Internationally, as well as locally, the trend is for companies to use call centres as their preferred method of service delivery. The increase in the use of call centres as a service delivery mechanism thus provides many more employment opportunities. Within call centres, service is primarily delivered by frontline employees referred to as customer service representatives (CSRs). While nothing seems to stop the growth of call centres and the increase of employment opportunities within them, working in call centres is not necessarily experienced as pleasant. Working in a call centre is frequently seen as stressful and the work in such a centre can foster burnout. Burnout is considered to be a pathogenic construct. The first purpose of this study was to describe and investigate the contribution of six central characteristics (antecedents) of call centre work environments and their influence on burnout, affective commitment and turnover intentions. These characteristics were work overload; electronic performance monitoring; lack of career and promotion opportunities, lack of skill variety and emotional labour. An incidental sample of customer service representatives (N=146) was obtained from the inbound service call centre of a large financial company. AU six independent variables were found to be significantly related to the experience of burnout, affective commitment and turnover intentions. Multiple regression analysis made it possible to establish that work overload, lack of career and promotion opportunities and skill variety, and emotional labour were the most important predictors of burnout, whereas lack of career and promotion opportunities was the most significant predictors of both affective commitment and turnover intentions. Burnout had a direct effect on turnover intentions and was not mediated by affective commitment. One antecedent that is often associated with the development of burnout is daily hassles, but daily hassles as an antecedent of burnout in call centres has not been studied before. The second purpose of this study was to develop a short Call Centre Daily Hassle Diagnostic Questionnaire that could be used to identify the most common daily hassles that call centre agents experience in their working lives, both within the work environment and within their day-to-day personal lives, and to determine the relationship between it and burnout. A cross-sectional survey research design was used with an accidental sample (N=394) taken from a service and sales call centre. An exploratory factor analysis of the data resulted in a six-factor model of daily hassles within call centres that significantly predicted exhaustion. The factors were daily demands, continuous change, co-worker hassles, demotivating work environment, transportation hassles and inner concerns. In the third part of this research thesis there is a shift away from the pathogenic paradigm towards a more salutogenic/fortigenic paradigm. Very little previous research has been done on adult resilience. The purpose of the third study was to explore the concept of adult resilience and to identify and describe the protective and vulnerability factors that play a role in adult resilience. Through the use of an exploratory factor analysis, eight factors were identified that played a role in adult resilience. They were Confidence and Optimism, Positive Reinterpretation, Facing Adversity, Support, Determination, Negative Rumination, Religion and Helplessness. Based on the findings of this research, some practical recommendations were made for the management of call centres to reduce the development of burnout and turnover intentions, on how to utilise the Hassle-based Diagnostic Scale and on how to apply the Adult Resilience Indicator in the training and development of resilience. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Industrial Psychology) )--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

This study outlines the strategies that were employed during the training of Grade 11 Physical Sciences teachers in the use and development of an Electronic Performance Support System (EPSS). The EPSS process involves extended individualised support for teachers through face-to-face training. A purposive sample was utilised and 22 Grade 11 Physical Sciences teachers participated in the study. Teachers’ skills and knowledge before and after the EPSS training process were measured on three measures of satisfaction (course material, the EPSS training process and the trainer’s competencies) and three measures regarding the EPSS (using an EPSS, creating a flowchart and designing an EPSS). A customer satisfaction index questionnaire and retrospective opinionnaire were used to collect data from the participants. Microsoft Excel was used to analyse data collected using the customer satisfaction index questionnaire. Furthermore a Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) program was used to analyse data collected using a retrospective opinionnaire. Significant effects were found on all six measures when comparing the skills of teachers before and after attending the EPSS training programme. The results reveal that teachers who participated in the research are satisfied with the use, design and development of an EPSS in education. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / unrestricted

Personal Informatics (PI) are information systems that allow people to process activities with the usage of information technology, aiming to produce informational products (data) either for themselves or for others. Technologies that enable PI are becoming increasingly popular, assisting people in collecting personally relevant information about their body and their behaviour. In sports industry nowadays, a great variety of PI wearable tools offer support to athletes and training staff to improve their performance. An example of such tool is the Electronic Performance and Tracking Systems (EPTS), which are a combination of hardware and software that facilitates the collection, storage, analysis and management of professional athletes’ fitness and health data. Although significant and broadly used, EPTS have not yet received much attention from researchers and, thus, understudied. Therefore, the master’s thesis explores the perceptions of professional football athletes and training staff regarding the use of EPTS in their everyday training and work. Furthermore, the master’s thesis research explores the benefits and challenges that professional football athletes and training staff experience when using EPTS in their everyday training and work. The master’s thesis study adopts the interpretive paradigm and qualitative ethnographic approach. The research data was collectedthrough direct observations in the field and semi-structured interviews from Greek professional football athletes and Greek training staff that use wearable EPTS in their everyday training and work and was analysed thematically. A theoretical framework, which is built upon relevant literature from the informatics field and along with the theory of sensemaking, is used to understand, interpret and discuss the research findings. The research outcome of the master’s thesis shows that communication is at the core of EPTS enabling football players and training staff to improve individual and team performance. Organizing of every day starts and ends with EPTS analysis and evaluation and better organized and daily evaluated football methodology appears as key benefit for the club. Coaches and trainers are now more data driven and accurate and analysts and trainers that conduct analysisof the data provided by EPTS are new members of the training staff. Evidence provided by EPTS build trust between staff and players and in the training staff. Visualization tools for presenting insights need to be further improved with the addition of in-field monitors and 3D presentations. Furthermore, it is important for training staff members to have ethical and consistent strategy on how data derived from EPTS are used on how data are communicated.  The research complements previous research on personal informatics and adjusts them to elite team sport context and adds to the theory of sensemaking regarding how users make sense of PI tools that are related with their everyday routines at work. In addition, it offers football training staff members a model for efficient use of EPTS technology into the everyday football practices and a model of sustainable use aiming the overall improvement of team performance.

L’économie des contrats complets prédit qu’au sein d’une relation d’agence d’une organisation productive, en présence d’aléa moral, un dispositif de vérification de l’information permet de répondre à la fois à un problème de coopération entre les individus et à un problème de coordination des activités. Cependant, au lieu de discipliner des comportements opportunistes, ce dispositif peut engendrer des coûts cachés et réduire la motivation intrinsèque des agents à réaliser une activité qui leur a été attribuée. Sous certaines conditions, il génère une réduction de l’activité, et une perte en termes d’allocation ce qui nuit à l’efficacité.Dans cette thèse de doctorat, nous avons conduit trois expérimentations contrôlées de terrain avec assignation aléatoire qui visaient à modifier les configurations du dispositif de vérification de l’information afin de résoudre un problème organisationnel propre à trois relations d’agence particulières.Dans notre premier chapitre, nous avons testé l’effet de la variation de la quantité d’informations détenues par les cotisants sur le dispositif de vérification de la déclaration sociale grâce à des messages ciblés contenant des explications sur le pouvoir de contrôle de l’Agence centrale des organismes de sécurité sociale (Acoss) afin de réduire la fraude sociale.Dans notre deuxième chapitre, nous avons testé la réduction de l’intensité de la surveillance électronique de la performance des conseillers d’un centre d’appels sous-traitants afin d’améliorer leur qualité de vie au travail.Enfin, dans notre troisième chapitre, nous avons testé l’effet de la négociation contractuelle du dispositif d’évaluation de la participation des étudiants de licence pendant les travaux dirigés afin d’améliorer leur réussite à l’université. / Economics of complete contracts foresees that within an agency relationship of a productive organization, in the presence of moral hazard, an information check device can address both a problem of cooperation between individuals and a problem of coordination of activities. However, instead of disciplining opportunistic behaviours, this device can generate hidden costs and reduce the intrinsic motivation of agents to perform an activity that has been assigned to them. Under certain conditions, it generates a reduction of the outcome, and a loss in terms of allocation, which is detrimental to efficiency.In this Ph.D. thesis, we conducted three randomized controlled field trials that aimed at modifying the configurations of the information check device to solve an organizational problem specific to three specific agency relationships.In our first chapter, we tested the effect of varying the amount of information held by contributors on the social reporting verification device through targeted messages containing explanations of the control power of the Agence centrale des organisations de sécurité sociale (Acoss) in order to reduce social fraud.In our second chapter, we tested the reduction in the intensity of the electronic monitoring of the performance of advisors of an outsourced call centre in order to improve their quality of life at work.Finally, in our third chapter, we tested the effect of the contractual negotiation of the device which evaluate the participation of undergraduate students during the tutorials in order to improve their success at the university.

Do you remember the first time you used an Automatic Teller Machine (ATM)? Or a pay-at-the-pump gas station? Or an airline e-ticket kiosk? How did you know what to do? Although you never received any formal instruction in how to interact with the self-service technology, you were likely able to accomplish your task (e.g., withdrawing or depositing money) as successfully as an experienced user. However, not so long ago, to accomplish that same task, you needed the direct mediation of a service professional who had been trained how to use the required complex technology. What has changed? In short, the technology is now able to compensate for the average consumer's lack of experience with the transactional system. The technology itself bridges the performance gap, allowing a novice to accomplish the same task as an experienced professional. This shift to a self-service paradigm is completely changing the dynamics of the consumer relationship with the capitalist enterprise, resulting in what is rapidly becoming the default consumer interface of the postmodern era. The recognition that the entire performance support apparatus now revolves around the end user/consumer rather than the employee represents a tectonic shift in the workforce training industry. What emerges is a homogenized consumer culture enabled by self-service technologies--a kiosk culture. No longer is the ability to interact with complex technology confined to a privileged workforce minority who has access to expensive and time-consuming training. The growth of the kiosk culture is being driven equally by business financial pressures, consumer demand for more efficient transactions, and the improved sophistication of compensatory technology that allows a novice to perform a task with the same competence as an expert. "The Kiosk Culture" examines all aspects of self-service technology and its ascendancy. Beyond the milieu of business, the kiosk culture is also infiltrating all corners of society, including medicine, athletics, and the arts, forcing us to re-examine our definitions of knowledge, skills, performance, and even humanity. The current ubiquity of self-service technology has already impacted our society and will continue to do so as we ride the rising tide of the kiosk culture.