Socio Part of the Socio-Technical

¶ … socio" part of the socio-technical system causes the Telebank Call Center to be something other than a perfectly smoothly functioning machine.

The Telebank Call Center is the perfect example of a socio-technical system, where the components of such a system and the relations between these components, both technical and social, interact to produce results for the end-system. The organization was created with the objective of ensuring a call center to provide the necessary services for the clients of a large bank. As such, several of the characteristics of this socio-technical system took on characteristics of the bank it was representing. At the same time, some of the components of the system, as this paper will show below, reflect the particularities of the activity of the call center.

Starting with the organization structure that will help place each of the social components in the system, the case study identifies the organizational structure as being flat, but it has several important elements that point towards a divisional structure, if one considers the call center as being a division in itself within the bank. There are three different levels within the call center division. These are the 600 CSRs who are responsible with taking and handling the calls, the team leaders (each coordinating a team of CSRs) and the call center manager, who can also be identified as the division manager in this description.

The specifics of the call center's activity means that it is not difficult to identify the components of the technical system. In terms of hardware, one can take into consideration as components of the technical system everything from computers (including those that are used in routing the phone calls and those used by employees to enter data after their calls) to the phones themselves. All available software (routing software, software for entering data, software for supervision and control) are also part of the technological system.

The type of organizational structure makes it easier to identify both the type of control that management has over the system and the way this control is implemented, and analyze the components of the social system. Let's start by analyzing the latter first of all. The physical surroundings of this social system is the building in which the call center is located and operates. The building has some interesting characteristics and is shown as a large new building, locates in excellent surroundings and benefiting from both interior and exterior design work. Located in a growing industrial area at the edge of the city, it is a three-storey high building, with a central stairway that is used to separate two working spaces on each of the levels.

The details of interior design are very important, as these have an impact on how the social system operates and is managed. As such, both because of the complaints from the workers and to encourage and foster an environment of cooperation and dialogue, each floor plan is open. At the same time, each of the 12 teams that form the social system are allowed to control the environment around them in terms of decorations and colors used. This is also interesting because it (1) develops and fosters team spirit (teams choose colors and specifics such as favorite football teams to decorate their work environment) and (2) allows management to exercise an indirect control that is not perceived as negative by employees (assuming that such an internal organization also makes supervision and control more efficient).

Second on the list of the component of the social system are the people forming it. This has been previously mentioned briefly when referring to the organizational structure. There are three different categories of individuals working in this social system, as per their role in the system. The most significant volume of individuals work as CSRs: about 600 of them are charged with handling the calls that come through the call center during the day. At the same time, they are grouped into 50 teams, each with 12 members. All these teams are led by a team leader and the overall structure is supervised and coordinated by a call center manager.

Both the team leader and the call center manager seem to have a dual responsibility: first, they ensure that the instructions from the upper management and the directions of activity are clearly communicated to the employees at the call center, thus ensuring the coordination with the rest of the organization. Second, they supervise and control, ensuring that the respective instructions are properly respected by the employees at the call center.

Procedures make up for another important component of the social system at the call center. The procedures are part of every activity to which the call center relates. For example, the recruitment process is regulated by a set of procedures, making up the necessary filter that ensure that only the best seven out of one hundred applicants are hired in the end. The procedures in the recruitment process include the application pack, the application form, the telephone interview, role playing and a formal interview.

Training involves a separate set of procedures that focus on ensuring that communication aspects are improved for the employees. This includes the assimilation of the core standards of behavior, communication skills and ways in which to use the technology available in the workplace. Finally, additional procedures are incorporated in the work process itself. One example here is the way that the timeframe of a call is divided into three approximate periods of time to describe the discussion itself, post-call activities (namely entering the information in the technical system) and lag time after the previous two activities and before a new call. While this is not necessarily a fixed procedure, it has been tacitly understood and implemented, especially since these timeframes are controlled electronically and monitored by management.

This last paragraph introduces the idea of control over the call center socio-technical system, since it was a good example of how management also tacitly implemented some of the control leverages. First of all, technical control is used by management and the previous paragraph has shown how this is done to monitor and evaluate the work that an individual has performed. Control is enforced also through call distribution systems, which direct calls to the CSRs that can take these.