1.0 Introduction

The call center sector is commonly known as a large provider of jobs in the last few decades. However there is also an acknowledgement about the low degree of quality of these jobs, which has lead many commentators to consider them as low-road, electronic panopticons, the factory floors of the 21^st century, etc. In a sector where high employee turnover is a daily fact, both academics and practitioners have posed the question about what practices could improve the commitment of the employees of this sector.

2.0 Objectives

The principal aim of this paper is to explore the extent to which high commitment working practices are used in Spanish call centers. Stemming from the literature review, two propositions are posed:

Proposition 1: The use of high commitment working practices in Spanish call centers is moderate.

Proposition 2: The call center industry in Spain may be segmented in significantly different groups according to the nature of the human resource practices they use.

3.0 Method

In order to identify what specific HRM practices could be considered high commitment working practices, first a meta-analysis was carried out with the main papers dealing with the definition of this concept. The practices were then arranged according to the frequency with which they appeared in these studies. Data transformation was used in order to produce an index of high commitment working practices that could be applied to specific organisations.

A survey was designed in order to elicit information about the use of these practices in call centers. The survey was sent by post to a database of Spanish call centers. 103 questionnaires were returned, with a response rate of 40%. These were cleaned and analysed using cluster analysis.

4.0 Results

As expected in proposition 1, the general use of high commitment working practices in Spain can be considerate low to moderate. The study details which of these practices are more common, namely performance appraisal and selective recruitment.

Regarding proposition 2, the cluster analysis resulted in the definition of 4 groups of call centers which significantly differed in their use of high commitment working practices. These groups are presented in a classification labelled as the bird cage model. This model shows how, even in a sector that is known for offering low-road jobs, there is definitely room for improvement as managements may decide to implement high commitment human resource management practices, particularly in difficult times.

The paper includes a discussion as to whether the introduction of such practices is more related to the recognition of their employees’ professionalism or as a means of mitigating some of the negative effects of the nature of work in call centers.