Working with Emotions: Cultural Employee Perspectives to Call Centre Service Expectations

Babatunde, Akanji and Mordi, Chima and Ajonbadi, Hakeem Ajonadi and Oruh, Emeka Smart (2021) Working with Emotions: Cultural Employee Perspectives to Call Centre Service Expectations. Employee Relations. ISSN 0142-5455

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Abstract

Purpose – Drawing on the emotional labour theory, the purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of cultural orientation on emotion regulation and display processes for service employees.
Design/methodology/approach – Based on a Nigerian study where literature is scarce, data were gathered from semi-structured interviews conducted with 40 call centre service agents.
Findings – The findings identified three key values around reinforcing social cohesion, anticipated self-curtailment, hierarchy and expressions of servility based on broader societal needs to promote relational harmony when managing customer relations during inbound calls into the call centre.
Research limitations/implications – The extent to which the findings can be generalised is constrained by the limited and selected sample size. However, the study makes contributions to the service work theory by
identifying the extent to which communication of emotions is informed in large parts by local culture and seeks to incite scholarly awareness on the differences of emotional display rules from a developing country other than
western contexts.
Originality/value – This paper is among the first to focus on the interface between culture and emotional labour from a Sub-Saharan African context.

Keywords: Service employees, Emotion and culture, Nigeria and call centres

Item Type:	Article
Identification Number:	10.1108/ER-11-2020-0489
Dates:	Date Event 25 March 2021 Accepted 29 April 2021 Published Online
Uncontrolled Keywords:	service employees, emotion and culture, Nigeria, call centres
Subjects:	CAH17 - business and management > CAH17-01 - business and management > CAH17-01-05 - human resource management
Divisions:	Faculty of Business, Law and Social Sciences > College of Accountancy, Finance and Economics Faculty of Business, Law and Social Sciences > College of Business, Digital Transformation & Entrepreneurship
Depositing User:	Hakeem Ajonbadi
Date Deposited:	08 Jul 2021 15:14
Last Modified:	20 Jun 2024 12:05
URI:	https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/11892

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