Managing motivation in the contact center: The employment relationship of outsourcing and temporary agency workers

Sobral and colleagues built a motivation profile typology of outsourcer and temporary agency workers in the contact center and identified six profiles.

“More recently, [42] built a motivation profile typology of outsourcer and TAW in the contact center. Six profiles were identified”

Sobral and colleagues' results show that the motivation profile to which temporary agency and outsourcing workers belonged differentiated their perceptions over human resources practices and their affective commitment, and profiles with a higher presence of intrinsic motivations presented better outcomes.

“Finally, the results of Sobral and colleagues [42] show that the motivation profile to which TAW and outsourcing workers belonged to, were able to differentiate their perceptions over the HRP and their affective commitment. In general, both outsourcing workers and TAW profiles with a higher presence of intrinsic motivations presented better outcomes.”

The results show a high presence of extrinsic motivation in the majority of profiles, except the Low Motivation Profile.

“In line with De Jong and Shalk [64], and Sobral and colleagues [42] who reported the prevalence of external motivation in TAW, our results show a high presence of extrinsic motivation in the majority of profiles (with the exception of the profile scoring low in all the motivations, i.e., the Low Motivation Profile).”

The study found a buffering effect, meaning the presence of intrinsic motivations can attenuate the negative effect of extrinsic motivations on the individual's self-determination.

“As in the outcomes and construction of work motivation profiles of Moran and colleagues [39], Van den Broeck and colleagues [38], and Sobral and colleagues [42], we also found a buffering effect, meaning that the presence of intrinsic motivations can attenuate the negative effect of the extrinsic motivations on the individual’s self-determination.”

Intrinsic, integrated, identified, and extrinsic motivations can co-exist within the same profile.

“More important, though, was the existence of intrinsic, integrated, identified, and extrinsic motivations inside the same profile, which reinforced the belief that different types of motivation are not necessarily exclusive and can co-exist with each other [32,42].”