Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to examine whether Western human resource (HR) theory is applicable to a call centre located in the Philippines. A call centre, due to the amount of emotional labour involved in this type of work, is an ideal environment to study stress related Western HR model where stress eventually leads to turnover. Turnover is a major concern in the call centre industry. Design/methodology/approach -The authors tested a model linking work stress to job satisfaction, organizational commitment and intention to turnover using data collected from 439 employees in the Philippines. Both correlation analysis and partial least squares analysis were used to test the theoretical Western HR components both individually and holistically. Findings -The findings indicate that these call centre employees reported emotional stress, leading to job dissatisfaction, reduced organization commitment and ultimately increased intention to turnover. Turnover is reported to be a serious and increasing problem in call centres and this research demonstrates the significant role of employee emotional stress. Practical implications -An understanding of the applicability of Western HR theory in non-western countries is of interest to managers in non-western countries. It is important as economic development occurs in newly developing countries that managers understand which theories from developed nations will apply to facilitate their growth and success. Originality/value -This paper addresses HR concerns both in a Pan-Asian country that is rapidly developing and in the call centre industry which is predicted to grow rapidly in future.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the moderate role of national culture on the relationship between work strain and employee attitudes. National culture describes the context in which work strain is experienced and employee attitudes and intentions are expressed. National culture also influences the perceptions of its members by creating cultural schemata for how experiences are viewed and interpreted. This study considers the attitudes of 347 entry-level employees working in manufacturing and call center companies in China, India, and the Philippines. Our findings indicate the national cultural dimension of long-term orientation moderates the relationships between work strain, job satisfaction, and intention to quit. Isolating national cultural differences related to long-term orientation may aid in the understanding of more subtle cultural variances which may be overlooked when samples from seemingly similar national cultures and geographic regions are grouped for analysis.

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