abstract for the employee engagement and areas of worklife of call center agents in ortigas

7/29/2019 Abstract for the Employee Engagement and Areas of Worklife of Call Center Agents in Ortigas

1/3

THE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AND AREAS OF WORKLIFE OF CALL

CENTER AGENTS IN ORTIGAS-PASIG DISTRICT: BASIS FOR A CALL CENTER

COMPREHENSIVE BALANCE WORKLIFE PROGRAM

Agnes F. Montalbo

Call center research often focuses on the negative side of working in a call

center. This study is directed at exploring a more positive outlook in a call

center agents life by determining the level of Employee Engagement and

match in the Areas of Worklife and the relationship that exists between the

two.

The descriptive method was used in this study with 294 call center agentsfrom Ortigas-Pasig District as respondent. The Utrecht Work Engagement

Survey (UWES; Schaufeli, W.B., Salanova, M., Gonzlez-Rom. V., & Bakker,

A.B., 2002) that measure employee engagement with vigor, dedication and

absorption as its dimension and the Areas of Worklife (AWLS, Maslach &

Leiter, 1997) with workload, community, control, reward, fairness and

value as its dimensions were administered.

This study found out that the call center agents have average energy level

and the dedicated call center agents those who worked in the company for

less than a year. The majority of the agents are in the direction of a match

in the Areas of Worklife.

A very weak or no correlation was found between the dimensions of

employee engagement and the dimensions of the Areas of Worklife.

The result of the study implies that working in a call center even in the

night shift can be engaging and rewarding especially for male agents who

had worked in their current company for less than a year and a graduate of

Commerce or Engineering course. A proposed program is designed toenhance the employee engagement that promotes a match in the areas of

worklife of call center agents.


2/3

(a)What recent psychological result or finding are you replicating in yourown study? Describe in two or three sentences (and include appropriate

citation and year of original study).

The relationship between the dimensions of the areas of worklife and employeeengagement plus burnout is a common theme among the research onengagement and burnout. (Smolak, 2012, Timms, 2007)

The Areas of Worklife together with the MBI-GS (Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Scale) are used as predictors of well-being and burnout. (Maslach &Leiter, 2008)

Timms, Carolyn, 2007. A contextual account for worker engagement andburnout. Dissertation at James Cook University.

Smolak, Teresa. 2012. Does work engagement burn out? The person-job fitand levels of burnout and engagement in work.Polish Psychological Bulletin.

Volume 43, Issue 2, Pages 7685

Maslach, C. & Leiter, M. 2008. Early Predictors of Job Burnout andEngagement. Journal of Applied Psychology. Vol. 93, No. 3, 498512

Maslach, C., 2011. Burnout and engagement in the workplace: newperspectives. The European Health Pychologist. Volume 13. Issue 3.

(b)How do your research design, methods, and analysis compare to theprevious study/studies you are replicating? Describe the importantdifferences.

The research design used in my research is simpler than the previous researches

conducted because this only involves the description of the level ofengagement and the areas of worklife and the relationship between the two.Previous study includes detailed analysis of the inter-relationship among the

variables using regression analysis and confirmatory factor analysis of thevariables.


3/3

(c)How do your results compare to the results of the previousstudy/studies you are replicating? Describe the important differences.

One important result of my study is the low correlation of the dimensions ofthe areas of worklife and the dimensions of work engagement. Previous studyreported a correlation with the dimension of workload with the MBI-GSdimensions which means that the more work you have the more you are likelyto feel burnout.

Maslach (2011) claimed that fairness, control or workplace community oftenturns out to be the most critical points of strain in an organization. In mystudy those employees with longer job tenure perceived Fairness significantlyhigher compared to other groups might be an indication that because theyperceived the workplace as fair, they stay longer in that company.

Smolak (2012) reported that in terms of employee engagement the mean resultdid not exceed the average results. In my study, the call center agents have highdedication and some are fully absorbed in their work that can be contrary tosome report that call center agents are burned out. The majority of the call

center agents are in the direction of a match in the Areas of Worklife.

(d) Why do you think it is important to replicate the result or finding in thePhilippines context, with your particular sample?

Conducting this study is important because majority of the researches in thePhilippines with call center as respondent focuses on the negative side of their

work. We perceived them as having burnout and has more physical hazard

because they work in the night shift. This research suggests that therespondents in this study reported an engagement in their work and feels asense of community contrary to what we perceive.

abstract for the employee engagement and areas of worklife of call center agents in ortigas

Documents