This dissertation studied the effect of psychological acceptance, which has been practiced as a new cognitive behavior therapy to protect job stress, on job satisfaction and burnout of call center workers who are so-called the representative of emotio...
This dissertation studied the effect of psychological acceptance, which has been practiced as a new cognitive behavior therapy to protect job stress, on job satisfaction and burnout of call center workers who are so-called the representative of emotional laborer, based on integrative job stress model and ACT at work program.
First, to verify whether the concept of psychological acceptance can be applied in Korean organization or not, preceding research was conducted with 390 workers of Korean companies and official institutes, using 16 items of Acceptance and Action Questionnaire(AAQ) that Bond & Bunce(2003) developed to apply to normal workers in organization. Results indicated that besides Big 5's affecting burnout, psychological acceptance predicted burnout additionally, and 3 sub-factors of burnout were also predicted significantly. Especially, willingness to experience which is one sub-factor of psychological acceptance explained emotional exhaustion and professional efficacy significantly, and goal-driven action which is the other sub-factor of psychological acceptance explained cynicism and also professional efficacy significantly. And the result from analyzing moderating effect of Big Five and psychological acceptance on job burnout was that conscientiousness and extraversion showed moderating effect with acceptance significantly, but with neuroticism there was only additional explanation without moderating effect. On the basis of these results,in this pre-1 research the Korean version of Bond`'s AAQ-16 questionnaire which is frequently used to measure the effects of ACT and the state of mental healths of normal workers in organization was designed to develop. In preliminary study, exploratory factor analyses of the samples of390 workers showed the grouping with positive versus negative response items. So in study pre-1-1, 12 items were added and with all the 28 items, exploratory factor analyses of the samples of 635 workers who were exposed to the customers or job-related stressors,were again calculated and revealed 3-factor structure with 12 items. In study pre-1-2, confirmatory factor analyses of the samples of 217 call center employees of a shopping mall company showed good fits. And the convergent, discriminant, criterion validities of the Korean version of AAQ-12 Questionnaire were demonstrated significantly. In study pre-2, the Korean version of ACT at work program which is used to increase the psychological flexibility and acceptance, was developed. To overcome the limitation of learning the cognitive and static theory of ACT in a short period, role play method as a experienced learning technique was included at the program. After dividing call center workers of a public utility into ACT group (n=20), ACT-RP group(n=20) and control group(n=37), the program was conducted with '2+1' method, and compared with each groups. ACT-RP group showed significant increasing of psychological acceptance than other two groups.
In study main-1, the integrative conceptual model of job stress, including the effect of psychological acceptance on job satisfaction and burnout of emotional workers, was verified. Structural equation modeling was used to verify model fit indices of indirect effect model of acceptance with emotional labor as the moderator. And in study main-2, after dividing call center workers of a internet shopping mall company into ACT group (n=25) and ACT-RP group(n=20) with control groups(n=30) respectively, then the program was conducted with '2+1' method,and compared with control groups. The result of analysis is that ACT at work program promoted job satisfaction and deep acting by increasing psychological acceptance, and contributed to decreasing burnout. Also, after controling the Big 5, psychological acceptance revealed the moderating effect with resistance to change on burnout, but NA which had an significant influence on burnout and turnover intention was showing additional explanation without moderating effect.