Technology is improving yearly to make work more efficient and allow workers to complete tasks faster. Many years ago, workers had to spend time doing simple tasks. With enhanced technologies, organisations can incorporate many new technologies to speed up work. This is helpful because it allows the organisation to be competitive against other organisations. Because tasks can be completed much quicker, the organisation works faster, and production costs are meagre. However, there is also a considerable risk in using these new technologies. Older workers may need to gain the skills necessary to use these tools. Therefore, they may want to avoid incorporating them into their tasks. Management would like them to use them, but workers resist, causing organisational conflicts. This essay will examine a call centre organisation called CallMedia to discuss the many impacts technology can have on an organisation’s culture.

‍
One of the significant improvements many organisations seek is efficiency (Cameron, 2000; Fluss, 2005). Work needs to be produced quickly in this day and age because advanced technology has become essential to maximise output from any given input. Workers must be given the tools to work efficiently to keep pace with the organisational competition. Management seeks to do this by adding new technologies to the workforce (Snyder, 2004). For example, updated computer software can help workers collaborate on more manageable projects, allowing employees to complete many tasks. They also make keeping track of the organisation easier. They can see who is doing what and how long things are taking and, if needed, can retrain employees to do something much faster.

‍
All media interacts with consumers by telephone. Call centres can perform a variety of functions. For example, they can be used for telemarketing purposes to sell products to people, they can be used to collect debts from people, and they can be used for customer support services. CallMedia is in the customer support business. Unlike most stores, this organisation’s culture is unique because call centres do not physically interact with clients face-to-face. Instead, they build rapport and interact with clients over the phone. Decades ago, employees at this and many other call centres had sheets of paper with numerous numbers. They would then phone or wait at their desks and take calls one at a time. When there is a surplus of callers, they are placed on hold, leading to too many callers. Therefore, they will wait too long to get help with their concerns, resulting in an inefficient call centre. Organisations have implemented cutting-edge technologies to improve efficiency (De George, 2003). Over the years, these technologies have improved, and as a result, organisations have continuously implemented these updated technologies to become more efficient. Using CallMedia as a case study, we can understand the positive and negative effects such implementation can have on an organisation and its culture.

‍
CallMedia uses a computerised phone system to direct calls to the proper employees. Some workers are specifically trained to deal with technical support, whereas others are trained in billing inquiries. Before, callers spoke to a receptionist who forwarded the call to the correct person. However, often the caller would be put on hold to talk to the receptionist and then placed on hold again to speak to the proper agent. Now, they use a computerised phone system for callers. They can select whom they want to talk to by hearing an automated voice giving them options and pressing the number on their keypad to be transferred to the proper agent, helping improve call efficiency and minimising client wait times (Cameron, 2000). It also allows workers to know how many calls they have on hold. If too many callers are waiting, they can work quickly to process many more calls (Sharp, 2003). CallMedia uses its technology to ensure callers are put in queues and into agents as soon as they are available. Monitoring agents’ working patterns allows centres to run efficiently.

‍
CallMedia uses technology to monitor every minute of the working day. When employees log on to their workstations and log off, all of their time is observed, except for a tea break or lunch break. However, even then, the amount they spend having a break, down to the last second, is recorded on an employee’s record. This is to encourage workers to motivate themselves intrinsically. Employees who complete many calls quickly and accurately receive wage increases (Fluss, 2005). This technology helps to improve efficiency and grade staff performance, but this kind of monitoring is not used to help employees but to discipline them. Surveillance monitoring breeds mistrust because employees know every move, keystroke, and movement is recorded (Snyder, 2004).

‍
Employees are constantly watched. Surveillance means workers’ performance is continuously measured. All calls are recorded at the CallMedia call centre, and some are randomly selected to be the subject of ‘counselling’ (De George, 2003), which is standard practice. Of course, since it entails capturing customers’ and employees’ speeches, companies must announce to their customers that they are doing it. When clients call these call centres, they often hear, “this call may be recorded for quality purposes.” Management has access to a computerised display board that shows how work is being dealt with overall from moment to moment: how many calls are in progress, which employees are engaged in taking calls, how long the calls have been going on, how many customers are held in a queue, and so on. The phone systems are usually set up so supervisors can listen to any call in progress without the operator knowing (Sharp, 2003). In addition, some centres employ people to pose as customers and record their impressions of call management. Management calls in workers for performance reviews. Employees are told they are monitored and whether their performance will be rewarded. While managerial control can reward productive workers, it can also make employees inefficient because they lose trust in their managers. Knowing that employees can act as confederates and call them to test their performance can harm employee morale due to this abolishment of faith (Cameron, 2000).

‍
In all media, employees face several difficulties. This organisational culture’s heavy emphasis on efficiency blurs employee roles into what many consider androids. Employees act like robots, repeating everything repeatedly until it drives them into stress leave, which is one of the few difficulties of this organisational culture. Employees experience many migraines and headaches due to many daily calls. Employees also worry about what management might do to them because they are unsure if they will meet performance targets. Employees fear their performance records will be used against them rather than for them. Also, because of these performance targets, employees fear being fired if they do not do as instructed (Snyder, 2004). Managerial control is heavily enforced, employees believe, to discipline them. For example, employees making calls in telemarketing campaigns are expected to follow a script. They think they will be punished if they don’t follow their instructions.

‍
One of the significant problems is dealing with employees who have been with the organisation for a long time. They may need the skills to use these emerging technologies to their advantage. As a result, what management believes will help the organisation become efficient can cause it to become inefficient, which can happen in several ways. Older employees may feel that training on this updated software would not increase efficiency. This is because they have mastered the old ways of doing things. They may also think that the proposed method could be better. As a result, it would conflict with management regarding how to run the organisation correctly (Sharp, 2003).

Moreover, they may also feel that their jobs are threatened. This is because if they do not possess the skills to employ advanced technologies, they can easily be replaced by younger workers. CallMedia trains its employees to use a computer database to look up customer records quickly. They also continue to train them when the organisation has signed contracts with companies (e.g. Bell or Rogers) to serve new clients. Because these organisations use different databases and have other services, employees must be continuously retained and can quickly slow down work, making the organisation inefficient.

‍
CallMedia continues to implement cutting-edge technologies to make their work more efficient. Employees are subjected to total control through their technologies. Employees would not like being monitored for every action they do because they seem like immature individuals who constantly need supervision. Employees could lose trust in management; thus, the organisational culture is unhealthy since everyone is watched. Therefore, CallMedia, while implementing many cutting-edge technologies to improve efficiency, is contributing to a sick corporate culture that can easily make work inefficient.

Works Cited

Cameron, D. (2000). Good to talk?: living and working in a communication culture. London: Sage Publications.

De George, R. T. (2003). The ethics of information technology and business. Malden: Blackwell.

Fluss, D. (2005). The real-time contact centre. New York: Amacom Books.

Sharp, D. E. (2003). Call centre operation: design, operation, and maintenance. Burlington: Digital Press.

Snyder, L. (2004). Fluency with information technology: skills, concepts & capabilities. Boston: Pearson Addison Wesley.