Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2008. / Full text also available online. Scroll down for electronic link.

Thesis (D.Psych.) - James Cook University, 2005. / Typescript (photocopy) Bibliography: leaves 203-223.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--Regis University, Denver, Colo., 2009. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on May 27, 2009). Includes bibliographical references.

This dissertation is concerned with the everyday lives of transnational Indian call center workers when situated within the global politics of voice-based outsourcing. The call center economy gained impetus in early 2000-2001, when multinational corporations began to train young men and women in India to mask their spatial and temporal location, in order that they could serve customers in the US and the UK. Taking calls through the night to serve the work day of Western consumers, these customer service agents were asked to assume a different name, location, and cultural and language markers, as part of the requirements of work. I explore the ways in which these young, middle-class workers located themselves within practices, contentious representations, and material outcomes of this transnational outsourcing economy. Through ethnographic research in Pune, a prominent university town and call center hub in western India, I investigate (1) everyday life in and out of the call center, (2) labor management practices within call centers, and (3) the socio-economic and cultural transformations that accompanied and framed the development of the urban Indian call center economy. This research engages with the machinations of multinational corporations as they incorporate large number of labor forces worldwide into transnational work. It builds on three main bodies of theory - flexible or late capital and flexibility, the South Asian postcolonial nation-state, and affective labor. Through these, I provide a thick description of the history, construction, maintenance and disruption of this site, as also the ways in which this particular story of capital was stabilized. I engage with questions such as, what complex negotiations underlie the ostensible success of new service economies in India? What are its cultural, political and economic determinants and ramifications? What grounds are the claims of state, capital and culture being contested or reified upon, and what do such negotiations mean for service workers within the landscape of urban India? This dissertation shows how the practice of everyday life in this transnational milieu is best explained as the collusion and tension between the contested socio-economic spaces of the new Indian middle-classes and middle-class-ness, and an ungrounded discourse of mobile and flexible capital. The stories of call center workers in this analysis are the stories of particular subjects called upon and striving to be constantly flexible in order to successfully become middle-class and global in the same breath, one often seamlessly overlapping the other. / text

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2009. / "Graduate Program in Communication, Information and Library Studies." Includes bibliographical references (p. 185-193).

Contact Centre agents operate in closely monitored and highly controlled environments and their work consists of solving service requests or assisting customers with information on products or services. Consequently their work involves a great deal of emotional labour and stress. It is not surprising then, that the working environment of the Contact Centre is reported to have a negative impact on the levels of Quality of Worklife of Contact Centre agents, and that in the Contact Centre context, it is likely that low levels of Quality of Worklife exist. It is argued that it is important for organisations to be particularly aware of the Quality of Worklife perceptions of their employees should they want to address Quality of Worklife levels and benefit from the positive consequences of higher levels of the construct. Numerous variables are reported to play either an antecedent, moderating, mediating, or consequential role in relation to the Quality of Worklife construct. A systems model of Quality of Worklife is developed, which illustrates the inter-relationships of these variables and how they affect and are affected by the Quality of Worklife construct. It is argued that leadership is an important antecedent to Quality of Worklife, and this is the antecedent of interest in this study. It is proposed that it is not just any leadership that will contribute to an improved Quality of Worklife, particularly within a challenging context such as the Contact Centre environment. Rather, it is suggested that certain qualities of leaders will have a greater influence on Quality of Worklife. For example, leaders who focus on relationships and are caring - characteristics associated with servant leaders - are deemed more suitable for the Contact Centre context. The research also proposes that there are close associations between Servant Leadership and Trust, which in turn has the potential to affect Quality of Worklife positively. It is argued, therefore, that Trust mediates the relationship between Servant Leadership and Quality of Worklife in the customer service frontline context. While there is a broad base of literature available on servant leadership that focuses on the senior or executive level of leadership, Van Dierendonck and Nuijten (2011) have argued that it is also relevant at the middle level of management and have validated an eight dimensional measure of servant leadership that is suitable for this management level. The Van Laar, Edwards and Easton (2007) Quality of Worklife model is also argued to be an appropriate model and measure of the Quality of Worklife construct, due to the robustness of the instrument design and the appropriateness of its underlying theory to the context of this research. Research has shown that leadership can have a significant relationship with Quality of Worklife. Moreover, a review of the literature on servant leadership reveals that trust, satisfaction, general well-being, and commitment to their jobs increases when employees are exposed to leadership behaviours associated with servant leadership. There is however, no evidence in the literature of any investigation of the relationship between Servant Leadership and Quality of Worklife, or of research investigating the partial mediating effects of Trust between these two constructs. Research was conducted to test this relationship. A survey questionnaire was administered amongst a sample of 555 Contact Centre agents, who were employed in eight different organisations. Confirmatory factor analysis procedures were conducted in STATA (V15.0), to test and validate the factor structure of Servant Leadership and Quality of Worklife models. The research also produced a Servant Leadership, Trust and Quality of Worklife structural equation model that supported the hypotheses of the relationships between the constructs. Mediation analysis confirmed Trust’s role as a mediator between Servant Leadership and Quality of Worklife. The structural equation model confirmed that synergies between Servant Leadership, Trust and Quality of Worklife exist, and that Trust partially mediates the relationship between Servant Leadership and Quality of Worklife. It is therefore argued that an increase in Servant Leadership behaviour by the manager or supervisor of frontline staff has a positive association with increases of Trust, as well as positive associations with Quality of Worklife experienced by employees in the frontline context. Moreover, it is also posited that the relationship between Servant Leadership and Quality of Worklife is partially mediated by Trust of the supervisor. The implications of these results are discussed, and recommendations made for management practice and further research.

The objective of this study was to: (1) assess the overall wellness climate profile of a sample of higher education call centre employees for national benchmarking purposes; (2) explore the relationship between the participants‟ sense of coherence, affective wellbeing and burnout; and (3) determine how the participants differ regarding these variables in terms of socio-demographic contextual factors such as gender, race, age, and marital status. The South African Employee Health and Wellness Survey was used as a measuring instrument. Compared to the national norm, the results indicated a risky wellness climate reflecting a burnout propensity, lower morale (affective wellbeing) and lower resilience (sense of coherence). Significant relations existed between the participants‟ sense of coherence, affective wellbeing and burnout levels. Significant differences regarding these variables were also detected between males and females and the various marital status groups regarding the participants‟ sense of coherence, affective wellbeing and burnout. The findings of this study contributed new knowledge that may be used to inform employee wellness programmes within a higher education call centre environment. The study concluded with recommendations for future research and practice. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M. Comm. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

The objective of this study was to: (1) assess the overall wellness climate profile of a sample of higher education call centre employees for national benchmarking purposes; (2) explore the relationship between the participants‟ sense of coherence, affective wellbeing and burnout; and (3) determine how the participants differ regarding these variables in terms of socio-demographic contextual factors such as gender, race, age, and marital status. The South African Employee Health and Wellness Survey was used as a measuring instrument. Compared to the national norm, the results indicated a risky wellness climate reflecting a burnout propensity, lower morale (affective wellbeing) and lower resilience (sense of coherence). Significant relations existed between the participants‟ sense of coherence, affective wellbeing and burnout levels. Significant differences regarding these variables were also detected between males and females and the various marital status groups regarding the participants‟ sense of coherence, affective wellbeing and burnout. The findings of this study contributed new knowledge that may be used to inform employee wellness programmes within a higher education call centre environment. The study concluded with recommendations for future research and practice. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M. Comm. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

The objective of this study was to: (1) assess the overall wellness climate profile of a sample of higher education call centre employees for national benchmarking purposes; (2) explore the relationship between the participants‟ sense of coherence, affective wellbeing and burnout; and (3) determine how the participants differ regarding these variables in terms of socio-demographic contextual factors such as gender, race, age, and marital status. The South African Employee Health and Wellness Survey was used as a measuring instrument. Compared to the national norm, the results indicated a risky wellness climate reflecting a burnout propensity, lower morale (affective wellbeing) and lower resilience (sense of coherence). Significant relations existed between the participants‟ sense of coherence, affective wellbeing and burnout levels. Significant differences regarding these variables were also detected between males and females and the various marital status groups regarding the participants‟ sense of coherence, affective wellbeing and burnout. The findings of this study contributed new knowledge that may be used to inform employee wellness programmes within a higher education call centre environment. The study concluded with recommendations for future research and practice. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M. Comm. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Technology: Business Administration in the Faculty of Business at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology 2014 / Call centres have become an important source for organisations to provide efficient information to their customers through cost-effective communication channels. Call centres are defined as a work environment in which the main business is mediated by computer- and telephone-based technologies that allow the effective distribution of incoming calls to available staff, and permit customer–employee communication simultaneously with the use of display screen equipment (DSE) and instant access to information. Working in a call centre is often linked with high stress levels, difficult customers, shift work, high workload demand, absenteeism and high employee turnover rates. The work characteristics of call centres include performance targets where employees are required to achieve set targets, undergo close performance monitoring, performance appraisal systems, limited task variation, repetitive work and limited autonomy. The physical environment in the call centre is often associated with open-plan office layouts and booths where noise levels and workstations are positioned in close proximity to each other. Wellbeing in call centres has become a concern and the research was undertaken to establish what effects the working environment (physical environment and job characteristics) in call centres in the Cape Metropole has on the wellbeing of call centre agents. A quantitative research method was employed in the study. A structured questionnaire was distributed via SurveyMonkey® to call centre agents from four participating call centres in the Cape Metropole. The combined target population of the four call centres was 760. A sample size of 200 was determined by using the Raosoft Incorporated® calculation tool. Although the aforesaid sample size sufficed, a response rate of 275 was received. Questions relating to job characteristics and significance of the work were based on the Job Diagnostic Survey by Hackman and Oldham. Social support questions were based on the instrument developed by Caplan, Cobb, French, Van Harrison & Pinneau in 1975. Job demand questions were based on the instrument developed by Karasek in 1979, and only the section on job demand was used. Performance monitoring and physical work environment were measured by using the questions based on these variables by Sprigg et al in 2003. Emotional wellbeing questions relating to burnout were measured using the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory. The wellbeing questions relating to vocal health, optical health and auditory health were based on the questionnaires developed by Sprigg et al. in 2003. General health was measured using the “Somatic Complaints” section of the NIOSH Generic Job Stress Questionnaire. Musculoskeletal health problems were measured using the Cornell Musculoskeletal Discomfort Questionnaire (CMDQ) developed by Hedge in 1994. Research question 1 addressed the gender perceptions of job characteristics, physical work environment and emotional and physical wellbeing. A T-test was conducted to answer the research question and the results revealed that there was no significant difference in gender perception on job characteristics; however there was a significant difference in perception of the physical work environment and wellbeing. Research question 2 addressed whether there is a significant difference in emotional and physical wellbeing experienced by call centre agents from various industries. A MANOVA analysis was conducted to determine the significance in industries, p = .015, and an ANOVA analysis was conducted that revealed agents working in the online retail as well as financial service industries were more likely to experience disengagement, p = .035. Research question 3 addressed the factors in the workplace environment that contribute to emotional and physical wellbeing problems. An ANOVA analysis was conducted and the results revealed lack of skills variety, p = .014, contributes to exhaustion; lack of autonomy, p = .040, contributes to disengagement; lack of supervisor support, p = .009, contributes to exhaustion, job demands, p = .000, contribute to exhaustion, performance monitoring, p = .036, contributes to exhaustion; and workstation layout, p = .001, contributes to auditory health problems. Research question 4 addressed whether there is a significant relationship between job characteristics, physical work environment and wellbeing. A Pearson correlation analysis was conducted and the results revealed that there is a significant relationship between job characteristics, physical work environment, and wellbeing. It can be concluded that the workplace environment does have an impact on the wellbeing of call centre agents in the Cape Metropole. It is imperative that the management of call centres understand the nature of the job and how the physical environment contributes to job stress; burnout; vocal, auditory, and optical health problems; and musculoskeletal disorders. The researcher recognises that there are essential job characteristics associated with call centre work but that there are elements of the job that can be redesigned to improve the wellbeing of call centre agents. It is recommended that management implement interventions which will redesign those elements within the workplace environment that contribute to wellbeing issues. The findings of this study add to existing literature and knowledge of the workplace environment and wellbeing of call centre agents.