Service employee adaptiveness: Exploring the impact of role-stress and managerial control approaches

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationships between managerial control strategies, role-stress and employee adaptiveness among call centre employees.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on a conceptual model, a questionnaire-based survey methodology is adopted. Data were collected from call centre employees in India and the data were analysed through PLS methodology.

Findings

The study finds that outcome control and activity control increase role-stress while capability control does not have a significant impact. The interaction between outcome control and activity control also tends to impact role-stress of employees. Role-stress felt by employees has significant negative impact on employee adaptiveness.

Research limitations/implications

The sampling approach was convenience based affecting the generalisability of the results.

Practical implications

The paper provides guidelines for utilising managerial control approaches in a service setting.

Originality/value

The paper looks at managerial control approaches in a service setting – a topic not quite researched before.

Citation

Sahadev, S., Purani, K. and Kumar Panda, T. (2017), "Service employee adaptiveness: Exploring the impact of role-stress and managerial control approaches", Employee Relations, Vol. 39 No. 1, pp. 54-78. https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-11-2015-0213