© Psychological Society of South A frica. A ll rights reserved.

South A frican Journal of Psychology, 40(2), 2010, pp. 204-213

ISSN 0081-2463

Friendship in socially isolating work environments

Karen Milner
Department of Psychology, School of Human and Community Development, University of the
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
[e-mail]

Jennifer Russell
Department of Psychology, School of Human and Community Development, University of the
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

Ian Siemers
Department of Psychology, School of Human and Community Development, University of the
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

Our aim was to assess the relationship between workplace friendship and organisational commitment
in the call centre environment. Both qualitative and quantitative techniques were used to collect the
data. Three call centres within a South African financial institution were sampled. Self-report question-
naires were distributed in order to obtain quantitative data, while qualitative data were obtained
through in-depth interviews with call centre operators. The results of the quantitative analyses re-
vealed a positive relationship between workplace friendship and organisational commitment in two
of the three call centres. From the qualitative analysis, four themes were identified: the alienating
nature of call centre work resulting in lack of commitment to the call centres; high commitment to the
financial institution in which the call centres were based; structural and managerial constraints on
friendship formation; and agency, on the part of call centre operators to resist the structural and
managerial constraints on friendship. The practical and theoretical implications of these findings are
discussed.

Keywords: call centres; employee turnover; friendship; organisational commitment; social interaction

Social interaction has been identified by numerous psychological and philosophical theorists as a
fundamental human need. W ithin the workplace it has been associated with various positive aspects
of organisational behaviour; including work motivation, job satisfaction, stress reduction, and em-
ployee engagement. The classical theories of M aslow, Alderfer, Herzberg, and M cClelland all recog-
nise the importance of interpersonal engagement for human motivation while an aspect of social
interaction — social support — is well established within the stress literature as an important com-
ponent of individual well-being. M ore recently, within the turnover literature, M aertz and Griffeth
(2004) identified attachments to others in an organisation as a distinct motivational force in voluntary
employee turnover. M ossholder, Settoon, and Henagan (2005) propose a relational perspective on
employee turnover and, on the basis of their research findings, argue that “relationships matter … and
their development influences important organizational outcomes” (M ossholder et al., 2005, p. 12).
Thus, the need for social interaction is regarded as a central concept in relation to both individual
well-being and organisational effectiveness.

Despite its importance, organisations differ in the extent to which the design of jobs, tasks and

the physical work environment afford opportunities for social interaction. As far back as 1965,
W oodward (cited in Vega & Brennan, 2000) established that changes in production intensity (from
units to batches to continuous flow processes) impacted on both supervisory and peer social inter-
action. As production intensity increased, social interactions tended to become more indirect, lower
in frequency and only involved information exchange. M ore recently, call centres have been identified
as socially isolating environments, which are based on individualised work design, determined and
regulated by technology (Van den Broek, 2004).

Against this background, our intention in this study was to explore the extent to which the call

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205

centre environment promotes or inhibits social interaction, specifically friendship formation, and to
assess the impact of workplace friendships on organisational commitment.

Friendship form ation in the w orkplace

W orkplace friendships have been defined as relationships that “involve mutual commitment, trust and
shared values or interests between people at work in ways that go beyond mere acquaintanceship, but
that exclude romance” (Berman, W est, & Richter, 2002, p.217). M any benefits of workplace friend-
ships for both individuals and their employing organisations have been noted. At a personal level,
friendships can meet an individual’s needs for affection, approval, social interaction and security and
can also reduce interpersonal tensions and counteract stress (Howse, 1989, Deeter-Schmelz and Ram-
sey, 1997). At an organisational level workplace friendship may improve job satisfaction/enjoyment
and provide support and resources to enhance work effectiveness and quality (Berman et al., 2002).
M ost workplaces incorporate key features that facilitate friendship formation, specifically physical
proximity and shared experiences (Burgoon et al., 2002, Porter & Tomaselli, 1989, Sias & Cahill,
1998). These workplace features are also evident in call centre work environments where people work
close together and where relatively large numbers of people do the same job and therefore have
shared work experiences. These features may be expected to aid social interaction within call centres,
however, aspects of call centre work — wearing head-sets, talking on the phone and the close and
pervasive monitoring of call centre agents which may inhibit any behaviour that is not in line with
organisationally sanctioned goal achievement — could have possible isolating effects.

Friendship form ation and organisational comm itm ent

For the purposes of this study, organisational commitment is defined as the “relative strength of an
individual’s identification with and involvement in a particular organisation” (M owday, Porter, &
Steers, 1982, p.27). Tett and M eyer (1993) note that this involves a strong belief in, and acceptance
of, the organisation’s goals and values, a readiness to exert effort on behalf of the organisation and
a wish to stay an organisational member. Closely linked to organisational commitment (or the lack
thereof) is intention to turnover. This may be described as a conscious and purposeful desire to leave
an organisation and is the last in a sequence of withdrawal cognitions (Tett & M eyer, 1993). Given
the positive implications of organisational commitment for organisations, interest in variables that
may enhance this construct is high. This is particularly relevant in the call centre sector, where low
levels of commitment and high rates of employee turnover are common (Deery & Kinnie, 2004).
Friendship formation is one of the variables that should bear scrutiny with regard to its relationship
with organisational commitment. At a theoretical level, there are a number of mechanisms that have
been identified which suggest how the relationship between friendship formation and organisational
commitment may occur. First, from a social network perspective, workplace friendships represent an
investment in social capital on the part of an employee which is likely to strengthen the employees’
ties to the organisation (Verbeke & W uyts, 2007). Second, from a job embeddedness perspective
(M itchell et al., 2001) workplace friendships constitute one of the strands that connect an employee
to his/her job or organisation — they “enmesh individuals within a relational web, making them less
susceptible to forces that could dislodge them from their organisation” (M ossholder, Settoon, &
Hanagan, 2005, p.608). Third, from an organisational culture perspective, friendships enhance the
development of shared meanings in organisations, strengthening the organisational culture and, by
implication, if values, norms and objective are shared, organisational commitment would be streng-
thened as well (Barnes, Jackson, Hutt, & Kumar, 2006).

Thus, there is a substantial theoretical argument to be made for viewing friendship formation as

a key predictor of organisational commitment. D espite the theoretical and intuitive appeal of this
relationship, there appears to be little research which has explicitly explored the possible association
between friendships and organisational commitment. Research on friendship has tended to address
factors that influence friendship development (e.g. Sias & Cahill, 1998; Holladay & Kerns, 1999);

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attitudes towards workplace friendships (Berman, W est, & Richter, 2002); and, most recently cha-
racteristics of social or friendship circle membership; information exchange in social circles and
consequences of friendship circle membership for performance (Verbeke & W uyts, 2006). This
research points to the increasing interest in friendship in the workplace, yet, what seems to be a key
organisational benefit of friendship formation, organisational commitment, has not been addressed.
In order to explore the relationship between friendship formation and organisational commitment, a
particular kind of organisational environment — a call centre was chosen for this study. Call centres
are inherently stressful and demanding work environments, with historically high turnover rates
(Bagnara, Gabrielli, & M arti, 2000; Holman, 2005). The physical structure and design of call centres
and call centre work is determined largely by the call centre technology, where emphasis is generally
placed on the technical side rather than the social side of the socio-technical system this creates. The
technology that enables call centre work may influence social interaction and potentially inhibit
workplace friendship formation. If friendship formation is inhibited, the positive effects of social
interaction on organisational commitment would also be inhibited. T his study aimed to explore the
relationship between friendship formation, in an environment generally depicted as hostile to em-
ployee social interaction, and organisational commitment.

M ETHOD
Sam pling and setting

Convenience sampling was used to select the call centres used for this study. A number of organi-
sations who have call centres were approached and a large financial institution granted the researchers
access to their three call centres. All the call centre agents within these three call centres were then
invited to participate in the research. Further details on the research participants are provided in the
following section. Before providing details on the research participants, however, a brief description
of the three call centres is provided in order to contextualise the study.

Call Centre 1:

Call centre 1 is a service, inbound call centre. There are approximately 40 agents

working in the call centre, overseen by five supervisors and one manager. The area in the call centre
from which this sample was drawn receives an average of 850 calls per day. Due to the nature of the
calls received, agents in this call centre require a high level understanding of the organisation’s com-
plex products as well as their associated policies and procedure. The risks associated with errors in
information are high — clients can take legal action against the institution if they are given erroneous
or incomplete information by an agent. Agents are also required to continue learning about new
developments with respect to their products. Call centre 1 therefore demands high level skills from
the agents. The agents in Call centre 1 are closely monitored — supervisors listen to a random
selection of recorded calls, noting mistakes and things done well. These ‘call audits’ are done con-
stantly and the feedback is given to the agents immediately. The second part of the process is listening
in on live calls and forms part of ‘live coaching’.

Call Centre 2:

Call centre 2 is situated in the organisation’s head office and is staffed by 31 agents.

This inbound call centre fields calls from the branch network and head office entities only — not
external customers. Agents provide a first level support for all the internal system users — all systems
related problems are dealt with. Agents in Call centre 2 are monitored using CM S, a computer
technology programme that allows team leaders and ‘call and resource analysts’ to monitor the num-
ber of calls holding, the wait times, and the quantity of agents signed on to an application. The system
also allows managers to see which operators are ‘on idle’, ‘logged off’, logged on’ or if a customer
has been placed on hold. Call times are observed and the CM S system also allows team leaders to tap
into any call and listen in on the conversation. Reports are extracted from the system that detail ope-
rator ‘sign on time’, ‘idle time’ and the number of incoming calls answered and outgoing calls made.
This call centre differs from both Call centres 1 and 3 in that it is for internal staff only.

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207

Call Centre 3:

Call centre 3 is also situated at head office and is a customer call centre. There are

55 agents and four team leaders. This division fields over 70,000 calls per month. Call centre 3, like
Call centre 1, demands a high level of knowledge from the agents. They need to have a current and
working knowledge of each of the products on offer and knowledge has to be constantly updated as
services and products change, demanding attention, integration and understanding from each agent.
As with Call centre 2, agents are monitored through CM S and information is updated every 15
seconds. Team leaders have constant access to this information and use it to monitor the agents’ pace
of work. There are also digital screens or wall boards on the walls of the call centre and these are used
by consultants and team leaders to monitor the number of calls waiting and the number of operators
‘on idle’. Reports are sent daily to all team leaders which detail the previous day’s statistics or
‘compliance’ — these results are discussed with each agent on an individual basis.

Research participants

One hundred and thirty-six (136) questionnaires were distributed by the researcher among the three
call centres. A covering letter was attached to the questionnaires stressing the voluntary, confidential
nature of the research and also requesting volunteers to be interviewed for the qualitative aspect of
the study. A total of 101 usable questionnaires were returned (74.3% response rate). Forty-one (41)
responses were obtained from Call centre 1; 22 from Call centre 2 and 38 from Call centre 3. There
was an even distribution of gender with 50.5% of the sample being male (N = 51) and 49.5% (N =
50), female. The mean age of the sample was 26 years old and 82% were single. T he mean organisa-
tional tenure was 3.4 years while the mean length of time spent by the agents in their current positions
was 1.7 years. Sixty-one percent of the sample’s highest level of education was Grade 12. The sample
was reasonably representative of the racial make-up of the South African workforce with 18% white
and the remainder African, coloured and Indian.

The sample for the qualitative section of the study comprised 14 agents (8 women and 6 men),

who had volunteered to be interviewed during the quantitative phase of the study. Seven (7) inter-
views were conducted with agents from Call centre 1; 3 interviews from Call centre 2; and 4
interviews from Call centre 3. Further biographical details of the interviewees have not been provided
to protect their anonymity. All interviewees gave written consent for the interviews to be recorded
and were informed that they could withdraw from the interview at any time and could choose not to
answer any question they did not wish to answer. Participants were also assured that no one at the
organisation would have access to the tapes and transcripts and that individual’s responses would be
kept anonymous.

Ethics clearance for both the quantitative and qualitative research procedures was obtained from

the University ethics committee.

M easuring instrum ents

The W orkplace Friendship Scale (Nielsen, Jex, & Adams, 2000) was used to establish the extent to
which workplace friendships were present in the workplace in the quantitative phase of the research.
The scale comprises 12 items, rated on a 5 point Likert type scale from strongly disagree to strongly
agree. A sample item is: ‘I have the opportunity to get to know my co-workers’. Previous research
(Nielsen et al., 2000) has established acceptable levels of reliability and validity for the scale. The
reliability of the scale in the current study was 0.85.

T he O rganisational Commitment Questionnaire (M eyer & Allen, 1991) was used to assess

organisational commitment for the quantitative phase of the research. The scale comprises 15 items
rated on a 7 point Likert type scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree. A sample item is: ‘I am
proud to tell others I am part of this organisation’. T his scale has been used extensively in previous
research both internationally and in South Africa and its reliability and validity is well established
(M orrison, 2004). The reliability of the scale in the current study was 0.80.

An interview schedule was designed by the researcher based on the literature on friendship in

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208

the workplace. The interview guide addressed five dimensions: general feelings and experiences of
call centre work; the desire to stay working in a call centre; the existence of friendships with other
call centre agents; the structure of the call centre and its impact on friendship formation; and the
desire to stay working for the organisation. Effectively, the qualitative aspect of this research sought
to elicit the contextual factors of call centre work, as well as individual experiences of such en-
vironments. In doing so, the elements that may inhibit or facilitate friendship formation could be
better explored and the relationship between better workplace friendship and organisational com-
mitment better understood.

RESULTS
Quantitative results

Before assessing the relationship between workplace friendship and organisational commitment,
ANOVAs were conducted to assess whether there were differences between the call centres on the
variables of interest in the study. Table 1 and Table 2 show the results of the ANOVAs for the
W orkplace Friendship Scale and Organisational Commitment Scale, respectively.

Table 1. Results of the One-W ay ANOVA for the W orkplace Friendship Scale

Source

SS

Df

MS

F

Call centre
Error

571.39

5 388.77

2

98

285.69
54.99

5.20**

Table 2. Results of the One-W ay ANOVA for the Organisational Commitment Scale

Source

SS

Df

MS

F

Call centre
Error

24.06

7 137.15

2

98

12.03
72.83

0.17

Since differences on the workplace friendship variable emerged from the ANOVAs, post hoc

analyses were conducted on the workplace friendship scale across the three call centres to establish
where the differences lie. The results of the post hoc analyses reveal that the difference lies in Call
centre 2. Call centres 1 and 3 did not differ significantly from one another but Call centre 2 differed
from both Call centre 1 and Call centre 3. Call centre 2 had significantly lower scores on the W ork-
place Friendship Scale than the other two call centres.

Table 3. Post hoc analysis for the W orkplace Friendship Scale

Call centre

comparison

Difference between

Means

95% Confidence levels

Alpha < 0.05

3 – 1
3 – 2
1 – 3
1 – 2
2 – 3
2 – 1

1.19
6.24

– 1.19

5.05

–6.24
–5.05

–2.13
2.96
–4.50
1.16

–10.18
– 8.94

4.50

10.18

2.13
8.94

–2.29
–1.16

***

***
***
***

Subsequent to the ANOVA and post hoc analyses, regression analyses were conducted on each

call centre to assess the relationship between workplace friendship and organisational commitment.
The results of all the regression analyses are presented in Table 4. Both Call centres 1 and 3 exhibited
significant relationships between workplace friendship and organisational commitment, while Call
centre 2 did not.

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209

Table 4. Results of the regression analyses

R 2

F

Df

Parameter

estimate

SE

t

Call centre 1
Intercept
Workplace friendship

Call centre 2
Intercept
Workplace friendship

Call centre 3
Intercept
Workplace friendship

0.22

0.01

0.10

11.00***

0.68

4.17***

1
1

1
1

1
1

35.01
0.43

55.63
–0.10

31.47
0.50

5.52
0.13

9.12

–0.24

10.70

0.25

6.34***
3.32***

6.10***

–0.42

2.94
2.04

These results indicate that the quantitative aspect of the study lends partial support to the hypo-

thesis that workplace friendship is related to organisational commitment. This relationship held true
for Call centres 1 and 3 but not for Call centre 2, which, as indicated previously through the ANOVA
results, had lower friendship scores (see Table 3).

These findings were explored in greater depth in the qualitative aspect of the study, the results

of which are presented here.

Qualitative results

The interview transcripts for the qualitative section of the study were analysed by means of thematic
content analysis. The primary themes to emerge from the interviews were: the desire to leave the call
centre because of the nature of the call centre work; high commitment to the organisation, but not to
the call centre; and the inhibiting effect of the call centre structure on friendship formation, but with
the occurrence of friendship despite barriers.

Them e 1: desire to leave the call centre:

The interviewees from all three of the call centres

were unanimous in not wanting to remain working in the call centre for any length of time. The
reasons for this related directly to the nature of the call centre work. Interviewees stated that they
found the work monotonous, inflexible, “boring and brainless”. M any respondents stated that the job
was “too hectic” and thus something only for a limited period of time. One interviewee noted that
working in a call centre is akin to telephone waitressing, emphasising the perceived similarities
between low end, low qualification work and call centre work.

A few of the interviewees stated that they were studying part-time while working at the call

centre and once they had their degrees they would leave the call centre environment. One interviewee
noted that the call centre environment, although stressful and taxing, offers employment that requires
no after hours or weekend work and a pay cheque to enable further studying. Thus, those studying
part-time are able to do so free of work demands outside of work hours. This emphasises the above
point — call centre work is not viewed as a long term career — it is used by individuals studying
part-time as a means to an end or as a stepping stone/foot in the door to a more fulfilling career.

A general dislike of “the phones” also emerged from the interviews as a key reason for wanting

to leave the call centre. One interviewee stated that he wished he could talk face-to-face with clients
(“I hate the phones”) — the implication being that solely telephonic communication and its isolating
aspects can have dehumanising, depersonalising and distancing effects. During the interviews the
phones were mentioned many times — it seems that due to the isolating nature of call centre work
and the fact that operators have no contact with clients except in a disembodied way, the phone

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210

becomes the client. It is, however, a relentless client as the phone rings continuously, calls are moni-
tored and in general the voice on the other side of the phone is calling to complain.

Them e 2: High com m itm ent to the organisation, not the call centre:

Despite their dislike

of the call centre environment, all the interviewees reflected high levels of organisational commitment
to the financial institution in which they were employed and stated that they would like to continue
working for the organisation. M any commented that the organisation was “generous”, “a good
company that takes care of its staff” and they enjoyed the perks that came with working for the
organisation. The “vibe, vision and values” of the organisation were also emphasised. One inter-
viewee even stated “I love this bank”. This clearly contrasts distinctly with their feelings about the
call centre.

Them e 3: The inhibiting effect of the call centre structure on friendship form ation, but
the occurrence of friendship despite these barriers:

In terms of friendships in the various

call centres, all interviewees stated that they each had one or two people that they would consider
‘close friends’. The majority of these friendships were formed during the initial training they under-
went on entering the call centre. Some formed close friendships with the people they sat close to and
everyone stated that they took their breaks with their friends if possible.

All interviewees stated that having close friendships at work was beneficial, and one interviewee

noted that “friends make the job better, especially after a stressful day or a screaming client. When
I drive to work and think about my friend, I’m excited to see her. The friendships I have benefit me
at work because if I need someone, they are there; it’s like, well, they are on my team”. Another
interviewee noted that in addition to this social support that friends provide, they also help motivate
one another, especially after a difficult call.

Despite these positive perceptions, a consistent theme throughout the three call centres is the

propensity of supervisors to separate friends. If supervisors notice that individuals in the same team
or individuals sitting close to one another are forming a close friendship, they are separated and
moved into different teams. As stated by one of the interviewees: “they don’t want you talking or
getting too friendly … They will move you”. Although the interviewees recognised the potential drop
in productivity, due to the noise and distraction that friends may cause, most operators displayed
anger and dismay over the practice of enforced separation. “Friends help you when you are stressed,
so it would be better if we could sit together. I feel pretty sad and lonely now that my friend is on
another team.”

In one of the call centres sampled, not only are friends separated, but team members are rotated

constantly, and so operators are constantly required to form new bonds. Although this practice may
allow individuals to get to know more people in the call centre, many interviewees noted that they had
become tired of constantly having to get to know new people and had begun to feel that it was a bit
pointless as they would soon be split again. W hen asked about this rotation procedure one of the
interviewees stated that he did not understand why the supervisors did that because “they break up
a lot of good teams and then the call stats drop”.

In addition to the systematic and intentional process of separating teams, the entire work design

of the call centre was identified by the interviewees as a barrier to friendship formation. T hey stated
that being on the phone all day, headset on, separated into cubicles prevented meaningful commu-
nication with colleagues — “you have to be on your toes all the time and the calls never stop, so
there’s no time to socialise”. The only time operators can get to know one another is on their breaks.
It is not always possible to go on break with your friend because the call centres usually roster lunch
times and breaks, meaning that an agent may not know anyone with whom he/she is on a break.

Notwithstanding the factors inhibiting friendship formation, there was consistency across the

interviewees from all three call centres on the use of e-mail and instant messaging to maintain friend-
ships, despite the fact that this practice was generally frowned upon by management. This is the

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211

predominant mode of communication in call centres and the medium through which friends keep in
touch. As noted by one interviewee: “e-mail is really big. We do it all day even though we are not
allowed to”.

DISCUSSION

The conceptual framework underpinning this research was drawn from a number of theoretical
approaches: To examine the extent to which the call centre environment allows for the development
of workplace friendships, we drew on theory which raises concerns over the socially isolating ele-
ments of new technology (Vega & Brennan, 2000). In looking at the relationship between organisa-
tional commitment and whatever social interaction/ friendship formation did exist within the call
centres, we drew from the job embeddedness construct (M itchell et al., 2001) and M ossholder et al.’s
(2005) relational perspective.

The research utilised both qualitative and quantitative methods in order to explore the issues

raised through these theoretical perspectives and assess the relationship between opportunities for
social interaction (friendship formation) and organisational commitment in a high turnover envi-
ronment (a call centre). Integrating the various results that emerged from both the quantitative and
qualitative findings, together with the theoretical frameworks used to underpin the research, three key
points can be identified.

First, the findings of this research support the contention that call centres are socially isolating

environments. The social isolation is driven from two directions — the job design and the technology
utilised within the call centre which physically inhibits social interaction or makes it more difficult,
and the management/supervisory style within the call centre which feeds into this social isolation,
with intent. The latter represents a form of management control designed, one assumes, to increase
productivity. The short sighted nature of this form of management control is evident from the second
key point emerging from the findings — that increased friendship opportunities is generally asso-
ciated with higher organisational commitment. Thus, technology and work design were found to be
aspects that inhibited the formation of friendship within the call centres investigated, but they were
not the only factors impacting on these social relations. The results of this study revealed that social
interaction was inhibited by both the physical and work design of the call centre — which were
largely a result of the technology chosen — as well as by the imposition of management control.
Despite these hindrances, however, workplace friendships did develop and the benefits thereof were
clearly identified and recognised by the call centre operators.

The quantitative findings also supported the relevance of viewing turnover through a relational

lens (M ossholder et al., 2005) as workplace friendships were associated with organisational commit-
ment in two of the call centres surveyed; suggesting some level of job embeddedness resulting from
interpersonal links. In line with M itchell et al.’s (2001) and M ossholder et al.’s (2005) contentions,
social connections within organisations seem to create a level of embeddedness which ties employees
more closely to their organisations, even under conditions where these social connections are con-
strained. This finding also ties in with the Gallup organisation’s research (Thackray, 2001), which
includes “having a friend at work” as one of the drivers of employee engagement — a related
construct to organisational commitment.

The management strategy in the call centres surveyed does not attempt to ameliorate the socially

isolating effects of the call centre job design and technology, nor does it actively seek to promote the
positive organisational effects of workplace friendships. Given the emphasis placed on employee
retention, both internationally and in South Africa, this management strategy is untenable at both a
humanistic and pragmatic business level.

The third key point that emerges from this research is the level of agency displayed by the call

centre operators in circumventing the organisational and environmental constraints on friendship for-
mation. This is perhaps not an unexpected finding, given the role that the social system plays in
shaping organisational behaviour and subverting management control, a fact of organisational life

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212

identified in research dating back to socio-technical systems theory and the Hawthorne studies. It was,
however, a serendipitous finding for the current research and one worthy of further research. It may
help to explain some previously contradictory research which found that, contrary to expectation,
poor job design had relatively little impact on employee well-being in call centres (Fisher, M ilner,
& Thatcher, 2007). The findings of the current study point to the possibility of ‘substitutes’ for
optimum job characteristics such as autonomy/job control, where such characteristics do not derive
from the job design nor formal organisationally sanctioned decision latitude but rather from em-
ployees’ self empowerment and agency in creating more bearable, psychologically healthier jobs. The
current research has thus provided some support for the theoretical frameworks underlying the study,
and has suggested some interesting relationships.

There are, however a number of limitations which need to be taken into consideration in inter-

preting the research findings. Specifically, the sample size for the quantitative aspect of the research
was relatively small, especially the sample size for Call centre 2. This small sample size may have
had an impact on the statistical power of the analyses, resulting in the non-significant finding for this
sample. A larger sample size, or more equal sample sizes across the different call centres, would have
allowed for a clearer attribution to be made in relation to the differing findings for Call centre 2
versus Call centres 1 and 3. In other words, it would have been easier to establish whether the dif-
ferent findings were due to differences in the work design and management style of the call centres.
The call centres involved in the research were also chosen on the basis of practicality, in terms of
access and permission to conduct research rather than on specific job design characteristics or
managerial philosophies/styles. Future research needs to adopt more rigorous comparative designs
to establish key differentiators in operators’ job experiences and the impact this has on both their and
their organisations’ health and wellbeing.

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