En fallstudie av normativ kontroll på ett telemarketingföretag
En diskursanalytisk studie av etik som motiv till övervakning och styrning
Case StudyNormative ControlBusiness EthicsSocial ConstructionismDiscoursive AnalysisInterpretative RepertoiresTelemarketingCallcenterR-licensPanopticonFamily CultureFriendship Culture
The strive for control over employees has developed throughout the years. This paper has its focus on how normative control can work as a powerful method to create and uphold a sought for behavior. Many companies have found an interest in a higher moral stance to get competitive advantages, and offer their customers and partners a more ethical product. This phenomenon has in Sweden resulted in a sphere of companies who has earned the R-licens. The R-licens is earned by companies if they fulfill ethical and cultural criteria. This paper explores how a telemarketing company reinforce these ethical guidelines and how the company use normative control to reassure what they consider ethical behavior. The paper has a social constructionist view and the data was gathered by semi-structured interviews. The data was analyzed via discourse analysis.The conclusion is that the normative control effectively has created an environment of a ethical perspective in the company. The control is due to a dualistic surveillance (horizontal and vertical) and that the employees take a stand against external conceptions of how telemarketing works and how competing companies operate. Their beliefs and trust in their moral standings and methods of selling is better and more honest (compare to their competition) makes them justify and reinforce the culture and its surveillance over them. Their shared beliefs are so strong that actions outside the culture are unacceptable and may result in lay-offs. The contribution of this paper is a window of observation, how normative control works to ground the ethical phenomenon on the company.