SEC C – (PGP 2013-15)GROUP NO: 9

Influencing Factors of Personal and Demographic Variables of ORS: An Empirical Study of the IT Industry in Western Region of India

PREPARED BY

NAME ROLL NO GIM EMAIL ID ALTERNATIVE EMAIL LOCAL CELL NUMBER

ALTERNATIVE CELL NUMBER

RISHABH KHARE

2013181 rishabh.khare13@gim.ac.in rishabhkhare2002@gmail.com

8390103385 -

RUCHIRA POROB

2013182 ruchira.porob13@gim.ac.in ruchiporob@gmail.com 9921488218 -

SAAHIL SHARMA

2013183 saahil.sharma13@gim.ac.in smilingsaahil@yahoo.com 8390122616 -

SAGAR NAIK

2013184 sagar.naik13@gim.ac.in naiksagar89@gmail.com 9764039599 -

SANGEETA PATRA

2013185 sangeeta.patra13@gim.ac.in sangeeta.bpatra@gmail.com

8390112928 -

NAME ROLL NO REMARK

RISHABH KHARE 2013181

RUCHIRA POROB 2013182

SAAHIL SHARMA 2013183

SAGAR NAIK 2013184

SANGEETA PATRA 2013185

Examiners Comments Final Grade

Influencing Factors of Personal and Demographic Variables of ORSAn Empirical Study of the IT Industry in Western Region of India

AbstractThis paper investigates the influencing factors of personal and demographic variables of Organizational Role Stress (ORS) among men and women of IT companies in India. Udai Pareek’s Organizational Role Stress (ORS) scale was used to measure ten types of role stress. The employees were divided into 3 categories based on years of experience in IT firms 1)employees  with 0-2 years of experience 2)employees with 3-8 years of experience and 3) employees with 8+ years of working experience. The age group was between 20-60 years of age. The sample includes 308 employees from organizations (TCS, Infosys, CTS, Wipro) in the Indian software industry. Results of the questionnaire were used to find out the stress levels of the three groups and if significant differences existed between the 3 identified groups in terms of the different types of role stress and the total role stress experienced.

Keywords: Organizational Role Stress, software industry, occupational stress

Introduction

This study aims to analyse the causes of role stress among information technology (hereinafter, IT) professionals in India. According to Ivancevish and Matteson stress (Fred Luthans 2013) is an adaptive response, mediated by individual differences and/or psychological processes that is a consequence of any external (environment) action, situation or event that places excessive psychological and/or physical demands on a person.

The evolution of computer and IT is perhaps one of the most dominating factors in the ever changing work-life today. IT industry in India got tremendous boost in the past decade due to factors like liberalisation and globalisation of the Indian economy coupled with favourable government policies The efficiencies empowered by IT has brought increasing acceptance of outsourcing models in global business and India has emerged as one of the leading destinations for outsourcing the back-office work. The Indian workforce in IT has earned an image of 'low cost' but 'high quality' technical workers, helping Indian IT industry to keep a promising growth rate and presenting a tough competition to American and European IT-related jobs in the current decade.

The productivity, efficiency and low cost are centre stage issues for management of IT industry with participation, interaction, transaction, planning and regulation, each with its own frustrations attracted. Employees feel role stress, as they no longer have complete control over personal and professional life leading to depression and repercussions like coronary heart disease, psychosomatic symptoms, and premature aging. In today’s context, role stress is a costly business expense for this sunshine industry that affects both employee health and company profits, thus it’s becomes very important to understand the causes of stress, its impact and adopting strategies or minimizing its impact.

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Objective

• To find out how environmental, organizational and individual factors affects potentials for role stress and consequences of stress with regard to age, income, educational qualification and personal life.

• To analyse the interrelationship between the work life and personal life that contributes to role stress.

• To understand the implications of role stress on Organisational Citizenship Behaviour(OCB)

Literature review

Occupational role stress has become one of the most serious health issues in the modern world (Lu, et al. 2003). Steers (1981) indicates that occupational role stress has become an important topic for study of organizational behaviour for several reasons: 1) It has harmful psychological and physiological effects on employees. 2) It is a major cause of employee turnover and absenteeism.3) In extreme cases, it can even lead to suicide (Yahaya, 2010).4) By controlling role stress, individual and organization can be managed more effectively (Jayashree, 2010). Akinnusi (1994) found that most of the role stress reactions are positively related to either a desire to quit the organization or temporarily withdraw, and to some extent, to smoking, drinking coffee and alcohol dependency.

A study conducted by Christo Fernandes and Kirti Tewari (2012) draws attention to the significance of social support exercised by managers and peers in the software industry in India on organizational role stress factors. Christo Fernandes et al (2008) studied the impact of social support on role stress experienced by the executives of public and private sector banks in Goa. Studies conducted on service sectors concluded that service-oriented jobs, like the IT industry, which involves a direct interaction with customers, are prone to create relatively greater stress levels for employees. Modekurti and Chattopadhyay(2008) found, stress levels was more overwhelming in the case of women employees due to the greater need among them to strike a balance between their personal and professional lives. The nuclear family system in most of the cities creates a dual role stress for working women (P. Kavitha Associate Professor, Kalaignar Karunanidhi Institute of Technology, Coimbatore 2012). P. Shipley and M. Coats (1992) also conducted a research on- A community study of dual-role stress and coping in working mothers.

Bhattacharya and Basu (2007) studied Distress, Wellness and Organizational role stress of professionals in the area of Information Technology. Pestonjee and Azeem (2001) investigated the relationships between organizational role stress and job burnout among university teachers. The results of the study indicated that organizational role stress is highly correlated with job burnout among all the three groups of teachers (Lecturers, Readers and Professors). A study conducted by Levi (1984), suggested that, work situations are experienced as stressful when they are perceived as involving important work demands which are not well matched to the knowledge and skills (competencies) of workers or their needs, especially when those workers have little control over work and receive little support at work. The study demonstrated that role stressors play a significant role in determining job satisfaction, mental and physical well-being. Westman and Dalia (2001) found that vacation alleviated perceived job role stress and burnout as predicted, reinforcing the notion that a respite from work diminishes levels of strain to lower than chronic, on-the-job levels.

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Authors found decline in burnout immediately after the vacation and a return to provocation levels four weeks later, and a similar pattern with regard to absenteeism.

Work interference with family life has been associated with job dissatisfaction, life dissatisfaction, intention to turnover, psychological strain, psychiatric disorders, substance abuse and problem drinking (Murphy, 1995; Netemeyer et al., 1996; Frone, 2000; Grzywacz and Marks, 2000; Cooper, 2000; Grant-Vallone and Donaldson, 2001, Nigam et al., 2003; Schabracq and O’Driscoll et al., 2003; De Croon et al., 2004 Hammer et al., 2004; and Mikkelson and Burke, 2004).

Christo Fernandes, Satish Kumar and Nandakumar Mekoth (2008) conducted a study on role stress and length of service. Stress experienced in organizational roles was studied on 486 executives in public and private sector banks in Goa. Pareek's Organizational Role Stress (ORS) scale was used to measure ten types of role stress. The sample was divided into three parts as short, medium and long tenure groups on the basis of length of service of the respondent. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to find out if significant differences existed between the groups in terms of the different types of role stress and the total role stress experienced. The study revealed significant differences in stress experience among short, medium and long tenure groups. For the total and for the six types of role stress, long tenure groups experienced the minimum stress, medium tenure group experienced a medium level stress and the short tenure group experienced the maximum stress, pointing to the existence of a negative relationship between length of service and role stress. Gaertner and Ruhe (1981), in their research, found that junior staff accountants experienced more stress than other groups within accounting firms. The junior staff respondents reported the greatest levels of stress resulting from role under load, role ambiguity, and career progress concerns and having insufficient opportunities to partake in decisions that ultimately have an effect on them (Gaertner and Ruhe, 1981).

Mohsin Aziz (2004) conducted a research on Role stress among women in the Indian information technology sector. This paper investigates the intensity of organisational role stress among women informational technology professionals in the Indian private sector. Resource inadequacy has emerged as the most potent role stressor, followed by role overload and personal inadequacy.Sen (1981) studied that the background variables in relation to role stress were age, sex , education , income, family type, marital status, residence, distance from residence to place of work, work experience etc. A study by Dr. L.Vijayashree (2011) gives an idea of the feeling of insecurity and personal inadequacy stress of ITES employees where the research was carried out. The bulk of previous literature has reported an inverse relationship between occupational role stress and job satisfaction (Burke, 1976; Rebele and Michaels, 1990; Snead and Harrell, 1991; Gregson and Wendell, 1994; Fisher, 2001; Gavin and Dileepan, 2002).

Methodology

The Information technology industry has grown manifolds in India in recent years. The stress levels have also increased along with the growth in the industry. Data was collected from IT organizations mainly TCS, Infosys, CTS. These companies are purposely selected for the study since these are the top 3 IT firms in the country. Questionnaire was sent to around 350 employees working in these companies. Majority of the employees studied belong to the age bracket of 20-35 years. The required data on organizational role stress among the employees

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was collected with the help of a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire comprises of 30 questions of Udai Pareek's Organisational Role Stress Construct. The second part consists of 10 questions related to the non-work related activities in an organisation. The respondents rated each item as 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 depending on the item’s applicability to them and their scores for the two parts were added separately. ORS has been amply tested for validity and reliability by various researchers in the past.

Dimensions of Organizational Role Stress ScaleAccording to Pareek, (1983), the ORS scale can be used to investigate the nature and dynamics of role stress in various organizations and to develop interventions for the use of the individual, groups and for the organization as a whole. It is considered to be an apt instrument for the current study also, as almost every dimension of role stress included in ORS has relevance to the IT industry. The subscales are inter-role distance, role stagnation, role expectation conflict, role erosion, role overload, role-isolation, personal inadequacy self-role distance, role ambiguity and resource inadequacy.

The concept of Inter-role distance refers to the stress due to conflicts of not being able to share time between the multiple roles that the role occupant undertake while performing their usual role at work. In addition to this, imbalance between work and family role may also induce stress of this type. The other stressor arises when the opportunities for learning do not include growth. This leads to Role stagnation. Role expectation conflict is said to exist when the role occupant experiences conflicting expectations or demands by different role senders. Role erosion is a feeling that some important functions have been given to some other roles or it could be a feeling that there is not much challenge in the functions given to the role. Role overload is also an important determinant of stress in organizations. Role occupants experience overload when they are compelled to perform beyond their capacity.

When the linkages between the departments forming the sub-system are strong, Role isolation will be low and in the absence of strong linkages, role isolation will be high. Personal inadequacy is experienced when a role occupant feels that he is not prepared to undertake the role effectively. He feels that he does not have enough knowledge, skills, or training to perform the assigned role. The stress arising due to a mis-match between roles occupants own values and what is expected of the role may lead to Self-role conflict. One may have to make a compromise between these two. They may be doing many things out of compulsion that they would not like to do. Another source of role stress is a situation when an individual has inadequate information about his work role and there is lack of clarity about the objectives to be achieved, and about the scope and responsibilities of the job. This is termed as Role ambiguity. Stress is also experienced due to Resource inadequacy that is when the resources required by the role occupant for performing the role effectively is not sufficiently available.

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Portrayal of Organisational Role Stress with Pareek’s ORS Scale

Organisational Citizenship Behaviour

Dennis Organ is generally considered the father of OCB. Organ expanded upon Katz's (1964) original work). Organ (1988) defines OCB as “individual behaviour that is discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system, and that in the aggregate promotes the effective functioning of the organization “. Organ’s definition of OCB includes three critical aspects that are central to this construct. First, OCBs are thought of as discretionary behaviours, which are not part of the job description, and are performed by the employee as a result of personal choice. Second, OCBs go above and beyond that which is an enforceable requirement of the job description. Finally, OCBs contribute positively to overall organizational effectiveness.

The study of OCB is an emerging field, and it contributes to identify the reasons for which employees undertake citizenship in an organisation, and also the effect of role stress on the same.

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Organisational Role Stress

Resource inadequacy

(RIn) Role expectation

conflict (REC)

Self-role conflict (SRC)

Self-role conflict (SRC)

Role stagnation

(RS)Inter-role distance

(IRD):

Personal inadequacy

(PI)

Role isolation

(RI)

Role overload

(RO)

Role erosion

(RE)

Hypotheses Development

Based on the above discussion, we hypothesize that

HI: there is a significant level of role stress among IT employees in the western region of India.

Study Design and Observations:

A) The demographic segmentation according to the survey taken :

Variables No of Software Professionals

Percentage (%)

Age <=20 years 4 1%20 – 25 years 168 55%26 – 35 years 112 36%36 – 45 years 12 4%>45 years 12 3%Total 308

Gender Male 220 71%Female 44 29%Total 308

Education B. Tech / B.E 244 79%BCA / MCA 40 13%MBA 20 6%Others 4 1%Total 308

Marital Status Married 56 18%Unmarried 252 82%Total 308

Job levels Trainee 64 21%Team Leader 112 36%Group Leader 24 8%Others 108 35%Total 308

Spouse Occupation Business 16 13%Service 80 67%Housewife 24 20%Total 120

No. of children 0 144 75%1 24 13%2 8 4%>=3 16 8%

192No. of subordinates directly controlled

<10 103 53%10 to 30 55 12%31 to 50 39 6%51 to 70 0 0%71 to 90 23 1%<90 23 1%

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None 65 27%190

Length of service in the organization

< 1 yr 64 21%1 to 3 yrs 148 41%3.1 to 5 yrs 72 23%5.1 to 10 yrs 12 4%>10 yrs 16 5%

312Work Climate Very poor 12 4%

Poor 48 16%Average 144 46%Very good 80 26%Excellent 28 9%

2) Organisational Role Stress Observations Depending on the Pareek’s 10 Parameters

Dimensions Never or rarely

Occasionally Sometimes Frequently Very Frequently

IRD 10 % 12% 18% 26% 23%RS 11% 9% 21% 26% 23%REC 15.3% 15.3% 27.3% 23% 19%RE 17% 12.6% 23% 28% 19.6%RO 17% 12.25% 26.75% 22.5% 21.5%PI 10% 13% 13% 31% 26.5%SRC 11% 14.3% 28.6% 24.6% 22%RA 16.3% 19% 20.6% 22% 22.3%Rln 16.3% 14% 22.3% 24.3% 23.3%RIS 13% 15% 24% 28% 19%

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3) Analysis of the Organisational Change Behaviour

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I waste

a lot o

f my w

orking time

I voluntarily

help subordinate st

aff

I volunteer t

o be in co

mmitees

I support

extracu

rricu

lar acti

vities

I arri

ve at w

ork on time

I take

initiative

to in

troduce

myse

lf

I give

colle

agues adva

nce

I delegate exce

ssive

work

to juniors

I make

innova

tive su

ggestions

05

101520253035

OCB To Be Developed Analysis

0 1 2 3 4

I waste

a lot o

f my w

orking time

I voluntarily

help subordinate st

aff

I volunteer t

o be in co

mmitees

I support

extracu

rricu

lar acti

vities

I arri

ve at w

ork on time

I take

initiative

to in

troduce

myse

lf

I give

colle

agues adva

nce

I delegate exce

ssive

work

to juniors

I make

innova

tive su

ggestions

05

101520253035

OCB To Be Developed Analysis

0 1 2 3 4

Results

From the observed data we can draw the following results:

1) We have measured the two highest distribution of percentages among the data obtained from the survey. The two highest percentages invariably lies in the “Very Frequently”,”Frequently”,and “Sometimes” segments.

2) Half (46%) of the samples reported the Work Climate as Average.

3) Most of the employees sampled had between 1-3 years of work experience. This group experienced the most significant amount of role stress.

The parameters measured are as given below:

Parameters Percentage of Respondents

Inter-role distance (IRD) 49.0%

Role stagnation (RS) 49.0%

Role expectation conflict (REC) 50.3%

Role erosion (RE) 51.0%

Role overload (RO) 49.2%

Role isolation (RI)52.0%

Personal inadequacy (PI) 57.5%

Self-role conflict (SRC) 53.2%

Role ambiguity (RA) 44.3%

Resource inadequacy (RIn) 47.6%

Conclusion

Work related stress is a feature which most individuals suffer at times and to different extents (Kumar & Pragadeeswaran, 2011). Occupational stress has been of great concern to the management, employees, and other stakeholders of organizations. Occupational stress researchers agree that stress is a serious problem (Ornelas & Kleiner 2003). Hence, the management must take several initiatives in helping their employees to overcome its disastrous effect.

From our observations among the IT industry workers in the western demographic region, we conclude that Organisational role stress is a major cause of concern. It is measured by the various parameters of Pareek’s ORS.Hence the hypothesis that people from the Indian IT industry undergo a significant level of role stress is true.

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References

Mohsin Aziz. (2003) “Organisational role stress among Indian information professionals Asian-Pacific Newsletter on Occupational Health and Safety, Vol. 10 (2), pp. 31-33

Janina C Latack (1981), “Person/Role Conflict: Holland's Model Extended to Role-Stress Research, Stress Management, and Career Development”, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 6, No. 1. 89-103

Christo Fernandes and Kirti Tewari (2012),”Organizational Role Stress: Impact of Manager and Peer Support”, Journal of Knowledge Globalization, Volume 5

Dr. L.Vijayashree and Ms. Pallabi Mund (2011), “Role Stress and Coping: A Case in ITES Company”, Mustang Journal of Business & Ethics

P. Kavitha,,Dr. V. Kavitha and P. Arulmurugan (2012)“Role OF Stress Among Women Employees Forming Majority Workforce At IT Sector in Chennai and Coimbatore,Tier-I & Tier –II Centres”, Sona Global Management Review ,Volume 6 ,Issue 3

Teresa Kelly and Mary Barrett (2012),”The Leading Causes and Potential Consequences of Occupational Stress: A study of Irish Trainee Accountants”, IAR2012.indb

Senatra, P.T. (1980). Role Conflict, Role Ambiguity, and Organizational Climate in a Public Accounting Firm, The Accounting Review, Vol. LV, No. 4, pp. 594–603.

Yasmeen, Haider; Supriya, M. V. (2008),” Organizational Role Stress: Confirmatory Factor Analysis Approach”, Academic journal article from Asia-Pacific Business Review, Vol. 4, No. 2

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Questionnaire Sent To the Employees of the IT Industry in Western India

PERSONAL DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS

Age ____Sex ( ) Male ( ) Female Marital Status ( ) Unmarried ( ) Married Education ( ) B.Tech/M.Tech ( ) BCA/MCA ( ) MBA Spouse occupation ( ) Business ( ) Service ( ) HousewifeNumber of Children ____

ORGANISATIONAL FACTORS

1. Job levels ( ) Trainee ( ) Team Leader ( ) Group Leader2. No of subordinates directly controlled ______________3. Length of service in the present organization _______Years

WORK CLIMATE (Encircle the appropriate answer)

Very Poor Poor Average V Good Excellent

Read the below statements and indicate against the items, how often you have the feeling expressed in the statement in relation to your role in your organization. If you find that the category to be used in answering does not adequately indicate your own feelings use the one, which is closest to the way, you feel. Kindly do not leave any item unanswered.

*Please encircle : 0 if you never or rarely feel this way1 if you occasionally (a few times) feel this way

2 if you sometimes feel this way

3 if you frequently feel this way

4 if you very frequently or always feel this way

1. I am bothered with the contradictory expectations different people have from my role

2. I am afraid I am not learning enough in my present role to take up higher responsibility

3. I am not able to satisfy the conflicting demands of various people over me

4. I have to do things in my role that are against my better judgment

5. I am not clear on the scope and responsibility of my job

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0 1 2 3 4

0 1 2 3 4

0 1 2 3 4

0 1 2 3 4

0 1 2 3 4

6. I don’t get information needed to carry out responsibilities

7. I have various other interests,(social, religious etc) which remain neglected because I do not get time for these activities

8. Many functions of what should be a part of my role have been assigned to some other role

9. The amount of work I have to do interferes with the quality I want

10. I am not able to use my training and expertise in my role

11. I do not know what the people I work with expect from me.

12. I do not get enough resources to be effective in my role.

13. I do not have time and opportunities to prepare myself for future challenges of my role

14. I would like to take more responsibility than I am handling at present

15. I have been given too much responsibility.

16. I wish there was more consultation between my role and other roles.

17. I have not had pertinent training for my role.

18. The work I do in the organization is not related to my interest

19. Several aspects of my role are vague and unclear

20. I do not have enough people to work with me in my role

21. My organizational responsibilities interfere with my extra-organizational roles

22. There is very little scope for personal growth in my role

23. The expectation of my seniors conflict with those of my juniors

24. I can do much more than what I have been assigned

25. There is a need to reduce some parts of my role

26. If I had full freedom to define my role I would be doing some things different from what I do now

27. Even when I take initiative for discussion or help, there is not much response from other roles.

28. I experience conflict between my values and what I have to do in my role

29. I wish we had no night shifts

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30. I wish we had more stress busting sessions

OCB TO BE DEVELOPED

1. I am happy to do unpaid work in my free time2. I waste a lot of my working time3. I voluntarily help subordinate staff 4. I volunteer to be on committees /attend meeting5. I support extracurricular activities in my organization 6. I arrive to work and meetings on time 7. I take the initiative to introduce myself to new staff8. I give colleagues advance notice of changes in schedule9. I delegate an excessive amount of work to my juniors 10. I make innovative suggestions to improve the overall

quality of the workplace.

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0 1 2 3 40 1 2 3 40 1 2 3 40 1 2 3 40 1 2 3 40 1 2 3 40 1 2 3 40 1 2 3 40 1 2 3 40 1 2 3 4