• Journal of Information Technology Services
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.17-35
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• 2019

Call centers do not simply play a role of responding to customers' calls, but they have developed into a core unit for maintaining competitiveness through services, marketing, or sales. Since the service quality of call centers heavily affects customer satisfaction, organizations have focused on enhancing it by reducing waiting time and increasing service level. One of the techniques, which improve the service quality of call centers, is to employ multi-skilled agents that can handle more than one type of calls. This study deals with three issues relevant to multi-skilled agents. First, we analyze how the way of allocating a specific group of agents to a set of skills affects the performance of call centers. Secondly, we investigate the relationship between the number of multi-skilled agents and the performance of call centers. Finally, we examine the impact of agent selection rules on the performance of call centers. Two selection rules are compared : the first rule is to assign a call to any available agent at random while the other rule is to assign a call preferably to single-skilled agents over multi-skilled agents when applicable. Based on simulation experiments, we suggest three implications. First, as the length of cycles in the agent-skill configuration network becomes longer, call centers achieve higher service level and shorter waiting time. Secondly, simulation results show that as the portion of multi-skilled agents increases, the performance of call centers improves. However, most of the improvement is attained when the portion of multi-skilled agents is relatively low. Finally, the agent selection rules do not significantly affect the call centers' performance, but the rule of preferring single-skilled agents tends to distribute the workload among agents more equally.

• Journal of Information Technology Services
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.55-82
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• 2020

This study examined the factors that influence the turnover intention, job performance of call center representatives based on the adaptive structuration theory (AST). This study intended to empirically examine how individual characteristics of representative affect the technological and task adaptation, how they affect job performance and turnover intention. On the other hand, this study also explains how rational culture and organization a reputation which are considered as dimensions of organizational characteristics affects organizational commitment, and verifies the relationship between organizational commitment and job performance and turnover intention. Finally this paper aim to provide academic and practical implications. In order to solve the above research problems, this research proposed a model based on the adaptive structuration theory. In order to identify the relationship between the proposed variables and the AST for individual, we conducted an empirical test on the call center representatives. The structural equation model was used to verify the research model and hypotheses. The results of the empirical analysis show that the personal characteristics of counselors, such as communication skills, multitasking abilities, and innovativeness have a positive effect on skill adaptation, and skill adaptation has a positive effect on task adaptation, furthermore, it influences on job performance and turnover intention Respectively. In addition, among the factors of organizational environmental dimensions of the call center, it was found that organizational reputation not only increase continuance commitment but also increase normative commitment. Contrary to our expectations, perceived rational culture didn't have a positive effect on organizational commitment. Also, continuance commitment and normative commitment are valid predictors of job performance, but they have nothing to do with turnover intention. On the contrary, emotional commitment is the only one variable among three dimensions of organizational commitment have a positive effect on turnover intention, but is not a valid predictor of job performance.

• Journal of Information Technology Services
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.219-250
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• 2014

Corporations look for their competitiveness in many different areas, and one of them is customer call center, which provides professional, special service to the customers. The importance and the value of realization of customer satisfaction at each call center have become significant as it plays a leading role and is responsible for customer recreation and follow-up services. This study held in-depth interviews with 3 groups of professional call representatives (categorized by experience) from popular property and life insurance companies in Korea who operate in and outbound calls. Three variables, emotional quotient, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), and IT utilization skill, were selected and it was observed how these variables affect the job performance of in and outbound call center representatives. The importance of the relationship between the variables and the key factors in the future direction of improvement of the call center representative organization was analyzed. Emotional quotient refers to the ability to recognize and use the emotion of oneself and others. It was considered it would be effective in enhancing the counseling ability of call center representatives, This study identifies the effect of emotional quotient on job performance and organizational citizenship behavior, which is defined as actions outside of normative roles in the organization. Also, the study aims to prove the effect of emotional quotient on the rapidly developing IT utilization ability in relation to job performance. As a result, it was found that service career (3 months, 3 years, 10 years) had a significant effect on the key factors that affect the organization-emotional quotient, IT utilization skill, and OCB. Especially for OCB, it was considered relatively less important to the new employees, while it greatly affected the job performance, rate of settlement, and sustainment of the working life for those with longer experience. Also, the result of the interview for each variable differed by the service career. Emotional quotient, IT utilization skill, and OCB were close connection for the representatives with longer experience than for those with shorter experience. And the level of intimacy of their relationship with job performance was in proportion to the years of service. Thus, to secure stability for the call center representatives and enhance their job performance continually, the importance of emotional quotient and IT utilization skill shall be reflected in the operation process actively. In particular, in order to lead a organization with outstanding culture, a management system shall apply OCB from the recruitment process.

• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.119-133
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• 2021

Research has been conducted in many fields to identify research trends using text mining, but in the field of emotional labor, no research has been conducted using text mining to identify research trends. This study uses text mining to deeply analyze 1,465 papers at the Korea Citation Index (KCI) from 2004 to 2019 containing the subject word 'emotional labor' to understand the trend of emotional labor researches. Topics were extracted by LDA analysis, and IDM analysis was performed to confirm the proportion and similarity of the topics. Through these methods, an integrated analysis of topics was conducted considering the usefulness of topics with high similarity. The research topics are divided into 11 categories in descending order: stress of emotional labor (12.2%), emotional labor and social support (12.0%), customer service workers' emotional labor (10.9%), emotional labor and resilience (10.2%), emotional labor strategy (9.2%), call center counselor's emotional labor (9.1%), results of emotional labor (9.0%), emotional labor and job exhaustion (7.9%), emotional intelligence (7.1%), preliminary care service workers' emotional labor (6.6%), emotional labor and organizational culture (5.9%). Through topic modeling and trend analysis, the research trend of emotional labor and the academic progress are analyzed to present the direction of emotional labor research, and it is expected that a practical strategy for emotional labor can be established.