Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology (2018) 34(1) 56-62 Cite this article as: León, F. R. & Morales, O. (2018). Effects of people-oriented leadership and subordinate employability on call center withdrawal behaviors. Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 34, 56-62. https://doi.org/10.5093/jwop2018a7 ISSN:1576-5962/© 2018 Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Effects of People-oriented Leadership and Subordinate Employability on Call Center Withdrawal Behaviors Federico R. León a and Oswaldo Morales b a Universidad Científica del Sur, Lima, Peru; b Universidad ESAN, Lima, Peru A major organizational problem faced by call center management is personnel withdrawal behaviors, that is, lateness, absenteeism, and turnover (Hutchinson, Purcell, & Kinnie, 2000; Kleemann & Matuschek, 2002; Malhotra & Mukherjee, 2004; Rose, 2002; Schalk & van Rijckevorsel, 2007). An absenteeism rate of 5% has been reported for call centers versus the national USA average of 3.5% (Management Today, 1999) and the turnover rate has surpassed 30% (Stuller, 1999). Such withdrawal behaviors are attributable to two broad factors. First, since call center operations are relatively low-value-added and subject to intense price competition, they converge toward a low-skill, low wage model of production, and employment relations which frequently include successive short- term contracts. Call centers offer jobs that require modest formal education insofar as the appraised candidate shows competencies in computer literacy, numeracy, and interpersonal communication (Batt, 2002). Thus, a high prevalence of female workers and http://journals.copmadrid.org/jwop ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received 13 December 2016 Accepted 11 January 2018 Keywords: People-oriented leadership Turnover Absenteeism Worker employability Servicio de atención telefónica ABSTRACT Call-center employees are prone to lateness, absenteeism, and turnover because their jobs are low-wage, low-skill, and provoke high levels of stress. Thus, considerate supervisors achieve from them better performance and reduced turnover. This study tested in a Peruvian call center (N = 255) various hypotheses concerned with the effects of people- oriented leadership on withdrawal behaviors, their moderation by subordinate perceived employability, and the nature of the relationships between withdrawal behaviors. The evidence revealed independence of uncertified absenteeism from turnover intention, negative effects of people-oriented leadership on subordinate turnover intention regardless of subordinate level of employability, and leadership x employability crossover interactive effects on subordinate uncertified absenteeism. Since people-oriented supervision is associated with increased absenteeism among highly employable subordinates and decreased absenteeism among low-employability workers, the effects cancel each other. Thus, there is a need for understanding the underlying determinants as a pre-condition to deriving practical recommendations. Los efectos del liderazgo centrado en las personas y de la empleabilidad de los subordinados sobre los comportamientos de abandono en el servicio de atención telefónica RESUMEN Los empleados de los servicios de atención telefónica son propensos a retrasos, absentismo y abandono, debido a que sus trabajos son poco remunerados, de baja cualificación y provocan altos niveles de estrés. Por lo tanto, los supervisores con- siderados obtienen de ellos un mayor rendimiento y un menor abandono. Este estudio que se llevó a cabo en un servicio de atención telefónica peruano (N = 255) probó varias hipótesis relacionadas con los efectos del liderazgo orientado a personas en el comportamiento de abandono, en la moderación por la empleabilidad percibida de los subordinados y en la naturaleza de la relación entre comportamientos de abandono. La evidencia reveló la independencia entre el absentismo no justificado y la intención de abandono, los efectos negativos del liderazgo orientado a las personas sobre la intención de abandono de los subordinados, independientemente del nivel de empleabilidad y los efectos de interacción cruzada de liderazgo y empleabilidad sobre el absentismo no justificado de los subordinados. Dado que la supervisión orientada a las personas se asocia con un aumento del absentismo en los subordinados de alta empleabilidad y una disminución del absentismo entre los trabajadores de baja empleabilidad, los efectos se anulan mutuamente. Por lo tanto, existe una necesidad de comprender los determinantes subyacentes como una condición previa a la obtención de recomendaciones prácticas. Palabras clave: Liderazgo centrado en las personas Abandono Absentismo Empleabilidad de los trabajadores Call centers Correspondence: federicorleone@gmail.com (F. R. León). Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology Revista de Psicología del Trabajo y de las Organizaciones Editor Jesús F. Salgado Associate Editors Antonio García-Izquierdo Francisco J. Medina Silvia Moscoso Ramón Rico Carmen Tabernero Vol. 34, No. 1, April 2018 ISSN: 1576-5962