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Sensory processing and work performance of contact centre agents in South AfricaLewis, Juan David 03 1900 (has links)
Thesis (MBA (Business Management))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The primary objective of this study was to establish if the Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile questionnaire (AASP) could be used as a recruitment tool in selecting contact centre agents with a higher predictability for success and hence higher productivity.
Contact centres around the globe face the challenge of high staff turnover and absenteeism, reducing profitability. It seems that work performance related to the way in which adults process sensory input has not been well researched. A model was developed by Dunn (Brown et al., 2001) based on the intersection of a neurological threshold continuum and a behavioural continuum and yielding four quadrants: Quadrant 1, Low Registration (of stimuli); Quadrant 2, Sensation Seeking; Quadrant 3, Sensory Sensitivity, and Quadrant 4, Sensation Avoiding.
Forty-eight contact centre agents employed by Liberty Life were selected and assessed on the AASP. Performance data for each contact centre agent were collected: available time, auxiliary time, log-in time, quality assurance, absenteeism and length of service. Spearman rank correlations were conducted to test if relationships exist between any of the four quadrants and the performance measures. As an additional investigation, a Suitability Score (based on clustering of scores with a percent assigned) was derived for each contact centre agent and also correlated with the above performance measures.
Significant relationships were found between Quadrant 2 scores and three of the performance measurement criteria. As the Quadrant 2 scores increase, the average available time of the agents will decrease and their average log-in time will increase. Absenteeism increased as well, which is expected to have a negative effect on the productivity of the contact centre. The Quadrant also had a high predictability for Suitability Ratings indicating that as the Quadrant 2 score increases, the suitability of the contact centre agents increases as well.
Regarding Quadrant 3 (sensory sensitivity) scores, quality assessment, total days of absenteeism and average absenteeism relate negatively. It seems that contact centre agents with high sensory sensitivity are less suitable for the job. As the score increases the quality assessment scores decrease, which is not what is required in terms of quality standards.
A negative relationship exists between Quadrant 3 scores and the Suitability Rating scores, indicating that the higher the quadrant scores the less suitable the contact centre agents are to work in the contact centre environment.
Quadrant 4 (sensation avoiding) has a negative relationship with Suitability Rating scores, which indicates that the higher the quadrant score the less suitable the contact centre agent is to work in the contact centre environment.
No significant relationships were recorded between the performance measurements and Quadrant 1 (low registration) and Quadrant 4 (sensation avoiding), even though, logically, one would expect agents with less distraction to be more productive.
Further studies are recommended before the Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile questionnaire is used as a recruitment tool. Future studies could categorise the quadrant scores into clusters and then test for relationships with the set performance measurements.
The Suitability Rating was used in a first attempt to match individuals in a specific job according to specific sensory profiles. This measure has not yet been tested for validity and reliability, which must be done prior to further study using it. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die primêre doel van hierdie studie was om vas te stel of die Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile (AASP) vraelys gebruik kan word as ‘n hulpmiddel vir die werwing en seleksie van kontaksentrum agente, met ‘n hoër waarskynlikheid van sukses en, dus, hoër produktiwiteit.
Kontaksentrums op elke vasteland kom te staan voor die probleem van hoë personeelomset en werksafwesigheid wat winsgewendheid verlaag. Die manier waardeur volwasse mense hul sensoriese insette verwerk, in verband met werkprestasie, is nog nie goed ondersoek nie. ‘n Model is deur Dunn (Brown et al., 2001) ontwikkel wat gebasseer is op die kruispunt van ‘n neurologiese drumpel kontinuum en ‘n gedragskontinuum wat tot vier kwadrante lei: Kwadrant 1, Lae Registrasie (van stimuli); Kwadrant 2, Sensasie Soekend; Kwadrant 3, Sensoriese Sensitiwiteit, en Kwadrant 4, Vermyding van Sensasie.
Agt-en-veertig kontaksentrum agente wat in diens van Liberty Life is, is geselekteer en beoordeel volgens die AASP. Prestasiedata is saamgestel vir elke kontaksentrum agent: beskikbare tyd, oortollige tyd, teenwoordige tyd, kwaliteitsversekering, werksafwesigheid en jare diensplig. Spearman rang korrelasies is onderneem om te toets of daar verbande bestaan tussen enige van die vier kwadrante en die prestasiemaatstaf. In ‘n addisionele ondersoek is ‘n geskiktheidsmaatstaf ontwikkel wat gebasseer is op trosvorming van tellings met ‘n toegekende persentasie. Dit is gedoen vir elke kontaksentrum agent en hierdie tellings is ook gekorreleer met bogenoemde prestasiemaatstawwe.
Statisties-beduidende positiewe verbande is gevind tussen Kwadrant 2 (sensasie soekend) tellings en drie van die prestasiemetingskriteria. As die telling van Kwadrant 2 toeneem, neem die gemiddelde beskikbare tyd af en die teenwoordige tyd van agente toe. Werksafwesigheid het ook toegeneem, wat moontlik negatief kan inwerk op die produktiwiteit van die kontaksentrum. Die kwadrant het ook ‘n hoë waarskynlikheid openbaar in die geval van die Gekiktheidsmaatstaf, wat aandui dat, namate die Kwadrant 2 telling toeneem, die gekiktheid van die kontaksentrum agent ook toeneem.
Wat Kwadrant 3 (sensoriese sensitiwiteit) tellings betref, bestaan daar ‘n negatiewe verband tussen kwaliteitsversekering, totale aantal dae van werksafwesigheid en gemiddelde werksafwesigheid. Dit blyk dat kontaksentrum agente met hoë sensoriese sensitiwiteit dalk minder geskik is vir die pos. Soos wat die telling vir sensoriese sensitiwiteit toeneem, neem die telling vir kwaliteitsversekering af, wat nie in terme van kwaliteitstandaarde aanvaarbaar is nie.
Daar bestaan ‘n negatiewe verband tussen Kwadrant 4 (sensasie vermyding) tellings en die tellings vir die Geskiktheidsmaatstaf, wat aandui dat hoe hoër die kwadrant telling, hoe minder geskik is die agent.
Geen statisties-beduidende verbande is gevind tussen die prestasietellings van Kwadrant 1 (lae registrasie) en Kwadrant 4 (sensasie vermyding) nie. Normaalweg sou mens verwag dat agente met minder afleiding, meer produktief sou wees.
Daar word voorgestel dat verdere studies onderneem word voordat die Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile as ‘n werwingsmaatstaf gebruik word. Toekomstige studies kan die kwadrant tellings saamvoeg in trosse en dan toets vir verbande met die vooropgestelde prestasiemaatstawwe.
Die Geskiktheidsmaatstaf is gebruik as ‘n eerste poging om individue saam te voeg in ‘n spesifieke pos, volgens ‘n spesifieke sensoriese profiel. Hierdie maatstaf moet vir toepaslikheid en betroubaarheid in verdere studie getoets word, voordat dit gebruik kan word.
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Assessment and automatic progression of learners in the foundation phaseMoime, Winnifred Motsei 11 1900 (has links)
Changes in Education usually brings along with it problems of curriculum
implementation, such as assessment, evaluation and curriculum design. One of the
major problems is how learners are going to be assessed for progression and how the
teachers are going to adapt to these new approaches.
In this research the focus was on the following problems:
Are the new assessment criteria met by the facilitator?
Can the opinions/ideas and attitudes of facilitators be transformed?
Do facilitators understand the new assessment criteria and how to use them?
To find out how knowledgeable the educators are on assessment criteria and
what the educators average attitudes are towards the new assessment criteria.
In the empirical research data was gleaned by means of questionnaires. Thereafter,
correlation coefficient was used to determine the correlation between variables and the
t-test and chi-square test were used to test the null hypothesis. / Psychology of Education / M.Ed. (Psychology of Education)
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Evaluating an assessment battery for a multi-disability commercial collegeBlomson, Glynda 12 August 2016 (has links)
A research report submitted to the Faculty of Education, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education (Educational Psychology), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 1995. / The present research study evaluated an unresearched assessment battery used to determine
student trainability at a multi-disability commercial college.
The issues of validity - specifically criterion-related validity and content-related validity and
dynamic assessment were the main focus of the study. Revisions to the assessment battery
where necessary were recommended,
Fifty-two students from the multi-disability college formed the sample population for
establishing the criterion-related validity of the assessment battery. Students assessment results
were correlated with the number of credits .hey obtained on course completion using the Pearson
Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. This research established that useful inferences about
student trainability could be made from the existing assessment battery scores.
Establishing the content-related validity of the assessment battery was a two foid process.
Firstly, course lecturers completed a self-administered questionnaire to determine what skills/
attributes were necessary for success in the four courses offered at the College. Secondly, a
workshop was held with a multi-disciplinary team of professionals to determine what skills/
attributes were being tapped by the various sub-tests of the battery. It was established that
twelve of the skills/attributes necessary for course success were not tapped on the existing
assessment battery. Measures which tap these skills/attdbutes need to be included in the
assessment battery so that its content validity can be established.
Given the controversy relating to standardised/static testing it was important to research the
relevance and usefulness of the introduction of a dynamic assessment component to the existing
battery. Dynamic assessment would allow for learning potential to be tapped. Analyses of
variance were conducted to determine the relationships between the variables - race, educational
level and type of disability with performance on the assessment battery. The significant
relationships between educational level and performance and type of disability and performance
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Translation, psychometric evaluation, and preliminary validation of a Zulu version of the SCL-90-R.Shanahan, Sean Francis. January 1998 (has links)
This study is seen as a step towards addressing the acute
shortage of psychometric instruments that can be validly and
reliably used in the assessment of Zulu-speaking individuals.
The Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R) , a 90-item
multidimensional self-report symptom inventory, was translated
into Zulu. A multistage translation procedure, involving back-translation,
decentering, and the committee approach was
employed. The translated instrument was pretested on a group of
Zulu farm workers (N = 12) and revisions made in order to improve
its comprehensibility and acceptability to Zulu respondents. The
psychometric equivalence of the Zulu and English versions of the
SCL-90-R was investigated with bilingual Zulu students (N = 61) .
Scale-level factor analysis yielded similar factor structures for
both versions, and suggests that the Zulu SCL-90-R may be best
utilised as a global measure of psychological distress. Scores
at the scale- and item-level were reasonably comparable for the
two language versions, although retest effects and apparent
bilingual response sets suggest that the bilingual technique may
not be a valid means of assessing translation equivalence.
Acceptable test-retest reliability and internal consistency
measures were obtained, indicating that the translation into Zulu
did not adversely affect the reliability of the SCL-90-R. The
concurrent validity of the Zulu SCL-90-R was investigated with
samples of male psychiatric inpatients (N = 23) and nonpatients
(N = 26). The global severity index of the SCL-90-R demonstrated
moderate diagnostic efficiency, with a sensitivity of 70% and a
specificity of 77%. These results suggest that the Zulu SCL-90-R
may be validly utilised for the purpose of screening for mental
illness. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sci.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1998.
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Problems experienced by practitioners in implementing continuous assessment and common task for assessment in the General Education and Training Certificate in the North West Province / Emily Varughese MammenMammen, Emily Varughese January 2005 (has links)
This study reports on the findings of a research project into the problems
facing the General Education and Training Certificate (GETC) for Grade 9
learners in the North West Province. To do this, the views of school
management staff, teachers and professional support staff were sought. This
study confined itself to the North West Province, South Africa. The sample
size was two hundred individuals, comprising professional support staff,
school management staff and teachers who are directly involved with GETC
and Outcomes-Based Assessment (OBA). Three main problem areas were
selected for the purpose of this study. l)lese are (a) OBA assessment training
(b) follow-up activities needed for teachers (c) challenges facing the school
level implementation. The study culminated in recommendation of a
professional support model for teachers.
The findings of this study revealed that teachers in the province were not
adequately trained for the General Education and Training Certificate (GETC)
implementation. Professional Support Staff did not offer enough follow-up
activities to support the teachers during the implementation period and there
after. Lack of this monitoring and supporting mechanism adversely affects the
school level implementation of the GETC for Grade 9 learners. It was also
revealed that schools are experiencing challenges regarding time management,
implementation of CASS and CTA and in the processes and procedures
followed in the GETC administration. The final recommendation is that there
is a need to include in the pre-service training programmes, CASS and CTA
assessment and develop an on-going professional support plan for teachers who
are in the service. / Thesis (Ph.D) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2005
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Assessment and automatic progression of learners in the foundation phaseMoime, Winnifred Motsei 11 1900 (has links)
Changes in Education usually brings along with it problems of curriculum
implementation, such as assessment, evaluation and curriculum design. One of the
major problems is how learners are going to be assessed for progression and how the
teachers are going to adapt to these new approaches.
In this research the focus was on the following problems:
Are the new assessment criteria met by the facilitator?
Can the opinions/ideas and attitudes of facilitators be transformed?
Do facilitators understand the new assessment criteria and how to use them?
To find out how knowledgeable the educators are on assessment criteria and
what the educators average attitudes are towards the new assessment criteria.
In the empirical research data was gleaned by means of questionnaires. Thereafter,
correlation coefficient was used to determine the correlation between variables and the
t-test and chi-square test were used to test the null hypothesis. / Psychology of Education / M.Ed. (Psychology of Education)
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Cross-cultural differences in IQ test performance: extension of an existing normative database on WAIS-III test performanceGaylard, Emma K January 2006 (has links)
Prior research (Shuttleworth-Edwards et al., 2004) presented preliminary normative data for the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale – III (WAIS-III) for Southern Africa, stratified according to gender (female vs. male), language (black African vs. white English), level of education (matric/12+ years of education vs. Graduate/15+ years of education) and quality of education (disadvantaged – Department of Education and Training vs. advantaged - Private/Model C). IQ scores for black African language and white English Southern Africans were comparable with the United States of America (USA) standardization when level and quality of education were equitable. (‘White English’ is the term used to denote those of European descent whose first language is English). A limitation of the research was the lack of control for language for most of the black groups and particularly in the Private/Model C Graduate group, where sixty percent of the participants originated from Zimbabwe. These represented a particularly elite group whose education was equitable to that of the white participants throughout their education (i.e. at primary, secondary and tertiary level). In order to rectify the lack of homogeneity of language, all non- Xhosa first language participants were excluded from the black sample and sixteen additional Xhosa first language participants were tested on the WAIS-III. Data analyses found no significant differences between the original and new groups, except in the comparison between Mixed African language Private/Model C Graduates and the Xhosa first language Private/Model C Graduate/15+ years of education, where there was a lowering of WAIS-III subtest, index and IQ scores in the newly constituted group. This lowering in test performance is explained in that the new Xhosa first language 15+ years of education group was a less advantaged group than the original Mixed African Language Private/Model C Graduate group, as the new group generally had less advantaged primary school education and had generally studied less at a tertiary level. Overall, these results demonstrate an incremental increase in WAIS-III test performance for sample groups on a continuum of quality of education from least to most advantaged education. This was true for both verbal and non-verbal subtests.
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Standardization of Raven's standard progressive matrices for secondary school African pupils in the Grahamstown regionVass, Vasili Arthur January 1992 (has links)
Arising out of a need, expressed by Clinical Psychologists in the Grahamstown region, for the fair assessment of secondary School African pupils, norms for the Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) were established. Two methods of presentation were used, the first using the original instructions of John Raven translated into the students' first language of Xhosa, hence-forth referred to as the Alternate sample. The second method of presenting the instructions was adapted, to include the use of visual aids and active participation in the instruction phase of the test, hence-forth referred to as the Normative sample. In addition to the establishment of norms, the two methods of test presentation were investigated to see if the method of presentation had an effect on the results of the Raven's SPM. The population was drawn from the three African Secondary Schools in the Grahamstown municipality. The total population consisted of 3 232 students. Classes were randomly sampled across the three schools, with the average age of the Normative sample being 19.3 years. The sample consisted of 812 pupils, 711 in the Normative sample and 101 in the Alternate Sample. The following results and conclusions arose from the study: 1) Norms generated were considerably lower than previously established norms in similar studies. 2) t-Test results indicated that the method of test presentation on the Raven's SPM is important when assessing students that may be regarded as 'disadvantaged'. 3) Respondents scored significantly higher when the method of presenting the instructions ensured a greater understanding of the task demanded of the respondents. 4) The analyses of covariance indicate that male subjects score significantly higher than female subjects, and that there is a significant difference between the ages and educational standard, on the scores of the Raven's SPM. 5) The differences found contradict previous findings using the test, and question the cultural fairness of the test.
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Hedendaagse tuis- en inrigtingfunksionering van die kleuter : 'n sielkundige ondersoekVan Wyk, Marlene 13 May 2014 (has links)
M.A. (Psychology) / Please refer to full text to view abstract
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Assessment and automatic progression of learners in the foundation phaseMoime, Winnifred Motsei. January 2001 (has links)
Thesis (masters)--University of South Africa, 2001.
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