Analysis and Comparison of Stress among Males and Females in BPOs in NCR, India

A

SYNOPSIS / RESEARCH PROPOSAL

SUBMITTED TO THE

MANAV RACHNA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY, FARIDABAD

FOR THE DEGREEOF

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHYIN

(MANAGEMENT)

By

SONAL PATHAK

Registration No- 09029990021

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF

Dr. ANIL SARIN

Department of MBA, Faculty of Management Studies

MANAV RACHNA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY, FARIDABAD

20th Feb, 2010

Signature of Candidate:

Signature of Supervisor:

Table of Contents Abstract…………………………………………………………………. ……………....3

1. Introduction ………………………………………………………………… ……..........4

2. Description of Broad Area

BPO Industry ……………………...………………………………….. . ………... ..4

International Scenario ….………………………………………………………….. 5

Status of Women in the IT/ BPO Sector in India …................................................ 5

Key spoilsports of the BPO Industry…………………………………………….....6

3. Literature Review…………………………………………………………………………7

4. Objectives of the study/ Problem Identification …………………………………….....11

5. Hypotheses of the Study……………………………………………………………….....12

6. Work Plan and Methodology ……………………………………………………......... . 12

Planning phase………………………………………………………………. ………. ..12

Action phase…………………………………………… ……………………………..12

Observe phase ………………………………………………………… ………….........13

Reflect phase………………………………………………… …………………….. ….13

7. Proposed Outcomes of the research ……………………………………………………14

8. References…………………………………………………………………………...........14

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ABSTRACT

Outsourcing has become an essential part of industries in the present era to provide economic

balance to the businesses. Multinational companies are looking forward to have their businesses

outsourced from India because plenitude of human resources is available here. Earlier, only men

were opting for BPO industry for their livelihood but today a number of women are working in

industries. Everything is not green inside the BPOs. In fact, working in metrics, project

deadlines, shift culture, work-life balance etc have increased stress among employees. Moreover,

women working there are struggling with issues like glass ceiling, gender inclusivity,

multitasking etc. This proposal describes how stress operates in the BPO industry and how

stresses are induced in men and women. The aim of the present study is to analyze and

compare stressors and responses on stress by males and females in the BPO industry in India.

The study would also sensitize the management of the BPO regarding their responsibility to

reduce the stress levels of their employees to minimal level for increasing their productivity by

understanding the need of their employees (male and female).

These days, some organizations have started realizing the importance of stress management to

improve their productivity, employee loyalty, reducing the attrition rate and curbing the tendency

of their employees for getting gravitated to depression and suicidal tendencies. But still, there is

a long way to go for a harmonious and amicable working environment.

The opinions and attitudes of BPO employees shall be analyzed using statistical sampling tools

(t- test, chi-square test, F-test etc ).

Key Words: Outsourcing, BPO, Corporate Stress, Stressors, Glass ceiling, Gender Inclusivity.

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1. INTRODUCTION

Stress is a widely spread universal phenomenon. Stress exists in human beings, animals and

even in metals used in various engineering structures. Interestingly, most of the mechanical

devices/structures are tested for stress levels in laboratories and manufacturing places for their

prolonged life and efficient working. Stress level is also related to animals and their efficiency

of producing milk or providing quality services to human beings. However, in this study we

shall be concerned about human stress with special focus on the corporate BPO stress in

National capital region, India. Stress creeps in, when there is increased anxiety and mental

pressure. Though Stress seems to be simple to understand but it is very complex and generally

people misunderstand stress.

1.1 Definition of Stress

Stress cannot be defined in a rigid way. According to the most definitions of stress, it is caused

by physical or psychological stimulus and the response of individuals to unfavorable conditions

(stimulus for the stress). Stress is the process of adaptive response of an individual to face the

alarming situations (physical or psychological). Canadian physician Hans Selye was the first

person to describe the concept of stress in his book ‘the stress of life’ in 1930. Alarm reaction,

resistance and the exhaustion were the three phases of ‘General Adaptation Syndrome’ which

Hans Selye explored in 1930s.

Stress is a general term for the problems that includes the factors responsible for the

stress reaction, type of stress responses and the intervening process. No one is capable to ignore

stress in their life. Though it is invisible, but, every individual and organization is suffering from

stress. Stress is the mental condition or state of mind which acts like a disease though, its

response remains non- specific to demand, stress has become a major concern of the modern

times as it can cause harm to employee’s health and performance. In corporate sector, it requires

significant attention especially after the establishment of BPO industry in India.

2. DESCRIPTION OF THE BROAD AREA

2.1 BPO industry

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Early eighties were the time when the term ‘Outsourcing’ has stated. Some organization started

delegating their functions which were non-core functions and can be easily executed by the

external organization that that was specialized in providing a particular service, function or

product on their behalf. Outsourcing is required and advantageous in globalize corporate world.’

Outsourcing market has this fastest growing division. Back office functions and the front office

functions are the two categories of the jobs in BPOs. While the back office jobs include internal

business functions such as procurement and payment whereas, the customer – related services

(after sale support and the technical support) are the front office outsourcing includes customer-

related services. In the recent times, there is an endless job opportunities for those who are

willing to render BPO activities. Starting from Call Center and Data Processing to Knowledge

Services and Transcription Services, there is no dearth of BPO Jobs in the current era. In

relative term, jobs in BPOs are fairly well paid which is 2-10 time the starting salary in any of

the other job. Also generally we have a flat compensation profile but, in BPO industry salaries

often increase rapidly with experience.

2.2 International scenario

Retail sectors, telecommunications, insurance, banking, finance and mortgage and more are

being catered by the business process outsourcing over the last two decades .The third party that

offers economies and focused management expertise are helping firms in consolidating and

standardizing operating processes. India, Russia and China are the countries which are

flourishing with BPO industry and companies which are US and UK based looking at these

countries for their businesses to be outsourced. India is about to gain $60 billion of the

international BPO industry which is going to be worth $230 billion by 2014. However, the

country’s existing infrastructure needs a complete re-haul; workforce needs to be upgraded. Thus

we can say that currently BPOs industry is at explosion and number of employees keeps on

increasing

2.3 Status of women in the IT/ BPO sector in India

Today’s women are participating equally in bread-butter earning along with men. Old were the

days, when women stayed at home for their domestic duties. Now they are managing work at

both industry and home. Traditional roles of women have changed from home worker to business

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solutions. Survey on the various IT based industries in India suggests that 50% women are

employed in BPOs, whereas software industry have 19% of employed women and Telecom

industry have 40% of employed women. Technological and regulatory changes in the BPO sector

in India created a sharp and fairly sudden increase in the demand for female workers. According

to Data quest survey, though 20% of the IT workforce are women, but still very few women

manage to reach up to the CEO level position. The percentage of women goes down as the

seniority rises and is accrue only at the bottom in the career pyramid. If even few women reach

at the managerial level, they only deal with the administrative jobs rather than the work related

with hardware and the software. Technology is helping women as a tool and they are using ICT

for their office assistance only such as in word processing, data entry, capturing and verification,

order taking, after sales support etc and higher decision making role are generally predominated

by males only.

2.4 Key spoilsports of the BPO industry

Employees of BPO work 24 hours in a day, seven days a week without getting holidays on

important Indian festivals or often not even on national holidays.

Following are the key spoilsports that have their huge impact on the fastest growing industry:

Pressure to Perform on Metrics

Strict Project Deadlines

Overtime

Health Issues

Prolonged Working Shifts

Work Load

Insufficient Holidays

Work- Life Balance

Monotonous / Repetitive Nature of Work

Glass-Ceiling

Gender Inclusivity

The above said factors generate stress among employees but stress responses and

acceptance of a pessimistic /optimistic situation to cope with that is totally different for

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different genders. Therefore HR professionals must take care of these issues while handling

grievances in their firms and in framework of policies for their employees.

3. LITERATURE REVIEW

The concept of stress is borrowed in social sciences from physical & natural sciences. In the

Encyclopedia of Mental health, the term ‘stress’ is a force (physical or psychological) applied to a

system. Stress is a state wherein expected functioning gets disrupted. Thus stress affects an

individual’s response.

3.1 Early-staged researches on the stress.

Various experiments, conducted (Selye, Hans)(1956)[7] on rats revealed that if the living being is

rigorously damaged by severe agents, a typical syndrome namely GAP appears. As per the Hans,

the GAP comprises of three phases: - First phase is Alarm Reaction, Second phase is Resistance,

and Third phase is Exhaustion.

Fig 1 : Stages of GAP

When suddenly a discomfort condition is confronted by an organism, the state of general alarm

appears as the first stage and called ‘General Alarm Reaction’. Then organism gives an unusual

responses like temperature change, fever etc which is the resistance stage. After being trapped

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into a non comfort conditions for long time, organism starts adapting the situation as it is, this is

called the exhaustion stage.

In India, The concept of ‘organizational role stress’ was firstly proposed by Kahn et al (1964)

[8]. He defines “stress” as an environmental characteristics thought to affect people adversely.

Their work on role conflict and role ambiguity was the pioneer effort in organizational studies. Jobs

such as negotiation, procurement, promotion or jobs of representing the institute to the public

involve greater stress. They also found that some personality dimension including emotional

sensitivity, introversion – extroversion, flexibility- rigidity and the need for career achievement

contribute towards as work stress.

Motowidlo, Packard (1986)[13] has used a stress model which follows the philosophy of Lazarus,

Osier (1952) and Leventhal (1968). This model figure out that emotional states such as unease,

aggression, and hopelessness and to decrements in aspects of job performance, are the consequences

of subjective stress and it is caused by different state of affairs that occur at work.

Pestonjee (1999)[2] has also developed a model called ‘BOUNCE MODEL’ to explain how we

cope with stress reactions.

Kruk (2004) [10] described the HPA-axis to explain stress developed in the human body.

Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal axis is the axis which interconnects the adrenal glands, pititutary

gland and the hypothalamus. In neuroendocrine system, HPA axis controls the responses to stress

and also manage the various body processes such as immune system, energy storage, anxiety

disorder, body temperature, mood and emotions, digestion etc. GAP is also mediated by the HPA

axis. A brief mechanism of the development of stress as per HPA axis is shown in the following

figure:

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Fig2 : Hypothetical Mechanisms Showing the Adrenocortical Stress Response

Thus we can say the stress is being explored day by day to know the physical, psychological and

biological correlation on a person’s attitude towards life and job.

3.2 Stressors among BPO employees.

The study conducted by Sudhashree et al (2004)[14] reveals that, everything is not good in the

BPO industry. This industry is suffering from the ‘BOSS’ syndrome. Due to this syndrome, the

BPO industry is generally called ‘BOSS -Burn out Stress Syndrome’. In BPOs, BOSS can be

seen very commonly. Chronic fatigue and insomnia are the symptoms of this syndrome.

Gastrointestinal problems are inevitable due to chronic stress in employees working 24 X 7.

Women employees in BPO

BPO is a place where women can enjoy their empowerment. BPO is one of the industries, where

women have shown their growth, even at some higher positions. However, this is also a fact that

women are still expected to do multi-tasking. They have to fulfill their responsibility at home and at

office as well. Though women have a sound position in the BPO, but they always suffer problems

by virtue of their sex. According to the Pande (2005) [15] generally there is equal emerging

opportunity for women employee excluding some of the issues like:

Discrimination / Stereotyping

Security

Multiple roles

Work – life balance (due to late hours working and party life image).

Lack of career progress / Glass Ceiling

Kenth [9] in 2007 suggested that pregnant and the nursing women must be protected from the

excessive physical and emotional stress and working in the night shifts. This study supports the

protection for only women due to their reproductive functions.

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3.3 Analysis of stress among males and females

Hobfoll et al developed a dual axis model of coping which includes both action and social

dimensions of coping strategies. This was examined on a group of men and women. Results from

this study reveal that women are more social as compared to men. Men are generally more

aggressive and they use assertive coping strategies whereas, women deal with the negative

emotions first and are more prone to pessimistic approach than men.

Gyllensten (2005)[4] was done a review on the role of gender on the workplace stress and role of

stressors on the workplace stress. It was found inconsistent in this review. Some studies says that

women are at higher level of workplace stress than men but at the same time there are studies

which says that role of gender is not important. Thus, no firm conclusion can be drawn out on the

differentials in stress between different genders.

Galanakis et al (2008) [5] studied a sample of 2775 professional to study the gender’s role in

organizational -stress considering the variables like age, education, role of marital status and

gender. Results proposed that in general, women are more stressed than men. But variables like

marital status, education and age do not have significant impact on gender. Study describes that

over the past two decades studies investigating gender difference have given contradicting

results.

Eaton,et al (2008) [3] has described that gender, negative affectivity (NA) and perceptions of

stressfulness are closely related to each other. Women generally perceive the scenario as more

stressful than men even if the conditions are controllable. Also, there is a significant role of

gender on the coping selection. Women opt for the emotion-focused coping strategies and men

opt for the practical-focused strategies.

In 2009, a study Sharon, et al (2009) [16] was done on 630 women and 933 men to examine the

relationship between the employee’s burnout and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Two negative

states – depression and anxiety were controlled for possible confounders. Burnout was found to

be closely associated with CRP. Also fibrinogen concentrations in women were found to be

closely associated. Results reveals that women were less involved in physical activities and are

more stressed than men. Thus, anxiety, burnout and depression are differentially associated with

gender.

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Christy, et al (2011) [1] studied the relationship between trait emotional intelligence and gender

considering three job-related variables (stress management, emotional management, and

emotional expression). The sample consisted of 1025 participants, of whom 550 were female and

475 were male. Their ages ranged from 18 to 70. Results showed that differences between males

and females with regard to how their stress and emotions are managed and expressed are

significant. Men show greater usage of stress management skills, while women express more

emotion in their responses. Reason for such behavior shown by women is - as women are

predominantly exposed, simultaneously to family and job related stressors.

Malhotra Shefali, (2012) [11] was done a study on 300 employees who were working in Call

centers situated at Mohali, Chandigrah and Panchkula and found that job satisfaction is one of

the factor of increased stress. Also, other factors are listed as –sense of insecurity, work

environment, workload, colleagues and job task. Study also suggested management should frame

such employee’s assistance programs which are based on requirement of the different level of

employees.

Pathak, Mitali (2011) [12] reveals after a study that generally women perceive a situation more

stressful in comparison to the men and uses the emotion – focused coping strategies. On the

other side, men try to control the cause of the situation first rather than giving the reaction based

on the emotions

The literature available on stress has given some contradictory findings about the

difference in stress among females and males. These studies identify certain issues both as

similarities and dissimilarities in gender in stress management. For example, research by

Hobfoll, Stevan E.[9] suggests that the women do not think about the solution of the problem and

get in to depression faster than men due to negative emotions. However, this point is contrary to

other findings which suggested that women see the company’s effort to help their work-life

balance more positive than men. Though now a days some organizations are practicing stress

management techniques. But also from the recent review of literature it is examined that various

organizational variables affects the work stress and it may or may not be differ for different

gender. Thus analysis of stress between males and females in BPOs is still a topic to discover

which can help our BPO industry to get rid out of this evil in the contemporary context. The

above said gap and contradiction motivated the present proposed study.

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4. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The study is of descriptive nature and aims at understanding and exploring new dimensions of

the existing stress management techniques in the Indian BPO industry.

The main objectives of the study are:

To determine the various physical, emotional and social problems faced by BPO

employees.

To study the status of women in the BPO industry & analyze gender inclusivity in the

BPO industry.

To evaluate and analyze the stress between men and women and their responses to

stressful situation.

To find out strategies which BPO companies may adopt for their employees in

maintaining their good work-life balance.

5. HYPOTHESES OF THE STUDY

Null Hypothesis

H0: There is no difference in stress between males and females in the BPO Industry.

Alternative Hypothesis

Ha: There is difference in stress between males and females in the BPO Industry.

6. WORK PLAN AND METHODOLOGY

Planning Phase: Following are the proposed objectives of the planning phase -

• Establishing subject expertise by way of going through specific literature and case

studies on stress management in the BPO industry around NCR .

• Formulating a scope and rationale for the proposed area of study.

• Designing an implementation roadmap for research (visiting various BPOs to interview

their personnel and to prepare questionnaire accordingly).

• Selection of tools and techniques for analyses of the data collected.

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Action Phase : Following are the proposed objectives of the action phase-

To select an adequate (large) sample.

To plan the interview schedules.

To select the appropriate tools

To select the suitable statistical techniques/ tools to be used for analyses of the data.

Sampling and Data Collection

A sample size of around 500 respondents shall be designed. Samples will be drawn by means of

‘Proportional Stratified Random Sampling’ and around 250 employees at executive level 1

( more than 10 years of experience) and 250 employees at executive level 2 ( less then 10 years

of experience) shall be interviewed using two different structured questionnaire respectively.

Sampling will be done in respect to gender, age, annual income and working shift. Survey for

sampling will be restricted to the randomly selected specific offices in the NCR region only. The

study will be based on both secondary level information (journals, other concerned literature on

the topic, annual reports and official reports, magazines, news papers, office manuals, seminars,

workshops) and primary data collection through field surveys and personal interviews.

Questionnaires will be containing different categories of questions to collect the demographic

details of the employees. ‘Perceived stress scale’ which is one of the psychological instrument

will be used to measure the non – specific perceived stress. Perceived stress scale will be used

to assessing the intensity of situations in terms of stressfulness.

Observe and Reflect Phase

This phase will include the identification and analysis of differences and similarities between

stressors and responses on stress by men and women. The collected data will be thoroughly ana-

lyzed to interpret the result of findings. Results will follow the further discussions and conclu-

sion. Appropriate statistical tools will be used as per the demand of data analysis. Qualitative and

quantitative facts and figures will be established through standard statistical methods.

Limitations of the Study

Besides budgetary constrains, the sample size of 500 people belonging to various socio-eco-

nomic strata in national capital region may not be the true representation of Indian society. Since

sampling methods are used; there might be some error in this method.

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7. THE PROPOSED AREA OF RESEARCH WILL HAVE THE FOLLOWING STATED

CONTRIBUTION

The study will continue to understand how stress operates in the BPO industry and as

such will be beneficial to the management to increase the quality and quantity of the pro-

duction output.

This study will be a source to understand stress accurately and a helping tool for the indi-

vidual, family, society as well.

This study could be further utilized by future researchers in the various functional areas

of management.

8. REFERENCES

[1]. Christy, Bennie. Tim, Huang. (2011). Gender differences in stress management, emotional

management and emotional expression within the workplace, New Voices in Psychology, Vol. 6

(2), pp 23-44.

[2]. D.M. Pestongee. (1999). Stress and Coping the Indian Experience (2nd edition), Sage

Publications, New Dehli.

[3]. Eaton, Rebecca J.Bradley, Graham. (2008). The role of gender and negative affectivity in stressor

appraisal and coping selection, International Journal of Stress Management, Vol.15 (1), pp 94-

115.

[4]. Gyllensten, K. and Stephen, P. (2005). The Role of Gender in Workplace Stress: A Critical Literature

Review, Health Education Journal, Vol. 64 (3), pp 271 - 288.

[5].Galanakis, M., Stalikas, A., Kallia, H., Karagianni,C., Karela,C. (2008).Gender differences in

experiencing occupational Stress: The role of age, education and marital status, Journal of Stress and

Health, Vol.25, pp 397-404.

[6]. Hobfoll, Stevan E., Dunahoo, Carla, L., Ben-Porath Yossef, (1994). Gender and Coping: The Dual-

Axis Model of Coping, American Journal Of Community Psychology, Vol. 22 (1), pp 49-82.

[7]. Hans – Selye. (May, 1966). A Syndrome Produced by Diverse Nocuous Agents. The Journal of

Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, Vol.10, pp 230-231.

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[8]. Kahn. (1964). The concept of roles in organization. Journal of Management, Vol. 18 (2), pp 353-

374.

[9]. Kenth. (November 2007). Researchers find evidence linking stress caused by the 9/11 disaster with

Low birth Weights, Journal of Human Reproduction, Vol. 22,(11).

[10].Menno R. Kruk. (2004).Fast positive feedback between the adrenocortical stress response and a

Brain mechanism involved in aggressive behavior. Journal of Behavioral Neuroscience,

Vol. 118(5), pp 1062–1070.

[11]. Malhotra Shefali, Chadha Omesh ,(2012). Stress in the context of job satisfaction: an empirical study

of BPO sector, International Journal of Research in IT & Management, Vol. 2 (1) pp 23-

38.

[12]. Pathak, Mitali . (2011). Leveraging Stress Level Stress Management: A Gender Perspective.

International Journal of Stress Management, Vol. 15 (1), pp 94-115.

[13]. Stephan J. Motowidlo , John S. Packard.( 1986 ).Occupational Stress: Its Causes and Consequences

for Job Performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 71 (4), pp 618 -629.

[14]. Sudhashree,V.P.,Rohith,K.,Shrinivas, K. (2004). Issues and Concerns of Health among call center

employees, Indian Journal Of Occupational and Environment Medicine. Vol. 9 (3), pp 120- 125.

[15] Pande, R. 2005.Looking at Information Technology from a Gender Perspective: A

look at Call Centres in India. Asian Journal of Gender Studies Vol.11 (1) pp 58-82.

[16]. Sharon, Toker. Arie, Shirom. Samuel, Melamed .(2009). The association between burnout, depression,

anxiety, and inflammation biomarkers: C-reactive protein and fibrinogen in men and women,

Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, Vol. 10 (4), pp 344-362.

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