Advanced Technology and Agent Burnout in Some Old Call Centers in Harare, Zimbabwe

Advanced technology in old call centers includes Automatic Call Distribution (ACD), Interactive Voice Response (IVR), and call recording. The purpose of this study was to determine the existence of any relationship between three features of ACD, namely, call volume, call handling time, and call routing strategies, and burnout in call center agents. The study used the positivist research paradigm, the quantitative research approach, and a correlational research design. Purposive sampling strategy was used to select only those call centers that predominantly handle incoming calls (inbound call centers) in Harare. The population was estimated to be about 205 agents. Simple random sampling was used to select respondents from within the call centers. A sample size of 100 respondents was used. Data was collected using a customized 21-item questionnaire that included a standardized sixteen (16)-item Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI). The questionnaire was administered using Google Forms and dispatched via WhatsApp. The data was subjected to Spearman's correlation tests using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPPS). The results showed a weak relationship in both directions, between ACD features under study and agent burnout. The researcher’s conclusion was that, in this study, the features of ACD alone, were not effective enough to show a statistically significant relationship between advanced technology in old call centers and burnout. There could have been some other attributes of advanced technology that were not covered in this study, but could have had an impact on the outcomes.