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Call centers play a significant role in the operational dynamics of different types of businesses. This is especially the case because a call center agent's demeanor can impair or engender customer satisfaction, which has ramifications for business patronage. Unfortunately, the pressures associated with the role of the call center agent have made staff attrition a norm in the industry. While this does not augur well for the call center or the organizations that they serve, the role of possible antecedents in the equation of staff attrition in South African call centers remains largely unexplored. Using a structural equation modeling approach, this study examined the interconnections between customer orientation, knowledge management, job satisfaction, and employees' intention to quit. Additionally, the mediating influence of job satisfaction on the association between customer orientation and knowledge management of the intention to quit is examined. This study found significant relationships between knowledge management, customer orientation, and job satisfaction and the dependent variable (intention to quit). In addition, this study establishes that the extent to which job satisfaction may mediate the influence on the intention to quit hinges on the organizational element considered. Two factors limit the extent to which the findings from this study can be generalized. First, this study focused on the call center setting in South Africa. Second, convenience sampling was used in this study. This study points to critical operational practices that call center managers can embrace toward enhancing job satisfaction and reducing intention to quit propensity. Using structural equation analysis, we contend that call centers in the South African setting would effectively address staff attrition if appropriate organizational practices are endorsed toward ensuring employee job satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organisations, including public libraries, are confronted with the challenges of managing, controlling and putting in place retention strategies to mitigate high turnover intention. Turnover intention can bring devastation to an organisation, leading to consequences such as decreased morale and productivity, shortage of skilled and qualified staff, and direct and indirect costs to the organisation. This quantitative study employed the census method and adopted a case study design, with an embedded survey design, making use of a structured questionnaire to collect data from 174 librarians at the City of Johannesburg Libraries in the Gauteng province of South Africa. Quantitative data were analysed using the Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS). The findings in relation to demographic factors revealed that the majority of the librarians who have been with the library organisation for a considerable length of time exhibited turnover intention. Findings further showed that the majority of librarians were mostly dissatisfied with organisational determinants, namely: payment and fringe benefits, working environment (work-life balance), and promotion and recognition which are significant predictors of turnover intention. It is recommended that in order to mitigate turnover intention and increase retention, strategic initiatives should be developed which could incorporate variables such as payment and fringe benefits, promotion and recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The literature has extensively presented evidence to establish that employee turnover is costly and destructive to organisational processes and outcomes. Organisations in South Africa are experiencing a high rate of turnover and it is becoming increasingly difficult to retain employees whose skills are critical to organisational success. This provides a compelling necessity to direct research attention to turnover intention in order to avoid actual turnover. Aim: The purpose of this article was to use partial least squares to test the relationships among selected antecedents of intention to quit. Setting: The study was conducted using employees in organisations that were surveyed in both public and private sectors in the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Gauteng provinces of South Africa. Methods: The study employed a survey research design using a quantitative research strategy. Data collected from 207 conveniently sampled respondents were used to validate a structural model developed through the review of existing literature. A standardised measurement instrument consisting of all the variables under investigation was used for data collection. Results: The results indicate the following path sequences in predicting employee turnover intention: transformational leadership through perceived organisational support and transformational leadership through organisational justice impact intention to quit. However, the path sequence from transformational leadership through organisational trust impacting intention to quit was not confirmed. Conclusion: A replication of this study using a longitudinal research design is recommended in order to overcome the methodological limitations of the current study. The conceptual model developed in this study provides relationships that could be used as guidelines to effectively manage the retention of key employees in organisations [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our aim was to assess the relationship between workplace friendship and organisational commitment in the call centre environment. Both qualitative and quantitative techniques were used to collect the data. Three call centres within a South African financial institution were sampled. Self-report questionnaires were distributed in order to obtain quantitative data, while qualitative data were obtained through in-depth interviews with call centre operators. The results of the quantitative analyses revealed a positive relationship between workplace friendship and organisational commitment in two of the three call centres. From the qualitative analysis, four themes were identified: the alienating nature of call centre work resulting in lack of commitment to the call centres; high commitment to the financial institution in which the call centres were based; structural and managerial constraints on friendship formation; and agency, on the part of call centre operators to resist the structural and managerial constraints on friendship. The practical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The objective of this paper is to discuss the development of a knowledge sharing questionnaire and the role of knowledge sharing in predicting turnover intentions of registered professional nurses. Design/methodology/approach: A literature study was conducted to determine the concepts and activities linked to knowledge sharing in order to compile a questionnaire. The questionnaire was factor analysed in order to determine the factor structure of the instrument. Thereafter, the construct of knowledge sharing was introduced together with organisational culture and various proposed mediating variables, namely organisational commitment, organisational citizenship behaviour and job satisfaction, as well as various demographic variables to develop a predictive model of turnover intentions through applying general linear modelling. A cross-sectional field survey design was used with a sample of 530 registered professional nurses in South Africa Findings: A knowledge-sharing questionnaire was developed that yielded a high reliability coefficient A significant negative relationship was found between knowledge sharing behaviour and turnover intentions. Furthermore, knowledge sharing interacted with organisational culture in a final model where all the selected mediating and demographic variables were simultaneously entered into the equation to predict turnover intentions. Research limitations/implications: More attention should be given to improve the content validity of the knowledge-sharing questionnaire. The development of more knowledge sharing measures in different industries is also important. Practical implications: Employers should know that retention strategies of professional nurses can be built around opportunities to share knowledge if they manage the organisational culture in such away that people are willing to share what they know. This emphasises the importance of the human being in effective knowledge management. Originality/value: The development of the knowledge-sharing questionnaire contributes to fill a gap of existing measures. It also focuses on the importance of tacit knowledge and that knowledge resides in the human minds of people. The value of a thorough literature overview in compiling questionnaires and applying general linear modelling in compiling predictive models are highly recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]