Assessing the Impact of Perceived Powerfulness on the Performance of Call Centre Customer Service Representatives
type: CreativeWork
description: The aim of this thesis is to build upon and develop existing theory on power, and perceived power, and to examine how, if at all, those perceptions of power modify an individual’s performance. This thesis uses call centre staff as the vehicle with which to study these performance modifications. Whilst the word “power” is ubiquitous, it is often misunderstood, or even misrepresented. This research provides an understanding of power and explains how feelings of powerfulness have modified behaviour under laboratory conditions. It then investigates how power can be manipulated and what the effects of such manipulations can be in the context of customer service representatives in a busy working call centre. The thesis presents the findings form two pilot studies and a main study. The pilot studies were used to inform the design and implementation of the main study. The main study was conducted over 10 days, providing over 1000 data points. Unlike previous research in this area, this thesis is based on live working environments using real employees as participants. All participants are employed full time by Conneqt—a contact centre based in Hyderabad, India—the research partner that owns the call centre, and provided access to staff. Study participants were identified using a combination of stratified, convenience, and random sampling. One hundred participants were randomly divided into two groups, one being the Control Group, and the other being the Intervention Group. The Control Group was given very little information, but was asked to complete a short survey every day for the next 10 days. The survey included questions where participants self-reported on feelings of powerfulness, as well as questions designed to measure their latent feelings of power. The Intervention Group was shown a brief video each day instructing them to adopt an expansive body pose, whist remembering a specific occasion on which they had felt powerful and in control. While they were doing this, …
abstract: The aim of this thesis is to build upon and develop existing theory on power, and perceived power, and to examine how, if at all, those perceptions of power modify an individual’s performance. This thesis uses call centre staff as the vehicle with which to study these performance modifications. Whilst the word “power” is ubiquitous, it is often misunderstood, or even misrepresented. This research provides an understanding of power and explains how feelings of powerfulness have modified behaviour under laboratory conditions. It then investigates how power can be manipulated and what the effects of such manipulations can be in the context of customer service representatives in a busy working call centre. The thesis presents the findings form two pilot studies and a main study. The pilot studies were used to inform the design and implementation of the main study. The main study was conducted over 10 days, providing over 1000 data points. Unlike previous research in this area, this thesis is based on live working environments using real employees as participants. All participants are employed full time by Conneqt—a contact centre based in Hyderabad, India—the research partner that owns the call centre, and provided access to staff. Study participants were identified using a combination of stratified, convenience, and random sampling. One hundred participants were randomly divided into two groups, one being the Control Group, and the other being the Intervention Group. The Control Group was given very little information, but was asked to complete a short survey every day for the next 10 days. The survey included questions where participants self-reported on feelings of powerfulness, as well as questions designed to measure their latent feelings of power. The Intervention Group was shown a brief video each day instructing them to adopt an expansive body pose, whist remembering a specific occasion on which they had felt powerful and in control. While they were doing this, …
author: Mcmahon, John
language: eng
keywords: Power, Powerfulness, Sales, Customer Service
date published: 2023-7
date modified: 2026-07-24T03:26:52Z
provider: University of Northampton
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Northampton