John Hamilton is a dual qualified chartered safety and health practitioner and HR practitioner with extensive experience working in large complex organisations in the public and private sector. John is research active, using evidence based practice to design and implement high participation wellbeing interventions, corporate health and safety governance systems, and employee engagement programmes. John recently completed a PhD in organisational health and wellbeing at Lancaster University and explains his study in this presentation.

1. 1
Implementing an Organisational Intervention for
Work-related Stress: an Action Research Study
Dr John Hamilton
Study Setting
• Call centre business of regional UK utilities company
• c1000 employees
• Self-contained, autonomous operational entity.
• Geographically remote from parent company
• Significant level of stress-related absence
• No previous organisational interventions for stress.

2. 2
Research Methodology
• Longitudinal to detect
long latency effect
• Mixed methods
• Quasi-experimental
design
• Action research
Theoretical Framework
• Work-related stress (Cox, 1993, Mackay et al., 2004)
• Social support (Cohen & Wills, 1985, Viswesvaran et al., 1999)
• Participation in decision making (Miller & Monge, 1986, Erez & Arad, 1986)
• Call centre environment (Holman, 2002)
• Intervention design (Nielsen et al., 2010)
• Process evaluation (Randall et al., 2005)

3. 3
Non-work Stressors
• Leadership team belief that many CRMs have ‘chaotic lives’
• Study measures included a 3-item Non-work Stressor Indicator
Have you recently…
… felt you can’t cope with issues in your personal life
… felt issues away from work are affecting your health
… thought that coming to work is an escape from personal issues
1. A participatory approach to workplace interventions to
reduce stress in call centre employees using a stress risk
assessment will reduce employee work-related stress.
2. A participatory approach to workplace interventions to
reduce stress in call centre employees using a stress risk
assessment will improve psychological wellbeing.
3. Psychological wellbeing will be lower in call centre
employees that are exposed to non-work stressors.
4. Reduced work-related stress for call centre employees will
improve psychological wellbeing.
Hypotheses

4. 4
1. In context of an intervention for stress, how does participation in
decision making affect employees’ ability to cope with the
pressure of their work?
Research Question
Action Research
Action Research ‘proceeds in a spiral of steps, each of
which is composed of a circle of planning, action and fact
finding about the action’ (Lewin, 1946)
‘there is nothing so practical as good theory’ (Lewin, 1951)
Action Research needs to generate theory that is:
• Definitional, defining the theory’s perspective.
• Provides a framework for concepts being studied.
• Draws generalities from the particular study.
• Identifies how the theory might have wider application
for practitioners.

5. 5
Action Research for Management Research
1. Implications beyond those required for action
of knowledge generation in this study
2. An explicit concern for theory
3. Explicit intervention design related to theory
4. Generates emergent theory
5. Incremental theory building from particular to
general
6. Prescriptive research output with practical
implications
7. High degree of method and orderliness in
research reflection
8. Demonstrable and replicable process of
theory generation
Internal Validity
(Eden & Huxham, 1996)
Action Research for Management Research
10. Data collection and reflection processes
focus on aspects not captured by other
approaches
11. Triangulation of data to produce reliable
research outcomes
12. Intervention history and context
considered as part of result validity and
applicability
External Validity
(Eden & Huxham, 1996)

6. 6
Two-stage Framework
RESEARCH
ACTION
Diagnose Plan
Act
Fact find
Reflect
Revise plan Revise plan
Act
Fact find
Reflect Act
Fact find
Reflect
Macro Intervention Stage Micro Intervention Stage
Output
Evaluation
Quantitative
Methodology
Process Evaluation
Qualitative Methodology
Incremental theory building
Organisational
Context
Significant
Organisational
Problem
Intervention-
related
Theory
‘Felt need’
Emergent Theory
Theoretical Output
Practitioner Output
Triangulation
Hierarchical
participant
input
Wider participant
Input
Revise
plan
Data Collection
RESEARCH
ACTION
Intervention
Development
Output
Evaluation
Process Evaluation
SRA SRA
2 3 4 6 75
8
9
11
12
1
10
6 7
9
10
8
12
Macro Intervention Stage Micro Intervention Stage

7. 7
Research Design
Attitudes, values
and knowledge
Individual
resources
Working
procedures
Working
conditions
Employee health
and wellbeing
Process Evaluation Outcome Evaluation
Focus groups
Meeting notes and observations
Intervention documentation content
Email content
Stressor
exposure
measure
Psychological
wellbeing
measure
Qualitative
Methodology
Quantitative
Methodology
Training
evaluation
measure
Intervention
exposure
measure
adapted from Nielsen and Abildgaard, 2013
HSE Indicator Tool
(25 items)
GHQ-12
(12 items)
Data Synthesis & Theory Generation
(Adapted from Bryman, 2006)
Theory
Data
Interaction
Data
Interaction
Triangulation
Construction
Testing
Testing
Iteration
Emergent
theory
Quantitative
Data
Qualitative
Data

8. 8
• Structured by HSE Management Standards
– Demands - Role
– Control - Relationships
– Support - Change
Intervention Design – Stress Risk Assessment
Intervention Activities Outcome Evaluation
Process Evaluation
Senior management consultation
Management training
– pilot groups
Finalise intervention and
research design
Management training
– intervention groups
SRA first action
research cycle
June 2013
T1 structured survey
Focus Groups
T2 structured survey
T3 structured survey
Initial intervention and
research design
Training evaluation
– Intervention group
December 2013
Training evaluation
– pilot groups
SRA documentation,
correspondence, and
meeting notes
November 2013
November 2014
April 2014
SRA second action
research cycle
October 2014
September 2013
SRA documentation,
correspondence, and
meeting notes
MacroInterventionStageMicroInterventionStage

9. 9
Results
• A participatory approach to workplace interventions to
reduce stress in call centre employees using a stress
risk assessment did not reduce employee work-related
stress (Hypothesis 1)
• A participatory approach to workplace interventions to
reduce stress in call centre employees using a stress
risk assessment did not improve psychological
wellbeing (Hypothesis 2)
But…
Demands Control Manager Support
Peer Support Role Change

10. 10
Psychological Wellbeing
Results
• Psychological wellbeing was lower in call centre
employees that were exposed to non-work stressors
(Hypothesis 3)
0 124
GHQ-12
Good Mental Health Probably Mental Ill-Health
Non-work
Stressors Present
Non-work
Stressors Absent
Non-work stressors were around three times more
influential on psychological wellbeing than work stressors

11. 11
Results
• Work-related stress was higher in Contact Centre
employees than in Collections employees (Hypothesis 1a)
• Psychological wellbeing was not lower in Contact Centre
employees than in Collections employees (Hypothesis 2a)
• Reduced work-related stress for call centre employees did
improve psychological wellbeing (Hypothesis 4)
Secondary Analysis
Manager Support
Demands
Control
Peer Support
Role
Change
11.4%
15.4%
47.5%
43.2%
56.4%

12. 12
Results
• Social support from managers did reduce call centre
employees’ work-related stress (Hypothesis 5)
• Social support from managers did increase call centre
employees’ psychological wellbeing (Hypothesis 6)
“We’ve got a good team. If someone’s got issues or
problems at home, we’re all there to help.”
“We don’t have a big turnover of staff in our department so
we’ve all known each other quite a few years so we’ve
become friends as well as colleagues.”
Collections CRM
Collections CRM
“Well our team, we’re like a family, that’s what we say, we’re like
a family. We go out a lot together, we spend time together.”
Collections CRM
Peer Support

13. 13
“I can’t say being part of a close team helps you cope with it
because you’re just there to do your job. It’s just one call after the
other after the other and you just need to do what you’re there to do.
So I can’t really say any of our colleagues on your team are going to
help you with it, because they’re in the same situation as I am.”
“It’s all on your own basis because once you’re on the phone…”
Contact Centre CRM
Contact Centre CRM
“…you can’t literally take your headset off and say ‘hold on a minute love
I just need to speak to my mate’ you can’t do that. Cos you’ve got to deal
with that situation there and then.”
Contact Centre CRM
Peer Isolation
Manager Support
• Ensure Team Manager recruitment processes include
selection criteria designed to identify manager’s ability to
provide social support
• Provide development programmes to develop social support
skills in current team managers where additional capability
requirement is identified
• Provide support programmes for managers to cope with the
demand of providing pastoral support to employees coping
with non-work stressors
Management Recommendations

14. 14
Peer Support
• Provide opportunities for face-to-face contact to help new
starters initiate team friendships
• Provide opportunities for collaborative working on common
projects
• Consider provision of online asynchronous communities to
facilitate CRM communication on work and non-work matters
Management Recommendations
Non-work stressors
• Review employee wellbeing programmes to prioritise support
for employees coping with non-work stressors
Work stressors
• Continue to review impact of high-demands/low-control as
aspects of the call centre working environment, particularly in
the Contact Centre
Management Recommendations

15. 15
j.hamilton@lancaster.ac.uk
johnxhamilton