Engagement in call centres : exploring eliciting factors

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Researchers have labelled call centres as the modern equivalent of the 'factorysweatshops' of the industrial era, and refer to them as the 'satanic mills of the21st century'. A review of the literature revealed the lack of employeeengagement amongst call centre representatives (CCRs) to be a central concernin this fast-emerging global industry. Consequently, the current study wasundertaken to identify and investigate various antecedents of employeeengagement.The objective of the study was, firstly, to gauge the level of employeeengagement amongst a sample of CCRs in South Africa and, secondly, to trackthe paths through which salient antecedents affect this engagement. Morespecifically, the relationships between sense of coherence (SOC), leadershipeffectiveness (LE), team effectiveness (TE) and employee engagement (E) wereinvestigated. A quantitative research approach was followed whereby a positivepsychology paradigm underpinned the examination of specific personal and jobresources that could enhance engagement within the call centre environment.A cross-sectional survey design was used and a non-probability convenientsample of 215 CCRs was selected. The measuring instruments comprised theUtrecht Work Engagement Scale of Schaufeli and Bakker (2003) to measureengagement, the Team Diagnostic Survey of Wageman, Hackman and Lehman(2005) to measure team effectiveness, the Leadership Practices Inventory ofKouzes and Posner (2001) to gauge leadership effectiveness, and theOrientation to Life Questionnaire of Antonovsky (1987) to measure sense ofcoherence. A series of structural equation modelling analyses were performed.Contrary to the 'electronic sweatshop' image and its attendant symptoms ofdepression, emotional exhaustion, anxiety, demotivation and dissatisfactionattached to call centre jobs (depicted in the literature), the results show a high level of employee engagement for the CCRs in the sample. Also, personalresources, such as SOC, and job resources, such as TE, related significantly toE. A non-significant relationship was found to exist between LE and E. Theimplications of the results for the practice of human resource management in callcentres are elaborated upon.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University