and maintain a similar or higher degree of quality of service. India became a popular destination for British firms seeking cheaper and more efficient call centre services because: 1. It had a standardised workforce that followed the same trends in logic and culture. 2. It was fairly easy to undertake voice training and classification amongst Indian call centre staff. 3. The cost of setting up and running call centre operations in India was fairly minimal. This could give room for lower costs 4. The advanced telecommunication support service gave the Indian call centres a fair advantage in maintaining high efficiency standards. Variances Between Actual and Preferred Working Hours Van Echtelt et al (2006) begin with the thesis of evaluating the reasons behind the fact that most workers in the post-Fordist work environment continue to work more hours than they worked under the traditional working hour structure. The Fordist school of thought stated that work should be broken down in a scientific manner and employees should work from a given period of time. In Britain, this used to be 8am to 5pm, from Monday to Friday where employees were required to work according to the dictates and patterns of their employers. Under the Fordist regime, people worked for more hours and spent more time than they wanted to spend at work. This is because, there is a fundamental idea that people work to raise money. When they had enough money, they needed time to spend the money. As such, a Fordist work environment placed serious restrictions on people who wanted to spend their hard end money. This argument led to the creation of the post-Fordist system where employees were to work according to flexible hours. People were required to work according to the hours that suited them. Thus, some people could become independent contractors whilst others used telecommuting. Van Echtelt et al (2006) identified that laws like the Work Hours Adjustment Act 2000 of the Netherlands provided for women to combine work and child care. This led to more flexible hours and systems. One would therefore expect that people would work in this flexible setting and make sufficient money and spend time appropriately. However, the writers identified in their research that most employees were still working many hours. Most of them were working more than they preferred or wished to work. In the research to find reasons, they identified a number of reasons. The first reason was that the flexible working hours provided autonomy. As such, people used their autonomy to work more hours to meet their own needs. This therefore explains why people were working more hours than they wished. Secondly, it was identified that there were some barriers that existed amongst people who worked outside the traditional working hours. This is because in spite of being in the post-Fordist era, most business functions were best carried out during the conventional working hours ie 8am to 5 pm. So workers had to work at that time even if it was against their will. There was also a desire for people to attain personal reputation. This is because some persons preferred to be seen as conventional workers. As such, they remained in the work environment within the traditional work hours to show others that they were seriously employed. Another factor was that some employees were restrained by reason of the quest for personal development. As such, they had to sacrifice their preferences and go by the best working hours. Another reason was that there were teamwork issues. This involved situations whereby the team sought to work at a certain time. As such, an employee had to be at work to coordinate activities with the rest of the team. There were also other deadline issues identified. Additionally, some people saw dismissal as a serious issue so they sought to work at the preferred hours of their employers. Thus, in spite of the preference and desire for flexible working hours, there are inherent factors that makes it difficult for employees to choose the exact time and duration to work. Employees therefore stick to the traditional working hours of 8am to 5pm Illegal Employees in The UK Ahmad examined the role of post-Fordism and its influence on the UK work structure and systems. In this analysis, Ahmad studied the lives of smuggled and undocumented Pakistani immigrants who come to the UK to seek their fortunes. Post-Fordism in the UK was prompted by the labour reforms undertaken by the Margaret Thatcher administration. From the era after the World War, the UK was ran as a welfare state. Due to this, the government had a view of keeping unemployment low. This was also complemented by Fordism which sought to break down work into functions and enable people to work at given periods in time, usually from 8am to 5pm. Another feature of the welfare state was that, employees were allowed to form trade unions. These trade unions negotiated for better pay and services for employees. The tripartite committee was made up of the trade unions, employers and government. This was guaranteed by the laws of Britain. In the Thatcher administration, there was a major change set of reforms which collapsed trade unionism and encouraged efficiency in operations and creation. This caused employer-employee relationships to take a different form. Employees were no more guaranteed fixed working hours. Employers were free to use different approaches and systems to keep employees at work. This included hiring employees at short intervals to complete activities for hourly rates. The Pakistani immigrants who came to the UK in the era of the welfare state were given guaranteed jobs and their status was protected by their trade unionists in a collective manner. However, the migrants who were smuggled into Britain in the post 1990 era lived in the post-Fordist system which had several implications. First of all, the collapse of the welfare system in Britain had implications for immigration. As such, migrants from nations like Pakistan were restricted from entering Britain. Thus, some people could enter the nation by being smuggled. These people paid heavy sums of money for the service. Many of the migrants arrived in Britain with substantial debts. As such, they sought to maximise their presence on British soil. These migrants were therefore willing to work for as many hours as possible to settle their debts quickly. With this, the migrants also got the opportunity to pay for regular documents to remain in Britain legally. UK businesses were also willing to hire these illegal migrants because they were mostly willing to work more hours and for lower pay. Thus, in the post-Fordist era where employee rights were not guaranteed, these Pakistani migrants could earn a living whilst their British employers also cut down substantially on labour costs. Thus, the changes in the UK work system and structure provided a grey area for illegal migrants to make a living. Although this was a form of exploitation in UK parlance, the Pakistani migrants are often very happy with the opportunity to work for relatively high wages. References Ahmad, N. A. (2008) “Dead Men Working: Time and Space in Londons (illegal) Migrant Economy” Work, Employment & Society Vol 22(2): 301 – 318 Taylor, P. & Bain, P. (2005) “India Calling to Far Away Towns: The Call Centre Labour Process & Globalization” Work, Employment & Society Vol 19(2) 261 – 282 Van Echtelt, P. E., Glebbeek, A. C. & Lindenberg, S. M. (2006) “The New Lumpiness of Work: Explaining the Mismatch between Actual & Preferred Working Hours” Work, Employment & Society Vol 20 (3): 493 – 512 Read More