A study of call centres and call centre work in Dunedin

Abstract

Little research has been done in New Zealand on call centres and call centre work. This research investigated two call centres in Dunedin with the objective to discover what the work environment is like, the socio-demographics of the workers, the job characteristics and how the employees experienced these job characteristics. Four research questions were based on these factors. Research on call centres has revealed that they are typically environments of high pressure, control and stress therefore the research also set out to discover whether call centres in Dunedin were similar or different to these descriptions. In order to meet the research questions, interviews with team leaders and a call centre manager were conducted as well as questionnaires being sent to call centre workers. The results indicated that there were some similarities between the call centres and the descriptions of call centres in the literature, these were mainly positive. The call centre workers do not experience the same stress levels as indicated in the literature.