'From boom to where?': The impact of crisis on work and employment in Indian BPO

Phil Taylor; Premilla D'Cruz; Ernesto Noronha; Dora Scholarios

doi:10.1111/ntwe.12027

'From boom to where?': The impact of crisis on work and employment in Indian BPO

Phil Taylor, Premilla D'Cruz, Ernesto Noronha, Dora Scholarios

Work, Employment And Organisation

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)

67 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This article locates Indian Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) within the global supply chains of business services delivery and an international division of service labour. It acknowledges the BPO market’s essential dependence on demand from lead firms in the United States and United Kingdom. Drawing on a conceptual synthesis of the Global Commodity Chain (GCC), Global Value Chain (GVC) and Global Production Network (GPN) frameworks, the article examines the impact of 2008’s financial crisis on employment, work organisation and the experience of work in Indian BPO. Employer/industry sources and employee interviews, reveal reconfigured local labour market dynamics, tightened work discipline, an extensification of working time, work intensification and unprecedented growth in job insecurity. Such changed characteristics suggest a watershed which raises questions concerning the sustainability of models of BPO work constructed in pre-crisis years.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	105–123
Number of pages	19
Journal	New Technology, Work and Employment
Volume	29
Issue number	2
Early online date	12 Sep 2014
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12027
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 12 Sep 2014

Keywords

call centres
India
BPO
financial crisis
intensification of work
perfomance management
labour process
globalisation
offshoring
business processing outsourcing

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10.1111/ntwe.12027Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Taylor-etal-NTWE-2014-From-boom-to-where-the-impact-of-crisis-on-workFinal published version, 125 KBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1468-005X

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Philip Taylor
- philip.taylor@strath.ac.uk
- Work, Employment And Organisation - Professor
Person: Academic

Cite this

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abstract = "This article locates Indian Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) within the global supply chains of business services delivery and an international division of service labour. It acknowledges the BPO market{\textquoteright}s essential dependence on demand from lead firms in the United States and United Kingdom. Drawing on a conceptual synthesis of the Global Commodity Chain (GCC), Global Value Chain (GVC) and Global Production Network (GPN) frameworks, the article examines the impact of 2008{\textquoteright}s financial crisis on employment, work organisation and the experience of work in Indian BPO. Employer/industry sources and employee interviews, reveal reconfigured local labour market dynamics, tightened work discipline, an extensification of working time, work intensification and unprecedented growth in job insecurity. Such changed characteristics suggest a watershed which raises questions concerning the sustainability of models of BPO work constructed in pre-crisis years. ",

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KW - intensification of work

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'From boom to where?': The impact of crisis on work and employment in Indian BPO

Abstract

Keywords

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Philip Taylor

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