Browsing by Subject "well-being"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Exploring employee well-being among precarious (fixed-term) call center workers
    (2022) Kortman, Carmalita; Mulenga, Chao Nkhungulu
    Organisations have readily adopted alternative forms of work that deviate from the traditional standard employment relationship. Temporary employment or fixed-term employment has become a norm, especially in the call centre industry. In addition to the call centre environment being a major contributor to stress and job insecurity, the status of temporary employment brings along its own damaging outcomes for those employees impacted. That is, the experiences of working in a call centre environment are enhanced by the experiences of being in a precarious employment relationship. The objective of this study was to investigate the well-being experiences of fixed-term contract call centre employees in a financial services sector institution. This qualitative study was conducted in the interpretive paradigm and utilised an exploratory descriptive approach to understand the phenomena under study. Nine (9) fixed-term employees from three (3) different servicing call centres in the business were interviewed telephonically for this study. The study sample comprised Black, Coloured, and Indian males and females with an average age of 25 years old, an NQF4 level education or higher, and average tenure of 2.5 years in the organisation. The findings indicated that fixed-term call centre employees perceived their work arrangements and environments to be sources of stress, insecurity and instability, a hindrance to career development, and expressed overall negative affect on their well-being. Employees' negative well-being experiences were intensified during the COVID19 lockdown period which brought about many consequences for the general economy and specifically those already in vulnerable work arrangements. The study found that social support amongst co-workers was a buffer between the pressures experienced by fixed-term call centre employees and their well-being.
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    Open Access
    From Decent Work to Decent Lives: An Empirical Test of the Outcomes of Decent Work in the Psychology of Working Theory
    (2019) Malan, Danielle; Meyer, Ines
    The psychology of working theory (PWT) postulates that certain contextual and structural factors determine if individuals are able to obtain decent work, and that decent work, in turn, leads to work fulfilment and general well-being. The theory assumes that this is the case, as decent work satisfies three fundamental human needs: survival and power, social connection, and self-determination (as per the self-determination theory [SDT]). Only recently has a measure been developed to assess the satisfaction of these needs (Autin et al., under review), which means that the proposed role of need satisfaction as mediator in the link between decent work and work fulfilment/general well-being has not yet been tested empirically. This formed the objective of this study. The study employed a descriptive research design with a correlational approach. Working individuals residing in South Africa’s Western Cape province (N = 150) rated their work experiences on the decent work scale (DWS), work need satisfaction scale (WNSS), index of job satisfaction (IoJS) scale, and satisfaction with life scale (SWLS). In this sample, adequate healthcare did not fall within the decent work concept. This might be because it is common for working South Africans, especially in lower income brackets, not to receive healthcare benefits, which would thus not be expected. The autonomy and relationship aspects of the SDT self-determination need formed one instead of two separate components. This may be a reflection of low levels of trust in low-income workers, which means that autonomy is only provided if there is a positive relationship. Decent work predicted work fulfilment and individuals’ well-being and, as expected, this relationship was mediated by the fulfilment of the hypothesised needs (survival and power, social connection, SDT relationship + autonomy, and SDT competence). The study thus indicates the applicability of the PWT in the South African context. Organisations should thus be encouraged to provide employees with decent work, as this, in turn, will likely increase employees’ work fulfilment and general wellbeing.
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    The relationship between multidimensional psychological well-being and poverty
    (2019) Oaker, Brandon; Keswell, Malcolm
    Evidence from various academic fields indicates that mental health and income are correlated. Additionally, evidence exists that an increase in income improves psychological well-being and evidence that poor psychological well-being negatively impacts income. The difficulty is that there is no definitive work pinpointing the direction of the causal relationship between income and psychological well-being, but studies are attempting to find out. Hence, this paper attempts to contribute to ongoing work with an IV estimation approach to determine the causal effects of psychological well-being on poverty. Using data provided by Haushofer and Shapiro, this paper finds evidence that an increase in income causes a reduction in depression and stress levels, along with increases in happiness and life satisfaction of the study participants. Additionally, it is found that these improvements in psychological well-being lead to increases in monthly household expenditure, especially health care. Furthermore, these findings indicate that when women receive a cash transfer, a significant proportion of that transfer is devoted to health care. All the estimates presented in the paper indicate that an improvement in economic well-being leads to an improvement in the mental health of the poor, which causes them to spend more and focus more on their health care.