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The Indian Call Center Experience

A Case Study in Changing Discourses of Identity, Identification, and Career in a Global Context

Purdue University, mpal{at}purdue.edu

Patrice Buzzanell

Purdue University, buzzanel{at}purdue.edu

This study examines the processes by which workers in a particular Indian call center located in Kolkata expanded on, negotiated, and chose among an array of possible, especially new, identities and identifications and the ways that these choices affected changing social discourses. Our case study depicted a workplace that was simultaneously casual and urgent, temporal and spatially free and constrained, situated in both Indian and U.S. cultures, and oriented toward business and night-club ambiances. Within this particular workplace, call center employees (re)constructed and negotiated among an array of discourses that bracketed opportunities for particular identities and identifications. Through these negotiation processes, they (a) engaged in strategic identity(ies) invocations and (b) reframed work, career, and family discourses and practices.

Key Words: call centers in India • identity • identifications • discourse • organizational communication • work • career

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