Content uploaded by Nelesh Dhanpat
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Nelesh Dhanpat on Jun 04, 2017
Content may be subject to copyright.
226
Evaluating organizational commitment of call centre agents
Mr. Nelesh Dhanpat
Neleshd@uj.ac.za
Department of Industrial Psychology and People Management, Faculty of Management, University of Johannesburg
PO Box 524, Auckland Park, Gauteng, 2006, South Africa.
Abstract
Call centre operations are a leading industry in South
Africa for employment. Call centres are plagued by
high levels of employee turnover and are challenged
by ensuring employee commitment. The study sets out
to evaluate organizational commitment within a call
centre. The study is quantitative in nature and follows
a cross sectional approach. Data was collected using a
convenience sample, which yielded a response rate of
282 respondents. An existing questionnaire was
utilized for organizational commitment by Meyer &
Allen (1997) and the retention factor scale by Döckel
(2006). To ensure internal consistency, the
psychometric properties of the questionnaire for
validity and reliability were assessed using Factor
Analysis and Cronbach’s Coefficient Alpha.
Descriptive and Inferential statistics were employed.
The findings of the study reflect that retention factors
will enhance the commitment of call centre agents,
and male employees experienced higher level of
commitment.
1. Background to the study
Call centres have become a multi-faceted
communication centre and are regarded as a fast
growing industry in the service sector (Swart, 2006).
They are credited to have a vital role in developing
customer centric strategies (Burns, 1995), and have
become increasingly prominent for customer
relationship management and increasing customer
satisfaction (Curry & Lyon, 2008; Kasabov &
Warlow, 2010; Rod & Ashill, 2013).
Services offered at call centres are often classified as
sweat shops of the digital era and assembly lines, due
to the standardisation and routinisation of work and its
perceived impact towards employee well-being
(Holman, 2003; Omar, 2005, Rensburg, 2010, Taylor
& Bain, 1999). The underlying forces that are
associated with call centres are emotional burnout,
increased labour turnover and high levels of stress
(Lombard, 2009). Furthermore, call centre employees
are regarded as emotional labourers due to the high
levels of service and customer satisfaction required
(Brannan, 2005; Ferreira & Saldiva, 2002). A shift
towards challenging the call centre industry’s
assembly line and sweatshop image is required and
hence, calls for a redesign of jobs in call centres
(Boonzaier & Boonzaier, 2008; Crome, 1998;
Hauptflesich & Uys, 2006).
The study sets out to evaluate organizational
commitment (OC) of call centre agents, as well as to
determine which retention factors may enhance
employee commitment and evaluate commitment of
amongst male and female agents. There is a need for
call centres to generate higher levels of commitment,
as it is a critical factor to their successful operation
(McGuire & McClaren, 2012).
2. Literature review
Turbulent business environments have aroused
implications for the attraction and retention of
employees (Dhanpat & Parumasur, 2014). However,
organizations grapple to retain and elicit commitment
from their employees (Chew & Chan, 2007). OC is
one of the most challenging concepts researched in the
field of organizational behaviour and human resource
management (Cooper-Hakim & Viswesvaran, 2005).
Notably, OC is one of the most popular and
thoroughly validated multidimensional model (Meyer
& Allen, 1991). OC refers to the nature of an
employee’s attachment to their organization
(Shahnawaz & Jafri, 2009), and relates to how
employee’s identify with and their involvement in a
particular organization (Mowday, Porter & Steers,
1982).
Differing approaches to the definition of OC exist.
Malik, Nawab, Naeem and Danish (2010, p.18)
defined OC as “the employee’s emotional or affective
response or attachment, identification with and
involvement in the organization”. OC is considered to
be a three dimensional variable consisting of three
components, namely, affective, continuance and
normative commitment (Meyer & Allen, 1996).
Common themes exist in the three component model
namely, commitment binds an individual to an
organization and hence, reduces turnover. In this view,
Meyer and Allen (1991) considered OC to be a
psychological state characterised by:
the relationship with the organization and
the decision to continue their membership with
the organization.
Such characteristics describe the three components
namely: Affective commitment - refers to the level at
which employees are psychologically attached to the
organization and possess a sense of belonging (Kumar
& Eng, 2011). Employees that are affectively
committed to the organization possess a willingness to
pursue the organization’s goals, and have feelings to
remain with the organization (Bergman, 2006;
Rhoades, Eisenberger & Armeli, 2001). Continuance
commitment - according to Sikorska-Simmon (2005),
this type of commitment is based on the costs that
would occur if an employee leaves the organization.
This consistent with the definition by Meyer and Allen
(1997, p. 11) “awareness of the costs associated with
leaving the organization”. Normative commitment –
this type of commitment develops by means of
socialization experiences which places emphasis on
227
loyalty (Morrow, 2013). In hindsight, employees
remain in the organization as they may feel obligated
to (Anttila, 2014).
2.1. Benefits of OC
Positive outcomes of committed employees exist for
employees and organizations (Greenberg & Baron,
2003) as well as consequences. Organizations that
have employees that are committed results in
improved relationships and increased organizational
performance (Rylander 2003). High levels of
commitment is noted to enhance employee well-being
(Meyer & Herscovitch 2001) and influence job
satisfaction (Vandenberg & Lance, 1992). From an
organizational perspective, committed employees have
the potential to influence organizational effectiveness
(Meyer & Herscovitch 2001). Consistent to this,
committed employees are likely to enhance
productivity (Shahid & Azhar, 2013).
Consequently, employees who are too committed may
result in an effort-reward imbalance, and may impede
work-life balance, burnout, and lead to obsessive and
unrealistic work patterns or even a neurotic
compulsion to succeed (Kinman & Jones, 2008;
Manetje, 2006). However, these potential effects are
low, they are likely to be detrimental to the
organization. Low levels of OC leads to employees
becoming unproductive, reduced efforts and
experience job dissatisfaction (Morrow, 1993).
Notably, gender distributions in organizations
influences progression. According to Maume (1999),
women who work in male-dominated professions
experience difficulty advancing, due to gender bias
experienced. In such environments, women may have
fewer opportunities for development, coaching and
mentoring (Lai, Lin & Leung, 1998) and could be less
committed to their employer (Martins & Coetzee,
2007).
2.2. Factors affecting retention
Organizations need to make efforts in identifying
factors that influence the retention of call centre agents
(Barnes, 2013). Notably, retention factors facilitate the
decisions whether an employee leaves or remain in the
organization and hence, organizations need to
prioritize against this. From a South African
perspective, Döckel (2003) identified six critical
retention factors.: Compensation – provides
employees with a sense of security and recognition
(Hoyt & Gerdloff, 1999) interms of monetary and
non-monetary rewards (Armache, 2014). Employees
that are acknowledged and rewarded for their work
experience higher levels of attachment and
commitment (Salie & Schlechter, 2012).
Job content - refers to the characteristics and nature of
one’s job (Dyk & Coetzee, 2012). Employees that
experience skill variety in their job and autonomy are
more likely to remain committed to the organization
(Dockel, 2006). However, work at a call centre is
characterized as repetitive and lack creativity and
flexibility which leads to increased stress levels and
boredom (Harry & Coetzee, 2013).
Career advancement – relates to the formalized
system in which organizations focus on individual
career needs and organizational objectives for the
organization to gain and maintain competitive
advantage. A lack of opportunities to grow are likely
to hinder job satisfaction (Harry & Coetzee, 2013).
The advancement of employees are pertinent in
increasing an employees’ affective commitment and
hence, reduce their intentions to leave (Joāo, 2010;
Morrow, 2011; Weng, McElroy, Morrow & Liu,
2010).
Training and development - refers to the acquisition
of skills that will enhance an employee’s performance
and advancement (Döckel, 2003). Employees seek
such opportunities that facilitates their growth.
Notably, training acts as vehicle to enhance OC
through an increase in self-worth and importance (Dyk
& Coetzee, 2012).
Work life balance – refers to the balance between an
employee’s work and family life (Mafini & Dlodlo,
2014). Employees that are able to integrate their work
and family commitments, and other non-work
responsibilities and activities are likely to experience
increased levels of psychological attachment towards
their employer (van Dyk & Coetzee, 2012) and hence,
perceive that their organization cares for them.
Supervisor support – refers to the way in which
supervisors provide support to employees through
recognition and feedback. In hindsight, this is a
precursor to retaining staff and enhancing their
commitment in the long term (Morrow, 2011).
Research design
The study is cross-sectional in nature and follows a
quantitative approach. Descriptive and inferential
statistics were employed. Factor analysis was
conducted using the pattern matrix of the principal
axis factor analyses using Varimax rotation with
Kaiser normalization.
a) Measuring instruments
The retention factor measurement scale (RFMS) was
utilised (Döckel, 2003). The instrument measured the
participants’ satisfaction with six retention factors.
Meyer and Allen’s (1993, 1996) Organizational
Commitment Scale (OCS) was used to measure OC.
In terms of internal consistency reliability, Meyer et
al., (1993) reported alphas for affective commitment
(0.82), continuance commitment (0.74) and normative
commitment (0.83). All items were presented on a
five-point Likert scale ranging from strongly disagree
(1) to strongly agree (5). Retention factors scored the
following Chronbachs Alpha, compensation .939,
training and Development .837, supervisor support
.702, career advancement .736, work life balance .766.
228
OC achieved an alpha of .861. The study considered
0.70 as an acceptable level for internal consistency
(Nunnally & Bernstein, 1994).
b) Sampling and Participants
The staff complement of the organization were
approximately 500 call centre agents (from the
insurance sector). Non-probability sampling design
was selected and a convenience sample utilised. There
was a response rate of 282. Sekaran and Bougie
(2013) indicated that the acceptable sample size for a
population of 500 is 260. The sample comprised of
66% females and 34% males. With regards to age,
49% were 18 to 24 years, followed by 46% and 12%
between 25 to 34 and 35 to 44 respectively. 70% of
the participants had a length of service of 1 year or
less.
3. Results
The frequency analyses for the possibility of
enhancing OC revealed:
51.5% of employees agreed that they are
employed at their organization out of necessity.
41.2% of employees remained in the organization
as it would be difficult to find other employment.
36.9% believes their organization deserves their
loyalty whilst 40.2% remained neutral about their
loyalty towards their employer.
The above is consistent with 55.8% of employees
would not feel guilty to leave.
52.3% of employees would not want to spend
their rest of their careers. This is consistent with
50.6% of employees who indicated that it would
be easy for them to leave.
3.1. Independent samples t-test – significant mean
differences (gender)
H1: There is a significant difference in OC of male or
female call centre agents. An independent-samples t-
test was conducted to compare OC for males and
females. There was a significant difference in scores
for males (M = 3.00, SD = .658) and females (M =
2.76, SD = .645); (t (271) = 2.95). The magnitude of
the differences in the means (mean difference = .25,
95% CI: –0.08 to 0.41) p=0.00 (two tailed) and (eta
squared = .368), as a large effect. Hence, hypothesis 1
may be accepted.
3.2. Correlation analysis
H2: There is a significant relationship between the
retention factors and OC.
A Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient was
computed to assess the relationship between the
retention factors and OC. There was a positive
correlation for compensation (r = 0.662, n = 273, p =
0.000) and career advancement (r = 0.559, n = 274, p
= 0.000). A negative correlation exists for work life
balance (r = -0.503, n = 274, p = 0.000). A significant
relationship for compensation and career advancement
exists between OC. A negative significant relationship
exists between work life balance and OC. Hence,
hypothesis 2 may be accepted.
3.3. Multiple regression analysis
H3: Retention factors enhances organizational
commitment
The total variance in the dependent variable (OC)
explained in the model was 51.4% (R square). The
ANOVA test also reported a significant value of .000
which shows that there is a significant difference
among the mean scores of the dependent variable,
because the score is less than .05 (Pallant, 2010). In
terms of multicollinearity, the current study yielded
tolerance values close to 1.0 (between ≥ .682 and ≤
.791) and VIF values of ≤ 1.46. They are lower than
the cut-off of ≥ 2.5 to ≥ 4.0 suggested for small
samples; hence, multicollinearity was not a particular
concern. (β) values were interpreted with more
confidence. In terms of how retention factors
contributed to the prediction of OC. Compensation
had the largest (β) coefficient (.398), suggesting that
employees value compensation more than the other
factors, career advancement (.253) followed by work-
life balance (-.181). These retention factors contribute
significantly to the variance of OC. Hence, hypothesis
3 may be accepted.
4. Discussion
The suggested theory and findings has practical
organizational and HR implications. In response to the
potential problems of employee retention and OC, it is
likely that call centre organizations should strive
towards providing on retention factors that will
enhance OC. Employees who display low levels of
psychological attachment to the organization will
display low levels of loyalty and hence, seek
alternative employment. To ensure commitment, call
centre organizations need to provide retention
initiatives that will ensure OC by providing equitable
reward and recognition to employees, providing clear
career plans and paths to their agents, and ensuring
that call centre agents are able to have successful
work-life balance. This study identified that men
experience higher levels of commitment. This is
consistent with Arbak and Kesken (2005), due to
higher salaries and better occupational positions.
Recommendations and conclusion
It is essential for call centres to be equipped with
employees who are committed to the organization, and
possess a sense of belonging and loyalty. In today’s
competitive environment, HR practitioners need to be
cognisant of the retention factors that may enhance
OC, which includes compensation, career
advancement and work-life balance. Furthermore, call
centres need to take note of gender differences and not
let traditional gender stereotyping influence
employees’ commitment levels. Organizations that
have a committed workforce are able to gain in
increased revenue, improved bottom lines, and
reduced costs (Babakus et al., 2003; Sahi & Mahajan,
2014).
References available upon request.
