The relationship between job satisfaction and locus of control in a South African call centre environment

Abstract

The high levels of absenteeism and turnover that call centres across the globe experience due to employee job dissatisfaction have led to a renewed interest in the role that personality traits play in the service industry. The purpose of this study was therefore to determine the relationship between call centre agents’ job satisfaction and their locus of control orientation. A sample of 187 call centre agents from a municipality in Gauteng participated. The results of a chi-square test analysis suggested that call centre agents with an internal locus of control appear to experience significantly higher general, extrinsic and intrinsic job satisfaction compared to call centre agents with an external locus of control. The results further suggested that the male and female participants did not differ with regard to their general and intrinsic levels of job satisfaction and that participants with post-school qualifications experienced lower levels of intrinsic job satisfaction. Further research is necessary to arrive at a better understanding of the antecedents and correlates of job satisfaction in the South African call centre environment.