Relationships between organizational workplace characteristics and perceived workplace strain in call-centers in France

Background: Our objective was to study the associations between organizational workplace characteristics (OC) reported by call-center (CC) managers and workplace stressors reported by call-handlers.
Methods: The managers of 107 CCs were interviewed by their occupational physicians using a questionnaire designed to specifically explore OC in the CCs. Four thousand and two call-handlers from these CCs completed a self-report questionnaire including the Karasek and Siegrist work stressor questionnaires and two specific items on other workplace stressors.
Results: Around one third of the OC examined were associated with the demand/control ratio, the perception of demanding work and ethical conflicts, however, far fewer OC were associated with the effort/reward ratio. Most OC were associated with higher levels of job stressors. Some had strong, systematic negative associations with stressors (e.g. highly formatted instructions for the client relationship).
Conclusions: These findings could help in targeting job stressor prevention and health improvement strategies in CCs.