Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
BACKGROUND
Today the service industry has evolved in many folds compared to its early beginning.
Our ancestors who first provided and sold services would never have imagined the
challenges and innovation that the industry is facing and will experience in the next
generation. One of the most innovative methods of meeting and keeping up with
communication is the emergence of call centers in the early 1990s. This demand
attributes to the increased level of education amongst the public. There is also increased
awareness on consumer rights and the expectation on products and services paid.
Call centers facilitate flow of information and communication between firms and their
remote customers via the telephone (Malhotra & Mukerjee, 2004). According to
Prahabkar, Sheehan, and Coppett (1997), call centers “….allow a company to build,
complaints quickly.” Call centers are the focal point of the firm to answer questions by
customers every hour of the day throughout the 365 days in the year. Therefore, it would
appear that all quality organizations that place customer satisfaction and loyalty as their
prime focus would strategize on call centers to communicate with current and new
customers. This is so, as call centers offer convenient and personalized methods of
servicing customer’s request and queries. Some organizations offer toll free numbers
1
where their customers can directly call centers without incurring any costs. The methods
of providing customers information and sales has evolved tremendously especially with
industry.
Based on the research done by Holman, Batt and Holtgrewe, (2007), the primary targets
of call centers are business customers and the mass market. About 75% of the call centers
in the study served the general mass market where the volume of service and sales
transaction are the highest. On the other hand, about 25% of the call centers serve
business-to-business customers.
Various industries now employ the call center strategy. Telecommunication firms were
the earliest to adopt the call center strategy to handle large volumes of customer enquiries
efficiently. However, today, the financial sector is the largest user of call center. In the
businesses. Other industries that currently use call centers include the
Holman et al. (2007) found that 49% of call centers focused on services, while 30% of
call centers focused on sales and services. The balance 21% focused on sales only.
2
There are two types of call centers: They are (1) Inbound and (2) Outbound. At least 79%
of call centers are inbound - where they serve the organization’s own customers. Twenty-
one percent of call centers on the other hand serve outbound customers. Figure 1 below
shows the Armistead, Kiely, Hole and Prescott (2002), call center systems model.
Enquiries Sales
Help Help
Reservations Dispatch
Appointment Call Center Debt Collection
Order Appointment
Payment Sales Lead
999 Customer Data
3
The typical technologies used in most call centers are telephones, supplemented by fax
and email. Some organizations though use advanced technologies such as a voice, email,
fax, voice over internet protocol (VoIP), media blending, and electronic customer
Today the call center industry offers employment in various countries in these industries.
In Holman et al.’s (2007) study of call centers in 17 countries alone the number of call
Why are there so many people employed in this sector? Call centers are typically
queries and others. It is undeniable that one of the key success factors of a call center is
the contact personal itself besides the technology. Since the customer contact employees
or popularly known as the call center agents are the link between the entire organization
and the external customer (Zeithml & Bitner, 2000), they are able to influence the service
Thus the ability of the organization in recognizing and adopting the right measures to
ensure the call center agents provide quality services in their interactions with customers
is essential. The external customers will identify the service provided by the call center
4
1.1 Asian call center industry including Malaysia
According to Computerworld (March 2008), Malaysia has shown the strongest growth
rate compared to all its ASEAN counterparts. Call center industry growth rate in
Malaysia is 17% compared to only 15% for the ASEAN region. The growth rate in
According to the Call Center Industry Benchmark Report, in 2003 alone there were 250
organizations with 575 call centers throughout Malaysia. Total call center seats in
Malaysia in 2008, is about 33,000. The average seats per center in the year 2008, is
expected to be 167 compared to only 90 last year. Why the buzz for call centers? Well,
according to Callcenters.net, 67% of the total contact centers in Malaysia are serving
local consumers. At the same time, there is an increase in number of outsourced based
contact center work. In addition to that, the availability of locals in Malaysia who speak
numerous languages like Mandarin, Bahasa Melayu, Cantonese, Tamil and others is very
attractive for global companies. This feature has made Malaysia the potential Asia Pacific
The annual wage for a contact center agent in Malaysia is about RM15, 000 compared to
RM12, 000 in Philippines and only RM8, 400 in India. Therefore, the annual wage in
Malaysia is still higher compared to these two countries. Thus, there is a slight
5
In terms of education level, 49% of those who work in call centers in Malaysia have only
a secondary education level. Based on the findings of the 2006 Asian Contact Center
Industry Benchmarking Report, it was found that 56% of the Asian contact centers are
established as customer service centers, 15% are dedicated to outbound sales, 14% for
through the contact centers. This constitutes 62% of contacts handled by the telephone
and 11% handled by the email or web. About 26% of all the organization’s contact is
The average number of both inbound and outbound calls handled by an agent per shift is
82 calls. According to this report, customer complains comprise of 11% of the total
transaction volume handled by Asian contact centers. The average sales conversion rates
from inbound calls that are an opportunity to sell is 28%, while the sales conversion for
The average level of absenteeism in Asian Contact centers is 11 days sick leave per
annum. Malaysia and Singapore are found to have the lowest level of absenteeism with 8
days per annum compared to 15 days in India. Meanwhile the average turnover rate in
Asia is 22% per annum, with the highest in India (35%) and lowest in Philippines (17%).
6
According to the statistics of agents who left the Asian Contact Center in 2006, only 38%
moved to work in other contact centers while the balance 62% left the contact center
industry completely.
Telecommunications, transport and freight, banking, finance and the insurance sector,
represent 67% of all call center seats from the principal industry sectors in Malaysia. The
government agencies and other private listed organizations are also beginning to place
importance on call center. Therefore, the employment rate in the industry is increasing
steadily. Labour, thus has been identified as the major expense in operating contact
7
1.2 Challenges in the Call Center Industry in Asia
According to the 2006 Asian Contact Center Industry Benchmark Report, there are
several key challenges in the Asian call center industry. Firstly, human resource is a
major concern, as the agent turnover rate is 22% per annum in Asia. Such a high turnover
rate poses high monetary and operational costs to the organization in terms of recruitment
centers to keep in pace with other call centers that are fast picking up the outbound calls
market.
The next challenge for Asian call centers is to improve customer satisfaction. Increase in
customer awareness and consumer rights is increasing pressuring in the service industry
to produce high levels of service quality. This is because the numbers of highly educated
Asian is in the increase. Furthermore, call centers provide the link between the
organization’s output and the customers. All customer dissatisfaction that arises from any
part of the organization may be directed to call center agents. Thus, the challenge of
linking the backroom activities of the organization and the call center itself arises.
The other challenges include increasing sales for business development, financial, budget
8
1.3 Objectives of the Study
Discussion on the statistics of the industry in Malaysia and Asia in the previous section,
mention that 53% of the total budget at call centers is attributed to labour costs.
Furthermore, the average call center turnover rate in Asia is about 22%. With that
account, the management human resource is important in every competitive call center.
Past researchers have found another important issue in call center involving deployment
of labour, which is the measurement of performance. The quality versus quantity issue
has been found critical in call centers. Another similar issue is the efficiency versus
productivity of call centers. The high technological advancement in the industry has
often, prompted call center agent’s productivity measures e correlated as quality outputs
of the call center. Measurements such as waiting time, number of calls attended number
of abandoned calls, time taken to attend each call and others are currently widely used as
These measurements put much negative pressures on call center agents. Constant
repeated focus on efficiency is often at the expense of the employee. Wallace, Eagleson
and Waldersee (2000), have termed this situation in the call center as the ‘sacrificial
human strategy’. It must be noted too that working in call centers has been found to be
9
Therefore, with the industry, fast growing in Malaysia, it is important that call center
managers fully understand their role in managing the human resource management of call
center agents. This would help them to maximize outputs and increase the quality of
service to their customers. It is with those objectives that this study was undertaken and
1.3.1 The relationship between the internal service climate environment of the
organization and attitudes of the call center agents in terms of their intrinsic
motivation
1.3.2 The relationship between the internal service climate environment of the
organizational commitment
1.3.3 The relationship between intrinsic motivation of call center agents with the
1.3.4 The relationship between organizational commitment of call center agents with
1.3.5 The relationship between the internal service climate with the service quality
10
1.4 The Importance of the Study
Call centers in Malaysia are growing at a steady rate especially in the service industry. In
fact, many utility and telecommunication companies are increasing their intake of agents
in a very positive trend. The high number of call center agents being employed poses a
positive organizational reforms and that will ensure quality service is delivered to
At the end of the day, customer outcomes such as satisfaction and loyalty will be
determined by these call center agents. It is therefore important that service organizations
in Malaysia understand the importance of factors that would lead to service quality
Many researches on call centers have been done in United Kingdom and India. In fact
many studies like Mukerjee and Malhotra (2006), Dean (2002), Schneider and Bowen
(1995) and others have linked organizational commitment, employee satisfaction with
service quality delivered by employees. Other research such as Schneider, White and
Paul (1998), have linked service climate to organizational commitment and satisfaction.
As mentioned earlier, labour costs is the highest contributor to call center budget.
Employee turnover rate has been found to be considerable high in Asia. This study was
aimed to relate past studies done in other countries with the Malaysian environment and
11
to assist organizations to identify the key employee management factors that will
Like most call centers all over the world, call centers in Malaysia are also placing much
attention on the efficiency and productivity measures. The difficulty in measuring the
qualitative measures of service provided by the call center agents has proven to create a
very unhealthy turnover rate in Asian call centers. Organizations spend a lot of money
annually on recruitment and training; therefore, it is important for them to improve on the
service climate at the call centers to reduce related labour costs in addition to creating
12
1.5 Scope of the Study
The scope of the study is to study the relationship between service climate, intrinsic
motivation, organizational commitment and service quality in Malaysian call centers. The
Service quality in this study is limited to employee perception against the standard of
Chapter 1 describes the overall background of the call center industry including in Asia
and Malaysia. The challenges and significance of the study is discussed. Chapter 2
explores the literature review on the research subject. Other relevant studies are also
from the literature review is developed into testable hypothesis. In addition to that, the
survey method used in the research is discussed in depth including the development of
measures. In Chapter 4, the analysis of data and interpretation of the data including
13
1.7 Summary
The call center industry in Malaysia is growing at an extremely high rate. As discussed
earlier, the number of seats in Malaysia is expected to grow to 33,000 by the end of 2008.
In order for call centers in Malaysia to compete with other global call centers, it is
essential for call center managers and organizations to pursue the key success factors in
terms of call center human resource management. This research was aimed to study some
essential relationships that will assist call center managers to focus on interventions to
14
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 Introduction
Taylor and Bain’s (1999) definition of a call center is a dedicated operation in which
According to Taylor and Bain (1999), the calls are processed and controlled by either an
Robinson and Morley (2006) identified the characteristics of a call center as the
integration of telephone and visual display unit technologies. The most recent addition to
There have been numerous researches regarding call centers since the 1990s. Some of
the previous research done are regarding measures of quality and work quantity, factors
management, job satisfaction, service quality and service climate in call centers. These
issues have been found as the main success factors of call centers.
With the advancement in technology today, call centers are focusing on statistics such as
waiting time, number of abandoned calls, number of calls and time taken by call center
agents to attend each call. In fact, there is so much argument and discussion about the
dilemma that call centers face in balancing between quality and quantity outputs. Taylor
and Bain (1999) also argued that in their research on whether priority should be given to
15
quantitative output or quality of services in call centers. It must be mentioned that further
confusion could also arise between quantitative and qualitative measures to draw the line
clearly on the difference between productivity and service quality. Frenkel and Donough
(1996), as well as Wallace et al. (2000), concurred with their findings. According to
Frenkel and Donough, the perceived focus on productivity in call center contradicts with
They further described the working routines in call centers as tightly structured where
agents just sat and attended to calls. The agents were also only allowed to take breaks at
predetermined times. Wallace et al. (2000) also found that efficiency and service in call
Robinson and Morley (2005), found the mismatch between achieving excellent customer
service and the actual measurements of productivity at call centers. It was mentioned in
this research that many call center managers were managing aspects of the call center
operations that had nothing or little to do with customer service excellence. The metrics
employed concentrated on the call itself and not the outcome of the call from the
Other authors such as Roth and Jackson (1995), Jack, Bedics and McCary (2006), as
well as Varca (2006) had identified four key resources to manage a successful call
center. The four resources are efficient labour deployment, effective technology
16
On the other hand, service quality in call centers as described by Jack et al. (2006) is
based on inputs (human relations and individual psychological perspective), delivery (top
High levels of service by the organizations will depend on ways it is able to leverage
labour, technology, capacity and demand management. The four resources must be
balanced to ensure that customers expectation of high service in terms of service quality,
Batt and Moynihan (2002) described the management of frontline employees as the
biggest challenge for call center managers. This was supported by Jack et al. (2006) who
said that labour is crucial in achieving high service quality in call centers. Therefore,
organizations that are able to hire, motivate, train, evaluate, and reward employees in call
centers will result in high productivity and customer satisfaction (Batt & Moynihan,
2002; Roth & Jackson, 1995). Call centers must also ensure that the employees are
Gupta, McDaniel and Herathet (2005), found that sustaining structures, which include
related to service quality delivery and customer satisfaction. Resources and systems that
support the service delivery process were defined to be part of the sustaining structures
17
Therefore, Wallace et al. (2000) had identified the strategy used in call centers to combat
the conflict between efficiency and service as the “sacrificial human resource strategy.” It
motivation of call center agents. On the other hand, it is strategic because, it involves a
coherent set of management activities and attitudes. Call center agents are expected to
without any cost to organization. Wallace et al. (2000) further described that this strategy
is a conscious misalignment between the task demands and call center agent’s intrinsic
motivation that results in stress, burnout as well as turnover intentions among the agents.
human resource strategy, call centers must be efficient in recruiting call center agents, as
the turnover rate in this industry is high. The organization must ensure that they are
skilled in selecting intrinsically motivated call agents. In addition, call center managers
should be able to design work tasks that will allow the newly recruited call agents to
adapt quickly to their work with minimum organizational specific knowledge. Lastly, a
good system of monitoring call center outputs and call center agents’ performance must
be in place.
With a strong focus on efficiency, the work environment of call centres can be very
stressful on employees. Therefore, the management must ensure that the work
environment does not create barriers to delivery of excellent service quality to customers.
18
appropriateness of supervisor must be addressed to improve the satisfaction among
employees (Holdsworth & Cartwright, 2002). Thus, call centers should create a
Before the definition for service climate is made, it is important to appreciate the
the organization that is of personal value to its employees (Brown & Leigh,1996).
terms of individual meaning and value rather than the organization. An earlier
will eventually shape the behavioral and attitudinal responses of employees (James
& Jones, 1974). Burke et al. (1992), further conceptualized work environment as
19
Other authors that found that service climate is the major components of work
climate are Yoon, Beatty, and Suh (2001). Schneider (1998), defined service
procedures, and the kinds of employee behaviours that are rewarded and supported
with respect to customer service and service quality delivery. It is the message that
(Schneider & Bowen, 1995). Schneider, Wheeler, and Cox, (1992) have also
suggested that service climate is built on the foundations of caring for both
A positive service climate is likely to enhance employees’ effort and control in their
work. Therefore, these employees will tend to spend more time and energy at work
Variables used by Schmit and Allen (1995) to measure service climate are
management, supervisor, monetary and service support. These variables support the
statement that basic human capital and human resource management is critical in
Schneider and Bowen (1985) found that human resource management (HRM) to be
the most important factor involved in the success of service climate. Schneider and
Bowen (1985) described five dimensions of HRM in their research. The first
dimension was work facilitation, which is the organizational and job attributes that
20
assist the employee to perform his or her job effectively. The second dimension is
systems in the organisation that encourage good practices. Their next dimension
growth programmes. Besides, that the image that organisations projects to their
important dimension described by the authors. The last dimension is new employee
Another important issue in call centers is the level of job satisfaction among call
center agents. Locke (1976) defines job satisfaction as a pleasurable and positive
emotional feeling that is reflected by the appraisal of one’s job or job experience.
Kantsperger and Kunz (2005), discovered that a high level of employee satisfaction
is related to task orientation and high level of intrinsic motivation to foster customer
found that the measurement of job satisfaction could explain employee behaviour
21
According to Mahesh and Kasturi (2006), intrinsic motivation is an important factor
employees that are intrinsically motivated tend to have higher psychological needs.
intrinsically motivated employees are able to be satisfied in situations that are risky,
and difficult. People who are intrinsically motivated are also motivated by high
targets and are not affected by negative feedback. Mahesh (1993) further conceded
beyond satisfaction.
This is inline with Higgs (2004) who defined motivation as one of the constructs for
emotional intelligence. According to this author, motivation means that one has the
found that agents in call centers who were intrinsically motivated were those who
22
Schneider and Bowen (1995), have identified three characteristics of intrinsically
satisfying jobs. They are the jobs that allow workers to feel personally responsible
for their work, the jobs that provide outcomes which are intrinsically meaningful or
otherwise experienced as worthwhile to the individuals; and finally the job that
remain with their organisations because they want to. Secondly, they suggested that
because they ought to do so, due to high opportunity costs of leaving their current
jobs or appointments.
Allen and Meyer (1990) explained that each employee experiences a psychological
23
stages of their career. Mowday et al. (1982) found that each of the three
the employees feel comfortable with their organisations and competent in the work
concerned with the magnitude and number of investments employees have made in
their existing organisations. Employees who have invested a large amount of time
and energy in their organization would perceive that they lack alternatives to leave
commitment is the feeling of being loyal to the organization because they are
obliged to do so. Allen and Meyer (1990) concluded in their research that
employees that are comfortable in their roles and job expressed greater affective
Other authors such as Bosshoff and Mels (1994) that suggested that committed
employees will dedicated more time, energy and talents to their organization
compared to those that were not. Dean (2000), concurred with Allen and Meyer that
24
Interestingly out of the three components of commitment, only affective
commitment has been the most popular ( e.g., Boshoff & Mels, 1995; Sergeant &
Frenkel, 2000).
Hesket et al. (1997) as well as Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Berry (1990) have
practices that are fundamental to the service provided by the organisation. This
outcome will in the long run influence customer value, satisfaction, and loyalty. In
SERVQUAL model (Parasuraman et al., 1988) which is also known as the Gaps
In their model, Gap 3 is the relevant gap that measures service quality. This service
performance gap, is the difference between the actual services delivered to the
25
customers compared to the firm’s service quality specification. The following
Expected Quality
Customer Gap 1
External Communications
Provider SERVICE DELIVERY to Customers
Gap 3
Provider Gap 3
Provider Gap 2
Perceptions of Customer
Expectations
26
2.2 Service Climate and Intrinsic Motivation
The focus on efficiency and productivity in call centers is found by authors to affect call
center agents psychologically. The work environment in most call centers is stressful to
call center agents. There are several findings about the stress at the workplace such as
those experienced by frontliners in the call centers. Stress has been found to relate in low
motivation, burnout and resistance among the call center agents (Houligan, 2000).
Wallace et al. (2000) suggested that to deliver service quality, call centers should
carefully select intrinsically motivated employees. This finding is in line with Higgs
performance of call center agents. This study proposes that an individual’s motivation
level should be considered during the selection and recruitment of call center agents. The
Motivated employees are more likely to be able to absorb the pressures from burnout, and
Thus, organizations may consider to implement this strategy in their call center
management. Obviously, this is not the only way to manage call centers. Call center
managers must focus on creating a positive service climate in their call centers that can
27
Routhman and Joubert (2007), found in their research that positive employee outcomes
such as wellness, vigour and dedication are related to job resources, organizational
support and advancement opportunity. Meanwhile, Brown and Leigh (1996) found a
these authors, the characteristics of job involvement include autonomy, skill variety, task
individual differences such as internal motivation and work ethics. Therefore internal
In addition to that, Schneider and Bowen (1985) found a direct relationship between
a subsequent study ,Schneider and Bowen (1992) found a positive relationship between
job satisfaction and service climate. In another study, Yoon et al. (2001) argued that
measurement for service quality used by Yoon et al. (2000) was the perception of
Yoon et al. (2001) found that both service climate and supportive management contribute
to employees’ job satisfaction and work effort, and they indirectly relate to on customers’
Other authors such as Deci and Ryan (1985) suggested that the control, freedom of
choice, and sense of security engendered by supportive management are likely to enhance
motivation and induce greater job involvement. Meanwhile, Little and Dean (2006) found
28
that service quality capability (SQC) which is the extent to which employees are satisfied
with their ability to deliver service quality to customers is related to service climate only
The motivation behind employee behaviours and attitudes can be explained using the
social exchange theory. According to Lee and Peccei (2006), social exchanges in
organizations are determined by the extent to which employees perceive they are being
fairly in the organization. As the name social exchange suggests, there is a social contract
(2006) study model is consistent with Allen and Meyer‘s (1990) study on organizational
commitment .
Service climate created in the organization is important to ensure that employees are able
to identify and feel responsible towards the organisations’ quality goals. The
organizations should value the contributions of their employees and the latter would
reciprocate with commitments towards delivering better service quality (Lee & Peccei,
2006).
Some authors have suggested in the research, organizational commitment is linked very
Boshoff and Mels (1994) noted from their study that committed employees will dedicate
more time, energy and talents to the organization. Therefore, it is crucial for service
29
managers to look back at past research to whether creating the right service climate will
enhance organizational commitment and in turn result in a high level of service quality
output.
Mukerjee and Malhotra (2006) examined the relationship of role clarity and
support, facilitation and feedback. The results of their study showed positive relationships
between all the three dimensions and role clarity and also between role clarity with
organizational commitment. Since the three dimensions are also consistent with service
climate dimensions the finding by the author suggests that service climate is related to
organizational commitment.
Little and Dean (2006), studied some call centers in Australia and they used the three
factors of global service climate, such as managerial practices, customer feedback, and
human resource management. Surprisingly, Little and Dean (2006) found that customer
service orientation had no relationship with the global service climate. The authors found
that service climate is highly dependent to HRM practices but not customer orientation.
The outcome of the research by Little and Dean (2006) found that service quality climate
The importance of HRM practices have also been highlighted by Schneider and Bowen
(1985). They suggested that the way employees feel about their organization acts as a
30
sustainable edge in a highly competitive industry. With highly committed employees,
Peccei and Rosanthal (2000) found a positive relationship between service climate and
individuals' commitment in the customer service. Service climate can be further enhanced
job designs that allow employee discretion (Bowen & Lawler, 1992).
As defined earlier too, commitment and work effort are closely related based on previous
studies. Yoon et al. (2001) found that both service climate and supportive management
contribute to employees’ job satisfaction and work effort. Since work effort and
organizational commitment are interrelated, this provides yet another support of the
by Lux, Jex, and Hansen (1996), also found that service climate is related to
organizational commitment.
Previous studies on the relationship between job satisfaction and performance have
examined the positive aspects of work satisfaction (e.g., Mahesh and Kasturi, 2006;
31
Dimensions of intrinsic motivation include negative sounding items like difficult,
challenging, risky and pressure. Several authors have found support the relationship
between intrinsic motivation and service quality. Mahesh and Kasturi (2006) found a
positive relationship between intrinsic motivation and the effectiveness of call center
agents. According to them, employees who are intrinsically motivated are able to perform
tasks in using a variety of behaviours and skills to manage their emotions and stress
levels. Therefore, call centre managers should consider employees’ intrinsic motivation
Young, Worchel and Woehr (1998), noted that past research by Baard, Deci and Ryan
(2004) found employees that experience a sense of intrinsic satisfaction from their work
are more committed in their jobs and have increased work performance. Meanwhile
Travis (2006), found that increased work performance and high job commitments are
related to the service industry where the front liners are assumed to be intrinsically drawn
to their work.
From a public social management perspective, public service workers are intrinsically
motivated as they see their efforts positively affect a social service. Hence, it is expected
that the greater the sense of personal responsibility and perceived service quality, the
Mukherjee & Malhotra, 2006) have related the positive aspects of the job thus studying
32
the relationship between job satisfaction and service quality. Contrary to the relationships
above, one research that did not find any relationship between intrinsic motivation and
service quality is Travis (2006). On the other hand, he found that only extrinsic
According to Zeithaml et al.(1990), service quality would fail if employees are unwilling
or unable to perform services at the required levels. Therefore, the attitude and
(Schneider & Bowen, 1995). The commitment of front line employees will determine the
As explained by Zeithaml et al. (1990), Boshoff and Mels (1995) and also Boshoff and
Tait (1996), the willingness of employees to accept and support goals and objectives of
organisations would be reflected in the manner they are committed, and the level of
commitment and service quality (e.g., Bosshoff & Mels, 1994; Malhotra & Mukherjee,
2004; Mukerjee & Malhotra, 2006; ,Zeithaml et al., 1990; Bosshoff & Allen, 1998)
33
2.6 Conclusion
There are several studies in the past on service climate, service quality, and employee
attitudes such as job satisfaction, intrinsic motivation, and commitment. However, none
have been done in the Malaysian call centres. The next chapter would establish the
research framework and hypotheses . The research methodology are also described.
34
CHAPTER 3
3.0 Introduction
intrinsic motivation and service quality delivered by call center agents in Malaysia. This
chapter will discuss the development of the research framework and hypotheses based on
Chapter 2 highlights the stressful work environment faced by employees of call centers.
In Malaysia, many service organizations have started using call centres, to serve their
customers’ queries and concerns 24 hours a day, 7 days in a week. The number of people
employed in call centres for various service industries have increased in recent years.
backroom employee’s service delivery with the responses of their call center agents. Call
center agents act as front liners for the organizations. They represent the entire
organisations’ function when they face customers. Poor service delivery of call centre
agents can affect high customer complains and low customer satisfaction. Poor
35
communication within departments in the organization may also result in call center
agents to take the bulk of the pressure from both the management and customers.
Unless call center managers, foresee this issue, it would be difficult to ensure that the role
of the call center agents is understood especially in the way they fit to the whole
organization. Do call center managers have a role to play to ensure that organizations are
support call center agents? What is the outcome of this positive climate on the call center
agents ?
This research is thus, aimed at examining the relationships of service climate, employee
intrinsic motivation, organization commitment and service quality among call center
service quality.
36
3.2 Definition of Primary Variables
The dependent variable in this study is service quality. Since service quality is a
customer perspective similar to several previous studies (e.g., Boshoff & Mels,
The independent variable in this study is service climate. Schneider and Bowen’s
this variable. Service climate should make employees feel that their organizations
Past studies have shown that job satisfaction and organizational commitment
mediate the relationships between service climate and service quality. However, in
its mediation on the relationship between service climate and service quality in the
Malaysian context.
37
3.3 Research Framework
The aim of this study was to identify the relationship between creating a positive service
climate and service quality among call center agents in Malaysia. It also examined two
mediating the relationhip between service quality and service climate. The research
INTRINSIC
H1 MOTIVATION H3
SERVICE SERVICE
CLIMATE QUALITY
ORGANIZATIONAL
H2 COMMITMENT H4
Hypotheses H5 is the relationship between service climate and service quality mediated
by intrinsic motivation.
Hypotheses H6 is the relationship between service climate and service quality mediated
by organizational commitment.
38
3.4 Hypotheses Development
From the research framework in the previous section, six (6) hypotheses were proposed.
They are :
employee outcomes such as wellness, vigour and dedication are related to job
(1996) also found a positive relationship between the psychological climate and job
involvement.
Other findings by Schneider and Bowen (1992), and Yoon et al. (2000) found a
positive relationship between job satisfaction and service climate. Yoon et al.
(2001), specifically found that both service climate and supportive management
intrinsic motivation.
39
3.4.2 Relationship between service climate and organizational commitment
Bosshoff and Mels (1994) suggested that committed employees will dedicate more
time, energy, and talents to the organization. Mukerjee and Malhotra (2006) found a
In a study of Australian call centers by Little and Dean (2006) found that three
Schneider and Bowen (1985) also found that service climate especially HRM
40
3.4.3 Relationship between Intrinsic Motivation and Service Quality
Several authors have found positive relationships between job satisfaction and
service quality (e.g.,Mahesh & Kasturi, 2006; Malhotra & Mukerjee, 2004;
Schneider & Bowen, 1993). Mahesh and Kasturi (2006), for example, found a
using a variety of behaviours and skills to manage their emotions and stress levels.
Young et al. (1998) as well as Baard et al. (2004), found that employees with a
sense of intrinsic satisfaction from their work are more committed in their jobs and
have increased work performance than those that are not. According to Travis
(2006), these outcomes are related to the service industry where the front liners are
greater the sense of personal responsibility and perceived service quality, the more
likely are employees to report feeling intrinsically satisfied (Crewson, 1997; Perry,
2000).
41
3.4.4 Relationship between Organizational Commitment and Service Quality
Zeithaml et al. (1990) suggested that service quality would fail when employees
are unwilling or unable to perform services at the required levels. Schneider and
behaviours in order to create superior service quality. Other authors also agreed that
quality (e.g., Sergeant & Frenkel, 2000; Zeithaml et al., 1990 ; Boshoff & Mels,
1994 ; Boshoff & Tait, 1996; Malhotra & Mukerjee, 2004; Mukerjee & Malhotra,
3.4.5 The mediating relationships between service climate and service quality
between the independent variable and the dependent variable by using two
42
Hypothesis 6 (H6) : Organizational commitment of call center agents mediates the
3.5 Conclusion
In this chapter, the problem statement of the research was explained. Past studies
was used as the basis of the problem statement and for the formulation of the
research framework in this study. Four variables in the study namely service
explained in this chapter. Finally, six (6) hypotheses were developed based on the
literature review.
43
CHAPTER 4
METHODOLOGY
4.0 Introduction
In this chapter, the methodology used to examine the relationships between service
in depth. Since a quantitative method was used in this research, thus, a survey was
designed using reliable measures adopted from previous research. Data collection
procedures and the research instruments used in the survey is also detailed in this chapter.
In addition to that, data analysis techniques that was used to analyse the data obtained in
The sample for this research was constructed by selecting two large organizations in
Malaysia that provided call centre services. The two organizations were chosen as they
represented two different sectors, namely from the electricity sector and the
telecommunications sector.
Convenience sampling method was used in the survey as call centre agents that
participated in the survey were chosen from these two organizations that were agreeable
to participate in this research. A total of 125 surveys were distributed among call center
agents in each of the two organizations. Thus from a total of 250, only 196 surveys were
44
returned, recording a rate of return of 78.4%. Fifty-four questionnaires were not returned
by the call center supervisors and a few reasons were cited for non-willingness by call
center agents to participate in the survey. The reasons include not being comfortable with
the language used in the survey (English), fearing non-confidentiality and time
Managers and call centre supervisors were not invited to participate in the survey as the
objective of the research was to examine the call center agents perceptions of the service
organization.
For the purpose of convenience, the survey was conducted throughout call centres in the
Data was collected by first asking for permission to carry out the research in the two
organisations chosen to participate in the survey. The two organizations were chosen as
they were from two different sectors had a large customer base. As soon as approval was
obtained from the organizations to participate in the study, 125 questionnaires were
distributed to each organizations. Five call centre supervisors had assisted to distribute
the questionnaires to call centres agents at their call centres. Thus, these supervisors acted
as mediators to clarify questions regarding the survey and also to collect completed
forms.
45
During the data collection period, pens were offered as tokens to respondents who
returned completed questionnaire forms. The offering of the token, increased the
response rate.
The respondents were not required to state their names or their departments to protect
their confidentiality. In addition to that, the supervisors were only allowed to collect the
completed forms that were dropped by the respondents in a survey box. This was done to
reduce the biasness in the response. In total, the data collection period took over three
weeks.
The questionnaire design was made up of two sections. The first section consisted of
forty-one items based on four constructs, namely service climate, intrinsic motivation,
organizational commitment and service quality. Meanwhile, the second section consisted
of ten demographic questions such as gender, age, ethnicity, education level, lengt in the
The measures used in this research were adopted from previous studies to ensure .
their validity and reliability. The following provides an overview of each of the
measures.
46
4.3.1.1 Service Climate
The service climate measure was adopted from Schneider and Bowen (1998).
Schneider and Bowen’s measure had seven items (α = .88). There were three
respondents were asked to state their perceptions of each items based on a five-
modification was done on Schneider and Bowen’s (1998) measure in this survey,
The wordings were modified so that a responsed using a seven-point Likert scale
quality work and service; my organizaton measures and tracks work and service
Intrinsic motivation measures were adopted from Mahesh and Kasturi (2006). All
fifteen items in the original measures were used ( α = .91). They included items
47
importance, pressure, perceived choice, usefulness, and relateness. All the items
Kasturi (2006), respondents were asked to state their perceptions of each items on
modification was done on Mahesh and Kasturi’s (2006) measure in this survey,
The five-point Likert scale was extended to a seven-point Likert scale whereby, 1
Some examples of the items in intrinsic motivation measures are : I talk with
pride among my friends and acquaintances about my job; Working here is fun; I
take the difficulties on the job as a challenge; This job brings out the best in me; I
Only the component of affective commitment was studied in this research. All
the eight items in this survey were adopted from Allen and Meyer’s (1990) study
(α = .87). Out of the eight items, four were positively worded and four were
48
Slightly Disagree; 4 = Neither Agree nor Disagree; 5 = Slightly Agree ; 6=
measure are : I would be happy to spend the rest of my career with this
feel a sense of “belonging” to this organisation; The organisation has a great deal
quality that were adapted form the SERVQUAL instrument (Parasuraman et al.,
1988) were used. The dimensions included in the measures were reliability,
included as it was not applicable to the service delivered by call center agents.
Malhotra and Mukherjee (2004), modified these scale and used only the
The scale of measurement used by Malhotra and Mukherjee, (2004) for service
quality was based on a five-point, Likert scale ranging from “strongly agree” to
“strongly disagree”. All the items were positively worded. Some examples of the
items are : I can understand the specific needs of my customers; I perform the
service right the first time; I give prompt service to my customers; I treat all my
customers courteously.
49
In order to ensure a consistent survey response from respondents, a similiar modification
to the intrinsic motivation measure on this measure. The five-point Likert scale was also
The data collected from the sample (n=196) were analysed by using the Statistical
Programme for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 14.0. The following data analysis
analysed to assess the gender, age, ethnicity, education level, length of service in the
organization, number of companies worked for in the last 5 years, status of employment,
Preliminary analysis for normality distributions of the data was obtained. The skewness
and kurtosis results described the data’s to the normality distribution. Skewness between
-2 and +2 was considered normal while kurtosis value between -3 and +3 was considered
normal.
50
4.4.3 Reliability analysis
The reliability of the measures were tested. The total Cronbach’s alpha values for each of
the four variables were found whereby, a score of .70 and above was considered reliable.
To increase the reliability of the scales, some items were deleted from measures when
their presence led to Cronbach's alpha values of less than .70 to increase the reliability of
the scales.
Correlation analysis was conducted as a preliminary test to check the strength and
this analysis.
Multiple hierarchical regression analysis was used to confirm the linearity, normality and
homoscedasticity of the data obtained from the survey. Testing of the hypotheses was
conducted using this technique. This technique would also assist to show the presence of
Baron and Kenny’s (1986) approach in investigating the presence of mediating variables
51
4.5 Conclusion
In a summary, the respondents in this research were chosen from two large organizations
in Malaysia. The detailed sample design was discussed in the Section 4.1. Then, the data
collection procedure used in this survey was explained. The research instrument in the
survey were adopted from previous research and minor modifications were made to
ensure a consistent response scale for the respondents. These modifications have are
described in this chapter. The outline of techniques used for data analysis were presented
in the end of the chapter. The basis of these techniques was used to present the findings in
52
CHAPTER 5
5.0 Introduction
In this chapter, the results of the data obtained from the survey was analyzed and
interpreted. The steps described in Chapter 4 namely section 4.4 are used. The 196
number of completed and returned questionnaires from the call centre agents is discussed
in this chapter.
5.1 Descriptives
the total respondents (n=196) were females. The respondents were mostly (94%) young
agents who were between 21 to 30 years of age. Majority (89%) of the respondents were
Malays. This is not surprising since the ethnic Malays form the majority of the Malaysian
population.
53
Table 3 : Demographic Characteristics of Respondents
54
It is interesting to note that 46% of the total respondents have either a diploma or
bachelor’s degree compared to another 49% with “O” level qualifications. The level of
Most of the respondents (71%) have been working in the call centres for less than 2
years. This could be due to their young age among the respondents. The present job is
their first job. The survey showed that 69% of the respondents have only worked with
one organization (present) in the last five years. This could reflect back on the
demographics of the respondents, whereby women tend to avoid job hopping where
It was found that the majority (78%) of the respondents were contract employees. This is
in line with the global employment trend of call center agents whereby jobs are
outsourced to external service providers. The rest of the respondents (22%) were
The results of the demographic analysis showed that 72% of the total respondents’ main
job responsibility was to complain handling while the rest do more of sales or marketing,
55
5.2 Data Screening
The data was screened for errors using simple descriptive table generated. Errors were
The initial test of the data was to determined if its distribution for the sample (n=196) was
normal. Extreme values computed as outliers by SPSS were recoded. The overall total
scores and normality analysis of the measures for the four constructs were computed.
The skewness and kurtosis ratio, normality curve, normal Q-Q plot, detrended Normal Q-
Q plot and box plots were computed. The results of the analysis showed that the data was
normally distributed. Thus, parametric tests were used to analyse the research data.
The group of measures in the previous section where then subjected to reliability
analysis. All the items for the constructs were found to be highly reliable with reliability
higher than .70 except for organizational commitment. Therefore, item, “Attached to
other organizations” was deleted from the Organizational Commitment measures from
further analysis.
56
Table 4 : Summary of Reliability Analysis
The average of the items was then computed for each of the four variables using SPSS.
The computed average of the items were then tested using Pearson R correlation and
Since the data for the sample (n=196) has been found to be normal, therefore, Pearson
R Correlation was used to confirm the strength and direction of the relationships
between constructs. As a preliminary measure, the basic assumptions for this test to
be conducted were checked. They were: scores were normally distributed; linearity
and homoscedasticity were met. Please refer to Appendix 2 for the scatterplots
57
The correlations between the variables were analyzed using Pearson R test. The result is
Notes : n = 196; **. p < .01. Cronbach's alpha is in parentheses along the diagonal
The output in Table 5 confirms the results obtained in the scatter plot Appendix 2 that a
significant positive relationship exists between intrinsic motivation and service climate ( r
= .55, p < .05). This showed that a better service climate at call centres, call centre agents
service climate ( r = .40, p < .05). This means that a better service climate at call centres
As for the relationship between service quality and intrinsic motivation, a significant and
positive relationship was also found ( r = .57, p < .05). The result showed that employees
with high intrinsic motivation are likely to deliver better quality of service.
58
Finally, a significant and positive relationship was also observed between service quality
and organizational commitment (r = .24, p < .05). This meant that employees with
The testing of the hypotheses were done using multiple hierarchical regression. This was
done concurrently with the testing for mediators in Hypothesis 5 and Hypothesis 6. To do
so, the basic assumptions for regression analysis were initially conducted. Normality,
linearity and homoscedasticity were confirmed prior to the analysis in the previous
section.
According to Baron and Kenny (1986), the following regression equations must be
(independent variable) :
59
• Regression of service quality on service climate and organizational commitment.
related to service quality in the second equation. In addition, intrinsic motivation and
Furthermore, the strength of the relationship between service climate and service quality
in the third equation must be less than in the second equation. According to Baron and
Kenny (1986) too, in a perfect mediation, service climate will have no relationship with
Results of from the regression models are presented in Table 6. Testing of direct
relationships in Hypotheses 1,2,3 and 4 sService climate The three variables were then
regressed to test for Hypothesis H5. Summarized results of the multiple regressions are
shown in Table 6.
Table 6 : Summary of the multiple regressions for AVSC, AVIM and AVSQ
60
Organisational commitment AVIM AVIM
Service quality
Notes : n = 196; * p < 0.05, Only items for the Variable Service Climate are shown in
Model 3
61
As a preliminary discussion, it was found that the basic requirements of Baron and
Kenny’s (1986) findings on mediations were met. Service Climate was found to affect
Intrinsic Motivation in the first equation. Secondly, Service Climate was found to affect
Service Quality in the second equation while in the last equation, the Intrinsic Motivation
Model 2. ∆F in Model 3 found to have increased from 12.11 to 76.443. AVSC on its
presence of AVIM, the coefficient for AVSC in Model 3 becomes insignificant with p >
.05. According to Baron and Kenny (1986), this finding shows that Intrinsic Motivation
To determine the presence of a full mediation or partial mediation the ∆R2 value was
compared to Model 2. AVSC alone in equation only explains 5.9% of the variance but
with the presence of AVIM as the mediator, the variance explained is increased to
32.6%. This is confirmed with the value of change in ∆R2 from 5.49% to 26.7% in Table
6. The results clearly indicate that Intrinsic Motivation fully mediates the relationship
62
4.5.2.2 Testing Hypothesis H6
The variables AVSC, AVOC and AVSQ were then regressed to test for Hypothesis H6.
As a preliminary discussion, it was found that the basic requirements of Baron and
Kenny’s (1986) findings on mediations were met. Service Climate was found to affect
Organizational Commitment in the first Model. Secondly, Service Climate was found to
affect Service Quality in the second model while in the last model, the Intrinsic
63
Table 7 : Summary of the multiple regressions for AVSC, AVOC and AVSQ
DV AVSQ AVSQ
Notes : n = 196; * p < 0.05, Only items for the Variable Service Climate are shown in
Model 3
64
In reference to Table 7, a significant reduction of ∆F is found in Model 3 compared to
Model 2. ∆F in Model 3 found to have reduced from 12.11 to 4.996. AVSC on its own is
the coefficient for AVSC in Model 3 is still significant with p < .05. However, Beta
value in Model 2 is reduced from .242 to .175 in Model 3. According to Baron and
Kenny (1986), this finding shows that Organizational Commitment mediates the
To determine the presence of a full mediation or partial mediation the ∆R2 value was
compared to Model 2. AVSC alone in equation explains 5.9% of the variance, while in
the presence of AVOC as the mediator, the variance explained is 8.3%. In reference to
Table 7, ∆R2 in Model 2 is found to be reduced from 5.49% to 2.4% in Model 3. The
65
4.5 Discussion
The analysis of the data revealed that the level of service climate at call centers is
significantly related to intrinsic motivation. The r-value obtained from the correlation
analysis is .55. It signifies a moderate correlation between the two variables. Therefore,
higher levels of service climate are associated with higher feeling of intrinsic motivation
among call center agents in Malaysia. This result is consistent with the findings of
It was also found that a organizational commitment among call centre agents are likely to
be present when the service climate in the organization is better. The r-value obtained
from the correlation analysis was .40. This outcome is similar to the findings of Little and
Dean (2006), Peccei and Rosanthal (2006) and Schneider and Bowen (1985).
By comparing the strength of the relationship between service climate with intrinsic
motivation and service climate with organizational commitment, it was found that the
strength of the relationship between service climate and intrinsic motivation was higher
than the strength of the relationship between service climate and organizational
commitment. This may be due to demographics of the respondents in the survey with a
77% of them being contract employees. Most organizations have reduced the provision of
benefits to contract employees. Thus the sense of belonging is somewhat lower when
obligations to stay with the organization compared to permanent employees. This could
66
perhaps explain the smaller correlation between service climate and organizational
commitment.
In line with the findings of previous researchers like Mahesh and Kasturi (2006), it was
found in this research employees that project higher levels of intrinsic motivation are
likely to deliver higher levels of service quality. Correlation analysis resulted in r-value
It was found too that, employees with higher organizational commitment are also likely
to deliver higher levels of service quality. This findings is similar to the findings in
previous research like Mukerjee and Malhotra (2006), Boshoff and Allen (1998) and
others. The r-value obtained from the correlation analysis was found to be .24 (p< .05).
The strength of the relationship between service quality and intrinsic motivation was
found to be higher than the relationship between service quality and organizational
commitment. This result can also be attributed to the fact that most of the respondents
that participated in the survey are contract employees with less than 2 years of
experience.
It must be noted that another significant relationship has been observed in this research.
Higher levels of intrinsic motivation are found to be associated with higher levels of
organizational commitment. The r-value obtained was quite significant (r = .49 , p < .05).
With reference to the study by Wallace et al. (2000) the service quality can be increased
by employing highly intrinsically motivated call agents, this study proves this theory.
67
Furthermore, it has been found in this research that call center agent’s internal desire to
delight customers is associated higher with the quality of service delivered compared to
Additionally, it was revealed in this research that intrinsic motivation mediates the
relationship between the service climate at the call center and the service quality
delivered by call center agents in Malaysia. Organizational commitment was also found
to mediate the relationship between the service climates at the call center with the service
quality delivered by the call center agents in Malaysia. This findings is consistent with
findings by Mukerjee and Malhotra (2006) and also Little and Dean (2006).
Therefore, it can be concluded that high levels of service quality delivered in call centers
highly intrinsically motivated agents. Additionally, high levels of service quality can also
be attained in the same organization by creating the right climate through higher
The service climate at the organizations encourages and motivates call agents to perform
quality service . The results of the research also indicate that without intrinsic motivation
of call center agents the relationship between service climate and service quality becomes
insignificant.
68
The service climate is also found to some extend encourage the commitment of call
agents in their work to increase service quality delivered to customers. The results
indicate that only partial mediation occurs in this relationship, so there are other more
relevant variables that are more significant to the relationship compared to organizational
commitment.
4.6 Conclusion
This chapter has discussed in detail the analysis of the data obtained from a sample of
196 respondents. Firstly, the discussion of the data screening and cleaning was done.
Next the test for normal distribution to confirm on the appropriate parametric tests to be
used to analyze the data was done. Reliability analysis was then conducted to test the
reliability of the measures used in the survey. Unreliable items were dropped from further
analysis. The following step conducted was testing Hypothesis H1, H2, H3 and H4. for
the correlation analysis between variables using Pearson R tests. Lastly, testing of
The results showed that five hypotheses formulated in Chapter 3 were fully supported
69
CHAPTER 6
6.0 Introduction
This chapter will discuss the findings of the analysis done in Chapter 5. Some of the
limitations involved in the study will be discussed in this chapter, so that the
practicality of the findings may be used in similar settings or studies. We will also
discuss the implication of the study for call center managers and suggest some
As discussed in Section 4.6 , analysis of the data reveals that hypothesis H1, H2, H3, H4 ,
and consistent with several past findings (Yoon et al., 2001; Brown & Leigh, 1996).
Consistent with findings of other researchers (Little & Dean, 2006; Peccei & Rosanthal,
2006; Schneider & Bowen, 1985), service climate was also found to be positively related
70
As for Hypothesis H3, service quality was found to be positively related to call center
agent’s intrinsic motivation in the study. This finding is similar to the findings of Mahesh
center agents and similar findings were also reported by previous researchers ( Mukerjee
As for Hypothesis 5, it was revealed in this research that intrinsic motivation fully
mediates the relationship between the service climate at the call center and the service
Organizational commitment, on the other hand only partially mediates the relationship
between the service climates at the call center with the service quality delivered by the
call center agents in Malaysia. This finding is consistent with previous findings by other
The results of the hypothesis means that the way the organizations treats and emphasizes
on the service to customers affects the call center agents in terms of their intrinsic
71
The results of the findings also indicate that the intrinsic motivation of call center agents
affects the relationship between the organizational service intentions with the outcome to
6.2.2
the perceptions of employees on call center service climate not only affect the intrinsic
motivation and organizational commitment of call agents but also in turn affect the
and establish policies that facilitate service orientated environment and supportive
management. The first step for managers to take is to ensure that the Human Resource
Departments at their organizations are trained to select and recruit individuals with high
Next, programs and work designs must be developed to maintain and increase the
periodic team building activities among call center agents, This action will be able to
increase the sense of belonging among call center agents and further foster agent’s
interest and enjoyment in their work, perceived choice, perceived competence and ability
to handle pressure.
72
Managers must also note that programs to increase employee’s ability to relate with the
managers must be careful to invest into the right kind of programs and policies that will
induce organizational commitment among call agent within their intrinsically motivated
period. This will generate favorable outputs in terms of service quality. Eliminating and
reducing stressors would help to improve service quality in call centers. Redesigning of
would help to prevent burnout in call centers that will eventually affect the service quality
delivered to customers.
As many researchers have found, most organizations in Malaysia still focus on traditional
issues like satisfaction, compensation and training. Human Resource practices and
programs that actually drive employee motivation and commitment are never in the
proven otherwise in terms of the service quality outputs. HR policies are still the main
drivers for achieving service quality through capitalization of employee behaviours and
attitudes.
There are several limitations to this study. Firstly, the study was conducted in call
center from two organizations in Malaysia. Since this number is small compared to the
73
total number of organizations with call centers, generalization may be limited. In
addition to that, the study was conducted with respondents that deal mostly with
complain handling and inbound calls. Therefore, generalizations to the entire call center
Secondly, there may be response biases due to social desirability and leniency effect.
The accuracy of the data largely depends on the response of the respondents. In
addition to that, Malaysians are more controlled in giving their views of their
caught for telling about negative aspects of their organization. Thus, there may be some
Thirdly, the measures used in the research are one of the many instruments available.
Although the reliability of the scales were found to be extremely good but some
modifications to the original measures and its scales were done. This may have created
74
6.4 Recommendations for Future Research
This research only covers call centers in Malaysia from two different organization and
industry. Future research can include more industries and organizations to be able to
In addition to that, this research only studies one aspect of commitment, which is
affective commitment. Future research can explore two other aspects of commitment that
are normative commitment and continuance commitment. The affects of the total
Researchers may also study the effect of some moderating variable like work status and
tenure duration on the relationships between service climate and intrinsic motivation.
This would assist managers to design work designs that are productive and effective to
75
6.5 Conclusion
In conclusion, this research has achieved its objectives that in Chapter 1. The six
hypothesis developed from the theoretical framework were tested using surveys and
analyzed using SPSS. The results of the research are summarized in Table 8 below.
76
The strength of the variables in relationship in study was also discussed and it will be
left to the practical managers to adopt the recommendations to improve the service
The implications of the results were discussed in the previous section and it will be
References
Allen N.J. and Meyer, J.P. (1990), “The measurement and antecedents of affective,
continuance and normative commitment to the organization”, Journal of Occupational
Psychology , Vol.63, 1-18.
Armistead, C. , Kiely, J. , Hole ,L. and Prescott, J. (2002), “An exploration of managerial
issues in call centers”, Managing Service Quality, Vol. 12 No 4, pp. 246-256.
Baard, P. P., Deci, E. L., and Ryan, R. M. (2004), Intrinsic need satisfaction: A
motivational basis of performance and well-being in two work settings. Journal of
Applied Social Psychology, Vol.34, 2045-2068.
Baron, R.M. and Kenny, D. A. (1986), “ The Moderator – Mediator Variable Distinction
in Social Psychological Research : Conceptual, Strategic and Statistical Consideration”,
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 51, No.6 1173- 1182..
Batt, R. and Moynihan, L. (2002), “The viability of alternative call center production
models”, Human Resource Management Journal, Vol. 12 No. 4, pp. 14-34.
Boshoff, C. and Tait, M. (1996), “Quality perceptions in the financial services sector: the
potential impact of internal marketing”, International Journal of Service Industry
Management, Vol. 17 No. 5, pp. 5-31.
Boshoff, C., Mels, G. and Nel, D. (1994), “A restricted factor analysis model for the
SERVQUAL instrument”, paper presented at the 24th European Marketing Academy
77
Conference, Paris, 16-19 May.
Burke, M.J., Borucki, C.C. and Hurley, A.E. (1992), “Reconceptualizing psychological
climate in a retail service environment: a multiple-stakeholder perspective”, Journal of
Applied Psychology, Vol. 77 No. 5, pp. 717-29.
Contact Center Industry RP to Grow 33% in 2007. (2007, January 18) Retrieved from
http:// ph.hardwarezone.com/news.
Dean, A.M. ,(2002), “Service quality in call centers: Implications for customer loyalty”,
Managing Service Quality ,Vol. 12, No.6, pp 414 – 423.
Deci, E.L., Koestner, R. and Ryan, R.M. (1999), “A meta-analytic review of experiments
examining the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation”, Psychological
Bulletin, Vol. 125 No. 6, pp. 627-68.
Foster, J.J. (1998). Data Analysis Using SPSS for Windows Versions 8 to 10. London :
Sage Publications Ltd.
Frenkel, S., Korczynski, M., Donoghue, L. and Shire, K. (1995), “Re-constituting work:
trends towards knowledge work and info-normative control”, Work, Employment and
Society, Vol. 9 No. 4, pp. 773-96.
Griffeth, R.W., Hom, P.W. and Gaertner, S. (2000), “A meta-analysis of antecedents and
correlates of employee turnover: update, moderator tests, and research implications for
the new millennium”, Journal of Management, Vol. 26, pp. 464-88.
Gupta, A., McDaniel, J.C. and Herathet, S.K. (2005), “Quality management in service
firms: sustaining structures of total quality service”, Managing Service Quality, Vol. 15
No. 4, pp. 389-402.
Hartline, M.D. and Ferrell, O.C. (1996), “The management of customer-contact service
employees: an empirical investigation”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 60 No. 4, pp. 52-69.
Heskett, J.L., Sasser, W.E. Jr and Schlesinger, L.A. (1997), “The Service Profit Chain:
How Leading Companies Link Profit and Growth to Loyalty, Satisfaction and Value”,
Free Press,New York, NY.
78
Holman, D. (2002) , “Phoning in sick? An overview of employee stress in call centers”
Leadership and organizational Journal, Vol.24 No.3, pp 123-130
Holman, D. , Batt, R. and Holtgrewe, U. (2007), “The Global Call Center Network
Report : International Perspectives on Management and Employment.
Jack, E.P., Bedics, T.A. and McCary, C.E. (2006), “Operational challenges in the call
center industry: a case study and resource-based framework”, Managing Service Quality,
Vol. 16 No. 5, 2006 pp. 477-500.
James, L.R. and Jones, A.P. (1974), “ Organizational Climate: A review of theory and
research”, Psychological Bulletin , Vol 81, pp 1096-112.
Kantsperger, R. and Kunz, W.H. (2005), “Managing overall service quality in customer
care centers Empirical findings of a multi-perspective approach”, International Journal
of Service Industry Management ,Vol. 16 No. 2, 2005 pp. 135-151.
Kumar, A. (2008, March). Malaysian Call Centers Show Strongest Growth in ASEAN.
Retrieved May 5, 2008 from http:// www. computerworld.com.my.
Lewis, B.R. (1989), “Customer are in service organisations”, Marketing Intelligence &
Planning, Vol. 7 No. 5/6, pp. 18-22.
Little, M.M. and Dean, A.M. (2006), “Links between service climate, organizational
commitment and employees’ service quality capability”, Managing Service Quality, Vol.
16 No. 5, 2006 pp. 460-476.
Lux, D., Jex, S. and Hansen, C. (1996), “Factors influencing employee perceptions of
customer service climate”, Journal of Market-Focused Management, Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 65-
86.
Mahesh, V.S. and Kasturi, A. (2006), “Improving call center agent performance A UK-
India study based on the agents’ point of view”, International Journal of Service Industry
Management Vol. 17 No. 2, 2006 pp. 136-157.
79
service quality? A study of antecedents and consequences in call centers.” International
Journal of Service Industry Management ,Vol. 17 No. 5, 2006 pp. 444-473.
Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V.A. and Berry, L.L. (1988), “SERVQUAL: a multiple-item
scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality”, Journal of Retailing, Vol.
64 No. 1, pp. 12-40.
Prahabkar, P.R., Sheehan, M.J. and Coppett, J.I. (1997), ``The power of technology in
business selling: call centers'', Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, Vol. 12, pp.
222-35.
Roth, A.V. and Jackson, W.E. (1995), “Strategic determinants of service quality and
performance: evidence from the banking industry”, Management Science, Vol. 41 No. 11,
pp. 1720-33.
Saura, I.G., Contrı, G.B., Taulet, A.C. and Vela´zquez, B.M. (2005), “Relationships
among customer orientation, service orientation and job satisfaction in financial
services”, International Journal of Service Industry Management ,Vol. 16 No. 5, pp. 497-
525.
Sekaran, U. (2006). Research Methods for Business- A Skill Building Approach. New
Delhi : John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Schneider, B., Wheeler, J.K. and Cox, J.F. (1992), “A passion for service: using content
analysis to explicate service climate themes”, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 77 No.
5, pp. 705-16.
Schneider, B., White, S. S. and Paul, M.C.(1998) , "Linking Service Climate and
Customer Perceptions of Service Quality: Test of a Causal Mode”, Journal of Applied
Psychology ,Vol. 83, No. 2, 150-163.
80
Sergeant, A. and Frenkel, S. (2000), “When do customer contact employees satisfy
customers?”, Journal of Service Research, Vol. 3 No. 1, pp. 18-34.
Taylor, P. and Bain, P. (1999), “An assembly line in the head: work and employee
relations in the call center”, Industrial Relations Journal, Vol. 30 No. 2, pp. 101-17.
The 2003 Malaysia Contact Center Industry Benchmarking Study. Retrieved (2004)
from www. callcenters.net.
The 2006 Asian Contact Center Industry Benchmarking Study. Retrieved (2006) from
www. callcenters.net.
Varca, P.E. (2006), “Telephone surveillance in call centers: prescriptions for reducing
strain”, Managing Service Quality.
Vroom, V.H. (1964), Work and Motivation, Wiley, New York, NY.
Yoon, H.M., Beatty, S.E. and Suh, J. (2001), “ The effect of work climate on critical
employees and customer outcomes – An Employee Level Analysis”, International
Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol. 12, No.5, pp 500-521.
Young, B.S., Worchel, S. and Woehr, D.J. (1998), “Organisational commitment among
public service employees”, Public Personnel Management, Vol. 27 No. 3, pp. 339-48.
Zeithaml, V.A., Parasuraman, A. and Berry, L.L. (1990), Delivering Quality Service,
Free Press, New York, NY.
Zeithaml, V., Berry, L.L. and Parasuraman, A. (1996), “ The behavioural consequences
of Service Quality,” Journal of Marketing, Vol. 60 No.2, pp. 31-46.
Zeithaml, V.A. and Bitner, M.J. (2000), Services Marketing: Integrating Customer Focus
across the Firm, 2nd ed.,McGraw-Hill, New York, NY.
81
APPENDIX A
QUESTIONNAIRE
82
83