This report will be discussing and analysing critical perspectives on management and leadership, referring to how businesses are ran by managers, their strategies and behaviour used in the work place including towards staff.
Both managers and leaders are trained to a level where they are able to manage or lead others for businesses, being able to work with customers, shareholders and clients internationally. A critical approach to evaluating existing theory can help to get beneath the surface and discover what is really going on.It can also be the starting point of sustainable improvement in the practice of management and leadership. Critical theory has been around for some time and people tend to use it in the way of leading, theses methods were being used in working environments before critical management studies came around. The context of critical management studies looks at enlightenment, modernism and postmodernism; enlightenment consists of looking at a situation from the outside as a whole.Modernism looks at the modern character or practise of things happening today and postmodernism is situations referred in the modernism way yet looked at through science and knowledge.
Critical management studies also look into situations at the work place like subordination, oppression, exploitation, discrimination and intimidation; all theses things tend to happen on a regular basis but never get to be addressed or handled. In this report I will be referring to 4 main key theorists that have expressed their general opinion on how things should be dealt with and handled.Through theses opinion laws have been made within countries to support individuals that have support through their human rights. By the end of the report it will explain how knowledge is used as an instrument of power within businesses, how language is portrayed when either stated out loud or through body whether it ending up being a constructive way or destructive way. Throughout the report I will be identifying how employees at call centres put up with bullying and disrespect and will refer to four main key theorists and they are: Max Weber, Freud, Karl Marx and Habermas.
Each of them has their own beliefs on how things are looked at nowadays and through this people have been able to fight for what they believe in and be able to feel safe in their working environment without feeling alarmed in their surroundings. Call centres in India Businesses are establishing fast around the world and there are always questions and faults that need to be discussed and brought to attention. A lot of theses businesses are based in the UK and USA where it is constantly on going.The down side of it all is that the employees that work there tend to have a social life outside of work so working hours are usually between 9:00am-5:00pm and as only so many people have the knowledge or have been trained to do so much at the work place, customer complaints are important to them but the business wishes to pass them on to other people that can be most helpful and answer he questions. Businesses have now hired employees around India so that theses calls can be diverted to them.
The workers are trained to be able to speak English clearly and be able to pronounce certain words, getting customers being from different continents they would have to be able to ask and give information that all is able to understand. For businesses around the world it is a lot cheaper to do this as training and equipment doesn’t cost as much as if they were to do it in there own countries, employees based in India must meet all terms and conditions within the business or they will be ‘let go! Call centres in India have a lot of restrictions within the working place yet the employees don’t have a say in what they are not happy with. The team leader has full control over the employees as it is their responsibility to make sure that all enquires is answered making sure customers are happy. The main business will no be held in India so they rely on the leader to provide for them. The team leader sets daily requirements for his/her employees which have to be met, if they are not targeted the manager will humiliate them.
This makes them feel sometimes worthless and brings down their self-esteem according to the case study quoted by an employee this tends to happen a lot and makes the working atmosphere very uncomfortable to work in. Referring to Marx, he talks about alienation, not having control on what is going on from the team leaders’ behaviour to do with the situation. In this case the employee is not able to respond back or control the way the team leader is addressing the situation, being that the employee can only be asked to be moved away from the situation or not come back to work.A lot of theses employees need the money whether it is too little but money is money to them and being asked to leave is the last thing they would want to hear so they can only put up with it and carry on working. Another fact of alienation in call centres is that the employees are not allowed to take any form of holiday from work as this is not in the contract for approval yet if they wish to do so they will no longer have a job.
This causes distance from the colleges’ social lives and families causing them to feel alone and having a routine life once work is finished they will be exhausted and have to gather enough rest for the next working day. Marx continues to talk about exploitation which with alienation is critical attacks upon capitalism, he believes that for a company to be successful is the exchange of work the employees put in measure to the amount of money they get paid. In India the case is that the employees work at ridiculous hours and have to such abuse from both customers and management to end up receiving a pay so small.The employees are also called ‘wage-slaves’ they have to be at work before their shift starts and must place all their belongings into personal lockers away from their call stations making sure they do not have access to it at anytime during working hours so they are not distracted, they are only allowed either two 15 minute breaks or one 30minute break for the day where they are only allowed to purchase meals/snakes from the company’s canteen within the building meaning again the employees are not able to socialise outside of work until their shift is over.
They work 8-9hour shifts, 5 days a week to match the timing of the company they are working for in the country they are based which causes exhaustion for the employees. Through all these things they have to go through everyday of the week and put up with such manner in the work place for money, these are called ‘wage-slaves’. Weber also agrees on the same philosophy believing that money is a goal to be achieved and that brings in alienation making all human interactions money related.Being placed in ‘The iron cage’: The work colleges are disciplined from the beginning of their shifts as the majority of them must travel by the work bus which will travel down a route at a certain time where colleges must be picked from. Food is not allowed to enter the work premises all food must be bought from the canteen which is difficult for them as they can only eat at a certain time. Management constantly monitor the workers from the attendance logging – in and logging – out, not being able to log out of their work system or leave for being unwell without the team leader granting permission.
It is impossible because it will be tracked and you will be thrown out. Whether you are unwell or you want to go to the bathroom, you have to sit until the TL allows you to get up. ” (Quote from case study) Disobeying this will lead to consequences to loss of job or being humiliated in front of other members of staff, if targets are failed to be met staff are sent away to be retrained which is a punishment in a call centre and a lead to dismissal.Rationalisation – reflected in the call centres, all employees must stay on the line until all tasks are met from the customer which could take up as much more time than usual, they must continue to ask if there is anything else the customer would need whilst available until the next customer waits to be spoken to. Depending on the days it can get extremely busy; employees will have to receive the calls even if it’s their lunch, predictive dialling is when calls are diverted to work stations that are free to receive the calls.
ConclusionAs I live in a country where freedom of speech is common and is herd, I believe that the way the workers in India are treated is completely out of the ordinary. Things like making them do hard labour then what they are capable of doing is wrong and so is keeping them away from their family and friends. The feeling of isolation and feeling alone will definitely be in their lives, I understand rules and regulations are meant to state in the work place but I believe that if the actual company were to go to India and assess how work is done they wouldn’t be too happy.However, in India people tend to work upon how they have been brought up based on culture.
With the management disrespecting them or being restricted to do certain things, they may find normal as this ma happen in people’s house holds around India. The four theorists mentioned previously have been able to make an impact of other working environments so that people are able to address the cons of what happens in other countries, a lot of theory is what is based in our world today but only certain people have decided to make use of it and place it into their working format.
