Work design, anxiety and depression: A call centre case study
Date
2008-05-23T08:40:26Z
Authors
Mphuthi, Faith Lerato
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Abstract
This research study explores the possible relationships that may exist between the work
design, level of anxiety and depression in South African call centres. By investigating the
work design of a call centre and exploring its relationship to anxiety and depression will
help to achieve this. Variables that will be looked at in this research study are work
design, anxiety and depression.
Our sample comprised of call centre agents. The agents were came from one inbound
and one outbound call centre. It was then realized during the analysis of the data that
there is no significant difference between the two call centres therefore the two samples
were merged into one sample thus increasing our sample size to a total of 56 respondents.
Pearson correlation analysis revealed that significant positive correlations exist between
all the variables, work design, level of anxiety and depression. It was also proven that the
higher the JCI score the lower the anxiety and depression levels. Additional correlation
tests were conducted to see whether there is a relationship that exists between JCI subscales,
anxiety and depression. Results showed that not all of the sub-scales of the JCI
show a significant correlation with Anxiety and Depression. Only Autonomy and
Feedback to some degree correlate with Anxiety (r = 0.38; p = 0.004 and r = 0.26; p =
0.053). Variety and Authority correlated significantly and positively with Depression
(r=0.38; p = 0.004; and r = 0.32; p = 0.017). These results indicate good support for this
research study, illustrating that the manner in which work is designed will have an effect
in the anxiety and depression levels experienced by the employees.
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Keywords
work design, anxiety, depression, call centre