Introduction

Stress is increasingly becoming a part of our daily lives. Historically, the Latin word

“stress” has been in common language since the seventeenth century and was used to address

hardship, adversity, or affliction. However, stress is best described as “a situation where

environmental demands exceed the capacity for effective response by the individual and can

potentially have physical and psychological consequences” (Rout and Rout, 1993).

According to David and Theresa (2012), the situation is different when the challenge has

turned into job demands that cannot be met, relaxation has turned to exhaustion, and a sense

of satisfaction has turned into feelings of stress. In short, the stage is set for illness, injury, and

job failure. Job stress can be defined as the harmful physical and emotional responses that

occur when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources, or needs of the

worker. Job stress can lead to poor health and even injury. The concept of job stress is often

confused with challenge, but these concepts are not the same. Challenge energizes us

psychologically and physically, and it motivates us to learn new skills and master our jobs. When

a challenge is met, we feel relaxed and satisfied. Thus, challenge is an important ingredient for

healthy and productive work. The importance of challenge in our work lives is probably what

people are referring to when they say "a little bit of stress is good for you.

Nearly everyone agrees that job stress results from the interaction of the worker and the

conditions of work. Views differ, however, on the importance of worker characteristics versus

working conditions as the primary cause of job stress. These differing viewpoints are important

because they suggest different ways to prevent stress at work. According to one school of

thought, differences in individual characteristics such as personality and coping style are most

important in predicting whether certain job conditions will result in stress, in other words, what is

stressful for one person may not be a problem for someone else. This viewpoint leads to

prevention strategies that focus on workers and ways to help them cope with demanding job

conditions (David and Theresa, 2012).

 Coping with stress, on the other hand, is important for human survival and can be defined

as “the process of managing external or internal demands that are perceived as taxing on

personal capacities and resources”. Globally, the incidences of stress and stress-related

illnesses such as anxiety and depression among students, trainees, and qualified physicians

have increased and have received significant attention in literature (Lazarus and Folkman,

1984).

The BPO industry in the Philippines is considered as one of the most stressful jobs.

Physical and mental stress are common as these are demanded by the industry. Aside from

adjusting oneself to irregular working hours, call center agents are prone to harassment and

rudeness from dissatisfied customers and other irate callers. Managers or Supervisors could

also be considered as stressors as they directly manage the performance of the agents.

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) means contracting of non-primary business

activities and functions to a third-party provider. BPO services include payroll, human resources

(HR), accounting and customer/call center relations. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is

considered as the major sector in Philippine Economy. Its role in employment generation

becomes more significant for Filipinos especially in the urban. The BPO industry had become

the fastest growing industries in Asia. The Philippines has been referred to as the “Sunshine

industry” for the BPO. As this industry grows for the past years, employees in this organization

had felt stress that had become one of the major problems in this industry.

To better understand the operations of the BPO, the work had been divided into two

categories: the Back office outsourcing (Non-Voice Accounts), which includes but not limited to

internal business functions such as billing or purchasing, and the Front office outsourcing, which

includes customer-related services such as sales, marketing, customer service or technical

support.

Back office outsourcing offers organizations services to help manage tasks like data

entry, data management, surveys, payment processing, quality assurance and accounting
support. Back office tasks are integral to a company's core business process and help keep

business running smoothly.

Front office outsourcing services (Voice accounts) deal with customer interactions.

Examples of front office tasks include phone conversations, email, fax and other forms of

communication with customers. Front office outsourcing providers' service lists include:

Telemarketing, Customer service/support, Technical support/Helpdesk, Market Research,

Appointment scheduling and inbound/ outbound sales.

Though the industry outlook is positive on the overall, we cannot deny the fact that the

industry has accumulated a totally different level of stress.

Human resource is considered to be the most valuable asset in the organization It is the

employee who makes up the workforce of an organization, business sector or an economy.

Human resource is the sum total of inherent abilities, acquired knowledge and skills represented

by the talents and aptitudes of the employed persons who comprise executives, supervisors,

and the rank and file employees. Talent should be utilized to the maximum possible extent in

order to achieve individual and organizational goals. It is thus the employee’s performance which

ultimately decides the attainment of the goals. However, the employee performance is highly

affected by stressors which cause them to be less productive especially in voice accounts in the

BPO industry. The worst thing that may happen to the employees in this industry is to give up

the job if these stressors will not be addressed.

The researcher, who had 5 years working experience in the BPO Company felt that there

is a need to assess the stressors that dominantly affect the performance of the employees

specifically in voice accounts. He believes that there should be a way to manage these stressors

in the BPO industry. Although the industry regularly hires massive talents to keep the operation

running, it is important that they are able to maintain the residency of their employees by

converting these stressors into motivation. In this way, the employees will feel that they are

valued so they will continue to be productive and pursue their careers in this industry.
Theoretical Framework

In understanding the employees’ stressors, the researcher anchored his study to four

different theories. Each of these theories has made a major contribution to our understanding of

job stressors.

In 1984, Lazarus and Folkman introduced a theory called "Transactional Model of stress."

In this theory, stress was defined as a two-way process; it involves the production of stressors

by the environment, and the response of an individual subjected to these stressors. The

conception regarding stress led to the theory of cognitive appraisal.

Lazarus stated that cognitive appraisal occurs when a person considers two major factors

that majorly contribute in his response to stress. These two factors include: The threatening

tendency of the stress to the individual, and the assessment of resources required to minimize,

tolerate or eradicate the stressor and the stress it produces. In general, cognitive appraisal is

divided into two types or stages: primary and secondary appraisal.

Primary Appraisal

In the stage of primary appraisal, an individual tends to ask questions like, “What does this

stressor and/ or situation means?” and “How can it influence me?” According to psychologists,

the three typical answers to these questions are:

"This is not important"

"This is good"

"This is stressful"

To better understand primary appraisal, suppose a non-stop heavy rain suddenly pours at

your place. You might think that the heavy rain is not important, since you don’t have any plans
of going somewhere today. Or you might say that the heavy rain is good, because now you don’t

have to wake up early and go to school since classes are suspended. Or you might see the

heavy rain as stressful because you have scheduled a group outing with your friends.

After answering these two questions, the second part of primary cognitive appraisal is to

classify whether the stressor or the situation is a threat or a challenge. When you see the

stressor as a threat, you view it as something that will cause future harm, such as failing in

exams or getting fired from the job. When you look at it as a challenge, you develop a positive

stress response because you expect the stressor to lead you to a higher class ranking, or a

better employment.

On the other hand, seeing the stressor as a challenge means that the damage has already

been experienced, such as when a person underwent a recent leg amputation or encountered

a car accident.

Secondary Appraisal

Unlike in other theories where the stages usually come one after another, the secondary

appraisal actually happens simultaneously with the primary appraisal. In fact, there are times

that secondary appraisal becomes the cause of a primary appraisal.

Secondary appraisals involve those feelings related to dealing with the stressor or the

stress it produces. Uttering statements like, “I can do it if I do my best”, “I will try whether my

chances of success are high or not”, and “If this way fails, I can always try another method,”

indicate positive secondary appraisal. In contrast to these, statements like, “I can’t do it, I know

I will fail”, “I will not do it because no one believes I can” and, “I won’t try because my chances

are low” indicate negative secondary appraisal.

Another theory is called P-E (Person-Environment) Fit that was initially proposed by

French, Rodgers, and Cobb in 1974. This theory argues that stress can arise due to a lack of
fit between the individual’s skills, resources and abilities, on the one hand, and the demands of

the work environment, on the other hand.

The P-E Fit theory makes explicit the interaction between the individual and the

environment in shaping their response to work situations and events, but also highlights the

importance of the individual’s perception of the environment and the interaction between them.

Logically, this lack of fit can take three forms (Edwards, Caplan, & Van Harrison, 1998): First,

the demands of the work environment exceed the employee’s ability. Second, the employee’s

needs consistently fail to be met by the work environment. Lastly, a combination of the two

situations exist (i.e., where an employee’s needs are not being met while at the same time their

abilities are over-stretched).

Next is the Job Demand - Control (JDC) theory model or known as the Job Demand-

Control-Support model developed by Karasek (1979). This theory have dominated the field of

occupational stress research for more than two decades. The JDC model postulates that job

strain results from the interaction between two dimensions of the work

environment: psychological job demands and job control.

Karasek mentioned that psychological demands what is traditionally referred to as

workload, operated mainly in terms of time pressure and role conflict. However, recently,

cognitive and emotional demands and interpersonal conflict dimensions define the

contemporary construct of psychological demand. Job control refers to the person’s ability to

control their work activities, and is defined by two key components:

A. Decision authority (worker’s ability to make decisions about their job)

B. Skill discretion (the breadth of skills used by the worker on the job). The JCD theory

suggests that individuals experiencing high demands paired with low control are more likely

to experience psychological strain, work-related stress and, in the long term, poor physical

and mental health.

 The model was later extended to include a social dimension: social support. The JDC

model postulates that social support can moderate the negative impact of job strain on worker’s

physical and mental health. This model suggests that the most at-risk group of poor physical

and mental health are those workers who are exposed to job strain (high demands and low

control) paired with low workplace support (a phenomenon referred to as iso-strain).

Lastly, the ERI model (Effort-Reward Imbalance Model). This was developed by Siegrist

and Weber in 1986. This theory assumes that effort at work is spent as part of a psychological

contract, based on the norm of social reciprocity, where effort spent at work is paired with

rewards provided in terms of money, esteem or career opportunities. An imbalance (non-

reciprocal) relationship between the effort spent and rewards received can result in the

emotional distress associated with a stress response, and an increased risk of ill-health. Siegrist

also suggested that stress related to the imbalance between effort and rewards can arise under

three conditions, namely:

A. Has poorly defined work contract or where the employee has little choice concerning

alternative employment opportunities;

B. Accepts the imbalance for reasons such as the prospect of improved working conditions

and,

C. Copes with the demands at work through over commitment.

Conceptual Framework

This research paper also used the functional Input- Process- Output (IPO) model in

identifying the researchers input and how the details are processed where the outcome or the

output could be used to support the study as a whole.

Figure 1. Research Paradigm

In the IPO model, the process is viewed as series of boxes (processing elements)

connected by inputs and outputs. Information or material objects flow through a series of tasks

or activities based on a set of rules or decision points. Diagrams are often used to represent the

process. What goes in is the input; what causes the change is the process; and what comes out

is the output.

The illustration in Figure 1 displays the concept of the research made. The input box

includes (A) the respondents’ profile in terms of age, sex, civil status, highest educational

attainment, tenure of service in the company and number of voice account experience within 2

years; (B) different stressors that employees in the voice account experiences. The process box

contains the three-pronged steps. The Input contains the identification of the respondents’ profile

& the categories of the stressors that employees’ encounter in the voice account. This input

goes into the process of assessing the different stressors. Lastly, the output box features the

outcomes after all the procedures were done. This output variable contains the consolidated

assessment of the respondents’ stressors in the BPO. Also, the output contains solution on how

to handle the identified stressors.

After the assessment, the intervention program will be presented to address the impact

of these stressors in the voice accounts.

Statement of the Problem

This study focused on the assessment of stressors of the employees who are taking

phone calls (voice accounts) in the call center (BPO) industry.

 Specifically, this study sought to answer the following questions:

1. What is the profile of the respondent in terms of the following job stressors?

1.1 Age

1.2 Highest Educational Attainment

1.3 Number of Voice accounts for the last 2 years

1.4 Sex

1.5 Civil Status

1.6 Length of stay in the BPO Company

2. How do the respondents assess the following job stressors?

2.1 Job role

2.2 Colleagues

2.3 Management

2.4 Work Environment

2.5 Company

3. Is there a significant difference in the respondents’ assessment of the above mentioned job

stressors when they are grouped according to their profiles?

Hypothesis

There is no significant difference in the employees’ assessment of stressors in the voice

accounts of the BPO companies when they are grouped according to their profile.

Scope and Limitations

This study focused on the assessment of Job Stressors in the selected BPO companies

in the province of Cavite. The respondents were agents currently employed under the voice

accounts (inbound or outbound calls) with a minimum of 2 consecutive years of experience.

Support team such as Team Manager, Quality Analyst, Subject Matter Expert and Real time

Analyst who had an experience in taking incoming and outgoing calls were excluded.

The study was also limited to the five category of stressors identified as (1) Job Role, (2)

Colleagues, (3) Management, (4) Environment, and (5) Company.

In addition, this study did not mention the name of the company following the strict

implementation of international policies regarding company information as one of the limitations.

Significance of the Study

The study is very timely and relevant because the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)

is the fastest growing industry that provides highest rate of employee. However, the industry has

been defined as one of the most stressful industry nowadays. Furthermore, this study is deemed

beneficial to the following:

Employees. This study will help them assess the different types of stress they are

experiencing in the Voice account. They can also evaluate themselves in terms on how they will

be able to handle stress and convert this into motivation for the benefit of their career.

Human Resource Managers. The result of this study can be used by HR Managers to

determine the stressors affecting their employees especially in Voice accounts. It can help them

formulate programs that may gradually reduce the stress their employees are experiencing.

Management/Operation Managers. The study can also be used to promote a good

working relationship between agents (Voice account) and managers. This study can help the

managers provide and formulate solutions that can reduce the stressors without compromising

the quality and productivity. It can help them identify proper motivational tools that could be

useful in attaining organizational objective.

Student/Researcher. This study can contribute to the understanding of stressors that

employees’ in the BPO are experiencing. The result of the study can lead him to different
possible solutions to address these stressors and can improve the working experience of the

employees.

MBA Society and other Researchers. This can serve as a reference to students in

their future plan in pursuing their studies. It can also provide sights on how to manage stressors

and the work-life balance of the employees in their organization.

Definition of Terms

There are number of terminologies used in this study that may not be familiar to our

readers who have limited idea about the BPO industry. Below are the terms defined to help them

understand this research:

After Call Work. These are tasks that are performed by the agents after disconnecting

call with the customer. This work includes finishing forms or sending through information within

the department. Also referred to as "Wrap-up" and "Post Call Processing" (PCP).

Average Handling Time. It is a call center metric for the average duration of one

transaction, typically measured from the customer's initiation of the call and including any hold

time, talk time and related tasks that follow the transaction. AHT is a prime factor when deciding

call center staffing levels.

Back office outsourcing. Refers to the organizations services that help manage tasks

like data entry, data management, surveys, payment processing, quality assurance and

accounting support.

Business Process Outsourcing. A subset of outsourcing that involves contracting of

non-primary business activities and functions to a third-party provider.

Distress. Extreme anxiety, sorrow or pain.

 Employee wellness. These are programs implemented by an employer to improve the

health of its labor force. It is a proactive and preventative approach that is designed to provide

optimum levels of health, emotional and social functioning of employees.

ERI model (Effort-Reward Imbalance Model). Theory assumes that effort at work is

spent as part of a psychological contract, based on the norm of social reciprocity, where effort

spent at work is paired with rewards provided in terms of money, esteem, or career opportunities.

Front office outsourcing. These are services that deal with customer interactions.

Examples of front office tasks include phone conversations, email, fax and other forms of

communication with customers.

Human Resource Management. This is the strategic and coherent approach to the

management of an organization’s most valuable assets – the people working there who

individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the business.

Inbound call. A transaction wherein the customer initiates the call to the call center or

contact center.

Isostrain. A condition of constant strain.

Job Demand-Control (Support) Theory. A theory that states that job strain results from

the interaction between two dimensions of the work environment: psychological job demands

and job control.

Near shore outsourcing. The practice of getting work done or services performed by

people in neighboring countries rather than in your own country.

Offshore outsourcing. The practice of getting work done or services performed by

people on any country other than your own.

Onshore outsourcing (also called domestic outsourcing). Obtaining of services from

someone outside a company but within the same country.

 Outbound call. Is one that an employee from a contact center initiates to a customer or

client.

Outsourcing. A business practice in which certain functions required by the business

are performed by outside parties on a contract basis rather than the business’ employees.

Person-Environment Fit theory (P-E Fit theory). States that stress can arise due to a

lack of fit between the individual’s skills, resources and abilities, on the one hand, and the

demands of the work environment, on the other hand.

Stressors. These are activities, events, or other stimuli that causes stress.

Subject Matter Experts (SME). Is an individual with a deep understanding of a particular

process, function, technology, machine, material or type of equipment. Individuals designated

as subject matter experts are typically sought out by others interested in learning more about or

leveraging their unique expertise to solve specific problems or help meet particular technical

challenges.

Voice Account. A type of job in the BPO where it requires the employee to speak directly

to customers or clients using phone for either inbound or outbound calls.

 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the design and procedures undertaken during the study. It

discusses the research method used, sampling technique, description of the respondents,

research instrument, data gathering procedure, and statistical treatment of data.

Method of Research

This research is classified as descriptive research which is designed for the researcher

to gather information about the present existing conditions needed in the chosen field of study.

This method enabled the researcher to interpret the theoretical meaning and findings and

hypothesis development for further studies.

Descriptive research method describes the nature of activation as it exist at the time of

the study and to explore the causes of particular phenomena and involving collections of data

in order to test by hypothesis or to answer questions concerning the current status of the subject

of the study (Estolas and Macaballug, 2002, P. 81).

Survey Questionnaires were administered to measure employees’ job stressors in the

selected BPO in the province of Cavite.

In this research, the researcher gathered and treated the following data on Agents profile

such as age, sex, civil status, highest education attainment, length of stay in the BPO and

number of accounts handled in the last 2 years. The questionnaires’ design has five variables

of stressors identified as (1) Job Role, (2) Colleagues, (3) Management, (4) Environment, and

(5) Company. Survey questionnaire was used in this study because it gives in-depth information.

Data gathered from the questionnaires were then subjected to statistical treatment and

mathematical tools such as percentage, frequency and weighted mean were utilized.

Population, Sample Size and Sampling Technique

 Due to the undetermined population of the industry, the researcher, with the approval of

the adviser, had opted to have a minimum of 400 respondents. The researcher reached out the

Local Government to identify all BPO companies registered per Municipality in the province of

Cavite. The respondents were agents who are taking incoming and outgoing calls from different

accounts in the BPO. The researcher gave the questionnaires to the target respondents in the

selected BPO Company and the data were tabulated and interpreted. From the time the

questionnaire was approved and distributed to the BPO’s and respondents, it took the

researcher 3 weeks to retrieve the questionnaires and tabulate the gathered data.

Description of Respondents

The respondents of the study were selected randomly from different BPO companies

within the province of Cavite. The respondents were agents who are currently employed in the

voice accounts (Inbound or outbound calls) with a minimum of 2 consecutive years of

experience. Support team such as Team Manager, Quality Analyst, Subject Matter Expert and

Real time Analyst who had an experience in taking incoming and outgoing calls were excluded.

A total of four hundred questionnaires (400) were distributed by the researcher.

Research Instrument

The researcher used a modified questionnaire or survey form. Some parts of the

questionnaire were adopted from pre-existing research, “Stress management at work” by the

American Institute for Preventive Medicine (2012). It was used to measure the stress that

employees experience.

The questionnaire is divided into two (2) parts:

Part 1: Profile such as age, sex, civil status, highest education attainment, length of

stay in the BPO and number of accounts handled in the last 2 years.

Part 2: Employee Stressors divided into 5 subject matter such as:

 A. Job role

B. Colleague

C. Management

D. Working Environment

E. Company

The following indicators were used as a guide in assessing how often employees

experience the identified stressors in the BPO. The respondents were to choose the response

from the five- point scale. The statements were rated as follows:

Likert Verbal Interpretation Arbitrary Scale

5 Always 4.50-5.00

4 Often 3.50-4.49

3 Sometimes 2.50-3.49

2 Rarely 1.50-2.49

1 Never 1.00-1.49

The data gathered in this study were organized, classified, and tabulated based on the

research design and problem formulated.

Data-Gathering Procedure

The researcher spent time to design the questionnaire that is fitted to the target

respondents based on the identified variables. The researcher reached out the Local

Government by writing a letter to identify all BPO companies registered in their respective
Municipality. Pilot testing for the questionnaire had been made to ensure reliability as advised

by the statistician.

After passing the reliability test of the questionnaire, the researcher distributed 400 survey

questionnaires as advised by the statistician. Questionnaires were given to random employees

who are working in voice accounts in different cities in the province of Cavite. The survey was

done on random hours to cover different time zones of BPO clients. Two hundred (200)

questionnaires were personally administered to the respondents to achieve one hundred per

cent assurance of retrieval rate. The production of the BPO’s are very strict in implementing data

privacy so they practice paperless environment. Having mentioned that, the remaining two

hundred (200) questionnaires were done online through google form and sent through email

and other social media accounts using a link. The permission letter is not needed as the

researcher doesn’t focus a specific company but on experience of employees handling calls in

different voice accounts. The researcher retrieved 392 surveys out of 400 surveys distributed

with a retrieval rate of 98%.

The questionnaire stated that all personal data would be kept confidential; names were

optional, and if any names of the respondents were provided, the researcher will not share any

information about the survey.

The results of the survey questionnaire were tabulated according to the frequency of items

checked by the respondents. After the data tabulation, results were interpreted using various

statistical tools.

Statistical Treatment of Data

The data obtained from the questionnaires were classified, tallied, tabulated and statistically

treated for the generalization of accurate findings:

The following tools were applied:

1. Percentage. It was used to compare the sizes of two magnitude as a segmentor part of a

whole.

P= f x 100%

where:

p = percentage

f = frequency

n = number of responses

2. Weighted Mean. This is defined as the summation of the observed values multiplied with

the allocated weights which are divided by the summation of the observed values. This is

called the statistical mean. The formula is:

Where:

Where, x¯ = weighted mean.

xi = x1,x2,x3 = Items given.

and fi = f1,f2,f3,= Frequencies corresponding to the given items.

3. Frequency Distribution. This statistical tool was used to organize and present group data.

A frequency distribution table was constructed to make the task manageable and save

time in calculating different statistics.

4. T-test. Independent t - test was used to measure the significant difference in the

assessment of the respondents on their level of agreeableness when they were grouped

according to their profile as to age, sex, civil status, job level, educational level, number of
 total experience in delivery service team, number of months in current delivery services

team.

It reads: sample mean 1 minus sample mean 2 divided by the square root of (sample

variance 1 plus sample variance 2, over n).

where:

= t-score

= mean of the first sample

= mean of the second sample

= variance (computed by getting the standard deviation squared)

= The subscript numbers refer to sample 1 and sample 2

= number of responses

Decision Rule: if P-value is ≤ a, reject Ho, otherwise, accept Ho. The Statistical Package

for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used in processing of gathered data.

5. One way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). This is the initial step in identifying factors that

are influencing a given data set. After the ANOVA test was performed, the analyst was

able to perform further analysis on the systematic factors that were statistically contributing

to the data set’s variability. ANOVA test results can then be used in an F-Test on the

significance of the regression formula overall. It is also used to measure the significant

relationship between the factors considered in the management of the investment portfolio
such as the risk associated with the investments, profitability, timing of return and

sensitivity of an investment to economic forecast.

F = MST
MSE

Where:

F = Anova Coefficients

MST = Mean sum of squares due to treatment

MSE = Mean sum of squares due to error

MST = SST

p–1

Where:

SST = Sum of squares due to treatment

p = Total number of populations

n = Total number of samples in a population

MSE = SSE

N–p

SSE = Σ (n-1)S2

Where:

SSE = Sum of squares due to error

S = Standard deviation of the samples

N = Total number of observations