ICTs and knowledge codification: lessons from front office call centers

This paper investigates human resources management in call centers. Three case studies of call centers focusing on information exchange show that, even if Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) result in the displacement of the basis of a firm's core competencies from those that may be attributed to individuals to those which may be attributed to a collective, the employees' strengths, customer pressure, environmental competitive pressure, and the specificity of the service production process all exert influences on the organizations so as to limit or even prevent such a collectivization of knowledge. In order to maintain a dynamic process of knowledge management, human resource managers have to re-equilibrate the basis of the firm's core competencies. In the following paper, we introduce the concept of re-equilibrating human resource management. It is through this process that management promotes a harmonious dialogue between tacit knowledge and codified knowledge and succeeds in maintaining a dynamic flexibility in skills. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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