International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research

ISSN: 2455-8834 Volume:04, Issue:02 "February 2019"

WORK DEMANDS, COPING STRATEGIES, AND WELL-BEING IN CALL CENTRE EMPLOYEES:
A QUALITATIVE STUDY
Narsingh Kumar

This qualitative study was conducted to explore the impact of work demands on mental

health and well-being of call centre employees/agents. The study was conducted to investigate that
what coping strategies call centre agents used to cope with these work demands.

The main purpose of the study was to know the views of call centre agents regarding how call
centre job affects their overall well-being and adjustment in social life.The individuals who are
involved in serving the customers directly and are victims of demands and difficulties associated with
a call centre job.

The main purpose of the study was to know the views of call centre agents regarding how call
centre job affects their overall well-being and adjustment in social life

Data/information was collected by Interview method from call centre employees. Open ended

questions were asked to call centre employees of their feelings about their job demands,
interactions with customers, stress experiences, their well-being, social support, and about their
adjustment in life.The marital status of most (92%) of the call centre employees was single.

The present qualitative study does not support the traditional view of call centres as “electronic
sweatshops” (Fernie and Metcalfe, 1998) and “assembly lines in the head” (Taylor and Bain, 1999).

Call centre employees revealed that they face daily hassles related to the job, the new age call
centres no more sustain a taylorized work environment.
Rather it seems call centre employees receive more support and attention of their supervisors than
their human services counterparts.Most of the agents do not perceive performance monitoring as
an intrusive or stressful process rather they perceive it as a performance feedback mechanism,
which they consider in best of their interest.It should be noted that some agents revealed that some
parameters of performance monitoring should change.The qualitative study results find low role
conflict in call centre job supporting recent empirical findings.

With some exceptions, result of this study support the view that call centres is better off with regard
to most job stressors compared to workers in other human services (Zapf, et al, 2003), and may not
differ too much from other human service professions in respect of health consequences. Overall,
this study revealed that in call centres, employees’ has to do repetitive and routine work, with low
complexity and low task control (Knights and McCabe, 1998; Tailor and Bain, 1999) but they receive
high co-worker and supervisory support. Results of this study also suggest that working conditions
in call centres could be substantially improved in recent times.
Nordin, R., Ghazali, N., Mohamad Mozie, N., & Che Din, S. (2018). Work-family conflict and
family-work conflict on worker’s work roles effectiveness in the Call Centre industry in
Klang valley: a comprehensive model. Advances in Business Research International
Journal (ABRIJ), 4(2), 107-115.

Call Centre are known implementing high target as well as rotating shift pattern that further challenges by
causing conflicts on the employee’s focus between work and family.This study focus on workfamily conflict
challenges and solutions among employees and organizations in the Malaysia on the Asian context. Is it
imperative to find the relationship between work and family with the employee’s Job Role, Career Role,
Innovation Role, Team Role, and Organization Role.

The research will adopt the quantitative approach using the survey.

Primary data for this research will be collected from original sources through distribution of questionnaires to
employees of call centre organizations in Klang Valley.
In the current global economy, the lines between work and home are blurring as technology reshapes the
workplace and the nature of home life evolves.

A previous research by Lockwood (2009), HR Content Expert for the Society for Human Resource
Management state that there are three factors: 1) global competition 2) personal lives-family values and 3) an
aging workforce that present challenges that exacerbate work-life balance.
The purpose of this study is to examine the factors that contribute to the work and family life balance issues
among employees in the Call Centre industry in Klang Valley and the effects on their work role effectiveness.
Study of previous research in the west has shown that most employees will resort to absenteeism or leave
their job in the process of juggling their work-family conflict issue.This research will focus on work-family
conflict challenges and solutions among employees and organizations in the Malaysia on the Asian context.

Work-life balance history The expression was first used in the late 1970s to describe the balance between an
individual's work and personal life.The purpose of the current study is to extend the current work–family
research by examining the relationships of both WFC and FWC to factors of employee work role effectiveness
that is job role, career role, innovative role, team role, and organization role.

Theresa et al, (1998) suggest that employees enact multiple roles beyond that of job holder and employing
identity theory, suggested that roles that are considered important from organizational perspectives should be
measured through a comprehensive assessment of employee performance.Compensation provides a clue for
uncovering which role should be measured at because they are one of the mechanisms by which firm
communicate which particular roles are considered important for the firm’s success.Using this theoretical and
empirical support, Theresa et al (1998) developed the Role-Based Performance Scale (RBPS).The research
adopted the quantitative approach using the survey. Primary data for this research will be collected from
original sources through distribution of questionnaires to employees of call centre organizations in Klang
Valley.The questions designed to elicit the employee’s perception of work-family conflict and family-work
conflict, the challenges they faces and how they make the decision to solve their issues, their preferences on
solutions suggested in the questionnaire and in their own opinions on what and how their organization should
solve the work-family conflict issue.These will be register on a Likert scale.

The study is in-progress research. The study may offer several potential contributions.The adoption framework
may help researchers explore and assess the Work-Family Conflict and Family-Work Conflict on Worker’s Work
Roles Effectiveness in the Call Centre Industry.It will assist practitioner and service provider in providing
excellent services. No findings in the journal as this is still an on- going study.
Alcover, C. M., Chambel, M. J., & Estreder, Y. (2020). Monetary incentives, motivational orientation and
affective commitment in contact centers. A multilevel mediation model. Journal of Economic
Psychology, 81(102017), 1-11.

High quality contact and customer relationships are key services for all types of firms. To achieve this high
quality performance standard, companies need highly motivated and committed employees, and human
resources managers are responsible for designing and implementing practices capable of satisfying both
economic exchanges and social exchanges in employee-organization relationships. The aim of this study is to
analyze the relationships between monetary incentive expectation and affective commitment, in addition to
the mediating role of motivation orientation in this relationship, in contact center employees. In particular,
based on the social exchange theory (Blau, 1964), the social exchange model of Cropanzano and Mitchell
(2005), and the self-determination theory (Deci, Olafsen, & Ryan, 2017), our study adopts a multilevel
perspective to examine these relationships in a sample of 2367 contact center employees from 297 teams (3
or more members). The results showed that the level of performance-contingent rewards (team-level) guides
the team’s autonomous motivation (team-level), which, in turn, fosters employees’ affective commitment
(individual-level). The results have practical implications for human resource managers and for interventions
aimed to promote contact center employees’ affective commitment, taking performance-contingent rewards
into account.