Irene Bernhard and Kerstin Grundén
went more slowly in municipality A, probably as a consequence of the local culture in this part of Sweden“ to use few resources but with good co‐operation considering the available resources,” as one of the respondents mentioned. The implementation strategy could have consequences for the learning processes in the organization. The adaption of the working culture, behaviors, changes of communication patterns, and creation of a common mental image of the change requires development‐oriented learning processes that usually take time( Svensson & Åberg, 2001). The complex change process could reinforce changes in the power structure of the organization and result in power struggles among different“ communities of practice” and professional groups, leading to negative attitudes towards the CC and hampering a learning process towards common mental images and goals( Parding & Abrahamsson, 2009).
There are documented common risks with work in call centers as being monotonous, stressful and lacking variation( Tengblad et al., 2002). This can also be relevant in part for work at CCs. According to Grossberg( 2000), workers who receive formal training are likely to remain longer in their jobs. Trained workers also believe that their employers see them as important and valuable members of an organization, further developing loyalty( Sieben, 2007). Participation in project groups could stimulate motivation and the learning of new competencies for the employees( Angelöw, 1991; Grundén, 2004). But it is certainly a challenge to engage all employees in big organizations and find relevant participation and learning forms in complex change processes.
In our pre‐studies we found examples both of highly formalized and rule‐based learning and more informal strategies for the employees at the CCs( Bernhard & Grundén, 2010). There may be pros and cons to each approach( ibid.). In our case studies described in this article we have found combinations of both strategies at the CCs. They could use information databases where they simply had to type the beginning of a question in order to receive an answer, or use their personal knowledge in order to answer the questions from the citizens.
The financing of the CC and recruitment policies
The financing of the activities of the CCs and the recruitment policies seemed to have been somewhat related in both cases. In both cases the financing of the CC caused problems and negative attitudes towards CC, but in different phases of the implementation process.
In case B some employees from the back office were recruited to CC against their will, due to a need for the participating departments to reduce their costs, as they had to contribute to the activities of the CC. There were some problems with negative attitudes towards the CC and problems in co‐operation, related to this initial recruitment strategy. The project management seemed to have learned lessons from the problems of initial implementation and recruitment strategy and the recruitment and implementation of the response group for social services were more successful. The employees for the response group were voluntarily recruited and the activities of CC were much more anchored among the employees at the department for social services.
In municipality A the municipality guides were handpicked by the manager. The economic model between CC and the first participating departments( the different division within the Technical Office departments) was agreed upon at an early stage of the implementation process, and there was not much in the way of negative attitudes towards CC from these departments. In a later phase of the implementation there was however major problems related to the fact that the department of social services should contribute financially to the activities of CC, but they had difficulties finding relevant work tasks to transfer to the CC. There was for example no special response group for social services at the CC, and the demands of integrity, security and competence were not easy to deal with. There were very negative attitudes towards CC from the social services due to this situation. It seems thus to be important to anchor the applied financing models regulating the contribution of financing from the back offices at an early stage of the implementation process and also to specify what work processes should be transferred to CC related to the financing models.
The information systems for handling of matters
The electronic information systems for handling of matters were not fully developed in either of the municipalities initially when the CC was implemented, causing some problems in using them. Management
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