From the Publisher
“Woydack provides an illuminating insider look into call centers and how call agents operate interactionally and textually, within the organization itself and with clients on the end of the phone line. The importance of the standardized script, which is frustratingly familiar to most people, is investigated in terms of top-down accountability, training, and monitoring alongside bottom-up resistance and agency on the part of call center agents. A fascinating ethnographic study of a multilingual globalized workplace.” (Colleen Cotter, Queen Mary University of London, UK)
“This innovative study of a multilingual centre draws on unprecedented ethnographic access. Four years of participant observation provide Woydack with an insider understanding that enables her to challenge established critiques of standardization. Detailed analysis shows the agency of staff as they negotiate the demands of the script, their own communicative repertoires, and immediate interactional realities.Her research provides a fascinating glimpse into a little-understood setting, and a nuanced understanding of the contemporary workplace.” (Karin Tusting, Lancaster University, UK)
“By placing script trajectories in the centre of this linguistic ethnography, Woydack constructs an insightful and engaging account of language practices in a globally operating call center. Her study weaves together recontextualization analysis and elements of workplace studies in a highly innovative way.” (Jannis Androutsopoulos, University of Hamburg, Germany)
“This book provides a fresh and insightful exploration into how call centre agents develop and use language at work. The researcher was able to do this because of her unique position within this workplace: she being one of the agents herself. This allowed her to provide a deep ethnographic account of how agents are recruited, trained and managed in this call centre, where many previous studies have relied on less knowledge and understanding of the actual and nuanced work situation.” (Jane Lockwood, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University)
