Aesthetic and emotional labour through stigma: National identity management and racial abuse in offshored Indian call centres

Abstract

This article examines the emotional complexities and stresses associated with national identity management (accent modification, the use of western pseudonyms and location masking) and customer-instigated racial abuse in offshored Indian call centres. Drawing on 77 semi-structured interviews with frontline employees in Bangalore, the research reveals that although call centre agents can find identity management beneficial in easing customer apprehensions and in achieving organizational performance targets, such identity regulation can result in the experience of stress, role ambiguity and work alienation. The article demonstrates that employees need to manage the stigma relating to their 'Indian' identity in order to fulfil the challenges of aesthetic and emotional labour. Furthermore, the article explains how the mobilization of aesthetic labour through stigma management can intensify frontline worker experiences of emotional labour. © The Author(s) 2011.