Research purpose: The purpose of the research was to determine the relationship between psychological capital, work engagement and organisational commitment amongst call centre employees; and further, to determine whether psychological capital and work engagement hold predictive value for the organisational commitment of call centre employees.

Motivation for the study: There is a gap in research in understanding and enabling positive resource capacities in highly stressful work contexts such as call centres.

Research design, approach and method: A cross-sectional survey design was used. A sample of 106 call centre employees from a South African organisation participated in the research. The measuring instruments included a demographic questionnaire, the Psychological Capital Questionnaire (PCQ), the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) and the Organisational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ).

Main findings: Significant positive relationships were found between psychological capital, work engagement and organisational commitment. The results showed work engagement as being the only significant predictor of organisational commitment.

Practical/managerial implications: Call centre employers need to develop and implement workplace interventions that would increase the psychological capital of call centre employees.

Contribution/value-add: The research findings will benefit both call centre employees and management. The study highlighted the importance of the role of optimism as a subdimension of psychological capital in developing work engagement and organisational commitment amongst call centre employees.

Psychological capital is a core concept in positive organisational behaviour (POB) literature. Positive organisational behaviour is defined as: ‘the study and application of positively-oriented human resource strengths and psychological resource capacities that can be measured, developed, and effectively managed for performance improvement in today’s workplace’. (Luthans, 2002a, p. 59). Positive organisational behaviour and PsyCap are rooted in the Positive Psychology movement (Donaldson & Ko, 2010). The Positive Psychology movement places emphasis on the concepts of strengths, virtues, excellence, thriving, happiness, flourishing, resilience, flow and optimal functioning (Donaldson & Ko, 2010).

One example of POB-based approaches to organisational research is the Broaden-and-Build Theory of positive emotions. This study adopts Fredrickson’s (2004) broaden-and-build theory as the theoretical framework that provides the lens for understanding the antecedents that are linked to the work-related outcomes of work engagement and organisational commitment. The theory maintains that positive emotions such as joy, contentment and interest can broaden an individual’s thought-action repertories by expanding the thoughts and actions that come to an individual’s mind. Therefore, positive emotions broaden an individual’s thinking, thus enabling a more broadened outlook, which in turn can help with the development of personal resources. The resources can be social, psychological, physical and cognitive. The capacity of an individual to both broaden and experience positive emotions is important to one’s ability to grow and flourish (Fredrickson, 2004).

The PsyCap constructs of hope, optimism, resilience and self-efficacy will be presented in brief below.

Hope has made a significant contribution to positive PsyCap and has demonstrated importance in the workplace (Duggleby, Cooper & Penz, 2009; Luthans & Jensen, 2002). For instance, researchers discovered that hope predicted job performance beyond cognitive ability and self-efficacy (Peterson, Walumbwa, Byron & Myrowitz, 2009). Moreover, Youssef and Luthans (2007) found that it had a positive effect on employee satisfaction, organisational commitment and work happiness. Hope also protects an individual’s perceptions of vulnerability, uncontrollability and unpredictability (Snyder, 2002). Weick and Quinn (1999) thus believe that sustaining employees’ hope is necessary for employee wellbeing.

In a South African study, Rothmann and Essenko (2007) found that dispositional optimism had a direct effect on exhaustion and cynicism amongst support staff in a higher education institution. Other research has shown that optimism correlated with employee engagement and employee performance (Arakawa & Greenberg, 2007; Medlin & Faulk, 2011). It is the authors’ view that optimism forms a vital part of a call centre employee’s resource capacities as their optimistic approach to stressful and challenging situations could potentially have a positive impact on the achievement of work-related goals.

Research has attempted to link resilience positively with workplace performance (Luthans et al., 2007). Research indicates that when employees experience negative events in the workplace, individuals with high PsyCap are more likely to adapt positively and bounce back from those events, thus preventing the escalation and development of intentions to quit (Luthans, Avey, Avolio, Norman & Combs, 2006). Philippe, Lecours and Beaulieu-Pelletier (2008) found that resilience has been associated with positive emotions, especially when an individual is experiencing a taxing event. Research has further indicated possible links between resilience, commitment and work engagement, as well as a positive link between resilience and work happiness (Luthans, Avolio, Avey & Norman, 2007; Youssef & Luthans, 2007). Resilience has also been linked to more effective coping mechanisms and behaviours that facilitate growth and development. In this regard, Youssef and Luthans (2008) propose that this may lead to higher overall commitment to the organisation, even though employees may experience their current situation and job requirements as unfavourable.

Self-efficacy is a high-order construct of PsyCap (Luthans et al., 2007). This positive psychological resource capacity of confidence, which is a state, can be developed. It is described as an enthusiastic and independent concept, being linked closely with work-related performance (Luthans et al., 2004).

Self-efficacy has also been shown to be related to the socialisation and retention of new employees (Bauer, Bodner, Erdogan, Truxillo & Tucker, 2007); as well as being related to organisational commitment and turnover intentions of existing staff (Harris & Cameron, 2005). In a South African study, Rothmann (2003) found that positive psychological constructs such as self-efficacy could have a mediating effect on occupational stress, burnout and work engagement. There are no studies in South African call centres on self-efficacy and its relation to work-related outcomes.

Kahn (1990) outlined how engaged employees express physical, cognitive and emotional components when applying themselves in their work role. Employees need to have physical, emotional and psychological resources so as to complete their work and to identify with it. Maslach and Leiter (1997) conceptualised engagement and burnout as being opposite poles of a continuum of work-related wellbeing. However, Schaufeli and Bakker (2004) believe that these two concepts cannot have a perfect negative correlation.

Work engagement research has confirmed the relationship between engagement and positive organisational outcomes (Donaldson & Ko, 2010). These include performance (Kahn, 1990), organisational commitment (Demerouti, Bakker, de Jonge, Janssen & Schaufeli, 2001), low turnover intention (Halbesleben & Wheeler, 2008), job satisfaction (May, Gilson & Harter 2004; Schaufeli & Bakker, 2004) and good health and positive work affect (Rothbard, 2001). Disengagement is central to the problem of an individual’s lack of commitment and motivation (May et al., 2004).

Allen and Meyer (1990) proposed a three-component model of organisational commitment: affective, continuance and normative commitment. Affective commitment refers to the employee’s emotional attachment to, identification with and involvement in the organisation. Continuance commitment refers to commitment based on the benefits of staying with the organisation versus the costs that are associated with leaving the organisation. Normative commitment refers to an employee’s feeling of obligation to remain with the organisation. Much research has focused on the affective component of organisational commitment (Field & Buitendach, 2011). The affective component has the strongest and most consistent relationship with desirable workplace outcomes (Arzu Wasti, 2003).

However, Janse van Rensburg (2010) asserts that there is a lack of published studies on the strengths and psychological capacities of call centre employees. More specifically, to the knowledge of the researchers within the South African context, no research has addressed the relationship between the PsyCap, work engagement and organisational commitment of call centre employees.

The purpose of the present study was to address this gap in the research by identifying the relationships that may exist between PsyCap, work engagement and organisational commitment amongst South African call centre employees. It also aimed to establish whether PsyCap and work engagement have an impact on the organisational commitment of call centre employees. The development of the state-like construct of PsyCap can be facilitated through human resources interventions such as training and development (Luthans et al., 2006). These interventions could potentially facilitate the skills and coping strategies required in the call centre environment. Furthermore, the selection of call centre employees could also potentially include PsyCap profiles in order to ensure sustainability in the call centre environment.

Characteristics of participants: Table 1 contains the participants’ biographical data. The sample comprised more women (70.8%) than men (29.2%), which is understandable as there are generally more women than men working in call centres. Many (n = 50) of the participants were 25–35 years old. There were differences in terms of marital status and academic qualifications. Most participants had been working in the call centre for less than five years.

The Psychological Capital Questionnaire (PCQ) (Luthans et al., 2007) measures PsyCap and comprises four subscales, namely, hope, optimism, resilience and self-efficacy. The PCQ is a self-report questionnaire and has 24 items. Each subscale consists of six items. All the responses for the PCQ are anchored on a six-point Likert scale with the response options: 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = somewhat disagree, 4 = somewhat agree, 5 = agree, 6 = strongly agree. Psychological capital includes statements such as: ‘At the present time, I am energetically pursuing my goals’ (hope); ‘I am optimistic about what will happen to me in the future as it pertains to work’ (optimism); ‘I usually manage difficulties one way or another at work’ (resilience); and ‘I feel confident helping to set targets/goals in my work area’ (self-efficacy).

The resulting score represents an individual’s level of PsyCap. Each of the four subscales of PsyCap was drawn from established scales that had been published previously and had been tested and used in recent workplace studies (Avey, Luthans & Youssef, 2010a). The Cronbach alphas reported in their study were as follows: hope 0.87; optimism 0.78; resilience 0.72; and self-efficacy 0.87. Acceptable reliability coefficients have been reported in South African samples for the four dimensions with the alpha coefficients ranging from 0.67 to 0.83 (Herbert, 2011).

The Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) (Schaufeli et al., 2002) was used to measure work engagement. The UWES is a self-report questionnaire and has 17 items. The UWES comprises three subscales, namely, vigour (6 items), dedication (5 items) and absorption (6 items). The UWES includes statements such as: ‘I am bursting with energy in my work’ (vigour); ‘I find my work full of meaning and purpose’ (dedication); and ‘I am immersed in my work’ (absorption). The UWES is scored on a seven-point Likert scale, varying from 0 = never to 6 = every day. The UWES has been found to have acceptable reliability coefficients that have been reported both internationally and in South Africa. Storm and Rothmann (2003) obtained alpha coefficients for internal consistency and reliability for the three subscales of between 0.78 and 0.89 in a South African context.

The Organisational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ) (Allen & Meyer, 1990) has three subscales that measure different types of organisational commitment, namely, affective commitment, cognitive commitment and normative commitment. The OCQ consists of 18 items and is scored on a five-point Likert type scale ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. Acceptable reliability coefficients of above 0.80 have been reported for every one of these subscales (Suliman & Iles, 2000). In a South African study, Jackson, Rothmann and van de Vijver (2006) reported an alpha coefficient of 0.88. Heymans (2002) obtained a Cronbach coefficient of 0.80 for the affective scale, 0.69 for the continuance scale and 0.74 for the normative scale. The OCQ statements include: ‘I feel as if this organisation’s problems are my own’ (affective commitment); ‘It would be very hard for me to leave the organisation right now, even if I wanted to’ (continuance commitment); and ‘I would feel guilty if I leave my organisation right now’ (normative commitment).

Cohen’s (1988) benchmark values are used as a qualitative judgement to determine whether the practical significance is ‘small’, ‘medium’ or ‘large’. The guidelines given by Cohen (1988) were 0.1: small effect; 0.3: medium effect; and 0.5: large effect. Practical significance for the study was set at 0.30. A medium effect size ranges from 0.30 to 0.49 and a large effect size ranges from 0.50 and above (Steyn, 2011).

Hierarchical regression analysis (Field, 2005) was conducted to determine whether psychological capital and work engagement held predictive value for the organisational commitment.

A further inspection of Table 3 shows that positive statistically- and practically-significant relationships were found between organisational commitment (total score) and vigour, dedication and absorption (p ≤ 0.01; r = 0.61, 0.64 and 0.52, respectively). Statistically-positive and practically-significant relationships were found between affective commitment and vigour, dedication and absorption (p ≤ 0.01; r = 0.64, 0.65 and 0.54, respectively), as well as between continuance commitment and dedication and absorption (p ≤ 0.01; r = 0.69 and 0.41, respectively). There was also a statistically-significant relationship between continuance commitment and vigour (p ≤ 0.05, r = 0.27). Positive statistically- and practically-significant relationships were found between normative commitment and vigour, dedication and absorption (p ≤ 0.01; r = 0.62, 0.57 and 0.52, respectively).

The findings reported above support the hypotheses of the present study: firstly, that PsyCap is related positively to work engagement (vigour, dedication and absorption); secondly, that PsyCap is related positively to organisational commitment (affective and normative commitment); and thirdly, that work engagement is related positively to organisational commitment (affective and normative commitment).

The majority of participants in this research were women – a relatively young group with the majority younger than 35 years of age with less than 5 years’ experience in the call centre. It is interesting to mention that 19.8% of the respondents had worked previously in a call centre, possibly suggesting that employees tend to stay in call centre work. Any conclusions fall beyond the scope of this research and further research in this regard is necessary.

A study by Avey et al. (2008), with employees from a broad cross-section of organisations and jobs, found that PsyCap was related positively to their positive emotions which were, in turn, related to their attitudes of engagement. These findings can be interpreted within Fredrickson’s (2003) broaden-and-build framework, where the experience of positive emotions can propel people toward optimal individual and organisational functioning. Furthermore, the present findings indicated that work engagement and organisational commitment were related positively to each other. Schaufeli and Bakker (2004) showed that the experience of engagement is described as being a positive work-related experience and state of mind. Positive experiences and emotions are likely to result in positive work outcomes. The authors further note that engaged employees are likely to have a greater attachment to their organisation and a lower tendency to leave their organisation. The present study findings have been supported by international research studies that found a positive relationship between work engagement and organisational commitment (Saks, 2006; Sonnentag, 2003).

Psychological capital as a core construct has been found to be related to several workplace outcomes (Avey et al., 2008). The present study’s findings support research that has shown that the overall core construct of PsyCap relates better to the outcomes of work engagement and organisational commitment than to the individual constructs (hope, optimism, resilience and self-efficacy) that make it up (Luthans et al., 2005). Psychological strengths can create tendencies that are favourable to work engagement (Strümpfer, 1990). Work engagement as a ‘positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterised by vigour, dedication and absorption’ has a positive relationship with individual attitudes and behaviour (Harter, Schmidt & Hayes, 2002; Schaufeli et al., 2002, p. 74). The present study’s findings support the theoretical and empirical findings that PsyCap and desirable workplace attitudes and behaviours have a positive relationship (Avey et al., 2010a).

The findings of this study further indicated that the PsyCap subdimensions and work engagement subdimensions had a positive relationship. This is supported by studies that have established that personal resources such as self-efficacy and optimism predicted work engagement (Xanthopoulou, Bakker, Heuven, Demerouti & Schaufeli, 2008). Roux (2010) found self-efficacy to be related positively to work engagement of employees in a South African organisation.

In addition, a positive relationship between PsyCap and organisational commitment subdimensions was found. There have been a number of studies that have tested the relationship between PsyCap and various employee attitudes (Avey, Reichard, Luthans & Mhatre, 2011). In a study by McColl-Kennedy and Anderson (2005), there was evidence of a dependency link between optimism and commitment. Saks (2006) found that post-training self-efficacy mediated the relationship between training and job satisfaction, turnover intentions and organisational commitment.

The current findings showed a significant relationship between work engagement and organisational commitment. Employees with high organisational commitment are more likely to be enthusiastic about their work (engagement). Organisational commitment is an employee’s identification with the organisation’s goals and values and being attached affectively to the organisation (Mowday, Steers & Porter, 1979). Work engagement is described by Macey and Schneider (2008, p. 12) as: ‘positive affect associated with the job and the work setting, connoting or explicitly indicating feelings of persistence, vigour, energy, dedication, absorption, enthusiasm, alertness and pride’. Research has also shown that work engagement is an antecedent of organisational commitment. People who are deeply engaged in their work tend to be more committed to their organisations (Jackson et al., 2006; Saks, 2006). The findings in this study are supported by various research studies. Researchers, both internationally and nationally, have found a positive relationship between work engagement and organisational commitment (Field & Buitendach, 2011; Rothmann & Jordaan, 2006).

An interesting finding in this study was that the PsyCap construct of optimism displays a significant positive relationship with work engagement, as well as with the subdimensions of vigour, dedication and absorption. Furthermore, the findings of the current study have shown a statistically-significant as well as a practically-significant positive relationship between the PsyCap construct of optimism and organisational commitment and the subdimensions of normative commitment and affective commitment. Research studies have shown that optimism is related positively to employee engagement and employee performance (Medlin & Faulk, 2011; Tombaugh, 2005). In addition, Bressler (2010) found that optimism had a positive relationship with affective commitment. A review of the literature supports the present study finding that optimism is overall more closely associated with positive psychology than the other constructs (Luthans et al., 2004).

A review of the literature suggests that optimism has a positive relationship with a positive, fulfilling work-related state of mind (work engagement) (Bakker et al., 2003). Furthermore, optimism has a positive relationship with an employee’s belief and acceptance of the organisation’s goals and values. This indicates a willingness by an employee to focus on helping the organisation achieve its goals and a desire to maintain organisational membership (affective commitment). Optimism has also been found to have a positive relationship with the moral belief or obligation that it is the right thing to remain with the organisation (normative commitment) (Shahnawaz & Jafri, 2009).

Given its value in employee well-being, optimism must be encouraged and developed in intervention programmes within organisations (Peterson et al., 2009). In call centres, such interventions can enhance the resource capacities of employees. Having an optimistic outlook for call centre employees is critical with regard to the quality of their interaction with customers (Deery & Kinnie, 2002). Ashkanasy and Daus (2002) have shown that individuals ‘catch’ on to the feelings of others and that positive expressions of emotion by call centre employees can create a favourable impression in a customer’s mind.

To summarise, this study builds more evidence supporting a cognitive mediation theory (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996) of employees’ emotions in the workplace. It brings to the understanding that employees’ psychological beliefs, expectancies and appraisals (i.e., hope, optimism, resilience and self-efficacy) may be seen as a potential source of positive emotions and subsequent employees’ attitudes and behaviours such as work engagement and organisational commitment.

Previous research also indicated that PsyCap as a personal resource can be developed. Organisations, such as call centres, can introduce programmes to develop PsyCap in order to bring about more favourable attitude outcomes such as work engagement and organisational commitment.

More specifically, optimism was found to have the strongest relationship with work engagement and organisational commitment in this study. This finding is useful in informing an emphasis on optimism in training interventions. Optimism, as a personal resource, can be developed to have favourable attitudinal outcomes such as work engagement and organisational commitment.

Avey, Nimnicht and Pigeon (2010b) maintain that measurement of PsyCap may inform an organisation of the vitality, psychological health and anticipated future performance of the organisation. Also, the use of a PsyCap measure may be of benefit in selection batteries for organisations. The selection and retention of employees who have a propensity to be higher in psychological capital may have a positive impact on work-related outcomes (Avey et al., 2010b). It is suggested that the use of a PsyCap measure could be useful in establishing call centre employee levels of PsyCap. This would be valuable in informing selection and retention strategies in the call centre industry.

These research findings will benefit all parties in the workplace and pave the way for the development of intervention programmes to develop the PsyCap of employees in organisations, which will then lead to them being more productive workers.

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