Investigating the Impact of Employee Age and Gender on Organisational Commitment, Retention and Possible Turnover Intentions in an Irish Call Centre Setting

This research was aimed at discovering the impact of age and gender on organisational commitment levels in an Irish call centre setting and how organisational commitment levels may have an impact over employee retention and employee turnover levels. The reasoning behind this research was that there was a gap in the literature regarding these factors in an Irish call centre setting, as many of the studies were conducted in countries such as India who are renowned for their call centre industry. In relation to age and organisational commitment, research shown in the literature found contrasting results when the influence of age on organisational commitment was tested. Regarding gender and organisational commitment, research found that females had higher organisational commitment levels than males and that the call centre industry was better suited to females due to characteristics valued in the call centre sector that are often considered to be feminine characteristics such as empathy and patience. Organisational commitment levels have been shown to have a large impact on employee retention and employee turnover intentions. Findings from this research has shown that in the chosen call centre, there was no significant difference between gender and organisational commitment, although there was a significant difference between age and organisational commitment. It was also shown that call centre employees who have low levels of organisational commitment were more likely to leave their current position than those who had high levels of organisational commitment