The Brief History Of Call Centres

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

This research shall assess the impact of technological change on call centre operatives in XYZ plc call centre in Aberdeen. The IT system in XYZ plc is a booking system that helps call centre operatives within the organisation deal with customer problems and deliver transportation services. This chapter comprises four main sections; it begins by providing background to the research study for contextualisation, the statement of the problem, the research aims and objectives and finally an outline of how the study is to be covered within the research.

Context of research study

Research in call centres have focused on employee involvement, changes in work organisations (Taylor et al 2002), quality of life and gender (Sharpiro 2001) and spatial division of labour (Bristow, Munday and Gripaois 2000). However, there has been limited research with regards to the implementation of technological change and its effect on employees and their feelings about the process of change since the use of IT systems in call centres. As a result of this observation from previous research, this research proposes to find out why a major change initiative such as implementing a new IT system(booking system) had taken place, how it was managed and implemented, the involvement of employees, the attitude of employees(both managerial and operational)and how successful the technological change had been .

1.2 Statement of Problem

There have been conclusions by authors of change management such as Burnes (1996 2004) that many initiatives of change have failed in the past. The reasons for these failures have been identified by Kotter (1996) and they are: the allowance of too much complacency, failure to create a powerful guiding coalition, underestimating the power of vision, under-communication of vision, the permission of obstacles in blocking the vision and failure to create short term wins. Based on this research by Burnes (1996 2004) and Kotter (1996), XYZ plc call centre has been selected by the researcher because of accessibility to the organisation and the time constraints associated with the research to find out whether their arguments are relevant in practice.

The organisation being researched is a large scale company that has been in business of providing transportation to disabled customers, pensioners and other adults under the benefits scheme in all the boroughs in London, financial institutions and other small and large scale businesses in London, Edinburgh and Manchester for about 20 years through the use of IT systems by the use of its call centre operatives in Aberdeen. Also, it is part of a multi-national company that provides transportation to businesses in other countries in Europe. It is an organisation that believes in high performance from staff and they value staff who want a career progression. The old booking system that the organisation used provided a rapid service to its customers in London but the Management decided in coalition with the IT department to develop a new booking system that will be a modernised version of the old system which was currently used to get the full details of customers whilst providing transportation.

At the beginning of 2012, the change in the booking system was implemented by management of XYZ plc because of the hope of a better service to customers and the leadership approach towards this change was a firm top-down approach. However, there has been some resistance which has led to the questioning of its success. The rationale for the research is to ascertain how the technological change in XYZ plc was managed, implemented and how this problem has affected the employee morale within the organisation or whether there was a failure as organisations have been in the past(Burnes 1996 2004) .

Aims and Objectives

This research aims to assess the impact of technological change on the morale of call centre employees (both managerial and operational) within XYZ plc call centre. In order to achieve this aim, the following objectives will be met:

To explore why XYZ plc initiated the change to their booking system.

To analyse how the change process was managed and implemented.

To investigate employee involvement in the change process.

To ascertain the perceptions and effects of the changes upon the call centre operatives.

To critically evaluate the success of the change upon the call centre operatives.

Research Layout

Chapter 2 shall consist of the literature review and Chapter 3 the methodology. Chapter 4 shall involve the findings while Chapter 5 shall involve the discussion. Chapter 6 consists of the summary, conclusions and recommendations.

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

Introduction

This chapter shall critically review the literature underpinning the research study with major references to previous research in call centres as well as organisational change concepts. This chapter consists of seven main segments. The first segment begins by discussing a brief history of call centres. The second segment will highlight the reasons why organisations initiate change. The third segment will focus on the management and implementation of change with the critical analysis of each approach. The fourth segment will deal with what is involved in the change process. The fifth segment shall deal with attitudes and perceptions of employees with regards to change. The sixth segment shall deal with the success of change initiatives in organisations. Finally, the research questions that have arisen as a result of the research analysis in the preceding sections

Brief History of Call centres

In the UK, call centres first emerged in the financial sector, where they were introduced in tandem with the widespread closure of high-street bank branches (Bristow, Munday and Gripaois 2000 citing BIFU 1996). They have since developed in a diverse range of service activities which include the travel industry, telecommunications, motor vehicle sales and insurance, mail order, and the deregulated utilities (Bristow, Munday and Gripois 2000).

However, the emergence of call centres in organisations has not been left without its draw backs such as low quality in terms of employment and creation of few managerial or professional jobs (Bristow, Munday and Gripois 2000). There has been criticisms about call centres that they have recreated the industrial revolution of ‘sweat shops’ and ‘dark mills’ (Kinnie, Hutchinson and Purcell 2000) and they have been criticised for providing the ideal environment for the exercise of a high control over virtually every aspect of employee behaviour at work (Kinnie, Hutchinson and Purcell 2000 citing Femie and Metcalf 1998).

As the emergence of call centres grew to be more popular in the service industry in the UK and Europe, there was research that focused on employee involvement, changes in work organisations (Taylor et al 2002), quality of life and gender (Shapiro 2001) and spatial division of labour (Bristow, Munday and Gripaois 2000). However, there has been limited research on the use of IT systems and employee behaviour at work in call centres. It has not focused on the steps taken to implement technological change in these types of organisations and how employee attitudes are linked with these types of change in organisations.

2.2 The rationale for technological change in organisations.

Technological change has been introduced into organisations and it has been the aim of organisational change activities for years. This change can be initiated because of the process of continually renewing the organisations direction, structure, and capabilities to serve the ever-changing needs of external and internal customers which mean it could be done as a result of the ever-changing needs of the business environment (Moran and Brightman 2001).

However, there are other reasons for technological change initiatives. Burnes (2004) viewed it as involvement of various levels of the organisation which means it comprises of all level of employees being involved in the planning, managing and implementation of the technological change initiatives of the organisation. In contrast to the conclusion of Burnes (2004), there is a lack of focus on who is leading the change whether it could be a top- down approach or a down –top approach in the management and implementation, therefore there is no clear strategy on how employees are involved at various levels.

Furthermore, Ackerman (1986) views change in general as developmental which leads to the improvement of the currently existing status quo. However, there is no mention on the specific change which his view can be applied to. Although with the technological change, it could be for the enhancement of staff training for a new working system but the view in this aspect is still over generalised and not specific because there are still questions as to how they can be really applied to other type and reason for change. In the context of call centres in the UK, what could be the reasons for technological change? Is it external or internal?

2.3 Managing and Implementing Change in Organisations

Organisational change in time past has been managed in three ways. It could either be a planned approach following a systematic process and procedure or it could be an emergent approach following a rapid response or again the contingent approach following the situation in the organisation. The following sub sections shall critically analyse how effective these approaches are in the management and implementation of change in general.

2.3.1 The planned approach to managing and implementing change.

Lewin (1958) presents a fundamental description of change that has been incorporated into many organizational consultants’ and managers’ emergent models of organizations in their attempts to understand and direct the process of systemic change. The first step was unfreezing the present level while the second moves into the new level and the final step is refreezing the new level. Based on this theory of managing and implementing change in general, several researchers have built their theories based on his work and it has led to the development of the Lippitt et al. (1958) seven-phase model and the Cummings and Huse (1989) eight-phase model. All these models were based on the planned approach to change management and, according to Cummings and Huse (1989), they all share one fundamental concept which was the concept of planned change which implied that an organisation existed in different states at different times and that planned movement could occur from one state to another.

However, the implications of this concept are that an understanding of planned organizational change cannot be gained by simply understanding the processes which bring about change, it is also necessary to understand the states that an organization passes through before attaining the desired future state. Furthermore, the problem with this theory of Lewin(1958) is that it is not practiced to the full capacity in organisations. Wustern (2009) argues that most organisations do not follow the complete process but rather lay a lot of emphasis on the step two which is moving to the new level of change in the organisation because it involves the development of insights, attitudes and skills.

Secondly, Beckhard and Harris (1987) (cited by Siegal et al 1996) focused on the importance of the transition state through which the organization must navigate in order to evolve from its "present state" to its "desired future state". They further stated that members of an organisation first realize their dissatisfaction with the current state and then identify a desired future state, thus describing the new role, function, or structure that the organisation needs to adopt. However, the problem with Beckhard and Harris(1987) theory is that some of the steps have not been applied in the correct order in most organisations. This is because the theory only focuses on the internal factors of the organisation but does not consider the external factors with regards to implementing change.

2.3.1.1 Critical analysis of the planned approach to managing and implementing change in organisations.

In general, it is suggested that the planned approach emphasis is on small-scale and incremental change, and it is therefore, not applicable to situations that require rapid and transformational change (Burnes 1996, 2004; Senior 2002). Furthermore, the planned approach is based on the assumptions that organisations operate under constant conditions, and that they can move in a pre-planned manner from one stable state to another (Bamford and Forrester 2003). These assumptions are, however, questioned by several authors (Burnes 1996, 2004; Wilson 1992) who argue that the fast changing environment weakens the theory in practice.

Moreover, it is suggested that organisational change is more an open-ended and continuous process than a set of pre-identified set of discrete and self-contained events (Burnes 1996 2004; Todnem 2005). Therefore, by attempting to lay down timetables, objectives and methods in advance it is suggested that the process of change becomes too dependent on the management, who in many instances do not have a full understanding of the consequences of their actions (Wilson 1992). Also, the approach of planned change ignores situations where more directive approaches are required. This can be a situation of crisis, which requires major and rapid change, and does not allow scope for widespread consultation or involvement (Burnes 1996, 2004; Kanter et al 1992).

Finally, the critics argue that the planned approach to change presumes that all stakeholders in a change project are willing and interested in implementing it, and that a common agreement can be reached (Bamford and Forrester 2003). This presumption clearly ignores organisational politics and conflict, and assumes these can be easily identified and resolved (Burnes 1996, 2004 ).

2.3.2 The emergent approach of managing and implementing organisational change

The emergent approach stresses the unpredictable nature of change, and views it as a process that develops through the relationship of a multitude of variables within an organisation (Todnem 2005).

The first of the emergent approach is Kotter’s (1996) eight stage process. The first step includes the development of a vision and strategy. The second step is the establishment of a sense of urgency. The third step is creating a guiding coalition. The fourth step is empowering a broad-based action. The fifth step is communicating the changed vision. The sixth step is anchoring new approaches in the culture. The seventh step is generating short-term wins. The eighth step is the consolidation of gains and producing more change.

The second is Lueckes’ (2003) seven steps process. The first step involves mobilising energy and commitment through joint identification of business issues. The second step is developing a shared vision of how to organise and manage for competitiveness. The third is to identify the leadership. Fourth is to institutionalise success through formal policies, systems, and structures. Fifth is to focus on results, not on activities .Sixth is to start the change at the periphery, then let it spread to other units without pushing it from the top. Lastly , the Monitoring and adjusting strategies in response to problems in the change process.

2.3.2.1 Critical analysis of the emergent approach to managing and implementing change in organisations.

It has been concluded that general applicability and validity of the emergent approach to organisational change depends on whether or not one believes that all organisations operate in dynamic and unpredictable environments to which they constantly have to adapt (Burnes 1996). Furthermore, it has been argued that the emergent model is suitable for all organisations, all situations and at all times.

However, this does not reflect all the situations as the key factor is the environment .This means the aspect of the environment be it political, social, economic or legal, based on an emergent approach to change may not be successful .This reflects Dunphy and Stace’s (1993) disagreement with the emergent approach and they argue for a situational or contingent approach with regards to the environment and a fit with organisational objectives (Dunphy and Stace 1993).

2.3.3 Contingency approach to managing and implementing change

Burns and Stalker (1961) established a contingent relationship between an organization and its environment and the need to adapt to that environment. Perhaps more importantly, they also showed that there was more than ‘one best way’ to do this. In contrast to both the planned and the emergent approaches to change management, the basic tenet of the contingency approach to change management is that there is no ‘one best way’ to change. Also, the contingency approach has been taken by Dunphy and Stace (1993) who proposed a model of organizational change strategies and developed methods to place an organization within that model. Dunphy and Stace (1993) maintain that their model reconciles the opposing views of the planned and emergent theoretical protagonists.

2.3.3.1 Critical analysis of the contingency approach to managing and implementing change

British theorists acknowledge that contingency theory has contributed significantly to organizational design theory but they do not acknowledge that it has had the same impact on change management theory (Bate 1994). Furthermore, Pettigrew, Woodman and Cameron (2001) have identified reasons for the relative lack of dominance given to contingency approaches. They argue about the problem of ‘fitting’ for an organisation change program and the need to compare the ‘off-the-shelf’ neatness and simplicity which means the managers decision as to which avenue to pursue for the changing situation.

2.3.4 Resistance

Another problem is the handling of resistance when the technological change is being implemented in the organisation. The reason behind resistance is that it gives a feeling of uncertainty, not knowing where to go, what to expect, what the future will look like, how the future can be reached, and how employees may feel after the change process. (Standtlander 2006; CIPD 2011).

However, there have been measures on resistance handling. Kotter and Schlesinger (1979) developed six ways of handling the resistance to change in general which are: education and communication, participation and Involvement, facilitation and support, negotiation and agreement, manipulation and co-option, explicit and implicit coercion but the underlying premise in this approach does not suggest clearly when or how the six approaches can be used. It has not stated the condition that each of the approaches could be used effectively in, that is, to say whether the organisation is ready to put any into practice at the given time. If the wrong approach is used at a particular time, then there could be a failure in the process of change. An example can be in a situation that requires participation and involvement. The change agent or manager can be at risk of using explicit and implicit coercion which can lead to experienced staff leaving the organisation. This research which is conducted in XYZ plc is to examine how XYZ plc management has been able to handle resistance when it had occurred.

2.4 Employee involvement

Lawler (1994) defines employee involvement as equivalent to participation and distinguishes four elements which are power, information, knowledge and rewards. Other writers such as Glew et al (1995), Cotton et al (1988), Black and Gregersen (1997) have included influence sharing, participative decision making, and the degree of employee involvement, empowerment, participation, and consultation.

However, if the change programme or process is challenging to the interest of the employees, this can make them cynical to the change. Clark et al (1996) stated that the level of organisational change cynicism is higher when individuals’ self-interest is threatened and is lower when there is no threat to self-interest, which means the reaction to change, can either be negative or positive in relation to the involvement. This statement may not be applicable in all situations because other factors such as level of employees can be affected if the involvement procedures are not stated in detail. Also, the level of the employees in the organisation has its effect on involvement in the change process. O’Brien et al (2004) has suggested that the status of the employees affected by change is important. They argued that organisations have difficulty getting low-level employees to identify with the organization and exert effort on behalf of it. This, they said, has rational foundations. Since low-level employees are less likely to share in any material dividends, they sense that key decisions are not under their control and, as a result, they are suspicious of the top management and its motives. Since call centres in the UK have been argued by Kinnie, Hutchinson and Purcell (2000) to be a high controlled working environment, this research shall examine if XYZ plc was a highly controlled environment that involved employees and considered their self interest.

2.5 Employee Perceptions and attitudes

Vakola and Nikolaou (2005) defined attitudes as regularities of an individual’s feelings, thoughts and predispositions to act toward some aspect of his environment. Also, Arnold et al. (1995) indicated that "attitudes reflect a person’s tendency to feel, think or behave in a positive or negative manner towards the object of the attitude". Many other authors have identified various employees’ responses to an organisational change ranging from strong positive attitudes to strong negative attitudes (Piderit 2000)

However, there have been issues with how people feel with respect to the change process. Bordia et al (2011) concludes that change management researchers have largely ignored the effects of organisational change management history in shaping employee attitudes and behaviour. In effect, a lack in this aspect of research signifies that only the top-down approach is mostly used in the implementation of change in organisations but the problem with Bordia et al (2001) conclusion is there are no full considerations of the type of organisation, the style of leadership or what kind of approach can be effectively used in the particular situation. Hence, their approach cannot be applicable in all situations.

In addition, Elrod and Tippett (2002) have concluded that many studies suggest that organisational change is very stressful for employees in the organisation. Similarly, Grant (1996) argues that emotions and responses to change can be so intensive that the literature in organizational change has compared them with individual responses to traumatic changes such as death and grief. More specifically, Kubler-Ross (1996) noted that there are many emotional states that a person can experience during change processes, which are equilibrium, denial, anger, bargaining, chaos, depression, resignation, openness, readiness and re-emergence (Perlman and Takacs, 1990).

However, the drawback of these views is that they have not given clear solutions on how positive or negative attitudes can be dealt with. It does not associate clearly whether it’s a form of resistance to the organisation as whole nor does it specify the level of change whether it’s on a large or small scale. This research shall examine in the context of XYZ plc whether the management has ignored the feelings of employees with regards to the technological change that has been implemented; if they have ignored the feelings of the employees, this could be the contributory factor a low morale within the working environment.

2.6 The success of organisational change

Every change initiative has an aim to be successful but the problem is that there is a tendency that it can fail in the long term. Burnes (1996) has argued that there have been failed change programmes. In contrast, Kotter (1996) has given steps in the emergent approach on how successful a change initiative can be. Despite the steps Kotter (1996) has formulated, there are still reasons why change in organisations fails. In the aspect of technological change, the first problem is the synthesizing of aims and objectives of the technological change. Feld and Stoddard (2004) have argued that it is subject to management’s approach towards the measures taken to implement the technological change. However, Feld and Stoddards (2004) argument does not really apply because the reasons why they are successful in these respects are not clear. Furthermore, the departments responsible for change may not be in alliance with the corporate objectives of the organisation. In support, Wallington (2000) has defended the fact that achieving the balance of the discrepancy is a challenge because the top management can be in conflict with the IT or operations department on issues that have to deal with the implementation of the technological change. Also, Overby (2001) has argued that getting both the corporate and IT teams on board and working together is an issue that arises in initiating technological change. However, it may depend on the size of organisations, the style of the leadership within the organisation and the corporate strategy that the organisation has adopted with regards to the technological change in the long and short term. This Research within XYZ plc shall examine whether the technological change in this respect has been successful or not.

2.7 Research questions arising from the research.

Based on the literature review and the aspects that have been discussed in the preceding sections, there has arisen some questions that need to be answered as the research proceeds. The questions are:

1. What was the rationale for the technological change in XYZ plc call centre?

2. How did management implement the technological change in XYZ plc call centre?

3. How involved were the employees in the process of the technological change in XYZ plc call centre?

4. How successful has the technological change been in XYZ plc call centre?

5. What impact has the technological change had on the perception and attitudes of employees in XYZ plc call centre?

6. How did the organisation handle any form of resistance in XYZ plc call centre?

CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

Introduction to research methods

This chapter aims to discuss and justify the research methodology used in the research. Secondly, it states the sample size and the method used. Thirdly, it talks about the exploring procedures used in the study. Then, it discusses the use of secondary research with relevance to the study and finally, how the relevant data was analysed alongside the limitations of the research.

Qualitative Research

Qualitative research has been defined in a variety of ways. In one definition, Strauss and Corbin (1998) identified qualitative research as:

Any type of research that produces findings not arrived at by statistical procedures or other means of quantification. It [qualitative research] has referred to research about persons’ lives, lived experiences, behaviours, emotions, and feelings as well as about organizational functioning, social movements, and cultural phenomena.

These authors have elaborated that qualitative research is best used when the methods are: (a) congruent with the nature of the research problem, and (b) employed to explore areas about which little is known. In addition, Miles and Huberman (1994) expressed an expanded position and indicated that qualitative research is conducted to: (a) gain a new perspective or a new way of viewing something, and (b) expand the scope of an existing study. Based on this collection of reasons, qualitative methods were appropriate for this study in the assessment of the technological change in the call centres in XYZ plc because it was going to focus on employee attitudes and their feelings with regards to the technological change in the organisation.

In contrast, quantitative research methodology could not be used by the researcher for this research because it could not practically assess the feelings of employees in the XYZ plc with the use of questionnaires and also there was a great risk of time consumption because the likelihood of slow responses from participates was inevitable. The size of the organisation (XYZ plc) chosen for the research was not fit for a quantitative research; the number of employees that were working in a given time was short of the quota for a quantitative research (Saunders 2008).

3.2 Sampling Population of XYZ plc

XYZ plc call centre is a busy call centre which is operational for 24 hours. In total, they had about 100 members of staff that were in full and part time employment. Three managerial employees and about twenty one call centre operatives were at work in a normal day shift and at night the employees’ numbers could be considerably low as well as the managerial employees.

3.2.1 Sampling Procedure

The purposive sampling method was chosen by the researcher. Purposive or theoretical sampling has been used in qualitative research to focus on the perspectives of those who are known to experience the phenomenon of interest which in this case is the change in the booking system in XYZ plc. An in depth exploration of an individual’s experience is the goal (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). This was done because most of the employees in the call centre had been working in the call centre for a period of about one year which meant that they were new employees. It was agreed by the researcher and management(Appendix 2) that few employees that would be selected for semi- structured interviews based on experience in terms of the knowledge of the systems (old and new), longevity terms of working in XYZ plc for about 3-5 years and performance in terms of how well the employees have been able to perform on the system. Finally, the researcher decided that these employees should have deep understanding of the culture and the corporate strategy of the organisation because it was going to help gather information with regards to the technological change (booking system).

As a result of this agreement, the participants targeted for this research were 7 employees within the organisation. However, out of the 7 chosen only 5 responded to the participation. These 5 participants involved 3 middle level and 2 lower level staff in XYZ plc. It was intended by the researcher to get more employees but the response from the lower level staff was not encouraging as some of them declined from participating in the research. They were divided in two groups respectively; the middle level employees were Managerial Participant (MP) while the employees were called Employee Participants (EP). The researcher decided to choose these two levels of employees because there was a need to investigate how both sides felt about the implementation of the technological change and to see whether there was a guiding coalition and there was conflict in the process.

3.3 Data collection using Semi-structured Interviews

Semi-structured face –to-face interviews were conducted in order to gain prior understanding of the in-depth experiences of the selected employees with regards to how the technological change had been implemented in XYZ plc call centre because Bryman and Bell (2007) have suggested that semi-structured interview designs be used to provide opportunity for in-depth investigation of subject matter and to create systematic framework for properly channelled discussion.

A total of 10 standard questions (Appendix 1) of which were open ended interview questions were used as a means to study complex experiences such that respondents were able to qualify and explain their answers during the interview sessions (Jonker and Pennink 2010). The use of Open-ended interview questions was in agreement with Alston and Bowles (2003). They argued that open ended questions suggest conducting effective interviews which are unrestrictive and allow for flexibility such as giving the opportunity for respondents to express ambivalent or contradictory feelings. These questions had other linked closed question to further aid participants in giving more information about the technological change. The interview was approximately 30minutes or more (Saunders 2003; Creswell 1996). After the interviews, the information recorded was transcribed to help the researcher analyse data.

3.3.1 The Piloting Strategy and Transcription

The interview was piloted to test the digital recording device used and the quality of the sound of the participants. The piloting of the interview questions was not implemented directly on participants but on people who were not part of the research such as fellow colleagues who were doing research in other areas of management. Piloting and testing on other participants was not ideal but the reason for not implementing the piloting on participants was because of the constraints of the business and the time of the research. Also, the participants were very strict on the time allocated for them to have a semi-structured interview which also did not give me a chance to pilot them.

However, on piloting of colleagues, this helped the researcher to find flaws with the recording device, how to use this device and how to ask questions effectively to get the desired information for the research and the location for interviews. Also, the researcher discovered that the recording device could record at any location because the researcher could hear the recordings even in a noisy environment. This reflected the Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2009) keys to successful interviews which involved careful preparation by determining the level of knowledge, level of information supplied to the participant and the appropriateness of location. Secondly, it reflected testing the approach of the questions posed by the researcher to the participants (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill 2009), which involved testing the nature of the opening comments to be made as the interview commenced.

3.4 Data analysis

The type of analysis that was used on the data collected from the interviews was the thematic analysis (Riessman 2002). It was done in sectional aspects and showed the important aspects of questions that were posed to the participants which linked the objectives and the research questions of the research. The rationale for the use of the thematic analysis was to display the personal experiences of employees as a result of the implementation of the technological change and the assessment of morale on the employees which were both at the middle and lower level management.

3.4.1 Data Reduction

Data reduction involved the process of selecting, simplifying, and extracting themes and patterns from transcribed notes. This was done to help the researcher read and re-read interview transcripts while searching for similarities and differences in themes. Code names were assigned to the Managerial Participants (MP) and Employees Participants (EP).

3.5 Ethical Considerations, Accessibility and Timescale.

Gaining access to XYZ plc involved obtaining permission because the management wanted to know if the research was harmful to participants especially in relation to data protection of the participants. The organisation was very cautious in the use of their name in the research because they were an organisation that dealt with sensitive information regarding staff. This reflected Creswell (1998) argument that gaining access to organisations have some requirements and regardless of the inquiry, permissions needed to be sought from the boards of management. With regards to permissions and accessibility, an access letter was written to the organisation(Appendix 2) to gain access which showed the intended interviewees, why the interviews had to be conducted, how many employees the researcher was going to interview and the draft of the research was given to show what the researcher had in mind to accomplish.

Ethical issues were considered when undertaking this research, both during interactions and interview with individuals and analysis of data. This was very important because the dignity and privacy of the employees had to be protected. This was in line with the ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) (2005). As a result, the organisation and participants involved that became the subject of this research were notified of the aims, methods and anticipated benefits and potential hazards of the research. Secondly, the right of the participant from participating in the research and the right to terminate at any time his/her participation was explained by giving a consent form (Appendix 3). Thirdly, there was no pressure or inducement of any kind applied to encourage individuals or the company to become a subject of research; the identities of participants were kept confidential(Appendix 3). At the close of the research, any information that revealed the identity of the individuals or organisation was destroyed. In addition, the researcher promised that the final report will not have any information revealing the identity of participants unless consented to in writing

A timescale of two weeks was given for the completion of the semi–structured interviews with an additional week for unforeseen events.

3.6 Research Validity

The researcher used the verification procedure which was the prolonged engagement and persistent observation because it involved building trust with participants, learning the culture and checking for misinformation that stemmed from the distortions by participants during the interviews and recordings. This was done by confirming the data the researcher had derived from the semi-structured interviews by further asking them personally what they really felt with regards to the technological change in XYZ plc. This reflects verification procedures that have been discussed by Creswell (1998) in the qualitative research. This procedure has given the research its validity because it was not just based on the researchers’ thoughts but this procedure went further to check biases.

3.7 Secondary research

Relevant information was obtained from journals which were used in Chapter 2. This was a reflection of Auerbach and Silversteins (2003) theory which implied that conducting a review of literature was important to locate aspects concerning the subject matter that were unclear and to identify key issues or concepts from previous perspectives. This was used as an aid to analyse data.

Limitations and implications for future research

There were a few methodological limitations in this study that should be mentioned. On the first instance, one call centre within a location was used because of the time constraint; there should have been more call centres that could have been compared because it would have been easier to make a generalisation on the assessment of technological change. Also, 7 respondents were sought which was in line with rules of qualitative research but only 5 out of the 7 agreed to the decision to participate in the research. This only involved lower and middle level staff in the organisation and not top management because of inaccessibility. There should have been more top management involvement to have their own view on the rationale for the technological change in XYZ plc and how it was managed and implemented.

Furthermore, the middle level participants were more than the lower level participants, this was not intended by the researcher but the response rates of intended employees signified more managerial participants giving consent to participation than the lower level employees. Some of the lower level employees gave their consent to participate but at a later point, declined to participate because of personal reasons and business constraints in the call centre.

The use of a single data sampling method was a major limitation because of the time constraints of the research which involved semi-structured interviews only but there could have been multiple qualitative methods. If there was time, these could have included interviews which will have been semi-structured and structured with more standard questions for various levels of employees; this would have made the research have more validity. Furthermore, there were transcription issues which made it difficult for the researcher to decode some sentences that the participants said as some did not tally with the recordings as this was very challenging but there should have been a better plan for transcription which would have involved the use of software for a better and more accurate transcription.

CHAPTER 4

PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS OF RESULTS.

Introduction

This chapter aims to present, analyse and synthesise the results obtained from interviews conducted. It has analysed the data gotten from interviews thematically and it has been sectionalised to be commensurate with the aims and objective of the study. The first section presents and analyses the reason why the management of XYZ plc initiated the technological change. The second section presents and analyses how they had implemented the booking system. The third section shall present and analyse how involved the employees were in the change process. The fourth section shall analyse the feelings of the participants as a whole. The final section shall present how successful the change has been.

In this research, there were five participants which were given code names. The first three participants have been given abbreviated code names which are: MP1, MP2, MP3 meaning managerial participants 1, 2 and 3 while EP1 and EP2 represent employee participants 1 and 2.

4.1 Reasons for technological change in XYZ plc.

The initial questions were centred on the reasons why management implemented the technological change in the call centre. As a result, majority of the participants had agreed that the reason why the booking system was implemented in the call centre was because of improvement of services to customers as one of the employee participants vastly said that:

"The system we had in place had a lot of flaws and there were things that were done to vastly improve it" (EP1).

The perspective on this aspect was not different from the managerial participants as majority said:

"The primary purpose of the booking system was to improve the service’’ (MP1, MP2, and MP3).

In relation to reasons for technological change in call centres, the reasons given by the participants have acknowledged Ackermans (1986) reasons for change which signifies improvement and development but what was questionable about the responses was how fit the technological change with XYZ plc corporate strategy because EP1 stated that:

"I don’t really know what the corporate strategy was but I believe they were just responding to instructions given or passed down to them from above".

Furthermore, it has not acknowledged the ever-changing needs of external and internal customers (Moran and Brightman 2001) which meant it was solely the decision of the top management to implement a booking system to enable a faster service as EP1 stated that:

"First of all, they (top management) had a blue print of what they wanted"

Implementation and Management of the booking system

Questions were asked about implementation and management of the booking system which resulted in majority of the respondents having similar perspectives in this area. The first perspective from the managerial participants was in terms of piloting the new system and training experienced operatives on the system. As a result, (MP1) stated:

"First of all, when they took out the new system, they started off with just one or two different accounts. It stayed that way for a long time just to see how it worked. This happened for a long time may be about 2 years’’ (MP1).

Similarly, the employee participants EP1 and EP2 admitted that there was some level of piloting as EP1 stated:

"So we have had a process of learning on the job and finding faults in the new system and trying to look for ways to improve the new system whilst using it’’ (EP1).

The analysis shows clearly that the planned approach of Lewin (1958) had been implemented in this aspect. However, the concept has not been implemented in its full capacity because it had solely focused on testing the new system by finding faults to create attitudes and skills that workers will learn as they progress with their task but this seemed to be unsuccessful as MP3 stated:

"Employees were allowed to have a play with the new system. It’s just that they were not able to mix things to see if there is anything that wasn’t quite right" (MP3).

Similarly, Wustern (2009) has argued that most organisations practice only one step of this concept. In addition, a systematic planned approach was not used to the full capacity in the management and implementation of the booking system because steps were not taken based on the responses received from employees as EP2 stated:

"I will have to be brutally honest here and say that as far as I am aware within the call centre, I am not aware any of us where involved in the development of a new booking system. I believe this is hearsay that some people were asked what the new system should have and they went away built it by themselves without involving anyone else (EP2)".

Furthermore, A major unclear aspect was on leadership because it seemed the organisation just wanted to implore a problem solving approach rather than a guiding approach because it was planned and there was enough time to follow through systematically which was not seen from the responses as EP1 stated:

"Initially the way it was introduced, a select few in the call centre were trained on how to use because there were mature enough agents there but it was not done in a co-operative manner. It was done, that’s it, use it. I will say it may have been properly planned in terms of the development but the deployment of none effect (EP1)."

Communication

Questions were asked about the communication strategy of the booking system towards employees. As a result, most of the participants admitted that the change was communicated by memorandums, emails and face to face communication from top management which talked about the system as MP3 stated:

"There were so many methods of communication like memos... there was a talk about it prior being in the call centre. It was also done on one to one interactions. The supervisors came down to the agents, memos and face to face communication. We had the management come up and talk to all staff; there were lots of meetings’’ (MP3,MP1, MP2,EP2).

On the other hand, only one of the employee participants had stated that:

"Top down communication was poor and abysmal (EP1)",

In general, the communication was a very good top down communication strategy of what the booking system was about. According to Kotter (1996) concept of implementation, he stated that there should be a communication of vision which means there should be a communication of where the change is heading and why it is heading towards that direction. Based on this concept, there was no such response because XYZ plc communicated that there was going to be a change in the booking system because they did not communicate the vision of the change be it long term or short term as EP1 stated:

"The way I perceive it, I will not necessarily blame the management in the call centre because I believe we were all thrown in at the deep end but I will blame the way it was delivered from the top management".

4.2.2 Resistance and how it was handled

In this section, two questions were asked which involved the form of resistance and how it was handled by the management of XYZ plc. Many of the respondents have attested to the fact that there was resistance to the booking system. As MP1 said:

"There was a lot of resistance from the old staff".

The employee participants had similar opinions as EP1 said:

"We still have 10-20% of people who still have very strong issues with the system till date".

Furthermore, the question was posed on how the resistance was handled. The results differed. MP1, MP2 and MP3 said:

"I will ask them what the problems were with the system and if there were suggestions with the system, we put it through to IT" (MP1,MP2 and MP3).

However, EP2’s response was different concerning resistance handling. EP2 said:

"To be honest, it was handled autocratically, we were told to get to the programme and essentially there was nothing you could do about it (EP2)".

Furthermore, the findings on how the resistance was handled were not positive from the employee perspective because one of the employee respondents stated (EP1):

"Pass on your suggestion to the management but up till now none of the suggestions has been implemented".

In contrast to the employee participant response, one of the Managerial respondents (MP1) in terms of the handling the resistance had said:

"But the way it was if you do not like it TOUGH! But not in those words but that’s what basically you had to say because this is the system you are using and that’s it" (MP1)

In relation to the theory by Kotter and Schlesinger (1979), there was resistance but how it was handled was not effective because a hard approach was used which was an Implicit coercion (Kotter and Schlesinger 1979) which was concluded by the employee participants. Based on the responses, there was no strategy as to how the management of XYZ ltd was going to deal with resistance and it shows that asking for problems and being put to the IT department was not the best way to handle resistance. This shows that there was resistance but it was not handled properly with regards to the technological change

Involvement

Questions were posed to participants on how involved they were in the implementation of the booking system As a result; the perspectives differed from each other. The Managerial participants’ responses were positive as MP3 said that:

"We were in a position that definitely it was a group effort and it all came down to the managers. We had to make a massive effort in terms of all the supervisors and all the most experienced staff, we all had to participate in training on the new system and not only training the new people but training ourselves(MP3)’’ .

MP2 Further stated that the involvement was through training of staff in the call centre as he states:

"It was the responsibility of the most experienced agents to carry out much of the training so we had a couple of the most experienced people who had been there the longest. Their responsibility was that they took on training responsibilities and to buddy with people who were newly trained on the system and they will carry out the training function and their job description remained the same and their position remained the same (MP2)".

On the other hand, the employee participants were negative as EP1and EP2 responded by saying that:

"I think they would have waited for the staff to make their suggestions before having a blueprint of what it should be and model it to what the staff have suggested it to be because it is the staff that use the system on a daily basis(EP1, EP2)".

However, there were associated problems because the employee participants complained that their suggestions were not taken on board as EP2 stated that:

"Initially, the older employees in the call centre were the guinea pigs for the new system and when the system was launched there were a couple of training sessions and even the trainers did not even understand how to use the new system".

In conclusion, the employee participant and managerial participants differed in their responses, that is, one being negative and the other positive. This has demonstrated the Clark et al’s (1996) theory that states that when the interest of employees is threatened, they would have negative responses which would be high as has been shown in the above responses.

Employee attitudes

Questions were asked in terms of the attitudes of the call centre operatives with regards to the implementation of the booking system. As a result of these questions, the managerial respondents affirmed that they were negative and positive but on the perspective of the employee participants, it was negative. MP1 stated that:

"Staff morale did go down a bit. There were frustrations with the system, because they were used to bookings done 30 to 60 seconds’’.

Furthermore, MP2 stated that:

"It was a bit of both, there was a lot of excitement due to the fact there were far more training sessions".

In contrast, the employee participant EP2 had stated that:

"I have been using the new system for a year, it has reduced my speed, confidence and at the same time it’s quite frustrating and this sums up the general attitude of most staff."

From the results above, it has proven that the attitudes to work and the employee confidence had dropped as EP1 stated:

" many employees decided they disliked the system and they felt it was going to make their jobs harder".

In as much as there were training sessions, it did not seem to satisfy the employees in the call centre. It is therefore the reflection of Bordia et al’s (2001) theory on the ignorance of employee feeling with regards to change because EP2 further stated that:

"I am a lot happier in the call centre on the old system than on the new system".

Success of organisational change

The final question was asked to the employees if the technological change in question had been successful. On this note, most of the participants from both sides accepted that the technological change was not successful. From the Managerial Participants, it was said that:

"It’s not just in its full potential, if it had, it would have been successful. At this moment, it’s not (MP3)".

On the other hand, EP1 also admits that it has not been successful as he stated that:

"So how the system was deployed, developed and implemented was not good and going forward as an organisation the Employees wanted feedback. They needed to think before they made decisions" (EP1).

From the analysis above, there is a shared perspective on the failure of the booking system in the organisation which meant that it was a change that has not met its objective effectively. On the other hand, due to the time constraints of this research, it is evident that most management change initiatives in organisations fail as Burnes (1996, 2004) has concluded.

CHAPTER 5

DISCUSSION

Introduction

This chapter aims to critically analyse and discuss findings obtained from qualitative research employed within primary research conducted and established literature obtained from secondary research. It shall begin with critical analysis and review of findings based on relevant literature. Then, implications of the research findings plus suggested improvements to the research design including additional questions raised and recommendations for further research.

Critical analysis of findings based on the relevant literature.

Reasons for change

The first aspect of the findings has been based on the reasons behind the change in the booking system of XYZ plc. It has been found that most of the participants that have participated in the research have acknowledged that the reason behind the technological change was to improve the services of the organisation to enhance effectiveness. Based on these responses, it acknowledged Ackerman’s (1986) definition of change as developmental which meant improvement of services as the findings have implied.

However, the reasons for the technological change were tilted to internal circumstances which were in terms of improvement but not in any form external circumstances. Based on these findings, it does not acknowledge Moran and Brightman’s (2001) reason for organisational change which was linked to external factors.

Implementation and Management

The second aspect of the findings from this research deals with implementation and management, In this area there was training and piloting on the new booking system. In relation to the findings from the research, the organisation had actually followed a planned approach which reflected Lewin (1958) work but it was only done in the 2nd step which was the change in attitudes that reflected piloting and training on the new system.

However, the findings have justified Wustern (2009) argument that most organisations have only used the 2nd step and have not bothered much about the other steps in the implementation process which meant that XYZ plc just wanted to implement the system as soon as possible.

Furthermore, the leadership was not clear as to who was taking charge of the change transition from the old to the new system which means there was an absence of a change agent who could oversee the process from time to time and give a report to the top management. This suggests there was no identification of who was leading the technological change which has not acknowledged Lueckes (2003) theory that gives a step of identifying leadership in the process. In addition, it seemed it was a technological change that was thought of by the top management and communicated to middle level mangers to implement so the system could be effective. In the underpinning of literature, this does not acknowledge Beckhard and Harris (1998) theory on the use of transitional change which has shown that the change was planned based on the fact that it was piloted for a long time but was immediately implemented.

Regarding involvement, the organisation had involved the experienced employees which is a good strategy to help train or coach other struggling or non-performing employees with regards to the new system.The action they had taken has acknowledged the following authors which are Glew et al (1995), Cotton et al (1988), Black and Gregersen (1997) whom had definition of employee involvement as participation and consultation. XYZ plc in question had consulted employees by allowing them to use the booking system to find out if there were faults with the system.The positive respondents were of the managerial level but from the employee perspective it was negative which reflects the threat of the employee interest as in the theory of Clark et al (1996) which states that the level of organisational change cynicism is higher when individuals’ self-interest is threatened and in this case it was threatened. So, there has been a clash of perspectives which is a representation of the fact that the organisation did not form an effective guiding coalition (Kotter 1996).

In addition, the organisation had not clearly mobilised energy and commitment through joint identification of business issues and their solutions (Lueckes 2003). This meant that employees were not fully involved in the decision making as one of the employee participants said that most of the suggestions that were made about the new booking system were not implemented when the new system was launched. This implies that they were involved but it was not effective in making the decision as to how the system will be. The theory of change management (Leuckes 2003) in this area has again not been acknowledged and put into full use.

With regards to communication of the booking system to the call centre operatives, there was some form of communication about what was going to happen in XYZ plc of which other participants had clarified, but in essence the technological change in the call centre did not have a vision of what it was going to accomplish in the long term especially when it was a major change initiative. In relation to Kotter (1996), one of the basic steps was to communicate the vision of the change to employees. He further explains that communicating the vision means communicating what the change is achieving in the short term and not just given speeches on how it shall be implemented. Based on the findings, communication was not effective enough because the organisation had not communicated clearly what the vision of the change was. It was just talk about the problems of the older system and the arrival of the new system had but the vision of the technological change was lacking.

In terms of resistance, based on the responses received from the research, the resistance was high which was normal in every change management initiative because CIPD (2011) has argued that many employees are afraid of change because they fear losing control of the known status quo as they enter into an unknown territory and an unpredictable future. These findings still imply that the resistance was handled with only the aspect of Kotter and Schlesinger (1979) which involves the high use of Implicit and Explicit coercion. This involved letting employees know that they just had no choice but to accept the booking system and there was nothing they could do. On the other hand, there was nothing much in the aspect of negotiation and agreement which is one of Kotter’s (1979) key steps in handling resistance in this situation.

Morale and attitudes

In the aspect of attitudes there was a lot of frustration in the new system which had greatly reduced the morale in the organisation. This is a reflection of the conclusion by Bordia et al (2011) that change management researchers have largely ignored the effects of organisational change management history in shaping employee attitudes and behaviour. In effect, absence of this aspect of research signifies that only the top-down approach (leadership) is mostly used in the implementation of change. This has been demonstrated in XYZ plc as the employee had negative feelings about the technological change which has been ignored by XYZ plc and nothing has been done about it.

Success of technological change

The last aspect deals with the aspect of the success of the change in the booking system, most respondents had admitted that it was successful. This implies that most change management initiatives fail in organisations. This is a reflection of Burnes (2004) argument which signifies a failure rate of about 70% of change programmes initiatives in the past by which he has suggested that this poor success rate indicates a fundamental lack of a valid framework in the implementation of the change in organisations. In addition, there was no assessment in XYZ plc of what should be done next. Lueckes (2003) has argued that there should be an assessment of the problems and what should be done next. Procedures for technological change in the call centre do not acknowledge this theory by Lueckes (2003).

5.2 Research Implications

The results from the research implied that the use of frameworks in all the aspects of technological change within the organisation had not been put to full use or has been fully ignored. There are possible reasons why this has occurred in XYZ plc.

The first reason can be considered to be the leadership style that the organisation has adopted and the structure of the organisation. As one of the respondents had suggested that the resistance was handled autocratically which means the leadership style was autocratic and had affected the way the resistance was handled. The second reason is the organisation structural communication. The organisation is structured in such a way that the top dow