Christian Kerst – författare

This title was first published in 2002. Call centres are a type of service work that stand at the interface between corporations and consumers. They exemplify more general tendencies present within service work. They also have a particular public image - being associated in the public mind with low skilled and regimented work. This volume presents contributions from British and German management academics and industrial sociologists based on primary research on call centres in both countries. The contributions cover the genesis and development of call centres as a new form of organization, or indeed a new industry; the rationalization and control strategies of organizations that establish call centres; and the nature of service work and service interactions. The findings of this volume challenge the common public image of call centres and finds that call centre employment is in fact very diverse. So, for example, skilled advising and consulting services are often performed over the phone. Along with the sometimes skilled nature of call centre work, work organization and working conditions vary as well. The text also seeks to contrast the British and German experience of call centre work and employment. In Germany clerical work has traditionally been embedded in the specific traditions of co-operative industrial relations that define the German model. Call centres present a strategic challenge to this model, and the expansion of call centres has been at the forefront of changes aimed at making employment more flexible in Germany. This work offers a choice of country cases, which permit a comparison of service employment within both a liberal capitalist and a socially embedded economy.

This title was first published in 2002. Call centres are a type of service work that stand at the interface between corporations and consumers. They exemplify more general tendencies present within service work. They also have a particular public image - being associated in the public mind with low skilled and regimented work. This volume presents contributions from British and German management academics and industrial sociologists based on primary research on call centres in both countries. The contributions cover the genesis and development of call centres as a new form of organization, or indeed a new industry; the rationalization and control strategies of organizations that establish call centres; and the nature of service work and service interactions. The findings of this volume challenge the common public image of call centres and finds that call centre employment is in fact very diverse. So, for example, skilled advising and consulting services are often performed over the phone. Along with the sometimes skilled nature of call centre work, work organization and working conditions vary as well. The text also seeks to contrast the British and German experience of call centre work and employment. In Germany clerical work has traditionally been embedded in the specific traditions of co-operative industrial relations that define the German model. Call centres present a strategic challenge to this model, and the expansion of call centres has been at the forefront of changes aimed at making employment more flexible in Germany. This work offers a choice of country cases, which permit a comparison of service employment within both a liberal capitalist and a socially embedded economy.

Der Begriff "Kreativität" wird in der Regel unmittelbar mit dem künstlerischen und literarischen Schaffen assoziiert. Darüber hinaus jedoch ist Kreativität in allen Bereichen am Werk, in denen experimentiert, Neues gewagt oder, ganz allgemein, in denen Lösungen für Probleme gefunden werden. Probleme ergeben sich zumeist von selbst; Lösungen hingegen wollen erarbeitet sein. Weder die Gestaltung sozialer und wirtschaftlicher Beziehungen, weder technische und wissenschaftliche Erfindungen noch ihre Umsetzung in neue Produkte wären ohne die Aktivierung von Kreativität denkbar. Nicht zuletzt lebt auch die Restrukturierung von Unternehmen davon, kreative Potentiale freizusetzen und zu stimulieren.

Der Band berichtet über empirische Forschungsergebnisse aus einer Längsschnittuntersuchung zu den Studienvoraussetzungen, zum Studienverlauf und Studienerfolg von beruflich Qualifizierten. Im Zentrum stehen solche Personen, die nicht über eine schulisch erworbene Studienberechtigung in die Hochschule gekommen sind.