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LIST OF TABLES
Table
No.
Title of the Table
Pg.
No
3.1
Total number of samples in the study
44
3. 2
Tools used for the present study
44
4.1
Distribution of respondents by Age
53
4.2
Distribution of respondents by Gender
54
4.3
Distribution of respondents by Type of Family
54
4.4
Distribution of respondents by Educational Qualification
55
4.5
Distribution of respondents by Ordinal Position
56
4.6
Distribution of respondents by No. of Siblings
56
4.7
Distribution of respondents by Marital status
57
4.8
Distribution of respondents by Number of Children
57
4.9
Distribution of respondents by Parental Occupation
58
4.10
Distribution of respondents by Spouse's Occupation
58
4.11
Distribution of respondents by Designation
59
4.12
Distribution of respondents by Monthly Income
60
4.13
Distribution of respondents by Total Work Experience
62
4.14
Distribution of respondents by Years of Experience in the Present
Company
62
4.15
Levels of Organizational Role Stress among the respondents
63
4.16
Level of Career Satisfaction among the respondents
64
4.17
Relationship between Organizational Role Stress and the demographic
variables of the respondents
65
4.18
Relationship between Organizational Role Stress and the demographic
variables of the respondents.
67
4.19
Relationship between Organizational Role Stress and Career Satisfaction
of the respondents
69
4.20
Relationship between Career Satisfaction and other demographic
variables of the respondents
71
4.21
Relationship between Career Satisfaction with other demographic
variables of the respondents
73
4.22
Relationship between Career Satisfaction and other demographic
variables of the respondents
75
4.23
Relationship between Organizational Role Stress and Career Satisfaction
76
4.24
Relationship between dimensions of CS and RS among the respondents
76
4.25
Regression analysis of Organizational Role Stress and Career
Satisfaction
84
4.26
Difference between Gender of the respondents with Organizational
Role Stress and Career Satisfaction
86
4.27
Difference between family type of the respondents with Organizational
Role Stress and Career Satisfaction
86
4.28
Difference between marital status of the respondents with
Organizational Role Stress and Career Satisfaction
87
4.29
Difference between Age level of the respondents on Organizational Role
Stress and Career Satisfaction.
88
4.30
Difference between various categories of educational qualification of
the respondents with levels of Organizational Role Stress and Career
Satisfaction.
89
4.31
Difference between number of sibling of the respondents and level of
90
Organizational Role Stress and Career Satisfaction.
4.32
Difference between number of children of the respondents on
Organizational Role Stress and Career Satisfaction
90
4.33
Difference between parental occupation of the respondents with
Organizational Role Stress and Career Satisfaction
91
4.34
Difference between ordinal position of the respondents and
Organizational Role Stress.
92
4.35
Difference between monthly income of the respondents with
Organizational Role Stress and Career Satisfaction of the respondents.
93
4.36
Difference between spouse occupation of the respondents on
Organizational Role Stress and Career Satisfaction
94
4.37
Difference between total number of work experience of the respondents
on level of Organizational Role Stress and Career Satisfaction.
95
4.38
Difference between designation of the respondents and different
dimensions of Organizational Role Stress.
96
4.39
Difference between years of experience in the current organization of
the respondents with the level of Organizational Role Stress.
97
Chapter I
Background of the study
Stress has forever been an element of human life. There are many definitions of
stress. The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (1999) defines stress as:
`The harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the requirements of the
job do not match the capabilities, resources, needs of the worker'. However, a cognitive
definition focuses more on the perceptions of an individual. One example is: `Stress
occurs when the perceived pressure exceeds your perceived ability to cope' (Palmer et al,
2003).
The cognitive model is normally used in stress management training, stress coaching and
counselling settings. From the 17th century itself its origin can be traced in the literature
to the 17th Century when it was identified with hardship, straits, adversity or affliction as
meant by the Latin word: Stringere. In the 18th and 19th Centuries, the denotation of
stress changed to indicate force, pressure, strain or strong effort with reference to an
object or person (Hinkle 1973). The first suggestion to Stress in humans was made by
Selye (1936) who conceptualised it as a non-specific response of the body to any demand
made upon. Lazarus, Cohen, Folkman, Kanner and Schaefer (1980) clarified that stress is
not only a reaction, but also a function of individual judgment of the situation. People do
not respond straight to a stimulus as such; they respond to meaning of the stimulus in
relation to their discernment of the environment. Events can be stressful, only when they
are perceived to be hostile. Stress is dependent on the individual evaluation of what is at
risk and what resources are available for meeting the demands posed. What is stressful
for one individual may be usual for others and vice versa. What is stressful for an
1
individual in some situations may not be stressful for the same individual in other
situations.
The contemporary view of stress is that it arises from a lack of fit between a
person and his/her environment when there is an helplessness to cope with the demands
made (Harrison 1978). Today, people are living in the `Age of Stress' (Pestonjee 1999).
Understanding the implication of stress, its nature and complexities, its causes and
determinants are important for maintaining human wellbeing and efficiency in the
organisational and non organisational contexts.
Stress is a part of our everyday life. Modest level of stress is in fact essential for an
individual to stay alert and active. High level of stress, on the other hand, would lead to
harm to human wellbeing and performance. Stress is additive. It is necessary to prevent
increasing of stress to hold it within a reasonable limit for harnessing its benefits, while
avoiding its perils.
"Without stress, there would be no life". -Hans Selye (1956;1974) defines stress
as a state, manifested by a specific syndrome of biological events. But he claims stress is
not nervous tension, not the discharge of hormones from the adrenal glands, not simply
the occurrence of some negative occurrence, not an entirely bad event, Seyle believes that
stress is the spice of life, and that the absence of stress is death.
2
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF ROLE
Role is the position one engages in a public classification, and is defined by the functions
one execute in reaction to the opportunity of the important members of a community, and
one's own outlook from that position or office. Role and office (or positions) are
detaching concepts. According to Kats and Kahn "Office is essentially a relational
concept, defining each position in terms of its relationships to others and to the system as
a whole." While place of work is a relational and power-related concept, role is an
obligation concepts.
A role is not distinct lacking the prospect of the task correspondent, counting the
task occupant. The location of a personal executive may be shaped in an organization, but
his responsibility will be clear by the prospect that diverse person's have from the
personnel manager, and the outlook that he, in turn, has from the position. In this sense,
the position gets defined in each scheme by the role correspondent, including the role
occupier. The notions of role are fundamental for the incorporation of the individual with
an institute. The institutions have its own construction and objectives. Likewise, the
person has his individuality and wants .All these features interrelate with one another
other and to various degrees get included into a role. Role is an innermost idea in work
incentive as it is only through this that the person and group work together with each
other.
An organization can be defined as a system of roles. But, a role itself is a
organization. From the individual's point of view, there are two role classifications: the
structure of various roles that the individual carries and execute, and the system of
different tasks of which his role is an element. The initial can be termed as role space and
3
the next, a role set.
Each individual plays several roles in an organisation. All these roles constitute
the role space of that individual. The concept of role broadens the connotation of work
and the association of the workers with other important people in the system. The concept
of the work is more rigid in nature, while role includes more flexible part of the work.
The centre of attention on roles can be useful in setting up organizational efficiency.
Herzberg (1968) drew attention to the need for improving jobs and giving more decorum
to them. The work redesigning group tinted the need for connecting job holders in work
related decisions and giving them more independence in work related matters.
ORGANIZATIONAL STRESS
Current life is full of stress, at the same time as organizations become more multifaceted,
the possibility for stress increase. Stress is a result of socio-economic complexity and to
some extent, its stimulant as well. People experience stress as they can no longer have
control over what happens in their lives. Several terms that are synonymous with stress,
have been used. In order to avoid confusion, the term will be used as following: stressor
for stimuli which induce stress; stress for the affective (emotional) part in the experience
of incongruence; symptoms for the physiological, behavioural and conceptual responses
or changes: and coping for any behaviour that deals with the emotional component in the
experience of incongruence, (i.e. stress). The term stress will be used here to refer to such
terms and concepts as strain, pressure, etc. even as stress is inevitable in today's complex
life. Organizational stress arises from interaction between people and their jobs. And this
is characterized by changes within people that vigour them to stray from their normal
functioning. (Bzeer and Nawman. 1978). There are several personal consequences of
4
organizational stress which have been identified. These responses to organizational stress
can be categories as physiological, psychological and behavioural, cardio vascular
disease, Castro intestinal disorders, respiratory problem, cancer, arthritis, headaches,
bodily injuries, skin disorders and death or some of the purported physiological
responses. For example research report supports the following generalization regarding
linkages between various stressful persons "job interaction and coronary heart disease
(CHD), (Brief, at al., 1981).
a.
Physiological stress experience by a employee that may be experience by guilt,
worry, exhaustion, depression or event exhilaration, low self esteem, hostility,
unhappiness and feeling blue.
b.
Physiological stress in which one or several bio-systems are critically loaded,
resulting in high blood pressure or abnormal physiological responses such as a
stroke or harm.
STRESS IN ORGANIZATIONAL ROLES
Performing in an organisational position always wants connections with a set of related
roles inside or outside the organisation. Role occupant in these connected roles does have
their prospect from the role in difficulty; they function as Role correspondent for the
crucial role, influencing how the crucial role should function. The role occupier in the
crucial role also has potential from his/her own role and functions as a role
correspondent. The role correspondents for the focal role are input for defining the main
role; shaping how the crucial role should function to the description of the job designated
authority in the organisation. On the contrary, an Organisational Role (Pareek 1993) is
5
defined by the expectations of its role senders, which includes the role occupant, the
superior (or boss), the direct reports (or subordinates), the peers, and in some cases,
customers, suppliers, partners, team members and `process owners'.
Role stress usually results from troubles encountered in role performance. When
these problems are determined, the ensuing role stresses decrease. This in turn promotes
enhanced performance and effectiveness at the individual and organisational levels.
Homogeneity of role stress specifies that the same kind of problems is existing all
through the organisation and the same kind of resolutions hold good for the organisation.
Heterogeneity of role stress, on the other hand, implies that different kinds of problems
are prevailing in different parts of the organisation and different kinds of
solutions/interventions are required for different parts of these organisations.
Understanding these differences is useful for preparing a incident model for enhancing
organisational performance and effectiveness.
An employee comes across problems or issues during the course of his/her role
performance. The employee is expected to execute and convey on his/her role
expectations in spite of obstructions, such as the employee finds it difficult to interact
with the related roles, He /she may not be clear about his/her role expectations, role
involves conflicting expectations etc.
Role Space Conflicts
As mentioned earlier, role space is the dynamic relationship between the various roles an
individual occupies and his/her self. It has three main variables: self, the role under
question, and the other roles she/he occupies. These conflicts may take several forms.
6
1.
Self-Role Distance: This stress arises out of the conflict between the self-concept and
the expectations from the role, as perceived by the role occupant. If a person occupies
a role that he may subsequently find to be conflicting with the self concept, they feel
stressed.
2.
Intra-role conflict: Since an individual learns to develop expectations as a result of his
socializing and identification with significant others, it is quite likely she/he sees a
certain incompatibility between different expectations (functions) of his roles. For
example, a professor may see incompatibility between the expectations of teaching
students and of doing research. These may not be inherently conflicting, but the
individual may perceive these as incompatible.
3.
Role stagnation: As an individual grows older, he also grows in the role that he
occupies in an organization. With the individual's advancement, the role changes; and
with his change in role, the need for taking on a new role becomes crucial. This
problem of role growth becomes acute especially when an individual who has
occupied a role for a long time enters another role in which she/he feels less secure.
The new role demands that an individual outgrows the previous one and takes charge
of the new role effectively. In organizations that are fact expanding, and which do not
have any systematic strategy of human resource development, managers are likely to
experience this stress of role stagnation when they are prompted.
4.
Inter-role distance: When an individual occupies more than one role there are bound
to be conflict between them. For example, a lady executive often faces a conflict
between her organizational role as an executive and her familial role as a wife and
mother. The demands on her time by her husband and children may be incompatible
7
with organizational demands. Such inter-role conflicts are quite frequent in a modern
society, where an individual in increasingly occupying multiple role in various
organizations and group.
Role Set Conflicts
The role set consists of important persons who have varying expectations from the role
that an individual occupies. The conflicts which arise as a results of incompatibility
among these expectations by the significant others (and by the individual himself) are
referred to as role set conflicts. These conflicts take the forms mentioned below:
5.
Role ambiguity: When an individual is not clear about the various expectations which
people have from the individual's role, he/she faces role ambiguity. Role ambiguity
may be due to lack of information available to a role occupant, or his/her lack of
understanding available to him. Role ambiguity may be in relation to activities,
responsibilities, priorities, norms or general expectations.
6.
Role expectation conflict: When there are conflicting expectations or demands by
different role senders (persons having expectations from the role), the role occupant
experiences this type of stress. The conflicting expectations may be from the boss,
subordinates, peer or clients.
7.
Role overload: when a role occupants feels that there are too many expectations from
the significant others in his role sets, he experiences role overload. Role overload has
been measured by asking questions about people's feelings on whether they can finish
work given to them during a modified work day and whether the amount of work they
do might interfere with how well it is done. Most executive role occupants experience
8
role overload.
8.
Role erosion: A role occupant may feel that the functions he may like to perform are
being done by some other role. Role erosion is individual's subjective feeling that
some important expectation that he has from a role are shared by other roles within
the role set. Role erosion is likely to be experienced in an organization that is
redefining its role and creating new roles. In one organization, a particular role was
abolished and in its place two were created to cater to executive and planning needs.
This led to great erosion, and a feeling that new roles were less important than the
previous roles.
9.
Resources inadequacy: Resources inadequacy stress is experienced when the
resources required by a role occupant to perform his role effectively are not available.
Resources may include information, people, material, finance or facilities.
10.
Personal inadequacy: when a role occupant feels that he does not have enough
knowledge, skills or training to undertake a role effectively, or that he has not had
time to prepare for the assigned role he may experience stress. Persons who are
assigned new roles without adequate preparation or orientation are likely to
experience feelings of personal inadequacy.
11.
Role isolation: In a role set, the role occupant may feel that certain roles are
psychologically closer to him, while other are at a much greater distance. The main
criterion of distance is the frequency and ease of interaction. When linkages are
strong, the role isolation will be low and vice versa. Role isolation can therefore be
measured in terms of existing and the desired linkages. The gap between them
indicate the amount of role isolation. To sum up, in relation to organizational roles,
9
the following ten stresses are worth considering:
1.
Self role distance (SRD)
2.
Inter-role distance (IRD)
3.
Role stagnation (RS)
4.
Role isolation (RI)
5.
Role ambiguity (RA)
6.
Role expectation conflict (REC)
7.
Role overload (RO)
8.
Role erosion (RE)
9.
Resources inadequacy (RIn)
10.
Personal Inadequacy (PIn)
EVOLUTION OF ROLE STRESS FRAMEWORK
Several frameworks have been developed for the measurement of role stress. The concept
of role stress was introduced by Kahn, et al. (1964) who identified three role stressors
(i.e., role conflict, role ambiguity and role overload). Based on the framework of Kahn, et
al. (1964), a role conflict scale comprising of eight items, and a role ambiguity scale
comprising of six items was developed by Rizzo, House and Lirtzman (1970). These two
scales were extensively used for role stress research for a long time in spite of
controversies about their validity.
Only two role stressors were measurable until Beehr, Walsh and Taber (1976)
10
developed a role overload scale comprising three items. This condition existed before the
contribution made by Pareek (1982), as until this contribution research on stress in
organisational roles was confined to role conflict, role ambiguity and role overload, even
though these three role stressors ill represented the complexities of performance in
organisational roles. He developed the Your Feelings About Your Role (YFAYR) Scale,
which comprises 40 items to measure inter role distance, role stagnation, role ambiguity,
role erosion, role overload, role isolation, role inadequacy and self role distance. A
comprehensive role stress measurement scale comprising 50 items for the measurement
of ten role stressors was thus, realised. The new instrument was called the Organisational
Role Stress (ORS) Scale (Pareek 1983).
Role stress refers to the conflict and tension due to the roles being enacted by a
person at any given point of time. (Pareek, 2003). Enacted in the context of organizations,
such role stresses are called organizational role stress. Any organization may be
perceived as a system of roles. These roles are different from positions or offices in the
organization.
Role stress is the stress experienced by the persons because of their role (job) in
the organization. Stress experienced in roles is referred to as Role Stress. High role stress
is the result of a poor role design or poor `person environment fit'. Work stress
jeopardises the role performance and wellbeing of the role occupant.
Stress can be caused by a number of factors called stressors. Factors that create
stress can be grouped into two major categories organizational and personal.
Organizations have no shortage of factors that can cause stress. Pressure to avoid
errors or complete tasks in a limited time period, a demanding supervisor and unpleasant
11
coworkers are a few examples. The discussion that follows organizes stress factors into
five categories; task, role and interpersonal demands; organization structure and
organizational leadership.
Task demands are factors related to an employee's job. They include the design of
the person's job (autonomy, task variety, degree of automation), working conditions and
the physical work layout. Work quotas can put pressure on employees when their
outcomes are perceived as excessive. The more interdependence between an employee's
tasks and the tasks of others the more potential stress there is. Autonomy on the other
hand, tends to lessen stress.
Role demands relate to pressures placed on an employee as function of the
particular role he or she plays in the organization. Role conflicts create expectations that
may be hard to reconcile or satisfy. Role overload is experienced when the employee is
expected to do more than time permits. Role ambiguity is created when role expectations
are not clearly understood and the employee is not sure what he or she is to do.
The concept of roles and classified role stresses ten dimensions. These individual
stressors are measured using an Organizational Role Stress (ORS) scale. The Ten role
stressors identified are as follows:
Interpersonal demands are pressure created by other employees. Lack of social
support from colleagues and poor interpersonal relationships can cause considerable
stress, especially among employees.
Organizations structure can increase stress. Excessive rules and an employee's
lack of opportunity to participate in decisions that affect him or her are examples of
12
structural variables that might be potential sources of stress.Organizational leadership
represents the supervisory style of the organization's company officials .Some mang ers
create a culture characterized by tension, fear and anxiety. They establish unrealistic
Pressures to perform in the short run impose excessively tight controls and routinely fire
employees who don't measure up. This style of leadership flows down through the
organization and affects all employees.
Personal factors that can create stress include family issues, personal economic
problems and inherent personality characteristics because employees bring their personal
problems to work with them. A full understanding of employees stress requires a
manager to be understanding of these personal factors.
CAREER & JOB SATISFACTION
We all know people who, while they constantly complain about their jobs, make
no effort to explore their other options. This is because, as much as they dislike their jobs,
they are identified with their career roles and the money, status and other perks their jobs
afford them. They fear that, if they took another position, they might lose their jobs or fail
to perform as well, and they'd lose the benefits to which they're so attached. If you think
of your career as if it were part of you, that doesn't necessarily mean you love it. In fact,
the opposite is often true. Because identification creates a constant fear of loss, people
who are identified with their jobs see work as a source of anxiety and frustration. Their
work progresses slowly and painfully, as their anxiety has them second-guessing
everything they do and obsessing about others' possible reactions.
The positive or negative affect associated with a job defines job satisfaction
(Thurstone, 1931). Some of the ways organizations can create satisfied employees
13
include offering flexible working hours, professional growth opportunities, interesting
work (Hackman & Oldham, 1976), autonomy, job security, a good supervisor, good
benefits, competitive pay, and opportunities for promotion (Cranny, Smith, & stone,
1992). It is important to note that what makes one worker satisfied may not make another
worker satisfied. For some people, interesting work is paramount. Others place higher
emphasis on having coworkers they like. Still others feel that the pay and benefits they
receive are most important. Just as in the hiring process, a match between what you want
and what the organization can provide will result in a successful outcome for both parties.
A recent survey found that listening to music at work leads to higher levels of
reported employee satisfaction. About one-third of those participating in a Spherion
Workplace Snapshot survey conducted by Harris Interactive in 2006 reported they
listened to an iPod, MP3 player, or other personal music device while working (Spherion,
2006). Seventy-nine percent of the participants reported that listening to music improved
their job satisfaction and/or productivity at work. Allowing workers to listen to music
may become more and more popular in jobs where music does not interfere with co-
workers, safety, or job performance. Having happy workers contributes to an
organization's success.
Career is one of the important parts of our daily lives which cause a great deal of
stress. Due to the competitive nature of the job environment most of the people in the
world are spending their time for job related work purposes resulting ignore the stressor
those are influencing their work and life. Usually people are more worry about their
outcome of their work that can even affect the way they treat other people and how they
communicate with their peers and customers. Job stress is a common workplace problem
14
experienced by all professionals irrespective of their nature of work; however, this
phenomenon is more common in situations that are deadline driven. Software house is
one such sector, which is affected profoundly by this challenge, and professionals serving
these organizations are often observed under huge stress. Software professionals' nature
of job is highly time-bound, client-oriented and technology intensive. The trends in turn,
coupled with many factors, contribute towards stress. These factors are extremely
diverse, including change of technology, client interaction, fear of obsolescence, family
support, long working hours, and work overload etc. Stress results from a mismatch
between demands and pressures on the person, on the one hand and their knowledge and
abilities, on the other. This includes not only the pressures of work exceeds the workers
ability to cope but also where the workers knowledge and abilities are not sufficiently
utilized and that is a problem for them.
Job Satisfaction is a yardstick for appraisal of the quality of work experiences as
mentioned by Locke (1976). He also reported that over hundreds of articles have been
compiled on this topic, and are still growing with exponential numbers. Among the most
accepted definitions of job satisfaction is the one by Locke (1969) who defines job
satisfaction as "a positive emotional feeling, a result of one's evaluation towards his job
and his job experience by comparing between what he expects from his job and what he
actually gets from it". Job satisfaction may also be discussed as the result of the
interaction of the employees and his perception towards his job and work environment
(Locke, 1976). The antecedents that affects the job satisfaction, may be a large number
of, like work values, one's maladjustment, work rewards, work ethics, personal attributes,
hours of work, emotions, performance, threat to job stability, work environment,
15
organizational social concern Ronald and Steade (1976); Fisher (2000); Ravinder and
Browne (1977);Sekaran (1989); Clifford and Macue (1997); Eyupoglu and Saner (2009)
and others studied by different scholars. In these different dimensions the rewards
structure have strong relationship with job satisfaction (Clifford, 1985). Earlier Job
rewards have been studied as set of the task itself, salary, promotions, behavior of
supervisors and coworkers, cohesiveness of work groups, security, fringe benefits, and
working environment (Locke 1976; Gruenberg, 1979). The demographic variables are
also very important while a study is being conducted on relationship of work rewards
with job satisfaction. The work of authors like Kalleberg and Loscocco (1983); Donald
and Abdullah (1987); Douglas et al. (1991) demonstrated how age combines with work to
produce differences in work-role.
RATIONAL OF THE STUDY
This research study seeks to find an empirical model for assessing the level of role stress
and to know the areas which contribute for career satisfaction in IT professionals. The
nature of the job of IT professionals' is highly time-bound, client-oriented and
technology concentrated. The trends in turn, coupled with many factors, contribute
towards stress. These factors are extremely varied, including change of technology, client
interaction, long working hours, and work overload etc. This study explores the nature of
stress amongst IT professionals', and endeavours to recognize the key factors responsible
for creating role stress amongst these professionals, which limit their overall productivity.
Rapid growth of technology and its wide use of these technologies in organisation has
16
increased the competition diverse among organizations across the sphere, and the worker
of the 21
st
century is facing more challenges than before.
These undeniable forces in the organizations are incessantly alter the business strategies,
reshuffling the hierarchy and altering managerial practices, thus, forcing the
organizations to adapt innovative business models .
The study of IT development belongs as much to the social sciences as it does to
technology. Globalization and technological innovations are bringing about new
challenges to the study of mental health and stress management. Record has confirmed
that with each new technological innovation there have been reflective changes in the
quality of life of human beings, societal changes follow suit the scientific changes. While
each job has its own stress, IT jobs are somewhat different from our traditional and
typical concept of secured employment: IT jobs are mostly contractual with less job
security but high pay, and entail strong competitiveness, along with a globalized life
style. There are a few evidences that IT jobs are offering an elevated standard of life, but
taking tolls on the mental health and relationship aspects of the professionals
(Bhattacharya and Jayanti, 2007).
COPING WITH ROLE STRESS AMONG IT POFESSIONALS
When an individual experience stress, they try to adopt ways of dealing or coping,
with it as they cannot stay in a state of pressure. In IT sector the coping mechanism
is very much required by the employees to beat the stress. Normally, effective
coping strategies are those strategies, which deal with the problem of stress as a
challenge, and enhance the ability of dealing with it.
17
Research has shown that social support helps a person to effectively cope
with stress. On the other hand, studies have also shown that voluntary support may
have negative consequences. Effective strategies of coping include efforts to
increase physical and mental readiness to cope, creative diversio ns for emotional
enrichment, strategies of dealing with the basic problems causing stress and
collaborative work to solve such problems (Pareek, 2002).
It is helpful for both individuals and organizations to look at the approach
that they are using to cope with stress. Lack of a coping strategy may lead to lack of
productivity. Coping styles or strategies can either be seen as a general trait or a
character appropriate to specific stress situations. People can be classified into two
types on the basis of strategies employed to deal with stress. The first category
consists of persons who decide to suffer, deny the experienced or avoidance strategy
is termed dysfunctional styles of coping with stress situations. The second category
consists of persons who face the realities of stress consciously, and take some action
to solve problems either by themselves or with the help of other people. These
active approaches are termed functional styles of dealing with stressful situations;
these find favour with social scientist as they are supposed to be more effective and
healthy
than
dysfunctional
styles.(Pareek,
2002).
Folkman et al. (1986) have
proposed eight coping strategies based on factor analysis of an instrument:
confrontive coping, distancing, self control, seeking social support, accepting
responsibility, escape avoidance, problem solving and positive reappraisal.
Different approaches to the study of coping have been used in various
investigations. Some have emphasized general coping traits styles or dispositions,
18
while others have preferred to study active, ongoing coping strategies in particular
stress situations. The former approach assumes that an individual will cope the same
way in most stressful situations. A person's coping style is typically assessed by
personality tests. Whether the person actually behaves under stress as predicted by
the tests, depend largely on the adequacy of the personality assessed and many other
internal and external factors. That affects the person's actions and reactions in a ny
given situation. (Bardwell, 2002). On the other hand , those focussed on the active
coping strategies rather to view an individual's behaviour as it occurs in a stressful
circumstances and then carry on to deduce the particular coping processes implied
by the behaviour.
Coping strategies can be conventionalised as a product of a combination of
externality, internality and mode of coping. Externality is the reaction that external
factors are accountable for role stress, ensuing in hostility towards, and blaming of,
these external factors. It may also indicate the tendency to expect and get a solution
for the stress for the stress from within external sources. Externality may be high or
low. Internality is quite the opposite. The respondent may perceive himself as
responsible and may himself as responsible for the stress, and may therefore expect
a solution for the stress from within. Internality may be high or low. Coping may
take the form of avoiding the situation (reactive strategy) or confronting and
approaching the problem (proactive strategy). This is a mode of coping. (Desai .T.P
2009, Pareek, U. 2002)
19
Combining the two aspects of each of the three dimensions, we have eight
possible strategies for coping with stress. These concepts are borrowed from
Rosenzweig (1978). Avoidance mode is characterized by (a) aggression and blame,
(b) helplessness and resignation, (c) minimizing the significance of stress full
situations by accepting it with resignation, (d) denying the presence of stress or
finding an explanation for it. Such behaviours help a person in not doing anything in
relation to the stress. On the other hand, the approach mode is characterized by (a)
hope that things will improve, (b) effort made by the subject will help to solve the
situation, (c) expectations that others will help, or asking for help in relation to
stress, and (d) jointly doing something about the problem. (Desai .T.P 2009, Pareek,
U. 2002) The awareness of these strategies will definitely help the IT professionals
to deal with the stress level of work.
20
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Unfortunately, stress is a common part of life as we see the current scenario something
few of us can avoid altogether. Stress is a many-faceted process that occurs in reaction to
events or situation in our environment. Work related factor that can sometimes generate
intense levels of stress involves performance appraisal, procedures used for evaluating
employee's performance among IT professionals. The present study investigates in
understanding effect of role stress on career satisfaction among the IT professionals. An
attempt has been made to review the literature pertaining to the studies on the role stress
and career satisfaction. The literature review has contributed in understanding the
variables, connecting the present study and shown a path for moving forward in the
research.
I.
RELATED LITERATURE ON JOB/CAREER SATISFACTION
The study on "Work-family interpersonal capitalization: Sharing positive work events at
home". In a 3-week experience-sampling study of 52 full-time employees, the researcher
investigated the within-individual relationships among positive work events, affective
states, and job satisfaction. They also examined the influence of work-family
interpersonal capitalization (sharing work events with one's spouse or partner at home) on
employees' job and relationship satisfaction. Results revealed that positive events
21
influenced job satisfaction through positive effect, and work-family interpersonal
capitalization on the most positive work event of the day positively impacted job
satisfaction over and above the effects of the event's pleasantness and of the number of
other positive work events experienced that day which was investigated by Remus Ilies
et.al (2011)
One of the study highlighted women in senior IT jobs are more likely to be in
management than men are: 36.9% of female IT leaders hold management jobs, compared
with 19% of male IT leaders, according to the Anita Borg Institute, a non-profit group
that works to increase the impact of women in technology. Researchers blame the
midcareer departures most often on the feeling of being left out of the predominantly
male IT department culture, a lack of mentors, work/life imbalance and little access to the
same types of networks that men enjoy. It was investigated by Stacy Collett's (2010)
studied on "Women in IT: The Long Climb To the Top".
A study on " The Shrinking Female IT Workforce", where IT staff also
acquiesced to two weeks of unpaid vacation, while the rest of the company took one
week of unpaid leave -- all to ensure that the four IT employees kept their jobs. Sheets
like her work but she wonders what a job outside of IT would be like. Many women in IT
found themselves in a similarly precarious position in 2009. In January, the
unemployment rate for men held at 10%, while it hovered at 7.9% for women, according
to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Researchers blame the midcareer departures most
often on isolation, a dearth of mentors, and a lack of access to the types of networks that
men have, Catherine Ashcraft, senior research scientist, says. Stacy Collett (2010)
studied that Companies are making strides toward closing the gap on women's pay and
22
opportunities every day.
Cha, Jongseok et.al (2009) conducted a study on "Person-career fit and employee
outcomes among research and development professionals
". One of the study aims to
examine the effects of person-career (PC) fit on employee outcomes. It is based on a
sample of 1128 research and development (R&D) professionals and 222 project managers
in 15 South Korean organizations. The results revealed that a managerial PC fit has a
curvilinear relationship with job satisfaction and organizational commitment, and a
technical PC fit has a curvilinear relationship with job satisfaction. For example, job
satisfaction increased as career orientation increased toward career development
opportunities, then decreased when career development opportunities exceeded career
orientation. In addition, as expected, job satisfaction and organizational commitment are
higher when career orientation and career development opportunities are both high rather
than low. For work performance, contributions to organizations increased as managerial
career orientations increased toward managerial career opportunities, then decreased
when managerial career opportunities exceeded managerial career orientation.
The study called "Personality, Career Satisfaction, and Life Satisfaction: Test of a
Directional Model" was carried out by John W. Lounsbury et.al (2009) where A
conceptual model proposing paths from personality traits to career satisfaction and life
satisfaction and from career satisfaction to life satisfaction was evaluated in a field study
by structural equations modelling using LISREL 8. Participants were a convenience
sample of 1,352 information science professionals. An exploratory maximum likelihood
common factor analysis revealed two oblique personality factors, the first comprised of
extraversion, optimism, assertiveness, openness, and emotional stability and the second
23
consisting of conscientiousness and tough-mindedness. Results indicated a good fit for a
two-factor personality model showing significant links between both personality factors
and career satisfaction, between the second personality factor and life satisfaction, and
between career and life satisfaction. Findings are discussed in terms of comparisons to
previous research, limitations, and areas for further research, with emphasis on the
importance of personality in relation to career satisfaction and the relationship between
career and life satisfaction.
Survey questionnaires were sent to state government IT employees in the United
States to analyze how job characteristics, work environment, pay satisfaction, and
advancement opportunities influence IT employee job satisfaction. The study results
showed that job clarity, effective communications with management, a participatory
management approach, organizational support of career development, opportunities for
advancement, and family-friendly policies are all significant variables affecting the job
satisfaction of IT employees. The effect of pay satisfaction on IT employee job
satisfaction was not significant. The study on "IT Employee Job Satisfaction in the Public
Sector" Soonhee Kim (2009) also found gender differences in factors affecting IT
employee job satisfaction. Job clarity was found to have a positive effect on male IT
employees' job satisfaction, but was not significant for female IT employees. Among
female IT employees, available family-friendly policies were found to have a positive
effect on job satisfaction but it showed no significant effect on job satisfaction among
male IT employees.
24
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