Abstract
Orientation: A ‘sacrificial human resource strategy’ is practised in call centres, resulting in poor employee occupational health. Consequently, questions are posed in terms of the consequences of call centre work and which salient antecedent variables impact the engagement and wellbeing of call centre representatives.Research purpose: Firstly, to gauge the level of employee engagement amongst a sample of call centre representatives in South Africa and, secondly, to track the paths through which salient personal and job resources affect this engagement. More specifically, the relationships between sense of coherence, leadership effectiveness, team effectiveness and engagement were investigated, thus testing the Job Demands-Resources model of work engagement.Motivation for the study: To present an application of the Job Demands-Resources model of work engagement in a call centre environment in order to diagnose current ills and consequently propose remedies.Research design: A cross-sectional survey design was used and a non-probability convenient sample of 217 call centre representatives was selected. The measuring instruments comprise the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale to measure engagement, the Team Diagnostic Survey to measure team effectiveness, the leadership practices inventory to gauge leadership effectiveness, and the Orientation to Life Questionnaire to measure sense of coherence. A series of structural equation modelling analyses were performed.Main findings: Contrary to the ‘electronic sweatshop’ image attached to call centre jobs depicted in the literature, results show a high level of employee engagement for call centre representatives in the sample. Also, personal resources such as sense of coherence and job resources such as team effectiveness related significantly to engagement. A non-significant relationship exists between leadership effectiveness and engagement.Practical/managerial implications: Both the content and context of jobs need to be addressed to increase the personal and job resources of call centre representatives.Contribution/value-add: The Job Demands-Resources model of work engagement can be used to improve the occupational health and performance of employees in call centres.
Highlights
The nature of call centresThe call centre industry in South Africa consists of approximately 1500 call centres and currently employs approximately 150 000 call centre representatives (CCRs) (Banks & Roodt, 2011)
A call centre is defined by Holman (2005, p. 111) as ‘a work environment in which the main business is mediated by a computer and telephone based technologies that enable the efficient distribution of incoming calls to available staff, and permit the customeremployee interaction to occur simultaneously with the use of display screen equipment and the instant access to, and inputting of, information
Contrary to the negative image attached to call centre jobs in the literature, results show a high level of work engagement for CCRs in the sample
Summary
The call centre industry in South Africa consists of approximately 1500 call centres and currently employs approximately 150 000 call centre representatives (CCRs) (Banks & Roodt, 2011). A call centre is defined by Holman Inbound call centres mainly respond to incoming calls and deal with customer complaints, requests and questions. Outbound call centres are mainly for initiating contacts on behalf of an organisation attempting to sell products or services. Call centres in general consist of jobs of different levels of complexity, ranging from unskilled CCRs who provide standard information from prescribed scripts to highly skilled representatives who deal with sophisticated problems as in the case of nursing or medical help desks
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