2003/10/11 by L. A. Witt, Martha C. Andrews, Dawn S. Carlson · 203 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Applied psychology #Big Five personality traits #Burnout #Business #Clinical psychology #Conscientiousness #Emotional Intelligence and Performance #Emotional Labor in Professions #Emotional exhaustion #Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior #Marketing #Personality #Psychology #Service (business) #Service quality #Social psychology
paper · doi:10.1016/j.jm.2003.01.007
published in Journal of Management 30(1), 149-160 (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 2003/10/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/12
The authors examined the relationship of the interaction between emotional exhaustion and conscientiousness with objectively-measured call volume performance and subjectively-measured service quality ratings among 92 call center customer service representatives (CSR’s) of a financial services institution. Results supported the interactive effects on call volume but not service quality. Specifically, the relationship between emotional exhaustion and call volume was stronger among high- than low-conscientiousness CSR’s. Among CSR’s reporting low levels of emotional exhaustion, those high in conscientiousness achieved higher call volumes than those low in conscientiousness. In contrast, among CSR’s reporting high levels of emotional exhaustion, those high in conscientiousness achieved lower call volumes than those low in conscientiousness. Implications for both the personality and stress literatures are discussed. Practical implications for human resources managers also are offered.