CHAPTER-1

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Throughout the eighties and into the nineties, work stress has
continued to rise dramatically in organizations. The eighties
saw employees stressing out from working in a rapidly growing
economy. During the nineties, beginning from the recession of
1992 till present day, employees are stressed by their own job
insecurities in the face of massive downsizing and restructuring
of organizations in order to be competitive on the global stage.

Thus, when the stress levels among the employees begin to rise
as they deal with more and more clients, they would put up an
even greater resistance to their own emotions. Over time, the
professional may not be able to relax that emotional resistance.
All their emotions would be masked and retained within
themselves, resulting ultimately in mental and emotional
disorders. In stressful times, employees are often displeased or
angry at something. However, there are usually limited
channels in which employees can express their views. Since
opinions, views, and feelings cannot always be expressed to
anyone to change the current situation, there would be an
accumulation of anger and frustration within the individual. Up
to a certain point, the anger would be released, usually at the
wrong person or time, such as colleagues, clients, or family
members. This symptom has a tremendous impact on society
because there is a potential that it may hurt other people.

Stress is a condition or feeling experienced when a

person perceives that demands exceed the personal and
social resources the individual is able to mobilize.

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A certain amount of stress is good for us as it can encourage
change and activity. But if we are under too much stress our
ability to function effectively suffers.

When working in a team environment our stress is relayed to

the rest of the team resulting in a decline of team performance
making team building an imperative goal. For some a
potential stressful situation leads to the effect of "riding on the
crest of a wave" because it generates a certain chemical
reaction in the body that gives exhilaration. For others, the
same circumstances lead to different chemical reactions, which
result in loss of performance.

What is needed is environmental and self-regulation. Therefore

stress management is a partnership between the employee
and the employer.

Isolation is a common side effect of working under tremendous

stress. For many service practitioners, the clients that they
serve do not always readily welcome them. A prime example
would be policemen who are shunned often by the public. Over
time, a feeling of isolation and rejection would envelop the
person. The natural thing to do would be to withdraw from
others who do not understand their plight, resulting in profound
human loneliness. There are much other short term,
psychological effects of stress that can be readily seen or felt.

Stress at workplace
Feeling stress in the work place is a very common issue in
many organizations, both large and small. For workers, the
result of such stress is reduced job satisfaction. In extreme
cases this can degenerate further into physical and
psychological symptoms such as muscular aches and pains,

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weakened immunity, irritability and depression to name a few.
This ultimately leads to feeling burnt out. For the organisation,
there is also an impact. Firstly a worker that is suffering from
stress and burn out will typically be quite unproductive because
of absenteeism and/or less than satisfactory job performance.
The impact on the organisation will also vary depending on the
type of role the worker engages in. For example a stressed out
salesman who develops a detachment towards clients can
potentially affect the public perception of the organisation.
Similarly a stressed out worker involved in producing goods will
not produce anywhere near his/her optimal output. There can
also be an indirect impact on other fellow co-workers due to
lower morale.

Before one can look at how to deal with work place stress, it is
important to look at the various sources of such stress. Stress
will be either due to personal reasons or because of workplace
issues. Personal stress can include anything unrelated to the
actual workplace such as relationship issues, family conflicts,
financial concerns etc. Workplace stresses will be based on
either the nature of the job itself or the nature of the
organization or both. The job itself may be too much of a load
for the one person due to either lack of resources (people and
equipment) or time. There may be some form of ambiguity as
to what exactly the actual role of the job is. From an
organizational perspective, there may be simply low morale due
to downsizing and cost cutting. The management of the
organization may also be perceived as not treating their
workers fairly. Or perhaps the actual conditions of the
workplace are below an acceptable standard. As workplace
stress can be either personal or organizational, addressing and
managing this stress will require a proactive approach from two

3
angles. Personally, there is a lot one can do to ensure that
he/she is feeling content and happy including getting regular
rest, exercising, eating well and even seeking professional help
if necessary. If the stress is due to the nature of the role or
organisation, then the worker must speak to the relevant
authority, i.e. the manager or other individual, to discuss the
concerns. If discussing this does not solve the issue, perhaps
this the time to move on-there may be simply be not a good fit
between the individual and the job, or the individual and the
company.

We work with teams to help them understand the causes of

stress and how team-building initiatives can help them cope
with it.

Stress related time off work costs organizations billions of

pounds. To this can be added the effects of individual reduction
of productivity, impaired judgment, poor decisions, lost
opportunity, and the impact that can all have on the
organizations culture and customers, etc.

Management’s Role in Reducing Work Stress

Employee stress can have an enormous impact on an
organization in terms of cost. As many studies have shown,
there is a high correlation between stress and job performance.
At moderate levels, stress is beneficial in that it can cause
individuals to perform their jobs better and attain higher job
performance. However, at high levels, stress1 can decrease
productivity instead. This is the case often seen in employees
at many organizations. Furthermore, aside from costs

4
associated with lost productivity, there are costs with respect to
stress-related absenteeism and organizational medical
expenses. Specifically, these include costs of lost company
time, increase in work-related, disrupting production, increase
in health care costs and health insurance premiums, and most
importantly, decrease in productivity. There are numerous
methods that organizations could adopt to reduce undue stress
in their employees. However, measures taken to counter this
problem are usually tailored specifically for the particular
organization. Therefore, this report has chosen two separate
actions which are fundamental to most organizations that
management can take Reduction of Employee Stress as an
Organizational Policy. The first step any organization should
take to help its employees reduce and cope with stress is to
incorporate into the company policies a positive and specific
intent on reducing undue stress. This would indicate that top
management is committed to such a stress reduction program.
Furthermore, the amendment to the policies should also include
recognition that this initiative will benefit the achievement of
other organizational goals by enhancing the productivity of
employees through lowered stress levels. After the inclusion of
the broad mission goal of reducing employee stress,
management should draft out plans which specifically lay out
the provisions to accomplish that goal. As earlier mentioned,
there are many approaches to stress reduction, thus the
provisions should detail only the methods specific to the
organisation. For example, they could specify that employees
measures for the individual. In any case, the most important
beginning step is a total re-examination and revision of
company policies, plans, and procedures to enhance employees’
own methods of coping with stress, and simultaneously,

5
promote an organizational climate which actively assists
employees to minimize their stress.

Fundamental Techniques to Employee Stress

Reduction
One method management can employ to alleviate employee
stress is to make them fitter to deal with the everyday
pressures of work. There are three basic management
techniques that would accomplish this goal. Managers should be
clear about their expectations of employees and clearly convey
these expectations to each person. Secondly, management
should devise a performance-evaluation-feedback system such
that each employee would be aware of his / her performance
level based on the feedback received. Lastly, employees should
be fully capable of performing their job tasks. Stress arises
when employees do not possess the necessary skills to carry on
with the work assigned to them. Therefore, job-training
programs are essential to reducing anxiety and stress
associated when employees feel that they do not possess
sufficient skills or knowledge to perform the job that they were
hired for. Undergo periodic physical and psychological
examinations and personnel surveys to ascertain current stress
levels. Another alternative would be to provide personal
counseling to employees to identify undue stress levels and
then to advise any corrective measures.

Work stress places a very high toll on both employees and

employers. An employee subjected to high levels of stress could
experience both physical and mental side effects. Physical side
effects such as hypertension, coronary disease, infections,
ulcers could greatly decrease the lifespan of the person. The

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psychological effects such as repressed emotions, anger, and
isolation have a direct negative impact on organizational
productivity. Thus, organisations have a great responsibility in
reducing the stress of their employees, and in general are
concerned about their well being. There are numerous methods
to counter the stress problem. The report has cited only the
basics which are applicable to most organisations. The first step
for management is to set out the intention to reduce employee
stress as an organisational goal. Provisions detailing the
organisation’s planned approach should be drafted. Informing
employees of management’s expectations is one method to
reduce a large portion of the anxiety employees may have
about their jobs. Secondly, management must provide
subordinates feedback on their performance. Management
should also provide job training for all employees to enable
them to better perform their jobs and reduce the stress
associated with the feeling of inadequacy to perform one’s
duties.
Stress is one of the principal causes of lost productivity, social
breakdown and ill-health. Adverse pressures at work or in
social situations can cause it.
Stress is increasingly recognized as a health and safety at
work issue. Employers can now face claims in the civil courts
for damages for the breakdown of an employee's mental health.
There could also be additional employment related effects with
victims seeking compensation in the industrial tribunal courts
for unfair dismissal, for a detriment because of a stress-related
deterioration in their health or for having complained about
stress at work. The organization’s main obligations are: to
ensure, under the Health and Safety at Work Act etc, as far
as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety at work of

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its employees, by ensuring that employees have a safe place of
work, safe equipment and appliances with which to work and
also a safe system of work to comply with health and safety
legislation appropriate to its workplace to carry out risk
assessments (and this could increasingly be taken to include
stress audits) and put in place appropriate protective and
preventive measures as part of the risk assessment, it must
ensure that its employees receive proper instruction, training
and supervision and are kept fully informed of health and
safety issues which may affect them and the steps which they
should take to guard against health risks not to dismiss unfairly
employees with two or more years service, whether on health
grounds or otherwise not to dismiss or subject to a detriment,
employees, regardless of length of service, on specified health
and safety grounds.
In addition to the legal case, the business arguments for taking
care of an employee's mental health, of which unhealthy stress
is only one manifestation, include ethical considerations such as
respecting and valuing the individual, allowing for his or her
unique personality differences and allowing for balance between
corporate and private life so as to ensure continued health,
commitment and motivation.

Now a days new stress management course has also been

introduced. It aims at raising awareness of stress, its causes,
affects and techniques for managing it. Participants will identify
their own stressors and stressors in the organization prior to
forming a personal action plan to first cope with and then
reduce their stress levels.

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Participants will review the many potential daily stressors,
coming not only from physical events but also social situations,
our work, general living, our feelings, our thoughts and
perceptions. Mostly these stressors are perceived to be in
balance. The response we generate can be both positive and
negative and is characterized by the scale of the perceived
importance. In order to survive, be energized and be creative.
It is when the balance is wrong, however, that difficulties arise.

Everyone's response to stress will be different because each

individual is unique. So, a person who is a high achiever may
find it easier to cope with the pressures of an executive role
than someone whose expectations are in another direction, and
vice versa. Some people thrive in situations that others find
totally overwhelming. It is the degree of adoption that people
have to make to a situation, which determines whether they
react positively or negatively and find they either go forward or
fail to cope.

All pressure is not harmful. A certain amount of pressure can

enhance performance. But excessive, unrelenting negative
pressure results in individuals experiencing stress.

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Work stress is a very extensive topic ranging from research on
the sources of stress, the effects of stress, to ways on
managing and reducing stress.

This report will focus first on the effects of stress at work,

both mentally and physically. It will explain why management
should be concerned with rising employee stress and will
describe some actions management can take to alleviate work
stress. It will also focus on the different techniques of reducing
stress.

Objectives: -

This study will focus on Stress in an organization, fundamental

techniques of reducing stress, the cause of stress for
employees and management’s role in reduction of stress in an
organization. It will also include the different models to
measure ones stress level.

Methodology:

Conceptual Base: To refer various management books

(Managing stress), HR Journals (HR Focus, Harvard Business
Review, and Human Capital)

Secondary Data: Management books, Internet, Consultants,

Academicians, Business Reviews

Primary Data: The project is basically a sample survey

conducted in NTPC. The motive of selecting this public sector
unit is due to its rapidly changing environment. The emphasis
was given on the quality of the questionnaire; the questionnaire
consisted of questions related to stress at various levels of
management, its optimum level, and degree of stress.

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Questionnaire consisted of sector specific questions on how to
deal with stress & its effect on productivity and job satisfaction.

CHAPTER-2

ABOUT THE ORGANISATION

NTPC - AN OVERVIEW

INTRODUCTION:

National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd., (NTPC)

constitutes a mega national capability in terms of power
generating utility in India and has also earned commendable
international recognition. The organization is owned by the
Government of India and has been accorded the 'NAVARATNA'
status by the Government of India. 'Navratna' means 'Nine
Gems'. Government of India gives this status to nine best
performing public sector units. This number has increased to
eleven. Amongst the eleven, the other ten are -

 Indian Oil Corporation.(IOC)

 Steel Authority of India Ltd.(SAIL)

 Gas Authority of India Ltd.(GAIL)

 Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd.(VSNL)

 Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd.(BHEL)

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 Oil & Natural Gas Corporation.(ONGC)

 Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd.(MTNL)

 Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd.(BPCL)

 Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd.(HPCL)

 Indian Petrochemical Corporation Ltd.(IPCL)

NTPC is the only Navratna with 100% equity holding by the

government.

NTPC's ranking world-wide is as under :

1 st in Power Generation Capacity in India.

3 rd in Efficiency among Navaratnas in India.

7 th in Capacity in Asia-Pacific.

9 th in Thermal Power Generation in the world.

15 th in Power Generation in the World.

SOURCE: Seminar on 'Global Electricity Utility Benchmarking

1997' conducted by Market Line International Ltd.,U.K.

NTPC was established and authenticated in 1975, to

accelerate power development in India. Since then it has been
performing unscrupulously well, be it the fulfillment of
corporate responsibility of not harming the society even
unintentionally by adding to pollution of the environment
through its by-products or consistent generation of reliable and
quality power.

The areas of operation of this premier enterprise may

broadly be outlined as engineering, procurement, construction,
project management, erection, commissioning, operation &

12
maintenance. The company also executes transmission lines
and sub-station packages in India and abroad and has secured
several contracts from within the country and the international
market.

Over the past two and half years decades, NTPC has become
India's prime power house. It has contributed 18,440 MW
electricity to the India's total generating capacity of 94,055 MW
power through 15 coal-based power plants and 7 gas-based
power plants. Another 3200 MW or more is under various
stages of construction. Thus, NTPC's capacity is 20% of the
total capacity of India. Its contribution to the total power
generation of India i.e.,4,48,406 MW is 1,13,840 MW which is
more than 25% of the total generation of India. NTPC
generates more than 1/4th of the total power generation of
India. That is why it is said that every fourth bulb is lighted by
NTPC.

NTPC added a capacity of 940 MW during the year 1998-

99. This addition is through Vindhyachal-II (500MW),
Kayamkulam (230MW) & Unchahar-II(210MW).

With this, the installed capacity of the corporation has

risen to 17,735MW plus 705MW of Badarpur Power Project ,
which makes the total installed capacity equal to 18,440MW.A
generating capacity of 1115MW is to be added during the year
1999-2000.

In India, electricity is produced through various resources

such as coal, gas, diesel, water, windmill, nuclear energy etc.
Out of which coal and gas contributes nearly 70%, water
contributes nearly 26% and other resources 4%. In this, NTPC
contributes only through coal and gas as much as 25.4% of the
total coal and gas power generating capacity of India. The first

13
power station of NTPC was commissioned at Singrauli,
Sonebhadra district of U.P. with an installed capacity of 200MW,
in 1982.(Details of sector-wise contribution to India's total
power is given in Annexure-I and details of all the existing
projects and projects under construction of NTPC is given in
Annexure-II).

HIERARCHICAL STRUCTURE

The Registered Office of the Company also known as NTPC

Bhavan is located at Scope Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi.
The company is headed by Chairman & Managing Director
(CMD) with Functional Directors including Director (Technical),
Director (Personnel), Director (Finance), Director (Operation),
Director (Commercial) and Director (Projects). The CMD is also
assisted by General Manager (Planning) and Executive Director
(Vigilance) at the corporate level.

The company has 3-Tier Management Systems

namely:

1. Corporate Level Management

2. Regional Level Management

3. Different Site Level Management

At Corporate Level , the CMD heads its team of Directors and

is assisted by General Manager (Planning) and Executive
Director (Vigilance).

At Regional Level , the regions are headed by Executive

Directors, who intern report to CMD. There are in all 5 regions -
Eastern Region (ER), Western Region (WR), Northern Region
(NR), Southern Region (SR) and National Capital Region (NCR).

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At Site Level , the sites are under the direct control of General
Managers or Additional General Managers, who in turn report to
respective Executive Directors.

CORPORATE MISSION

NTPC's mission is to make available reliable and quality

power in increasingly large quantity. The company will
spearhead the process of accelerated development of the power
sector by planning and expeditiously implementing power
projects and operating stations economically and efficiently.
The company will augment its power generation through tie-ups
with other organizations in areas of conventional energy
sources as well as non-conventional energy sources. NTPC will
contribute to all-round sector improvement by sharing its
experience and expertise with other organizations. The
company will participate in the execution of power projects
abroad, if necessary in collaboration with other reputed
organizations.

CORPORATE OBJECTIVES

 To add generating capacity, within the prescribed time and

cost.

 To operate and maintain power stations at high availability

ensuring minimum cost of generation.

 To maintain the financial soundness of the company by

managing the financial operations in accordance with good

commercial utility practices.

15
 To develop appropriate commercial policy leading to

remunerative tariffs and minimum receivable.

 To function as a responsible Corporate Citizen and discharge

responsibility in respect of environment protection and

rehabilitation.

 To adopt appropriate Human Resources Development policy

leading to creation of a team of motivated and competent

power professionals.

 To attain self-sufficiency in technology and disseminate

knowledge essentially as a contribution to other constituents

of the power sector in the country.

 To develop Research and Development for achieving

improved plant reliability.

 To expand the consultancy operations and to participate in

ventures abroad.

 To participate in social justice and removing the social

inequality.

CORPORATE VISION

NTPC, a front runner in the Indian power sector; to be one

of the largest and best power utilities of the world; and thereby
contribute to India's emergence as one of the world's leading
economies.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

The R & D center at Noida continues to play an important

role in economic power generation. The center has entered into
a MOU with Bhabha Atomic Research Center; Australian

16
Government for a study on coal characteristics; Trireme
Institute for Industrial Research, Delhi; Central Mechanical
Engineering Research Institute (CMER), Durgapur and a number
of other organisation.

NTPC & THE GOVERNMENT

NTPC signed the Memorandum of Understanding with the

Government of India in 1987 for the first time. NTPC has
entered into a MOU with the government with commitment for
efficient performance and ensuring fair return to the
investment. The organisation has been rated "excellent" for
eleven consecutive years ever since the inception of MOU
system in the country.

QUALITY POWER

The Engineering Division of the company has been

awarded ISO-9001 certification by the internationally reputed
certification body M/S Lloyd's Regatta Quality Assurance
Ltd.(LRQA),U.K. All stations of NTPC in the Western Region
located at Vindhyachal, Kawas, Jhanor-Gandhar, Korba and
Balco Captive Power Plant has also been awarded ISO-9002
certification by the Bureau of Indian Standards.

GREEN POWER

NTPC has taken a number of initiatives to improve the

performance of its stations in line with its environmental policy.
These include institutional strengthening, environmental
monitoring, environmental audit reviews, renovation and
retrofitting, ecological impact monitoring and afforestation. One
of the examples of this is ash utilization by changing it into fly
ash bricks.

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SOCIAL POWER

NTPC, as a responsible citizen, is making constant efforts

to improve the socio-economic status of Project Affected
Persons (PAPs).The PAPs are sensitized to the change in the
social matrix of the area through a greater consultation process
by formation of Village Development Advisory Committees and
better transparency through establishment of Public
Information Center (PI). PAPs are encouraged to participate in
planning and implementation of Rehabilitation and Resettlement
(R & R) activities. For improving R & R activities, training
workshops are organized regular

POWER OF SKILL

NTPC's apex training organisation, the Power Management

Institute (PMI) at Noida, was set up to provide vital
management development support to meet the challenges in
the Indian power sector. It imparts high-end training through
its management development programs, research and
consultancy. PMI and the Training Centers at various projects
organized about 189 training programs covering nearly 4,170
participants during the year 1998-99. PMI has tied up with IIT,
Delhi for an accredited course in M.Tech in Power Generation
Technology and has plans for such tie-ups with other
universities for MBA in power management. Arrangements have
also been made to impart Power Engineering Graduation in
association with BITS, Pilani, for employees having Diploma in
Engineering.

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REWARDS OF POWER

NTPC has continuously won awards year after year which

shows how dedicated its people are and how do they follow up
the rules and regulations of the company.

 Its employees have been winning the Prime Minister's Shram

Awards for thirteen years in succession.

 The Corporation has also been receiving Government of

India's Meritorious Productivity Award year after year.

 NTPC's pavilion at the India International Trade Fair, 1998

bagged the Best Pavilion Award in the Public Sector category

for the third consecutive year.

 The quiz team of NTPC has won the second runner-up trophy

at the prestigious national Brand Equity Quiz, 1998

organized by the Economic Times.

 The Scope Award for "Excellence in Contribution to Public

Sector Management" - individual category for the year 1996-

97 has been given to the CMD, NTPC.

 Jawahar Lal Nehru Memorial Award for controlling pollution

in 1994.

 Safety Awards from several State Safety Councils-National

Safety Council of India, British Safety Council & National

Safety Council, U.S.A.

 Family Welfare Awards by FICCI.

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EMPLOYEE RELATIONSHIP

Employer-employee relations in NTPC continue to be

cordial and harmonious throughout the life of the organisation.
Believing in the philosophy of participate management,
employees at all level interact with the management through
structured as well as informal meetings. MOU has been signed
with employee associations or unions for introduction or the
self-contributing Superannuation Benefit (Pension) Scheme.

The total human strength of the corporation stands at

23674 as on 31st March 1999, as against 23585 as on 1998 in
various power plants and establishment located in various parts
of the country. The overall Manpower-MW ratio for the year
1998-99 was 1:1.18. The turnover rate of the executives during
the year was as low as 0.81% compared to 1.28% during the
previous year.

FUTURE PLANS

The corporation has drawn up an ambitious plan for the new

millennium to become a 30,000 MW company by 2007 A.D. and
40,000 MW by 2012. NTPC has at present 16 projects in hand
to achieve this target.

THE OBJECTIVES

The study undertaken regarding the Organizational role stress

was to know about the major dimensions of stress which the
executive’s experience while performing their roles in the
organization. The primary objectives of the study thus
conducted with the help of National Thermal Power Corporation
are as under:

• To identify and measure the ten dimensions of Role

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 Stress as given below in NTPC:

1. Inter Role Distance (IRD)

2. Role Stagnation (RS)

3. Role Expectation Conflict (REC)

4. Role Erosion (RE)

5. Role Overload (RO)

6. Role Isolation (RI)

7. Personal Inadequacy (PI)

8. Self-Role Distance (SRD)

9. Role Ambiguity (RA)

10. Resource Inadequacy (RIn)

And further to identify the Role Stress, which is mostly

experienced by the executives in NTPC.

• To study the variation of Role Stress in accordance with the

level of responsibility of executives in NTPC.

• To study the variation of Role Stress in accordance with the

age of executives in NTPC.

Through this study an effort has been made to identify the

most prominent role stress among the executives in NTPC. Also
an assessment of the relationship of role stress with age and
level of responsibility has been made. This will help the HRD
department to deal with the prevalent situation.

21
 CHAPTER-3
ABOUT HR NTPC

HR VISION

22
“TO ENABLE OUR PEOPLE, TO BE A
FAMILY OF COMMITTED WORLD
CLASS PROFESSIONALS, MAKING
NTPC A LEARNING ORGANIZATION.”

Performance Leadership

 To continuously improve on project execution time and

cost in order to sustain long run competitiveness in
generation.

 To operate & maintain NTPC stations at par with the best-

run utilities in the world with respect to availability,
reliability, efficiency, productivity and costs.

 To effectively leverage Information Technology to drive

process efficiencies.

 To aim for performance excellence in the diversification

businesses.

 To embed quality in all systems and processes.

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Human Resource Development:

 To enhance organizational performance by

institutionalizing an objective and open performance
management system.

 To align individual and organizational needs and develop

business leaders by implementing a career development
system.

 To enhance commitment of employees by recognizing and

rewarding high performance.

 To build and sustain a learning organization of competent

world-class professionals.

 To institutionalize core values and create a culture of

team building, empowerment, equity, innovation and
openness which would motivate employees and enable
achievement of strategic objectives.

Financial Soundness:

 To maintain and improve the financial of NTPC by prudent

management of the financial resources.

 To continuously strive to reduce the cost of capital

through prudent management of deployed funds,
leveraging opportunities in domestic and international
financial markets.

 To develop appropriate commercial policies and processes

which would ensure.

Remunerative tariffs and minimize receivables.

 To continuously strive for reduction in cost of power

generation by improving operating practices.

Sustainable Power Development:

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  To contribute to sustainable power development by
discharging corporate social responsibilities.

 To lead the sector in the areas of resettlement and

rehabilitation and environment protection including
effective ash-utilization, peripheral development and
energy conservation practices.

 To lead developmental efforts in the Indian power sector

through efforts at policy advocacy, assisting customers in
reform, disseminating best practices in the operation and
management of power plants etc.

CORPORATE OBJECTIVES

To realize the vision and mission, eight key corporate objectives

have been identified. These objectives would provide the link
between the defined mission and the functional strategies.

Business Portfolio growth:

 To further consolidate NTPC’s position as the leading

power generation company in India and establish a
presence hydropower segment.

 To broad base the generation mix by evaluation

conventional and non-conventional sources of energy to
ensure long run competitiveness and mitigate fuel risks.

25
  To diversify across the power value chain in India by
considering backward and forward integration into areas
such as power trading, transmission, distribution, coal
mining, coal beneficiation, etc.

 To develop a portfolio of generation assets in international

markets.

 To establish a strong services brand in the domestic and

international markets.

Customer Focus:

 To foster a collaborative style of working with customers,

growing to be a preferred brand for supply of quality
power.

 To expand the relationship with existing customers by

offering a bouquet of services in addition to supply of
power e.g. trading, energy consulting, distribution
consulting, management practices.

 To expand the future customer portfolio through profitable

diversification into downstream businesses, inter alia
retail distribution and direct supply.

 To ensure rapid commercial decision making, using

customer specific information, with adequate concern for
the interests of the customer.

Agile Corporation :

 To ensure effectiveness in business decisions and

responsiveness to changes in the business environment
by:

 Adopting a portfolio approach to new business

development.

 Continuous and coordinate assessment of the business

environment to identify and respond to opportunities and
threats.

 To develop a learning co-organization having knowledge-

based competitive edge in current and future businesses.

26
  To effectively leverage Information Technology to ensure
speedy decision-making across the organization.

EMPLOYEE BENEFIT

1. LEAVE TRAVEL CONCESSION

All employees & their family member employed in the regular

establishment including a probationer, a lien holder, a
deputationist, and a person appointed on contract for a period
of two years or more, with one year’s continuous service.

ENTITLEMENT:

‘Entitle Class’ means the class and mode of travel applicable as

per traveling allowance rules of the company subject to the
condition that the travel by air or 1 st class AC by rail
permissible to employees in the grade of E6 and above.

2. MEDICAL ATTENDENCE & TREATMENT RULES:

27
Applicability

All regular employees, trainees and apprentices (other than Act

apprentices) and their family members.

TREATMENT AT PLACES WHERE FULL FLEDGED

COMPANY HOSPITALS/DISPENSARIES EXIST.

All employees and their family members are entitled to free

medical attendance and treatment in NTPC
hospitals/Dispensaries

3. ENCASHMENT OF EARNED LEAVE

 Admissible to all regular employees

 75% of total EL is treated as encashable.

4. HALF PAY LEAVE

Executive, supervisor & workmen are entitled to HPL @ 20 days

per calendar year

HPL is not admissible to Trainees/ apprentices and employee on

contact

Half pay for this purpose means half of the basic day. All other
allowance are paid in full.

5. Admissible Benefits/Facilities

The sponsored employee is normally expected to stay in the

accommodation available with institution where study is
undertaken. However if any accommodation is not provided by
the institute, some assistance towards HRA as prescribed under
the riled in lieu may be sanctioned.

 Examination fee
 Traveling allowance
 All of pocket allowance

28
6. REIMBURSMENT OF MEMBERSHIP FEES FOR
PROFESSIONAL BODIES/ INSTITUTES

Reimbursement of membership fees for professional

bodies/Institutes is admissible to executives in respect of
professional bodies/ Institutes duly registered in India or setup
under and act/statue in India and which is relevant to the
concerned executive profession/ field of work and allied field.
The scheme provides for reimbursement of
membership/admission fee and annual/periodic institutes for
which the reimbursement may be allowed is limited to two in
case of executives in the rank of managers and above and one
for executive in the ranks of deputy manager and below.

7. INTERNET CONNECTION IN LIEU OF

MEMBERSHIP OF PROFESSIONAL
BODIES/INSTITUTES:

To assist executives and employees in selection grade in their

professional development and to make NTPC a learning
organization, it has been decided to reimburse charges for
internet connection at residence on production of proof of
payment subject to a maximum of Rs 2000/- per annum, in lieu
of one membership of professional body/ Institutes

8) EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT SCHEMES

The company provides opportunities and facilities to employees

to obtain the following qualification:

 Qualification equivalent to class 8 th

 Qualification equivalent to Matric

 Qualification equivalent to Graduation.

29
9) Workers Education Scheme

The scheme operated in collaboration with the central board of

workers education, covers all employees in the workman
category irrespective of their educational qualification.

Books and stationary are provided free of cost to all the

participants in the program. Thirty minutes times off per day is
given for attending classes. On the successful completion of the
course the participants are awarded certificates to that effect.
The participants adjusted first second and third best trainees
are given cash awards from Rs 51/- to 201/-

EMPLOYEE SERVICES

HR DEPARTMENT act as employer of the organization on the

behalf of the management. The functions dealt by hr ranges
from recruitment to provide training to regularizing various
entitlements of employees to provide training to regularizing
various entitlements of employees, marinating good employee
relation, welfare practices, implementation of various HR
initiatives of the company, furniture and sitting space to
employees, providing residential accommodation to employees
company school, guest house, ladies club, Liason with RWA and
participate in various activities concerned with social
responsibility of the company.

1. HR Employees Benefits
2. HR Employees Services
3. HR Employees Relation and Welfare
4. HR Industrial Engineering and Employee Development
5. Public Relations
6. Law Section
7. Raj- Bhasha
8. Corporate Social Responsibility
9. HR Employee Development Centre

30
VARIOUS HR SECTION AT BTPS

An employee services is an important section of HR

department which provides
services in order to them
best. We did our training in
the services environment
provided by this section are
the employees at BTPS a variety of
perform their duties to their level
HR department and tried to analyze
over there. The various services
as follows:

 House Allotment
 Lease
 Tele Communication
 Dispatch
 BTPS Canteen
 Stationary and Furniture
 Meeting and function arrangements
 Rent payment for employees houses

HOUSE ALLOTMENT

House allotment facility is one of the employees services

provided to the employees at BTPS by the HR department. This
facility can be availed by every according to hid entitlement.
This is one interest of the employees that whether they want to
avail the facility or not.

LEASE

House accommodation facility at BTPS is provided to both

Exercise as well as non-executives.

In case, if the employees have their own house or wants to live

outside the premises of the company then”

 The executives can take lease instead of the

accommodation provided to them by the company
 And the non-executives are given HRA(house rent
allowance) in place of house accommodation facility.

WHAT IS LEASE

Lease is the contract of house or accommodation for a given

period of time.

31
TELECOMMUNICATION

BTPS provides its employees with the communication facility

that varies for different level of employees.

The basic communication facility provided by BTPS is to all level

employee, offices, departments, townships, CISF security and
all the other areas within its premises is the intercom facility,
communication becomes so easy and the time factor is saved to
a great extent.

Videoconferencing and fax are also included in the services

provided by HR-ES at BTPS to its entitled employees.
Videoconferencing at BTPS has been made possible though BRI
lines.

A part from intercom facility all the executives and above are
also provided with the landline and mobile facility according to
the entitlements. Lower level executive are provided with the
cell phone and landline facilities while the upper level
executives can procure both mobile phones as well as landline
facility.

DISPATCH

Dispatch is one of the major services provided by the HR—ES.

This is an important medium, which facilitates communication
both externally as well as internally to it and in the station. The
important mails are delivered to departments and concerned
people through messengers specially employed for the purpose.

Various types of documents are received as well as dispatched.

The documents includes

 Postal
 Official
 Non-official
 Registry
 Speed Post
 Parcel
 Courier

32
 EMPLOYEE RELATION AND WELFARE

This department handle; the relation of industrial relation and

welfare of employees and workers. Employee relations may be
defined as those policies and practices, which are concerned
with the management and regulation of relations between the
organization, the individual, staff member and group of staff
within the working environment. So employee relations is all
about maintaining harmonious relationships between employers
and employees and employees. Employee relation’ strategy in
the company is aimed at fostering a maintaining a good
relationship based on concern for productivity, employee
growth and development and welfare consistent with the
growth of the company. In conducting industrial relations the
management lay emphasis in participative style involving the
union/association for sharing of information and participation in
decision making. Suitable forums are created for various
interest groups to interact on matters on mutual concern and
thus develop a sense of participation and belongings to the
organization in the day to day working. Every employees is
given importance and a status in order to gives feeling of being
important and a status in order to gives feeling of being
important to the organization in achieving the organizational
goals and objectives:

Sound employees relation are based on:

33
  Effective mechanism for communication and participation.
 A safe effective work environment.
 Commitment and motivation of all staff.

Objectives of this department

 To safeguard the interest of labor and management by

fostering highest level of misunderstanding and good will
among different section of the plant.
 To avoid industrial conflict or strife and develop
harmonious relations which are essential for productivity
of workers.
 To lessen the tendency of high turn over and frequent
absenteeism.

Participants of employee relations are:

 Workers and their organization

 Manders and their association
 Government

This department also handles misconduct of employees,

which includes loss, waste of company’s property,

misbehaving with peers, superiors or subordinates when

an employee disrupts the office with aggressiveness and

abusive behavior affecting the morale and performance

of others, an employee has a leave abusive problem or

other time and attendance problem. Theft, violence and

conviction of a criminal offence during the course of

employment and willful disobedience to reasonable

34
 employer requests have been kind of conduct, which gas

traditionally been viewed as serious conduct

Minor conducts are handled by giving warnings and memos.

If the misconduct is of medium nature, is a charge sheet is
prepared against the person and an enquiry committee is set
up for investigation, after the completion of which the
punishment is decided. If the misconduct is of serious
nature, the person is suspended and then a charge sheet is
prepared against the person and an enquiry committee is
set-up for investigation, after the completion of which may
be dismissed.

CHAPTER-4

ABOUT STRESS

"Stress is very much a part of a manager's job. He must learn

not only to cope with it, but use it to help him work better".

Modern life is full of stress. As an organisation becomes more

complex, the potential for stress increases. Urbanization,
industrialization, and increase in scale of operations are some
of the reasons for rising stress. Stress is an inevitable
consequence of socio-economic complexity and to some extent
it is a stimulant as well. People experience stress, as they can
no longer have complete control over what happens in their
lives. They’re being no escape from stress in modern life; we
need to find ways of using stress productively, and reducing
dysfunctional stress. Even as stress is inevitable in today's
complex life, so is it necessary for human progress. It is like a
musical instrument, where an optimum stress is needed to

35
produce good music, loose wires (less stress) would not
produce the notes and too much tautness (too much stress)
might result in screeching.

A distinction has been made between productive or functional

stress (stress for creative work, entrepreneurial activities etc.)
and dysfunctional stress (stress of boredom, unmanageable
conflicts, over worker etc. the former has been called estruses
and the latter distress.

Rapid industrialization and mechanization have changed the

way of life of humans at home and at work. The corporate rat
race is made to order to rattle people. More and more
executives are suffering from stress and stress-induced
problems like hypertension, increased turnover, absenteeism,
decreased productivity etc. this has created a lot of panic. It is
thus necessary to understand executive stress. A manger's role
is essentially to get resources from owners, work from the
worker and convert the resources and work into results. This
role looks very simple. But in practice it is very complicated
because neither the resources nor the work is given - it has to
be extracted. Thus, it is said, 'if you are going to be a
manager, you will have to face tension. If you do not want
tension, be a consultant". Tension or stress is thus inevitable
for a manager.

An organization, two individuals may be identical regarding

their position, but may differ in terms of the abilities, motives,
moods and above all the personality as a whole. These persona
differences interact with organizational factors and create
predisposing conditions for stress experiences that may
influence the overall performance of the individual.

36
ROLE STRESS

Interest in organizational stress has increased a great deal in

recent years. There has been a spate of writings on managerial
and executive stress.

Researchers came with the definition of role as the position

occupied by a person as defined by the expectations of
significant persons, including the role occupant, indicates that
there are inherent problems in the performance of a role, and
therefore stress is inevitable.

Since the concept of “role” is inextricably linked with

‘expectations”, the organizational factors and context assume
importance due to their influence on the moulding of
prescriptions and proscriptions associated with a particular,
position. These could be looked upon as structural components
organizational processes. Authoritative organizational structure
and control systems area potent source of stress as they are
seen to breed dependency, afford little scope for initiative an
creativity in role enactment and channelize behaviors along
narrowly defined paths.

In the concept of role proposed above, several variables are

involved he self, the other roles, the expectations held by the
other roles, the situations in which there is no conflict among
the variables. The very nature of role has built in potential for
conflict these variables. The very nature of role has built in
potential for conflict or stress. Thus conflict is a natural
variable in role performance. Kann an Quinn ( 1970) have
proposed a response inferred definition of stress and “ an
experiments or noxious stimulus with general results in

37
psychological change, behavioral change, perceptual cognitive
change, affective change an in both overt and intrapsychic
coping efforts. “ Role conflict” has been defined in terms, of
conflicting expectations. The main characteristic of conflict is
the incompatibility of some variables relating to the role of an
individual which many have some consequences for the
individual’s role performance. The word ‘strain’ has been used
in the literature to denote the effect of stress on the individual.
The word ‘pressure’ has also been used. Buck

(1972) defines ‘job pressure’ as the resultant psychological

state of the individual when the perceives that (1) conflicting
forces and incompatibility commitments are being made upon
him in connection with his work, (2) at least one of the forces
of demands is an induced one, and (3) the forces and recurrent
or stable over time. Several studies have shown that role stress
or pressure is very bad for mental and physical health.
Although conflict, role and stain have been given different
connotations, we do not find any use in making such finer
distinctions, and shall use them interchangeably.

Role conflict or stress need not necessarily be negative. As

Klausner (1968) has suggested, success in business, sports,
and politics depends on stress-seeking tendency. Kiretz and
Moos (1974) have proposed three factors in the effect of
stress: kind of adjustment required, perception of control over
stress-source, and valence (loss-for example in death, vs. gain
– for example, in marriage or business). Bernard (21968)
proposed two types of stress: ‘dystress’ (unpleasant stress)
and ‘estruses’ (pleasant stress). Stress is a necessary factor in
the success of people in organizations. However, if the stress
experienced goes beyond a particular level, it may adversely

38
affect the individual’s performance and psychological and
physical health.

Several systems of classification have been used to discuss role

conflict and stress. Kahn and Quinn (1970) have classified role
stress under tree main headings: expectation generated stress
in which they include role ambiguity and role conflict:
expectations resource discrepancies, in which they include role
overload, responsibility-authority dilemma and inadequate
technical information; and role and personality. We find it more
functional to use the two main role constellations as areas of
conflict and stress.

Marshall and Cooper (1979) have suggested seven sources and

therefore classification of managerial stress: (1) job (working
conditions, overload) (2) Organisational role (role ambiguity,
role conflict, responsibility, etc.), (3) relationships at work
(relationships with superiors, relationships with colleagues (4)
career development (lack of job security, status incongruity),
(5) Organizational structure and climate (7) the individual
(psychometric characteristics, behavior patterns, self-help
literature).

In view of the two proposed concepts of role systems (role

space and role set), we shall discuss role conflicts or stress
under these two categories. Five main role stresses or conflicts
in the role space of an individual have been identified.

1. Self-role distance: This is the conflict between the self-

concept and the expectations from the role as perceived by
the role occupant. If a person occupies a role, which he may
subsequently find conflicting with his self-concept, he feels
the stress. For example, a usually introvert person, who is

39
 fond of studying and writing, may have self-role distance if
he accepts the role of a salesman in an organization and
come to realize that the expectations from the roles would
include his meeting people and being social. Such conflicts
are fairly common, although these may not be so severe.

2. Intra-role conflict: Since the individual learns to

develop expectations as a result of his socialization and
identification with significant others, it is quite likely that he
sees some incompatibility between the two expectations from
his own role. For example, a professor may see
incompatibility between the expectations of teaching
students and that of doing research. These inherently may
not be conflicting but the individual may perceive these as
incompatible. .

3. Role Stagnation: As the individual grows physically, he

also grows in the role he occupies in an organisation. With
the advancement of the individual, his role changes and with
this change in role, the need for his taking his new role
becomes crucial. This is the problem of role growth. This
becomes an acute problem especially when an individual has
occupied a role for a long time, and he enters another role in
which he may feel less secure. However, the demand of the
new role is for the individual to out-grow his previous role
and occupy the new role effectively. This produces some
stress in the individual.

Role stagnation also includes stress related to career

progression. Marshall and Cooper (1979) have commented on
this type of stress in the American context. A lot of this is true
of India, as Marshall and Cooper (1979) have commented,
career progression is perhaps a problem by its nature. At

40
middle age, and usually middle-management levels, career
becomes more problematic and most executives find their
progress slowed, if not actually stopped. Job opportunities
become fewer, those jobs that are available take longer to
master, past (mistaken?) decisions cannot be revoked, old
knowledge and methods become obsolete, energies may be
flagging or demanded for family activities and there is the
‘press’ of fresh young recruits to face in competition.

The fear of demotion or obsolescence can be strong for those

who know they have reached their career coiling – and most
will inevitably suffer some erosion of status before they finally
retire.

From the company perspective, on the other hand, McMurray

(1973) puts the case for not promoting to a higher position if
there is doubt that the employee can fill it. In a syndrome he
labels ‘the executive neurosis’, he describes the over-promoted
manager as grossly over working to keep down a top job, and
at the same time hide his insecurity, and points to the
consequences of this for his work performance and the
company. Age is no longer revered as it was – it is becoming a
‘young man’s world’. The rapidity with which society is
developing technologically economically and socially) is likely to
mean that individuals will now need to change career during
their working life (as companies and products are having to
do). Such trends breed uncertainty and research suggests that
older workers look for stability. Unless managers adapt their
expectations to suit new circumstances career development
stress, especially in later life, is likely to become an
increasingly common experience.

41
4. Inter-role Distance: An individual occupies more than
one role. There may be conflicts between two roles he
occupies. For example, an executive often faces the conflicts
between his organizational role as an executive and his
family role as the husband and the father. The demands
from his wife and children to share his time may be
incompatible with the organizational demands on him for
spending a lot of time on Organisational problems. Such
inter-role conflicts are quite frequent in modern society when
the individual is increasingly occupying multiple roles in
various organisations and groups.

Marshall and Cooper (1979) have mentioned two problems

regarding manager’s relationships with his family and wife:
time and spillover of stress from one to the other. Rappel and
Paul (1971) found that the majority of wives in their middle-
class sample saw their role in relation to their husband’s job as
a cooperative, domestic one; all said that they derived their
sense of security from their husbands (only two men said the
same of their wives). Barber (1976) interviewing five directors’
wives finds similar attitudes. Gowler and Legge (1975) have
dubbed this bond ‘the hidden contract’ in which the wife agrees
to act as a ‘supportive team’ so that her husband can fill the
demanding job to which he aspires. Handy (1975) supports the
idea that this is typical, and that it is the path to career
success for the manager concerned.

5. Role Boundness: If an individual feels highly obligated

to the expectations of significant role senders, and sacrifices
his own interests, preferences, values, comforts etc., he may
be said to be role bounded. He may experience the conflict
between his tendency to live as a person, and live as a role. For

42
example, in the traditional Indian homes, the boys experienced
the conflict between their “son role” and their living as persons
giving preferences to their “son role”. Indian culture promoted
such role bounded ness. .

Role Set Conflicts

An individual occupying a particular role may have some

expectations from his role. Interacting with him (role senders)
may have quite different expectations from him. Such
incompatible expectations and other problems arising in the
role set are called role set stress or conflicts. Some of these
discussed below.

As Marshal and Cooper (1979) have pointed out, role ambiguity

exists when an individual has inadequate information about his
work role, i.e. where there is lack of clarity about the work
objectives associated with the role, about work colleagues'
expectation of the work role and about the scope and
responsibilities of the job. Kahn, Wolfe, Quinn, Snoek and
Rosenthal (1964) found in their study that men who suffered
from role ambiguity experienced lower job satisfaction, high
job-related tension, greater futility and lower self-confidence.
French and Caplan (1973) found, at one of NASA's bases, in a
sample of 205 volunteer engineers, scientists and
administrators, that role ambiguity was significantly related to
low job satisfaction and to feelings of job-related threat to
one's mental and physical well-being. This also related to
indicators of physiological strain such as increased blood
pressure and pulse rate. Margolis, Kroes and Quinn (1974) also
found a number of significant relationships between symptoms
or indicators of physical and mental ill health with role
ambiguity in their representative national sample (n-1496). The

43
stress indicators related to role ambiguity were depressed
mood, lowered self-esteem life dissatisfaction, job
dissatisfaction, low motivation to work and intention to leave
the job. Whilst these were not very strong statistical
relationships they were significant and do indicate that lack of
role clarity may be one among many potential stress’s at work.

Kahn (1973) feels that it is now time to separate out distinctive

elements of role ambiguity for individual treatment (just as he
and his research team have done for 'overload' and
'responsibility'). He suggests that two components are
involved; those of present, and future-prospects ambiguity
(much of the material he assigns to the latter is here included
under 'role stagnation').

2. Role overload: When the role occupant feels that there

are too many expectations from the significant roles in his role
set, he experiences 'role overload'. They measured this stress
by asking questions about the feeling of people whether they
could possibly finish work given to them during the modified
work day and whether they felt that amount of work they did
might interfere with how well it was done. Most of the
executive role occupants experience role overload. Kahn and
Quinn (1970) have suggested some conditions under which role
overload is likely to occur. According to them, role overload is
likely to occur more in the absence of mechanism of role
integration, in the absence of power of role occupants, in the
large variations in the expected output and when delegation or
assistance cannot procure more time.

Marshall and Cooper (1979) have summarised the recent work

on quantitative and qualitative overload. Quantitative refers to
having 'too much to do' while qualitative means work that is

44
'too difficult'. (The complementary phenomena of quantitative
and qualitative underload are also hypothesized as potential
source of stress but with little or no supportive research
evidence). Miller (1969) has theorized that 'overload' in most
systems leads to breakdown, whether we are dealing with
single biological cells or individuals in organizations. In an early
study French and Chaplain (1970) found that objective
quantitative overload was strongly linked to cigarette smoking
(a sign of tension and risk factor in CHD). Persons with more
phone calls, office visits and meetings per given unit of work
time were found to smoke significantly more cigarettes than
persons with fewer such engagements. In a study of 100 young
coronary patients Russek and Zohman (1958) found that 25%
had been working at two jobs and an additional 45% had
worked at jobs which required (due to work overload) 60 or
more hours per week. They add that although prolonged
emotional strain proceeded the attack in 91% of the cases
similar stress was only observed in 20% of the controls.
Breslow and Buell (1960) have also reported findings which
support a relationship between hours of work and death from
coronary diseases. In an investigation of mortality rates of men
in California they observed that workers in light industry under
the age of 45 who are in the job more than 48 hours a week
have twice the risk of death from CHD compared with similar
workers working 40 or under hours a week. Another substantial
investigation on quantitative workload was carried out by
Margolis, Kroes and Quinn (1974) on a representative national
sample of 1496 employed persons aged 16 or older. They fond
that overload was significantly related to a number of
symptoms or indictors of stress; escapist drinking, absenteeism
from work, low motivation to work, lowered self-esteem and an

45
absence of suggestions to employers. The result from these and
other studies (Quinn, Seashore and Mangione, 1971; Porter and
Lawyer, 1965) are relatively consistent and indicate that this
factor is indeed a potential source of occupational stress that
affects both health and job satisfaction.

There is also some evidence that (for some occupations)

'qualitative' overload is a source of stress. French, Tupper and
Mueller (1965) looked at qualitative and quantitative work
overload in a large university. Qualitative overload was not
significantly linked to low self-esteem among the administrators
but was significantly correlated for the professors. The greater
the 'quality' of work expected of the professor the lower the
self-esteem. They also found that qualitative and quantitative
overload were correlated with achievement orientation. More
interestingly it was found in a follow-up study that achievement
orientation correlated very strongly with serum uric acid
(Brooks and Mueller, 1966). Several other studies have
reported an association of qualitative work overload with
cholesterol level; a tax deadline for accountants (Friedman,
Rosenman and Carroll, 1958) and medical students performing
a medical examination under observation (Dreyfuss and
Czackes, 1959). French and Caplan (1973) summarize this
research by suggesting that both qualitative and quantitative
overload produce at least nine different symptoms of
psychological and physical strain; job dissatisfaction, job
tension, lower self-esteem, threat, embarrassment, high
cholesterol levels, increased heart rate, skin resistance and
more smoking. In analyzing this date however one cannot
ignore the vital interactive relationship of the job and
employee; objective work overload for example should not be

46
viewed in isolation but as relative to the individual's capacities
and personality.

4. Role Isolation: In role stress, the role occupant may feel

that certain roles are psychologically near to him, while
some other roles are at a distance. The main criterion of
role-role distance of frequency and ease interaction. When
linkages are strong, the role-role distance will be low. In the
absence of strong linkage, the role-role distance can
therefore, be measured in terms of existing and desired
linkages. The gap between the desired and the existing
linkages will indicate the amount of distance between the
two roles.

Marshall and Cooper (1979) have suggested one main source of

managerial stress connected with relationships at work. French
and Caplan (1973) define poor relations as those which include
low trust, low supportiveness and low interest in listening to
and trying to deal with problems that confront the
organizational member. The most notable studies in this area
are by Kahn, et al. (1964), French and Caplan (1970) and Buck
(1972). Both the Kahn, et al. and French and Caplan studies
came to roughly the same conclusion that mistrust of persons
one worked with was positively related to high role ambiguity
which led to inadequate communications between people and to
psychological strain in the form of low job satisfaction and to
feeling of job-related threat to one's well being. It was
interesting to note, however, in the Kahn, et al. study that poor
relations with one's subordinates was significantly related to
feelings of threat with colleagues and superiors but not in
relationship to threat with subordinates.

47
Buck (1972) focused on the attitude and relationship of workers
and managers to their immediate boss using Fleishman's
leadership questionnaire on consideration and initiating
structure. The consideration factor was associated with
behaviors indicative of friendship. He found that those workers
who felt that their boss was low on 'consideration' reported
feeling more job pressure. Workers who were under pressure
reported that their boss did not give them criticism in helpful
way, played favorites with subordinates and 'pulled rank' and
took advantage of them whenever they got a chance. Buck
concludes that the 'lack of considerate behaviour of supervisors
appears to have contributed significantly to feelings of job
pressure.

4. Role Erosion: A role occupant may feel that some

functions which he would like to perform are being performed
by some other role. The stress felt may be called 'role erosion'.
Role erosion is the subjective feeling of an individual that some
important role expectations he has from his role do not match
with the expectations other roles have for him. Role erosion is
likely to be experienced in an organisation which is redefining
its role an creating new roles. In several organisations which
were redefining their structure, the stress of role erosion was
inevitably felt. In one organization, one role was abolished and
two roles were created to cater to the executives and planning
needs. This led to a great stress in the role occupants of both
roles who experienced role erosion.

5 . Role inadequacy: Role inadequacy refers to two types of

feelings; a) that the role occupant does not have adequate
resources to perform the role effectively, and (b) that he is not

48
fully equipped (lacks internal resources) for effective
performance of the role.

ROLE STRESS

It is an attempt to compared the organizational role stress

among executives of the Personnel and Administration
department of the Corporate Office of three Public Sector
Organisations, namely Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL),
Engineers India Limited (EIL), and Indian Oil Corporation
Limited (IOC). An attempt was also made to the respondents
were classified according to their designation categories -
senior managers, middle managers and junior managers of the
middle management - as specific to the hierarchical positions in
their respective organisations. Such a classification was
basically made to find out whether it was the position of the
respondents in the organizational hierarchy which was
contributing to the stress to the individuals.

According to Srivastava , and Sen. (1995), stress results from

a combination of various individual characteristics (such as age,
achievement need, type of personality) and organizational
stresses (role conflict, role ambiguity). Stress may also result
from a variety of organizational, supervisory, individual, and
work factors. Kahn, Wolfe, Quinn, Snock, and Rosenthal (1964)
identified two primary factors of organizational stress, nearly
role ambiguity and role conflict. Selye (1956), the father of
modern stress, defined stress as the non-specific response of
the body to any demand made upon it. McMichael (1978)
defined it in terms of the product of a dynamic mismatch
between an individual and his or her physical, social, and
psychological environment. Stress, in general, is the
psychological or physiological reaction that occurs when people

49
perceive an imbalance between the demands placed upon them
and their capacity to met those demands, and stress, specific
to work environments, is the reaction of individuals to new or
threatening factors in their work environment. The personality
characteristics of the individual, the environmental
characteristics, i.e., the stimulus of the external force active on
the organism, and the person environment interaction, i.e., the
overall prevailing ethos of interpersonal behaviors - it is
contended that stress can originate from an o these factors or
in combinations thereof. In other words, it originates from
organizational demands, which are experiences by a individual.

Recent reviews of literature have examined various

organizational variables and their effects on work stress. These
include factors intrinsic to the job (e.g. boredom, information
overload, time pressures, etc.) role in the regularization (e.g.
under promotion, over-promotion, lack of security, etc.) and
organizational climate (lack of participation, pressures towards
conformity, etc). the person-environment paradigm emphasizes
the view that having too little to do is as stressful for the
individual as being overloaded with work. As an individual
phenomenon, stress is a personal response to a certain
variation in the environment.

Singh and Singh (1992), say that in an organization, two

individuals may be identical regarding their position, but may
differ in terms of the abilities, motives, moods and above all
the personality as a whole. These personal differences interact
with organizational factors and create predisposing conditions
for stress experiences that may influence the overall
performance of the individual. Another important dimension of
the organization is its psychological atmosphere i.e., its

50
climate. organizational climate has been studied in terms of
those characteristics that distinguish the organization from
other organizations and that influence the behaviour of people
in the origination. Each organization differs from the other not
only in structure but also in the attitudes and behaviour it
elicits in people. Litwin and Stringer (1968) stated that
organizational climate refers to a set of measurable properties
of the work environment, perceived directly or indirectly by the
people who live and work in its environment and assume to
influence motivation and behaviour of the employee. They
identified nine dimensions of organizational climate viz.
structure, responsibility, reward, risk, warmth, support,
conflict, identity and standards.

According to study by Ahmed and Jha (1989), human beings

prefer jobs that possess characteristics like variety, autonomy,
and task significance. Increased participation in decision
making have a significant negative effect on role conflict and
role ambiguity. Social support also plays a moderating role in
reducing individual stress. In other words, persons with high
social support are assumed to express a lower stress-strain
relationship. Their study also revealed that the employees
lower in the organizational hierarchy experience more stress
and strain but less supervisory support than the employees
higher in to hierarchy. The employees who had risen from lower
ranks (those of workers, for example) have little experience of
manpower -management, need to drive hard to achieve targets
set by management, and are also influenced by the workers
unions. The employees in the higher grades, however, do not
have to face such situations.

51
The stress an individual expresses as a result of the fact that
there are too many expectations, regarding his or her role,
from the significant others in his role set.

Bharti, Nagarathnamma, and Reddy (1991) and Ahmad and

Khanna (1992) found that occupational stress was significantly
related to job satisfaction: greater stress accompanied with
lower satisfaction. However, the latter study also found that
occupational stress was negatively related with job
involvement. According to Venna (1993) the factors, which can
affect the development of tension in Public Sector Units
employees, may either be personal and /or environmental.
Personal factors are those factors which are related to the
individual e.g. age, sex, intelligence, physical ability, et.
Environmental factors are those factors, which are related to
the surroundings of the individual e.g. family, culture, job
environment, etc.

Stress is the most frequently used word in the workplace today,

raising tempers, lowering productivity, and having an insidious
impact on both morale and bottomlines. According to
Chakraborty, Director of Management Centre for Human Values
at the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, values in
corporations have collapsed, and stress is a repercussion of
that. In other words, if the values are put back into corporate
life, the stress will disappear Bose 1996). According to Selye,
top stressors at work include, overload, deadline pressures,
demanding bosses, non-performing juniors, competitive pairs,
excessive touring, domestic disharmony. Most of all, it is the
increasing uncertainty in today's corporate world that is leading
to so much executive stress. Another factor that can badly
stress employees whether they feel useful n a organization or

52
peripheral. To really bring about long-term stress relief, it will
mean acknowledging that stress will be constant companion
demanding constant attention (Bose 1996).

A 1993 study by Northwestern National Life Insurance Company

concluded that job stress generally is a consequence of two key
ingredients: a high level of job demands and little control over
one's work. An atmosphere where employees are empowered,
where they have more control over how they perform their
work, reduces the risk of burnout and stress considerably
(Froiland 1993), Bharti, Nagarathnamma, and Reddy (1991)
found that occupational stress was significantly related to job
stupefaction: Greater stress accompanied with lower
satisfaction. Organizational stress originates from
organizational demands, which are experienced by an
individual.

Srivastava, Hagtavet and Sen (1994) fond that middle

managers suffer maximally in organizational role stress and
anxiety, followed by workers and top managers. The liability or
difficulty in meeting the various expectations caused stress.
The study also revealed that the same stressful event can be
perceived quite differently by top mangers, middle managers,
and even by workers, this perception may depend on what the
situation means to individuals at their own level. An evaluation
of the situation by each of them in relation to themselves
determines the degree of stress they face. Stress-in terms of
adverse effect, its cost to human resources, material, and
progress- is tremendous. Management within an organization
should function so as to maximize the coordination of human
resources and work system and to minimize conflict.

53
A study by Froiland (1993), suggested that greater autonomy,
team work and balanced workload can have significant impact
on reducing workload can have a significant impact on reducing
stress on employees. Greater autonomy implies giving the
employee some autonomy and listening to his or her ideas. To
give them the job and let them figure out how to do it, or let
them do it in small, self-managed teams rather than through a
highly bureaucratic pyramid structure. This helps reduce stress.
Teams can serve as a mechanism to increase control and
communication. Work teams give employees more ownership of
their jobs. Most of us draw emotional support not just from
families and friends but from the people with whom we work.
Downsizing and restructuring efforts tear apart those support
systems, producing stress. We're beginning to move away from
a more traditional, hierarchical management structure, to
empowerment. But as a switch to empowerment is a stressor in
itself, because it represents a very significant change and
change causes stress. The 1991 study by Northwestern National
Life Insurance Company also found that the most stressful part
of the job was too much work, long hours and deadline
pressures. The study also found that employees who were
expected to work overtime became less productive and were
more prone to burnout. Yet reducing hours was not
recommended as a cure for job stress. Thus, it is not lesser
working hours that will help reduce stress but a balanced
workload. There's the mistaken belief that long hours equal
high productivity. In most cases that's simply not true (Froiland
1993).

Workplace stress is endemic to a market economy: Do it better,

faster, before the competition overtakes you. The Big Four self

54
care skills (eating well, staying physically fit, not smoking and
maintaining a desirable weight) that are at the core of most
stress-management programs, actually have a negligible effect
on people's ability to cope with work pressures and rapid
change. According to the findings of Essi Systems inc. (ESI) in
San Francisco, a stress-research consulting firm, the only factor
with any significant impact on a person's ability to withstand
work pressures is what Esther Orioli President (ESI) calls
"Personal Power" - having control over your time, resources,
important information, work load and so on. According o him
it's not the volume of work or work demand that makes people
sick, it is the extent to which they feel they (lack) control over
their work and their workplace. As the pace and intensity of
work increases, so does the need for control.

In order to tackle the organizational aspects effectively,

researchers recommend the use of stress audits like:

• Redesign the task

• Analyze the work roles and establish goals

• Include the employee in career development.

It is, therefore, not surprising that faced with the complex

nature of stress and how to deal it, it is difficult to answer the
questions about the effectiveness of stress management.
Furthermore, adding this complex organizational picture to the
already complex make-up of the individual, the question
becomes even harder to answer. There is, however, enough
evidence to work on the premise that well carried out stress
management interventions by appropriately qualified
practitioners are beneficial for the individual and organization.
Employees need to be made more aware of the issues to make

55
informed decisions about investment in stress management. For
them, the effective stress management is one that will reduce
or minimize role ambiguity and role expectation conflict, thus
minimizing absenteeism and premature retirement, and will
maximize employee productivity and leading to increased
company profits.

Personality Characteristics

Play an important role n the development of stress. Jenkins

(1971) arrived at a coronary prone Behavioural pattern.
Individuals who are subject to this syndrome are characterized
by extreme competitiveness, an urge to achieve, aggression,
haste, impatience, restlessness, hyperlaterness, tension and
time pressure.

Roserman and Friedman called this mental and behavioral

pattern, the type A behavior. Some psychologists feel that this
type of behavioral is an extreme variant of what is socially
highly recommended and positively rewarded. Other think that
Type-A behavior is dysfunctional and tat the better jobs are
only for the quiet, detached, contemplative Type -B (Mathews,
1982).

Glass (1977) has theorized that A -types demonstrate hyper-

responsiveness with regard to challenging situations, meaning
that they always expose themselves to fight situations. If they
fail to succeed, they will, much more so than B-types, start to
achieve less and experience learned helplessness. Luzarus
found that the way in which a person interprets a situation is of
great importance for the occurrence or non-occurrence of stress

56
problems. The interpretation of a situation is related to an
individuals personality structure. A very competitive person will
regard a situation in which he had the worst of it as more
threatening than someone who is not competitive.

Other personality characteristics which are of significance in

stress research are rigidity, conformism, suppression of
aggression, dogmatism, authoritarianism, internal versus
external control etc. (Winnubst, 1984).

Role Overload

It is described as a condition in which the individual is faced

with a set of obligations which require him to do more than he
is able to in the time available (ales, 1969). In the case of too
many activities, we speak of quantitative overload, when an
individual has perform tasks that are too difficult for him, we
speak of qualitative overload (French and Caplan, 1972).

The bearer may be bombarded by expectations; a force which

he eventually cannot cope with. A sensible tactic then is to
organize 'role negotiation' or 'role bargaining' (Harrison, 1973)
where by the threatened individual tries to organize hi
obligations with or without outside help.

In research on middle management (Van Vucht Tijssen et al,

1978), role overload was shown to be related to physical
complaints and even more clearly to greater obesity, higher
blood pressure and more smoking.

Thus role overload is an element to be rejected within

organizations, especially because of the higher risk of illness
and exhaustion. However, it is still not clear whether self-
inflicted overload and overload inflicted by other make a
significant difference.

57
Role Conflict

It is the simultaneous occurrence of two or more sets of

pressures, such that compliance with one would make more
difficult compliance with the other (Kahn et al, 1964). some
professions are characterized by a higher degree of role
conflict than others. To be in a role conflict situation is often
associated with little job-satisfaction, obesity and a higher
coronary risk (Kahn et al, 1964; Shirom et al, 1973 and Caplan
et al, 1975). Role conflict emerged as an important stressor
(Sharma, 1983), although there are indications that this is
more the case for the white collar professions than for blue
collar factor workers.

Role Ambiguity

Sometimes people working in organizations do not have

sufficient information about what they are expected to do and
especially about how they are to perform a task.

In the Dutch research on middle management (Vanvucht

Tijssen et al, 1978) ambiguity emerged as the most powerful
stressor. Too much role ambiguity correlated significantly with
psychological and psychosomatic complaints, with higher heart
beat frequency, with concern for personal functioning and with
higher absenteeism.

In India, contrary to the findings of Das (1982) who has

reported that role ambiguity is not a significant cause of stress,
the researchers in general have expressed as serious concern
about role ambiguity as a stress inducing factor (Pareek and
Rao, 1981).

58
Role Stagnation and Midlife Crisis

The feeling of being fixed in their role within the organization is

one of the most frightening experiences. More threatening is
monotonous work or work lacking in challenge (Kornhauser
1965;; Shepherd, 1971).

Middle age is an especially problematic period for many

employees particularly for those in middle and higher
management. Room at the top of the pyramid is limited; as a
result, employees get frustrated exactly during that period of
their life when their career opportunities.

Absence of Social Support

Relations with others, both at home and work, are often crucial
for an employees well being. In research on middle
management, it was found that inadequate willingness of others
to help at work is related to considerably more smoking as well
as to anxiety about one's own functioning, job dissatisfaction
and physical complaints (Van Vucht Tijssen et al, 1978). Good
relationship between employer and employee serves as a shield
against the occurrence of stress. Das (1982) has reported a
significantly negative correlation of social support an open
communication with the felt stress.

Role Incompatibility

In there is not fit between an individuals capabilities and the

possibilities presented by the job and if there is no such
adequate coordination between the individual and the
environment, then strains like anxiety, depression and

59
dissatisfaction have an increasing chance of occurrence.
General improvements in the organization cannot be effectively
made if the possibilities and wishes of those involved are not
considered. Adequate adjustment of the individual to hours job
environment and vice versa is therefore important. Thus is
often not the case and the individual c consequently
experiences strain.

CHAPTER-5

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research is an academic activity and as such the term is used
in technical sense. “Research comprises defining and redefining
problems, formulating hypothesis or suggested solutions,
collecting, organizing and evaluating data, making deduction
and reaching conclusions; and at last, carefully testing the
conclusions to determine whether they fit the formulating
hypothesis.

The research on Organisational Role Stress in National Thermal

Power Corporation Limited consisted of following steps:

DATA COLLECTION:

60
Data was collected by using various methods. For the purpose
of fulfilling the objectives of the study and for completing the
project, both primary and secondary sources of data were
collected.

PRIMARY SOURCES

•Questionnaire

Keeping in view the objectives of the study, a questionnaire (as

given in appendix-1) was selected. There are fifty questions in
all. All the questions are small in size and arranged logically.
The language is simple and easy to understand. The
questionnaire is exhaustive. It covers a wide area, so the
dimensions of Organisational Role Stress could be determined
appropriately.

The respondents were told to mark their answers in the

questionnaire itself on the basis of the scale given in it. The
scale covered the wide range from the most positive to the
most negative answer.

These questions helped us to have an insight into the ongoing

source of role stress and also the ideas of the various
executives on how to overcome role stress

•Interview

Information was also obtained by informal conversation with

the executives. They were interviewed personally. The
questions asked were discussed at length so as to gain access
to their idea on role stress.

SECONDARY SOURCES

•Records of the Personal and Human Resource

61
 Department of NTPC.

•Manuals of the company.

•Official reports.

•Annual reports

•Other mimeographed materials.

•NTPC magazines, journals & bulletins.

SAMPLING

In the backdrop of the objectives set, a sample study was

conducted in Badarpur. The same was restricted to the
corporate centers of NTPC-Engineering Office Complex, A-8A,
Sec-24, NOIDA & BADARPUR.

The sample units were the executives working in these two

corporate centers. Survey being restricted to the corporate
centers because majority of the executives were available
there.

In order to get ample and varied information on the

Organisational Role Stress, the executives from level E1 to E7,
i.e., from junior most executives up to the Deputy General
Manager, were chosen. The questionnaires were given to the
executives and their cooperation & help was procured to get it
filled.

The sample size was kept ten per cent. The executives were
chosen at random taking care of the fact that ten percent of the
executives are selected from each level (E1-E7) so as to
maintain proportionality among the different levels. Care was

62
also taken so that all the departments were covered. The
sampling method thus adopted was “Stratified Proportionate
Random Sampling”.

It was assumed that the sample selected was true

representative of the project and population variances are
equal. Biases that might have arrived while answering the
questionnaire are very low.

COLLECTION OF THE QUESTIONNAIRES

Sufficient time was given to the respondents to answer the

questionnaire. Most of the questionnaires were collected after
an hour.

PROBLEMS FACED WHILE COLLECTING AND

FILLING THE QUESTIONNAIRES:

•Some of the respondents were hesitant to answer the

questionnaire.

•They tried to shrink away from filling the questionnaire

and always wanted more time in this regard, they always

tried to avoid us.

•Some respondents did not want to answer the

questionnaire, so they left it unanswered.

•Where the respondents did not find the relevant answer

in the choice provided, they added their own choice or

left it unanswered.

63
TABULATION

After all the questionnaires were collected back, the responses

were tabulated. The evaluation sheet (as given in appendix-2)
was used for the purpose. Each answer of the respondent was
tabulated to its respective category. Thus the value of each
dimension of role stress in case of individual executives were
calculated. Further, mean and percentage for all the role stress
were calculated so as to obtain the values for the organization
as a whole. The sample was further divided on the basis of age
(above 40 and below 40)and level (E1-E4 and E5-E7) of
executives and means and percentages were calculated in
respect of those categories.

ANALYSIS

In this section, the information obtained by the process of

tabulation was analyzed, so as to identify the pattern of
relationships that exist among different groups and the
conclusions were arrived at.

64
 CHAPTER-6

FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

LEVEL WISE ANALYSIS OF STRESS

In case of executives at level E1 stress level is alarmingly high

only for REC and RO, it is at the medium level for all other
stress types it is alarmingly high and requires immediate
interventions.

Inter role distance is experienced at a rightly higher level than

the median value, and so are role isolation, sell role distance,
role ambiguity and resource inadequacy. The functional
negotiation decking role classification from various sources
then defining it in the light of such classification.

In case of level E3 role overload is at an alarmingly high level.

Even role isolation is at a level higher than the medium and so
is perusal inadequacy. It seems they need proper orientation of

65
adequate preparation and warning when assigned roles at this
level. Role slimming and role negotiation would be functional
approaches here together with.

At this level, again the role stress is experienced at levels lower

than the median value supported after the norms. It is slightly
higher after norms. It s slightly higher than the median, only
incase of inter role distance, role overload and self role
distance. The functional strategies of dealing with this would
involves role negotiation, role slivering and role interpretation
to some extent.

At this level, the role stress experienced is lower than the

medium value suggested by the norms for all the stress types
other than role overload and personal inadequacy which are
both experienced at the higher ads of the medium value. It
means that at such "high level, the executives have too many
jobs on hard because they just didn't have to do their own jobs
but they have to supervise the work of their subordinates may
cause the executives to experience personal inadequacy. The
functional strategies of dealing efficiently with this conclusion
would involve role slivering and time management.

Analysis of the stress type

Here the stress is experiences at the medium level.

Inter Role Distance: This conflict arise due an individual

or certifying more than one role. Such inter-role conflicts are
quite frequent in modern society when the individual is
increasingly occupying multiple roles in various organization
and groups. This is experienced at the higher and of the
medium save by executives at level E1 and E2 and E6 level
experiences it at the medium level.E3's score for IRD is low and

66
E5 even lower than the standard low value. Executives at level
E4 experience IRD at the lower end of the medium. Therefore
we can say experience of IRD E1, E2 and E7 is high.

E6 : Medium level stress

E4 : Lower than medium level stress

E3 : Low

E5 : Very low.

If we consider the age groups of the executives as well as we

notice that it is the executives who are above 40 years of age
of experience IRD to a larger extent. This could be due to the
fact that they have important responsibilities from the home
front. A functional strategy of dealing with this type of
stress would be role negotiation.

Role stagnation: This refers to the individuals’ reluctance

to 80 off the old role to adapt to the new one. This is
alarmingly high for level E1 for executives at all other levels it
is either at the medium level or even lower than that. It means
that the executives at NTPC corporate center, have largely
adapted their expectations to suit new circumstances and are
not likely to experience caused development stress. The
obtained reader score of 4.5 is level than the medium some of
5.

Role expectation conflict: This type of role stress rises

when there are conflicting expectations demands by different
role senders (persons having expectations from the role). This
conflicting expectation may be from the boss, subordinates,
pears or clients. Here the medium score was 3 which is lower
than the norms (4), so it seems that executives as a group or
as a whole are largely bothered by role expectation conflict.

67
Individually across various levels of executives too, role
expectation conflict is lower than the norms.

Role erosion: It refers to the stress arising of the occupant's

feeling that some functions which he would like to perform are
being performed by some other role. It is the subjective feeling
of an individual that some important role expectations he has
from his role do not match with the expectations other roles
have for him. Our obtained medium value coincides with the
norms. The stress level experienced by our sample is at the
same medium value as that experienced by the population on
which norms were set. Across the levels too, role erosion is
experienced by all the levels at levels toughly around the
medium only. A functional approach of effectively dealing
with it would be role enrichment.

Role overload: It arises when the role occupant feels that

there are too many expectations from the significant roles in
his role set. Role overload is likely to occur more in the absence
of mechanism of role integration, in the absence of power of
the role occupants, in the large variations in the expected
output and when delegation or assistance cannot procure more
time. Again our obtained medium value of 3 coincides with the
norms. Therefore the stress level experienced by own sample is
at the same value as that experienced by the population on
which norms were set. Across the levels, role overload is
experienced to an alarmingly high extent by the executives at
level E3. Executives at level E6 and those at level E7 also
experience role overload higher than the norms. It seems that
at higher levels, the executives don't just have to take care of
their own assigned tasks but they also have to supervise the
work of their subordinates hence they experience large amount

68
of role overload. A functional approach of effectively
dealing with this would be role slimming.

Role isolation: The obtained medium value of s in lower

than that given in the norms (6). However going across the
levels, we observe that role isolation is experienced at a higher
extent than the norms by executives at level E1, E2, E3, E4.
While executives at level E5 (1) experience it at very low level.
A functional strategy to deal with this would be role
negotiation.

Personnel inadequacy: This type of stress arises in a

person out of a feeling that he is not fully equipped (lacks
internal resources) for effective performance of the role. This
feeling gives rise to intense feeling of stress. The obtained
medium value of 3 falls below the norms vale of 4 which
equipped to handle the tasks assigned to them. however across
the levels we notice that executives at level E1 experience
personal inadequacy to an alarmingly large extent. Besides,
executions at level E3, E4 and E7 experience personal
inadequacy at a level higher than the norms value of medium.
It is the executives at level E5 whose medium of personal
inadequacy is at an extreme low of 1 which has brought down
the entire source for personal inadequacy. A functional
approach of effectively dealing with this would be role
linkage.

Self role distance: This is the conflict between the self

concept and the expectations from the role as perceived by the
role occupant. If a person occupies a role which he may
subsequently find conflicting with his self concept, he feels the
stress. Our sample has obtained a medium score of 4 against
the norm of 5. Hence serves that our sample experiences self

69
role distance to a lesser extent as compared to the population
on which norms was set. However, going across the executive
levels, SRD is experienced at an alarmingly high rate level by
executives at level E1. Executives at level E6 also experience
self-role distance at a level higher than the medium. A
functional strategy of dealing with this would be to
develop role integration.

Role ambiguity: It arises when there is lack of clarity

about the work objectives associated with the role, about work
colleagues' expectations of the work role and about the scope
and responsibilities of the job our sample has obtained a
medium value of 2 which is lower than the norm value of 3.
Across the levels we notice that levels lower the manager's
level (ES) experience higher role ambiguity (against norm) with
level E1 again having an alarmingly high value. Levels e5, E6,
E7 the executives serve to be clear about the various aspects of
their work. A functional strategy of effectively dealing
with this would be role classification.

Resource inadequacy: It arises out of a feeling of the

role occupant that he does not have adequate resources to
perform the role effectively. Our sample has obtained a medium
value coinciding with the norms. Across the levels it is again
the levels lower tan E5 which experience resource inadequacy
to a larger extent with level E1 experiencing it to an
alarmingly high extent.

Variety

1. Overall stress serve = add?

2. Scores interpretation - if low? High? Or medium?

Age wise analysis

70
Age-wise analysis of the different types of stress from the
taste, it is clear that in executives below 40 years of age,
stress is experienced at a lower medium vale than the norms
(medium). The medium value o our sample for executives lower
than 40 years of age is lower than that of the norms for IRD,
RS, REC & PI, for RE, RO, RI & RA & RI it is experienced at the
medium level and it is experienced at slightly higher level
incase of SRD. A functional strategy of effectively dealing with
this would be role integration.

Similarly for executives above 40 years of age stress is

experienced at a lower medium value as compared to the
norms. The medium value of our sample for executives above
40 years of age is lower than that of the norms for IRD, RS,
REC, RI, SRD. For RE, PI, RA & RI the medium value coincides
with the norms and it is slightly higher in case of RO. So it
seems that the executives feel that there are too many
expectations from the significant roles in their role set. There is
a positive correlation observed between age of the executives
and their levels. So it seems that as the executives progress in
age, they also progress in the organizational hierarchy (i.e, get
timely promotions) and as the level increases they have to take
care of not just their own job but also supervise them
subordinates and therefore the experience of work overload.
Also the complexity and member of tasks increases with the
level.

71
 CHAPTER-7

DISCUSSIONS
2x2 Anova was carried out for each of the 10 types of role
stress to find out the effects of age and level individually as
well as the combined effects of age and organizational
hierarchical level on the perception and role stress. Significant
difference was found incase of PI for the 2 levels. The
executives at levels E1 -E4 suffered from significantly higher
stress of PI as compared to executives at levels E5-E7. In a
study to study the effect of bureaucracy on role stress across 3
levels of technocrats, it was found that cover level subjects
experienced more organizational role stress than middle level
or upper level subjects. For all other types of stress, neither
age or learnt individually nor the combined effect of the two
comes out to be significant.

This study was undertaken to study the different types of

organizational role stresses experienced by the NTPC
executives. Further the executives were divided into different
categories on the basis of their age (above 40 Vs below 40) and
their hierarchical levels in the organization (E1 - E4 Vs E5 –E7)
and an attempt was made to study the effect of age and level
on the different types of role stresses being measured. The

72
interaction effects of the age and the level as ORS were also
explored as (E1-E4) Vs (E5-E1) because the former comprise
the working level executive categories of the latter are group
heads. It was assumed that executives within each of the
groups would experience similar types of stresses due to similar
working conditions. It was assumed that the group heads would
experience similar kinds of measures and the subordinates
would suffer from a different and hence the 2 groups were
demarcated. It was hypothesized that the 2 would differ
significantly in the overall as well as the different types of role
stress experienced. Similarly, it was hypothesized that
executives above 40 years of age and those below 40 years of
age would experience different types of stress to a significant
extent.

When analysing the different types of role stresses measured, it

was found that (in terms of the absolute figures ) Role erosion
was found to be the highest (median -9) but when compared
to the norms, it was found that the median value suggested by
the norms was also 9.

For all the other stress types, the median value obtained for
own sample is either coinciding with that given in the norms or
is lower than that, i.e., for IRD and RI the median value
obtained is coinciding with that given in the norms, i.e., 5 and
5 respectively, whereas in case of RS, the value obtained in
4.5 which is lower than the medium value given in norms, i.e.,
5. Similarly for REC (obtained median = 3; norms = 4); Ro
(obtained median = 2; norms = 3); RI (obtained median = 5;
norms = 6); PI (obtained median = 3; norms = 4); SRD
(obtained median = 4; norms = 5);RA (obtained median = 2;
norms = 3);

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So it seems that the executives at NTPC, experiences role
stress that is mostly lower than that given in the norms. It is
however higher than the low value of stress given in the norms.
These results indicate that the executives experience a near
facilitation amount of stress, which must be enhancing their
performance in general.

Analyzing the role stress across the hierarchical levels (E1-E7),

it was found that executives at level E1 suffer from alarmingly
high amount of stress and the situation calls for immediate
interventions. Going deeper into the profiles of these
executions, it was found that these executions have rise to the
level E1 from supervisory levels. They were mostly in their late
40s. The transformation from S10 -E1 level required a change
in the job profile and hence was perceived to be very stressful.
The progression age and responsibilities at home front night
hour also contributed to the overall stress experienced. Another
interesting observation related to the unusual low levels of
stress found incase of execution at level E5. Executives at level
E6 were also found to have low levels of stress.

The stress levels for different stress types varied greatly both
across the hierarchical levels (E1-E7) and across the different
stress types (ERD etc.)

The stress levels however didn't differ significantly amongst the

2 levels (E1 -E4 Vs E5-E7) and the 2 age groups (above 40 Vs
below 40)

2 x 2 Anova was carried for each of 10 types of role stress to

find the effects of age and level individually as well as the
combined effect of age and hierarchical level on the perceived
role stress. Significant results were obtained for the effect of
level individually on RO and the interaction effect of the age

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and the level for R PI. So, it can be deduced that the
executions at levels E1-E4 experience RO at a significantly
higher level than the executives at levels E5-E7. For all the
other stress types, neither age nor the organizational level
were found to give significantly different levels of stress.

Executives E1 experience role stress to an alarmingly high

extent. Only for REC and RO the stress is at the medium value.
For RS, RE, PI, SRD and RA, RIN it is experienced to ever
higher degree than that given is the ‘HIGH’ of norms. When
these executives were interviewed personally and probed
further it was found that they had risen from the organizational
levels, i.e. from supervisory to the executives, over a period of
years. They were all is their late 40s. According to the
organisational promotion policy, to be promoted further to level
E2, a minimum of graduation degree was required which most
of them didn’t have (they were mostly diploma holders;
perhaps this led to the stress and fear of role stagnation).
There were organisational policies which enabled them to
convert their diploma to degrees (BS-BLTS Pilani scheme) but
after being out of/from studies for years they didn’t feel
competent enough to pursue them. The sudden exposure from
the supervisor’s to the executive’s job too promoted a lot of
stress and perhaps feelings of personal inadequacy. They felt
they couldn’t relate themselves much to their organisational
role and hence the stress of self-role distance.

This condition requires immediate interaction both on

individual’s as well as the organization’s part. Some functional
strategies of effectively tackling this would involve role
integration, role clarification, role development/enrichment and
role linkages and role transition. Besides, role negotiation, role

75
linkages, role making role slimmering and resource generation
would also help.

Relationship between role stress and the level of

responsibility of the executive

Here, the sample was divided on the basis of level of

responsibility (E1 to E4 working level executives vs. E5 to E7
group heads). When the medians of the 2 were compared it was
found that for IRD, the median obtained for executives at levels
E5 – E7 and E1 – E4 was the same, i.e. 5. The median value
suggested by the norms is also 5. So, we can say that the IRD
the 2 level groups experience the same median value stress
which also coincides with that experienced by the population on
which norms were set. For RS, executives at levels (E1-E4)
experienced stress at a higher median level (5) as compared to
that by (E5-E7), whose median are 4(But the difference wasn’t
found to be statistically significant). The median value
suggested by the norms is also 5. (t-value (ANOVA VALUE = ?)
for REC, again executives at levels E1-E4 obtained a higher
value of stress i.e., 4 (which coincides with the median value
suggested by the norms) than that obtained by those in level
(E5 – E7 i.e, 3 (But the difference is not found to be
statistically significant so we can say that the 2 groups do not
differ significantly on the given experienced due to REC.

For RE, the 2 level groups obtained the same median value (9)
which also coincides with the median value suggested by the
norms. For RO, the median value of stress obtained for levels
E5-E7 coincides with the median value suggested by the norms
which is lower than that experienced by executives at levels
(E1-E4) (4.5). For RI, executives at levels (E5-E7) experience
stress at a median value of 5, which is levels than that,

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experienced by executives at levels E1-E4, i.e, 8 and also lower
than the norms (6). This can be explained in terms of the
organisational structure, where the higher levels has greater
connectivity as compared to those at lower levels who work
relatively in isolation.

For PI, the median value for executives at levels E5-E7 (3) is
much lower than those at levels (E1-E4). The median value by
norms is 4.

For SRD, again the median value for executives at levels (E5-
E7) (4) is much lower than that for levels E1-E7 (7) the median
value by norms is 5.

For RA, again the stress at higher levels is much lower (median
- 2) as compared to that for E1-E4 (median 5) the median
value by norms is 3.

For RIA, the median value for levels E5-E7 is 4.5 which is lower
than that for E1-E4 (6) for norms (5).

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 CHAPTER-8

RECOMMENDATIONS
ORGANISATIONAL APPROACHES TO STRESS

MANAGEMENT

The management of stress is an important thing for

organisations. If an organisation can reduce the effects of
stress, turnover will go down, absenteeism will decrease,
performance will go up, and costs will come down. Thus it
should make efforts to manage stress and to help individuals
cope more effectively.

Amongst the ten dimensions of Role Stress, the highest

percentage was that of Role Erosion. This can be reduced to a
great extent by Job-Enrichment. Enriching jobs either by
improving job contents factors (such as responsibility,
recognition and opportunities for achievement, advancement
and growth) or by improving core job characteristics (such as
skill variety, task identity, task significance autonomy and
feedback) may lead to motivational states or experienced
meaningfulness, responsibility and knowledge of results.
Presumably, these enriched tasks will eliminate the stressors
found in more routine, structured jobs.

However, not all people respond favorably to enriched job

designs and therefore, at least with some people some of the
time, the enriched job may actually lead to increased job
stress. For example, an individual with low growth needs, low
self-efficacy, lack of hardiness and/or fear of failure may

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experience increased stress in an enriched job. There is nothing
so frustrating as being placed in a job that you can’t handle
and do not have the potential to perform well. Overall,
however, careful managing of task design may be an effective
way to manage such stress.

Other dimensions of Role Stress were also found in the

executives at recognizable levels. Following should be the
efforts made by the management in order to minimize the
negative effects of stress:

•Effective performance appraisal and reward systems

reduce role conflict. When rewards are clearly related to
performance, the person knows what he or she is accountable
for and where he or she stands. When a good coaching
relationship between a superior and a subordinate exists along
with the performance appraisal system, the person may feel
that he or she has more control over the work environment. He
or she may also sense some social support for the task of
getting the job done well.

•Increasing participation in decision making will give the

person a greater sense of control over the work environment, a
factor associated with less negative reactions to stress. There
is a strong relationship between participation and job
satisfaction, and role conflict, which suggests that participation
would be a very effective way to deal with stress. Increasing
participation requires decentralization of decision making to
more people and delegation of responsibility to those who are
already accountable for work performance.

•Increasing communication with employees is the most

obvious way to reduce uncertainty. It may also have direct

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effects on role conflict if increased communication clarifies line
of responsibility and authority. Each job should have clear
expectations and the necessary information and support so that
the jobholder is not left with conflicting demands or an
ambiguous understanding of what he or she is to do.

•Stress management programs give employees assistance in

coping with stress. These include counseling and
psychotherapy. A counselor and/or therapist should be made
available to employees when they experience job stress. They
determine the sources of stress, help modify the outlook, and
develop alternative ways to cope.

Relaxation techniques such as biofeedback or meditation help

to eliminate the immediate stressful situation or manage a
prolonged stressful situation more effectively.

Regular seminars and lectures also help the employees better

understand stress, its ramifications, and possible ways to
reduce its effects.

The suggestions given above are forwarded in light of the

responses received from the executives. The questionnaire had
the open-ended question, which asked for how to overcome
stress. Fifty one percent of the executives left the question
unanswered which illustrates either of the following:

a)They were least interested in the study.

b)They are reserve towards their rights and do not demand

willfully due to hesitation.

c)They had the notion that their suggestions will not be

accounted for and there was no use of writing them down.

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The rest of the forty nine percent of the executives responded
to this question with great enthusiasm and interest and
expected that they would see the outcome of their suggestions
in the years to come.

Apart from the specific categories given above, some responses

received are:

•System of promotion and remuneration are outdated –

should be overhauled.

•Job rotation should be effectively implemented to

enhance knowledge in all spheres.

•Categorization of jobs based on urgency and importance.

•Healthy and transparent environment.

•Enhance means of social interaction like picnic, parties,

etc.

•Hobbies, sports activities after office hours by providing

membership in nearby premises.

•Trust between the employees for execution of the role. The

peer must be supportive and encouraging enough to appreciate
good work. A pat from boss boosts an employee’s morale more
than anything else.

The suggestions given above, if implemented, will help the

executives to cope with stress effectively as they have offered
the same. The organisation should try to implement them.

INDIVIDUAL APPROACHES TO MANAGING STRESS

Stress is a powerful force, which can either do a lot of good or

cause extensive harm. It is like a flowing river. When you tame

81
it by putting up bunds and dams, you are able to direct the
water to the places where you need it. But when the river is
untamed, it can cause havoc. So it is with stress.

Unless we make commitments to our own wellness and thereby

take personal responsibility for our stress problems, little is
accomplished. Taking responsibility for you - for your own
health and well being - is one of the most important keys to
successful stress management and life-style change. If you do
not take responsibility for yourself, who will?

LIFESTYLES AND STRESS

In our society it is easier to slip into a vicious-circle kind of life

style. First we rush to embrace material goods, conveniences,
and “the good life”, thereby reducing our abilities to cope with
stress. Second, we reward competition and achievement above
most other human endeavors and design our lives around left
brain (rational, linear thought) concepts, thereby increasing the
amount of stress in our daily lives. There are tremendous
pressures on all of us to follow both these paths and to ignore
our physical, mental, and spiritual wellness. If anything goes
wrong with one of these aspects of our lives, our expectation is
that one or another of the high-technology healing professions
can probably fix it.

Although it is difficult to change the materialistic and

achievement bases of our life styles, other conditions or
situations exist that we probably cannot change at all: our
personalities and certain other idiosyncratic characteristics, the
relationships we share with our environments, and the basic
nature of both our work and the organisation in which we work.

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We each inherit strengths and weaknesses or develop them
through personal habits or accidents. Further, our orientations
predispose us to certain types of stress; for example, an
individual who needs close direction in his work may find
himself experiencing stress from an ambiguous job role. Our
orientations also influence the ways in which we might be
affected by stress; for example, competitive, deadline- and
achievement-oriented people are more likely to have heart
attacks.

If we are aware of our personality idiosyncrasies, we can

choose to avoid extremely stressful situations.

We must also recognize the fact that the organisation in which

we work can either heighten or reduce stress levels. Factors
such as the number of deadlines, the manner of facing crises,
or the frequency and nature of client demands all need to be
considered with regard to their role in increasing or decreasing
stress.

In addition, people working in an environment lacking in social

support probably will have more health and emotional problems
than people working in more supportive settings will.

Although we cannot change many of these situational factors,

we need to develop an understanding of how they affect stress
levels in order to promote effective stress management.

It is possible to diagnose a few sources of stress that can be

removed or avoided. However, most are present everyday or
come along as unavoidable surprises. Thus, it is imperative that
we learn to manage stress by ensuring that our physical,
psychological and spiritual states are able to cope. In summary,
we need to accomplish the following:

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•Avoid whatever stressors we can;

•Manage and buffer ourselves against unavoidable

stressors;

•Devise ways of making our organisation better places in

which to work.

MANAGING STRESS

Both long-term (preventive) and immediate (responsive)

stress-management techniques are needed to protect us from
the effects of stress. The stress management plans should suit
our own unique situations and preferences.

The short-term or immediate responses are extremely

important to effective stress management. Specific, immediate
responses that work are unique for each of us. Most of these
responses fall into following categories:

•Creatively avoiding or withdrawing from the situation;

•Confronting the situation in an assertive manner;

•Exercising influence over others;

•Establishing ways to give and receive help.

It is a good idea to assess abilities in each of these areas.

The long-term protective or preventive techniques for stress

management are described below:

(a) Self-Management:

Self-management activities can be adopted to effectively

manage our experience of stress. These are described below:

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•Enhancing self-awareness: We all need to work
continually on enhancing our self-awareness. With increased
knowledge of our idiosyncrasies, preferences and needs, we can
actively choose to avoid stressful situations. On the job, we can
receive helpful feedback from such sources as trusted
colleagues and performance reviews. Away from work, self-
awareness can be developed by reading, engaging in
introspection, requesting feedback from family and friends,
taking psychological tests, undergoing therapy, and
participating in a variety of group activities. We all are
surrounded with sources of information that can enhance our
self-awareness if we make use of them.

•Maintaining proper nutrition: Most of us are

insufficiently aware of the principles of good nutrition and fail
to eat three meals a day with a balance of vitamins, minerals,
proteins and fiber. Instead, we eat on the run; consume foods
that are high in fat and sugar; drink too much alcohol and
caffeine; and rely too often on overcooked, heavy, restaurant
meals. Good nutritional habits are necessary for long-term
protection against the effects of stress.

•Engaging in regular exercise: Most of our jobs

require little of the physical exertion our bodies are designed
for and indeed require maintaining good health. Therefore, we
are risking our health if we do not engage in regular, non-work
activities that require sustained exertion. Such activities
include running, swimming, vigorous walking, rowing, bicycling,
jumping rope, and certain team sports that are not
characterized by frequent time-outs (such as hockey, soccer,
and rugby). These activities create an aerobic effect, which
improves the efficiency of the cardio-vascular system and

85
lowers the resting pulse rate. So one should set apart some
time for it either in the mornings or evenings.

•Learning and practicing relaxation: Although it

seldom is possible to take a half-hour rest break on the job,
such a practice probably would enhance performance
considerably more than do traditional tea/coffee breaks. An
easy relaxation technique is as follows: With eyes closed, take
ten slow, deep breaths. With each exhalation, count silently:
one after the first breath, two after the second breath, and so
on. This activity results in a feeling of relaxation, a temporary
lowering of high blood pressure, and a sense of readiness to
concentrate fully on the next task. Twenty minutes of
uninterrupted relaxation can have a tremendous impact on
work effectiveness and can increase the ability to withstand
stress.

Being positive in thinking and in action may make stress more

bearable and may even lead to mastery over what appears
unbearable.

(b) Creating and using support networks:

Often those of us who work vigorously to advance our careers

keep ourselves so busy with our jobs that we have little time or
energy to devote to the development of ongoing relationships
with others either on or off the job. Also, frequently the
inherent nature of the organisational systems forces us to
compete with each other for promotions.

We all need supportive relationships to feel a sense of

belonging, to be challenged, to be respected, and so on. For
reasons not yet clearly known, when we lack such relationships

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for too long, the risk of our developing stress-related physical
and psychological conditions increases.

(c) Helping others to manage stress:

We can help others who are experiencing too much stress on

the job. Once we have determined that people are in need of
assistance, we must either use our acquired stress-
management skills to intervene directly or refer these people to
other sources of help. The superiors should be particularly
sensitive to and willing to help with the stress their
subordinate’s experience.

(d) Maintaining a balance between home and

work:

A manager should have a balanced personality keeping both

fronts- home as well as work managed simultaneously, with the
priorities they deserve, which would vary for each issue and
each occasion. Trouble in one area is not without its
ramifications in the other. You work for your and your family’s
happiness, which in turn makes you work better. Hence their
roles are complementary to each other, not competitive. They
are at loggerheads only when you neglect one at the cost of the
other, which is when your personal and work priorities are in
imbalance.

A periodic break - a fortnight’s holiday that takes you away

from your workplace and the formal home atmosphere has an
immense therapeutic effect. Not only does it rejuvenate you
with added zeal when you return, but it also gives you an
opportunity to see things in their proper perspective, and to
introspect.

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Thus, stress is an all-pervading and inevitable part of life. A
person can lead a healthy, productive and progressive life - by
learning to manage and cope with it. It is in the person’s self-
interest, in every sense, to reduce the negative effects of
stress.

COPING WITH ROLE STRESS - EFFECTIVE COPING

STRATEGIES

When individuals experience stress, they try to adopt ways of

dealing or coping with it, as they cannot remain in a continual
state of tension.

Effective coping strategies are approach strategies, which

confront the problem of stress as a challenge, and increase the
capability of dealing with it. Approach or effective strategies of
coping include efforts to increase physical and mental readiness
to cope (through physical exercises, yoga and meditation, diet
management), creative diversions for emotional enrichment
(music, art, theatre, etc.), strategies of dealing with the basic
problems causing stress, and collaborative work to solve such
problems.

Ineffective coping strategies are escape or avoidance

strategies, which reduce the feelings of stress by, for
example, denying the reality of stress, or through the use of
alcohol, drugs or other aids to escapism.

It is useful for both individuals and organisations to examine

the strategy that they are using to cope with stress. The
absence of a coping strategy may lead to ineffectiveness.
Coping is also related to the quality and intensity of emotional
reactions.

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People can be classified into two types on the basis of
strategies employed to deal with stress:

One category consists of persons who decide to suffer, deny the

experienced stress, or put the blame on somebody (self or
others) or something. These passive or avoidance strategies
are termed dysfunctional styles of coping with stress
situations.

The other 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.

Coping strategies can be conceptualized as a product of a

combination of externality, internality and mode of coping.

Externality is the feeling that external factors are responsible

for role stress, resulting in aggression towards, and blaming of,
these external factors. It may also indicate the tendency to
expect and get a solution for the stress from external sources.
Externality may be high or low.

Internality is quite the opposite. The respondent may perceive

himself as responsible for the stress, and may therefore
express aggression or blame towards himself. Similarly, the
respondent may 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 mode of coping.

Avoidance mode is characterized by any one of the following;

(a) aggression and blame, (b) helplessness and resignation, (c)

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minimizing the significance of the stressful situation by
accepting it with resignation, (d) denying the presence of stress
or finding an explanation for it. Such behavior helps a person in
not doing anything in relation to the stress.

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.

The various coping strategies or styles used in role stress have

been studied, and the findings show that approach styles have
strong relationship with internality, optimism, role efficacy, job
satisfaction, and effective role behavior in organisations.

Two contrasting approaches (avoidance or dysfunctional and

approach or functional) for some role stresses have been
discussed below:

•Self-Role Distance

Many individuals, who find a conflict between their self-concept

and the role they occupy in an organisation, may either play
that role in a routine way to earn their living. They take no
interest in their role, and this is indicative of self-role distance.
They have rejected the role. On the other hand, some other
individuals may seriously occupy their roles and in due course
of time, completely forget their self-concept and play their role
effectively, but reject their self. Both these approaches are
avoidance approaches, dysfunctional. If an individual rejects
the role, he is likely to be ineffective in the organisation.
However, if he rejects the self, he is likely to lose his

90
effectiveness as an individual and it is likely to be bad for his
mental health.

An approach or functional strategy of dealing with this stress is

to attempt Role Integration. The individual may analyse the
various aspects of the role which are causing self-role distance
and may begin to acquire skills if this may help him to bridge
this gap, or carry his own self into the role by defining some
aspects of the role according to his own strengths. In other
words, an attempt both to grow into the role and make the role
to grow to use the special capabilities of the person would
result in role integration, where the individual gets the
satisfaction of occupying a role, which is nearer to his self-
concept. Such integration is not easy to achieve, but with
systematic effort, it is also not very difficult to attain.

•Role Expectation Conflict

When the various expectations from the role one occupies

conflict with one another, role stress may develop. One way of
dealing with this stress is to eliminate those expectations from
the role, which are likely to conflict with other expectations.
This is the process of role shrinkage. Role shrinkage is the act
of pruning the role in such a way that some expectations can
be given up. Role shrinkage may help to avoid the problem, but
it is a dysfunctional approach since the advantage of a larger
role is lost.

Instead of role shrinkage, if Role Linkages are established

with other roles, and devising some new ways of achieving the
conflicting expectations solves the problem, the individual can
experience both the processes of growth as well as satisfaction.

•Role Stagnation

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It is a common stress in organisations, when individuals get
into new roles as a result of their advancement in the
organisations, or as a result of taking over more challenging
roles. There may be a feeling of apprehension because the role
is new and may require skills, which the role occupant may not
have. In such situation, a usual way is to continue to play the
previous role about which the individual is sure, and which he
has been doing successfully. In many cases this is the tragedy
of the organisations that even after advancement people at the
top continue to play the role of the lower level managers. This
is role fixation, and is an avoidance strategy.

As it is necessary for an individual to grow out of his role as a

boy into that of an adolescent, and out of adolescence into
adulthood, similarly, it is important for people to grow out of
their old roles into new ones and face up the challenge. An
approach and a more functional way to resolve this conflict is
that of Role Transition. Role transition is the process by which
a previous role, howsoever successful and satisfying it may
have been, is given up to take a new and more developed role.
Various processes, including anticipatory socialization, role
clarity, help role transition, substitute gratification and
transition procedure. In order to make role transition more
effective, it is necessary to have anticipatory socialization, that
is preparation of the taking of the new role. This would also
include delegation of responsibility and functions to people
below one’s own role, so that the person can be free to
experiment and he can take help in such experimentation from
others. Such a process of role transition may be very useful.

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•Inter-Role Distance

In inter role distance, an individual may experience stress due

to conflict between the roles he occupies, and which conflict in
expectations. The usual approach to deal with this problem is
either to partition the roles clearly, so that a person is a
husband or father when he is at home, and an executive when
he is in his office, or there may be role elimination that is,
accepting one role at the cost of the other role. In such a case,
the individual takes recourse to rationalization. For example, an
executive who neglects his family at home and who in this
process eliminates the role of father and husband, rationalizes
the process by thinking that he makes a unique contribution to
the company and therefore, can afford to neglect his family, or
he earns enough for his family who should pay the price of
losing him as a husband and as a father. Such rationalization is
part of the process role elimination. These are avoidance
strategies.

A more functional approach to the problem is Role

Negotiation. The process of role negotiation is the process of
establishing mutuality of roles and getting necessary help to
play the roles more effectively, and giving help in turn to the
other role. For example, an executive who is not able to find
time for his family, may sit down and negotiate with his wife
and children on how best he can spend time meaningfully
within the given constraints so that neither of roles had to be
sacrificed or eliminated.

•Role Ambiguity

For role ambiguity, the usual approach is to make the roles

clear by putting various things on paper. This is role

93
prescription. The various expectations are defined more clearly.
Or, the individual may remove ambiguity by fitting into the role
as described in some expectations. This is the process of role
taking. Both are avoidance strategies.

An approach strategy may be to seek clarification from

various sources and to define the role in the light of such
clarifications. In contrast with role taking, a more creative is to
define the role according to one’s own strength and to take
some steps in making the role more challenging.

•Role Overload

To deal with the stress of role overload, that is, a feeling of too
many expectations from several sources, the role occupant
usually prepares a list of all functions in terms of priorities. He
gives top priority to those functions, which are important. This
kind of prioritization may help put things in order of
importance. However, the problem may be that the functions
with which a person is less familiar and comfortable may tend
to be pushed lower down the priority list, and may be
neglected. Those functions, which a person is able to perform
without any effort, get top priority. Those, which are in a lower
level of priority, always remain neglected, and in his sense, this
approach may be dysfunctional. This is an avoidance strategy.

A more functional approach may be to redefine the role and see

which aspects of the role may be delegated to other persons
who may be helped to develop take on these functions. This
may help the other individuals also to grow. This may be called
Role Slimming. The role does not lose its vitality in the
process of delegating some functions; in fact the vitality
increases with decrease in obesity.

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•Role Isolation

When there is tension and distance between two roles in an

organisation, the usual tendency is for each role occupant to
play the role more efficiently, and avoid interactions. The role
occupant confines himself to his own role. This may be called
role boundness. He voluntarily agrees to be bound by the role.
This strategy avoids the possible conflict. There are individual
executives and managers who are highly efficient in their roles
but who do not take corporate responsibility and whose
linkages with other roles are very weak. The individual
withdraws in a kind of isolation of efficiency. He gets
satisfaction out of playing the individual role effectively and
efficiently, but does not contribute as much as he could have
done to the overall responsibility for the organisation. This is
likely to be dysfunctional, as it does not help the individual play
his role in the larger interest of the organisation.

A better method and an approach strategy is Role

Negotiation. Negotiating with peers, subordinates or
supervisors will help to deal with the situation more effectively.

•Role Erosion

In role erosion, an individual feels that some important

functions, which he would prefer to perform, are being
performed by some other roles. The usual reactions in such a
situation is to fight for rights of the role, and to insist on
clarification of roles. The solution is sought in making structural
clarifications. However, this is not likely to be functional and
helpful, since the basic conflict is avoided and it continues.

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An approach strategy may be that of Role Enrichment. Like
job enrichment, the concept role enrichment suggests vertical
loading of the role. Analyzing the role systematically can do
role enrichment, and helping the individuals to see the various
strengths in the role and the various challenges the role
contains but which might not have been apparent to the
individual when he performs it. Significant role set members
can help make the role more challenging and satisfying to the
role occupant.

In summary, effective management of stress involves

directing stress for productive purposes, preparing role
occupants to understand their strengths and usual styles, and
equip them to develop approach strategies of coping with
stress.

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 CHAPTER-9

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

Certain limitations do creep in a research study due to
constraints of time, money and human efforts. The present
study is also not free from certain limitations, which were
unavoidable. Some of them are listed below:

•The extent of the study was limited to the corporate centers

situated at NOIDA & BADARPUR.

•Due to the very large size of the population, only a selected

sample of people could be interviewed.

•Due to fast pace in life, sometimes the executives were not

able to do justification to the questionnaire

•Personal biases might have come while answering the

questionnaire. Some executives rank them best in comparison
to others.

•Some of the employees did not have time to interact, as they

were busy with their work.

•Few employees of the organisation were reluctant to give the

response as they either were not interested in finding out
whether they were under stress or not or were thinking that the
information they give might be used against them.

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Steps taken to reduce these limitations:

•The sample was selected in such a manner that all the

departments were covered so as to get a true and complete

picture of the organisation.

•The respondents were also assured that the questionnaire is to

be used only for the purpose of the project and in no case be
used for any other purpose by any other person.

Since I took the questionnaires personally to every person of

my sample I could not only get the questionnaire filled up but
also extract the other information needed. Also the
questionnaires were distributed randomly so that there does
not exist the element of showing bias towards anybody.

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 CHAPTER-10
CONCLUSION
There were several interesting observations in the results
obtained from the survey on Role Stress.

1. Alarmingly high levels of stress at level E1.

2. Surprisingly low levels of stress at level E5.

3. Surprisingly RO for execution at level E1 –E4. Especially

Level E3 – alarmingly high.

4. Low levels of RA & REC at levels E5-E7 opposite incase of

levels E1-E4.

5. Significantly higher levels of PI experienced by No I would

level E1-E4 like to analyze one at a time.

(1) The direct execution induction happens at level E2A the

executives at level E1 are mostly those who have risen from the
supervisory levels over the years. The transition from level S4
(highest supervisory level) to level E1 involves a sudden shift in
the expeditions of the people around where suddenly they are
expected to be more accountable and efficient.

(2) Low levels of stress at level E5 : Reasons could be :

(i) low workload

(ii) E1-E4 working level executives – E3 & E4 highly

overburdened. Therefore, on reaching E5 tend to relax.
Promotion at level E4 is crucial because it’s a transition
from the working level towards the group head category.

(iii) Large numbers in E5 level which causes dilution of work

where there were earlier few (2) executives now there are
several (20) executives taking care of the same

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 responsibilities which were shared by few (2). Therefore,
workload and therefore stress in general is low except for
Role erosion which is experienced to a near median level
because of the creation of these new roles and redefinition
of the old ones. These executives may feel that the
functions they would like to perform are being done by
some other roles.

There are several implications of this finding:

(1) These low levels of stress may be affecting the productivity

of the executives at this level adversely which implicates
that they might require an optimum level of stress for
performing most effectively.

This could be perhaps done in either of these ways;

(i) Club E5 with (E1-E4) categories, i.e., the working level

executives where they would have more workload

(ii) Club (E5/ LR) with the group heads categories, i.e., E6
level where again they would have several added
responsibilities which would again take care of their stress
levels.

(iii) Enrich the jobs at level E5 which added responsibilities

and higher workloads.

This condition also has a very positive implication for the

management where they can utilize the time with level E5
executives for training for higher levels. Since a large number
of them would be reaching higher levels and heading the
company eventually. Therefore, their spare time can be
effectively utilized for imparting them training skills, values,
etc. to ensure a healthy and a competent as well as a value-
ladder organizational culture in times to come.

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(2) High levels of RO for the working level executives, especially
level E3 which is alarmingly high. The probable reasons for
this is that levels E1- E4 are actually the working level
executives who mostly do all the ground work. In fact here
it is of extreme interest to note the decision of executives at
various levels, instead of the expected paranoid structure,
the structure is more like a rocket, i.e., a bulk of the
executives are at levels E5 – E6. This could perhaps be
attributed to the fact that E1 recruitment process started in
1977. Over the period of 13-14 years, most of the
executions who joined during the earlier years (77-80) over
the due course (of timely promotions) have reached level
E5-E6.

Whereas those at levels E1-E4 are chiefly those who have

gradually risen from supervisory levels over the years.
(therefore since the past 10 years or so, the corporate centre
has inducted very few freshers). Resultantly, these few E1-E4
are catering to the work of the huge numbers of E5-E6. (Infact
there is a popular joke at CC, that when 2 executives at levels
E1-E4 meet, they ask each other “How many bosses are you
taking case of ?) because of which they are grossly overworked.

(3) Low levels of RA & REC at levels E5 –E7 whereas its high
for executives at levels E1-E4. This was contrary to new
hypothesis where I assumed that the higher level executives
would have greater RA & REC as compared to executives at
levels E1-E4 who have relatively structured roles. There are
fewer E1-E4 executives taking case of the work assigned by
several bosses. Even amongst themselves, they don’t divide
the work in a very organized manner which resultantly leads
to RA & REC. Incase of PI, execution at level E1-E4

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 experienced significantly higher stress as compared to those
at levels E5-E7. Thee could be several reasons for this:

(i) Over the past couple of years, there have been very few
direct recruits or ET introduction at CC due to which most
of the executives at levels E1-E4 are those who have
gradually risen from the supervisory levels over the years.
They might experiences this stress because of (I) lack of
formal training (education i.e., qualification wise )
required for some of the tasks.

(ii) Most of them (due to the above stated reason) are mostly
in the higher age bracket (i.e., above 40 years) and might
experience mental facility burnout.

(iii) Perhaps because of high work overload and pressure they

might experience lack of control and hence feel PI.

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 QUESTIONNAIRE
1. My role tends to interfere with my family life

2. I am afraid I am not learning enough in my present

role for taking up higher responsibility.

3. I am not able to satisfy the conflicting demands of

various people above me.

4. My role has recently been reduced in importance.

5. My workload is too heavy.

6. Other role occupants do not give enough attention and

time to my role.

7. I do not have adequate knowledge to handle the

responsibilities in my role.

8. I have to do things, in my role, that are against my better

judgement.

9. I am not clear on the scope and responsibilities of my role

(job).

10.I do not get the information needed to carry out

responsibilities assigned to me.

11.I have various other interests (social, religious, etc) which

remain neglected because I do not get time to attend to
these.

12.I am too preoccupied with my present role responsibility to

be able to prepare for taking up higher responsibilities.

13.I am not able to satisfy the conflicting demands of my peers

and juniors.

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

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

I want to maintain.

16.There is not enough interaction between my role and other

roles.

17.I wish I had more skills to handle the responsibilities of my

role.

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

19.I do not know what the people I work with expect of me.

20.I do not get enough resource to be effective in my role.

21.My role does not allow me enough time for my family.

22.I do not have time and opportunities to prepare myself for

the future challenges of my role.

23.I am not able to satisfy the demands of clients and others,

since these are conflicting with one another.

24.I would like to take on more responsibility than I am

handling at present

25.I have been given too much responsibility.

26.I wish there was more consultation between my role and

other roles.

27.I have not had the right training for my role.

28.The work I do in the organisation is not related to my

interests

29.Several aspects of my role are vague and unclear

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

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31.My organizational responsibilities interfere with my extra
organizational roles.

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

33.The expectations of my seniors conflict with those of my

juniors.

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

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

36.There is no evidence of several roles (including mine) being

involved in joint problem solving or collaboration for
planning action.

37.I wish I had prepared myself well for my role.

38.If I had full freedom to define my role, I would be doing

some things differently from the way I do them now.

39.My role has not been defined clearly and in detail.

40.I am rather worried that I lack the necessary facilities

needed in my role.

41.My family and friends complain that I do not spend time

with them due to the heavy demands of my work role.

42.I feel stagnant in my role.

43.I am bothered with the contradictory expectations different

people have from my role.

44.I wish I had been given more challenging tasks to do.

45.I feel overburdened in my role.

46.Even when I take the initiative for discussions or help, there

is not much response from the other roles.

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47.I need more training and preparation to be effective in my
work role.

48.I experience a conflict between my values and what I have

to do in my role.

49.I am not clear what the priorities are in my role.

50.I wish I had more financial resources for the work assigned
to me.

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 ORS SCALE

Name: Role:

Organisation: Date:

Read instructions carefully before responding on this sheet.

People have different feelings about their roles. Statements

describing some of them are given below. Use the answer sheet
to write your responses. Read each statement and indicate, in
the space against the corresponding number in the answer
sheet, how often you have the feeling expressed in the
statement in relation to your role in the organisation. Use the
numbers given below to indicate your own feelings.

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. Do not leave any item unanswered.
Answer the items in the order given below:

Write 0 If you never or rarely feel this way.

Write 1 If you occasionally (a few times) feel this way.

Write 2 If you sometimes feel this way.

Write 3 If you frequently feel this way

Write 4 If you very frequently or always feel this way.

1 - 11 - 21 - 31 - 41 - … … 1

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2 - 12 - 22 - 32 - 42 - … … 2

3 - 13 - 23 - 33 - 43 - … … 3

4 - 14 - 24 - 34 - 44 - … … 4

5 - 15 - 25 - 35 - 45 - … … 5

6 - 16 - 26 - 36 - 46 - … … 6

7 - 17 - 27 - 37 - 47 - … … 7

8 - 18 - 28 - 38 - 48 - … … 8

9 - 19 - 29 - 39 - 49 - … … 9

10 - 20 30 - 40 - 50 - … … 10

REFERENCES

•Understanding and Managing Stress, John D.

108
 Adams.

•Managing Executive Stress – A Systems

Approach, James W. Greenwood.

•Organizational Behaviour, Stephen P. Robbins

•Human Resource Management, Dr. N. K. Chadha.

•NTPC Guide book &CD

•PMI of NTPC

•www.vanderbilt.edu/psychology

•www.psybertron.org

•www.hreffects.com

•www.ntpc.com

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