Human work in call centres: a challenge for cognitive ergonomics

Many people are currently working in call centres and much more are expected to work in them in the near future. Call centres are, in a sense, ‘modern factories’ where services are delivered through information and communication technologies. The human activity within the dynamic and articulated reality of such work settings offers new challenges for cognitive ergonomics. Indeed, work in call centres has to be conceptualized in terms of distributed knowledge. This means that only part of the knowledge needed to carry out any transaction is (or rather has to be) in the mind of the operator; relevant knowledge may be distributed among colleagues in the organization, available and accessible cognitive artefacts in the work environment, and clients. This paper discusses the potential contribution that human factors and cognitive ergonomics can provide in tackling the new and old problems that emerge in organizations where knowledge is an asset.