scholarly journals Sense of coherence, career adaptability and burnout of early-career Black staff in the call centre environment

2013 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nisha Harry ◽  
Melinde Coetzee

Orientation: The call centre is recognised as being a stressful work environment that affects the general wellbeing of call centre agents.Research purpose: This study explored whether call centre agents’ sense of coherence significantly influences their career adaptability and whether their burnout levels significantly moderate the sense of coherence–career adaptability relationship. The research also investigated whether age, gender and years of service (as control variables), along with sense of coherence, predicted career adaptability.Motivation for the study: The positive psychological construct of career adaptability and its association with call centre agents’ sense of coherence, burnout, age, gender and years of service have not yet been investigated in the call centre environment.Research design, approach and method: A cross-sectional quantitative survey design was used. The Orientation to Life, Career Adapt-Abilities Scale and Maslach Burnout Inventory General Scale were administered to a non-probability purposive sample of 409 early-career Black staff employed in three of the largest outsourced financial call centres in Africa.Main findings: Multiple regression analyses revealed that age, gender and meaningfulness significantly predicted call centre agents’ career adaptability, but that their burnout levels do not significantly moderate the sense of coherence–career adaptability relationship.Practical/managerial implications: Enhancing call centre agents’ sense of meaningfulness will increase their levels of career adaptability and career wellbeing.Contribution/value-add: This research is the first to investigate the construct of career adaptability in the call centre environment and adds new knowledge and insights to the existing wellness and positive psychology literature.

2002 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Basson ◽  
S. Rothmann

People in almost any occupation could develop burnout. The objective of this research was to determine the relationship between sense of coherence, coping and burnout in a corporate pharmacy group. A cross-sectional survey design was used. The study population consisted of 67 pharmacists. The Maslach Burnout Inventory, Orientation to Life Questionnaire and COPE were administered. The results showed that sense of coherence is significantly related to emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and personal accomplishment. Regarding coping strategies, mental disengagement was positively related to emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation, while positive reinterpretation and restraint coping were positively related to personal accomplishment. Sense of coherence and coping strategies explained 44 per cent, 35 per cent and 41 per cent of the variance in emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and personal accomplishment respectively.


2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Doris N. Asiwe ◽  
Carin Hill ◽  
Lené I. Jorgensen

Orientation: Understanding the job demands and resources experienced by workers in an agricultural organisation.Research purpose: The objective of this study was to examine the validity and reliability of the Adapted Job Demands and Resources Scale (AJDRS) as well as to establish prevalent job demands and resources of employees in an agricultural organisation. Demographic differences were also investigated.Motivation of the study: The agricultural sector of any national economy plays a very important role in the overall welfare of the country. Identifying the prevalent job demands and resources in an agricultural organisation is therefore of paramount importance since the negative consequences of employees experiencing very demanding jobs with few resources have been well documented in stress literature.Research approach, design and method: A cross-sectional survey design was used. The sample consisted of 443 employees in an agricultural organisation. The AJDRS was used to measure the research variables.Main findings: The findings of this research show evidence for the factorial validity and reliability of the AJDRS. Statistical differences were found with regard to the job demands and resources experienced by employees in different positions.Practical/managerial implications: Interventions to improve the perceived job demands and resources in the organisation should focus on physical resources (equipment).Contribution/value-add: This study contributes to knowledge concerning the job demands and resources that are prevalent in an agricultural organisation in South Africa.


2013 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet C. Simons ◽  
Johanna H. Buitendach

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.


Author(s):  
Ingrid L. Potgieter ◽  
Melinde Coetzee

Orientation: The increasing changes and demands placed on higher education institutions in the 21st century and resultant impact on the roles and responsibilities of heads of department (HODs) have led to an increasing emphasis on the development of core HOD management competencies.Research purpose: The aim of this article is to determine the relationship between a specific set of HOD managerial competencies identified as being important for the job and the level of training required in terms of these competencies.Motivation for the study: Research has provided evidence that HODs are often ill-prepared for their managerial role, which requires the development of specific management competencies to enable them to fulfil their roles effectively.Research design, approach and method: A non-experimental quantitative survey design approach was followed and correlational data analyses were performed. A cross-sectional sample of 41 HODs of 22 departments from various faculties of a higher education institution in Gauteng participated in this study. The Management Competency Inventory (MCI) of Visser (2009) was applied as a measure.Main findings: The Pearson product-moment analysis indicated that there is a significant relationship between the competencies indicated as being important for the job and the level of training required.Practical/Managerial implications: Training needs of HODs should be formally assessed and the depth of training required in terms of the identified management competencies should be considered in the design of training programmes.Contributions/Value-add: The information obtained in this study may potentially serve as a foundation for the development of an HOD training programme in the South African higher education environment.


2009 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna J. Van der Colff ◽  
Sebastiaan Rothmann

The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between the occupational stress, sense of coherence, coping, burnout and work engagement of registered nurses in South Africa. A cross-sectional survey design was used. The study population consisted of 818 registered nurses. The Nursing Stress Inventory, the Orientation to Life Questionnaire, the COPE, the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey, and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale were administered. The results show that the experience of depletion of emotional resources and feelings of depersonalisation by registered nurses were associated with stress due to job demands and a lack of organisational support, focus on and ventilation of emotions as a coping strategy, and a weak sense of coherence. Work engagement was predicted by a strong sense of coherence and approach-coping strategies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Navin G. Matookchund ◽  
Renier Steyn

Orientation: Innovation is essential to organisational survival, and several studies have shown that performance appraisals (PAs) contribute to innovation.Research purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the importance of PA as an antecedent to innovation relative to other human resource practices (HRPs).Motivation for the study: The specific HRP drivers of innovation among employees and across organisations are not well specified, hindering appropriate resource allocation.Research approach/design and method: The PA–innovation link was investigated among 3180 employees across 53 South African organisations, utilising a cross-sectional survey design involving quantitative data, and focusing on correlation and regression analyses.Main findings: Human resource practices accounted for approximately 10% of the variance in innovation when considering individual employees. Performance appraisal was neither a common nor a unique predictor of innovation. When focusing on the link across organisations, a significant HRPs–innovation link was established in approximately 60% of organisations, with PA playing a significant role as the predictor of innovation in 10 (out of 53) organisations.Practical/managerial implications: Other HRPs, specifically supervisor support and staffing, played a much bigger role than PA in driving innovation of individuals, also across organisations. This specifies the relative importance of PA amongst other HRPs.Contribution/value-add: General managers, human resource practitioners and researchers can now use data-driven evidence to select specific HRPs which significantly enhance innovation among employees and across organisations.


Author(s):  
Melinde Coetzee ◽  
Nadia Ferreira ◽  
Ingrid L. Potgieter

Orientation: Employers have come to recognise graduates’ employability capacities and their ability to adapt to new work demands as important human capital resources for sustaining a competitive business advantage.Research purpose: The study sought (1) to ascertain whether a significant relationship exists between a set of graduate employability capacities and a set of career adaptability capacities and (2) to identify the variables that contributed the most to this relationship.Motivation for the study: Global competitive markets and technological advances are increasingly driving the demand for graduate knowledge and skills in a wide variety of jobs. Contemporary career theory further emphasises career adaptability across the lifespan as a critical skill for career management agency. Despite the apparent importance attached to employees’ employability and career adaptability, there seems to be a general lack of research investigating the association between these constructs.Research approach, design and method: A cross-sectional, quantitative research design approach was followed. Descriptive statistics, Pearson product-moment correlations and canonical correlation analysis were performed to achieve the objective of the study. The participants (N = 196) were employed in professional positions in the human resource field and were predominantly early career black people and women.Main findings: The results indicated positive multivariate relationships between the variables and showed that lifelong learning capacities and problem solving, decision-making and interactive skills contributed the most to explaining the participants’ career confidence, career curiosity and career control.Practical/managerial implications: The study suggests that developing professional graduates’ employability capacities may strengthen their career adaptability. These capacities were shown to explain graduates’ active engagement in career management strategies deemed important for their sustained employability in the contemporary career environment.Contributions: The results of the study offered empirical evidence in support of theoretical views on the self-regulatory capacities underpinning individuals’ career adaptability and how these are influenced by their employability capacities.


2013 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Deon P. De Bruin ◽  
Carin Hill ◽  
Carolina M. Henn ◽  
Klaus-Peter Muller

Orientation: Questionnaires, particularly the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-17), are an almost standard method by which to measure work engagement. Conflicting evidence regarding the dimensionality of the UWES-17 has led to confusion regarding the interpretation of scores.Research purpose: The main focus of this study was to use the Rasch model to provide insight into the dimensionality of the UWES-17, and to assess whether work engagement should be interpreted as one single overall score, three separate scores, or a combination.Motivation for the study: It is unclear whether a summative score is more representative of work engagement or whether scores are more meaningful when interpreted for each dimension separately. Previous work relied on confirmatory factor analysis; the potential of item response models has not been tapped.Research design: A quantitative cross-sectional survey design approach was used. Participants, 2429 employees of a South African Information and Communication Technology (ICT) company, completed the UWES-17.Main findings: Findings indicate that work engagement should be treated as a unidimensional construct: individual scores should be interpreted in a summative manner, giving a single global score.Practical/managerial implications: Users of the UWES-17 may interpret a single, summative score for work engagement. Findings of this study should also contribute towards standardising UWES-17 scores, allowing meaningful comparisons to be made.Contribution/value-add: The findings will benefit researchers, organisational consultants and managers. Clarity on dimensionality and interpretation of work engagement will assist researchers in future studies. Managers and consultants will be able to make better-informed decisions when using work engagement data.


2013 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire S. Johnston ◽  
Gideon P. De Bruin ◽  
Madelyn Geldenhuys ◽  
Christina Györkös ◽  
Koorosh Massoudi ◽  
...  

Orientation: Research that considers the effects of individual characteristics and job characteristics jointly in burnout is necessary, especially when one considers the possibility of curvilinear relationships between job characteristics and burnout.Research purpose: This study examines the contribution of sense of coherence (SOC) and job characteristics to predicting burnout by considering direct and moderating effects.Motivation for this study: Understanding the relationships of individual and job characteristics with burnout is necessary for preventing burnout. It also informs the design of interventions.Research design, approach and method: The participants were 632 working adults (57% female) in South Africa. The measures included the Job Content Questionnaire, the Sense of Coherence Questionnaire and the Maslach Burnout Inventory. The authors analysed the data using hierarchical multiple regression with the enter method.Main findings: Job characteristics and SOC show the expected direct effects on burnout. SOC has a direct negative effect on burnout. Job demands and supervisor social support show nonlinear relationships with burnout. SOC moderates the effect of demands on burnout and has a protective function so that the demands-burnout relationship differs for those with high and low SOC.Practical/managerial implications: The types of effects, the shape of the stressor-strain relationship and the different contributions of individual and job characteristics have implications for designing interventions.Contribution/value add: SOC functions differently when combined with demands, control and support. These different effects suggest that it is not merely the presence or absence of a job characteristic that is important for well-being outcomes but how people respond to its presence or absence.


2003 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Rothmann ◽  
L. T. B. Jackson ◽  
M. M. Kruger

The objective of this research was to establish the relationship between burnout and job stress, and to determine whether sense of coherence moderates the effects of job stress on burnout of employees in a local government. A cross-sectional survey design was used. The sample consisted of 270 employees of a local government. The Maslach Burnout Inventory, Job Stress Indicator and Orientation to Life Questionnaire were administered. Canonical analysis showed that a weak sense of coherence combined with stress because of job demands and a lack of resources were associated with all three components of burnout. Structural equation modelling showed that sense of coherence moderated the effect of job stress on exhaustion. Cynicism mediated the effect of exhaustion on professional efficacy.Opsomming Die doelstelling van hierdie navorsing was om die verwantskap tussen psigiese uitbranding en werkstres te bepaal en om te bepaal of koherensiesin die effek van werkstres op uitbranding by werknemers binne ’n plaaslike owerheid modereer. ’n Eenmalige dwarssnee opname-ontwerp is gebruik. Die steekproef het bestaan uit 270 werknemers van ’n plaaslike owerheid. Die Maslach Uitbrandingsvraelys, die Werkstres-Indikator en die Lewensoriëntasievraelys is afgeneem. Kanoniese analise het getoon dat ’n swak koherensiesin, asook stres a.g.v. hoë werkseise en ’n gebrek aan organisasie- ondersteuning geassosieer was met al drie komponente van uitbranding. Strukturele vergelykingsmodellering het aangetoon dat koherensiesin die effek van werkstres op uitbranding modereer. Sinisme het die effek van uitputting op professionele doeltreffendheid gemedieer.


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