Margherita Zito

Inbound Call Centers and Emotional Dissonance in the Job Demands - Resources Model.

Background: Emotional labor, defined as the process of regulating feelings and expressions as part of the work role, is a major characteristic in call centers. In particular, interacting with customers, agents are required to show certain emotions that are considered acceptable by the organization, even though these emotions may be different from their true feelings. This kind of experience is defined as emotional dissonance and represents a feature of the job especially for call center inbound activities. Aim: The present study was aimed at investigating whether emotional dissonance mediates the relationship between job demands (workload and customer verbal aggression) and job resources (supervisor support, colleague support, and job autonomy) on the one hand, and, on the other, affective discomfort, using the job demands-resources model as a framework. The study also observed differences between two different types of inbound activities: customer assistance service (CA) and information service. Method: The study involved agents of an Italian Telecommunication Company, 352 of whom worked in the CA and 179 in the information service. The hypothesized model was tested across the two groups through multi-group structural equation modeling. Results: Analyses showed that CA agents experience greater customer verbal aggression and emotional dissonance than information service agents. Results also showed, only for the CA group, a full mediation of emotional dissonance between workload and affective discomfort, and a partial mediation of customer verbal aggression and job autonomy, and affective discomfort. Conclusion: This study’s findings contributed both to the emotional labor literature, investigating the mediational role of emotional dissonance in the job demands-resources model, and to call center literature, considering differences between two specific kinds of inbound activities. Suggestions for organizations and practitioners emerged in order to identify practical implications useful both to support employees in coping with emotional labor and to promote well-being in inbound call centers. In detail, results showed the need to improve training programs in order to enhance employees’ emotion regulation skills, and to introduce human resource practices aimed at clarifying emotional requirements of the job.

Flow at work in Italian journalists: differences between permanent and freelance journalists

Flow is an inner experience produced by the participation in an activity in which people are immersed and enjoy it (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). According to the Job Demands-Resources Model (Bakker and Demerouti, 2014), flow at work (FaW) occurs when job demands meet professional skills and when they are balanced by resources (Csikszentmihalyi, 2003). This study aimed to detect the relation between job resources (supervisors’ support, job autonomy), personal resources (optimism, internal locus of control) and job demands (workload, emotional dissonance) on FaW, in a sample of Italian journalists, considering differences between permanent and freelance. Participants are 260 journalists (118 permanent, 142 freelance) that filled out a self-report questionnaire. Data analysis (SPSS22) involved: descriptive statistics, Alpha reliabilities; correlations (Pearson’s r); t-test for independent samples; multiple regression. Results show differences between journalists: in permanent journalists FaW is influenced only by both job resources, in freelance journalists FaW is influenced by internal locus of control, job autonomy and workload. These results suggest a possible challenges-skills balance and a moderating effect of autonomy between workload and flow at work, to verify in the future. This study shows the importance to detect and to promote FaW in the same professional group, considering different types of task and employment contract. Promoting a positive organizational culture and FaW experiences is functional to prevent the risk of exhaustion, to improve performance and to protect the employees’ health and quality of working life.

Well-Being and Affective Commitment among Ambulance Volunteers: A Mediational Model of Job Burnout

ABSTRACT Burnout represents a relevant risk for ambulance volunteers. According to the Job Demands-Resources model, role conflict and social support can be considered as antecedents of burnout which, in turn, may lower affective commitment. This study aims to investigate the relationship between social support, role conflict, and affective commitment, as mediated by job burnout. Survey data were collected from 352 Italian volunteers and analyzed using structural equation modeling methods. Social support was confirmed as a protective factor, and role conflict as an antecedent of burnout which, in turn, decreases affective commitment. The relationship between role conflict and affective commitment is mediated by burnout which, on the contrary, does not mediate the effect of social support on affective commitment. Social support may protect against burnout. Because of its positive effects on a personal and an organizational level, affective commitment may be increased raising levels of supervisor support and reshaping role expectations. It could be useful to carry out future longitudinal studies, in order to confirm the antecedents and effects of job burnout; furthermore, this research should be extended to other ambulance organizations, in order to generalize the results; finally, multi-group analyses would allow to bring out possible differences between paid-staff and volunteers.