Role ambiguity, spheres of control, burnout, and work-related attitudes of teleservice professionals

Forty-six customer service representatives from financial services and high-tech firms completed a modified version of Singh and Rhoads' (1991) MULTIRAM measure of role ambiguity; Paulhus's (1983) Spheres of Control (SOC) scale; components of Singh, Goolsby and Rhoads' (1994) adaptation of the Maslach Burnout Inventory; and an exploratory Attitudes Toward Telephone Work Survey. High overall role ambiguity was associated with low overall SOC scores, and all of the role ambiguity measures correlated negatively with interpersonal control scores. Role ambiguity correlated positively with depersonalization and emotional exhaustion, but not with reduced personal accomplishment. High role ambiguity was associated with relatively unfavorable assessments of one's personal performance on the telephone, and both depersonalization and emotional exhaustion were accompanied by unfavorable attitudes toward telephone work.