This paper discusses the relationship between hardiness personality and workers’ voluntary resignation from call center jobs. The aim is to understand the decision to leave through a subject’s personality. The hardiness personality questionnaire developed by Moreno, Garrosa and Gonzalez (2000) was administered to a sample of 81 telemarketers. A higher probability of voluntary resignation was found in those with low hardiness personality as well as in those with higher levels of education. The greater permanence of workers with a high level of hardiness personality shows that there are individual traits that facilitate the way in which the worker deals with the demands and the perception of the work setting, which influences the voluntary resignation decision in this type of organizations. / En el presente trabajo se analiza la relación entre la personalidad resistente, y el egreso voluntario de los trabajadores en call centers. Se pretende entender la decisión de egreso, a través de la personalidad. Se aplicó el cuestionario de personalidad resistente desarrollado por Moreno, Garrosa y Gonzalez (2000) a una muestra de 81 teleoperadores. Se encontró una probabilidad mayor de egreso voluntario en las personas con baja personalidad resistente así como las que cuentan con mayores niveles de escolaridad. Esto nos permite señalar que existen rasgos individuales que facilitan la gestión de las demandas y la percepción sobre el contexto laboral que influye en la decisión de egreso en este tipo de organizaciones. / Dans le présent travail, la relation entre la personnalité résistante et le départ volontaire des travailleurs dans les centres d’appels est analysée. Il est destiné à comprendre la décision de sortir, à travers la personnalité. Le questionnaire sur la personnalité résistante développé par Moreno, Garrosa et Gonzalez (2000) a été appliqué à un échantillon de 81 télévendeurs. Nous avons trouvé une probabilité plus élevée de départ volontaire chez les personnes à faible personnalité résistante ainsi que chez celles ayant un niveau de scolarité plus élevé. Cela nous permet de souligner qu’il existe des caractéristiques individuelles qui facilitent la gestion des demandes et la perception du contexte de travail qui influence la décision de quitter ce type d’organisation. / Neste trabalho se analisa, a relação entre a personalidade resistente e a saída voluntária dos trabalhadores em centros de chamada. Pretende-se compreender a decisão de saída, através da personalidade. Foi aplicado o questionário de personalidade resistente desenvolvido por Moreno, Garrosa e Gonzalez (2000) em uma mostra de 81 teleoperadores. Uma maior probabilidade de retirada voluntária foi encontrada em pessoas com baixa personalidade resistente assim como aqueles com níveis mais elevados de escolaridade. Isso nos permite apontar que existem traços individuais que facilitam o gerenciamento das demandas e a percepção sobre o contexto de trabalho que influencia a decisão de saída neste tipo de organizações

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.

Thesis (MBA (Business Management))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The contact centre industry is a relatively new concept that hit the business world in this millennium. Many companies, realising the lower cost of operations through the use of a contact centre embraced this and made it part of their business strategy. Faced with a higher level of expectations from customers, the current set-up of Telecom Namibia's call centre as it is now called, needs to undergo a major shape-up in providing services beyond the traditional inbound services to its own customers. Like all other industries and businesses, the establishment of call centres can be attributed to technological advances in integrated telephone computer technology, the convenience factor for consumers, and substantial cost reductions achieved by telephone service delivery in contrast to face-to-face contact. This change is manifested by the fact that virtually every business worldwide has a home website with a "Contact Us" option, online services and various other means of providing client services beside the normal phone call service. This is why the name call centre as it is commonly called has now been changed to contact centre. Most companies invest heavily in the call centre with the expectation that the investment will result in higher productivity and efficiency. However, customer satisfaction with call centre service is "notoriously" low. This can be attributed to the fact that in most instances, customers' queries, especially on the online "Contact Us" option, get lost or are left unanswered. Establishing a contact centre requires not only financial and technological resources but most importantly, human resources. This can be an expensive proposition for most businesses, especially for small to medium enterprises. The rapid growth of call centres due to the higher expectation for efficient delivery of services comes at a cost which most companies cannot afford. This from a strategic standpoint provides a window of opportunity for Telecom Namibia to expand its business by providing contact centre service to businesses in Namibia and in the distant future to the rest of Africa. In order to achieve this however, it needs to develop a strategic blueprint that would serve as a guideline in implementing best known practices for an efficient contact centre. The blueprint should address amongst others: • Organisational structure • Human capacity and workforce management • Technology and support systems • Business processes • Marketing and sales • Financial implications This in effect involves analysing the value chain that would lead to a competitive advantage over rivals in the contact centre industry. Recommendation: The report aims to provide an analysis of what the company needs to do in order to prepare itself for the challenges that will lie ahead in extending this service to other companies and the challenges it will face from competitors providing the same service throughout the world. It is recommended that Telecom Namibia should reposition itself by expanding its business to the contact centre industry which should aim to achieve the following goals: • To meet customers' higher level of expectations of efficiency. • To uplift Telecom Namibia's contact centre to be one of the best in the world. • To meet the organisation's vision of being the provider of telecommunications services of world class standards. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die kontaksentrum nywerheid is 'n relatiewe nuwe begrip wat die sakewêreld in die millennium getref het. Met die besef dat die gebruik van 'n kontaksentrum die koste verbonde aan operasies aansienlik kan verlaag het baie maatskappye hierdie idee aanvaar en dit deel gemaak van hulle sakestrategie. Namate kliënte hoër verwagtinge begin openbaar, sal Telecom Namibia se huidge kontaksentrum, oftewel sy inbelsentrum soos dit nou bekendstaan, 'n grootskeepse reorganisasie moet ondergaan ten opsigte van die verskaffing van dienste buiten die tradisionele inkomende dienste aan sy eie kliënte. Soos alle ander nywerhede en sakeondernemings kan die daarstelling van inbelsentrums toegeskryf word aan tegnologiese vooruitgang ten opsigte van geintegreerde telefoonrekenaartegnologie, die gerieflikheidsfaktor vir verbruikers en aansienlike kostebesparings wat behaal word deur telefoondiensverskaffing in teenstelling met kontak van aangesig tot aangesig. Hierdie verandering word bewys deur die feit dat bykans elke sakeonderneming ter wêreld oor 'n webtuiste beskik wat 'n "Kontak ons" opsie, aanlyn dienste en verskeie ander opsies bied, afgesien van die normale telefoondiens. Daarom is die naam inbelsentrum, soos dit algemeen bekendstaan, nou verander na kontaksentrum. Die meeste maatskappye belê op groot skaal in die inbelsentrum met die verwagting dat die belegging sal uitloop op hoër produktiwiteit en doeltreffendheid. Kliëntebevrediging ten opsigte van die diens gelewer deur inbelsentrums is egter baie laag, so min as 54 persent. Dit kan toegeskryf word aan die feit dat kliënte se navrae, veral deur die aanlyn "kontak ons" opsie, in die meeste gevalle verlore gaan of onbeantwoord bly. Om 'n kontaksentrum te vestig verg nie slegs finansiële en tegnologiese hulpbronne nie maar ook menslike hulpbronne, wat waarskynlik die heel belangrikste is. Dit kan 'n duur opsie wees vir die meeste sakeondernemings, veral vir middelslag en klein besighede. Die vinnige groei van inbelsentrums as gevolg van die hoër verwagtings ten opsigte van doeltreffende lewering van dienste verg 'n prys wat die meeste maatskappye nie kan betaal nie. Gesien uit 'n strategiese oogpunt verskaf dit vir Telecom Namibia 'n geleentheid om sy besigheid uit te brei deur kontaksentrumdienste te lewer aan sakeondernemings in Namibie en in die verre toekoms aan die res van Afrika. Om egter hierdie doelwit te bereik moet 'n strategiese bloudruk ontwikkel word wat sal dien as 'n riglyn om die beste bekende praktyke te implimenteer vir 'n doeltreffende kontaksentrum. Die bloudruk behoort onder meer die volgende aan te spreek: • Organisatoriese struktuur • Menslike kapasiteit en personeelbestuur • Tegnologie en ondersteuningstelsels • Sakeprossesse • Bemarking en verkope • Finansiele implikasies Dit sal, uit die aard van die saak, beteken dat die waardeketting ontleed moet word wat sal lei tot 'n kompeterende voordeel oor mededingers in die kontaksentrumnywerheid. Aanbeveling: Hierdie verslag is daarop gemik om 'n ontleding te verskaf van wat die maatskappy moet doen ten einde hom self voor te berei vir die uitdagings wat sal voorlê ten opsigte van die uitbreiding van hierdie diens na ander maatskappye en die uitdagings wat dit te bowe sal moet kom van mededingers wat dieselfde dienste dwarsoor die wêreld bied. Daar word aanbeveel dat Telecom Namibia homself moet herposisioneer deur sy besigheid uit te brei na die kontaksentrumnywerheid wat die volgende doelwitte moet nastreef: • Om kliënte se hoër vlakke van verwagting ten opsigte van doeltreffendheid te bevredig. • Om Telecom Namibia se kontaksentrum te verhef tot een van die beste ter wereld. • Om die organisasie se visie te verwenslik om die verskaffer van telekommunikasiedienste met standaarde van wêreldgehalte te wees.

This dissertation focuses on reexamining traditional management problems that emerge in service systems where customers or jobs queue for service. In particular, we investigate how a manger should make maintenance and routing decisions in settings where there is a departure from traditional modeling assumptions. In many cases, the performance evaluation of a management problems has, at its heart, a complex, infinite Markov chain which must be solved before any optimization can begin. Unfortunately, most Markov chains are not analytically tractable. In the first essay, we address the solution of infinite state Markov chains. We focus on class M Markov chains, a broad class of chains which is representative of a wide array of problems arising in the management of computer, service, and manufacturing systems where queueing parameters change over time according to a restricted stochastic pattern. We develop a new method, called Clearing Analysis on Phases, for the limiting probability distribution of such chains in exact closed form. In the second essay, we apply the CAP method to answer the question of how a manager should maintain a system in a setting where an online customer-facing service is vulnerable to persistent malware infections. These infections can cause performance degradation and facilitate data theft, both of which have monetary repercussions. Infections can go undetected and can only be removed by a timeconsuming cleanup procedure, which takes the service offline and causes all existing jobs to be discarded without service. In particular, we provide recommendations for when (and in response to what events) a manager should initiate cleanup procedures by solving an infinite state maintenance problem. We quantify the efficiency of various cleanup (maintenance) policies by proposing a revenue model which incorporates both delay-based pricing and data theft costs. In the third essay, we examine queueing systems in call centers and answer the question of a how a manager should route customers to strategic staff who choose their own service rates in response to workload incentives. We address this problem using game theoretic techniques. In particular, we introduce a utility model where the servers choose their service rate in order to maximize a tradeoff between an “effort cost” and a “value of idleness.” We find that relaxing the classical assumption that all servers work at a fixed rate renders traditional routing policies inadequate. Our approach allows us to recommend novel routing policies that are both fair for the staff and efficient for the customers. In the fourth essay we look at web server farms and answer the question of how jobs should be immediately routed to computer servers in a setting where some jobs are more valuable or more important than others. Such settings arise when some jobs are generated by users who are paying for a premium service. We address how a manager should incorporate information about a job’s value when making routing decisions in order to minimize expected value-weighted response times. The heterogeneity in job values greatly the dimensionality of this problem. Via a combination of exact analysis, asymptotic analysis, and simulation, we are able to deduce many unexpected results regarding routing.

O crescimento do setor de serviços e sua representatividade na economia brasileira, tem se mostrado muito consistente. Com especial destaque a telecomunicação, que mostra uma intensa apropriação dos avanços tecnológicos e das repercussões das alterações do molde produtivo do capital. O telemarketing atua como um canal que recebe informações, críticas e sugestões de clientes e divulga produtos e serviços de forma rápida, pelo telefone e estruturase em um diálogo padronizado, que acontece à distância, mas em tempo real. Seu objetivo central é a concretização de negócios, pois as centrais de telemarketing oferecem serviços como novas formas de venda pelo telefone ou atendimento ao cliente. As relações entre operador e usuário se fundamentam em um tipo de trabalho cuja natureza é predominantemente cognitiva e caracterizada pelas funções perceptivas e mentais solicitadas no decorrer do trabalho. Este estudo de caráter qualitativo, objetiva investigar as condições de trabalho dos operadores de telemarketing de uma empresa privada da cidade de Uberlândia- MG, para identificar em que medida as formas de organização do trabalho, às quais estes trabalhadores estão submetidos, interferem em sua saúde, segundo seus próprios depoimentos. Foram entrevistados dez operadores de ambos os sexos, com mais de 18 anos e com no mínimo um ano de contratação. Todas as entrevistas, que foram gravadas, foram realizadas no domicilio dos trabalhadores. A partir dos relatos dos entrevistados foram levantadas as principais queixas de saúde, aqui entendida em seus pelos trabalhadores do setor pesquisado, e estabelecida a sua relação com as condições de trabalho. A reestruturação do modelo produtivo impetrada pelo capital acarretou repercussões funestas nas condições de trabalho e consequentemente na saúde dos trabalhadores. Em especial, os trabalhadores desse setor sofrem com a constante pressão por produtividade a que são submetidos. Os dados revelaram que a intensificação do ritmo de trabalho, o rígido controle exercido aspectos mais amplos, e por isso, envolvendo questões de ordem física e psíquica apresentadas sobre os trabalhadores para o cumprimento de padrões pré-estabelecidos de atendimento dentro de um período de tempo limitado e as condições físicas do ambiente de trabalho, como iluminação, ventilação e condições dos equipamentos acabam por influenciar na saúde desses trabalhadores desencadeando diversos sintomas de ordem física e psíquica. / The expansion of the telemarketing sector in the Brazilian economy has been very consistent. Telemarketing shows an intense use of technologic advances and also reflect the consequences of the transformation of the capital´s production way. Telermarketing acts as a channel that receives information, criticism and suggestions from clients, and also, advertises products and services, in a fast way, by phone. It is based in a previously established dialogue, at a distance but in a real time. It´s main objective is to reinforce a relationship between client and business, offering different ways of phone selling and support to the consumers. The relationship between phone operator and client is based on a performance of cognitive nature, caracterized by perceptive and mental aspects during the work. This study, of qualifying aspect, investigates the working conditions of telemarketing operators in a private company in Uberlandia, MG, to identify, in which ways this type of work affects their health, according to their own reports. Data were collected through recorded interviews with 10 telemarketing operators, men and women, over 18 years old and with, at least, one year experience. They were contacted through personal indication. All interviews were performed at their homes. Based on their personal reports, their main health complaints were listed, involving physical, psychological and social aspects, all related to poor work conditions. The capitalism urge a new productive model that brings terrible consequences to work conditions e consequently to general aspects of worker´s health. There is intense pressure on workers for productivity, due to a modern capitalist model, directed toward maximizing efficiency and productivity. Collected data demonstrate that telemarketing operators are experiencing an increase of work load, a rigid control by supervisors on established patterns (script and time limit), and poor physical conditions at workstation, such as inadequate light, ventilation, equipment, which affect their health, increasing risks of physical and psychological disorders.

In the first half of this thesis, we extend the results of Halfin and Whitt to generally distributed service times. This is accomplished by first writing the system equations for the G/GI/N queue in a manner similar to the system equations for G/GI/Infinity queue. We next identify a key relationship between these two queues. This relationship allows us to leverage several existing results for the G/GI/Infinity queue in order to prove our main result. Our main result in the first part of this thesis is to show that the diffusion scaled queue length process for the G/GI/N queue in the Halfin-Whitt regime converges to a limiting stochastic process which is driven by a Gaussian process and satisfies a stochastic convolution equation. We also show that a similar result holds true for the fluid scaled queue length process under general initial conditions. Customer abandonment is also a common feature of many call centers. Some researchers have even gone so far as to suggest that the level of customer abandonment is the single most important metric with regards to a call center's performance. In the second half of this thesis, we improve upon a result of Ward and Glynn's concerning the GI/GI/1+GI queue in heavy traffic. Whereas Ward and Glynn obtain a diffusion limit result for the GI/GI/1+GI queue in heavy traffic which incorporates only the density the abandonment distribution at the origin, our result incorporate the entire abandonment distribution. This is accomplished by a scaling the hazard rate function of the abandonment distribution as the system moves into heavy traffic. Our main results are to obtain diffusion limits for the properly scaled workload and queue length processes in the GI/GI/1+GI queue. The limiting diffusions we obtain are reflected at the origin with a negative drift which is dependent upon the hazard rate of the abandonment distribution. Because these diffusions have an analytically tractable steady-state distribution, they can be used to provide a closed-form approximation for the steady-state distribution of the queue length and workload processes in a GI/GI/1+GI queue. We demonstrate the accuracy of these approximations through simulation.

Call centers have been introduced with great success by many service‐oriented companies. They become the main point of contact with the customer, and an integral part of the majority of corporations. The large‐scale emergence of call centers has created a fertile source of management issues. In this PhD thesis, we focus on various operations management issues of multi‐skill and multichannel call centers. The objective of our work is to derive, both qualitative and quantitative, results for practical management. In the first part, we focus on architectures with limited flexibility for multi‐skill call centers. The context is that of call centers with asymmetric parameters: unbalanced workload, different service requirements, a predominant customer type, unbalanced abandonments and high costs of crosstraining. The most knowing architectures with limited flexibility such as chaining fail against such asymmetry. We propose a new architecture referred to as single pooling with only two skills per agent and we demonstrate its efficiency under various situations of asymmetry. In the second part, we focus on routing problems in multi‐channel call centers. In the first study, we consider a blended call center with calls arriving over time and an infinitely backlogged queue of emails. The call service is characterized by three successive stages where the second one is a break. We focus on the optimization of the email routing to agents. The objective is to maximize the throughput of emails subject to a constraint on the call waiting time. Various guidelines to call center managers are provided. In particular, we prove for the optimal routing that all the time at least one of the two email routing parameters has an extreme value. In the second study, we examine a threshold policy on the reservation of agents for the inbound calls. We study a general non‐stationary model where the call arrival follows a non‐homogeneous Poisson process. The optimization problem consists on maximizing the throughput of outbound tasks under a constraint on the waiting time of inbound calls. We propose an efficient adaptive threshold policy easy to implement. This scheduling policy is evaluated through a comparison with the optimal performance measures found in the case of a constant stationary arrival rate, and also a comparison with other intuitive adaptive threshold policies in the general non‐stationary case. In the third study, we consider a call center model with a call back option, which allows to transform an inbound call into an outbound one. The optimization problem consists on minimizing the expected waiting time of the outbound calls while respecting a service level constraint on the inbound ones. We propose a routing policy with two thresholds, one on the reservation of the agents for inbound calls, and another on the number of waiting outbound calls. A curve relating the two thresholds is determined.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2007. / Also available as an electronic resource. Includes bibliographical references (p. 159-168).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed June 8, 2007). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 159-168).