Psychological capital, work engagement and organisational commitment amongst call centre employees in South Africa

Abstract

Orientation: The development of psychological capital amongst call centre employees could have an impact on positive work-related attitudes and behaviour; such as work engagement and organisational commitment.Research purpose: The purpose of the research was to determine the relationship between psychological capital, work engagement and organisational commitment amongst call centre employees; and further, to determine whether psychological capital and work engagement hold predictive value for the organisational commitment of call centre employees.Motivation for the study: There is a gap in research in understanding and enabling positive resource capacities in highly stressful work contexts such as call centres.Research design, approach and method: A cross-sectional survey design was used. A sample of 106 call centre employees from a South African organisation participated in the research. The measuring instruments included a demographic questionnaire, the Psychological Capital Questionnaire (PCQ), the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) and the Organisational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ).Main findings: Significant positive relationships were found between psychological capital, work engagement and organisational commitment. The results showed work engagement as being the only significant predictor of organisational commitment.Practical/managerial implications: Call centre employers need to develop and implement workplace interventions that would increase the psychological capital of call centre employees.Contribution/value-add: The research findings will benefit both call centre employees and management. The study highlighted the importance of the role of optimism as a subdimension of psychological capital in developing work engagement and organisational commitment amongst call centre employees.

Exploring employee retention and intention to leave within a call centre

“…Call centre organisations are characterised by high technologybased work, high work pressure and work overload, which lead to stress and burnout, absenteeism and performance problems (Simons & Buitendach, 2013). This results in employees seeking alternative employment.…”

“…Hardiness is regarded as a set of stress-resilient personality characteristics, whilst career adaptability is the ability to adjust to the working prescriptions and demands of call centre environment (Coetzee & Harry, 2015). The call centre environment is characterised by work pressure and high workloads, causing an employee to work longer hours to meet deadlines (Simons & Buitendach, 2013). This may cause conflict in work-life balance, leading to exhaustion and employees exiting the organisation.…”

“…In other countries, call centre work is characterised by work overload, fast changing technology, change in product and services, and employees working under pressure. Such a working environment is likely to lead to stress, burnout and performance problems (Simons & Buitendach, 2013). Barnes (2013) noted that retaining call centre agents in the industry is challenging because turnover is much higher than in other fields of employment.…”

“…Failure for an organisation to meet these needs may lead to an employee's intention to leave. However, call centre organisations may not be able to meet such needs (Simons & Buitendach, 2013). Hence, managers need to understand why employees want to leave the organisation in order to develop programmes to mitigate their intentions (Khan & Du, 2014).…”

“…According to Simons and Buitendach (2013), the number of employees within the South African call centre sector increased from 50 000 in 2005 to 180 000 in 2010. Furthermore, it was predicted that by 2015 approximately 100 000 new jobs would be created in South Africa.…”