An assessment of employee perception regarding workplace Stress-causes and remedies: Evidence from Software Industry

In the wild chase of success, power and wealth we are pushing ourselves beyond the limits. Recent studies have shown that the challenges faced in the workplace and the continuous demands of personal life results in an imbalance and this ultimately leads to stress. However there is a huge gap in empirical studies on work place stress in software industry, particularly in the Indian context. Moreover the research has been done mainly on the causes of stress and no remedies have been identified. Literature was reviewed and the aspects related to stress were identified and captured in a survey instrument which was later administered to employees of software companies in Delhi region. The purpose of this research is three fold; first it identifies the perceived job stress levels among software professionals, second, identifies the most significant stressors related to job and third, it identifies the most appropriate approaches to effectively cope with stress relevant for software industry. The findings suggest that the software professionals are definitely under stress be it moderate or high. In addition the number one stressor at work place was found to be 'work-family imbalance' followed by ‘work overload'. One of the important finding emerged; a little amount of stress is required to feel motivated to work in this industry. Employees perform better if they are moderately aroused/stressed. As a result of these findings there are strong implications for management and employees of software industry interested in applying and improving the effectiveness and efficiency of employees by reducing the stress levels.