The effect of sensory processing on the work performance of call centre agents in a South African context

Background: Call centres are thriving and expanding commercial enterprises providing cost-effective ways for organisations to connect with new and existing clients through telecommunication channels. Call centre agents perform this function telephonically for 75% of the day in large open-plan office environments characterised by workloads that are demanding, repetitive and highly scripted. Verbal abuse by clients is prevalent adding to a work experience that is potentially emotionally draining and stressful. Agents are under constant surveillance and monitoring to abide with commercial regulations but also to ensure high call volume and quality engagement with clients, these being the most important performance indicators. High staff absenteeism and attrition levels account for large financial losses in the industry. To date no studies have been found considering the impact of sensory processing of call centre agents on their performance, absenteeism and attrition. Sensory processing considers the neuro-physiological and behavioural components of individuals in the interactions with their daily work occupations and life environments. Although predominantly applied in paediatric clinical populations in occupational therapy, sensory processing provides universal truths about human behaviour which can add value to promoting wellness amongst healthy adults in work environments. Design: A quantitative, non-experimental and correlational study design was used to measure and compare demographic, sensory processing and performance data from 459 call centre staff within four fully operational call centres, which varied in type of operation, employer and geographical area in South Africa. The standardised and validated 60-item Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile (Brown, Tollefson, Dunn, Cromwell & Fillion, 2001) was used to measure sensory processing as neurological thresholds and potential propensity for individuals to cope with high sensory stimulating work environments. Agent performance data in each of the four centres were recorded daily, in real time, using sophisticated information technology systems, and included details about absenteeism. Attrition data were collected after the initial data intake to reflect true attrition. Results: Data were analysed using statistical methods to obtain locality (e.g. means, medians), dispersion (e.g. standard deviations and interquartile ranges) and associations (e.g. Spearman Rank correlations). Results showed strong, consistent and significant correlations between agents who displayed sensation avoiding processing and poor performance. Agents who exhibited sensation seeking processing had higher performance ratings. To a lesser, yet still significant, degree agents with low registration and sensory sensitivity also had lower performance ratings. Sensory sensitive agents were absent less often than other workers and sensation seeking agents showed a tendency for higher attrition. Results differed between service inbound call centres to sales and collections outbound ones. Team leaders, who are high performing agents promoted into these positions, had less sensory sensitive and sensation avoiding processing styles. A novel subset structure was designed to account for the multidimensional capacity of the AASP, and this was correlated with all the performance data. It provided a preliminary method for use in further research studies. The study strengths were the innovative sample in measuring sensory processing of healthy populations at work and the compilation of performance data through sophisticated computerised systems, which minimised the margin of error. Study limitations were the use of a self-questionnaire format for profile data collection and small sample sizes in subsequent data collection stages. Recommendations: The AASP has the potential to be used by call centre human resource practitioners for recruitment and performance management. Improved sensory environmental considerations and adaptations supportive of a more successful and healthier agent-job-environment fit are provided. The study findings support knowledge transfer into other general human resource management, education and training, occupational health management and occupational therapy practises. It expands the application of sensory processing theories and informs future research

Taylorism, targets and the pursuit of quantity and quality by call centre management

The paper locates the rise of the call centre within the context of the development of Taylorist methods and technological change in office work in general. Managerial utilisation of targets to impose and measure employees' quantitative and qualitative performance is analysed in four case-study organisations. The paper concludes that call centre work reflects a pardigmic re-configuration of customer servicing operations, and that the continuing application of Taylorist methods appears likely

Psychological contract and knowledge management mediated by cultural dynamics

Contact centres are the vital link in the value chain between the organisation and its customers because they offer essential front line sales and services of products. Evaluation of their success can be assessed in terms of customer retention, up selling and the promotion of the brand. This is brought into sharp focus if the centre is outsourced because of the impact of the strategic behaviour of the principal and its relation with its agents. The association of employees with the brand in outsourced operation is not as effective as in captive operations partly because communications from principal to agent are attenuated. Emotional connectivity, diagnostic skill set, requirement gathering, and knowledge are some of the most sensitive qualities required in agents working in the contact centres. These characteristics are found to differ according to whether this is in-house or outsourced operation and affect the psychological contract between the service provider and its employees. In addition, the employees are unlikely to achieve any rewards and are unable to offer any commitments to the customer in an outsourced operation; hence the “psychological contract” is breached. One of the consequences of this breach is on knowledge management. The knowledge of an employee regarding the products and services is lost with that employee’s attrition. Also employees’ then have little interest towards customer service and organizational welfare, which impacts on the customer centric goals of the principal. We argue that the psychological contract between employer and an employee and has positive influence on Knowledge Diffusion, mediated by cultural dynamics, which further contributes to the overall organizational effectiveness. This paper aims to investigate, as a pilot study, the elements of organisational culture and secondly its role in the diffusion of knowledge in contact centres, in-house and outsourced. We demonstrate how by deploying a blend of qualitative methods, it is possible to perceive the effect of each element of the cultural web on diffusion. Finally we propose a hypothesis of the role that Power Distance (Hofstede, 1980) can play, as a proxy for the Psychological Contract to leverage knowledge diffusion

Flowfield-dependent variant method for moving-boundary problems

A novel numerical scheme using the combination of flowfield-dependent variation method and arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian method is developed. This method is a mixed explicit–implicit numerical scheme, and its implicitness is dependent on the physical properties of the flowfield. The scheme is discretized using the finite-volume method to give flexibility in dealing with complicated geometries. The formulation itself yields a sparse matrix, which can be solved by using any iterative algorithm. Several benchmark problems in two-dimensional inviscid and viscous flow have been selected to validate the method. Good agreement with available experimental and numerical data in the literature has been obtained, thus showing its promising application in complex fluid–structure interaction problems

Unlocking the black box: line managers and HRM performance in a call centre context

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show the way to unlock the black box of HRM and performance linkages by exploring one of the key variables that mediates the link, namely whether line managers can stimulate improvements in firm performance by eliciting appropriate employee outcomes in a call centre context. Design/methodology/approach – The research draws on Purcell's "People-Performance Model" as a sensitising framework to inform an in-depth case study of a call centre. This provides a mechanism to unlock the HRM-Performance black box by focusing on the ability, motivation and opportunities for line managers to perform and any subsequent impact on employee outcomes. Data were collected over multiple site visits by means of multi-level interviews and a survey of telesales representatives (TSRs). Findings – Research findings indicate that one large client exerted significant control over the HRM policies developed within the call centre. Evidence suggests, however, that line managers'interventions ameliorated some of the negative aspects of work tasks and the HRM imposed by this dependency relationship. Research limitations/implications – This research is an exploratory attempt to better understand HRM-Performance linkages in one specific context. Results are not generalisable across contexts or even within call centres, which can vary extensively. Nonetheless, the research suggests that exploring line management behaviour is a promising avenue for more extensive research. Originality/value – This paper considers HRM-Performance linkages in a service context. Results indicate that both external relations and line managers are critical mediating variables conditioning HRM-Performance linkages, thereby lending support to the notion that hard and soft HRM practices are not necessarily irreconcilable

Foreign Direct Investments in Business Services: Transforming the Visegrád Four Region into a Knowledge-based Economy?

Foreign direct investments (FDIs) in the service sector are widely attributed an important role in bringing more skill-intensive activities into the Visegrad Four (V4). This region—comprising Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia—relied heavily on FDIs in manufacturing, which was often found to generate activities with limited skill content. This contribution deconstructs the chaotic concept of “business services” by analysing the actual nature of service sector activities outsourced and offshored to the V4. Using the knowledge-based economy (KBE) as a benchmark, the paper assesses the potential of service sector outsourcing in contributing to regional competitiveness by increasing the innovative capacity. It also discusses the role of state policies towards service sector FDI (SFDI). The analysis combines data obtained from case studies undertaken in service sector outsourcing projects in V4 countries. Moreover, it draws on interviews with senior employees of investment promotion agencies and publicly available data and statistics on activities within the service sector in the region. It argues that the recent inward investments in business services in the V4 mainly utilize existing local human capital resources, and their contribution to the development of the KBE is limited to employment creation and demand for skilled labour

STRENGTHEN AND UPGRADE REGIONAL CAPABILITIES (REGIONAL UNIVERSITY KNOWLEDGE CENTRE PROGRAMME IN HUNGARY)

The emerging vision of the modern, innovative Hungarian economy, which can compete successfully in the global arena, made it absolutely necessary to encourage business firms to be innovation-oriented and to encourage universities to develop, beyond their traditional teaching mission, also their research performance and their capabilities to transfer research results and new knowledge to convert them into commercially relevant innovations. The role of government was to create a suitable legal environment and proper incentives to stimulate and support change and to enable collaborations between Public and Private Sector actors. Despite all efforts in launching relevant programmes, the competency and attractiveness of universities for strategic research partnerships with the private sector remained heterogeneous and partially unsatisfactory because of shortcomings in their knowledge base and their capability to act as well-performing research partners in collaborative projects. In 2004 Hungary established a new complementary programme which addressed particularly these shortcomings, the Pázmány Péter – Regional University Knowledge Centre programme. This paper describes shortly the programme and then investigates the experiences of two initial calls. This Public-Private-Partnership model, where the state is not the single supporter of the programme, the participating Private Sector actors provide complementary funding. In addition, the centres can also attract external funding from various other sources. In addition, Private Sector enterprises make advanced technical equipment available for use by members and non-members. By the first experiences this programme is a good frame to support overcoming on one of the failure of the system, weak knowledge distribution capability. This initiative, the Pázmány Péter programme provides a potentially transferable example for other countries with shortcomings similar to those of Hungary’s National Science and Innovation System. It was the first policy measure which has attracted a large number of actors and united them in joint regional research activities. This form of Public Sector - Private Sector research collaborations is crucial for the flow of knowledge, the seamless transfer of research results to commercially relevant innovation and for feedback loops in development. The centres offer a stimulating environment for innovators and potential innovators, thus contributing to make the Hungarian economy more competitive.university-industry collaboration, regional university knowledge centre, public-private partnership

Improving health and public safety through knowledge management

This paper reports on KM in public healthcare and public safety. It reflects the experiences of the author as a CIO (Chief Information Officer) in both industries in Australia and New Zealand. There are commonalities in goals and challenges in KM in both industries. In the case of public safety a goal of modern policing theory is to move more towards intelligence-driven practice. That means interventions based upon research and analysis of information. In healthcare the goals include investment in capacity based upon knowledge of healthcare needs, evidence-based service planning and care delivery, capture of information and provision of knowledge at the point-of-care and evaluation of outcomes. The issue of knowledge management is explored from the perspectives of the user of information and from the discipline of Information Technology and its application to healthcare and public safety. Case studies are discussed to illustrate knowledge management and limiting or enabling factors. These factors include strategy, architecture, standards, feed-back loops, training, quality processes, and social factors such as expectations, ownership of systems and politics

Management of information through an interactive voice response system the prospect of religious domain

This paper explores the potential of using an interactive voice response system to maange information in institutions of religious domain. We first explain the terminologies involved such as an interactive voice response system, computer telephony integration, information management, and religious domain. Then we look at how information is managed through an interactive voice response system. IVR application supports two kinds of communications, i.e. real time communication and message type communication. Users could make either a real time communication or a message type communication as needed. Real time communication includes accessing databases in order to get instant and updated information within the real time during the call is made through the system. Message type communication includes voice mail application using telephone recording. The suitability of using interactive voice response for institution of religious domain is studied, and we also describe a few options for the implementation of the system

A conceptual model for global multi-channel customer management

Previous Global CRM research has recommended that scholars reassess all of CRM systems in global environment (Ward 2005; Ramaseshan et al., 2006). Channel management is one CRM systems component much influenced by the behaviour of customers in relation to the implementation and use of channel management CRM component. The consumers’ behaviours, preferences, perceptions and expectations are crucial for the implementation and use of channel management. Customers’ contact with the organization’s multi-channels can occur at several touch points through out customer lifecycle. Customers’ behaviours may be differentiated according to the individual or micro level, but it might also differ at an ecological or macro level of analysis. A conceptual model has been developed to analyze customers’ behaviours at a macro level and customers channel choices, through out the customer lifecycle