Work organizational characteristics and psychological distress in French call-centers. Is there a direct effect?

Objectives In cross sectional studies, relationships between perceived stressors and self-reported health are suspected of mono-method bias related to negative affectivity. The purpose of this work was to test if work organizational characteristics (WOC) reported by managers were related to psychological distress (PD) reported by call-handlers in taking into account their perception of work conditions (perceived strain) and usual individual confounders.
Methods: Managers of 107 call-centers were queried by occupational physicians on their call-centers WOC. 4,002 call-handlers (2,929 women were considered here) of these call-centers completed a self-reported questionnaire including perceived work strain questions (Karasek and Siegrist’s questionnaires) and 12 questions on PD (General Health Questionnaire). A 2-level analysis tested the relationships between 14 WOC and PD, with and without adding perceived strain as confounder, assuming that unchanged relationships between WOC and PD flag a direct effect of WOC on psychological distress. We also analyzed perceived strain as an effect modificator for WOC using interactions.
Results: Five of 14 WOC were significantly related to the PD: type of calls, call-center size, number of activity parameters displayed on screen, instructions for client relationships, and expected control role of supervisor. In adding perceived strain, the relationship only remained for the type of call.
Conclusion: Main results of this study are (1) existence of relationships between WOC reported by managers and psychological distress (2) most of effects of WOC are moderated by the perception of work strain.