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Occupational Stress and Job Satisfaction among IT

Professionals in India

Dr. Vandana Singh Gahlan

Assistant Professor,

Guru Jambheshwar University of Science & Technology, Hisar. Vandana10march@gmail.com

__________________________________________________________________

Abstract: The present study was undertaken with the intention of examining the nature of role stress and job satisfaction among IT Professionals, and to explore the relationship between these variables. The data pertaining to the study was collected from 400 IT professionals working in multinational companies in India. To attain the objectives of the study, two psychometric instruments - the Organizational Role Stress Scale [1] and the Job Satisfaction Questionnaire [2] were administered to the sample population to obtain data pertaining to the role stress and job satisfaction variables. The data were analyzed in terms of the descriptive, coefficients of correlation and regression. The results of the study revealed IT professionals had high level of organizational role stress on account of all the measures except role erosion. Also all the measures of organizational role stress were negatively correlated with job satisfaction however none of the measures of role stress were found to be significant predictors of job satisfaction.

Key Words: Job Satisfaction, Organizational Role Stress, IT Professionals

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

I INTRODUCTION

Job Satisfaction in the field of organizational behavior has been researched invariably thus depicting its importance in the organizations. Locke and Lathan [3] give a comprehensive definition of job satisfaction as pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experience. Job satisfaction is a result of employee's perception of how well their job provides those things that are viewed as important. According to Mitchell and Lason [4], it is generally recognized in the organizational behavior field that job satisfaction is the most important and frequently studied attitude. While Luthan [5] posted three important dimensions to job satisfaction: • Job satisfaction is an emotional response to a job situation. As such it cannot be seen, it can only be inferred. • Job satisfaction is often determined by how well outcome meet or exceed expectations.

• Job satisfaction represents several related attitudes which are most important characteristics of a job about which people have effective response.

Job satisfaction is affected by many factors such as, pay, organizational culture, job characteristics, work motivation and stress etc. Job satisfaction is highly important in building up employee motivation and efficiency as higher job satisfaction determine better employee performance and higher level of clients’ satisfaction. The present study attempts to find out whether role stress among IT professional affects their job satisfaction. Organizational role stress includes 10 measures:

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2. Role Stagnation (RS) – As individual grows older, he also grows in the role that he occupies in the 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 he feels less secure. The new role demands that an individual outgrows the previous one and take charge of the new role effectively. This is bound to produce some stress.

3. Role Expectation Conflict (REC) – When there are conflicting expectations or demands by different role senders (persons having expectations from the individuals), the role occupant experiences this type of stress.

4. Role Erosion (RE) –The role occupant may feel that the functions he would like to perform are being done by some other role. Role erosion is individual’s subjective feeling that some important expectations that he has from the role are shared by other roles within the role set.

5. Role Overload (RO) –When a role occupant feels that there are too many expectations from the significant others in his role set, he experiences role overload. Role overload is more likely to occur where role occupants lack power, where there are large variations in the expected output, and when delegation or assistance cannot procure more time. 6. Role Isolation (RI) – In a role set a role occupant may feel that certain roles are psychologically closer to him, while others are at a much greater distance. The main criterion of distance is the frequency and ease of interaction. When linkages are strong, role isolation will be strong and vice-versa.

7. Personal Inadequacy (PI) – When the role occupant feels that he does not have adequate knowledge, skill or training to undertake a role effectively, or that he has not had time for preparing for the role assigned, he may experience stress.

8. Self-Role Distance (SRD) –This stress arises out of 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 find to be conflicting with self-concept, he feels stress.

9. Role Ambiguity (RA) – When the individual is not clear about the various expectations that individual’s have from his role he faces ambiguity. It may be because of the lack of information available to the role occupant, or his lack of understanding of the cues given to him.

10. Resource Inadequacy (R In) – It is experienced when the resources required by the role occupant for performing his role effectively are not available

According to National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) [6] the Indian information technology (IT) industry has played a key role in putting India on the global map and is poised to become a US$ 225 billion industry by 2020.

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sector is very volatile and faces the problem of lack of job security and constant upgradation of skills to remain marketable. The working conditions in the information technology industry have become very stressful with average working hours extended to 50 hours per week with working Saturdays and Sundays as well. Strict deadlines set by the customers, working in different time zones, interdependency in teams, multitasking and increased interaction with offshore clients. All this insight into the dynamics of job performance in IT companies motivated me to investigate into the relationships between role stress and job satisfaction and find out their implications for IT professionals.

II REVIEW OF LITERATURE

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Prince et al. [28] investigated the influence of role conflict, role ambiguity, and role strain on job performance, job satisfaction, and life satisfaction among field sales and company sales support employees. Findings revealed important variations in response to role conflict, role ambiguity, and role strain between the two classes of employees. Decreases in role strain, while improving life satisfaction, may lead to lower job satisfaction for sales support employees

Dua [29] conducted a research on job stressors to know general stress, emotional health, and physical health of staff. Factor analysis of the job stressors revealed that six factors, namely, job significance, workload, work politics, interpersonal dealings at work, work conditions, and university reorganization, were the major stressors for the staff. Both the job stress and non-work stress were associated with poor physical health, poor emotional health, and high job dissatisfaction. Blalack and Davis [30] examined the degree and relationship among role ambiguity, job-related tension, and job satisfaction. Findings indicate that although the nature of the Unit Manager position is inherently satisfying, environmental factors contribute to a high degree of role ambiguity and job tension which tend to limit the satisfaction derived from the work.

III METHODS

The sample of 400 IT professionals was drawn using convenient sampling procedure. Only the employees having minimum one year of work experience were included in the study. The average age of the respondents is 28 years. The sample was drawn from the following IT companies during the year 2008-2010; Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, Infosys, IBM, HCL, Sapient, Value Labs., Mphasis, Aricent, Samsung and Newgen located in Gurgaon, NOIDA, Delhi, Faridabad, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mohali and Bangalore. For the present study the data has been collected in two ways i.e. field data and documented data. Field data is collected through standardized questionnaires and documented data is collected from various research journals and with the help of internet. The measuring instruments used were following :

A.Organizational Role Stress

The Organizational Role Stress scale (ORS) [1] is used to measure 10 role stresses, namely self-role distance, inter-role distance, inter-role stagnation, inter-role isolation, inter-role ambiguity, inter-role expectation conflict, inter-role overload, inter-role erosion, resource inadequacy and personal inadequacy. ORS is a five point scale, containing five items for each role stress and a total of 50 statements. The total scores on each role stress range from 0 to 20. Out of 50 statements there are 5 statements for each role stress, the total score of these 5 statements constitute the score for each role stress variable respectively. Retest reliability coefficients were calculated for a group of about 500 employees from three banks. The scale has acceptable reliability.

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EXHIBIT 1

STATEMENTS SHOWING THE MEASURE OF ORGANIZATIONAL ROLE STRESS

Statement number Dimension

1 – 11 – 21 – 31 – 41 Inter Role Distance

2 – 12 – 22 – 32 – 42 Role Stagnation

3 – 13 – 23 – 33 – 43 Role Expectation Conflict

4 – 14 – 24 – 34 – 44 Role Erosion

5 – 15 – 25 – 35 – 45 Role Overload

6 – 16 – 26 – 36 – 46 Role Isolation

7 – 17 – 27 – 37 – 47 Personal Inadequacy

8 – 18 – 28 – 38 – 48 Self Role Distance

9 – 19 – 29 – 39 – 49 Role Ambiguity

10 – 20 – 30 – 40 – 50 Resource Inadequacy

B. Job Satisfaction

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IV RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

TABLE 1

SUMMARY OF DESCRIPTIVE STATISTIC

S. No. Variables Std. Mean Observed

Mean Std. Deviation Skewness Kurtosis

1 Job Satisfaction 54 64.51 2.04 -.45 .01

2 Inter Role Distance

As per norms 9.50 2.55 .22 -.53

3 Role Stagnation As per norms

9.97 2.61 .13 -.60

4 Role Expectation Conflict As per norms

9.87 2.54 .19 -.12

5 Role Erosion As per norms

10.18 2.55 .20 -.13

6 Role Overload As per norms

9.97 2.51 .80 .53

7 Role Isolation As per norms

9.39 2.73 .15 -.75

8 Personal Inadequacy As per norms

9.68 2.70 .14 -.60

9 Self Role Distance As per norms

9.45 2.44 .07 -.38

10 Role Ambiguity As per norms

9.63 2.44 .32 -.26

11 Resource Inadequacy As per norms

9.87 2.47 .80 .40

A. Descriptive Analysis

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TABLE 2

NORMS FOR MEAN SCORE OF ORGANIZATIONAL ROLE STRESS

Organizational Role Stress Standard Mean (Low)

Standard Mean (Medium)

Standard Mean (High)

Inter Role Distance 2 5 8

Role Stagnation 2 5 8

Role expectation Conflict 2 4 7

Role Erosion 7 9 12

Role Overload 1 3 6

Role Isolation 3 6 9

Personal Inadequacy 2 4 8

Self Role distance 3 5 9

Role Ambiguity 1 3 7

Resource Inadequacy 2 5 8

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TABLE 3

INTER CORRELATIONS MATRIX

In order to examine the extent to which the all the dimensions of organizational role stress predict the variance in job satisfaction multiple regressions (Table 4) were worked out for IT professionals working in various

Inter Role

Distance StagnationRole

Role Expectation

Conflict ErosionRole OverloadRole

Role Isolatio

n

Personal Inadequ

acy Self RoleDistance

Role Ambigu

ity

Resource Inadequa

cy

Job Satisfac

tion Inter Role Distance .223** .258** .192** .263** .165** .292** .233** .193** .220** -.075

Role Stagnation .278** .243** .218** .200** .221** .277** .160** .209** -.096

Role expectation Conflict

.357** .264** .311** .301** .276** .266** .248** -.125*

Role Erosion .291** .218** .149** .243** .144** .216** -.120*

Role Overload .234** .250** .230** .184** .262** -.112*

Role Isolation .271** .291** .246** .283** -.094

Personal Inadequacy .337** .253** .269** -.101*

Self Role distance .363** .361** -.037

Role Ambiguity .294** -.126*

Resource Inadequacy -.133**

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TABLE 4

PARAMETERS / COEFFICIENTS IN REGRESSION

Predictors Regression Coefficients b

Mean t Sig.

(Constant) 67.104 96.929 .000

X1 Inter Role Distance -.003 9.50 -.060 .952

X2 Role Stagnation -.032 9.97 -.759 .448

X3 Role expectation Conflict -.035

9.87 -.749 .454

X4 Role Erosion -.051 10.18 -1.164 .245

X5 Role Overload -.034

9.97 -.757 .449

X6 Role Isolation -.015

9.39 -.372 .710

X7 Personal Inadequacy -.030

9.68 -.706 .481

X8 Self Role distance .076

9.45 1.556 .120

X9 Role Ambiguity -.071

9.63 -1.542 .124

X10 Resource Inadequacy -.065

9.87 -1.409 .160

A general equation of multiple regressions that involves all the 11 predictors (e.g. X1to X11) and one dependent

variable (Y) can be stated as under:

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Where, X1,X2,…………X11 refers to Inter Role Distance and other dimension of organizational role stress, ‘Y’

refers to Job Satisfaction and ‘a’ is Constant

By substituting the values of regression coefficients (table 4) of all predictors and constant, the complete regression equation can be read as:

Y = 67.104 + (-.003 X1) + (-.032 X2) + (-.035 X3) + (-.051 X4) + (- .034 X5) + (-.015 X6) + (-.030 X7) + (-.076 X8)

+ (-.071 X9) + (- .065 X10)

The regression equation, in score form, indicates that for every unit increase in Inter Role Distance, Job Satisfaction (Y) decreases by .003 units. (Here the Inter Role Distance has emerged as negative predictor). In the same way, individual contribution of each of the predictors can be calculated.

TABLE 5

SUMMARY STATISTICS FOR REGRESSION

R R2 Adjusted R2 Std. Error of the Estimate

.214 .046 .021 2.018

Table 5 shows that multiple correlation (R) between the predictors and dependent measure is .526. The obtained F for the significance of multiple R equals to 1.87, degrees of freedom being 10 and 389. The findings clearly indicate that none of the dimensions of organizational role stress have significant impact on job satisfaction. The square of multiple R (R2) being .046 hereby suggests that all the 10 dimensions of organizational role stress jointly

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V DISCUSSIONS

Information Technology professionals perceive high level of stress on most of the measures of organizational role stress {Inter Role Distance, Role Stagnation, Role Expectation Conflict, Role Overload, Role Isolation, Personal inadequacy, Self-Role Distance, Role Ambiguity, Resource Inadequacy} suggesting thereby that when the respondents’ have to outgrow their previous performance on a role and take charge on the new role effectively, it produces stress on them. Similarly, when they are confronted with conflicting expectations from different role senders i.e. their boss, peers or clients, there are too many expectations from their role set and they lack power or the amount of work they do might interfere with how well it is done, all these factors create high level of stress. Also, when the employees find their self concept in conflict with the role expectations and they are not sufficiently skilled for handling a particular role they perceive stress. Further, the IT professionals perceive high level of stress when they are not clear about the expectations from their role which may be due to lack of information available to them or their inability to understand the cues available to them. Similarly when the resources provided to respondents to perform their role effectively are inadequate, also when they feel that they have too little authority to carry out the responsibilities effectively, are unclear about the scope and responsibilities of their job and are not able to satisfy the conflicting demands arising from their job, they perceive high level of stress. However, the level of stress on account of role erosion measure of organizational role stress is moderate indicating that the respondents when find that the functions they perform are also performed by some other role in the organization perceive moderate level of stress. The IT professionals have high level of job satisfaction with their job.

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with job satisfaction (DeFrank & Ivancevich 1998; Sparks & Cooper 1999; Taylor et al., 1997 and Chandhriah 2003). Similarly, the findings of the present study get support from previous findings of Aziz 2004 & Lim & Teo 1999 that the measure personal inadequacy and resource inadequacy of organizational role stress negatively correlates with job satisfaction. Results of the present study reveal that the measure role ambiguity, role conflict correlates negatively with job satisfaction which is in congruity with the findings of Blalack 7 Davis 2010; Steven 2009; Cummins 1990 and Naumann 1993.

The findings with regard to predictive value of organizational role stress for job satisfaction are of important implication in the field of organizational behavior. The results of regression show that none of the measure of organizational role stress are significant predictors of job satisfaction and all the measures of organizational role stress jointly account for only 4 per cent variance in job satisfaction of IT professionals.

REFERENCES

[1] Pareek, U. (1997) Role stress and coping: A framework. In Pestonjee, D.M & Udai Pareek (Eds.) Studies in organizational role stress and coping, Jaipur: Rawat, pp.13-27

[2] Brayfield, A.H. & Rothe, F.H. (1951) An index of job satisfaction, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. (35), pp. 307-311

[3] Locke, E. A., & Lathan, G. P. (1976). Theory of goal setting and task performance. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. (pp. 248-250). [4] Mitchell, T.R. & Lason, J.R. (1987) People in organizations: An introduction to organizational behavior (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. [5] Luthans, F. (1998) Organisational Behaviour(8th ed.). Boston: Irwin, McGraw-Hill.

[6] www.nasscom.org

[7] Naumann, E. (1993) Antecedents and consequences of satisfaction and commitment among expatriate managers, Group & Organization Management, Vol. (18), pp. 153-87

[8] Sullivan, S.E. & Bhagat, R.S. (1992) Organizational stress, job satisfaction and job performance: where do we go from here?, Journal of Management, Vol. (18), pp. 353-74

[9] Tett, R.P. & Meyer, J.P. (1993) Job satisfaction, organizational commitment, turnover intention, and turnover: path analyses based on meta-analytic findings, Personnel Psychology, Vol. (46), pp. 259-93

[10] Williams, L.J. & Hazer, J.T. (1986) Antecedents and consequences of satisfaction and commitment in turnover models: a reanalysis using latent variable structural equation methods, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. (71), pp. 219-31

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[12] Terry, D.J.; Nielsen, M.; & Perchard, L. (1993) Effects of work stress on psychological wellbeing and job satisfaction: the stress-buffering role of social support, Australian Journal of Psychology, Vol. (45), pp. 168-75

[13] Cummins, R.C. (1990) Job stress and the buffering effort of supervisory support, Group and Organizational Studies, Vol. (15), pp. 92-104 [14] Aziz, M. (2004) Organizational role stress among Indian information technology professionals, Asian-Pacific Newsletter on Occupational Health and Safety, 10, 31 33

[15] DeFrank, R.S. & Ivancevich, J.M. (1998) Stress on the job: an executive update, Academy of Management Executive, Vol. (12), pp. 55-66 [16] Sparks, K. & Cooper, C.L. (1999) Occupational differences in the work-strain relationship: towards the use of situation specific models, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, Vol. (72), pp. 219-29

[17] Taylor, S.E.; Repetti, R.L.; & Seeman, T. (1997) Health psychology: what is an unhealthy environment and how does it get under the skin, Annual Review of Psychology, Vol. (48), pp. 411-47

[18] Burke, R. (1988) Sources of managerial and professional stress in large organizations, In C. L. Cooper, & R. L. Payne (Eds.), Causes, coping, and consequences of stress at work, Wiley series on studies in occupational stress, Oxford: John Wiley & Sons, pp. 77-114

[19] Nelson, D.L. & Burke, R.J. (2000) Women executives: health, stress, and success, Academy of Management Executive, Vol. (14), pp. 107-21

[20] Miles, R. H. & Perrault, W.D. (1976) Organizational role conflict its antecedents and consequences, Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, Vol. (17)

[21] French, J.R.P. & Caplan, R.D. (1973) Organisational stress and individual strain. In A. J. Marrow (Ed.), The failure of success. New York: John Wiley

[22] Chandraiah, K.; Agrawal, S.C.; Marimuthu, P.; & Manoharan, N (2003) Occupational Stress and Job Satisfaction among Managers, Indian Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine Vol. (7), pp. 1-16

[23] Steven, P.W. (2000) Organizational culture and its relationship between job tensions in measuring outcomes among business executives, Journal of Management Development, Vol. (19), pp. 12-16

[24] Jick, T. D. & Payne, R. (1980) Stress at work Exchange, Vol. (3), pp. 50-56

[25] Katz, D. & Kahn, R.L. (1978) The social psychology of organizations (2nd ed.), New York: Wiley

[26] Whetten, D. & Cameron, K. (1995) Developing management skills, 3rd edition. New York: Harper Collins College Publishers

[27] Lim K. G. V. & Teo, T. S. (1999) Occupational stress and IT personnel in Singapore: Factorial dimensions and differential effects, International Journal of Information Management, 19, 227- 291

[28] Prince, M.; Engle, R.; & Laird, K. (2005) A Model of Job Performance, Job Satisfaction, and Life Satisfaction among Sales and Sales Support Employees at a Pharmaceutical Company, Journal of Pharmaceutical Marketing & Management, Vol. (16), pp. 59-80

[29] Dua, J.K. (1994) Job Stressors and Their Effects on Physical Health, Emotional Health and Job Satisfaction in a University, Journal of Educational Administration, Vol. (32), pp. 59 – 78

Figure

TABLE 1SUMMARY OF DESCRIPTIVE STATISTIC
TABLE 2
TABLE 3INTER CORRELATIONS MATRIX
TABLE 4PARAMETERS / COEFFICIENTS IN REGRESSION
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References

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