Mindfulness and emotional exhaustion in call center agents in the Philippines: moderating roles of work and personal characteristics (original) (raw)
Related papers
Mindfulness, 2016
The role of mindfulness in the workplace has emerged as a legitimate and growing area of organizational scholarship. The present research examined the role of employee emotional exhaustion in mediating the relationship of mindfulness with turnover intentions and task performance. Drawing on theory and empirical research on both organizational behavior and mindfulness, we predicted that more mindful employees would show lower turnover intentions and higher task performance and that these relationships would be mediated by emotional exhaustion. We tested these hypotheses in two field studies in an Indian context. Study 1 was a field study of call center employees of a multinational organization, an industry in which turnover rates are very high. This study found that mindfulness was associated with lower turnover intentions and less emotional exhaustion, and that emotional exhaustion mediated the relationship between mindfulness and turnover intentions. Study 2 replicated these results in a sample of employees based in major Indian cities and drawn from different industries. In addition, it showed that mindfulness was positively related to supervisor-rated task performance, with emotional exhaustion again playing a mediating role. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of our findings, as well as future research directions.
An Empirical Study to Evaluate the Impact of Mindfulness on Helpdesk Employees
Research Square (Research Square), 2022
The practice of mindfulness aims to improve concentration and attention, which has proven useful in knowledge-intensive and stressful work environments like technological companies. This article aims to find empirical evidence on the positive effect of the practice of mindfulness on a sample of 56 helpdesk employees working for a consulting and information technology company (Accenture) with respect to: i) their attention awareness; ii) a set of key performance indicators (KPIs); and iii) the perceived benefits of mindfulness. Method: Of the 56 recruited employees, 29 worked as managers, and 27 worked as agents answering phone calls to solve software issues of the main information system of the Andalusian Health Service, a public organization with more than 115,000 employees. The treatment was applied to 26 subjects, while the other 30 subjects were the control group. For all subjects, their attention awareness was measured using the MAAS scale. Results: Both helpdesk managers and agents significantly improved their attention awareness with respect to the control group. Regarding organizational KPIs, in general, no evidence of significant differences between groups was detected, apart from the fact that the number of phone calls answered was significantly lower in the mindfulness group, probably due to a longer call duration caused by a deliberate better attention to the customer, but without degrading any other KPI. Results yield relevant benefits perceived by most employees after practicing mindfulness.
Mindfulness, mental health and emotion regulation among workers
International Journal of Wellbeing, 2015
Few studies have been conducted to examine the relationship between mindfulness training and emotion regulation at work. This study reports results from a semi-randomized controlled trial of a brief Mindfulness-Based Intervention (MBI) (Grégoire & Lachance, 2015) delivered in audio format. A pretest-posttest switching-replication design was used to assess changes in mindfulness, mental health (psychological wellbeing, psychological distress, stress and burnout) and emotion regulation (emotion awareness and impulse control) among forty-one (N = 41) employees working in a call center. Data was collected using self-report questionnaires at baseline (t1), week 6 (t2), week 11 (t3) and week 25 (t4) in order to have a follow-up measure. Both the analysis of variance and the prediction analysis showed that the intervention helped increased mindfulness and psychological wellbeing, but also reduced psychological distress, stress and burnout among employees. Overall, the intervention helped employees refrain from impulsive or reactive behavior when experiencing negative emotions but had no significant effect on their emotional awareness. Finally, there was a trend toward emotion regulation mediating the effects of the intervention on psychological distress.
PSAKU International Journal of Interdisciplinary Research, 2017
Extensive studies examining the benefits of mindfulness in clinical, professional, and personal settings have been reported in literature over the past decade. However, there is a lack of data relating to the correlation between an individual's level of mindfulness and aspects of their work performance in an industrial manufacturing environment. The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship between mindfulness and work performance amongst 423 full-time employees (192 males, 231 females), working in the production departments of 4 affiliated companies in Northern Thailand. The level of mindfulness was assessed through the Philadelphia Mindfulness Scale, Thai version. Work performance was measured through annual evaluations of each individual, pertaining to work quality, work quantity, and timeliness. The results showed a significant positive correlation between mindfulness and performance evaluation (r=0.581; p<0.01), with a positive correlation for each measured factor (quality, quantity and timeliness, in descending order of significance).
Mindfulness, 2014
Employees of a call center working for a financial institution took part in a brief mindfulness-based intervention (MBI). Each day, during five consecutive weeks, they listened to two short guided meditation sessions using a headset at their workstation (10 min in the morning and 5 min after lunch). A pretest-post-test switching-replication design was used to assess changes in mindfulness, psychological distress, and client satisfaction over the course of the intervention. During the first portion of the study, group 1 (n=18) acted as the intervention group while group 2 (n=25) acted as the control group. During the second portion, the intervention was replicated, and the roles of the two groups were switched. Data were collected using self-report questionnaires at baseline (t1), week 6 (t2), and week 11 (t3) and examined using both analysis of variance and prediction analysis. The results showed that mindfulness increased while psychological distress (stress, anxiety/depression, fatigue, and negative affect) decreased for all employees throughout the intervention, especially among those with low mindfulness scores at baseline. The satisfaction level of the employees' internal clients significantly increased over time, although the effect size was small. This article contributes to the field of mindfulness at work by (1) introducing a novel MBI specifically designed for call centers, (2) assessing the impact of the intervention on client satisfaction, and (3) doing so using a research design and a statistical technique which have never been used in mindfulness studies.
The effect of mindfulness training on employees in a dynamic organizational setting
Ijmbs, 2014
The access to information and multiple sources of communication has changed the way we work, and relate to our work day. The boundaries between work and home often disappear, increasing potentially employees' stress level, diminishing cognitive capabilities, and splitting attention between numerous tasks. The consequences of multitasking have been widely studied, as well as individual differences. Based on other studies, mindfulness based stress reduction (MSBR) method appears to have a positive effect e.g. on attention, working memory, stress and empathy. Thus, this experiment introduces an intervention in the form of mindfulness training, which lasted for 12 weeks for all 110 employees, who are located in 13 countries world wide. In addition, employees attended a seminar per week during 10 weeks. These seminars were mainly based on positive psychology. In order to collect data three surveys were sent out (before the intervention, 12 weeks after the first seminar and 6 months later). Two specific measurements were used, which are Mindfulness Awareness Scale (MASS) and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Findings showed a significant increase in MAAS, and diminishing values in PSS, meaning that treatment, in the form of MBSR had an affect on the perceived stress in the firm.
Mindfulness has received considerable attention over the past few years in prior psychology literature. However, the role of mindfulness has yet to receive sufficient attention in the service sector, especially the casino service sector. The objective of the current study is to examine whether casino frontline employees' perceptions of surface acting mediate the relationship between mindfulness and emotional exhaustion and to investigate the moderating role of a climate of authenticity in the process of their formation of emotional exhaustion. Hierarchical linear modeling results indicate that casino frontline employees' perceived mindfulness has a significant negative influence on their surface acting, which ultimately has a significant positive effect on their emotional exhaustion. In addition, the significant positive association between surface acting and emotional exhaustion is moderated by the authentic climate. A higher degree of authenticity within the climate weakens the positive impact of surface acting on casino employees' emotional exhaustion.
Frontiers in psychology, 2018
Mindfulness trainings are increasingly offered in workplace environments in order to improve health and productivity. Whilst promising, there is limited research on the effectiveness of mindfulness interventions in workplace settings. To examine the feasibility and effectiveness of a Workplace Mindfulness Training (WMT) in terms of burnout, psychological well-being, organizational and team climate, and performance. This is a preliminary field study in four companies. Self-report questionnaires were administered up to a month before, at start of, and right at the end of the WMT, resulting in a pre-intervention and an intervention period. There was no separate control group. A total of 425 participants completed the surveys on the different time points. Linear mixed model analyses were used to analyze the data. When comparing the intervention period with the pre-intervention period, significantly greater improvements were found in measures of burnout (mean difference = 0.3, < 0.001...
International Journal of Services, Economics and Management
Given emotional exhaustion's adverse effects on employees' psychological wellbeing and performance, it is crucial to understand which employee characteristics may enhance their ability to cope with this problem. This research investigated the relation between salespeople's trait mindfulness and emotional exhaustion by considering the mediating effects of optimism, resilience, and self-efficacy. Data from a total of 172 complete surveys were obtained from salespeople who work for a multinational direct sales corporation in Thailand. Results from a partial least squares (PLS) analysis supported a negative relation between trait mindfulness and emotional exhaustion. Moreover, optimism, resilience, and self-efficacy served as mediators that explained this negative association. This research suggested that organisations should consider mindfulness training as an intervention that may allow their employees to avoid emotional exhaustion.