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The purpose of this paper is to examine whether Western human resource (HR) theory is applicable to a call centre located in the Philippines. A call centre, due to the amount of emotional labour involved in this type of work, is an ideal environment to study stress related Western HR model where stress eventually leads to turnover. Turnover is a major concern in the call centre industry.

The authors tested a model linking work stress to job satisfaction, organizational commitment and intention to turnover using data collected from 439 employees in the Philippines. Both correlation analysis and partial least squares analysis were used to test the theoretical Western HR components both individually and holistically.

The findings indicate that these call centre employees reported emotional stress, leading to job dissatisfaction, reduced organization commitment and ultimately increased intention to turnover. Turnover is reported to be a serious and increasing problem in call centres and this research demonstrates the significant role of employee emotional stress.

An understanding of the applicability of Western HR theory in non-western countries is of interest to managers in non-western countries. It is important as economic development occurs in newly developing countries that managers understand which theories from developed nations will apply to facilitate their growth and success.

This paper addresses HR concerns both in a Pan-Asian country that is rapidly developing and in the call centre industry which is predicted to grow rapidly in future.