Title: Modelling heterogeneity in perceptions of stress in Indian call centres: a latent class analysis

Authors: Anup M. Nandialath; Diya Das; Ramesh Mohan

Addresses: College of Business Sciences, Zayed University, Academic City-Al-Ruwayyah, P.O. Box 19282, Dubai, United Arab Emirates ' Department of Management, Bryant University, 1150 Douglas Pike, Smithfield, RI 02917, USA ' Department of Economics, Bryant University, 1150 Douglas Pike, Smithfield, RI 02917, USA

Abstract: Stress is one of the biggest human resource (HR) problems facing high turnover industries like the Indian international call centre industry. This paper provides a comprehensive study of how the attitudes of call centre employees towards different aspects of their work affect their level of stress experienced. Our specific contribution to the literature is in understanding the heterogeneity among employees and how that affects meaningful inference in studying employees' perceptions of stress. To achieve this goal, we compare and contrast between traditional regression models used in the extant literature with latent class regression analysis. The latent class analysis suggests the presence of four distinct groups of employees, confirming the heterogeneity present in the data. This study is unique in trying to explore how individuals may differ in their experience of stress and how there may be heterogeneity in the relationships explored between various cognitive and affective variables and experiences of stress.

Keywords: latent class regression; call centres; stress; service industries; heterogeneity; India; human resource management; HRM; employee turnover; employee attitudes; call centre employees; employee perceptions; latent class analysis; individuals; individual experiences; relationships; cognitive variables; affective variables; business innovation; business research.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIR.2012.048782

International Journal of Business Innovation and Research, 2012 Vol.6 No.5, pp.481 - 498

Published online: 12 Dec 2014 *

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