Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Availability

Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Sales personnel--Resignation; Sales personnel--Job stress; Telemarketing; Dissertations, Academic

Abstract

The present study investigated the factors associated with the extremely high attrition rate of a large midwestern telemarketing firm. Factors associated with employee expectations, stressful organizational characteristics, and job satisfaction were explored. The research strategy involved multiple questionnaires, dissatisfaction surveys, and a semi-structured interview, that were developed by the researchers based on information obtained from the company. Current and former employees of the company participated in the study. Results indicated the presence of stressful organizational characteristics that were common between current and former employees. Sale conversion rate pressure from supervisors and inadequate training were identified as the most salient factors associated with job dissatisfaction for both groups of employees. There were no differences between groups in the number of items identified on a dissatisfaction questionnaire. Results indicated that there were few differences between the two groups of employees on measures indicating their perceptions of an ideal job. The assumptions of the study were that the dysfunctional stress outcomes of dissatisfaction can be prevented and eliminated with the understanding of the etiology of these states. Data were gathered, analyzed, and provided to the company for their use in an innovative, computer-based, employee tracking system.

Year of Submission

1998

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Department of Psychology

First Advisor

David Whitsett

Second Advisor

Francisco X. Barrios

Third Advisor

M. Shelton Smith

Comments

If you are the rightful copyright holder of this thesis and wish to have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit a request to scholarworks@uni.edu and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.

Date Original

1998

Object Description

1 PDF file (66 leaves)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

Included in

Psychology Commons

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