Abstract
Within western liberal market economies, organizations have increasingly begun to develop “work—life initiatives” to help workers integrate their work and family lives (Kossek and Lambert 2005). Employers can provide work—family policies for multiple reasons: to improve business efficiency (Rapoport et al. 2002); to attract, recruit and retain employees (Carless and Wintle 2007) and to promote gender equality in the workplace (Dreher 2003). There has been an increasing awareness, however, that work—life policies alone are insufficient without a concomitant change in organizational culture (Allen 2001; Lewis 1997; Thomas and Ganster 1995; Thompson et al. 1999). While this is a progressive step, examination of “culture” at only the organizational level can often subvert attention from national contexts, which may support or hinder organizational practices (Haas and Hwang 2007; Kossek et al. 2010). Further, globalization and increasing mobility of capital and labour have made the international context even more important.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Acker, J. (1990). Hierarchies, jobs, bodies: A theory of gendered organizations. Gender and Society, 4 (2), 139–158.
Acker, J. (1992). Gendering organizational theory. In: A. J. Mills & P. Tancred (Eds.), Gendering Organizational Analysis (pp. 248–261). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Allen, T. D. (2001). Family-supportive work environments: The role of organizational perceptions. Journal of Vocational Behaviour, 58, 414–435.
Aryee, S., Srinivas, E. S., & Tan, H. H. (2005). Rhythms of life: Antecedents and outcomes of work-family interface. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90, 491–511.
Bain, P., & Taylor, P. (1998). “Bright satanic offices”: Intensification, control and team taylorism. In: C. Warhurst & P. Thompson (Eds.), The New Workplace. London: Macmillan.
Bain, P., & Taylor, P. (2000). Entrapped by the ‘electronic panoptican’? Worker resistance in the call centre. New Technology, Work and Employment, 15 (1), 2–18.
Bamberger, P. A. (2008). Beyond contextualisation. Academy of Management Journal, 51 (5), 839–846.
Basi, J. K. T. (2009). Women, Identity and India’s Call Centre Industry. London: Routledge.
Belt, V., Richardson, R., & Webster, J. (2000). Women’s work in the information economy. Information, Communication and Society, 3 (3), 366–385.
Bergeron, S. (2001). Political economy discourses of globalization and feminist politics. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Globalization and Gender Series, 26, 983–1006.
Bharat, S. (1995). Attitudes and sex-role perceptions among working couples in India. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 26 (3), 371–388.
Budhwar, P S., Verma, A., Singh, V., & Dhar, R. (2006). HRM systems in Indian call centres: An exploratory study. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 17 (5), 881–897.
Byrne, B. M. (2001). Structural Equation Modelling with AMOS: Basic Concepts, Applications and Programming, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Carless, S. A., & Wintle, J. (2007). Applicant attraction: The role of recruiter function, work-life balance policies and career salience. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 15 (4), 394–404.
Casper, W. J., Eby, L. T., Bordeaux, C., Lockwood, A., & Lambert, D. (2007). A review of research methods in IO/OB work-family research. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92 (1). 28–43.
Choi, J. (2008). Work and family demands and life stress among Chinese employees: The mediating effect of work-family conflict. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 19, 878–895.
Connell, R. W. (1995). Masculinities. Cambridge: The Polity Press.
D’Cruz, P., & Noronho, E. (2006). Being professional: Organizational control in Indian call centres. Social Science Computer Review, 24 (3), 342–361.
Datta, A. (2005). MacDonaldization of gender in urban India: A tentative exploration. Gender, Technology and Development, 9 (1), 125–135.
Dehejia, R., & Dehejia, V. (1993). Religion and economic activity in India: A historical perspective. American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 52 (2), 145–153.
Desai, T. (2007). Work and Family in India: Sloan Work Family Network - Conversation with Experts. Boston: Sloan Work and Family Research Network.
Dreher, G. F. (2003). Breaking the glass ceiling: The effects of sex ratios and work-life programs on female leadership at the top. Human Relations, 56 (5), 541–562.
Freeman, C. (2001). Is local: Global as feminine: masculine? Rethinking gender and globalization. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 26, 1007–1038.
Gambles, R., Lewis, S., & Rapoport, R. (2006). The Myth of Work-Life Balance: The Challenge of Our Time for Men, Women and Societies. London: John Wiley and Sons.
Ghosh, J. (2001). Globalization, export-oriented employment for women and social policy: A case study of India. (Draft Paper) UNRISD project: Globalization, Export-Oriented Employment for Women and Social Policy.
Goldberg, D. (1980). Psychiatric illness in general practice. A detailed study using a new method of case identification. British Medical Journal, 1, 439–443.
Government of India. (2001). Census of India 2001. http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001 /States_at_glance/state_profile. aspx
Haas, L., & Hwang, C. P. (2007). Gender and organizational culture: Correlates of companies’ responsiveness to father in Sweden. Gender and Society, 21 (1), 52–79.
Hammer, L. B., Kossek, E. E., Zimmerman, K., & Daniels, R. (2007). Clarifying the construct of family supportive supervisory behaviours (FSSB): A multi-level perspective. In: P. Perrewe & D. Ganster (Eds.), Research in Organizational Stress and Well-Being. Westport, CT: JAI/Elsevier.
Heeks, R. (1999). Software Strategies in Developing Countries. Manchester: University of Manchester.
Joreskog, K. G., & Goldberger, A. S. (1975). Estimation of a model with multiple indicators and multiple causes of a single latent variable. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 70, 631–639.
Kakar, S. (1978). The Inner World: A Psycho-Analytical Study of Childhood and Society in India. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Kline, R. B. (2005). Principles and Practices of Structural Equation Modelling, 2nd ed. New York: Guilford Press.
Komarraju, M. (1997). The work-family interface in India. In: S. Parasuraman & J. H. Greenhaus (Eds.), Integrating Work and Family: Challenges for a Changing World (pp. 104–114). Westport, CT: Quorum Books.
Kossek, E. E., & Lambert, K. (2005). Work and Life Integration: Organizational, Cultural and Individual Perspective. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.
Kossek, E. E., Lewis, S., & Hammer, L. (2010). Work-life initiatives and organizational change: Overcoming mixed messages to move from the margin to the mainstream. Human Relations, 63 (1), 3–19.
Kumar, R. (1993). The History of Doing: An Illustrated Account of Movements for Women’s Rights and Feminism in India1800–1990. New Delhi: Kali for Women.
Kumar, R. (2004). Brahminical idealism, anarchial individualism and the dynamics of Indian negotiating behaviour. International Journal of Cross-Cultural Management, 4 (1), 39–58.
Larson, R., Verma, S., & Dworkin, J. (2001). Men’s work and family life in India: The daily organization of time and emotion. Journal of Family Psychology, 15, 206–224.
Lewis, S. (1997). ‘Family friendly’ employment policies: A route to changing organizational culture or playing about the margins? Gender, Work and Organization, 4 (1), 13–46.
Magliano, L., Fiorillo, A., Malangone, C., Rosa, C. D., Maj, M., & Group, N. M. H. P. W. (2006). Social networks in long-term diseases: A comparative study in relatives of persons with schizophrenia and physical diseases in the general population. Social Science and Medicine, 62 (6), 1392–1402.
Maskiell, M. (1990). Gender, kinship and rural work in colonial Punjab. Journal of Women’s History, 2 (1), 35–72.
McDowell, L., & Court, G. (1994). Gender divisions of labour in the post-Fordist economy: The maintenance of occupational sex segregation in the financial services sector. Environment and Planning, 26, 1397–1418.
Mirchandani, K. (2004). Practices of global capital: Gaps, cracks and ironies in transnational call centres in India. Global Networks, 4 (4), 355–373.
Mitter, S., Fernandez, G., & Varghese, S. (2004). On the threshold of informalization: Women call centre workers in India, Chains (also available at http://www.wiego.org/publications/Chains%20) (pp. 165–183).
Namasivayam, K., & Zhao, X. (2007). An investigation of the moderating effects of organizational commitment on the relationships between work-family conflict and job satisfaction among hospitality employees in India. Tourism Management, 28, 1212–1223.
NASSCOM. (2007). IT Industry Fact Sheet. http://www.nasscom.org.
NASSCOM. (2008a). Indian IT-BPO Industry Fact Sheet 2008. http://www.nasscom.in/upload/5216/IT_Industry_Factsheet-Mar_2009.pdf.
NASSCOM. (2008b). NASSCOM-A.T Kearney study on ‘Location Roadmap for it- BPO Growth: Assessment of 50 leading cities’ www.nasscom.in/Nasscom/templates/ NormalPage.aspx?id=53873.
Netemeyer, R. G., Boles, J. S., & McMurrian, R. (1996). Development and validation of the work-family conflict and family-work conflict scale. Journal of Applied Psychology, 81 (4), 400–410.
Ng, C., & Mitter, S. (2005). Valuing women’s voices: Call centres in Malaysia and India. Gender, Technology and Development, 9 (2), 209–233.
Oziblign, M., Beauregard, A., Tatli, A., & Bell, M. P. (forthcoming). Work-life, diversity and intersectionality: A critical review and research agenda. International Journal of Management Reviews.
Perlow, L., & Weeks, J. (2002). Whose helping whom? Layers of culture and workplace behavior. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 23, 345–361.
Pio, E. (2007). HRM and Indian epistemologies: A review and avenues for further research. Human Resource Management Review, 17, 319–335.
Poster, W. R. (2005a). Organizational change, globalization, and work-family programs: Case studies from India and the United States. In: S. A. Y. Poelman (Ed.), Work and Family: An International Research Perspective (pp. 173–211). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Poster, W. R. (2005b). Three reasons for a transnational approach towards work-life policy. In: E. E. Kossek & S. J. Lambert (Eds.), Work and Life Integration: Organizational, Cultural and Individual Perspectives (pp. 375–400). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associate Publishers.
Powell, G. N., Francesco, A. M., & Ling, Y. (2009). Towards culture-sensitive theories of the work-family interface. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 30, 597–616.
Prabhu, S. K. (2001). Economic Reforms and Social Development: A Study of Two Indian States. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Rajadhyaksha, U., & Smita, S. (2006). Tracing a time-line for work-family research in India. Economic and Political Weekly, April 24, 1674–1680.
Ramesh, B. (2004). ‘Cybercoolies in BPO’: Insecurities and vulnerabilities of nonstandard work. Economic and Political Weekly, 31 January.
Ramu, G. N. (1987). Indian husbands: Their role perceptions and performance in single-and-dual-earner families. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 4 (Nov), 903–915.
Rapoport, R., Bailyn, L., Fletcher, J., & Pruitt, B. (2002). Beyond the Work-Life Balance: Advancing Gender Equity and Work Performance. London: Wiley.
Razvi, S., & Pearson, R. (2004). Globalization, export-oriented employment and social policy: Gendered connections. In: S. Razvi, R. Pearson & C. Danloy (Eds.), Globalization, Export-Oriented Employment and Social Policy: Gendered Connections (1–30). Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.
Rosaldo, M. Z. (1974). Women, culture and society: A theoretical overview. In: M. Z. Rosaldo & L. Lamphere (Eds.), Women, Culture and Society (pp. 17–42). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Russell, B., & Thite, M. (2008). The next division of labour: Work skills in Australian and Indian call centres. Work, Employment and Society, 22 (4), 615–634.
Sahay, S., & Walsham, G. (1997). Social structure and managerial agency in India. Organizational Studies, 18 (3), 415–444.
Sankaran, K. (2003). Night work by women: How should special protective measures for women be defined? New England Journal of International and Comparative Law, 9, 417–428.
Saunders, J. B. (2002). Dharma, Discourse and Diaspora: When Work and Family Demands Overlap (Working Paper, May). Chicago: The Emery Centre for Myth and Ritual in American Life, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Sekaran, U. (1992). Middle-class dual earner families and their support systems in urban India. In: S. Lewis, D. Izraeli & H. Hoostman (Eds.), Dual Earner Families: International Perspectives (pp. 46–61). London: Sage.
Sinha, J., & Kanungo, R. (1997). Context sensitivity and balancing in Indian organizational behaviour. International Journal of Psychology, 32 (2), 93–105.
Sinha, J. B. P. (2002). A cultural frame for understanding organizational behaviour. Psychology and Developing Societies, 14 (1), 155–166.
Stavrou, S., & Kilaniotis, C. (2010). Flexible work and turnover: An empirical investigation across cultures. British Journal of Management, 21 (2), 541–554.
STPI. (2009). Export performance of IT/ITeS industry. Press note. www.hyd.stpi.in
Taylor, P., & Bain, P. (1999). ‘An assembly line in the head’: Work and employee relations in the call centre. Industrial Relations Journal, 30 (2), 101–117.
Taylor, P., D’Cruz, P., Noronho, E., & Scholarios, D. (2009). Indian call centres and business process outsourcing: A study in union formation. New Technology, Work and Employment, 24 (1), 19–42.
Thomas, L. T., & Ganster, D. C. (1995). Impact of family-supportive work variables on work-family conflict and strain: A control perspective. Journal of Applied Psychology, 80 (1), 6–15.
Thompson, C. A., Beauvis, L. L., & Lyness, K. S. (1999). When work-family benefits are not enough: The influence of work-family culture on benefit utilization, organizational attachment and work-family conflict. Journal of Vocational Behaviour, 54, 392–415.
Thompson, P., & Warhurst, C. (Eds.). (1998). Workplaces of the Future. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Triandis, H. C. (1980). Individualism and Collectivism. Boulder, CO: Westview.
Upadhyay, C. (2009). Controlling offshore knowledge workers: Power and agency in India’s software outsourcing industry. New Technology, Work and Employment, 24 (1), 2–18.
Vera-Sanso, P. (2002). Masculinity, male domestic authority and female labour participation in South-India. European Journal of Development Research, 12 (2), 180–192.
Williams, J. (2000). Unbending Gender: Why Family and Work Conflict and What to Do About It. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Yang, N. (2005). Individualism-collectivism and work-family interfaces: A Sino-U.S comparison. In: S. A. Y. Poelmans (Ed.), Work and Family: An International Research Perspective (pp. 287–318). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2013 Sweta Rajan-Rankin and Mark Tomlinson
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Raian-Rankin, S., Tomlinson, M. (2013). Do Work-Family Policies Really “Work”? Evidence from Indian Call Centres. In: Poelmans, S., Greenhaus, J.H., Maestro, M.L.H. (eds) Expanding the Boundaries of Work-Family Research. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137006004_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137006004_2
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-43491-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-00600-4
eBook Packages: Palgrave Business & Management CollectionBusiness and Management (R0)