The technological era in which modern day organisations function, attempting to make every aspect of service more efficient and customer friendly, has cultivated a need within organisations to invent new ways of service. Call centres are one way in which organisations are trying to improve their customer service. For this reason, telephone call centres are one of the fastest growing segments of the service sector. The growth in call centres is attributable to the benefits that they offer organisations. Call centres can improve service and retain customers, increase sales and/or revenue and reduce costs and/or improve efficiency. For this reason, organisations are placing an increasing emphasis on the role of call centres regarding the competitiveness of the company and increased pressure on call centre agents. Research indicated that there are certain stressors in the call centre industry. This is emphasised by the high turnover rate and by high absenteeism levels in call centres. Although some studies seem to suggest that working in call centres can be interesting, overall it seems that working in call centres is a stressful experience. The objective of this research was to investigate the relationship between job characteristics, work wellness and work-related flow of call centre agents in an insurance company. A cross-sectional design was used with an availability sample (N = 176). A self-constructed instrument (JDRS) was used to measure the unique job demands and job resources in the insurance industry. Along with the JDRS, the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory, the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale and the Work-Related Flow Scale were used as measuring instruments. Results showed that the unique job demands in a call centre are pressure, working conditions, workload, and job security. The unique job resources are supervision, resources availability, task freedom, pay and benefits, opportunity for growth, and support. Work wellness was found to comprise burnout, work engagement and work-related flow. Multiple regression analysis showed that 6% of the variance in Mental Distance was predicted by Job Demands, with Working Conditions being the only significant predictor. Within Exhaustion, 11% of the variance explained was predicted by Job Demands, with Job Security and Working Conditions being the only significant predictors. No statistically significant predictions were obtained for Work Engagement and Work-Related Flow (i.e. Absorption and Flow). Recommendations were made for future research. / Thesis (M.Com. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007

Thesis (M.Comm. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

Thesis (M.Comm. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

The aim of the study is to prove that a correlation exist between job satisfaction and the levels of absenteeism, turnover, performance and customer satisfaction. Data were collected using the Job Satisfaction Survey which is a self-administered questionaire to measure job satisfaction of call centre representatives. Additional data were collected using the company's existing measures for measuring absenteeism, turnover, performance and customer satisfaction. The study found a relationship between job satisfaction and performance, between job satisfaction and turnover and between job satisfaction and customer service. However, no relationship was found between job satisfaction and absenteeism, which is consistent with previous studies.

Sur base d’une enquête réalisée dans le secteur des centres d’appel téléphonique, cette thèse analyse l’impact subjectif de la prescription du mensonge au travail. Le premier temps de la thèse est consacré à la présentation et à l’interprétation du matériel clinique. Celle-ci débouche sur une discussion psychodynamique du concept de souffrance éthique qui convoque le champ de la philosophie morale, notamment les éthiques du care. Par ailleurs, la mise en évidence de stratégies défensives contre la souffrance au travail d’un type nouveau, ainsi que de modes de gestion du personnel qui se caractérisent par une instrumentalisation de la reconnaissance, permettent de réinterroger à de nouveaux frais les avantages et les inconvénients de ces concepts au sein d’une théorie de l’autonomie. Enfin, le problème de la servitude volontaire est abordé à l’aide de travaux philosophiques sur la liberté de la volonté. Il en ressort que l’articulation entre liberté et coercition bénéficierait d’une discussion approfondie des rapports entre violence et corps érogène. / Drawing on a survey conducted in call centres, this thesis analyzes the subjective impact of the prescription of lying in the workplace. The first part of the thesis is devoted to the presentation and interpretation of clinical data. This leads to a discussion of the psychodynamic concept of ethical suffering. The latter summons the field of moral philosophy, namely the ethics of care. Furthermore, the identification of a new type of defensive strategies againts suffering at work, as well as personnel management methods wich are characterized by a manipulation of recognition, allow us to re-examine the advantages and disadvantages of these concepts for a theory of autonomy. Finally, the problem of voluntary servitude is approached from the standpoint of the philosophical debate on free will. It appears that the link between freedom and coercion would benefit from a thorough discussion between violence and the erogenous body.

This thesis aims to contribute to the study of workplace talk, language and gender, and the sociolinguistics of globalization by exploring the phenomenon of ‘linguistic regulation’ in call centres. ‘Linguistic regulation’ refers to the practice, now widespread in the globalized service economy, of codifying and enforcing rules for employees’ use of language in service interactions with customers. Drawing on authentic service interactions from call centres in the UK and Denmark, and interviews and communication material from both those countries as well as Hong Kong and the Philippines, this study shows that linguistic regulation exerts a significant influence on the language used by call centre agents, and suggests that this has implications for all three areas of inquiry. In relation to the study of workplace talk, the findings raise questions about the degree of local management and individual speaker agency that has often been asserted in previous work. In the area of language and gender studies, the finding that female speakers in both countries show a higher degree of compliance with linguistic regulation than male ones is related to ongoing debates about the local variability of gender. It is argued that the field may benefit from supplementing the currently favoured locally-based methods with one which seeks to link linguistic behaviour with supra-local systems of inequality. Finally, in relation to the sociolinguistics of globalization, this thesis documents the existence of a distinct, globally prescribed, call centre style which is culturally marked as North-American. In practice, this style is locally inflected, with British agents exhibiting greater conformity to the prescriptions than their Danish counterparts. It is argued that this may be because the prescribed style conflicts with the Danish cultural preference for ‘getting to the point’. These findings highlight the importance of considering language in the context of a global system. The thesis concludes by considering what the research it is based on may contribute, not only to academic debates in sociolinguistics and the sociology of work, but also to professional discussions within the call centre industry.

En raison de son cadre social et fiscal avantageux et de la qualité de sa main d’oeuvre, la Tunisie est aujourd’hui une destination privilégiée pour les entreprises occidentales. Depuis plusieurs années effectivement, ces dernières lui confient la réalisation de tout ou partie de leurs activités de services. Cela a entrainé le développement sur le territoire tunisien, d’un nombre important de centres d’appels externes offshore. Ces entreprises se proposent de réaliser depuis la Tunisie, des opérations d’acquisition et de fidélisation de clients, de recouvrement, d’assistance technique, d’enquêtes et de sondage, etc. pour le compte de donneurs d’ordres occidentaux. Elles leur promettent une qualité de service équivalente -voire meilleure- à celle pratiquée dans leurs pays d’origine. Inévitablement, cela les oblige à s’adapter aux particularités culturelles de ces derniers. De ce fait, leurs salariés doivent constamment composer avec les codes culturels de leurs clients étrangers. Ils doivent en réalité gérer simultanément leurs identités tunisiennes et celles de leurs clients, et apprendre à limiter les contradictions entre les unes et les autres. Pour y parvenir, ils développent généralement des stratégies identitaires, soient des mécanismes de défense permettant de minimiser les désaccords entre les deux identités. Cette thèse est le fruit d’une enquête qualitative conduite entre 2010 et 2012 auprès de 85 salariés de quatre centres d’appels sous-traitant en Tunisie pour des entreprises occidentales. Elle s’interroge sur l’existence d’une relation entre les stratégies identitaires de ces travailleurs et le management pratiqué par leurs entreprises. Nos résultats confirment l’existence de cette relation. Effectivement, ils révèlent que le modèle managérial choisi par un centre d’appels externe offshore est susceptible d’influencer les stratégies identitaires de ses salariés. Ils montrent de plus, que des modèles managériaux différents produisent des stratégies identitaires différentes. Ainsi, un management global est plus susceptible d’engendrer des stratégies de rejet de l’identité étrangère, tandis qu’un management paternaliste et un management mosaïque sont au contraire prédisposés à produire des stratégies favorables à cette dernière. Un management bureaucratique quant à lui, est susceptible de générer des stratégies mixtes, soient des stratégies favorables aussi bien à l’identité étrangère qu’à l’identité originelle. / Thanks to its social and fiscal advantages and the quality of its workforce, Tunisia has become a preferred destination for western companies. Indeed, in the last few years, the latter subcontracted Tunisia to perform part or all of its service activities. This has led to the development, on the Tunisian territory, of a large number of offshore call centres. From Tunisia, these companies perform activities to gain new customers, retain existing ones, provide technical support, perform debt collection, surveys and cold calling, etc... on behalf of Western companies. Those Tunisian companies agree to provide an equivalent – or better - service quality than to the one offered in their home country. Consequently, they inevitably need to adapt to the cultural characteristics of their western clients. Therefore, their employees must constantly adjust to the cultural codes of their foreign customers. In fact, they have to simultaneously handle their Tunisian identity and those of their customers, and limit the potential contradictions between the two. To manage these contradictions, they usually develop identity strategies, which are defence mechanisms to minimize divergence between the two cultures. This thesis is the result of a qualitative survey conducted between 2010 and 2012 with 85 employees from four call centres for Western companies off shored to Tunisia. It studied the potential existence of a relationship between identity strategies developed by these workers and the management style practiced by their companies. The existence of this relationship is confirmed by our results. Indeed, they reveal that an offshore call centre management model is likely to influence the identity strategies developed by its employees. They also show that different managerial models trigger different identity strategies. Hence, a global management style is more likely to generate strategies rejecting the foreign culture. However, paternalistic management and mosaic management styles are more likely to lead to identity strategy in favour of the foreign culture. Finally, a bureaucratic management style is likely to generate mixed strategies, in favour of either the foreign culture or of the local culture.

Magister Artium - MA / In South Africa, abortion became a right in 1996 in terms of the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act, 92 of 1996 (CTOP). However, despite this legal dispensation, debates between pro-life (those against abortion) and pro-choice (those supportive of the law) have continued unabated in liberal South Africa. These debates have resulted in severe stigma for women who choose to terminate their pregnancies. The discourse is shaped by an array of personal, religious, cultural and other social beliefs that differ from community to community. Research shows that access to free post-abortion services is further complicated for women, especially young women, by privacy concerns, the negative attitudes of institutional service providers, and stigma.

The basic purpose of the research is to understand the significance of internal marketing in influencing frontline employees'job-related attitudes and service quality. Since rewards are considered to be an important compqnent of internal marketing, this research investigates relationships among frontline employee perceptions of rewards (extrinsic and intrinsic), attitudes (three components of organisational commitment viz. affective, normative and continuance, and job satisfaction), and service quality, in banking call centres. In this context, a conceptual model is presented comprising rewards as the antecedentsa, ttitudes as the mediating variables, and service quality of the frontline employees as the outcome variable. The model is empirically tested through a large sample study that is conducted among 4 call centres of a major retail bank in the UK. Following certain qualitative in-depth interviews at the exploratory stage, structural equation modelling (using AMOS) is carried out on 342 useable questionnaires (response rate of more than 50%), to empirically test the proposed framework for the study. The measurement and structural models, after validation and purification, provided satisfactory fit estimates across absolute, incremental and parsimonious measures. The results highlight the importance of rewards, as part of internal marketing, in maintaining employee attitudes, and improving service quality. Intrinsic rewards (like role clarity, training and skill variety) emerged as the most significant of all, as they were found to impact on service quality directly. Extrinsic social rewards (like supervision and team support) were not found to be significant, while the finding regarding extrinsic organisational rewards-service quality relationship was surprising. Although assumed important for perfon-nance, some had no direct effect (pay, and benefits satisfaction, extrinsic exchange), while others (working conditions and promotional opportunities) exerted a negative direct effect on service quality, although the indirect effect of most of these rewards was found to be positive. However, these rewards were considered important for influencing employee attitudes, which in turn influence service quality. In this context, the importance of employee attitudes like affective commitment and job satisfaction is emphasisedfor service quality. The empirical results of the study also reveal that it is the nature of commitment that matters in commitment-service quality relationship. Affective commitment emerged as the only attitude variable to bear a significant positive relationship with service quality. Job satisfaction was not found to impact on service quality directly, although the indirect effect was found to be positive. Normative commitment impacted on service quality indirectly, while continuance commitment was not found to be effective at all. Besides theoretical and methodological contributions, the thesis also provides strong managerial implications and directions for future research in applying internal marketing for improving service quality of frontline employees in call centres. Keywords: internal marketing, rewards, service quality, commitment, job satisfaction, UK banks, call centres, frontline employees.

No / Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the impact of organizational stressors on organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) and how perceived organizational support (POS) will moderate in the relationship between stressors and citizenship behavior. Design/methodology/approach – The sample for this research involves operators from call center organizations located around the national capital of India. A questionnaire survey was carried out involving 402 operator level employees from five different organizations. Findings – The results highlight a significant negative relationship between organizational stressors and OCB, a significant positive relationship between POS and OCB, and confirmation that POS moderates in the relationship between organizational stressors and OCB. Research limitations/implications – This research has been carried out in an emerging economy and in a sector which is seen as an attractive area of work. However, as this study is limited to the BPO sector in India, these results may not be generalized to other areas such as the public and manufacturing sectors and in other national contexts. Future research in this area should also consider using different data collection approaches to maximize participation and enrich findings. Practical implications – The analysis suggests that change management initiatives in organizations may not be implemented as effectively as they can under high stressor conditions because employee extra‐role work behavior and commitment may not be at full capacity. Originality/value – There is limited research examining the relationship between organizational stressors and OCB in the presence of POS, especially within high demand environments such as the Indian BPO sector.