This title was first published in 2002. Call centres are a type of service work that stand at the interface between corporations and consumers. They exemplify more general tendencies present within service work. They also have a particular public image - being associated in the public mind with low skilled and regimented work. This volume presents contributions from British and German management academics and industrial sociologists based on primary research on call centres in both countries. The contributions cover the genesis and development of call centres as a new form of organization, or indeed a new industry; the rationalization and control strategies of organizations that establish call centres; and the nature of service work and service interactions. The findings of this volume challenge the common public image of call centres and finds that call centre employment is in fact very diverse. So, for example, skilled advising and consulting services are often performed over the phone. Along with the sometimes skilled nature of call centre work, work organization and working conditions vary as well. The text also seeks to contrast the British and German experience of call centre work and employment. In Germany clerical work has traditionally been embedded in the specific traditions of co-operative industrial relations that define the German model. Call centres present a strategic challenge to this model, and the expansion of call centres has been at the forefront of changes aimed at making employment more flexible in Germany. This work offers a choice of country cases, which permit a comparison of service employment within both a liberal capitalist and a socially embedded economy.

This title was first published in 2002. Call centres are a type of service work that stand at the interface between corporations and consumers. They exemplify more general tendencies present within service work. They also have a particular public image - being associated in the public mind with low skilled and regimented work. This volume presents contributions from British and German management academics and industrial sociologists based on primary research on call centres in both countries. The contributions cover the genesis and development of call centres as a new form of organization, or indeed a new industry; the rationalization and control strategies of organizations that establish call centres; and the nature of service work and service interactions. The findings of this volume challenge the common public image of call centres and finds that call centre employment is in fact very diverse. So, for example, skilled advising and consulting services are often performed over the phone. Along with the sometimes skilled nature of call centre work, work organization and working conditions vary as well. The text also seeks to contrast the British and German experience of call centre work and employment. In Germany clerical work has traditionally been embedded in the specific traditions of co-operative industrial relations that define the German model. Call centres present a strategic challenge to this model, and the expansion of call centres has been at the forefront of changes aimed at making employment more flexible in Germany. This work offers a choice of country cases, which permit a comparison of service employment within both a liberal capitalist and a socially embedded economy.

Der Band berichtet uber empirische Forschungsergebnisse aus einer Langsschnittuntersuchung zu den Studienvoraussetzungen, zum Studienverlauf und Studienerfolg von beruflich Qualifizierten. Im Zentrum stehen solche Personen, die nicht uber eine schulisch erworbene Studienberechtigung in die Hochschule gekommen sind. Das Kernergebnis besteht darin, dass diese Studierendengruppe ahnlich erfolgreich studiert wie andere Studierendengruppen auch.

Der Begriff "Kreativitat" wird in der Regel unmittelbar mit dem kunstlerischen und literarischen Schaffen assoziiert. Daruber hinaus jedoch ist Kreativitat in allen Bereichen am Werk, in denen experimentiert, Neues gewagt oder, ganz allgemein, in denen Loesungen fur Probleme gefunden werden. Probleme ergeben sich zumeist von selbst; Loesungen hingegen wollen erarbeitet sein. Weder die Gestaltung sozialer und wirtschaftlicher Beziehungen, weder technische und wissenschaftliche Erfindungen noch ihre Umsetzung in neue Produkte waren ohne die Aktivierung von Kreativitat denkbar. Nicht zuletzt lebt auch die Restrukturierung von Unternehmen davon, kreative Potentiale freizusetzen und zu stimulieren.

Organisationen adaptieren Technik nicht einfach, sondern verarbeiten neue Techniken im Kontext historisch gewachsener Strukturen und Institutionen. Der daraus resultierende Wandel zeigt sich in den organisatorischen Strukturen und Umweltbeziehungen ebenso wie in der institutionellen Umwelt der Organisationen. In diesem Buch wird das Konzept der Organisationsdomane entwickelt und auf das Beispiel des technischen Wandels in der Druckindustrie angewendet. Die Digitalisierung der Prozesse in der Druckindustrie fuhrt zu einem Verlust angestammter Funktionen. In einer veranderten Umwelt mussen sich die Unternehmen neu verorten."