Call Care Centers - A Thesis

Call centers in India 1
THE POTENTIAL FOR ENHANCING THE LEVELS OF CUSTOMER SERVICE IN CALL
CENTERS IN INDIA
A THESIS
Presented to
The Faculty of the College ----------
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement in the ----------
Submitted by:
March 2010
Table of Contents
List of Tables and Figures.............................................................................................................4
Abstract..........................................................................................................................................5
Chapter 1: Introduction and Problem Statement.......................................................................6
Introduction to the Problem.........................................................................................................6
Research Problem Background....................................................................................................7
Statement of the Problem.............................................................................................................8
Purpose of the Study..................................................................................................................10
Study Rationale..........................................................................................................................11
Theoretical/Conceptual Frame...................................................................................................12
Job satisfaction.......................................................................................................................12
Emotional Exhaustion or Burnout.........................................................................................14
Employees’ Empowerments..................................................................................................15
Marketers vs. Engineers.........................................................................................................16
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................16
Chapter 2: Literature Review.....................................................................................................19
Introduction: The ITES-BPO Sector in India............................................................................19
The Nature of Work and Employment Conditions in Call Centers...........................................21
Work Arrangements, Stress and Turnovers in Care Centers.....................................................23
Work Arrangements and Job Satisfaction among Customer Care Representatives..................29
The Levels of Employee’s Empowerment in Call Centers.......................................................32
Summary of Literature Reviewed..............................................................................................36
Chapter 3: Research Methodologies..........................................................................................39
Introduction................................................................................................................................39
Research Design and Strategy...................................................................................................39

Study Hypotheses......................................................................................................................40
Sampling and Sample Sizes.......................................................................................................41
The Data Collection Tool and Measures...................................................................................41
Job satisfaction.......................................................................................................................42
Employee’s Empowerment....................................................................................................43
Emotional Exhaustion/Burnout.............................................................................................44
Data Analysis.........................................................................................................................45
Chapter 4: Results and discussions............................................................................................45
Introduction................................................................................................................................45
Results of the Study...................................................................................................................46
Statistical Analysis.....................................................................................................................49
Discussions................................................................................................................................50
Chapter 5: Conclusions and Recommendations.......................................................................55
Summary of Key Findings.........................................................................................................55
Implications for Practice............................................................................................................56
Study Limitations and Future Research.....................................................................................58
References.....................................................................................................................................60
Appendices....................................................................................................................................66
Appendix 1: Sample Questionnaire...........................................................................................66
Appendix 2: The Job Satisfaction Facets and Sub-Facets.........................................................69
Appendix 3: Graphical Representation of the Facets of Empowerment and Job Satisfaction. .71
List if tables and figures

TABLE 1: SUBJECTS’ RECRUITMENT AND REPRESENTATION IN THE STUDY 42

TABLE 2 THE JOB SATISFACTION FACET SCORES 43
TABLE 3: FEELINGS OF EMPOWERMENT 44
TABLE 4: EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION AND BURNOUT 45
TABLE 5: T-TESTS 46
TABLE 6: SUMMARY OF THE HYPOTHESES 50
Figure 1: Proposed Conceptual Model 54
Abstract
The rising breadth in ITES-BPOs in India and more specifically call care industry has
variously been cited as presenting ideal avenues for not only promoting the economic wellbeing
but further providing employment to majority of the young graduates. The initial review of
literature had however indicated that that the working conditions and employment engagements
in these call centers to be characterized by high levels of stress and turnovers arising from
mounting dissatisfaction at work. This was largely attributed to the low complexity in the jobs,
repetitive nature of work and the high performance criterions employed in majority of the call
centers. Essentially, this constituted the motivation for the study. Based on a survey of the levels
of job satisfaction, feelings of empowerment and levels of emotional exhaustion among
marketing and engineering graduates in a call center in India, the study sought to describe how
the employees felt about the three constructs and whether such feelings significantly varied
between the two groups. This would help derive possible suggestions on how the potential
accruing from these ventures could be positively enhanced.
The major findings have been that majority of the employees are ambivalent on the levels
of job satisfaction and feelings of empowerment while 100% of them would appear to suffer
from emotional exhaustion. A test of the three variables earlier posited has further been approved
(table 6). If management in these call centers is to promote service deliverance and indeed
business performance, an evaluation of the nature of work and working arrangements is called
for.
Chapter 1: Introduction and Problem Statement
Introduction to the Problem
The call centers in India have variously been cited as the magic wand that will wand off
unemployment in this nation. But while NASSCOM has stated that the working conditions in
India obviate the need for collective actions and unions (James & Vira, 2005), recent research
findings have generally criticized these centers on the basis of the working conditions and
employees engagements practiced. At the core of this criticism has been the dominance of ‘low
complexity, routinised mass production job-structures’ that have been equated to the ‘taylorized
models’ of work especially due to the intensity of ‘scripted-production- like work’ (Taylor &
Bain 2005 as cited in James & Vira, 2009). In addition, the work arrangement in these centers
presents a continuum of job role ambiguity between the employees and their managers. The sum
effect of these grossly exaggerated performance criterions, excessive calls monitoring,
systematic monitoring of call activities, lack of team work and, the machine controlled call paces
(Lin, Chen, & Lu, 2009) have been precursors to stress, reduced performance and employees
turnover (Lin et al, 2009; Brown & Maxwell, 2002; Tuten & Neidermeyer, 2004; Witt, Andrews,
& Carlson, 2004). The situation in India has been worsened by the observations that majority of
the care representatives are engineering graduates who not only lack in ‘customer care’
background but further receive little or no training at all to merge performance gaps clearly
evidenced in their positions. To a large extent, it is seen that management in these call centers
has failed to address the all important facets that promote motivation, job satisfaction,
commitment, stress elimination and general employees’ feelings of empowerment.
Research Problem Background
The Indian ITES-BPO sector has witnessed grown in breadth of customer care call
centers perhaps as a benchmark of the amplifications in globalization. It is now projected that
more than 400 of the fortune 500 companies have initiated call centers in India (Hunter, 2006 as
cited in James & Vira, 2009). The ‘hub’ of this industry has been in the cities of Bangalore,
Mumbai, and New Delhi, with others such as Pune, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad following
closely. Most notably has been UK that has off shored their call care services either through third
party providers or own in-house services as seen from companies such as Abbey, Prudent,
Norwich Union, British Telecom and the Lloyds-TBS among others (Taylor & Bain, 2005 as
cited in James & Vira, 2009). The growth in this sector has largely been attributed to the large
pool of English speaking Graduates, lower labor costs and the increased liberalization of the
economy. This has further been promoted by effectiveness in data verifications, data capture, tele
research, service follow ups, and service follow ups (among others) (Call center India, 2009).
The call centers in India currently constitute more than 60-65% of the broader ITES-BPO
industry sector with more than 30-35% of the services rendered here being classified as ‘back
office activities’ (Taylor et al 2008 as cited in James & Vira, 2009) that employ more than 704,
000 workers. According to the National Association of Software and Services Companies
[NASSCOM], the industry was estimated to generate over $ 142 billion revenues in 2008 with
projections that this would grow into $ 301 billion by the year 2010 while providing employment
to more than 1.4 million workers (Call Center India, 2009; James & Vira, 2009). Indeed, the
industry that started less than 10 years ago has variously been cited as the magic wand that ‘will
wand off unemployment for thousands of young graduates’ in the country (Sudhashree, Rohith &
Shrinivas, 2005).
Statement of the Problem
Overby (2007) reckons that Indian universities release more than 350, 000 engineering
undergraduate degrees annually and many more two-year diplomas. Majority of these students
are unable to gain employment in the engineering fields and are being forced to take up positions
that do not necessarily fall under their immediate specialties. Not only do they lack a background
in customer service and marketing but further receive very little training, if at all. Such
employees receive salaries of $200-$ 400 per month on average. The expectations of the job are
however far too many for the representatives to accomplish. For example, it has been
documented that on average, they must serve at least 90 international customers daily and more
than a 100 domestic ones which in essence translates to call handling times of eight minutes and
4.3 respectively (James & Vira, 2009). In addition, more than 93% of the international call
centers conduct electronic monitoring of the calls being made by the workers. The pervasiveness
in the levels of monitoring here are best elucidated by d’Cruz and Noronha (2006) who notes
(without being exhaustive) that the monitoring extends to: phone etiquette, average handling
time, adherence to script, documentation, knowledge of product, display of cordiality or warmth,
clarity in the message transmitted, fluency in English, mother tongue influence, errors in
speaking and pacification of irate customers (cited in James & Vira, 2009).
The emphasis on quality of service is the basis of operations in care centers in India. The
problem in India has however been that the levels of training accorded are deficient in
inculcating the requisite skills and competences desirable for the job demands. Typical training
in customer care lasts for 14-15 days. The actual training that is accorded has also been subject to
criticism; as noted by James and Vira (2009), the training is a form of ‘culturally-imperialist’ that
is seen to erode the traditional Indian identities. This is more so when it is noted that they are
supposed to mask their identities and undergo ‘accent neutralization to eradicate their mother
tongue influences in speech and instead must employ…… aglicized pseudonyms in locational
masking strategies….’ to earn clients confidences (James & Vira, 2009, p. 4). A call from US
would for example typically go like this: ‘hi, my name is Susan sanders and I am from Chicago,
how can I help you?’ (Mitter et al 2004, p. 177), yet this is a 22 year old Indian girl from an
Indian village. Needless to state, this is not easy to perfect and irate customers (perhaps even
angry due to job losses) have been noted to abuse them in racially undertone slurs (James &
Vira, 2009; Sudhashree et al, 2005; Tuten & Neidermeyer, 2004 and others).
The major concerns have however been on how to safeguard the health and safety of the
Indian employees working in call centers. These (without being exhaustive) have ranged from:
muscle tensions, headaches, eyestrains, RSI, voice loss, hearing problems, nausea, dizziness and
panic attacks, sleep deprivations, loss of appetite, and social isolation from friends and family
(James & Vira, 2009.], p. 3). The findings of Sudhashree et al (2005) have indicated for example
that about 30-40% of the employees have ‘computer vision’ syndrome’ (eye problems)
characterized by soreness, dryness, blurred vision, light sensitivity, headaches, among others. A
similar number had complained to managements of sound problems and inability to speak, pain,
croakiness of voice, irritating cough, poor vocal power, inability to modulate and breathing
problems. Needless to state, even more severe problems have been documented.
The plight for the Indian call center representative cannot therefore be overemphasized.
The entire literature (both academic and empirical) would generally posit that better outcomes
accrue from these ventures where better work arrangements are the case. Essentially, there is
need for management to reconfigure the management practices that should address the all time
facets of job satisfaction, employees’ empowerment and stress amelioration.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of the current study will be to explore the potential for enhancing customer
service in care centers through betterment of employee management. The data for this will be
drawn from the self perceived levels of employees’ empowerment, job satisfaction, and burnout
among marketing and engineering graduate care representative in India. The current study is
therefore expected to contribute to management theory on several important ways: First,

anecdotal research has generally indicated a continuum of conflict between the job performance
referents employed in care centers and employees expectations. While it cannot be disputed that
the work arrangements have generally permeated a continuum of role conflicts, ambiguity and
stress, it would be prudent to note that they still accord a sizeable proportion a source of
livelihood, besides promoting the economic developments in the outsourced nations. By further
highlighting how management can promote the welfare of the employees, it is expected that
positive insights can be drawn from the study that may help merge the gap between ‘utopian’ and
‘dystopian’ views about call centers. To the author’s knowledge, no study has examined how the
different employees may perceive this kind of work engagement (engineers vs marketers for
example) and the desired levels expectations. By further exploring these perceptions, it is
expected that management will be better informed on how to manage these variant resources.
Research Questions
The study will therefore seek to provide answers to the following specific questions:
1. What are the self-reported levels of employee’s feelings on the levels of
empowerment, job satisfaction and burnout among marketing and engineering
graduates working in call centers in India?
2. How do the above reported levels compare when contrasted between the two
groups?
3. Where does the potential for enhancing the levels of employee’s job satisfaction,
empowerment and stress amelioration lie in the management of employees
working in call centers?

Study Rationale
Managements in call centers have generally failed to address the all time facets that
promote motivation, job satisfaction, commitment and general employee’s welfare. Indeed,
anecdotal research is generally indicative of a general management failure in the management of
these human capitals. Besides the grossly exaggerated performance measurement referents,
working stations, long hours, and taxing job requirements, role conflicts and role ambiguity
appears to fundament operations (Tuten & Neidermeyer, 2004). The need for improvements in
call centers does not only arise from the employee’s welfare but also because social and
economic responsibilities abide as well. According to Carroll (1991), companies have four key
social responsibilities, that is, economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic. In this regard,
companies need to ‘derive profits, obey the law, do what is right, just and fair, and contribute
resources to the community while improving the quality of life’ (cited in cited in Babin &
Nicholson, n.d). On most occasions however, it has been argued that multinational companies
outsourcing services are keen on maximizing profits with little regard to the welfare of the host
nations and does not thus transform into economic improvements. This is best described by
Parayil (2005) who elucidates that ‘Informational capitalism’ cannot help merge the gap between
the rich and the poor where global outsourcing reduces labor force to ‘ghettoized’ economies, as
such practices only succeed in diminishing the quality of lives in the outsourced nations (cited in
Babin, & Nicholson, n.d). Meanwhile, Levy (2005) asserts that the practice of reducing wages in
local labor pools (as is characteristic of India call centers) has the effect of maximizing wealth to
the shareholders (but) that is not accompanied by benefits to the locals (and indeed to the
citizenry of country of origin) a situation exacerbated by the reduced ability to ‘….trade up to
higher skilled jobs……’ for the displaced workers (cited in Babin, & Nicholson, n.d). Similar
sentiments are echoed by Sahay et al (2003) who notes as follows: the software houses with
precarious engagements, Taylorized systems as well as inhibited attention to health and safety,
ultimately neither improve incomes of the individuals or economic wellbeing of the host nations
(cited in cited in Babin, & Nicholson, n.d).
Theoretical/Conceptual Frame
The available literature has generally indicated that the levels of stress are generally high
while job satisfaction and levels of empowerment are low in the call centers work environments.
The situation in India may especially be exacerbated by the facts that the majority of employees
working in these call centers are engineering graduates who may have no marketing and
customer care backgrounds. In the current study, an investigation of how these three constructs
are interrelated among engineering and marketing graduates will be investigated. A description
of this relation and the predictions guiding this relationship is described in more details as
follows:
Job satisfaction.
The available management literature has generally indicated that the levels of job
satisfaction among call care representatives to be low. On most occasions, high levels of
dissatisfaction have been positively correlated with turnover intents and/or actual turnovers
(Hackman & Oldman, 1975; Armstrong, 2007; Snipes et al, 2005; Holfman et al, 2008; Witt et
al, 2004; Zalaquet & Wood, 1997; Richardson & Howcroft, 2006; Brown & Maxwell, 2002;
Tuten & Neidermeyer, 2004). Building on these, the current study will investigate the levels of
care representatives’ satisfaction with their jobs. The conceptual domain of job satisfaction is a
however a broad concept as it will entail all the characteristics of the job itself as well as the
environments in which this work is being carried out which may either be rewarding and
fulfilling or unrewarding and hence unsatisfactory (Churchill et al, 1974 as cited in Snipes et al,
2005). However, on most occasions, the elements (or facets) that will dictate whether a job is
satisfactory or not will include satisfaction with the supervisor, work, pay, promotion
(advancement opportunities), relationships with co-workers and interactions with the customer as
carried out in the ‘facet-free’ global scales (Hackman & Oldman, 1975).
The global scale developed by Hackman and Oldman (1975) (facet-free) asks
respondents to directly describe their overall levels of satisfaction with their current job positions
in a singe-integrated response. However, several authors have later discerned that specific
‘facets’ should be treated as homogeneous variables and as discriminately different from each
other as they reveal different levels of satisfaction depending on the particular constructs under
investigation (see Snipes et al, 2009). Conversely, the Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS) as devised
by Spector (1985) has been used in assessing the levels of satisfaction in service industries
(Snipes et al, 2009; Spector, 1985). In the current study, the JSS was utilized to measure the nine
facets of job satisfaction, that is, Pay, Promotions, Supervision, Benefits, Rewards, Procedures,
Coworkers, Work itself and Communication.
Emotional Exhaustion or Burnout
Stress has become synonymous with work in call centers with majority of studies
reporting that employees generally experience high stress levels due to the performance metrics
employed , routinized jobs, repetitive nature of work, the working environment, low job
discretions and high levels of monitoring. The later has especially been associated with negative
impacts such as creating high levels of anxiety, depressions, emotional exhaustion and lower
levels of job satisfaction (Holtgrewe et al, 2008). The attention on these variables has largely
been the correlates drawn by researchers on performance and emotional exhaustion as explained
by the conservation of resources theory (Hobfoll, 1989). This theory has linked the availability of
inadequate resources-social support, autonomy, participation in decisions making, control, role
conflict and ambiguity, role overload, work pressure-to meet the work demands as generating
high levels of burnout and low performance (Witt et al, 2004; Zalaquet & Wood, 1997; Hobfoll,
1989 and others).
The concepts of emotional exhaustion would appear to stem from the works of Maslach
and Jackson (1981) conceptualizations of burnout (Witt et al, 2004; Zalaquet & Wood, 1997). In
this regard; burnout has been used in reference to psychological system of emotional exhaustion,
depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishments that occurs among people who work
with others in a certain capacity (Zalaquet & Wood, 1997). The emotional exhaustion occurs
when emotional resources are depleted meaning that workers are no longer capable of meeting
the psychological and emotional demands and as a consequence experience a general loss of
feeling and lack of concern (Gaines & Jermier, 1983 as cited in Witt at al, 2004; Zalaquet &
Wood, 1997). Depersonalization on the other hand is characterized by negative and cynical
attitudes about ones clients-that may be even accompanied by callous and dehumanized views
about them-as one feels they are the source of the individuals’ problems (Zalaquet & Wood,
1997). Lastly, feelings of reduced personal accomplishments has been the tendency to evaluate
oneself negatively (especially the one’s clients) as the employees feel unhappy about themselves
and are dissatisfied with their levels of accomplishments on the job (Zalaquet & Wood, 1997).
The combinations of these effects have generally been linked with deleterious effects to the
individual (Zalaquet & Wood, 1997; Witt at al, 2004).

The current study will therefore investigate the levels of burnout among the care
representatives using a modification of the MBI scales as advised by Witt et al (2004) that is
specifically structured to fit the call center CSR occupation. In this regard, emotional exhaustion
will be assessed on the five constructs of: feelings of anger and frustration, feeling drained after
dealing with customers, feelings of tiredness in serving customers and assisting colleagues,
feelings of dissatisfaction on the services rendered, and lack of sympathy for customers’
problems (Witt et al, 2004, p. 153).
Employees’ Empowerments
The available literature has generally indicated that job satisfaction alone is not enough to
drive performance and efficiency in service delivery that would equate to more customer
satisfaction. This literature has been unanimous that employees empowerment positively
promotes feelings of job satisfaction. For example Babin and Boles (1996) have noted that if
contact employees perceive that their managers and supervisors values them and accords them
appropriate control and authority over their work, they will feel more positively about their jobs
(cited in Snipes et al, 2005). In the current study, the levels of empowerment will be assessed on
the basis of: power, cares, value and authority.
Marketers vs. Engineers
The studies that have addressed the relationship between markets and engineers have
advanced a pervasive and yet to be resolved conflicts between these two groups of employees
(Keavey, 2008). The major causes of such inter-functional conflicts would appear to stem from
situational, external and personal or internally initiated conflicts. The current study however
assumes that the levels of interactions in the customer care service do not promote either of the
personal, task and process conflicts that have been documented in marketing literature. Indeed,
the only reason for taking these two groups into distinct variables has been anchored on the
principle objective of the study that the customer care representatives’ jobs may not be very ideal
for engineers. The overriding argument guiding the reasoning is that whereas marketing training
emphasizes communication and interpersonal skills, the emphasis on engineering jobs inclines
more on the technical aspects of a job.
Conclusion
The care center industry in India has experienced a rapid growth over the last ten years or
so. These call centers are now availing employment opportunities to a lot of young graduates in
the nation. The problem however has been that the nature of work and employment arrangements
have been document as presenting a lot of emotional exhaustion to the employees while
according them little empowerment and satisfaction. Investigating the self reported levels of job
satisfaction, employee empowerment and emotional exhaustion among call care representatives
in a call center in India informed the objectives of the sturdy. In addition, the study sought to
investigate how these three constructs may vary among the two groups of graduates in attempt to
test the hypothesis earlier developed. In the next chapter, a review of literature on call centers,
the nature of work arrangements and the levels of emotional exhaustion, employees’
empowerments and job satisfaction will be analyzed and disseminated.

Chapter 2: Literature Review
Introduction: The ITES-BPO Sector in India
Business process outsourcing (BPO) has grown to become a common component
applicable in a multitude of companies today. Generally, the practice encapsulates the
relinquishing (by management) of certain functions to a third party that specializes in such
ventures, based on some predetermined criterions and performance metrics (Kira et al, 2009).
Although the practice has been cited as being in existent even during the roman empires
(Aldarab, Jagani, & Laqbal, 2006; Kira et al, 2009; Babin, & Nicholson, n.d), a paradigm shift
from tactical, primarily manufacturing traditional perspectives to an approach characterized by
philosophical strategizing that transcends many business functionalities has been witnessed in
later days (Allen & Chandrasshekar, 2000). Presently, outsourcing spans a variant of activities
from ‘manufacturing, information technologies, legal, payroll, shipping, accounts receivables,
trainings, procurements, logistics, call centers and customer services, among others’ (Kira et al,
2009, p. 404).
The determinant role in outsourcing has been the rises in competitiveness, globalization
and the fast paced nature of technological advancements. In the opinions of Bon and Hughes
(2009), the ultimate rationale is anticipated costs savings and attempts to improve quality or
expand services through contracted expertise as companies seek to build on core internal
competencies. In this regard, motivation stem from the reduced costs of doing business such as
labor costs that is accompanied by well educated workforce in the outsourced nations (Bon &
Hughes, 2009). Other benefits will include the arising increases in economies of scales, increased
flexibilities as well as spreading risks to vendors (Gilley & Rasheed, 2000 as cited in Bon &
Hughes, 2009). In addition, outsourcing firms are able to realize costs advantages relative to
those who seek to integrate vertically (Prahalad 2005 as cited in Bon & Hughes, 2009). It is
therefore generally seen that outsourcing presents palatable options where management can
focus on cost efficiencies through less capital commitments, reductions in overheads, change
responsiveness as well as leverages in subcontractor economies (Insinga & Werle, 2000 as cited
in Bon & Hughes, 2009).
The rises in globalization mean that the practice of outsourcing now transcends
international border, or what has been referred to as global outsourcing or off shoring of services
(Allen & Chandrasshekar, 2000; Aldarab et al, 2006; Kira et al, 2009; Babin, & Nicholson, n.d).
The most popular destinations appears to be second and third world nations of India, china,
Philippines, Brazil, South Africa, Pakistan, Malaysia, Egypt among others. Indeed, it is estimated
that BPO markets ranges from $ 150 billion to over $400 billion annually with projections that
this will continue growing (Delloite consulting, 2005 as cited in Bon & Hughes, 2009).
A phenomenon that has characterized BPOs has been the call centers in the attempts to
enhance the levels of customer service. The mobility in these services has prompted ‘a
paradigmatic case of globalization of service work -perception of the industry-’ (Holfman et al,
2007, p. 6). The growth in IT coupled with rises in data transmission costs have seen firms utilize
‘technology-mediated centers’ as cost effective ways to deliver services to customers (Holfman,
Batt & Holtgrewe, 2007). These practices are more common among the multinational and
transnational corporations in developed countries. As noted by Patel (2006), fortune 500
companies (from IBM to American express) utilize these services for various data processing
functions- from very simple to complex functions -not limited to inputting medical transcripts
and credit card applications. In the UK, the services are highly popular also as seen from the fact
that even the National Health Service use call centers in the provision of their services (Brown &
Maxwell, 2002). It is for example estimated that more than 5500 call centers exists in UK that
are currently employing more than 400, 000 workers (DTI, 2004 as cited in Alferoff & Knights,
2008). Other developed economies have equally adopted this new phenomenon.
The Nature of Work and Employment Conditions in Call Centers
Call care centers have been defined by Taylor and Bain (1999) as ‘a dedicated operation
in which computer-utilizing employees receive both inbound and outbound telephone calls with
those calls being some form of predictive dialing systems or Automated Calls Distribution
(ACD) (cited in Richardson & Howcroft, 2006). Meanwhile, Norling (2001) refers to them as
‘any communication platform from which firms deliver services to customers via remote, real
time contact’ (cited in Lin, Chen & Lu, 2009). Other definitions have been advanced in
literature. While what exactly will constitute a call center may vary with these definitions, the
general concurrence has been the use of computer-mediated facilities that generally accords a
customer an avenue to call a toll-free number and to receive information with the assistance of an
agent-the customer care representative-(Adria & Chowdhury, 2004). In this regard, the agent
avails the necessary information to the customers through reliance on printed scripts or
accompanying databases. The major categorizations of services accorded as articulated by
Brown and Maxwell (2002) includes: customer services and sales, single/bidirectional calls,
industry of operations-consumer products, financial services, remote shopping, telecoms and
entertainment (among others)- and services provided-such as advertising responses, telephone
banking, catalogue purchasing, production information among a host of others (p. 309). But
while similarities across countries in markets, service offerings, and organizational features
abides, the call centers will follow nation’s characteristics as an attribute of the prevalent laws,
customs, institutions and norms, in what Holfman et al (2007) refers to as ‘…..a remarkably
national face……’ (p. 6).
The primacy of the customer has always been the operative doctrines in business for a
long time now. The use of customer care services has largely been based on this premise. As
noted by Richardson and Howcroft (2006), customers in the care centers are viewed as long-term
relationships as opposed to a series of discrete regular purchases and hence the need for a strong
and lasting relationship creation. Both academic and empirical literature would posit that
customers assess the levels of this service on the basis of what they want or expect with the
service they perceive to get. In this regard, it has been pointed out that call centers earn their
reputation for service quality on the basis of high quality deliverance from their employees
charged with such responsibilities (MaColl-Kennedy & White as cited in Brown & Maxwell,
2002). The emphasis on the quality of services would appear especially high in call care centers
however as an attribute of the growing relationship marketing that, as noted by Fitchett and
McDonagh (2001), heavily borrows from ‘…..emancipatory rhetoric of offering more to the
customer……’ despite the clear observations that such ventures are driven by the businesses sole
attempts at profitableness (cited in Richardson & Howcroft, 2006, p. 146). While this in itself
may not be a bad thing, the trends towards ‘…..customer-oriented service…’ that have been
epitomized in call care centers are now being aided by the Customer Relationship Management
Systems that are utilized to manage the employee and the customer (Richardson & Howcroft,
2006; Brown & Maxwell, 2002). These systems are being utilized largely in the ‘back office
customer service functions’ that largely involves communication with customers, control and
automation of gate keeping roles, capture and standardization of sales knowledge and overseeing
customer service (Richardson & Howcroft, 2006). This is usually aided by a number of IT tools
such as automated ACD systems that use computer telephony integrations, voice and speech
recognition, response software, integrated voice response, among others. Indeed, it has been
noted that it is the integration of telephone and computer technologies that have principally
defined these call centers (Richardson & Howcroft, 2006; Brown & Maxwell, 2002).
Work Arrangements, Stress and Turnovers in Care Centers
Stress has become synonymous with work in majority of call centers. The several studies
that have addressed this one construct among call care agents have generally indicated that
employees reported high stress levels due to the taxing job demands, the routinized and repetitive
nature of work, the working environment, low job discretions and high levels of monitoring. The
later has especially been associated with negative impacts such as creating high levels of anxiety,
depressions, emotional exhaustion and lower levels of job satisfaction (Holtgrewe et al, 2008).
The empirical studies that have investigated the levels of stress among customer care
representatives have been unanimous on the high levels in these centers. The report by Holfman
et al (2007) has indicated that the typical call center reports an annual turnover of more than 20%
(on overall) but rises to more than 40% in India. Indeed, these authors would further posit that at
least a third of the call care representatives have a tenure of less than an year on average and in
India, more than 60% (or two thirds) of the employees leave before the year is over. As can be
expected, the costs of these turnovers are invariably high to the organizations. As noted by in the
Holfman report, this cost is approximately 16% of the gross annual pay of one agent or two
months of a typical workers pay. When the lost productivity accruing from this is factored into
the equation, then the costs would equate to between 3-4months payroll for a typical worker in a
month-just replacing one agent. These high figures typically mean that turnover rates are not
only high but equally expensive to the entity concerned.

The high turnovers are of course as a result of the nature of work and employment
engagements. On most occasions, it has been noted that the environment in a call care center
conjures an image of busy and hurried representatives using telephones, computers and other
complements (Brown & Maxwell, 2002) in an atmosphere that presents a continuum of role
conflicts between management and call care representatives. On one hand, the management
expects that call care representatives will resolve customer complains while still advocating for a
policy of performance evaluation pegged on such referents as the number of calls a
representatives successfully handles in a day, the amount of revenues that have been generated
and the actual amount of time that the customers had to wait before being serviced or ‘queue’
(Tuten & Neidermeyer, 2004). In the majority of call centers, electronic evaluations follow
computer telephony integrations (CTI) systems on the basis of which the lengths of time spent in
a call, types of calls that have been dealt with, agent productivity, agent sales and the number of
errors committed by the agent are evaluated (Brown & Maxwell, 2002). The problems with such
systems usages are clearly at odds in the observations that supervisors are capable of listening
into the calls being made by the agents (Brown & Maxwell, 2002; Tuten & Neidermeyer, 2004;
Witt et al, 2004). On most occasions, telephone monitoring has been noted as distracting rather
than promoting the levels of quality deliverance to customer (Brown & Maxwell, 2002), further
worsened by the fact that assistance from supervisors has been noted as mostly non-existent. The
effect of this is that the representative may want to reveal some information that the customer
seeks but is ‘gagged’ in the knowledge that what s/he is saying is being monitored. Such prompts
and policies presents situations where an agent is torn between two opposing forces that stretch
his/her integrity, moral as well as ethical resolves.

The limitations discernible in the care centers work arrangements are further evidenced in
the working environments and equipments that are availed to the agents. Typically, care
representatives are housed in a ‘small cubicle’ with a computer and a telephone. Indeed, a
common site in care centers is agents glued to their computer screens or animatedly talking in
telephones while scrawling rapidly on their note pads. Because an agent must update the details
of one customer as quickly as possible in extensive data bases before another call is routed
through, a common practice is the operation of more than four databases and quick search for
information as well as ability to multitask at the same time. As noted by Richardson and
Howcroft (2006); ‘agents usually communicate with customers by phone while simultaneously
scanning and interpreting information on the screen, and adding information via the key board’
(p. 147).
Such ‘computer-telephone’ interactive environments calls for repetitive movements and
prolonged static sitting postures (Ferreira & Saldiva, 2002) that results in upper extremity
musculoskeletal and psychosocial disorders as well as other advance health impacts (cited in Lin
Chen & Lu 2009). Indeed, epidemiological studies are indicative of a whole cocktail of negative
impacts with accompanying extended psychosocial effects. The negative impacts (without being
exhaustive) have ranged from extended psychosocial stress, hypertension, cardiovascular
diseases, psychosomatic symptoms, heightened levels of depression, adverse birth outcomes, and
negative coping (drug abuse and alcoholism) (Lin et al, 2009). Other impacts that have been
associated with work in care centers have included social isolation, divorce, and encroacher on
leisure among others. In a nut shell, the sum effect of grossly exaggerated performance
criterions, calls monitoring, difficult customers, systematic monitoring of call activities, lack of
team work and difficulties in interactions with co-workers, insistence on speed and quality
service, machine controlled call paces, extended work hours, expectations to be at the work desk,
as well as constant distraction (Lin et al, 2009) have all been precursors to unmitigated stress
levels, reduced performance and employees turnover (Lin et al, 2009; Brown & Maxwell, 2002;
Tuten & Neidermeyer, 2004; Witt et al, 2004; Sudhashree et al, 2005).
Among the call care centers, the prevalence of emotional exhaustion may especially be
higher due to the fact that they have to repeatedly interact with a multitude of different customers
with variant temperaments and emotional demands. Because the employees must resolve clients
current problems that extends from personal, economic, psychological, social, and even physical
(at times), the chances of developing feelings of anger, embarrassment, fear, or despair are very
high (Zalaquet & Wood, 1997). This is more so when it is considered that while these companies
adopt the maxim ‘the customer is always right’ a closer examination of the customer behavior
may reveal that at times, customers can not only be very wrong but also blatantly unjust (Berry
& Seiders, 2008). Having to deal on frequent basis with such customers who are not only unjust
and unfair but also ‘verbal abusers’ and who may belittle, demean, intimidate, or even threaten
legal litigation for the slightest of problems can be taxing to the employees. This situation is
exacerbated by the facts that verbal abusers may have a an easy go at the front-line employees
(customer care representatives) because they typically cannot react visibly to such interactional
injustices and as noted by Berry and Seiders (2008), the problem is more pervasive than most
service care executives will want to admit. This has generally been further worsened by
observations that no clear protocols for redress are existent in majority of call centers. The results
have been that a lot of care representatives experience high burnout levels. For example, Wallace
et al (2000) have documented the following response from one of the subjects: ‘……There is a
girl who’s been here for two years and a customer abused her the other day and she cried for 2
hours……..(p. 182)”. Needless to state, similar observations have been documented in literature.
The psychological syndromes of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced personal
accomplishments (Zalaquet & Wood, 1997) are thus common experiences amongst call agents.
The better management of employee’s welfare has generally been linked with better
performance, satisfaction and lower turnover intents. Tuten and Neidermeyer (2004) in their
study on how personal orientation towards optimism, perceptions of job stress, work/non work
conflicts, performance, absenteeism and turnover intent varied on a sample of customer care
representatives in two inbound call centers found most support for an inverse relationship
between stress and performance, as well as absenteeism and turnover intents. Thus, although
performance rose with stress levels for some time, excessive stress generally lowered
performance, absenteeism and turnover intents. This would be consistent with earlier studies on
motivation that have indicated that employees desire some levels of engagement in order to be
productive. However, higher levels of these have the general effect of reducing performance.
This is further supported by observations that positive relationship between job satisfaction and
stress was only supported to a certain degree in the study by Tuten and Neidermeyer (2004).
The above observations have been supported in the findings of Witt et al (2004) who had
investigated the relationship that arose from interactions between emotional exhaustion and
conscientiousness with the objectively –measured call volume performance and, subjectively-
measured service quality ratings on a sample of 92 call agents (p.149). Borrowing from the
conservation of resources theory (CRO), their findings supported the interactive effects on call
volume but not on the service, thus positing that highly conscientious individuals were likely to
experience emotional exhaustion quicker than their less conscientious counterparts. Given that
quality of service fundaments most organizations operations, it cannot be lost that where this is
lacking, the quality of service deliverance at the individual and organizational levels is greatly
reduced. Ultimately, the starting point of reduced performance (both in quality and quantity) for
highly conscientious (hardworking) employee’s stems from work demands that they can’t cope
with (Witt et al, 2004).
The suggestions on how to reduce the workloads may of course stem from better
resources planning and management. On most occasions, the levels of staffs’ turnover have been
documented to be high due to the too high demands of the work. One would expect that call
centers can easily ameliorate this by having the right number of employees at the right quality
and quantity. However, when it is considered that staffing costs account for more than half of the
call centers total operational costs (Duder & Rosenwein, 2001), then it would make economic
sense to have as small a number of employees as possible. Indeed, it has been noted that majority
of call centers operate at very close to maximum capacities. However, a re-examination of the
‘economic sense’ in this may present a variant viewpoint. It is worth noting that when operations
are close to 100% levels of utilization, the chances of customer queuing (when call volumes rise
only slightly) are very real, which on most occasions results to call abandonments. This, when
the management policy on performance evaluation is… ‘Zero call abandonments…’ places
extreme demands to the customer. Ultimately, the ‘dangerous living’, can be avoided through the
hiring of more employees (Duder & Rosenwein, 2001). As noted by these authors, a ‘small
additional investment in more employees’ can significantly reduce call abandonments rates by
customers which would ultimately improve the level of profitability of the firm. More employees
would further ameliorate deteriorations in services and burnouts. Ultimately, better management
policies can help improve on this.

The human resources management literature has concurred that excellent service delivery
accrues from better and supportive management of the employees. As noted by Lawyer (1986), a
firm’s hr strategy should always be guided by the need to develop highly skilled labor that is
motivated and committed (Armstrong, 2007). The many scientific authors have further stressed
the importance of health and safety factors in working environments. Becker (1995) has further
indicated that investment in the health of the employees through such practices as medical
examinations, stress management, lunches or avoidance of activities that are taxing and risk
death and accidents are seen as important ways of improving the employees levels of motivation,
not less important as investments in general and specific training (cited in Armstrong, 2007).
This is more so when it is considered that all organizations are concerned with the need to
achieve high levels of performance through people which would ultimately call for paying closer
attentions to how such individuals can be motivated through the use of incentives, rewards and
leadership.
Work Arrangements and Job Satisfaction among Customer Care Representatives
The levels of job satisfaction amongst call care representatives have invariably been cited
as low. Conversely, high levels of turnover and/or intents to leave have variously been
documented. The basis of this high turnover (and the accompanying costs) would of course stem
from low levels of job satisfaction among the employees. In particular, the employees have been
dissatisfied with the levels of job quality, lack of discretion and excessive monitoring. In the
same study by Holfman et al (2008), it was revealed that while 32% of all call centers have in
place jobs that are high quality, only 12% of the entire workforce work in such jobs. Contrast
this with the fact that more than 38% of the call centers have low quality jobs, yet more than
67% (or two thirds) of the employees actually work in such positions. Variations in the levels of
job quality will of course vary as an attribute of the economic status of the nation under scrutiny.
Thus, whereas these are relatively high in coordinated economies (at least 40%) industrializing
economies (such as India for example) have between 48-50% of the jobs classified as low
quality, with only a paltry 20% being classified as high quality (Holfman et al, 2008). The levels
of quality attached to a job will of course dictate the intents to leave or otherwise. Little surprise
therefore that when the qualities are high only 9% as opposed to more than 36% of the
employees surveyed by Holman and his colleagues intended to leave.
The above statistics have been collaborated in several other empirical investigations. The
general concurrence has been that the call care industry has the least motivated employees. When
it is considered that maintaining high quality in these firms is definitely a function of providing
employees with control and authority to better serve customers (Snipes, Oswald, LaTour,
Armenakis, 2005), it cannot be disputed that management have failed with their excessive
monitoring, lack of discretion, high performance metrics among others. The focus on talk time
and customer interaction scripts has been presented as a grotesquely skewed means of
performance evaluation and one that places a high valence on maintenance of high quality within
specified times (Witt et al, 2004). This is more so when it is noted that the expectations of call
center customers goes beyond general satisfiers (Haymarket, 1998 cited in Brown & Maxwell,
2002). To start with, quality of customer service is an inherently intangible concept. In addition
to answering and solving customers’ problems, the representatives must not only establish
empathy but further depict adequate responsiveness in resolving customer issues and problems.
Indeed, it has been noted that customer satisfaction and accompanying assessments of quality
service to be dictated by the convenience in fast call handling, cordiality of the agent
(representative) and the consistency accompanying the reliability of such service delivery
(Brown & Maxwell, 2002). The problem is further discernible in the parallels with the exact
number of calls that must be cleared in a day. The agents are expected to handle at least 70
calls/per day which would translate to less than ten minutes on average serving one customer.
When it is considered that the agents are expected to resolve complex problems, deliver quality
service at the same time, and still meet the number of calls expectations per day, it would be
prudent to state that such evaluation measurements are inherently contradictory to desired
behaviors in resolving complex customer complains (Thaler-Carter, 1999 as cited in Tuten &
Neidermeyer, 2004). To meet such challenges, care representative must work long hours, with
typical shifts starting as early as six in the morning to late evenings. The whole day is spent at
ones desk resolving a multitude of problems. Indeed, it has been advanced that one may not even
seek assistance as colleagues are busy handling their own issues.
The need for creation of job satisfaction amongst employees actually accrues from the
realization that employees need to be motivated to perform at high levels. In today’s highly
competitive and technology dependent business environment, it has been advanced that success
will only accrue to those organizations that pay added cognizance to the employees motivation as
the differentiation in the long-run will arise from the people and the knowledge they have.
Building on the resource based view of competitive advantage; Scarborough and Carter (2000)
(as cited in Armstrong, 2007) have noted that in these new technology embedded workplaces,
management should actually try to create, communicate and exploit knowledge as a resource for
the organization but as Drucker (2002) elucidates, the knowledge workers needs to be motivated
to perform, create knowledge and share it (cited in Armstrong, 2007). Within the context of the
modern working environments that have been cited as intellectually and brain dominated as well
as exerting emotional demands, the ‘enabler’ of this work needs to be presented with ideal
working conditions in order to produce the best possible results and demonstrate high levels of
performance (Armstrong, 2007). Indeed, stemming from Flamholtz (2001) equation that has
indicated that performance is equal to motivation and ability and that no performance will accrue
from a de-motivated workforce, it is important that management focuses on the levels of job
satisfactions if they want their employees to perform at high levels (cited in Armstrong, 2007).
This satisfaction will only accrue where there is a ‘fit’ between individual needs, expectations
and aspirations, and the individuals work experiences (Mumford, 1991 as cited in Armstrong,
2007).
The management literature would further posit that workers whose personal needs have
not been satisfied in their jobs are most likely to leave the organization and that turnover is
negatively correlated with job satisfaction. The general concurrence has been that a firms
financial performance is an attribute of the levels of customer satisfaction which arises from the
levels of employees performance, which in turn (ultimately) derives from the levels of
satisfaction with the work engaged therein, or what has been referred to as the service-profit-
chain theory (Heskett et al, 1994 as cited in Snipes et al, 2005). The importance of job
satisfaction for performance promotion cannot therefore be overemphasized.
The Levels of Employee’s Empowerment in Call Centers
Employees empowerment will generally refer to ones believe about his ability to exercise
choice (Velthouse, 1990 as cited in Snipes et al, 2005). The nature of work in call centers has
generally been cited as according little such empowerment to the employee. The transformations
in the nature of work in the information technology and computers mediated environment in call
centers can well be criticized from the analysis of the Critical Social Theory (CRT) as advanced
by Pierre Bourdieu. As noted by Light (2001), the CRM systems to some extent are an attempt to
codify intellectual capital with some soft-ware-mediated ‘scripts’ that enables the monitoring of
calls and subsequent and immediate assessments, imbedded in assumptions, values, and opinions
about patterns of use, the nature of work, and organizational structures (cited in Richardson &
Howcroft, 2006). In this regard, the user has been ‘configured’ to respond in some ways that
have been sanctioned as ‘appropriate’ but as noted by several researchers, such scripts
‘mechanisms-metaphorically if not physically weld the worker and the machine into a
streamlined and controlled knowledge system’ (Richardson & Howcroft, 2006, p. 147). On most
occasions, such tightly defined scripts as well as the recoding of operators conversations, have
been equated to an ‘unprecedented level of attempted managerial control’ (Taylor et al, 2002)
and depict work arrangements where the levels of repetitiveness and sequencing of uninterrupted
events would encapsulate taylorisation of work that is grossly taxing to the employees
(Richardson & Howcroft, 2006; Lin et al, 2009; Brown & Maxwell, 2002; Tuten &
Neidermeyer, 2004; Witt et al, 2004; Sudhashree et al, 2005).
In line with these sentiments are observations that the so called ‘team-working practices’
and the ‘rhetoric’ on empowerment by many a manager in these call centers is just an extension
of the aforementioned. Team practices are a combination and extension of ideological, material
and cultural objectives anchored on a framework of stimulating a sense of togetherness and
collective identity, but ingrained in the tenets of generating competition among the individual
employees in what Baldry et al (1999) have labeled ‘team Taylorism’ (cited in Richardson &
Howcroft, 2006). Ultimately, such team practices are structured around work intensifications that
on most occasions are geared towards up surging unbeatable statistics through, ‘concertive
controls’ that have nothing to do with empowerments of the employee (Richardson & Howcroft,
2006; Brown & Maxwell, 2002; Tuten & Neidermeyer, 2004). Conversely, workings in these
centers have been predominantly associated with feelings of low empowerments; lessen job
satisfactions, and accumulations of stress. Perhaps this is best encapsulated in the observations of
Taylor and Bain (1999) who notes that ‘…….as management struggle for control over the
workforce, the intensive monitoring and tightened controls seems to merely intensify existing
problems……’ (Cited in Richardson & Howcroft, 2006, p. 148).
Given the above perspectives it can be seen that management needs to reconfigure the
levels of empowerments that these new systems seem to accord employees. Adrian and
Chowdhury (2004) in their assessments of centralization as a design consideration for the
management of call centers have for example noted that if management fails to capitalize on the
particular ways in which centralization moderates between IT and competitive strategy, then it
will be hard for them to realize the benefits that accrue, with the benefits that call centers have to
offer. This is because while managers can influence decision making at the central level,
opportunities abide for the employees in call centers to exercise authority in the management of
organization’s communications with the customers. Reconfiguring the ways that call center
decisions are implemented, expanded and developed, through consultations, and where employee
has ‘a strong voice’ can essentially enhance customer service in organizations (Adrian &
Chowdhury, 2004). Similar sentiments have been echoed by several other researchers. For
example, Brown and Maxwell (2002) have analyzed the proliferation of call centers in UK and
noted that they can afford the potential to enhance service delivery through more effective
management of the driver of this service-the employee. As noted by these authors, consistently
achieving customer satisfaction through reliance on employees who are ‘….typically bored,
underpowered and stressed in their jobs is challenging…..’ and note that further investigating
the human resources policies and management approaches can conspicuously fundament
palatable resolves within the care centers functionalities (p. 316).
The need for employees empowerments are actually well discussed issues in human
resource management literature. On most occasions, it has been revealed that job satisfaction
alone is not enough to drive performance and efficiency in service delivery that would equate to
more customer satisfaction. Davenport (1989) has noted that the ideal arrangement of a job from
an intrinsically motivating viewpoint should provide for fully integrated jobs that contains all the
three elements of planning-deciding on the course of action, its timing and the resources
required-executing-carrying out the plan-and controlling- or monitoring the progress while
taking corrective action as may be required (cited in Armstrong, 2007). On the other hand,
Lawler (1989) had recognized the characteristics of feedback, use of abilities and self control as
giving rise to job empowerment (cited in Armstrong, 2007). Hackman and Oldman (1975) had
earlier indicated that the critical psychological states of experienced meaningfulness of work,
experienced responsibility over work and knowledge about the actual outcomes of work will
strongly influence feelings of empowerment, the levels of motivation, job satisfaction and levels
of performance. Robertson (1992) has further noted that this element of the model to be based on
the personal reward and reinforcement. In this regard, reinforcement is attained when the person
becomes aware of the results that they have been responsible and that good performance was
accrued from the performance that they cared about (cited in Armstrong, 2007). The ingredients
for a satisfying job that is seen as empowering requires other ‘requisite characteristics’ (as noted
by Turner & Lawrence, 1965) such as variety, autonomy, required interactions, optional
requirements, knowledge and skills (Armstrong, 2007). Meanwhile, Cooper (1993) notes four
dimensions of job variety, discretion, contribution and goal characteristics (cited in Armstrong,
2007) as key to promoting feelings of empowerment in employees.
Summary of Literature Reviewed
The available literature on call centers has generally been split over the benefits that
accrue from these systems. On most occasions, there are those who view these systems as
generating positive outcomes in the transformed nature of work and organizational structures
(utopian view) and those who view this in the negative (dystopian view). The former has
generally presented a view that these new strategic and technology-imbedded transformations
will positively accentuate the rises in the levels of ‘knowledge-intensive’ work systems that will
create employments, drive efficiency in service deliveries and promote organizational and
economic well being of outsourced nations. In this regard, it has been viewed that the new
flattened organizations that are grounded on a platform of team work and employees
empowerment will result in a win-win situation for all involved (Korczynski, 2001 as cited in
Richardson & Howcroft, 2006). The other end of the divide has been one that has equated these
call centers to ‘the sweatshops of the 21st century’ as exemplified by concerted efforts at
employees control through intensive monitoring, tightened control systems and overrated
performance evaluation referents, all of which fundament excessive stress, reduced
empowerments and lessened job satisfactions. Within the microcosm of the Indian call care
industry, the latter case would appear applicable. Thus, while the NASSCOM has claimed that
the ITES-BPO working conditions are among the best in the world several limitations abides.
Principally, there is need for emphasis on transferable skills agenda, improvements in trainings,
certification as well as accreditation of workers in the Industry. Essentially, this would have the
benefits of alleviating the rapidly rising levels of attrition documented in the industry, a
limitation that NASSCOM clearly acknowledges (James & Vira, 2009). These efforts should be
driven by the need to lower stress levels, improve on the levels of job satisfaction, and accord
more empowerment to the employees. Such practices can help accentuate the potential accruing
from these ventures.

Chapter 3: Research Methodologies
Introduction
The current study wished to explore how the potential accruing from care centers in India
can be positively enhanced though better management of employees. In this chapter, the research
design, strategy, methods, samples and sampling and measures have been provided. The choice
of the methodological approaches that were adopted and the general guidelines in this selection
have been explained and justified. The scientific methodology of research was employed because
it provides a systematic and organized series of steps that insures maximum objectivity and
consistency in researching a problem. It also provides a shared basis of analysis and helps to
promote reliability and validity-accuracy and consistency-.
Research Design and Strategy
The current study was non-experimental in nature as it sought to assess the levels job
satisfaction, feelings of empowerment and emotional exhaustion (burnout), on a sample of care
centre representative in India. The choice of this design was tenable as the data for analysis was
based on the self reported perceptions of subjects on the three variables under investigation.
Saunders et al (2000) has defined a research strategy as the general plan on how the research
questions posited will be answered in a given study. The current study adopted a deductive
approach where study hypothesis formulated from a review of literature were to be tested. The
study adopted a typical survey research methodology in data collection where a questionnaire
document was replicated and the items in the questionnaire measured. The cross-sectional time
perspective was followed due to time and resources constraints where all the study subjects were
composed into one large sample and studied at only one point in time as opposed to the
longitudinal time perspective (Robson, 2002). Given that the researcher was aware of what the
constructs under investigation were but not aware of the answers to these questions, the
descriptive statistics were employed to describe the problem at hand. As noted by Saunders et al,
descriptive statistics approach involves describing a problem, context or situation but while it can
be stated as a feature of exploratory research as well, the questions posed are more descriptive,
better structured and more reliant on prior ideas and methods (Saunders et al, 2000).
Study Hypotheses
The current study took a hypothetical dictum that the feelings of empowerment and stress
as well as job satisfaction would be impacted on by the nature of work and employment
engagements in the call center among the care representatives in call centers in India. It was
further assumed that the individual constructs of emotional exhaustion (burnout) and feelings of
empowerment would exert either positive or negative influences on the levels of job satisfaction.
The levels of these influences would however be varied among the two groups, i.e., the engineers
and marketers. The three hypotheses that were under investigation are posited as follows:
Ho1: The self reported levels of feelings of empowerment will be higher among marketers
relative to the engineering graduates care representatives
Ho2: The self reported levels of job satisfaction will be higher among marketers relative to the
engineering graduates care representatives
Ho3: The self reported levels of burnout will be higher among engineers relative to the
marketing graduates care representatives

Sampling and Sample Sizes
In the current study, the study population was all the engineering and marketing
graduates working as care center representatives at the --------------care center in India. The
----------care center has a total of ------------------------employees. The hr records obtained with
the assistance of the head of hr in the center revealed that a total of -------------------marketers and
---------------------engineers worked as call care representatives as of ---------- 2010 when the
study was being conducted. From this sub-population, convenient sampling was carried out in
order to generate enough data for analysis and 50 marketers and 50 engineers recruited into the
study. The choice of this non-probability sampling approach was informed by the need to
generate a representative sample of marketers and engineers for comparative analysis and
hypothesis testing. Based on this reasoning, a questionnaire document was distributed to subjects
(see appendix 1). The inclusion/exclusion criteria were all marketers and engineers not working
management position and who have been in the organization for at least a period of six months
and aged below 30 years. The age limitation was meant at trying to moderate the effects that
experience would have on the levels of job satisfaction, employee’s empowerment and emotional
exhaustion (burnout).
The Data Collection Tool and Measures
The survey research approach was adopted and a questionnaire utilized in the generation
of primary data. Saunders et al (2000) has detailed that a questionnaire should be constructed in a
manner that will facilitate the collection of answers from close or measureable types of questions
so that data can be analyzed and presented to describe the characteristics under investigation. In
this way, the cause or causes of specific phenomenon can be indicated and understood by the
variations or correlations in variables across the cases. There are different methods that can be
utilized in the administration of questionnaires such as post, email or face to face administration.
In the current study, the questionnaires were posted to the study subjects. In order to increase the
response rates, the questionnaire was directly emailed to the respondents and an envelope and
return stamp attached. Secondary data was on the other hand obtained through a detailed review
of literature (both academic and empirical) on the research subject.
The research questionnaire required the respondents to self report their perceptions on the
three constructs of job satisfaction, empowerment and emotional exhaustion (burnout) (see
appendix 1). These are detailed as follows:
Job satisfaction
The Job Satisfaction Survey questionnaire as described by Spector (1985) was utilized in
the assessment of the levels of job satisfaction among the call care representatives in ------call
center. The JSS is a 36-item, nine-facet scales questionnaire that can be utilized in assessing the
employees’ attitudes about a particular job and the aspects of the job itself. The nine facets are
assessed on the basis of four items in order to compute the score for that facet and the overall
satisfaction, upon summations ofall the facets. These items are summated on a scale rating of 1-6
(1- strongly disagree; 6-strongly agree) with half of the items reverse scored. The 9 facets are:
Pay, Promotion, Supervision, Fringe Benefits, Contingent Rewards or Performance Based
Rewards, Operating Procedures, Coworkers, Nature of Work and Communication (Spector,
1985). The JSS facet scores range from 4-24, while the overall satisfaction ranges from 36-216.
High scores indicate high satisfaction and vice versa. As detailed by Spector (1985), the negative
scores (on the negatively worded items) are reversed before summing up the positively worded
scores on the facet or total satisfaction score. Where items are missing, the average of that score
is substituted for the missed score to avoid a low score. The interpretation of the continuum of
satisfaction (from dissatisfied to fully satisfied) does not have a clear cut line however. On most
occasions, arbitrary cut scores can be utilized. The advice given by Spector (1985) is to indicate
as fully satisfied item scores of more than 4 and less than 3 as dissatisfied, whereas the scores 3-
4 are ambivalent. This will mean that facet scores (on the 4-item subscales) of 4-12 are
dissatisfied; 16-24 are satisfied while 12-16 are ambivalent. The job satisfaction (36-item or the
9-facets scores) would then be that overall scores of 36-108 are dissatisfied, 144-216 are satisfied
while 108 to 144 are ambivalent.
Employee’s Empowerment.
The levels of employee’s empowerment were on the other hand assessed on a 4-item
scale following the advice given by Snipes et al (2005). The items (or empowerment ‘facets’ as
operationalized in the current study) were power, care, value and authority. In this regard 4
questions were coded to gauge the employees levels of empowerment by slightly modifying the
items used by Snipes et al as follows: ‘my job affords me enough power to take any corrective
action that I deem necessary when a customer is dissatisfied by my service’, ‘the organization
cares about my opinions’, ‘this organization values my contributions to its well being’ and ‘I do
not have the authority necessary to take actions for turning dissatisfied customers into satisfied
ones’ (reverse coded) (Snipes et al, 2005). However, instead of using a 1-7 ranking as used by
these authors, the items were ranked similarly to the job satisfaction and the ranking done from
1-6 (1-strongly disagree; 6-strongly agree). In this regard, low scores would amount to low
feelings of empowerment while high scores would translate to high empowerment. In order to
attain conformity with the job satisfaction scores, the same scoring and decision rules given by
Spector (1985) were applied in assessing overall empowerment. Thus, a score of more than 4 on
the individual item was interpreted to mean high empowerment, score of less than 3 low
empowerment while scores ranging from 3-4 were ambivalent. For the overall feelings of
empowerment (4-item scale), 4-12 would indicate low empowerment; 16-24 would be fully
empowered while 12-16 were ambivalent.
Emotional Exhaustion/Burnout
Emotional exhaustion or burnout on the other hand was assessed by utilizing the Maslach
Burnout Inventory (MBI) and the advice given by Witt et al (2004) specifically followed. The
specific items measured were anger and frustration, tiredness, drained, dissatisfaction and
sympathy. In this regard (and for consistency purposes), a 6-item likert scale (I-disagree; 6-
agree) was utilized to measure these items. The items measured were: ‘I find myself feeling
angry and frustrated by my customers’, ‘I often feel drained after dealing with customers’,
‘constant efforts to satisfy customers or help co-workers can become very tiresome’, ‘many of
the customers I try to help seem to never be satisfied’ and ‘often near the end of the day, it gets
difficulty to feel sympathy for the problems of my customers’ (Witt et al, 2004, p. 153). In this
regard, higher scores would represent higher levels of emotional exhaustion and vice versa. The
decision criterion was again based on the guidelines followed in the evaluations of levels of job
satisfaction and feelings of empowerment. Thus, scores of more than 4 represented high
emotional exhaustion while scores less than three indicated low stress, and 3-4 ambivalent. The
scores however varied on the 5-items (sub-facets) that were being evaluated. In this regard,
scores ranging from 20-30 indicated high levels of emotional exhaustion, 15-20 were ambivalent
while 5 -15 indicated low levels of burnout.

Data Analysis
The analysis of data was then carried out in two stages: in the first stage, the descriptive
statistics were carried out, involving the computations of the frequency distributions, arithmetic
means, ranking and percentages. In the next stage, inferential statistics were carried out. This
involved the application of the t-statistics in order to test the 3 hypothesis earlier delineated, that
is, the levels of satisfaction, feelings of empowerment and emotional exhaustion (burnout) would
significantly differ between the two groups. Data was then presented using text, tabular and
semi tabular presentation methods. For all the above analysis, the level of significance was set at
the 95% and 99% confidence level and the degree of error at .5 and .01 respectively. The results
of these analysis and discussions of the findings are presented in the next section.
Chapter 4: Results and discussions
Introduction
The purposes of the current study was to explore how the potential accruing from the
rising call care industry in India maybe positively enhanced by focusing on the core driver of this
performance-the employee. Towards this, an investigation of the levels of job satisfaction,
feelings of empowerment and emotional exhaustion from a sample of engineering and marketing
graduates was carried out. The results of these findings are disseminated in this chapter. A
presentation of descriptive statistics will be first done before a test of the hypotheses earlier
posited is carried out. A discussion of these results will then be presented.
Results of the Study
A total of 160 graduates had been recruited in the current study (95 marketers and 65
engineers) form which the questionnaire were administered. Out of this population, only 50
responses were received, giving a response rate of 31%. Out of this, 28 were marketers and 22
were engineers (see table 1 below). This low response rate may have impacted on inference
making and the comprehensiveness in study conclusions.
Table 1: Subjects’ Recruitment and Representation in The study
Item Recruited (n) Received (n) Percentage representation (%)

Markers 95 28 29.4
Engineers 65 22 33.8
Total 160 50 31.2
The levels of job satisfaction, feelings of empowerment and emotional burnouts
The self reported levels on the above variables were computed based on the questionnaire
responses on the two groups of employees under investigation (see tables 2, 3 and 4 below). The
levels of job satisfaction were assessed by utilizing the Job Satisfaction Survey as advised by
Spector (1985) on the 9 facets and 4 sub-facets of Pay, Promotion, Supervision, Fringe Benefits,
Contingent Rewards or Performance Based Rewards, Operating Procedures, Coworkers, Nature
of Work and Communication (see appendix 2 and 3). This analysis revealed that the average job
satisfaction score was 119.28 (ambivalent) with the marketers having an average score of 132.86
(ambivalent) as compared to the engineers whose score was 102 (dissatisfied). An evaluation of
the individual facets revealed that the employees were mostly ambivalent on the facets of
promotion, supervisors, fringe benefits, operating conditions, nature of work and
communications (14.34, 12.86, 13. 04, 12.52, 14.06 and 14.52 respectively), but completely
dissatisfied with the pay and contingent rewards (10.86 and 11.16 respectively). The only facet
where they appeared completely satisfied was in regard to co-workers (17.0). However, whereas
the marketers were mostly ambivalent on supervisor and operating conditions facets (15.18 and
14.25), the engineers were mostly dissatisfied (9.91 and 10.32 respectively). Similarly, whereas
marketers were satisfied with the nature of work and communications (18.07 and 16.32), the
engineers were dissatisfied (10.18) and ambivalent (12.23) respectively (see table 2 below).
Table 2 The Job Satisfaction Facet Scores
Satisfaction
Marketers (n =28) Engineers (n = 22) Total (n = 50)
Facet
Sum of Sum of Sum of
Sum Sum Sum
Means Means Means
Pay 333 11.89 210 9.55 543 10.86
Promotion 440 15.71 277 12.59 717 14.34
Supervision 425 15.18 218 9.91 643 12.86
Fringe Benefits 331 11.82 240 10.91 652 13.04
Contingent
335 11.96 223 10.14 558 11.16
Rewards
Operating
399 14.25 227 10.32 626 12.52
Conditions
Co-workers 494 17.64 356 16.18 850 17.00
Nature of Work 506 18.07 224 10.18 730 14.6
Communication 457 16.32 269 12.23 726 14.52
TOTAL 3720 132.86 2244 102.00 5964 119.28
The assessment of the feelings of empowerment revealed a mean score of 13.1
(ambivalent) but while marketers were mostly ambivalent (14.93) the engineers felt completely
underpowered (10.77). The individual facets revealed further that while the marketers were
ambivalent on the levels of care, value and authority, (3.50, 3.86, and 3.86 respectively), the
engineers felt mostly underpowered on these variables (2.59, 2.86 and 2.32 respectively). These
are summarized in table 3 below.
Table 3: Feelings of Empowerment
Marketers Engineers Total

Main
mea
Sub-facets
sum mean STD sum mean STD sum STD
facet
n
Empow power 104 3.71 0.763 66 3.00 0.926 170 3.40 0.904
Care 98 3.50 0.694 57 2.59 0.796 155 3.10 0.863
erment Value 108 3.86 0.803 63 2.86 0.710 171 3.42 0.906
Authority 108 3.86 0.756 51 2.32 0.716 159 3.18 1.063
survey
13.1
TOTAL 418 14.93 237 10.77 655
0
The feelings of emotional exhaustion or burnout on the other hand revealed high levels of
stress on the entire sample (24.88) and on the individual groups of marketers and engineers
(25.18 and 24.88 respectively). Indeed, un-tabulated results revealed that the percentage
representation of the levels of emotional exhaustion amounted to 100% of the respondents
sampled. Similarly, the individual items under investigation all revealed scores higher than 4 (or
high emotional exhaustion levels) (see table 4 below).
Table 4: Emotional Exhaustion and Burnout
Main Marketers Engineers Total

Sub-facets
sum mean STD sum mean STD sum mean STD
facets
Anger/frustr
141 5.04 0.744 111 5.05 0.844 252 5.04 0.781
ation
Burnout Drained 140 5.00 0.816 108 4.91 1.151 248 4.96 0.968
Tiring 136 4.86 0.705 107 4.86 0.834 243 4.86 0.756
Dissatisfied 143 5.11 0.832 108 4.91 0.811 251 5.02 0.820
Sympathy 145 5.18 0.723 105 4.77 0.869 250 5.00 0.808
TOTAL 705 25.18 539 24.5 1244 24.88
Statistical Analysis
The next part of the analysis was focused on assessing whether the observed differences
in the above constructs were significant enough between the two groups or merely arose due to
errors in sampling or chance. This was essentially focused on testing the hypothesis earlier
delineated that the levels of job satisfaction, feelings of empowerment and emotional exhaustion
(burnout) were statistically different between these two groups. The t-tests were applied towards
this and the results have been summarized in table 5 below. This analysis revealed that all
hypotheses were supported as the computed t values were greater at the .01 levels of analysis:
Job satisfaction (t=1.677224197, df 2, 48 p ≤27.19362468), feelings of empowerment
(t=1.677224197, df 2, 48 p ≤11.17941237) and emotional exhaustion (t=1.677224197, df 2, 48 p
≤1.762997855).
Table 5: T-tests
Job Satisfaction Empowerment survey Emotional exhaustion

Pooled Variance 0.012240043 1.702516234 1.82514881
Hypothesized Mean
Difference 0 0 0
df 48 48 48
t Stat 27.19362468 11.17941237 1.762997855
P(T<=t) one-tail 4.08308E-31 2.90577E-15 0.042133218
t Critical one-tail 1.677224197 1.677224197 1.677224197
Discussions
An investigation of the levels of job satisfaction, feelings of empowerment and the
emotional exhaustion amongst the engineering and marketing graduates working in a call center
in India has generally indicated that the employees may not be enjoying the conditions at work
that are presently accorded. This can be inferred from the fact that the average score on the job
satisfaction is ambivalent (119.28) from a possible score of 216. This has further been supported
by the observations that the employees were mostly ambivalent on at least facets under
investigation (employees were mostly ambivalent on the facets of promotion, supervisors, fringe
benefits, operating conditions, nature of work and communications). The analysis would reveal
that they are completely dissatisfied with the pay and contingent rewards while they may feel
satisfied with their colleagues. Similarly, the feelings of empowerment were mostly ambivalent
(13.1) on a possible score of 24. The levels of emotional exhaustion were however very high
(mean 24.88 on a possible score of 30) with a representation of 100%. The analysis of whether
these may be significant have revealed that the observations were actually significant enough
between the two groups with the engineers experiencing lower levels of job satisfaction and
feelings of empowerment, whereas the levels of emotional exhaustion were higher.
The above findings are consistent with previous research that has been carried out on the
above variables among employees working in call centers. While it has been variously cited that
this may be a relatively high salary in India, the results may posit that majority of employees in
the call center may be completely dissatisfied with the pay being received. The same case may
be cited of the other facets where employees are mostly ambivalent. For example, Mitter et al
(2004) has indicated that employees working in call centers in India are being paid as low as US
$ 175 which may rise to $ 262.5 after a year. On most occasions these levels of high of
dissatisfaction have been positively correlated with turnover intents and/or actual turnovers
(Snipes et al, 2005; Holfman et al, 2008; Witt et al, 2004; Zalaquet & Wood, 1997; Richardson
& Howcroft, 2006; Brown & Maxwell, 2002; Tuten & Neidermeyer, 2004).
Consistent with previous studies, the levels of empowerment have been documented to be
low. For example, in their call center compensation survey, Thaler-Carter (1999) noted that call
center employees felt their supervisors accorded them very little respect and empowerment (cited
in Tuten & Neidermeyer, 2004). Holfman, et al (2007) extensive study that covered more than
2,500 call centers in 17 different countries and involving a total 475,000 call center
representatives indicated that job discretion to be generally low (49% in liberal market
economies, 29% in coordinated economies and 34% in recently industrialized ones). In addition,
most call centers present guidelines on the kind of information that can be revealed to the
customers detailed in ‘expansive company’s policies manuals’ (Witt et al, 2004). The frequency
of performance monitoring was however very high. Wherein the use of problem solving teams
was found to be common (at more than 80%), the representatives were rarely (if ever) engaged in
such activities. The study further revealed that the levels of collective bargaining were as low as
22% in liberal markets and 36% in the intermediate ones. The low bargaining powers were
associated with extremities in wages differentials in the stated economies, relative to the
developed ones.
On the other hand, high stress levels and emotional exhaustion have been documented
among call care representatives. For example, an extensive study by ACA research in 1998 had
indicated that the call center agents had ‘…..a stress profile higher than that of a coal miner….’
with more than 70% of the 433 surveyed agents having had experienced one stress symptom
(Wallace et al, 2000). A study by Fabros (2009) on the other hand has indicated that some agents
in a call care center revealed that they are so drained by the end of the week that they ‘...Feel like
a zombie…’ and do not want to talk or see anyone. Needless to state, similar observations have
been documented in literature. The psychological syndromes of emotional exhaustion,
depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishments are common among care
representatives (Zalaquet & Wood, 1997). The negative health impacts have even prompted
Sudhashree et al (2005) to note….. “we need to wonder whether they outsource body pain along
with work…….the call center processes are designed to fit the technology and not the
workers……….’ (p. 130). Similar sentiments have been advanced in empirical literature.
The above findings have all indicated that management in call centers need to reconfigure
the nature of work and work arrangements if they are to lower the levels of stress and positively
enhance the feelings of job satisfaction and empowerment. In the next section, the conclusions
drawn from the study are highlighted, followed by a brief but succinct articulation of study
implications and directions for future research.

Chapter 5: Conclusions and Recommendations
Summary of Key Findings
The rising breadth in ITES-BPOs in India and more specifically call care industry has
variously been cited as presenting ideal avenues for not only promoting the economic wellbeing
but further providing employment to majority of the young graduates. The initial review of
literature had however indicated that that the working conditions and employment engagements
in these call centers to be characterized by high levels of stress and turnovers arising from
mounting dissatisfaction at work. This was largely attributed to the low complexity in the jobs,
repetitive nature of work and the high performance criterions employed in majority of the call
centers. Essentially, this constituted the motivation for the study. Based on a survey of the levels
of job satisfaction, feelings of empowerment and levels of emotional exhaustion among
marketing and engineering graduates in a call center in India, the study sought to describe how
the employees felt about the three constructs and whether such feelings significantly varied
between the two groups. This would help derive possible suggestions on how the potential
accruing from these ventures could be positively enhanced.
The major findings have been that majority of the employees are ambivalent on the levels
of job satisfaction and feelings of empowerment while 100% of them would appear to suffer
from emotional exhaustion. A test of the three variables earlier posited has further been approved
(table 6). If management in these call centers is to promote service deliverance and indeed
business performance, an evaluation of the nature of work and working arrangements is called
for.
Table 6: Summary of the Hypotheses
Hypoth Study hypotheses Results of the t-

esis test analysis

1 The self reported levels of feelings of empowerment will be higher Significant
among marketers relative to the engineering graduates care
representatives.
2. The self reported levels of job satisfaction will be higher among Significant
marketers relative to the engineering graduates care
representatives.
3. The self reported levels of burnout will be higher among engineers Significant
relative to the marketing graduates care representatives.
Implications for Practice
The management in care centers has to develop policies that will help ameliorate for the
negative influences that have been associated with low levels of job satisfaction, feelings of
empowerment and high stress levels if they are to enhance the potential accruing from these new
ventures. This is more so when it is considered that all organizations are concerned with the need
to achieve high levels of performance through people which would ultimately call for paying
closer attentions to how such individuals can be motivated through the use of incentives, rewards
and leadership. More importantly however, management needs to focus on the work that these
employees do and the organizational contexts within which they do it and more so given the
nature of work that is seen as exerting a lot of emotional labor. As noted by several researchers,
the evaluations of performance on the basis of ‘hard’ data such as the number of calls and errors
made, contradicts the ‘soft’ criterions of quality such as the sales techniques displayed (e.g. tone
of voice displayed) (Brown & Maxwell, 2002) and as noted by Witt et al (2004), the use of
‘prescribed scripts’ such as ‘thank you for calling company A’ as well as displaying emotions
(positive of course) during interactions with the customers, while simultaneously handling calls
quickly to generate envisaged customer experiences is just but a precursor to emotional

exhaustion (p. 151) and invariably, desire to leave. And while previously the management in call
care centers has generally focused on the selection, implementation and use of technology to
improve efficiencies, deleterious effects arise from these efficiency goals and the high
performance evaluation referents, which has resulted to deleterious effects, most notably
exhaustion, stress and turnovers (Taylor & Bain, 1999 as cited in Wallace, Eagleson, &
Waldersee, 2000).
The research findings would however posit that the effects may be more pronounced
among engineers as opposed to marketers. Essentially, this would appear supported in the
observations that ‘role fit’ in job placements are key to efficient operations in these call centers.
It would be prudent to note for example that the definition of marketing has remained for 40
years ‘the performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods and services from
producer to consumer’ (WorldWideLearn, n.d). The backbone of their courses thus stresses
interactions with the customer including customer care. Conversely, engineering courses
emphasize technical astute that may have nothing to do with customer care. Thus, engineers may
be less fitted to these jobs which may be seen from their relatively less scores on job satisfaction
and empowerment and high emotional exhaustion. The potential for enhancing their performance
would perhaps lie in focusing on how the levels of job satisfaction and feelings of empowerment
may be enhanced as well as stress and emotional exhaustion mitigation.
Study Limitations and Future Research
The current study has suffered from several limitations. The first major limitation has
been with the study methodology selection that relied on one mode of data collection.
Essentially, a combination of methodologies (such as use of interviews and focused group
discussions among others) in combination with the survey questionnaires utilized may have
helped generate more insights into the constructs under investigations. This would have helped
draw more conclusive inference on the perceptions of work and work arrangements in call
centers in India. While the study has generally indicated that the potential for enhancing
customer care lies in promoting the job satisfaction and empowerment facets, better insights
could have been drawn on exactly what should be enhanced in the stated facets. Another major
limitation has been with the selection of samples for analysis. While one of the major objectives
was to assess the variations in the constructs along the lines of engineers and markers, it was not
possible to control for other variables that may facilitate clear assessments such as the levels of
training received or promotions, experience or even the individual personality traits that may
influence the levels of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. Lastly, the small sample recruited and
incorporated in the study may limit generalizations of the call care industry in India.
The current study has generally indicated that intrinsic rewards (pay and contingent pay)
to result in dissatisfaction while the other facets are generally viewed as ambivalent. The same
case would appear with feelings of empowerment while high stress levels were reported.
However, it was not possible to assess whether these had impacted on the levels of performance.
It is therefore recommended that future studies replicate the current one and assess how these
variables may impact on the levels of performance in call care centers. Such as study should
ideally test the conceptual model indicated below:
Figure 1: Proposed Conceptual Model
Emotional
exhaustion
1. Anger/frustration
2. Tiredness
3.PutDrained
the model here
4. Dissatisfaction
Job
5. Sympathy satisfaction
1. Pay
2. Promotions
3. Supervision
4. Benefits Employee’s
5. Co-workers performance
Employees’ 6. Rewards
empowerment
7. Work itself
1. Power
8. Communication
2. Care
9. Procedures
3. Value
4. authority
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Appendices
Appendix 1: Sample Questionnaire
JOB SATISFACTION SURVEY

please circle the one number for each question that
Agree very much Agree moderately Agree slightly Disagree slightly Disagree moderately Disagree very much
comes closest to reflecting your opinion
About it.
1 I feel I am being paid a fair amount for the work I do. 1 2 3 4 5 6

2 There is really too little chance for promotion on my 1 2 3 4 5 6
job.
3 My supervisor is quite competent in doing his/her job. 1 2 3 4 5 6
4 I am not satisfied with the benefits I receive. 1 2 3 4 5 6
5 When I do a good job, I receive the recognition for it 1 2 3 4 5 6

that I should receive.
6 Many of our rules and procedures make doing a good 1 2 3 4 5 6
job difficult.
7 I like the people I work with. 1 2 3 4 5 6
8 I sometimes feel my job is meaningless. 1 2 3 4 5 6
9 Communications seem good within this organization. 1 2 3 4 5 6
10 Raises are too few and far between. 1 2 3 4 5 6
11 Those who do well on the job stand a fair chance of 1 2 3 4 5 6
being promoted.
12 My supervisor is unfair to me. 1 2 3 4 5 6
13 The benefits we receive are as good as most other 1 2 3 4 5 6
organizations offer.
14 I do not feel that the work I do is appreciated. 1 2 3 4 5 6
15 My efforts to do a good job are seldom blocked by red 1 2 3 4 5 6
tape.
16 I find I have to work harder at my job because of the 1 2 3 4 5 6
incompetence of people I work with.
17 I like doing the things I do at work. 1 2 3 4 5 6
18 The goals of this organization are not clear to me. 1 2 3 4 5 6
Agree very much Agree moderately Agree slightly Disagree slightly Disagree moderately Disagree very much
19 I feel unappreciated by the organization when I think 1 2 3 4 5 6

about what they pay me.
20 People get ahead as fast here as they do in other 1 2 3 4 5 6
places.
21 My supervisor shows too little interest in the feelings 1 2 3 4 5 6
of subordinates.
22 The benefit package we have is equitable. 1 2 3 4 5 6
23 There are few rewards for those who work here. 1 2 3 4 5 6
24 I have too much to do at work. 1 2 3 4 5 6
25 I enjoy my coworkers. 1 2 3 4 5 6
26 I often feel that I do not know what is going on with 1 2 3 4 5 6
the organization.
27 I feel a sense of pride in doing my job. 1 2 3 4 5 6
28 I feel satisfied with my chances for salary increases. 1 2 3 4 5 6
29 There are benefits we do not have which we should 1 2 3 4 5 6
have.
30 I like my supervisor. 1 2 3 4 5 6
31 I have too much paperwork. 1 2 3 4 5 6
32 I don't feel my efforts are rewarded the way they 1 2 3 4 5 6
should be.
33 I am satisfied with my chances for promotion. 1 2 3 4 5 6
34 There is too much bickering and fighting at work. 1 2 3 4 5 6
35 My job is enjoyable. 1 2 3 4 5 6
36 Work assignments are not fully explained. 1 2 3 4 5 6
EMPLOYEES EMPOWERMENT SURVEY
Disagree very much

slightly moderately
Agree very much Agree moderately Agree slightly DisagreeDisagree
1 My job affords me enough power to take any 1 2 3 4 5 6

corrective action I deem necessary
2 The organization cares about my opinion 1 2 3 4 5 6
3 This organization values my contribution to its well- 1 2 3 4 5 6

being
4 I do not have the authority necessary to take actions 1 2 3 4 5 6
for turning dissatisfied customers into satisfied ones
(reverse-coded)
EMPLOYEES EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION

SURVEY
Disagree very much

about it.
slightly moderately
Agree very much Agree moderately Agree slightly DisagreeDisagree
1 I find myself feeling angry or frustrated with my 1 2 3 4 5 6

customers
2 I often feel drained after dealing with customers 1 2 3 4 5 6
3 Constant efforts to satisfy customers or help co- 1 2 3 4 5 6

workers can become very tiresome.
4 Many of the customers whom I try to help seem to 1 2 3 4 5 6
never be satisfied
5 Often, near the end of the day, it gets difficult to feel 1 2 3 4 5 6
sympathy for the problems of my customers.
Appendix 2: The Job Satisfaction Facets and Sub-Facets
Sub Marketers (n = 28) Engineers (n = 22) Total (n = 50)

-
Main facets
Face Sum Mean STD Sum Mean STD Sum Mean STD
ts
0.71
1 82 2.93 55 2.50 1.504 137 2.74 1.139
6
0.88
10 77 2.75 52 2.36 1.049 129 2.58 0.971
7
0.74
Pay 19 83 2.96 56 2.54 1.143 139 2.78 0.954
4
0.64
28 91 3.25 47 2.14 0.834 138 2.76 0.916
5
Tota
333 11.89 210 9.55 543 10.86
l
0.74
2 111 3.96 65 2.95 0.844 176 3.52 0.931
4
0.81
11 112 4.00 68 3.09 0.971 180 3.60 0.990
6
0.65
Promotion 20 104 3.71 70 3.18 0.795 174 3.48 0.762
9
0.88
33 113 4.04 74 3.36 0.790 187 3.74 0.899
1
Tota
440 15.71 277 12.59 717 14.34
l
0.77
3 103 3.68 62 2.82 0.588 165 3.30 0.814
2
0.80
12 108 3.86 49 2.23 0.922 157 3.14 1.178
3
0.84
Supervision 21 108 3.86 47 2.14 1.037 155 3.10 1.266
8
0.78
30 106 3.79 60 2.73 0.767 166 3.32 0.935
7
Tota
425 15.18 218 9.91 643 12.86
l
Fringe 0.62
4 87 3.11 68 3.09 1.109 155 3.10 0.863
Benefits 9
0.73
13 90 3.21 56 2.54 0.858 146 2.92 0.853
8
22 82 2.93 0.66 49 2.23 0.752 131 2.62 0.780
3
0.63
29 72 2.57 67 3.05 1.046 139 2.78 0.864
4
Tota
331 11.82 240 10.91 571 11.42
l
0.68
5 87 3.11 56 2.55 1.011 143 2.86 0.881
5
0.56
14 87 3.11 57 2.59 0.796 144 2.88 0.718
7
Contingent 0.73
23 87 3.11 56 2.55 0.739 143 2.86 0.783
Rewards 7
0.78
32 74 2.64 54 2.45 0.963 128 2.56 0.861
0
Tota
335 11.96 223 10.14 558 11.16
l
0.73
6 101 3.61 56 2.55 0.800 157 3.14 0.926
7
0.63
15 100 3.57 55 2.50 0.512 155 3.10 0.789
4
Operating 0.70
24 105 3.75 54 2.45 0.800 159 3.18 0.983
Conditions 1
0.86
31 93 3.32 62 2.82 0.733 155 3.10 0.839
3
Tota
399 14.25 227 10.32 626 12.52
l
0.87
7 130 4.64 97 4.41 0.666 227 4.54 0.788
0
0.69
16 126 4.50 84 3.82 0.853 210 4.20 0.833
4
0.69
Co-workers 25 127 4.54 90 4.09 0.684 217 4.34 0.717
3
0.69
34 111 3.96 85 3.86 0.710 196 3.92 0.695
3
Tota
494 17.64 356 16.18 850 17.00
l
0.70
8 119 4.25 65 2.95 0.899 184 3.68 1.019
1
0.77
17 131 4.68 57 2.59 0.854 188 3.76 1.318
2
Nature of 0.74
27 126 4.50 53 2.41 0.959 179 3.58 1.341
Work 5
0.91
35 130 4.64 49 2.23 0.685 179 3.58 1.458
1
Tota
506 18.07 224 10.18 730 14.6
l
0.73
9 123 4.39 63 2.86 0.774 186 3.72 1.070
7
0.74
18 125 4.46 57 2.59 0.908 182 3.64 1.241
4
Communicat 0.72
26 79 2.82 87 3.95 0.950 166 3.32 0.999
ion 3
0.91
36 130 4.64 62 2.82 0.664 192 3.84 1.218
1
Tota
457 16.32 269 12.23 726 14.52
l
132.8 102.0
TOTAL 36 3720 2244 5964 119.28
6 0
Appendix 3: Graphical Representation of the Facets of Empowerment and Job Satisfaction


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Call centers in India 1

THE POTENTIAL FOR ENHANCING THE LEVELS OF CUSTOMER SERVICE IN CALL

The Faculty of the College ----------

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement in the ----------

Chapter 1: Introduction and Problem Statement.......................................................................6

Introduction to the Problem.........................................................................................................6

Research Problem Background....................................................................................................7

Statement of the Problem.............................................................................................................8

Purpose of the Study..................................................................................................................10

Emotional Exhaustion or Burnout.........................................................................................14

Marketers vs. Engineers.........................................................................................................16

Chapter 2: Literature Review.....................................................................................................19

Introduction: The ITES-BPO Sector in India............................................................................19

The Nature of Work and Employment Conditions in Call Centers...........................................21

Work Arrangements, Stress and Turnovers in Care Centers.....................................................23

Work Arrangements and Job Satisfaction among Customer Care Representatives..................29

The Levels of Employee’s Empowerment in Call Centers.......................................................32

Summary of Literature Reviewed..............................................................................................36

Chapter 3: Research Methodologies..........................................................................................39

Research Design and Strategy...................................................................................................39

Sampling and Sample Sizes.......................................................................................................41

The Data Collection Tool and Measures...................................................................................41

Chapter 4: Results and discussions............................................................................................45

Results of the Study...................................................................................................................46

Chapter 5: Conclusions and Recommendations.......................................................................55

Summary of Key Findings.........................................................................................................55

Implications for Practice............................................................................................................56

Study Limitations and Future Research.....................................................................................58

Appendix 1: Sample Questionnaire...........................................................................................66

Appendix 2: The Job Satisfaction Facets and Sub-Facets.........................................................69

List if tables and figures

TABLE 1: SUBJECTS’ RECRUITMENT AND REPRESENTATION IN THE STUDY 42

Figure 1: Proposed Conceptual Model 54

of job satisfaction, feelings of empowerment and levels of emotional exhaustion among

accruing from these ventures could be positively enhanced.

Chapter 1: Introduction and Problem Statement

Introduction to the Problem

effect of these grossly exaggerated performance criterions, excessive calls monitoring,

commitment, stress elimination and general employees’ feelings of empowerment.

Research Problem Background

centers perhaps as a benchmark of the amplifications in globalization. It is now projected that

Statement of the Problem

time, adherence to script, documentation, knowledge of product, display of cordiality or warmth,

facets of job satisfaction, employees’ empowerment and stress amelioration.

Purpose of the Study

therefore expected to contribute to management theory on several important ways: First,

1. What are the self-reported levels of employee’s feelings on the levels of

empowerment, job satisfaction and burnout among marketing and engineering

graduates working in call centers in India?

empowerment and stress amelioration lie in the management of employees

working in call centers?

anecdotal research is generally indicative of a general management failure in the management of

citizenry of country of origin) a situation exacerbated by the reduced ability to ‘….trade up to

(cited in cited in Babin, & Nicholson, n.d).

Coworkers, Work itself and Communication.

Emotional Exhaustion or Burnout

inadequate resources-social support, autonomy, participation in decisions making, control, role

1989 and others).

individual (Zalaquet & Wood, 1997; Witt at al, 2004).

problems (Witt et al, 2004, p. 153).

the basis of: power, cares, value and authority.

Marketers vs. Engineers

more on the technical aspects of a job.