by Quentin Morris

Created on: December 15, 2008

Call centers are now a well-established part of modern business structure. By outsourcing call centers to India or the Philippines businesses save themselves millions of dollars in wage costs and overheads. They make use of a well-educated English speaking population without western costs. In turn, developing countries encourage foreign investment of this kind to combat unemployment and improve their economies. This state of affairs has been the norm for years. However call centers also exist in the western world, benefiting from a workforce which is located near the customer base and is in touch with the market that it serves. Given the existence of these two models, it is interesting to examine how successful each call one is on a global scale.

1. What is global?

When dealing with this topic the first question to ask is what does global really mean? Although call centers may be found all over the globe they often vary greatly depending upon the culture in which they are embedded. Research recently published by Cornell University has found that while call centers across the globe tend to have the same flat' organizational structure, employing only 12% of their staff as managers, many other aspects of their make-up vary enormously from country to country. A surprising 86% of call centers serve a regional or national client base, exploding the myth of a global system.

In fact, call-center variations tend to group themselves into three main categories; Coordinated economies, where there are strong labor market regulations (e.g. Austria, Israel and Sweden), liberal market economies, where the labor market regulations are more relaxed (e.g. UK, US, Canada) and recently industrialized economies, which is what immediately comes to mind when call centers are mentioned (e.g. Brazil, India, Poland, South Africa). In general wages are higher, job quality is better and staff turn-over is lower in coordinated economies, leading to a more stable and productive market sector.[1]

Clearly the call center sector is subject to stereotypes which, when the facts are considered aren't necessarily true. It isn't as transitory a job role as many may think, with 60% of employees in Sweden and 100% in India on full time contracts. It is also not necessarily a menial job, with 60% of call center employees in France holding a university degree. The so-called global' call center industry is, therefore, subject to huge regional variations. However, it is worth considering the fact that the

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