Relationship between gender-sensitive practices and family support and its impact on psychological well-being of women employees in call centers in India
| Date | 02 January 2018 |
| Published date | 02 January 2018 |
| Pages | 155-172 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-10-2016-0187 |
| Author | Monica Verma,Kanika T. Bhal,Prem Vrat |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Industrial/labour relations,Employment law |
Relationship between
gender-sensitive practices and
family support and its impact on
psychological well-being of
women employees in call
centers in India
Monica Verma
Department of MBA, IMS Engineering College, Ghaziabad, India
Kanika T. Bhal
Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi,
New Delhi, India, and
Prem Vrat
Department of Management, The Northcap University, Gurugram, India
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship of gender-sensitive practices andfamily
support in predicting psychological well-being of women assessed as stress, job satisfaction, commitment and
intent to leave. Using the crossover theory, it also examines how gender-sensitive practices lead to family
support, which in turn leads to reduced stress leading to high satisfaction and commitment and reduced
intention to leave.
Design/methodology/approach –Data were obtained from a sample of 302 women employees working in
call centers in NCR, India on psychometrically sound scales.
Findings –Analysis revealed that gender-sensitive practices are positively related to family support through
the mechanism of crossover. Amply supported by data, the study exhibits the complementary relationship
between gender-sensitive practices and family support, and their impact on psychological well-being of
women employees.
Research limitations/implications –The sample may reflect same source bias as the data are collected
from a single source.
Practical implications –The implementation of effective gender-sensitive practices might invite strong
family support and then, both can be a source of great happiness to women employees and can lead to
reduction in stress and, hence, greater job satisfaction, commitment and lesser intent to leave.
Originality/value –Very few research exist which have taken up the issue together. So, this study is an
endeavor toward understanding the relationship between gender-sensitive practices and family support and
their effect on job outcomes in a novel socio-cultural environment.
Keywords India, Call centres, Crossover, Women employees, Work-family interface
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The role of employees in call centers is generally recognized as demanding, repetitive and
monotonous (Belt et al., 2002) and highly stressful (Holman, 2002). Strict monitoring and
control (Taylor and Bain, 1999) and unusual working hours (Wharton, 1993) lead to high
levels of burnout among employees (Tripathi, 2006). Since call centers in India cater to
overseas clients having time zones different from that of India, employees are required to
work at night with constantly rotating shifts and schedules. The nature of work of call
centers requires its employees to follow a prescribed script with very little or no autonomy
while dealing with clients. Moreover, employees have to be on phone calls for long hours
Employee Relations
Vol. 40 No. 1, 2018
pp. 155-172
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/ER-10-2016-0187
Received 2 November 2016
Revised 14 September 2017
Accepted 15 September 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0142-5455.htm
155
Well-being of
women
employees in
call centers
leading to physical discomfort. These working conditions interfere with the family lives of
employees and cause work-family conflict.
In India, women constitute about 35 percent of the workforce of call centers, and are
likely to be affected by the unusual working environment of call centers. Moreover, it is an
established fact that women world over are responsible for household and child and elderly
care, which further adds up to the stress levels of women employees, leading to family-work
conflict. Realizing the significance of women’s contribution to the growth and development
of organizations, a large number of women-centric policies have been developed by
organizations so as to attract and retain meritorious and efficient women employees in the
organization and provide them an environment where they are able to balance their
personal and professional lives (Kelly et al., 2008). On the personal front also, there is ample
literature available on the positive impact of social support (support of a spouse, parents,
children, relatives, friends, etc.) on work-family balance and reduction in stress levels (Cohen
and Wills, 1985; Dunseath et al.,1995). Although past research has given us much insight
into the impact of gender-sensitive practices and social support on employee’s work
attitudes and turnover intentions, limitations in those research leave theoretical and
empirical gaps in our understanding of how gender-sensitive practices affect family support
and, hence, the employees’work attitudes.
The last few years have witnessed many transitions in the research on the work-family
interface. It has changed from conflict aspect (Barnett, 1998; Greenhaus and Parasuraman,
1999) to that of having positive consequences of combining work and family roles
(Barnett, 1998; Greenhaus and Parasuraman, 1999). Studies suggest positive effects on the
family due to participation in work roles (Rothbard, 2001). Brough et al. (2005) reported the
positive impact of “family-friendly”organizational resources on job and family satisfaction.
Work-family enrichment model propounded by Greenhaus and Powell (2006) explains the
linkage between work and family (work to family and family to work) with the help of two
concepts, namely, instrumental and affective paths. Instrumental path suggests that the
development of resources, skills, etc., in one area directly leads to high performance in the
other area. The affective path consists of two components. The first component highlights
the production of positive affect in a domain due to development of resources in the same
domain. The second component explains the spillover effect of positive affect developed in
first domain leading to a high performance in the second domain. This implies that the
benefits and facilities received at the workplace make the employee happy and satisfied
resulting into him/her shouldering and fulfilling the family responsibilities happily, thus
improving his/her family role performance. The positive environment, thus, created in the
family domain gets spilled over to the workplace motivating an employee to stay focused
and committed. Now, how this spillover takes place from the employee to his/her family
members and vice versa is the main objective of this study.
There is ample literature available on a process that occurs when there is a transfer of
strain from one person to another person in the same social environment (Bolger et al.,
1989; Westman and Etzion, 1995) and is referred to as crossover. Crossover occurs when
stress or strain in one person leads to an increase in stress or strain in a partner/spouse
(Westman and Vinokur, 1998). This implies that strain experienced by a spouse in the
work domain transfers to his/her partner in the home domain who in turn strains the
employee in the home domain. The employee carries this strain to the work area and feels
stressed. Crossover theories are primarily dominated by transfer of strain between
partners (Hammer et al.,1997).However,researchpredicts positive crossover also to take
place (Bakker and Demerouti, 2009; Bakker et al., 2009) in much the same way spouses
transfer their negative attitudes and affect. In this paper, we begin to answer these
questions by examining how the implementation of gender-sensitive practices in the
organizations lead to support of family to the employee by drawing from crossover theory.
156
ER
40,1
To continue reading
Request your trial