TABLE OF CONTENTS

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EXECUTIVE SUMMERY
CHAPTER-I
INTRODUCTION
NEED FOR THE STUDY
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
IMPORTANCE OF STUDY
SCOPE OF THE STUDY
CHAPTER-II
INDUSTRY PROFILE OF BPO SECTOR
CHAPTER-III
COMPANY PROFILE OF WIPRO,MYSORE
CHAPTER-IV
RESEARCH DESIGN
CHAPTER-V
THEORITICAL ASPECTS ON STRESS
MANAGEMENT
CHAPTER-VI
ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
CHAPTER-VII
FINDINGS
CHAPTER-VIII
CONCLUSION
CHAPTER-IX
SUGGESSTIONS
ANNEXURE
QUESTIONNAIRE

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Our society, facing momentous challenges towards the beginning of the twenty first century,
needs visions of the future so attractive, inspiring, and compelling that people will shift from
their current mind-set of focusing on immediate crisis to one of eagerly anticipating the future
a future where the health and well-being of the earth and its inhabitants is secure.
Stress is one such health problem that affects each one of us in every day of our lives. Yet
recognizing we are stressed, working out why and doing something about it isnt easy for

anyone. Its much harder to confess to ourselves and to others that we feel stressed. To many
stress is seen as something of a disliked word, a sign of not being able to cope, of not being
good enough or even of being neurotic. However, if we dont realize that were over stressed, we
cant find a way to make life stressful for ourselves. Our health suffers, our relationship suffers
and we get less enjoyment and pleasure out of life.
We need to focus on ourselves. There are ways we can help ourselves and accept help from
others, and that is what this field study is about. If we avoid facing upto the excess stress in our
life, the consequences will come back to haunt us. If we face upto too much stress, if we notice it
and acknowledge it, we are on our way to a less stressful, more balanced life and a healthier,
happier one too.
In view of the above, field study is undertaken to find out the level of stress amongst the
employees and executives at WIPRO BPO,MYSORE which is an INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY COMPANY. It includes:

CHAPTER : PROFILE OF THE ORGANIZATION

This chapter deals with the history of the organization, the companys mission, vision, values
and the turnover. This chapter mentions the functional departments of the organization and their
structure, growth and the present status of the organization.
CHAPTER : INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY
This chapter deals with a general introduction to the information technology industry, statement
of problem, need for the study, and objectives of the study and the scope of the study.

CHAPTER : RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter deals with methodology adopted in studying the employee stress level in the
organization. It includes description of research design, sources and instruments used for the data
collection, methodology and limitations.
CHAPTER : THEORETICAL BASE OF THE STUDY
This is the main chapter, which gives the background for the study. This includes the meaning of
stress, the symptoms of stress, sources of stress, strategies to combat stress and the ways to
survive stress.
CHAPTER : ANALYSIS OF THE DATA COLLECTED
This chapter mainly analyses and interprets the data collected based on the survey conducted
through tabulations and graphs. This analysis is carried out targeting the objectives of the study.
CHAPTER : FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
This chapter deals with the summary of the findings of the organization based on the responses
given by the respondents in survey conducted. In this chapter conclusion and suggestion are
drawn based on the observation, analysis and the suggestions given by the respondents.

INTRODUCTION
I just cant cope anymore. Do these words explode inside your head as you struggle to cope
with the dual demands of your work and your family? Do you feel as if you have no control left
over your life? Does an overwhelming feeling of anxiety envelope you every working hour? If
your answer is yes to all these questions then you may be a casualty of that modern or new age
disease called STRESS.

The topic of stress and its relationship to worker behavior has recently become a topic of interest
to organizational researchers. Until mid 1970s, research on stress was essentially confined to its
effect on health and was conducted by individual in the medical profession. Why the recent
concern with stress as an organizational behavior topic? First, stress appears to be linked to
employee performance and satisfaction, so the topic is a relevant independent variable. Second,
there is an implicit obligation of management to improve the quality of organizational life for
employees. Because stress has been directly linked to coronary heart disease, a reduction in
stress can increase both the general health and the longevity of an organizations work force. Of
course, this too can have performance implications work force. Of course, this too can have
performance implications. The point is that the topic of stress has individual and group level
relevance as well as organization system implications.
MEANING AND DEFINITION
Stress has a variety of meanings to people in the workplace. To the production manager in a
chemical plant, it may be the tension of missing the shipping date of a large order for a major
customer. To the business executive, it may be the frustration associated with the inability to
acquire sufficient short-term loans from banks to cover the operating needs, and so on. Stress is
the wear and tear on our mind and body when the pressure from our environment is in excess of
our ability to cope. Relaxation is the first casualty of present day life and the stress coping
abilities which nature had provided to human beings are proving out to be woefully inadequate to
cope with the stress of modern living.

Stress originates from the French word Retrecir, meaning narrowness, a constriction or the
limiting factor of power. The dictionary meaning of stress is a mentally or emotionally
disruptive or upsetting condition occurring in response to adverse external influences and
capable of affecting physical health, usually characterized by an increased heart rate, a rise in
blood pressure, muscular tension, irritability and depression in a person.
DEFINITIONS

In the world of Szilagyi and Wallace, stress is an internal experience that creates a
psychological or physiological imbalance within an individual and results from the factors in the
external environment, the organization, or the individual. This definition identifies three main
elements of stress in organization: 1. Stimulus element, 2. Response element and 3. An
interaction element.
Elements of stress
Components of stress

Stimulus
Environment
Organization
Individual

Interaction of
Stimulus and
Response

Response
Frustration
Anxiety

1. The stimulus element or component this includes the initiating forces that results in a
feeling of stress. Stress stimuli can originate from the environment, the organization and the
individual.
2. The response component it involves physiological, psychological or behavioral reactions
to stress. Two responses to stress are most frequently identified. One, frustration which is
caused by any obstruction between a behavior and its goal and second, the anxiety which the
feeling of being unprepared to respond appropriately in some situation. Stress associated with
organizational activities is called job stress.
3. The interactive component the interactive component of stress is the interaction of
stimulus and response stress factors. For example, for the air traffic controller, stress is a
complex interaction of environmental, organizational and personal feelings and responses.
According to Hans Selye, the most well known authority on this subject, there are two types of
stress. Eustress is the positive type that has its foundations in meeting the challenges of a task or

job. The effects of eustress are beneficial in that they help us to overcome obstacle. Distress is
negative in that it allows us to be overpowered. Anger, loss of control, feelings of inadequacy
and insecurity are all manifestations of distress.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

INDUSTRY
The WIPRO BPO, MYSORE has finally come of age in the last Decade. It is being pushed as a
lifestyles statement to end-users. The IT scenario is changing fast, with almost all sectors of
economy catching up on the IT wave and throwing up opportunities galore for the entire world.
The global technology market is on the roll, and new trends and exciting prospects are taking
shape. From convergence, which was considered the most revolutionary idea in 2003, to wireless
technology- all seems to be taking effect in the coming year.
IT is the new media in the modern age. With the countrys economy moving to a decent phase
and the IT industry seemingly regaining its lost ground, all indications hitherto lead to believe
that three sectors will emerge as the big spenders in IT. They are the government sector,
corporate bodies and educational institutes. Both central and state governments are investing
more on IT infrastructure for e-governance. IT is becoming the main expenditure area. Sectors
like banking, insurance, education, pharmaceuticals and manufacturing are making investments
in IT. Companies have viewed spending in IT on par with capital expenditure.
The corporate segment has been an all-time big player in the Indian market place and has
influenced IT trade as no other segments has ever done. The corporate bodies are investing much
more on technology infrastructure, networking, security and storage. Indian business managers
and executives are always focusing on how IT can give them the competitive advantage by
enhancing productivity and delivering greater products. With the companies focusing to invest in
intelligent networks that deliver high availability and scalability, with its growing increased
awareness in IT. Its acceptance has been accelerating significantly. Rapid changes symbolizing

the IT trade make awareness an essential ingredient. Internet, e-banking, online education,
wirelesses and laptops are the products of the latest technology in the IT sector.
Possessing the computer skills is more or less becoming mandatory for getting a decent job.
Knowledge of IT is happening and is a necessity. Almost every major enterprise is aware of the
technology and has at least some limited deployments. Wireless has become a core part of every
enterprise network and can no longer be regarded as an elective technology. Technology has now
reached the common man through mobile phones, personal computers, laptops and a host of
other utility products.
With full-fledged convergence being put into practice, there are new computing devices that
communicate and communication devices that compute. Also, with computers gradually crossing
the lines towards lifestyle products, acceptance of technology is inevitable. A steady growth and
an increase in the pace of IT implementation can be predicted in the corporate sector.
Intense competition is blowing life into the trade and the struggle will continue for sometime.
There will be investments and innovations. Hence, there is an all-round development empowered
by IT.
Therefore, in todays ever-changing scenario WIPRO BPO,MYSORE the information
technology company is one of its kind companies with a vision to pioneer in the business of einformation. With over 100 employees the company projects its competitive position.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
The old management paradigm said, in the interest of an organization, people are permitted only
to feel emotions at work those that are easily controllable. These emotions can be categorized as
positive. The new management paradigm says that managing people is managing feelings. The
issue isnt whether or not people have negative emotions; its how they deal with them. Since
the time immemorial, supervisors and subordinates have been told to check their feelings at the
door. And thats big mistake. Its one thing to say that behavior is more accessible to supervisors

than feelings are; its another thing altogether to say that feelings have no place at work. The
only natural conclusion is that managers cannot ignore the stress issue and must actively seek to
do something about it.
Therefore, stress management has become an important concern of HR development department
of most organizations. At WIPRO BPO,MYSORE we will focus on how the employees manage
and survive stress.
NEED FOR THE STUDY
The information technology sector in India is one of the most favored sectors by investors. Its
attractiveness has grown even more in the recent times due to steady performance and growth.
The new media has thrown up new challenges. Its impact has been both positive and negative. It
has brought along with it long working hours, limited holidays, less time with family members,
meeting targets with limited time etc.
Stress is one such challenge to deal with, be it either personal or work related. Two facts about
stress cannot be ignored. First, people get sick from stress at work. Second, the costs associated
with stress are significant to every employer. They include lost time and lower productivity. it is
a major cause of employee absenteeism and turnover. Certainly, such factors severely limit the
potential success of an organization.
In the prevailing conditions the researcher attempt to do a brief analysis on stress management at
WIPRO BPO, MYSORE; in order to ascertain the employees stress level and their working
conditions.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The main objective of the study is to determine the stress level of the organization. The study
also includes the following objectives:
To determine the stress experienced by the employees in the organization
To determine the areas of stress
Assessing the working conditions

 To gain experience in the field study

SCOPE OF STUDY
Scope of the study is limited to the information technology industry and in particular to WIPRO
BPO, MYSORE.
STRESS MANAGEMENT IN ORGANIZATIONS
The incidence of work-related stress is now growing so fast that professional people are more
likely to take time off work for stress-related illnesses than for back aches. Campaigns are being
launched world wide to raise employers awareness of the dangers of stress. Dealing with stress is
the challenge all employers must face. From office environments to conflict resolution and
seminars on dealing with change, there is a spate of preventive measures companies can use to
promote employee welfare. Employers now need to tackle the issue of stress in the workplace
with gusto, to prevent this new problem from becoming an epidemic. Work doesnt have to be
stressful. There is a way to reduce stress.
Since stress is felt virtually by all employees in all organizations, insights about managing stress
in organizations are vital. This section is built on the assumption that in order to appropriately
manage stress in organizations, managers must (1) understand how stress influences worker
performance, (2) identify where unhealthy stress exists in organizations, and (3) help employees
handle stress.

UNDERSTANDING HOW STRESS INFLUENCE WORKER PERFORMANCE

To deal with stress in an organization, managers must understand the relationship between the
amounts of stress felt by a workers performance. (This relationship is shown in the figure as
below). According to this figure, extremely high and extremely low levels of stress tend to have
negative effects on production. Additionally, increasing stress tends to increase performance up
to some point (point A in the figure). If the level of stress increases beyond this point,
performance will be deteriorate. In sum, from a performance viewpoint, having individuals

experience some stress is generally considered advantageous because it tends to increase

production. However, having individuals feel too much or too little stress is generally considered
disadvantageous because it tends to decrease production.

IDENTIFYING UNHEALTHY STRESS IN ORGANIZATIONS

After managers understand the impact of stress on performance. They must be able to identify
where stress exists within the organization. Once the existence of stress is pinpointed, the
managers must determine if the stress is at an appropriate level or if it is too high or too low.
Since most stress related organizational problems involve too much stress, rather than too little,
the reminder of this section focuses on undesirably high levels of stress.
It can be difficult for managers to identify the people in the organization who are experiencing
detrimentally high levels of stress. Part of the difficulty is that people often respond to high stress
in different ways. Another part of the difficulty is that physiological reactions to stress are hard,
if not possible, for managers to observe and monitor. Such reactions include high blood pressure,
pounding heart, and gastrointestinal disorders.
Despite the difficulty, there are several observable symptoms of undesirably high stress levels
that managers can look for. These symptoms are as follows:
Constant fatigue
Low energy
Moodiness
Increased aggression
Excessive use of alcohol
Temper outbursts

 Compulsive eating
High levels of anxiety
Chronic worrying
Managers who observe one or more of these symptoms in employees should investigate further
to determine if employees exhibiting the symptoms are indeed under too much stress. If so, the
managers should attempt to help the employees reduce or handle their stress.
HELPING EMPLOYEES HANDLE STRESS
A stressor is an environmental demand that causes people to feel stress. Stressors are common in
organizational situations in which individuals are confronted by circumstances in which their
usual behaviors are inappropriate or insufficient and where negative consequences are associated
with not properly dealing with the situation. Organizational change is an obvious stressor.
In addition to working in a focused manner on organizational change and other organizational
stressors after they are observed, management can adopt several strategies to help prevent the
development of unwanted stressors in organizations. Some of the strategies, which could be
followed, are:
1. Create an organizational climate that is supportive of individuals: Organizations of today
commonly seem to evolve into large bureaucracies with formal, inflexible, impersonal
climates. This type of set-up can lead to considerable job stress. Making the organizational
environment less formal and more supportive of employee needs will help prevent the
development of unwanted organizational stressors.
2. Make jobs interesting: in general, routine jobs that do not allow employees some degree of
freedom often result in undesirable employee stress. Managements focus on making jobs as
interesting as possible should help prevent the development of unwanted stressors related to
routine, boring jobs. Job rotation can also be taken up.

3. Design and operate career-counseling programs: considerable stress can be generated

when employees do not know what their next career step might be or when they take it. If
management can show employees what the next step will probably be and when it
realistically can be achieved, the development of unwanted organizational stressors in this
area can be discouraged.
4. Participative decision-making: role stress is detrimental to a large extent because
employees feel uncertain about goals, expectations, how theyll be elevated, and the like. By
giving these employees a voice in those decisions that directly affect their job performances,
management can increase employee control and reduce this role stress. So managers should
consider increasing employee participation in decision-making.
5. Job redesign: redesigning jobs to give employees more meaningful work, more autonomy,
and increased feedback can reduce stress, because these factors give the employees greater
control over work activities and lessen dependence on others.
6. Goal setting: based on an expensive research it is found that, individuals perform better
when they have specific and challenging goals and receive feedback on how well they are
progressing towards these goals. The use of goals can reduce stress as well as provide
motivation. Specific goals that are perceived attainable clarify performance expectations.
Additionally, goal feedback reduces uncertainties as to actual job performance. The result is
less employee frustration, role ambiguity and stress.
7. Organizational communication: increasing formal communication with employees reduces
uncertainty by lessening role ambiguity and role conflict. Given the importance that
perceptions play in moderating the stress-response relationship, management can also use
effective communication as a means to shape employee participations.
8. Wellness programs: another important point would be to offer organizationally supported
wellness programs. These programs focus on the employees total physical mental condition.
For example they typically provide workshops to help people quit smoking, control alcohol
use, lose weight, eat better, and develop a regular exercise program. The assumption

underlying most wellness programs is that employees need to take personal responsibility for
their physical and mental health. The organizations merely a vehicle to facilitate this end.
Organizations, of course, arent altruistic. They expect a payoff from their investment in
wellness programs. And survey affirms that most of those firms that have introduced
wellness programs have found the benefits to exceed the costs.
THE RESEARCH DESIGN
The researcher has gathered information by the feedback received from the questionnaire,
by conducting personal interviews with the employees, the books on the subject and the
internet.
For the research the researcher has taken into consideration the present employee stress
level.
To analyze the stress levels of the employees and their management at the organization.

SOURCES OF DATA
The research plan calls for gathering primary or secondary data or both. For, this research work,
the researcher has collected both primary and secondary data.
Primary data:
Primary data is the first hard information collected by the researcher from the employees and the
web sites of the WIPRO BPO, MYSORE. It consists of original information gathered for the
specific study.
The study conducted results in recommendation based on collection, analysis and interpretation
of primary data.

Secondary data:

Secondary data consists of information that already exists in the form of published report having
been collected for another purpose. The data may be published or unpublished. The published
data referred to by the researcher are:
Internet
Books on stress management
Articles in newspapers/ magazines
DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENT
For the purpose of collecting primary data, the researcher has at the first stage contacted the
respondents and explained the objective of field study. Then the questionnaire was distributed
and later they were interviewed.
SAMPLE SIZE
Sampling size has been planned to 30 respondents on the whole for the company by using
random sampling method.
METHODOLOGICAL ASSUMPTIONS
The researcher has assumed that the methods and techniques selected for the study are
appropriate to analyze and interpret the data. The techniques and methods followed are:
The research design adopted would help the researcher in planning the study.
The structural questionnaire methods used for the collection of primary data along with
personal random interview has been considered most suitable and convenient.
The respondents are aware of their stress causes.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

 Scope of the study is confined to thirty respondents.

Since study was restricted to one particular company, it cannot be generalized to other
similar companies.
Due to time constraint, the research assumptions done are obtained through questionnaire
keeping in view that the respondents have given the correct information.
Since the employees are always busy in work, it was difficult to collect accurate data.
However, the researcher wishes to state that maximum efforts have been made to portray
the study as accurately as possible.