Online published on 28 February, 2020.
Mental well-being encompasses emotional and spiritual well-being of people and safeguards them against mental illness. WHO (2017) points out at the deteriorating mental health of millions of Indians suffering from depression and anxiety. Mental Health disorders are associated with workplace stress and itis true in Indian IT industries. Thepresentresearchaimedat findingout theroleof Institution, Gender and Cadre on stress, self-concept, emotional intelligence and mental well-being of IT professionals. It adopted 2x2x2 design having Institutions (Private and Public), Gender (male and female) and Cadre (senior and junior). The sample comprised of 240 IT professionals selected through purposive sampling. The stress scale, self-concept scale, emotional quotient test and well-being scale were used. ANOVA, correlation and regression were used for data analysis.
Thefindings showed themain effect of Institution, Gender and Cadre onstress, self-concept, emotional intelligence and mental well-being. IT professionals in private sector experienced greater amount of stress, had higher self-concept and emotional intelligence compared to the public IT professionals. However, the mental well-being of professionals in public sector was higher than those in private sector. Female IT professionals experienced higher level of stress but the males were better in their self-concept, emotional intelligence and mental well-being than the females. With regard to Cadre, Junior cadre professionals experienced higher level of stress compared to their senior counterparts. However, with regard to self-concept, emotional intelligence and mental well-being senior cadre IT professionals had higher scores than those in junior cadre. Interaction effect of Institution x Gender revealed that the private sector female IT professionals had the highest level of stress scores and emotional intelligence compared to the private sector males. With regard to self-concept, male and female IT professionals serving in private and public institutions were comparable. Mental well-being of the public sector male professionals exceeded the public and private sector females and private sector males. Institution x Cadre interaction indicated the private sector junior cadre IT professionals had higher level of stress as well as emotional intelligence than those serving in private and public sector senior cadre and public sector junior cadre. On the contrary, public sector senior cadre IT professionals had the highest level of mental well-being than those in public sector junior cadre, and private sectors senior as well as junior cadre IT professionals. Though, their self-concept remained the same across institution and cadre. Gender x Cadre interaction showed that junior cadre female professionals experienced the highest level of stress. Self-concept and mental well-being were higher among senior cadre males than senior cadre females; junior cadre males and females. Further female professionals had the highest level of emotional intelligence across Gender and Cadre. Moreover, public sector senior cadre males had greater emotional intelligence and mental well-being than other professionals across Institution, Gender and Cadre. Stress had a significant negative relationship with self-concept, emotional intelligence and mental well-being among IT professionals across Institutions, Gender and Cadre. However, there were significant positive intercorrelation among self-concept, emotional intelligence and mental well-being of professionals across Institutions, Gender and Cadre. Regression analysis revealed that stress, self-concept and emotional intelligence as predictors significantly predicted the mental well-being of the IT professionals. Thestudy implicated well-planned intervention programs to enhance the mental well-being of the Indian IT professionals.
