<p>I am interested in modelling the relationship between practice and performance both in laboratory tasks and field settings. I was interested in what existing research has examined how the performance of telephone call centre operators changes over time. I imagine call centre management systems would provide a very rich set of performance data on individual employees.</p>

<p>Thus, what do empirical studies have to say about the following:</p>

<ul>
<li>What is the relationship between practice and call centre performance?</li>
<li>To what extent have studies been effective in controlling for task factors (e.g., whether it is a quiet or a busy shift; variation in task difficulty assigned to particular workers, etc) when modelling individual employee performance?</li>
<li>To what extent does performance change reflect constant improvement as a result of learning versus fluctuations due to changing motivation, effort, etc.?</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-03T02:15:55.640Z
Learning curve literature does include operations research, but it is a substantive topic in I/O psychology and perhaps even more prominently in cognitive psychology.
Jeromy Anglim
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-06T08:23:21.297Z
I agree with Jeromy on this one. However, I do think the question may be a bit too specific. I am curious whether any "general" research has been done on it. It requires domain specific knowledge and probably, if such a research has been conducted, it will be an internal research of a company and not easily accessible.
Robin Kramer-ten Have
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-06T08:32:09.517Z
@JeromyAnglim perhaps you could explain a little more about the skills required for a call center operator? Maybe people can generalize them to existing models/researches.
Robin Kramer-ten Have
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-06T22:08:38.250Z
@RobinKramer - I totally understand that close voting questions of the rock star of this site raises eye brows. Honestly, I often don't look at who the OP is when voting, and admittedly, and quite frankly, I wouldn't have dared close-voting when I would have :-) Given Jeromy's freakin' amount of work on this site and given Jeromy is a respected and much appreciated long-time mod, I'll retract this vote, simply out of respect :) You know what, I'll upvote this question :D My sincere apologies here.
AliceD
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-06T23:59:00.490Z
@Christiaan I certainly don't mind the close vote. It's all good active discussion about site focus from my perspective. Of course I think the question is on topic, and perhaps that's related to the fact that my substantive area is around industrial/organisational psychology where we're often interested in topics that touch on human factors, management, org behaviour and so on.
Jeromy Anglim
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-07T21:21:21.883Z
Well I do mind that vote. You *are* CogSci for Chris'sake :) And for that matter - you are almost 20k!!!! If we do graduate, some day, you won't have to be afraid of loosing any privileges (though you won't anyway when you'll continue to mod ;)
AliceD
<learning><cognitive-modeling><performance><io-psychology>
What is the relationship between practice and performance of telephone call centre workers?
Jeromy Anglim
# What is the relationship between practice and performance of telephone call centre workers?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2013-03-30)

I am interested in modelling the relationship between practice and performance both in laboratory tasks and field settings. I was interested in what existing research has examined how the performance of telephone call centre operators changes over time. I imagine call centre management systems would provide a very rich set of performance data on individual employees.

Thus, what do empirical studies have to say about the following:

* What is the relationship between practice and call centre performance?
* To what extent have studies been effective in controlling for task factors (e.g., whether it is a quiet or a busy shift; variation in task difficulty assigned to particular workers, etc) when modelling individual employee performance?
* To what extent does performance change reflect constant improvement as a result of learning versus fluctuations due to changing motivation, effort, etc.?

**Tags:** learning, cognitive-modeling, performance, io-psychology

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Learning curve literature does include operations research, but it is a substantive topic in I/O psychology and perhaps even more prominently in cognitive psychology.  
> **username_1**: I agree with Jeromy on this one. However, I do think the question may be a bit too specific. I am curious whether any "general" research has been done on it. It requires domain specific knowledge and probably, if such a research has been conducted, it will be an internal research of a company and not easily accessible.  
> **username_1**: @JeromyAnglim perhaps you could explain a little more about the skills required for a call center operator? Maybe people can generalize them to existing models/researches.  
> **username_2**: @RobinKramer - I totally understand that close voting questions of the rock star of this site raises eye brows. Honestly, I often don't look at who the OP is when voting, and admittedly, and quite frankly, I wouldn't have dared close-voting when I would have :-) Given Jeromy's freakin' amount of work on this site and given Jeromy is a respected and much appreciated long-time mod, I'll retract this vote, simply out of respect :) You know what, I'll upvote this question :D My sincere apologies here.  
> **username_0**: @Christiaan I certainly don't mind the close vote. It's all good active discussion about site focus from my perspective. Of course I think the question is on topic, and perhaps that's related to the fact that my substantive area is around industrial/organisational psychology where we're often interested in topics that touch on human factors, management, org behaviour and so on.  
> **username_2**: Well I do mind that vote. You *are* CogSci for Chris'sake :) And for that matter - you are almost 20k!!!! If we do graduate, some day, you won't have to be afraid of loosing any privileges (though you won't anyway when you'll continue to mod ;)  

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## 0 answers

