Personality traits and resilience as predictors of job stress and burnout among call centre employees

[摘要] English: Research has shown that staff members of call centres are experiencing high levels of job stress due to the demands of their jobs. Employees frequently have no control over their work environment and external factors that affect their performance and job satisfaction. They could, however, develop and utilize internal resources, like specific personality factors that can enable them to manage their job stress more effectively. The aims of the study was to determine the levels of job stress and burnout of staff members of a call centre and to identify specific personality factors that could be valid predictors of the ability of employees of a call centre to manage job stress and burnout effectively. Several studies have focused on the relationship between personality, job stress and burnout, but the Big Five personality traits and resilience as predictors of job stress and burnout have not received adequate attention. Non-probability sampling and specifically accidental sampling was used in a call centre in Bloemfontein, South Africa. The call centre involved is an out-bound, debt collecting call centre, with clients in South Africa and neighbouring states. A total of 187 employees in the call centre were involved in the study. The respondents were mainly black, female, single, South Sotho, between 21 and 25 years of age, acquired a grade 12 qualification and have served for less than one year. The measuring instruments that were used, include the International Personality Item Pool, the Resilience Scale, the Maslach Burnout Inventory (Human Services Survey) and the Experience of Work and Life Circumstances Questionnaire. Multiple stepwise regression analysis was used as statistical technique to process the data. Respondents exhibited a high level of job stress, an average level of emotional exhaustion, a high level of depersonalization and a low level of personal accomplishment. A significant linear relationship was found between job stress and specific Big Five personality factors, namely emotional stability and openness to experience. A significant linear relationship was also identified between conscientiousness and specific dimensions of burnout, namely emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. Resilience and more specifically acceptance of self and life was also found to be a valid predictor of depersonalization, a dimension of burnout. Conscientiousness, agreeableness and resilience were found to be valid predictors of the personal accomplishment dimension of burnout. Future research in this regard should be done with a more representative sample of call centres in South Africa in order to generalize the results to call centres in general. The personality factors that have been identified in this study as valid predictors of the effective management of job stress and burnout could be used for purposes of selection and training in call centres.

[发布机构] University of the Free State