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Utilising data from 18 in‐depth case studies, this study seeks to explore training, development and human resource development (HRD) practices in European call centres. It aims to argue that the complexity and diversity of training, development and HRD practices is best understood by studying the multilayered contexts within which call centres operate. Call centres operate as open systems and training, development and HRD practices are influenced by environmental, strategic, organisational and temporal conditions.

The study utilised a range of research methods, including in‐depth interviews with multiple stakeholders, documentary analysis and observation. The study was conducted over a two‐year period.

The results indicate that normative models of HRD are not particularly valuable and that training, development and HRD in call centres is emergent and highly complex.

This study represents one of the first studies to investigate training and development and HRD practices and systems in European call centres.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how centres of calculation, now emerging in connection with social media, impact on the process of acting on distant customers. Specifically, the authors are interested in exploring how the distance between the organization and its customer is affected and how knowledge is accumulated within this centre.

A case study in an Italian telecommunication company was conducted over a time horizon of two years, analysing data sources in the form of interviews, documents and reports, corporate website, social media platforms and participants’ observations. With the adoption of social media, the company configured a new centre of calculation, called monitoring room, in the attempt to accumulate knowledge about its customers. The authors unpacked the activity of the centre of calculation discussing its ability to perform action upon a distant periphery and the process of knowledge accumulation inside the centre itself.

The results highlight the implication of social media for “action at a distance”. On the one hand, social media blurs the distinction between the centre and a periphery giving rise to a de-centring, and stimulating a joint control activity between the customer and the organization. On the other hand, social media was found vulnerable in providing a unique knowledge about customers: accumulation cycles that exploit social media data can be replicated by users with skills in data analytics and the knowledge they provide might conflict with knowledge provided by traditional data.

The authors contribute to an emergent stream of literature that is investigating accounting implications derived from social media, by underlying the controversial effects connected with centres of calculation enacted by social media data. The authors suggest that, while social media data provide the organization with huge amount of information real time, at the same time, it contributes to de-centring allowing customers and external actors to act upon the organization, rather than improving knowledge inside the centre.

In practical workshop production process, there are many production emergencies, e.g. new manufacturing tasks, facilities failure and tasks change. On one hand, it results in poor timeliness and reliability of real-time production data collection, acquisition and transmission; on the other hand, it increases the difficulty of real-time data tracking and monitoring. This paper aims to develop a novel RFID-based tracking and monitoring approach of real-time data in production workshop (TM_rfid) to solve them.

At first, a three-layer model of real-time data based on RFID has been constructed, which contains RFID-based integrated acquisition center; “RFID & Cloud-service-rules”-based calculation and analysis center; and “RFID & Ontology-knowledge-base”-based monitoring and scheduling center. Then, a targeted analysis and evaluation method of TM_rfid with feasibility, quality and performance has been proposed. Finally, a prototype platform of a textile machinery manufacturing enterprise has been built to verify the effective of TM_rfid.

The effectiveness of TM_rfid is verified by applying two groups of actual experimental data from the case enterprise, the results show that TM_rfid can promote the efficiency, reliability and feasibility of tacking and monitoring of real-time data in production workshop.

RFID-based tracking and monitoring approach of real-time data in production workshop has been developed to solve the data information transmission and sharing problem. Three analysis and evaluation approaches have been introduced to solve the un-standardized evaluation problem of RFID application. A prototype platform of a textile machinery manufacturing enterprise has been constructed.

With the dramatically increasing number of substations, robots are expected to inspect equipment in the power industry. However, a traditional robotic system cannot work stably because of the strong electromagnetic field in substation. The purpose of this paper is to present a robust and stable robotic system for inspecting the substation equipment without the involvement of workers.

The paper presents in detail a robotic system that consists of a monitor center and a robot. With the monitor center, the workers could send inspection tasks and monitor status of the robot timely. Once a fault is detected, the alarm message will flash immediately to remind the workers. The patrol mode of the robot comprises teleoperation, regular inspection, special inspection and a key return mode. The robot only relies on a low-cost magnetic sensor for lateral positioning and radio frequency identification technology for longitudinal positioning when working under patrol mode. At each stop point, the substation equipment can be recognized quickly through accurate matching with the template image stored in the database.

It is shown that the robot could work efficiently and reliably in power substations. The positioning error is proved to be within 5 mm, compared to that of 20 cm by implementing integrated global positioning system-dead reckoning navigation. Because of the high positioning accuracy, it is much easier to recognize the substation equipment. It is observed that nearly 99 per cent of equipments can be recognized.

The proposed robotic system is tested in a simple substation environment. While the proposed system shows satisfactory positioning results, further studies considering changeable weather condition will focus on improving the equipment recognition rate in such environment, such as rainy, snowy and strong sunlight.

The key contribution of this paper is that it provides a robotic system to inspect substation equipment instead of workers, to improve working efficiency and to reduce manpower cost.

This paper presents a robotic system to inspect substation equipment instead of workers. Four patrol modes are designed to meet the inspection demand. Comparing with the previous robotic systems, this system contributes to higher position accuracy and higher equipment recognition rate.

The purpose of this article is to suggest that Fraby‐Perot optic sensor is a practical measurement gage to monitor the strain of great structures such as railway bridges.

A remote strain monitoring system based on F‐P optic fiber and virtual instrument is designed to monitor the strains of a railway bridge.

The application results show that the Fraby‐Perot optical fiber sensors can accurately measure strain and they are suitable for the long‐term and automatic monitoring. In addition, the system has several advantages over conventional structural instruments including fast response, ability of both static and dynamic monitoring, absolute measurement, immunity to interferences such as lightning strikes, electromagnetic noise and radio frequency, low attenuation of light signals in long fiber optic cables.

Health monitoring of structures is getting more and more recognition all over the world because it can minimize the cost of reparation and maintenance and ensure the safety of structures. A strain monitoring system based on F‐P optic fiber sensor was developed according to the health monitoring requirements of Wuhu Yangtze River Railway Bridge, which is the first cable‐stayed bridge with a maximum span of 312 m carrying both railway and highway traffic in China. It has run stably in the monitoring field more than two years and fulfilled the monitoring requirement very well. Now the system has been transplanted successfully to the Zhengzhou Yellow Railway Bridge for strain monitoring. So the work can be referenced by other similar health monitoring projects.

Long‐term, real‐time monitoring of strain using FP fiber optic sensors in railway bridge is an innovation. A remote strain data acquisition and real‐time processing are another character of the system. The work studied can be referenced by other structures monitoring, such as tunnel, concrete bridges, concrete and earth dams.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationships between managerial control strategies, role-stress and employee adaptiveness among call centre employees.

Based on a conceptual model, a questionnaire-based survey methodology is adopted. Data were collected from call centre employees in India and the data were analysed through PLS methodology.

The study finds that outcome control and activity control increase role-stress while capability control does not have a significant impact. The interaction between outcome control and activity control also tends to impact role-stress of employees. Role-stress felt by employees has significant negative impact on employee adaptiveness.

The sampling approach was convenience based affecting the generalisability of the results.

The paper provides guidelines for utilising managerial control approaches in a service setting.

The paper looks at managerial control approaches in a service setting – a topic not quite researched before.

I begin by examining some ways in which organisations have attempted to improve their recruitment and selection procedures to minimise bias and unfair discrimination, and focus on the assessment centre as a potentially useful technique in this respect, especially for managerial selection. I go on to examine the assessment centre in more detail, including its origins, construction and uses, before discussing the strong evidence for its validity as a selection and assessment procedure. I then describe some recent British innovations in assessment centre design and practice, especially in its use for management and organisation development purposes, before discussing some of my own recent research, in collaboration with Ivan Robertson and Usha Rout, on participants' attitudes towards the use of assessment centres for selection and development purposes, including gender differences in attitudes.

The name Data Center evokes images of computers and disks, of cubicles with people scanning computer screens, of sudden surges of mechanical typing by printers. It's ironical that the words “data center” apply now to electronically provided information.

To investigate call centre management from the perspective of the managers, particularly what the key management responsibilities are in managing call centres and the key performance indicators (KPIs) used in managing call centres.

A survey of call centre managers, followed by in‐depth interviews.

There is confusion over the strategic intent of call centres. Centres are primarily used by organisations as a means of reducing costs, with customer service delivery a secondary consideration. Call centre managers, however, declared customer service as their main management responsibility.

The metrics employed in the call centres resulted in managers concentrating on the call itself rather than the outcome of the call from the perspective of the customer or the organisation. Some quantitative measures were used as proxies for customer service, but the achievement of the relevant KPI became a goal in its own right. There appears to be an insatiable appetite for quantitative performance measures, despite their limitations, almost to the exclusion of all other performance measures.

The implication of the results for call centre managers, and their managers, is that call centres could be better managed if a wider range of means and measures were used.

Looks at MCI, attempts to improve its customer service record and its investigation, in depth, of customer complaints and efforts to improve and correct this. The US telecommunications industry is highly competitive and MCI looks to retain and build on its customer retention. Discusses the development, in 1992, of its Customer Care and Quality Centre which was mandated to develop ways to raise quality and customer satisfaction levels. Goes on to show that this has worked so well that customer satisfaction levels have reached an all‐time high of 97 per cent. This would seem to support MCI’s policy regarding its customers.