The 21st century is characterised by a rapid technologically advancing environment, where
organisations constantly change to gain and maintain a competitive advantage. The use of
call centres in organisations has been in line with this technological advancement. South
African organisations have not been an exception as they also have experienced the growth in
call centres in the past few decades. Some of the benefits the business gains from the use of
call centres include cutting costs and increased profits. However benefits to individuals
working in call centres is not that obvious. Call centres have been labelled with such
nicknames as electronic Sweatshops as they are characterised by poor working conditions, as
individuals have to perform extremely routine tasks under extreme surveillance and harsh
performance management systems. Such an environment has implications for the well being
of individuals working in them. Previous research has indicated a relationship between
organisational climate and employee well being. While this environment is viewed as toxic
individuals continuously enter into it and some prosper than other, which brings into question
whether the amount of control an individual perceives to have over his/her environment has
any effect on their perception of the organisational climate. The main aim here is that work
can be redesigned to benefit both the organisation and employees’ needs in the workplace.
Therefore the aim of the current study is to investigate the organisational climate apparent in
call centres, also looking at the relationship this construct has with Job Satisfaction, Life
satisfaction and self esteem for call centre agents. The current research will also look at
whether Locus of Control has an effect on this relationship. The findings of this research
prove invaluable in its attempt to create awareness of the nature of work activities and quality
of work life of call centre agents.
The sample consisted of 97 call centre agents working in Johannesburg, South Africa. The
results indicate there is a strong positive relationship between organisational climate
including its subscales and Job Satisfaction, a weak and positive relationship between
organisational climate and its subscale and Life satisfaction, while there was no observed
relationship between organisational climate and self esteem. Furthermore the results
indicated that Locus of Control does not moderate the relationship between organisational
climate and job satisfaction, life satisfaction and self esteem.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/7034 |
| Date | 23 June 2009 |
| Creators | Dladla, Thandi |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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