Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

2020

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education

Advisor

Judith B. Galician

Committee Member

Deanne Samuels

Keywords

9-1-1 call centers, 9-1-1 call takers, 9-1-1 telecommunicators, attrition, burnout, correlations, emergency services, fire dispatchers, job satisfaction, job stress, law enforcement, mental health, police dispatchers, shift work

Abstract

In 9-1-1 call centers across the nation the personnel shortage has become a crisis. The nature of the job of a 9-1-1 telecommunicator is stressful due to the high volume of emergency calls. This applied dissertation was designed to learn if there is a relationship between job stress, burnout levels, and job satisfaction in 9-1-1 telecommunicators. This was a nonexperimental quantitative survey research with a correlational approach. The population was a nonprobability convenience sample recruited through the Survey Monkey Audience platform. Data was collected at one point in time. A total of 37 participants took part in the study. All participants adults in the United States who are currently classified as 9-1-1 telecommunicators (police dispatchers, fire dispatchers, 9-1-1 call takers, or a combination of any of these classifications).

The results of this study showed there is a positive correlation among the variables job stress, burnout levels, and job satisfaction. The participants completed the Job Stress Scale, the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI) and the Job Satisfaction Scale. The mean score of each instrument suggests that the levels reported for the three variables; stress, burnout, and job satisfaction, were moderate on the scales. There was a positive correlation between job stress and employee job satisfaction (r=.51, N=38, p<.001). Job stress and employees’ burnout levels results showed a positive correlation between the variables (r=.68, N=37 for burnout, p<.001). Employees’ burnout levels and employee job satisfaction variables results showed a positive significant correlation (r=.67, N=38, p<.001).

There were a few limitations to this study. These limitations include the study data was collected via surveys, the way the participants were recruited to take part in the study, the data collected was based on self-reports, and the anonymity of the participants which did not allow for follow-up questions. Therefore, future studies should focus in studying this population, the nature of the relationship between stress, burnout, and job satisfaction, and how best to assist 9-1-1 telecommunicators in dealing with these issues. Organizational support, coping skills, and stress reduction techniques should be considered as potential intervention strategies in future studies. More information is needed about 9-1-1 telecommunicators as this population has not been studied in depth as their other counterparts in the emergency services field such as police officers and firefighters have been.

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