Henrique Amorim e Guilherme Guilherme
Fonte: Amorim H. y Guilherme G. (2026). From script to agile: work in call centers and the software development industry in Brazil. Sociología del Trabajo, 107, 1-11.
Resumo: This article examines the prevalence of Taylorization and self-Taylorization in software industries and call centers. Call centers emerged from precarization, rooted in Taylor-Fordist principles. In contrast, software development seemed to embody autonomy and creativity, representing the ‘high-end’ of ICT-related work. Through empirical research and worker interviews in Brazil and France, we analyzed management and control mechanisms in both sectors. The findings reveal a radicalization of Taylorist practices in call centers, featuring monitoring software and Toyota production system adoption. Conversely, software programmers face agile methodologies and objective control through management software, enabling work partialization and metrification. The authors suggest that, on the horizon of ICT work, there is a tendency marked by standardization and prescription, where even seemingly intellectualized professions, such as software programming, are affected
Sumário: 1. Introduction and methods | 2. Management by teamwork | 3. Customers and work control | 4. Conclusion
Introduction and methods
Discussions about the emergence of “immaterial labour” and “digital labour” based on the insertion of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the productive and labour processes have given rise to several theories and thesis about the end of typically factory and manual production (Gorz, 2010; Castells, 2010; Lazaratto, 1996). According to those, we would be facing transformations that are leading to the formation of a society fundamentally distinct from the so-called industrial society. Among the symbols of this transition are the productive processes in which prescription of tasks, control and subordination over work would be fated to disappear, and would promote, at the end, the fading of taylorist and toyotist forms of production organization.
We can find a critical bibliography debating this idea, dedicated to demonstrate that the Call centers, despite relying on ICTs, exhibit a pronounced incidence of Taylorist principles. Notably, their workers, despite utilizing computers and telecommunications as labour tools, perform repetitive tasks with standardized routines prescribed by management (Bain et al, 2022; Venco, 2006; Dutra, 2014; Braga 2013). According to Braga (2013), Call Centers pose a “setback” against the theses of post-industrial/informational society, representing a comeback for Braverman’s (1974) general argument of a tendency towards partialization and standardization of labour.
In our findings, more than being a “setback” and just reproducing the taylorist logic, the call centers radicalize and deepen this logic when we notice: 1) the monitoring of the workers made through software deepens control when it comes to productivity (goals), to the workday supervision (working time and breaks) and to verifying the complete and perfect application, by the worker, of the script prescribed by the management; 2) this script is an ultimate synthesis of task prescription; 3) the presence of aspects of Lean Production/Toyota management, such as teamwork, collective goals, self-taylorization or self-management and the quality control made by the worker himself / herself furthers management capacity.
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Henrique Amorim é professor de Sociologia na Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP)
Guilherme Guilherme é doutorando na Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP)
