Article:Article: ‘Ignorant Theory And Knowledgeable Workers: Interrogating the Connections between Knowledge, Skills and Services’

By :By : Paul Thompson, Chris Warhurst and George Callaghan.

Hula Kahlal – S3236327Hula Kahlal – S3236327

Based on the critique: Based on the critique: Key growth areas in future employment will be in low level service jobs rather than knowledge work

•knowledge, skills and competencies involved in interactive service work• Contextual, social or tacit knowledge has been taken to be of lesser value in relation to competitive advantage• The growth in interactive service work and the focus of the knowledge management literature on a small sub-set of total employment• Technical skills were seen as less important than aesthetic and social skills

Purpose of the argument: Purpose of the argument: the management of social skills and competencies as critical to interactive service

work

• The promotion of the knowledge economy

• knowledge work offers a rationale for the development of skill, learning and human capital in the workplace

Policy makers are nowadays more focused on developing the ‘thinking skills’ associated with work, such as sales, marketing, management, information technology and so on

• Knowledge producers provide the engine for change in goods and services

• The economy is largely dependent on the management and processing of knowledge and information

• Leidner’s definition: face-to-face or voice-to-voice interaction with customers

•Frenkel et al. (1999, p. 6) argues, ‘the front line worker has become a central figure in the workplace of contemporary capitalism’

• Warhurst and Thompson argue that key growth areas of services will be located in low level service jobs

• Definition: Supply of embodied capacities and attributes possessed by workers at the point of entry to employment

• Employers mobilize, develop and commodify these capacities and attributes through the processes of recruitment, selection and training, transforming them into competencies and skills

• Employer demand for aesthetic skills and competencies is becoming more prevalent because of its perceived commercial utility

• Factors to differentiate :Types of calls: Inbound or OutboundThe degree of product complexity and variabilityThe depth of technological knowledge required

• CSR’s take up to 120 calls per day, with each call lasting 180 seconds

• Call time is split into: Talk time- 160 seconds Post call wrap-up time- 20 seconds

• Job Selection process is specific, just like other jobs

• CSR’s should have confidence and communication skills more than knowledge of the call centre itself

Both case studies conclude that:

•Applicants should have attitude and social skills more than technical knowledge

• With training, their attitude and skills are shaped to match the job