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Page 1: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

By Your name

Name of University

Name of Student

Student Roll Number

Tutor Name

Submission Date

Page 2: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

Table of Contents

Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of

Employees..................................................................................................................................1

List of figures.............................................................................................................................4

List of Tables..............................................................................................................................5

Executive Summary...................................................................................................................6

1.0 Introduction.....................................................................................................................8

1.1 Background of the Study..................................................................................................8

1.2 Definition of a Call Centre...............................................................................................8

1.2.1 Call Centre................................................................................................................9

1.2.2 Call Handler..............................................................................................................9

1.3 Designing of Work and Well-Being................................................................................9

1.4 Research Literature over Call Centres...............................................................................13

2. Method.................................................................................................................................14

2.1 Samples:.........................................................................................................................14

2.2 The Questionaries:.........................................................................................................15

2.3 Procedure:......................................................................................................................15

3. Results..................................................................................................................................17

3.1 Characteristics:...............................................................................................................17

3.1.1 Size of the call centres:...........................................................................................17

3.1.2 Location of all centres:............................................................................................17

Page 3: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

3.1.3 Operating Business of the call centres:...................................................................18

3.1.4 Main Occupational Profiles available the Call Centres:.........................................18

3.1.5 Distribution of Employees on the Basis of Age:.....................................................19

3.1.6 Distribution on the basis of Gender:.......................................................................19

3.1.7 Distribution on the basis of tenure of work:............................................................20

3.1.8 Distribution on the basis of working hours:............................................................20

3.2 Difference between the job of call handler and other jobs; whether job of a call handler

is more stressful than other works?......................................................................................21

3.2.3 View of Call Handlers and Other employees:.........................................................22

3.2.4 Job Satisfaction:......................................................................................................25

3.2.4 Work load of the employees...................................................................................27

3.3 Working as the call handler is equally stressful for every one......................................29

3.3.1 Difference of business sector to well being............................................................30

3.3.2 Number of employees working in the call centre make a difference to well being32

3.3.3 Nature of call handling............................................................................................33

3.3.4 Nature of employment contract...............................................................................35

3.3.5 Working as a part time call handler........................................................................36

3.3.6 Having a graduate degree make a difference in stress............................................38

4. Discussion........................................................................................................................40

4.1 Do Females have Lower Levels of Wellbeing in Call Centres?....................................40

4.2 Does increased contracted hours decrease wellbeing?...................................................40

Page 4: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

4.3 Does an employee's specific job role influence wellbeing? If so, which job roles

improve wellbeing?..............................................................................................................41

4.4 Is working as a call handler more stressful than working in other jobs?.......................41

4.5 Does an interest in wellbeing of staff actually increase the wellbeing of staff?............42

4.6 One who works as a one and all other call handlers who work in a team. Is it same

stressful in both scenes?.......................................................................................................42

4.7 What are the aspects which are responsible for creating stress among call handlers?...44

4.8 Risk factors on the psychosocial aspects associated with Call Handlers.......................45

4.9 What are the key factors are worth implementing in the work culture of call handler in

reducing psychosocial risks..................................................................................................46

4.10 Overall Conclusion:.....................................................................................................47

References................................................................................................................................48

Appendix..................................................................................................................................50

Questionaries:.......................................................................................................................50

Page 5: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

List of figures

Figure 1 Job related anxiety among employees.......................................................................23

Figure 2 Job related depression among employees..................................................................24

Figure 3 Comparisons of call handlers with other occupations on Intrinsic job satisfaction. .26

Figure 4 Comparisons of call handlers with other occupations on extrinsic job satisfaction. .26

Figure 5 Comparisons of call handlers with other occupations on work load.........................28

Figure 6 Comparisons of call handlers with other occupations on well being........................31

Figure 7 Comparisons of call handlers with other occupations on well-being and job

satisfaction................................................................................................................................32

Figure 8 Comparisons of call handlers with other occupations on nature of call handling and

well-being.................................................................................................................................34

Figure 9 Comparisons of call handlers with other occupations on type of employment

contract, well-being and job satisfaction..................................................................................35

Figure 10 Comparisons of call handlers with other occupations on type of job, well-being and

job satisfaction.........................................................................................................................37

Figure 11 Comparisons of call handlers with other occupations on educational level, well-

being and job satisfaction.........................................................................................................38

Page 6: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

List of Tables

Table 1 Distribution of call centres in different locations........................................................18

Table 2 Distribution of call centres according to operating business......................................19

Table 3 Distribution of employees according to occupational profile.....................................19

Table 4 Distribution of Employees on the Basis of Age..........................................................20

Table 5 Distribution on the basis of Gender............................................................................20

Table 6 Distribution on the basis of tenure of work.................................................................21

Table 7 Distribution on the basis of Contracted working hours..............................................21

Table 8 Distribution on the basis of Actual working hours.....................................................21

Table 9 Job Anxiety and Job Satisfaction among different occupational profiles...................23

Table 10 Mean/SD of Anxiety and Depression among employees.........................................23

Table 11 Comparisons of call handlers with other occupations on job satisfaction................26

Table 12 Comparisons of call handlers with other occupations on Work load.......................28

Table 13 Comparisons of call handlers with other occupations on well being........................31

Table 14 Comparisons of call handlers with other occupations on well-being and job

satisfaction................................................................................................................................33

Table 15 Comparisons of call handlers with other occupations on nature of call handling....34

Table 16 Comparisons of call handlers with other occupations on type of employment

contract, well-being and job satisfaction..................................................................................36

Table 17 Comparisons of call handlers with other occupations on type of job, well-being and

job satisfaction.........................................................................................................................37

Table 18 Comparisons of call handlers with other occupations on educational level, well-

being and job satisfaction.........................................................................................................39

Page 7: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

Executive Summary

Call centre industry has become vast, as compared to previously annotated working

designs; the industry is growing at a faster pace and so is the myths and risk associated to it.

It is not a fact that there is a certain percentile of risks involved in working culture of such

call centres and BPO’s; further probing into the context might reveal whether the risk are

physiological, psychological and psychosocial. All of these terms are equivalently important

in the terms of their rationality; however in this report we are to focus on psychosocial risk

factors which are prevailing in the working cultures of such call centres and BPO’s.

The research analyses following major research questions, which would determine the

involved risk and how such situations arises in several contexts.

1. Difference between the job of call handler and other jobs; whether job of a call

handler is more stressful than other works?

2. Whether the stress so induced is global or is present in rare cases?

3. Several factors which makes the job of a call handler stressful.

4. Recommendation of measures which should be adopted to reduce the effect

analysed factors, inducing stress to the call handler.

The research needs to be carried out on quantitative basis. Quantitative analysis

included data collection techniques such as questionaries, surveys and other primary data.

Here in this report a major portion of the data was collected from questionaries. For such

questionaries 36 call centres were chosen, collectively these call centres employed around

144 employees of different profiles.

Based on the analysis of the data so collected it was found that it the working design

of a call handler was really stressful as compared to other job profile within the same

Page 8: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

organisation. This further gave a clear implication that call handlers were more prone to the

risk of health problems. The analysis also indicated that the stress phenomenon wasn’t global

at all. Employees with stress issues were either working in IT business sector, large call

centres or do not have much interest in the working design. Thus it can be concluded that

there were various external and internal factors which drives the stress situation among the

call handlers.

On the basis of such analysis, several factors were undermined due to which call

handling can become more and more stressful. Some of the factors were:

Workload was more than enough.

Do not have a clarification about the roles to be played.

Not being able to make use of skills efficiently and effectively.

Conflicts in the powers and roles in various situations.

On the basis of understanding and analytics so formed various recommendations were made

to combat such stress, profounded among the call handlers. Some of the recommendations

included:

Making certain processes autonomous.

Defining clear roles and giving required authorities to attain the respective

tasks.

Allowing innovations, so as to cherish the work done by the handlers on the

basis of their skills.

Increasing the boundary of task.

Page 9: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Background of the Study

Last five year’s data reported a massive growth in the call centres and BPO sector. An

estimated data reported that number of employees working in this sector varies from 331,000

to 530,000 (Cross Christine, 2015).The number are likely to cross 840,000 by year 2017

(Datamonitor, 2003). According to the estimated data, there has been a total number of 7,000

to 8,000 call centres currently working (Datamonitor, 2003) in UK. These number of call

centres are expected to rise above 10,000 before 2017 (Datamonitor, 2003).

The reason behind this instant growth is the progress of computer and telephonic

technology. All of the data are in approximate numbers, as call centres are growing rapidly;

also there had been a limitation in the agreement of exact definition of call centres.

A recent report published in July, 2015 reported an employment for more than two

hundred people in a call centre at NCO Europe Ltd. located at Lancashire. It currently have

around 41,000 employees and the growing work load created job opportunity for 200 more

people (IDS, 2000). The motive for presenting this data of NCO is to drag attention towards

modern trend as a reference point.

1.2 Definition of a Call Centre

During entire research, no single definition can conceptually define the ‘Call Center’;

this is probably due to the wide range of operating areas of such organisations. However this

report suggested an operational definition of call centre and call handler which is mentioned

below.

Page 10: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

1.2.1 Call Centre

‘Call Centre is termed as a working environment for conducting and handling

business via telephonic communication, along with the simultaneous use of DSE i.e. Display

Screen Equipment in the working environment.’

1.2.2 Call Handler

‘Call handler is termed as an employee substantially using his or her working time,

proportion to respond to telephonic calls along with the use of DSE.’

A lot of negative comments has been communicated by the media about call centres.

Terms like ‘electronic sweatshops’ and ‘battery hens’ are being used by various sources like

Newspapers, Radio, and T.V. These terms illustrates call centres as a stressful job making

call handler’s nature intensive.

The jobs in call centres are normally perceived low in quality, boring and tedious.

Parker S.k., (2002) stated proliferation in the line of production of call centres, which is quite

contradicting phenomenon as people usually think of this as hectic and troublesome. Call

centres are the model of mass production; where all other enterprises in the field of

manufacturing had already moved to work, involving high practice profile (Parker S.k.,

2002).

1.3 Designing of Work and Well-Being

A guiding framework is quite important for the examination of psychological risk

factors, which can be implemented using theory of work design, after being discussed with

LAU (i.e. Local Authority Unit) representative of the respective organisation (Callaghan,

2001).

Page 11: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

Designing of work has been a matter of concern with job’s characteristics. Five core

characteristics of job has been identified by Callaghan, (2001) relating to employee’s

motivation and job satisfaction. The five core characteristics are mentioned below:

Variety in skills: An extent to which skills are required by the job.

Identification of Task: An extent to which identifiable work piece completes as a

whole rather than a part of work.

Significance of Task: A degree to which job has impact on people residing inside

of organization as well as outside of organization.

Autonomy: A degree to which an implementation of choice and decision making

has been allowed by the job holders.

Job Feedback: A degree to which an information based on the performance are

provided to job holders.

The above illustrated aspects are very influential and crucial over producing ‘critical

psychological states’ in call handlers. For example, one may experience the important of

his or her work on the basis of skill variety, task identity and significance of task in the

job. On the other hand, autonomy involves understanding self-responsibilities over the

given task and feedback, which somewhere helps in enhancing working culture. While

analysing these perspective in deep context, four major results come out conclusively.

These four outcomes are satisfaction, internal motivation, improvisation in performance;

and absenteeism and turnover. (Parker & Wall, 1998).

Basically, the job characteristic model is a theoretical approach which is widely used

to create job designs (Parker & Wall, 1998). Although, the limitations are also observed

in the model which may create certain conflicts in the design study, are discussed in

(Parker, 1998). However, Parker and Wall concluded that, even if it has seen some

Page 12: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

limitations in design, specified job characteristics may found supportive over cross-

sectional and longitudinal research, as it is an important determinant of outcomes.

In order to negotiate the weaknesses of JCM, Parker & Wall (1998) recommended an

expanded model, which have been used by us for further research. The measures of work

designs uses several perspectives given below.

Timing Control

Method Control

Role Breadth (a.k.a. ‘Control over Boundaries’)

Decision making Participations

Variety in Tasks

Utilization of skills

Workload

Conflicts in assigned Roles

Clarification of Roles

Support form Co-Workers

In order to examine the context of call centre, these work characteristics clearly seems

helpful. Frequently, limited varieties in the task assigned in call centre such as picking up or

handling same calls over multiple times by the same handler is seen. In these scenarios, call

handler is expected to repeat same lines of assistance over multiple calls, multiple times;

simply which is called scripting. Interestingly, call handler become able to make justification

and negotiation on call in a controlled manner, due to scripting the calls. This automatically

strengthen them to deal with maximum number of calls in very short time, which call centre

utilizes very cleverly. A system known as ACD (Automatic Call Distribution) is adopted by

call centre through which, calls are automatically forwarded to corresponding consoles of

Page 13: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

distinct call handlers who have finished running call logs simultaneously. This process keeps

themselves busy with their task and make them more dynamic in their allocated profession.

Another aspect which is required on allocating task to call handlers, is maintaining minimum

call duration and delivering complete solution to each calling customer, alongwith

maintaining maximum number of call as much as possible. These expectation are followed

because, company requires maximum satisfaction from its customers and for this it pays for

lesser duration; if duration gets longer, no extra pay is given. In this situation, call handler

tries to finish call in the set duration which is awarded by associated client or company.

This research implies that, call handler gets great load when working in such

situations, the work design and design character may influence the health and performance of

worker (see Parker & Wall, 1998).

There have been cases of mental weaknesses in the call handlers who have lowered

task variety. This can also be stated in other words as, if an employee is having greater job

control gets higher satisfaction (Terry, 1999) Those employees who have poor characteristics

in performance are also stated as mentally poor. With poor characteristics, conflicting roles

results in contradictory demands from the managers of the call centres. Clarification in the

roles to be performed by an employee, if no clarifications have been made it tends to mean

that he or she is actually not aware of assigned task. Above describes different psychological

risk factors or associated hazards (Cox & Griffiths, 1996). In order to reduce these

psychological risk factor, it is necessary to reconsider the designing of framework. There are

several researches and studies on examination of work re-design and hence, a compensation

could be established between Health & safety and associated work culture (Parker, Jackson,

Sprigg & Whybrow, 1998; Jackson & Parker, 2001; Parker & Williams, 2001).

According to study made in (Parker et al, 2001), the redesigning of work will be helpful for

constructing strategy over stress prevention and improvising organisational effectiveness (P-

Page 14: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

24). Initiative of making improvement in the working culture may help for making

improvisation in well-being and performance.

1.4 Research Literature over Call Centres

When our research begun during 2015, only few of published academic papers were

found, corresponding authors had made their examinations on psychological risks such as

stress, in call centres.

Research to be published is often concerned with four distinct sectors of call centres.

(Callaghan & Thompson, 2001) These sectors are management control forms (Bain &

Taylor), management of high commitment (Fernie & Metcalf, 1998), relationships within

industry and unionism (Zapf, Vogt, Seifert, Mertini, & Isic, 1999).

Human Resource Management journal is devoted in the welfare of call centre human

resources implementations (Volume 12, Number 4, 2002). It includes some informative

papers which may help further in the research.

As far as our evaluation made over call centres is concerned, it is familiar with the

research made by Holman (2002). The topic of Holman research was based on ‘Employee

well-being within a call centre’ is relevant with respect to the research we are preparing.

Holfman had created it paper in 2002 which is focused over same concern that we have

concerned about. Concentration over human resources in call centres is required primarily

and the paper prepared by Holman is more focused than our own. This is stated so because,

Holman’s paper study has got support from ESRC from the Centre of Organisation &

Innovation (COI) in ESRC sector based at IWP which stands for Institute of work psychology

which is affiliated with university of Sheffield. We have originated our focus in the area of

psychological health and it is founded by NAME. We have taken this research to be based

over Holman’s paper as it is stated crucial for our research in the earlier paragraphs. With the

Page 15: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

help of his paper, we can find some well-being measurements and competitiveness for our

originated research.

Page 16: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

2. Method

2.1 Samples:

The research was made using the primary data using questionaries. Although, for the

success of the research it was quite crucial to take the right location to conduct the

questionaries. Talking all the primary objectives of the research into account the locations

were chosen as London, Ireland, Wales, Scotland and other England. The approach was to

choose the call centres meeting the requirement on the basis of sector type, its size and

location. This approach can be better denoted as stratified. There were 144 call centres

chosen, based on the criteria laid out according the research requirements.

To make the data more representative, call centres operating in different business

sectors were accounted. The main sectors which were taken into consideration included

financial, telecommunication, transport, emergency services and police services. The

distribution of the call centres among the chosen sectors were quite non-uniform, as there are

some sectors where there are only a few number of call centres operating, such as police

service and emergency services. The chosen call centres were had variations in their size,

which may vary from small, medium to large. This sorting on size was done on the basis of

number of employees working the respective call centre. The distribution can be seen the

later part of report.

To collect the descriptive data, e required to have authoritative access to the

employees, for asking them to take part in the questionaries. This as a crucial part of the

analysis as it took much time to gain all the privileges in different call centres and their

respective departments. Although, some of the call centres readily agreed to support, but

some had their own code of conduct for whole process. Lastly, we could successfully collect

all the data from 144 call centres all across the chosen regions.

Page 17: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

2.2 The Questionaries:

Initially the questionaries was a huge built up and consisted of over 60 questions.

However the original compiled version of the same consisted of only 24 questions. This

happen as several experts from different call centres reviewed our questions and made

necessary modifications; they recommended what would the critical questions which would

give required insight and data into the context. Psychometric adequacy was used, which

refers to the technique and theoretical concepts used for measuring psychology.

Questionaries comprised of question based on various context, such as personal,

occupational, work history, well-being and professional atmosphere. As the main objective of

the research was to determine where to determine the psychological risk factors among the

employees, specifically centred on the call handlers. Thus the questionaries was designed for

the specific purpose. The details of the questionaries can be seen in appendix 1.

2.3 Procedure:

To get started with the data collection process, the questionaries were sent to the 144

organisations, managing the respective call centres. These questionaries were sent with a

cover letter explain the purpose of our research and what authorities e would be required to

be granted in order to carry out the data collection process from their working environment.

The employees were assured of the confidentiality of the data they are providing, with a

condition of full co-operating of providing complete information, as per the questionaries.

The questionaries were then distributed among several representative, which were the

actually the employees working in the same call centre. The representative were further to

distribute the questionaries to the call handlers, team leaders, managers and other listed

employees. The planning was to complete the who process of questionaries in less than a

Page 18: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

month time, for this the organisations were posted remainders, so as to extract maximum

response from the employees.

There were around 400 copies of questionaries distributed among the employees of all

the sectors and call centres collectively. Out of these only 144 response containing useful

information, although the percentile of response was greater than 60%. But the useful

information remained to be around only 28%. This was due to the inappropriate data which

was filled out by the employees.

Page 19: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

3. Results

3.1 Characteristics:

3.1.1 Size of the call centres:

There are various ways of defining the size of such call centres, it may be on the basis

of the infrastructure or on the basis of number of employees working in it. Here for this

research, we have taken the data on the basis of the number of employees working different

call centres. It was found that the size of the call centres was as low as involving 48

employees and as big as employing around 1600 employees.

This gives a clear implication how big the data would have been transformed into if

the analysis was made on the basis of each data point from 48 to 1600, thus for simplicity the

data was divided into three units as small, medium and large. Call centres containing

employees less than or equal to 50 employees were classified as small, employing

between 51 to 500 was called medium; while employing greater than 500 was called as large.

3.1.2 Location of all centres:

As described previously the questionaries were made in 144 call centres and sampling

was done by taking only a definite amount of employees, so as to evaluate the data. As can be

seen in the table below, the exact location of all of the call centres was not taken as the data

would have become more complex and unreadable.

Table 1 Distribution of call centres in different locations

Region Count of Call centres

London 85

Other England 36

Scotland 2

Page 20: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

Wales 1

Ireland 5

Other 1

System 14

Total 144

3.1.3 Operating Business of the call centres:

The data undertaken was quite widespread as can be seen in the table 2 below. While

analysing the data that 43% of the call handlers were from Telecommunication sector while

40% was from financial services. While the remaining small percentiles were distributed

among remaining sectors as transport, emergency services and police services.

Table 2 Distribution of call centres according to operating business

Sector % of call handlers

Financial service 40.3

Telecommunications 43.8

Transport 5.6

Emergency services 6.9

Police service 3.5

3.1.4 Main Occupational Profiles available the Call Centres:

The data was collected all across 144 available call centres, based on which the 68

number of call handlers were proactively questioned. The other profiles which took part in

the questionaries included team leaders, call centre support, supervisor and manager. The

data was intentionally collected more from the call handlers as the research is more focused

on the whereabouts of the call handlers.

Page 21: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

Table 3 Distribution of employees according to occupational profile

Occupational Role in Call Centre Count

Call handler 68

Team leader 34

Call centre support 17

Supervisor 11

Manager 14

Total 144

3.1.5 Distribution of Employees on the Basis of Age:

Data was divided into five group represented certain age groups. It was further found

that 39.6% of the call handlers were of the age group ranging between 25 to 34 years. Besides

this there was a close proximity found between the number of call handlers of ages 18 to 24

and 34 to 44.

Table 4 Distribution of Employees on the Basis of Age

Age Count Percent

18 to 24 32 22.2

25 to 34 57 39.6

35 to 44 36 25.0

45 to 54 13 9.0

55 or older 6 4.2

Total 144 100

3.1.6 Distribution on the basis of Gender:

It can be clearly seen that females dominates more in the call handler job, as the

percentiles are around 57%.

Page 22: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

Table 5 Distribution on the basis of Gender

Gender Count Percent

female 83 57.6

male 61 42.4

Total 144 100.0

3.1.7 Distribution on the basis of tenure of work:

The questionaries consisted of asking the employees the duration for which they have

been serving the organisation. It can be clearly seen from the table 6 below36% of the call

handlers have been working in the organisation since 2-5 years; however there might be

variations in the actual years as the questionaries made the division taking into account 3

years range.

Table 6 Distribution on the basis of tenure of work

Time length Count Percent

3-6 months 34 23.6

7-12 months 44 30.6

2-5 years 53 36.8

6-10 years 9 6.3

11-15 years 4 2.8

Total 144 100.0

3.1.8 Distribution on the basis of working hours:

Working hours can be further analysed on the basis of contracted hours and actual

working hours. Both of them are illustrated as below:

Page 23: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

Table 7 Distribution on the basis of Contracted working hours

Contracted Hours Count Percent

4-6 hours 20 13.9

7-9 hours 69 47.9

10 hours and above 55 38.2

Total 144 100.0

Table 8 Distribution on the basis of Actual working hours

Actual Working Hours Count Percent

Much greater 6 4.2

Somewhat greater 15 10.4

Slightly greater 52 36.1

About the same 60 41.7

Slightly fewer 6 4.2

Somewhat fewer 5 3.5

Total 144 100.0

3.2 Difference between the job of call handler and other jobs; whether job of a

call handler is more stressful than other works?

It is quite critical to evaluate whether the job and working design of a call handler is

more stressful than other works. To perform the valuation of the question primary data has

been taken into consideration. Studies by Holman (2002) suggest that there are several factors

which might be responsible for such stressful situation; thus evaluating the conditions among

the sample data will give a useful insight on the research data.

Page 24: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

View of Call Handlers and Other employees

Job satisfaction

Work load

3.2.3 View of Call Handlers and Other employees:

It can be concludes from the table below, according to 48% of all call handlers their

work design is much more complicated and stressful as compared to the other job profiles.

Where 41% of employees with other occupational profiles said that the work design of call

handlers is stressful. However as compared 28% of call handler and 14% of other employees

said that the works of call handlers was very stressful and unconditional.

Table 9 Job Anxiety and Job Satisfaction among different occupational profiles

Variable Call

handlers

(n=68)

Support

role

(n=17)

Supervisor

(n = 11)

Managers

(n = 14)

P

Job related

anxiety

2.06 (0.92) 1.82 (0.78) 2.55 (0.85) 1.43 (0.57) Ns

Job related

depression

2.03 (0.90) 1.68 (0.65) 2.35 (0.82) 1.11 (0.51) **

Page 25: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

Ns = not

specified

** p<0.1

The above that shows that how much the people of various job profiles thinks that the

work structure of the call handlers is quite hectic and unconditional. On the other hand there

is kind of job anxiety in the people working in the call centres that the work structure and also

the working hours of the call handlers are quite ungenueine. There is a percentage

comparison of one organisation of 144 call centres which include 144 call handlers is taken in

the above table. The table given below will provide the data how the person in one

organisation thinks that the work structure of call handlers is very stressful and unconditional.

Table 10 Mean/SD of Anxiety and Depression among employees

Employees of organisation Job related anxiety

N mean/s.d t-test

Job related depression

N mean/s.d t-test

Call handlers 68 2.06(0.92) --- 68 2.03(0.90) ---

Supervisors 11 2.55(0.85) 11 2.35(0.82)

Call centre support staff 17 1.82(0.78) 17 1.68(0.65)

Team leaders 34 2.09(0.92) 34 1.98(0.86

Managers 14 1.43(0.57) 14 1.11(0.51)

Total 144

Page 26: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

Figure 1 Job related anxiety among employees

Figure 2 Job related depression among employees

Page 27: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

This means that 14% of the other staff thinks that the call handler’s work is quite

hectic as compared to the other staff work. The above shown is the distribution of the

percentage of staff of different job roles and also the call handlers. Actually the fact is that the

call handlers are the people who tried to help the people on the other side of the call and it

would take them time to make them convinced about certain product and services so this

automatically increase their working because they have the target based jobs. They have to

take as many calls as it is transferred to them.

3.2.4 Job Satisfaction:

The job satisfaction of the call handlers in the call centres depend on various factors

like the working culture of the organisations, the salary package they are getting, the support

of the senior staff and the coordinating staff, the appraisals which they get after a year or so

and other important factors are the internal satisfaction of the job like the psychological

factors, opportunity of development. These factors always make a count in considering the

parameter of job satisfaction. The data is collected by analysing and discussing with the staff

of the call centres that how much of the call handlers are satisfied with the job they are doing.

The following data shows how much the people are satisfied with the job they are

doing including all other staff. Out of 68 call handlers only 31% of the people are satisfied

with the job and on the other hand the other people in the call centre have their satisfaction

level as 38% of supervisors, 31% of call centre support staff, 30% of team leaders and 32%

of managers.

Table 11 Comparisons of call handlers with other occupations on job satisfaction

Employees of

organisation

Number of

employees

Job satisfaction Job satisfaction

Page 28: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

(intrinsic) (extrinsic)

Call handlers 68 3.16(1.21) 4.22(0.94)

Supervisors 11 3.82 (1.21) 4.729(0.96)

Call centre support

staff

17 2.88(0.85) 4.42(0.84)

Team leaders 34 3.18(1.21) 4.64(0.78)

Managers 14 2.79(0.88) 4.66(1.54)

p 144 ** Ns

Ns= not specified **p<0.01

Figure 3 Comparisons of call handlers with other occupations on intrinsic job satisfaction

Page 29: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

Figure 4 Comparisons of call handlers with other occupations on extrinsic job satisfaction

The above data shows that the average of 32% of the people who are working in the

call centres are satisfied with the job they are doing. This shows that it is quite a weak

percentage which shows that the job satisfaction in the call centres is very low. The other part

which can be used to check whether the call handlers are not getting as much as they should

get is the work load.

3.2.4 Work load of the employees

The work load of the call handlers is much more as compared to other people which

are working in the call centre because they are the people who by using their skills they can

satisfy the customers by helping them in solving the problems/. On the other hand when is

out of the hands of call handlers that it is the duty of technical support staff which help the

customers to help them in solving the problems. The other people in the call centre do not

handle that much mental pressure of work as compare to other responsible people in the

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house. There is a specific data which shows that how much call handlers and the other

supporting staff is handling the work loads.

Table 12 Comparisons of call handlers with other occupations on Work load

Employees of organisation Count Work load

Mean/S.D t-test

Percentage of Work

load

Call handlers 68 2.82(0.77) ----- 80

Supervisors 11 2.64(0.85) 60

Call centre support staff 17 3.29(1.18) 40

Team leaders 34 3.18(1.11) 60

Managers 14 2.79(0.82) 30

Total 144

Figure 5 Comparisons of call handlers with other occupations on work load

Page 31: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

The above percentage of work load shows that the work load on the call handlers is

much more as compared to the other people in the call centre. In the above data which shows

about 80% of the work load is handled by the call handlers because they are the people who

handle all the customers. The team leaders and supervisors have to take care to set the target

of the number of call that each call handler has to attend. The other people manager only

handle 30% of the work load, supervisors handle 60%, other call centre support staff handles

40% and team leaders shares as much work load as the supervisors handle because they are

the people who will be held responsible for any kind of flaws in the work. This shows that the

people working as call handlers handle more mental stress as compared to others.

Here an important question rises that the working stress is equal for every person who

is working as the call handler.

3.3 Working as the call handler is equally stressful for every one

This question is very important for any call centre management that who can handle the

work pressure in the call centre who are not. It is equally important to judge for the well

being of the employees working on different level in the call centre. The following are the

factors which shows that who can handle the work pressure and stressful for everyone.

1) Difference of the business sector to well being

2) Number of employees in the call centre make difference to well being

3) Nature of call handling

4) Nature of employment contract

5) Working as a part time call handler

6) Having a degree make a difference in stress

Page 32: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

The above factors make account in determining that stress is equal for every standard of

people who work in the call centre. The basic thing which raises here is their interest in

working the call centre is because of their interest or they are doing it for the money point of

view. This makes a huge difference in the stress because if it from the money point of view

that it would certainly more stress on the mind.

3.3.1 Difference of business sector to well being

According to the Holman (2002) in the business sector the mental anxiety is very less

as compared to financial sectors. Here the most important issue is the depression which can

be faced while in the business sectors because of the huge ups and downs in the business

according to the market. The call handlers in the call sectors dealing with the business sectors

handle the work pressure of providing the exact details of the market to the customers. The

following data will provide the information that how much the business sector makes

difference in the well being of the call handlers and other employees.

Table 13 Comparisons of call handlers with other occupations on well being

Sector Count Job related

anxiety

Job related

depression

percentage

Financial service 58 2.79(0.69) 2.68(0.57) 19

Telecommunications 63 3.12(0.85) 3.13(0.85) 25

Transport 8 2.90(0.79) 2.78(0.76) 20

Emergency services 10 2.52(0.68) 2.46(0.58) 18

Police service 5 3.00(0.79) 2.91(0.79) 21

Page 33: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

Total 144 21=

Average

Group difference F ratio

Sector

Centres within sectors

1.91**

1.91ns

3.57**

3.39**

Ns= not

significant

**p<0.01

Figure 6 Comparisons of call handlers with other occupations on well being

And on the other hand the well-being in the call centres is about 10% so it very clear

from the data provided that the well-being in the business sector is much high then that that

of the call centres therefore it means that the mental stress in the business sector is less as

compared to the call centres. According to the data there is only 15% of the stress that is

handled by the call handlers in the business sectors.

Page 34: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

3.3.2 Number of employees working in the call centre make a difference to well being

The number of people working in the call centre means the size of the organisation. If

the size of the organisation is small i.e. the number of employees will be around 50 or less

then the work load on them would high. This give the indication the mental stresses are high

in the small scale sectors. In small size call centres the job responsibilities of the people are

not defined and they are forced to handle extra job responsibilities which raise the mental

pressure on the people. On the other hand the call centres with large size (100 or more that

that) or enough number of employees so that they could handle the job without facing any

extra pressure of extra job responsibility. The following data shows that the people who are

working in the call centre could handle how much percentage of mental pressure and stress.

Table 14 Comparisons of call handlers with other occupations on well-being and job

satisfaction

Size of call

centres

Job related

anxiety

Job related

depression

Job

satisfaction

Percentage of

stress

Small size (50) 2.64(0.69) 2.54(0.68) 4.44(0.95) 80

Medium

size(70)

2.91(0.78) 2.89(0.80) 4.18(1.00) 60

Large size(24) 2.89(0.77) 2.81(0.77) 4.26(0.95) 40

P Ns * Ns *

*p<0.05,ns=not specified

Page 35: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

Figure 7 Comparisons of call handlers with other occupations on well-being and job

satisfaction

The above data shows that there is tremendous amount of work pressure in the small

size call centres which is the main reason that call handlers face lot of mental stress to

complete the targets. On the other hand the medium size call centre also have a considerable

amount of working stress that is 60% of the total pressure belong to the call handlers. While

on the other hand with large size call centre the job responsibilities are clearly mentioned and

they have to perform their defined duties this means that the mental stress is quite less as

compared to others. That is of the amount of 40% which is about half of that of the stress in

the small size call centres.

3.3.3 Nature of call handling

In the call centres there are two type of calling system usually present that is the

inbound and outbound and even both depend on the working system of the call centres.

According to the local authority health and safety directorate told to measure that whether the

working stress in more in case of inbound based call centres or in the outbound processes.

Page 36: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

The following data which is collected from the 144 call centres which consists of both type of

inbound and out bound voice processes which shows the percentage of level of stress in the

call centres.

Table 15 Comparisons of call handlers with other occupations on nature of call handling

Nature of call centres Count Job related

anxiety

Job related

depression

Percentage of

mental stress

and job

satisfaction

Inbound voice process 80 2.93(0.77) 2.89(0.79) 60 & 73

Outbound voice process 24 2.70(0.77) 2.61(0.77) 48 & 92

Both 40 2.86(0.87) 2.74(0.69) 58 & 75

Total 144

P Ns ns

Figure 8 Comparisons of call handlers with other occupations on nature of call handling and

well-being

Page 37: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

In the above data it is clear that in the outbound voice process call centres there is

very less about of mental stress as compared to the inbound and both types of voice processes

that is of 48% as compared to 60% and 58% respectively. On the other hand if we talk about

the job satisfaction level in the call centres that it is quite high in the outbound voice

processes call centres that is of the rate of 92% as compared to 73% and 75% respectively.

3.3.4 Nature of employment contract

The nature of employment contract play a crucial role while considering the mental

stress because if the salary packages are high then mentally it is clear that there would

considerable amount of pressure and person is ready to take it. In this way it clear to the

person that the company is paying me to handle the pressure of work. But where the work

stress is high and the employment contract is not up to that level that it is quite difficult for

the people to handle the pressure of the job because the person is not mentally prepared to

handle that much amount of pressure. There is data which is collected after discussing this

problem with the employees of the call centres.

Table 16 Comparisons of call handlers with other occupations on type of employment

contract, well-being and job satisfaction

Type of employment

contract of call

handlers

Job related

anxiety

Job related

depression

Job

satisfaction

GHQ

Permanent (60) 2.94(0.78) 2.88(0.79) 4.14(1.00) 1.11(0.51)

Temporary(84) 2.67(0.72) 2.63(0.69) 4.51(1.00) 0.96(0.45)

P ** * ** *

*p<0.05,**p<0.01,***p<0.001

Page 38: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

Figure 9 Comparisons of call handlers with other occupations on type of employment

contract, well-being and job satisfaction

This data shows that the call handlers which are working on the permanent basis they

are handling the more work pressure and stress that is 80% as compared to the temporary

contract call handlers 40%. This is certainly making effect on the level of job satisfaction of

the people and the data shows the same that the call handlers who are working temporarily

have high job satisfaction and on the other hand the people who are working permanent have

low job satisfaction i.e 85% and 40% respectively.

3.3.5 Working as a part time call handler

In the call centres many call handlers are hired on the time basis which works for less

than 30 hrs a week. According to a survey conducted in the call centre which shows that the

part time call handlers have less amount of work pressure as compared to that of non- part

timers. But the work taken from them is not that easy they have almost equal amount of

pressure in their minds about the work. The data is shown in the table below which shows the

Page 39: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

level of work stress is there on the minds of the call handlers who are working as a part

timers.

Table 17 Comparisons of call handlers with other occupations on type of job, well-being and

job satisfaction

Type of job (<30hrs) Job related

anxiety

Job

related

depressio

n

Job satisfaction GHQ

(likert)

Part time(50) 2.95(0.80) 2.88(0.76) 4.22(0.96) 1.10(0.56)

Non part timer(34) 2.89(0.77) 2.85(0.80) 4.12(1.02) 1.04(0.49)

P Ns Ns Ns Ns

Ns= not specified

Page 40: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

Figure 10 Comparisons of call handlers with other occupations on type of job, well-being and

job satisfaction

The above given data shows that the work stress on the part time is not that less as

said but they are also performing vary responsible duties in the working hours, they also face

the work stress while working in the call centres and on the other hand the non-part timers

have considerably high amount of pressures.

3.3.6 Having a graduate degree make a difference in stress

According to a scholar though about the literate professional, they have a considerable

of skills to handle any kind of mental stress easily because they use their education to handle

the work and use of the technology make them more reliable and active while working in any

kind of company whether it is a call centre of any kind of other company. A data has been

collected from the call centres that the people who have the degree, how they are able to

handle the work pressure.

Page 41: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

Table 18 Comparisons of call handlers with other occupations on educational level, well-

being and job satisfaction

Education level Job related

anxiety

Job related

depression

Job

satisfaction

GHQ

(likert)

Degree holder call

handlers

2.83(0.67) 2.80(0.75) 3.95(1.00) 1.05(0.45)

Without degree holders 2.91(0.79) 2.87(0.79) 4.15(1.00) 1.09(0.51)

P Ns Ns Ns Ns

Ns= not specified

Figure 11 Comparisons of call handlers with other occupations on educational level, well-

being and job satisfaction

Now this data is quite surprising that even being degree holders and have skills to handle

the work pressure but still they are not satisfied with the job. On the other hand the call

handlers who do not have the degree with them and they are also feeling the pressure of work

and they are still satisfied with the job they are doing. The only reason of the less satisfaction

Page 42: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

of the job might be one of the following ;- The salary package, they are doing it for money

and are not very much interested in working in a call centre and the without degree call

handlers do not have any open options to do the job. To earn money they have to handle the

work pressure and satisfied with what they are getting for it.

Page 43: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

4. Discussion

4.1 Do Females have Lower Levels of Wellbeing in Call Centres?

For finding the answer of this question the research is done on 144 call handlers and

collected data is made available in tabular form showing the distribution of number of male

and female employee working in the call centres. On the basis of table 5 given in the section

3.1.6 it is interpreted that out of 114 call handers, 83 call handlers are female and rest 61 are

males. This shows that out of 100%, there are 57.6 % of employee who are females and rest

42.2% are males. The rate of male employees working in call centres is lower than the female

employees. Only 42.2% of males feel welfare; and the higher rate of female employees

working in the call centres shows that females are lot more comfortable and dominates in this

job. And hence this interprets that females do not have lower levels of wellbeing while

working in call centres.

4.2 Does increased contracted hours decrease wellbeing?

The percentage comparison of one organisation of 144 call centres which include 144 call

handlers is done. On the basis of the collected data Comparisons of call handlers with other

occupations on work load is done. Figure 5 given in the section 3.2 shows that about 80% of

the work load is already getting handled by the call handlers. If contracted hour’s increases

then there will be increase in the mental pressure among employees working in call centres.

The increased mental pressure directly affects the level of performance which gets decreased

day by day. This increased pressure certainly breaks their trust on the call centres. Some

employees starts hating to work as a call handlers and gets discouraged to join their personal

lives at the fullest. Some of them changes their profession. And hence it is interpreted that

increased contracted hours decrease wellbeing.

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4.3 Does an employee's specific job role influence wellbeing? If so, which

job roles improve wellbeing?

On a general basis, it is reported that working on a certain level of rank in an organisation

weather it is a call centre or any kind of other professional field influences the wellbeing.

While working in an organisation the employees work under many leaders, during that time

they influence from certain job roles and dream to become on that job role in life. For finding

the answer of this question, a research is done on employee having different profile in call

centres. The collected data is analysed and made available into the tabular form. On the basis

of table 12 given in the section 3.2, Call handlers’ percentage of work load is 80. Whereas,

other profile such as call centre support staff and managers have a work load of 40% and

30% respectively. This higher work load influences wellbeing of call handlers. Call handlers

are likely to develop anxiety and depression faster than other job profile employees.

The job role which influence the most is the Manager because of the less stress, which

15% lesser than call handlers. He also has power to change things all of a sudden and he do

not need to answer to any of the employee working under him.

4.4 Is working as a call handler more stressful than working in other jobs?

Working as a call handlers is much more stressful than any other job because they are

the people who deals with the problems of the customers and if they unable to do so that they

have to face the feedbacks from the managers and other team leaders. The other factors which

add to their stress are the increased number of contracted hours which make them more

stressful and decrease their confidence and reduce the time which they want to spend for their

own.

The job of handling calls has more stress and depression than that of working in other

sectors. As the anxiety level of call centre jobs is higher and similar among all the call centre.

Page 45: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

Anxiety and depression associated with call centre, both have higher ratio comparatively with

other groups’ job (Mullarkey et al, 1999).

There is a report of lowest levels in job satisfaction, also intrinsic job satisfaction of

critically low. Even after making comparison among several call centres, the response is

same critically data shows average Extrinsic satisfaction of call handler in the industry.

(Holman, 2002) Though extrinsic is much higher than intrinsic as per data. There is a very

least difference in opinion among several call centres. Which also clarifies, that a certain call

centre will not be focusing or taken into account over getting claimed. However, call handlers

have risk of facing mental health problems and this is the primary concern of the discussion

other than rest of all discussion. (Mullarkey et al, 1999)

4.5 Does an interest in wellbeing of staff actually increase the wellbeing

of staff?

Yes obviously because an interest in well-being means they want to make the lives of

the people well balanced with their social lives. This interest forces them to settle strictly the

number of contracted hours of the call handlers or any other employee. An interest in the

wellbeing of the staff makes them arrange certain events within the organisation which may

interest the staff and try to make them to work for the organisation for more time. It is a

psychological fact that if an organisation shows interest in the wellbeing of the staff then it

contributes in a positive way to encourage the workers to work ethically for the organisation

and for long period of time.

4.6 One who works as a one and all other call handlers who work in a team. Is it

same stressful in both scenes?

Differences in business sector

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We found various business differences over estimating well-being in the sector of

call handling perspectives. The call handler are found to be poorest well-being among distinct

corporate market employees. Most of the influence has been seen in telecommunication and

IT sectors. Only there are some minimal aspects where variability is achieved.

Call Centre Size

The call handler who works in small call centre have found to be less anxious and

stressed but those of medium size and large size call centre are mostly responsible for mental

strain and job related depression. The highest level of satisfaction and extrinsic satisfaction

both have been dealt in small call centre in an appropriate way whereas, large and medium

does not meet call handlers’ expectations.

Call Handling Nature

There is no such nature has been achieved significantly over analysing nature of call

handlers who continuously takes call at their workplaces.

Nature of Non-Permanent call handlers

There have been some good reviews found on account of analysing nature of part

time call handlers comparatively to the permanent employees. They are different in well-

being which seem likely to get more exposer.

Education Attainment

There has not been seen any difference in the behaviour of well-being among call

handlers having higher degree of education and those who have lower education.

Scripting

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Analysis says the call handlers who use to follow strict script report are settled at

poorer well-being than that of those who do not follow.

Monitoring Performance

Those associates of call handling who have great skills and dynamic over electronic

operations have been found greatest well-being among their other colleagues. The poorer

well-being have been found those call handle who are not found active on professional

electronic devices placed at their workplace.

Interest over Residing in Call Centre

The number of call handler who have been called as well-being have less interest

in staying call centre and industry associated with it.

4.7 What are the aspects which are responsible for creating stress among call

handlers?

Work of all the associates of call handling have been examine carefully by us. We

made a comparison of work culture of call centres and the work culture of other industries.

We came to analyse that the employee who works as a call handler have less control

comparatively the one works in other industry. Call handler have been reported less

controllable than even that of ‘ladySew-Lean’ group. The people who belong to this group do

work over lean production in which environment of garment manufacturing is to be faced.

And Study says, the worker of lean production have greater control at their work than that of

call handler who use to get AC halls at their workplaces (Jackson and Parker, 2001).

We have also originated some comparisons between work culture call handling

role and other job profile in the same call centre and the result have been found contradicting

and unfavourable for call handlers. As we discussed above, call handlers are less controllable,

Page 48: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

feel narrower in their role of assigned work, not dynamic with respect to their task, and less

skills utilization as in other roles assigned in the same call centre for higher level authority.

On other hand, efficiency of call handlers are higher than that of other employees with their

assigned roles. Call handlers do not get conflicted with their respective roles whilst other

respective employee are not worth residing in their assigned rolls.

4.8 Risk factors on the psychosocial aspects associated with Call Handlers

As per our analysis there are some key things which correlates over setting

different benchmarks of becoming well-being, variable and dynamic in the work. These three

things are utilisation skill, workload and role conflicts. However, many characteristics of

working design inter relates some other aspects in the psychosocial system. For this we were

required to study more over individual concerns.

Among distinct measure of well-being which have been taken out by us, we have

found some common factors in each call handler. These common factors are anxiety, job

regarded depression, intrinsic satisfaction and extrinsic satisfaction. On the other hand, the

call handler who had poor well-being basically suffers from lack of skill utilization,

workload, clarification and conflicting roles. Call handler lacks their working culture and

capabilities only due to not making the full use of their skills. Having higher workload, and

unclear about job role create so many conflicts arise within professional careers.

Also, level of control does not decide the well-being ness of call handler as well.

Because, the associates who had a low level of control has also come up in the list of well-

being in several call centres.

Page 49: Psychosocial Risk Factor in Call Centres: Analysing Work Design and Well-Being of Employees

4.9 What are the key factors are worth implementing in the work culture of call

handler in reducing psychosocial risks

There are some defined characteristics and properties found in the behaviour of call

handler who use to be intrinsic to the job and feel uncomforted while thinking about changing

it. These factors are,

Comfortably of speaking with people over phone rather than facing them – Though

this form of communication never effective and less rich, it also deny to judge one’s

character over phone as no relations and facial expression are shown.

Short-term interactions with customers – There is very less opportunity of repetition

making in call centres to the same call handler and hence he or she becomes

comfortable with respect to the client he or she is dealing with.

Dealing on the same concern over wide variety of people – As call handler knows

what a client or customer is going to ask and what resolution he or she is about to

deliver to the client. So very comfortably it delivers satisfactory resolution to various

people without any extra efforts. And associates become used to of it.

Very less probability of call handlers to face problem in their working time –

Commonly, in such scenarios call gets terminate and repeatedly it does not appear on

the same call handler.

These are intrinsic properties of job characteristics of the call handlers’ role and

various challenges which use to be faced by an associate. This logic of framework is

stationary in the field of dynamic culture as there no change in the characteristics and

personality of a call handler reflects rather than accessing electronic system pretty fast.

However, this reflects smarter performance of organisation as call handler becomes familiar

with the assigned job. Overall, to be in call centre, a worker will be found pressurised,

repetitive and rigidly controllable. In the further research, we have found discussion over

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analysis of manager capabilities that how it designs the different roles of call handlers

distinctly.

4.10 Overall Conclusion:

As all the fingers of the hand are not same, it can be concluded that the work of a call

handler is not stressful in all the workspaces, it is very much dependent on the practices the

handlers are using. The variability seen in our statistical analysis reveals that there are so

called ‘goods’ and the ‘bads’ in the practices, in which the call handlers are drawn into. Such

bad practices lead to the disorders such as stress, anxiety and trauma. However, by following

a standard practice this stress can be reduced to a much smaller extent.

It is also evident that there will also always be a degree of complexity in the work

design of a call handler; although, such complexity are the basis operation and the work

which is a part of the process. Adding to it, that the job of a call handler will always be to

receive and handler customer over a voice channel. However this can be reduced by frame

working approaches and working in teams.

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Appendix

Questionaries:

The questionaries done with 114 call centres comprises of following questions:

Do you have any children?

Length of job in your previous profession

Do you think training and recruitment method can reduce turnover?

I have access to counselling or debriefing from managers

What is your age?

What is your gender?

At which location do you work?

Which of the following best describes your current relationship status?

What is your area of work?

Which of the following best describes your qualification?

Which of this best describes your call centre job role?

Length of current role of job?

How many hours do you actually work?

What are your contracted hours?

How would you describe your job role?

How challenging is your job?

I am satisfied with my opportunities for professional growth.

Do you think there are effective ways to improve wellbeing of call-centres'

employees?

Do you think there is a high turnover rate within your industry?

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Do you think introducing reward system can reduce turnover rates?

Do job targets seem to be too demanding?

Do you get support from your team leader or supervisor after attending to an

aggressive call?

Management is not very interested in the wellbeing of staff.

Managers and team leaders always support us.