Showing items 1 - 3 of 3

Linear relationships among stressors, mediators and coping

- Mellor, David, Moore, Kathleen, Wall, Cindy

  • Authors: Mellor, David , Moore, Kathleen , Wall, Cindy
  • Date: 2012
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: Stress and Anxiety: Application to economic hardship, occupational demands, and developmental challenges. p. 81-90
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  • Description: Occupational stress is a principal workplace concern because of the deleterious effects it can have both for employees and the organisation. Much research has investigated the impact of workplace demands on the physical and mental health of employees and related organizational outcomes, such as loss of productivity and intention to quit. Such studies often have included factors such as job control as a mediating variable and role demands as stressors. Despite sophisticated analyses, the relationships among these factors have not been elucidated clearly or consistently. It is the aim in this paper to explore the linear relationship among three distinct groups of factors previously identified in the literature, stressors: workplace demands, work to family conflict; mediators: job control and sense of challenge; and outcome variables: burnout, somatic symptoms, job satisfaction, professional efficacy and intention to quit in a sample of 126 call centre representatives (59% female; age M = 27.3 years, SD = 8.18) from 11 call centres in metropolitan Melbourne. The results of a Multidimensional Scaling Analysis indicate four clusters: work related variables including role ambiguity, excessive performance monitoring, thoughts of quitting, role conflict; personal outcomes: work-family conflict and somatic symptoms; job impact outcomes: depersonalisation and emotional exhaustion, to positive outcomes: professional efficacy and job satisfaction. These quadrants can be used to suggest a progressive relationship from stressors through job control, a sense of problem-solving to either positive or negative outcomes. While these results are cross-sectional and must be interpreted with caution, a pivotal point of the MDS map suggests that participants' level of timing and method and attention demanded by their role might be factors which differentiate the two outcomes.

The role of general and specific stressors in the health and well-being of call centre operators

- Mellor, David, Moore, Kathleen, Siong, Zong Ming Benjamin

  • Authors: Mellor, David , Moore, Kathleen , Siong, Zong Ming Benjamin
  • Date: 2015
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Work: a journal of prevention, assessment & rehabilitation Vol. 52, no. 1 (2015), p. 31-43
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  • Description: BACKGROUND: The call centre industry has developed a reputation for generating a highly stressful work environment with high absenteeism and turnover rates. Research has identified role ambiguity, role conflict, role overload, and work-family conflict as common stressors in other settings. Call centre research has additionally identified performance monitoring, job design and job opportunities as call centre specific stressors. OBJECTIVE AND METHODS: This study investigated the impact of the identified stressors on burnout, somatic symptomology, and turnover intent among 126 call centre representatives (CCRs) from 11 call centres in metropolitan Melbourne, Australia. RESULTS: Hierarchical multiple regression analyses found that the common organizational stressors significantly explained between 10% and 53% of the variance in somatic symptomology, burnout (all 3 dimensions) and turnover intent. An additional amount of variance, between 6% and 22% in each of these dependent measures was significantly accounted for by the grouped call centre specific stressors. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, common organizational stressors and call centre specific stressors both significantly and independently contributed to burnout, somatic symptomology and turnover intent. These findings are discussed in relation to previous research, and suggestions for improved practice within call centres to safeguard the well-being of workers and for future research are provided.

The use of Likert Scales with children

- Mellor, David, Moore, Kathleen

  • Authors: Mellor, David , Moore, Kathleen
  • Date: 2013
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Journal of Pediatric Psychology Vol. 39, no. 3 (2013), p. 369-379
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  • Description: OBJECTIVE: We investigated elementary school children's ability to use a variety of Likert response formats to respond to concrete and abstract items. METHODS: 111 children, aged 6-13 years, responded to 2 physical tasks that required them to make objectively verifiable judgments, using a 5-point response format. Then, using 25 items, we ascertained the consistency between responses using a "gold standard" yes/no format and responses using 5-point Likert formats including numeric values, as well as word-based frequencies, similarities to self, and agreeability. RESULTS: All groups responded similarly to the physical tasks. For the 25 items, the use of numbers to signify agreement yielded low concordance with the yes/no answer format across age-groups. Formats based on words provided higher, but not perfect, concordance for all groups. CONCLUSIONS: Researchers and clinicians need to be aware of the limited understanding that children have of Likert response formats.
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