The importance of being `Indian': Identity centrality and work outcomes in an off-shored call center in India

Abstract

Existing studies of identity dynamics have shown that employees embody multiple social identities, and have multiple foci of identifications at work that shape their attitudes and behaviors. However, limited research has examined these frameworks in the new, emerging contexts of global workplaces. In this article, we focus on one such significant example of contemporary globalization: transnational service work in the international call center industry in India. Our findings indicate that national identity centrality is indeed negatively associated with employee performance and positively associated with intention to leave. Furthermore, national identity centrality also moderates the relationship of organizational identification with performance and burnout. While we reinforce the importance of organizational identity and occupational identity centrality, we highlight the hitherto ignored consequences of national identity centrality in our study context. K E Y WO R D Scomparative and cross-cultural HRM comparative and cross-cultural management emotional labor Indian call centers job/employee attitudes stress

Deepening, broadening and re-asserting a postcolonial interrogative space in organization studies

“…Once there she becomes 'Carol' and calls various people in the United Kingdom and the United States, to remind them to pay their pending credit card bills in a scene and an identity game repeated in call centres across the 'developing world' (for related commentary see, for instance, Das et al, 2008;Ng and Mitter, 2006). …”

Bridging the contradictions of social constructionism and psychoanalysis in a study of workplace emotions in India

“…Korczynski (2003) has referred to groups of employees forming supportive emotional relationships as 'communities of coping'. Other scholars have noted that emotional labour itself is culturally specific (Das et al, 2008), and different cultures draw the line between genuine and artificial emotional performances very differently (e.g. Bozionelos and Kiamou, 2008).…”

A discourse on entrepreneurial identity : three essays.

“…Consistent with the findings of other studies, this study also found that identification and identity strength negatively influenced turnover intentions; the influence on different levels of organizational hierarchy varied, however. Relatedly, Das, Dharwadkar, & Brandes (2008) investigated the impact of various identities and organizational identification on turnover and performance in an "international/globalized" business context. They found that when the workers of an international call-center have high national identity centrality, it resulted in higher turnover intentions.…”

“…In the literature review section, I provided a detailed account of how identities in general have bearings on intentionality, ranging from cooperative intentions (Boezeman & Ellemers, 2007) to turnover intentions to withdrawal intentions (Das et al, 2008).…”

“…The broad identity literature suggests that an identity forms the basis of intentionality (Boezeman & Ellemers, 2007;Das et al, 2008). Therefore, it is possible to conceive that there might be some logical relation among personality characteristics, entrepreneurial identity, and entrepreneurial intentions.…”