Working conditions, well-being, and job-related attitudes among call centre agents

A comparison of 234 call centre agents with 572 workers in traditional jobs with long lasting training revealed lower job control and task complexity/variety and higher uncertainty among call agents. However, time pressure, concentration demands, and work interruptions were lower in call agents. Within the call agent sample, controlling for negative affectivity and other working conditions, job control predicted intention to quit, and job complexity/variety predicted job satisfaction and affective commitment. Social stressors and task-related stressors predicted uniquely indicators of well-being and job-related attitudes. Furthermore, data confirm the role of emotional dissonance as a stressor in its own right, as it explained variance in irritated reactions and psychosomatic complaints beyond other working conditions. Results indicate that strong division of labour may be a rather general phenomenon in call centres. Therefore, working conditions of call agents require a redesign by means of job enrichment or—better—organization development. Moreover, measures of social stressors and emotional dissonance should be integrated routinely into stress-related job analyses in service jobs.

[1]  L. H. Peters,et al.  Situational Constraints and Work Outcomes: The Influences Of a Frequently Overlooked Construct , 1980 .

[2]  J. Tropman,et al.  The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling , 1984 .

[3]  L. H. Peters,et al.  Situational constraint effects on performance, affective reactions, and turnover: A field replication and extension. , 1984 .

[4]  Tim Newton,et al.  Frustration in organizations: Relationships to role stress, climate, and psychological strain , 1984 .

[5]  P. Costa,et al.  Updating Norman's "Adequate Taxonomy": intelligence and personality dimensions in natural language and in questionnaires. , 1985, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[6]  M. Frese,et al.  Stress at work and psychosomatic complaints: a causal interpretation. , 1985, The Journal of applied psychology.

[7]  C. Cooper,et al.  International review of industrial and organizational psychology , 1986 .

[8]  M. Frese,et al.  Eine Skala zur Erfassung von sozialen Stressoren am Arbeitsplatz , 1987 .

[9]  M J Burke,et al.  Should negative affectivity remain an unmeasured variable in the study of job stress? , 1988, The Journal of applied psychology.

[10]  Sprache und Persoenlichkeitsstruktur : zur Validitaet des Fuenf-Faktoren-Modells der Persoenlichkeit , 1989 .

[11]  Robert L. Kahn,et al.  Stress in organizations. , 1992 .

[12]  A. Büssing.  A dynamic view of job satisfaction in psychiatric nurses in Germany , 1992 .

[13]  Blake E. Ashforth,et al.  Emotional Labor in Service Roles: The Influence of Identity , 1993 .

[14]  K. Leitner.  Auswirkungen von Arbeitsbedingungen auf die psychosoziale Gesundheit , 1993 .

[15]  M. Frese,et al.  Action as the core of work psychology: A German approach. , 1994 .

[16]  Randall B. Dunham,et al.  Organizational commitment: The utility of an integrative definition. , 1994 .

[17]  Mark R. Leary,et al.  The self-presentation model of social phobia. , 1995 .

[18]  M. Franklin.  Social phobia : diagnosis, assessment, and treatment , 1996 .

[19]  Dieter Zapf,et al.  ‘Shared job strain’: A new approach for assessing the validity of job stress measurements , 1996 .

[20]  Daniel C. Feldman,et al.  The Dimensions, Antecedents, and Consequences of Emotional Labor , 1996 .

[21]  John Cordery,et al.  Autonomous work groups and quality circles , 1996 .

[22]  N. Semmer,et al.  Fluktuation bei Computerfachleuten : Eine follow-up Studie , 1996 .

[23]  Naomi G. Swanson,et al.  Ergonomic, job task, and psychosocial risk factors for work-related musculoskeletal disorders among teleservice center representatives , 1996, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Interact..

[24]  Michael A. West,et al.  Handbook of Work Group Psychology , 1996 .

[25]  J M Fisher,et al.  Objective measurement of occupational stress factors--an example with San Francisco urban transit operators. , 1997, Journal of occupational health psychology.

[26]  Chris W. Clegg,et al.  Information technology: a study of performance and the role of human and organizational factors , 1997 .

[27]  Jeffrey L. Geller,et al.  Social Phobia: Diagnosis, Assessment, and Treatment , 1997 .

[28]  Paul E. Spector,et al.  Development of four self-report measures of job stressors and strain: Interpersonal Conflict at Work Scale, Organizational Constraints Scale, Quantitative Workload Inventory, and Physical Symptoms Inventory. , 1998, Journal of occupational health psychology.

[29]  Sharon K. Parker,et al.  Job and work design : organizing work to promote well-being and effectiveness , 1998 .

[30]  A. Büssing,et al.  Can Control at Work and Social Support Moderate Psychological Consequences of Job Insecurity? Results from a Quasi-experimental Study in the Steel Industry , 1999 .

[31]  D. Kahneman,et al.  Well-being : the foundations of hedonic psychology , 1999 .

[32]  Nerina L. Jimmieson,et al.  Work control and employee well-being: A decade review , 1999 .

[33]  P. Warr.  Well-being and the workplace. , 1999 .

[34]  Dieter Zapf,et al.  Emotion Work as a Source of Stress: The Concept and Development of an Instrument , 1999 .

[35]  F. Tschan,et al.  Work characteristics and well- being of Swiss apprentices entering the labor market 1 , 2000 .

[36]  Paul E. Spector,et al.  Why negative affectivity should not be controlled in job stress research: don't throw out the baby with the bath water , 2000, Journal of Organizational Behavior.

[37]  P C Molenaar,et al.  The temporal factor of change in stressor-strain relationships: a growth curve model on a longitudinal study in east Germany. , 2000, The Journal of applied psychology.

[38]  M. Reicherts,et al.  Job newcomers coping with stressful situations: A micro-analysis of adequate coping and well-being 1 , 2000 .

[39]  G. Matthews.  Human Performance: Cognition, Stress and Individual Differences , 2000 .

[40]  D. Zapf,et al.  Emotion work and job stressors and their effects on burnout , 2001, Psychology & health.

[41]  A. Metz,et al.  Belastungsprofile von Beschäftigten in Call Centers , 2001 .

[42]  Roderick D. Iverson,et al.  Work Relationships in Telephone Call Centres: Understanding Emotional Exhaustion and Employee Withdrawal , 2002 .

[43]  T. Wall,et al.  Work characteristics, learning-related outcomes, and strain: a test of competing direct effects, mediated, and moderated models. , 2002, Journal of occupational health psychology.

[44]  P. Bain,et al.  Work Organization, Control and the Experience of Work in Call Centres , 2002 .

[45]  Kai Moltzen,et al.  Arbeitsrelevante Einstellungen bei Call Center-Agenten: , 2002 .

[46]  Dieter Zapf,et al.  Social stressors at work, irritation, and depressive symptoms: Accounting for unmeasured third variables in a multi‐wave study , 2002 .

[47]  D. Zapf.  Emotion work and psychological well-being: A review of the literature and some conceptual considerations , 2002 .

[48]  D. Zapf,et al.  Emotionale Arbeitsanforderungen und ihre Konsequenzen bei Call Center-Arbeitsplätzen , 2002 .

[49]  C. L. Cooper,et al.  Handbook of Work and Health Psychology , 2003 .

[50]  Norbert K. Semmer,et al.  Conceptual Issues in Research on Stress and Health , 2004 .

[51]  M. D. Dunnette.  Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology , 2005 .