Call centres employment practices in global value networks: A view from Argentina as a receiving economy

Abstract

The growth of offshored services has brought about an important flux of jobs from developed towards developing countries. In this context, outsourced call centres, with their complex insertion of services across countries and organisations, demonstrate a high potential to create jobs, thus influencing the labour markets of a particular country. However, there are some doubts about the quality, longevity and working conditions that these jobs afford. This article uses the conceptual background of global value chains and global networks in order to analyse the impact of outsourcing and offshoring call centre activities on the employment practices, organisation, management and quality of jobs in the receiving economy of Argentina.