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E-social work : a preliminary examination of social services contact centres
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Coleman, Nigel (2011) E-social work : a preliminary examination of social services contact centres. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
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Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b2584699~S1
Abstract
The use of technology has been a feature of public sector managerialism since its introduction
by the Conservative government in the 1990s. Subsequently, New Labour's modernisation
agenda embraced and promoted the use of information and communication technology (ICT)
through its drive towards 'electronic government' ('e-government'). The target set for all
services to be 'e-accessible' by 2005 put pressure on local authorities for their services to be
'open all hours' and encouraged them to utilise call centre technology to achieve this. As a
result, 'contact centres' (as they were re-designated) are now in use by local authorities to
deliver a diverse range of services including social services.
Call centres emerged as one of the most widely adopted organisational forms in the private
sector in the last two decades of the twentieth century, and have been utilised in a number of
ways, primarily in the communications and service industries. The working conditions in call
centres gained a reputation for being harsh and exploitative of employees in the pursuit of
efficiency and economy and the labour process in them has attracted a considerable amount
of academic interest and research. The principal approach underpinning this research has
been Braverman's (1974) labour process perspective. The use of call centre environments and
technology for social services was pioneered by Liverpool City Council in 2001 in
partnership with British Telecom. The introduction of contact centres in this context
epitomised 'new public management'. The use of contact centres to deliver social services is
now widespread and the thesis presents an in-depth case study of one such contact centre,
'Northshire Care Direct' (NCD) in the North East of England. It identifies how social work
practice has been affected by an organisational form, which, until recently, had not been
utilised in this context. In addition to its being used to underpin call centre research,
Braverman's (1974) labour process perspective has also been used to analyse the social work
labour process and, in this sense, was apposite as a means of shedding light on a setting that
conjoined social work and call centre technology. The thesis therefore uses Braverman's
labour process perspective as an overarching conceptual framework to shed light on the
labour process at NCD and how it impacted on social workers from professional and personal
perspectives. The findings challenge the dominant view of call centre environments, which
represents them as highly controlled and inherently stressful settings that inevitably damage
employees' well-being. The thesis argues that contact centre social work represents a new
(and, thus far, neglected) development that further extends the incursion of ICT into the
organisation and management of social work practice. The emergence of the twin phenomena
of 'e-social work' and 'e-management' is identified. The thesis argues that the contact centre
context takes the role of ICT in social work further than before. In acknowledging that it is a
snapshot of only one such centre, and that different practices may exist elsewhere, it argues
that the findings can only be indicative of the direction of travel. It concludes that the social
work profession needs to engage with further developments in order to mitigate potentially
negative effects for service users.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
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Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare | ||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Call centers -- Great Britain, Social service -- Great Britain -- Technological innovations, Call centers -- Case studies | ||||
Official Date: | December 2011 | ||||
Dates: |
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Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Theses Department: | School of Health and Social Studies | ||||
Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Harris, John, 1952- | ||||
Sponsors: | New College Durham | ||||
Extent: | xii, 301 leaves : illustrations | ||||
Language: | eng |
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