INTRODUCTION

Stress is a very common feature of any human being. Stress comes to every indivi
dual at various levels with or without the knowledge of the individual. Since it
is a very common happening we give very little consideration to this stress. Th
is habit of giving little attention or consideration to the usual happening may
not work will at all time. There are many common things which have to be given p
roper attention or it will make the life of the individuals a misery. Unfortunat
ely stress belongs to this category which can make an individual and his surroun
ding into a graveyard.
Stress at work is a relatively new phenomenon of modern lifestyles. The nature o
f work has gone through drastic changes over the last century and it is still ch
anging at whirlwind speed. They have touched almost all professions, starting fr
om an artist to a surgeon, or a commercial pilot to a sales executive. With chan
ge comes stress, inevitably. Professional stress or job stress poses a threat to
physical health. Work related stress in the life of organized workers, conseque
ntly, affects the health of organizations.
It is very important to control the stress level in order to make the life of us
and our surroundings into a living paradise. This stress not only affects the i
ndividuals personal life it also affects his professional life and it may even r
eflect on the concern also. So now it also become the responsibility of the conc
ern to look after its employees to make sure that they are stress free .This wou
ld help the concern to get the best out of the employees.
To do that we have to understand the features, nature of the stress and we have
to understand the reasons of stress and consequences of the stress. Understandin
g the causes and consequences of the stress would help to solve the problem of s
tress and thereby increasing the productivity of the individual. The main reason
for doing this project on the topic of “Stress Management” is to identify that how
for the employees are stressed by their various workloads.
COMPANY PROFILE
Mphasis (An HP Company) (P) Ltd is one of the leading providers of business proc
ess outsourcing solutions to the financial services industries. The services ena
ble clients to focus on the core business while outsourcing complex analytics, a
ccounting, and support services to a highly skilled and cost effective partner.
With experienced leaders and over 150 global professionals, the business model d
elivers unprecedented speed, scale and savings to our clients. Established in mi
d-2007, Mphasis Outsourcing’s unique onshore/ offshore outsourcing model focuses s
olely on providing services to the real estate and financial services industries
.
Mphasis Outsourcing (An HP Company) pioneered the concept of developing
and delivering higher level offshore solutions for the real estate and financial
services industry. The unique onshore/offshore approach combines U.S. domain ex
pertise, a proven process migration methodology, and a large team of highly trai
ned offshore finance professionals. They allow their clients (generally financia
l institutions and real estate investment firms), to focus on their core busines
s by utilizing the cost effective resources and scalable platform to execute non
-core activities.

In order to add sustained long term value, they believe outsourcing f

irms must have as much industry and process knowledge as their clients, particul
arly with the more sophisticated outsourcing solutions MCO provides. The 25-pers
on team of U.S. professionals averages over 2 years of experience working for fi
nancial services firms within the specific areas they operate. This experience e
nables them to understand client concerns, mitigate potential risks and consiste
ntly deliver the rewards of offshore outsourcing. With the business process outs
ourcing industry still in its infancy, MCO is one of the few companies with a lo
ng track record of delivering successful results. To date, they have executed se
veral thousand financial transactions involving over 25,000 asset management tot
aling $350 billion of asset value. As with any business, experience counts. The
y believe that the financial services industry focus, proven track record and sa
tisfied client base distinguishes them among the universe of outsourcing firms t
hat will emerge as U.S. corporations continue to seek the benefits of offshore r
esources.
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
Primary Objective:
• To identify the factors causing stress at work for the employees of Mphasis (An
HP Company) (P) Ltd
Secondary Objective:
• To find out the organizational factors of stress.
• To know the effects of stress on the performance of the employees.
• To recommends and measures for stress.

NEED FOR THE STUDY

The workplace had become a high stress environment in many organizations cutting
across industries. Employees were experiencing high level of stress due to vari
ous factors such as high workload, tight deadlines, high targets, type of work,
lack of job satisfaction, long working hours, pressure to perform, etc. Interper
sonal conflicts at the workplace, such as boss-subordinate relationships and rel
ationships with peers, were also a source of stress.
This study was needed to know the factors causing stress to the employees at wor
k place and to know the result of stress of the employees at their work. It help
s to identify the needs for the employees and it also assists in taking correcti
ve actions to reduce the stress of the employees in production area. This study
also lays emphasis in providing ideas and suggestions, in order to improve the q
uality of work life without stress.
SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study that cover the entire view of employee stress such as individual stres
s, organizational stress, extra-organizational stress and group stress in Mphasi
s (An HP Company) (P) Ltd. Stress is a process that enables the body to resist
the stressor in the best possible way. Stress is an internal response to an exte
rnal event. Stress is a non- specific demand on your body or mind to adapt to a
change physically or psychologically.
Stress is essential to growth, change, development and performance of an individ
ual both of work and of home. Stress is a naturally occurring experience, which
may have beneficial or harmful consequences.
The study has help to know the factors causing stress to the employees at work p
lace in Mphasis (An HP Company) (P) Ltd. This will help to reduce the stress for
the employees and to improve the performance of the employees.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

The study is restricted to Mphasis (An HP Company) (P) Ltd., only
The respondents are less interested in answering the questionnaire.
There may be possibility of biased answers
There was time restricted from the side of the research to approach the responde
nts
The results obtained in this project cannot be generalized in all times, in all
the areas and among all the employees of Mphasis (An HP Company) (P) Ltd., Chenn
ai
DEFINITION
“A person’s adaptive response to a stimulus that places excessive psychological or p
hysical demand on him or her”
Stress is a process that enables the body to resist the stressor in the best pos
sible way. Stress is an internal response to an external event. Stress is a non-
specific demand on your body or mind to adapt to a change physically or psychol
ogically. Stress is the interaction of the organization with the environment but
they go on to a give more detailed working definition as follows “an adaptive res
ponse mediated by the individual characteristic and or psychological
processes, that is a consequence of any external action situation are event that
places special physical and psychological demands upon a person. Job Stress as
a condition arising from the interaction of people and their jobs and characteri
zed by changes within people that force them to deviate from their normal functi
oning.
Stress is essential to growth, change, development and performance of an individ
ual both of work and of home. Stress is a naturally occurring experience, which
may have beneficial or harmful consequences. Stress is a part of the very fabric
or life. It is just as essential an eating or breathing yet of all the processe
s of human life stress, is probably the least understood and most misunderstood.
For much stress has negative connotations and is an experience to be avoided. Th
ese individuals associate stress with incidents, which cheat discomfort, tension
and anxiety. Stress has thus be come a buzzword. The word stress is used ambigu
ity to refer to at least two different things. One to stressors that are the har
mful or unpleasant situations that leads to stressful reactions. Second, to the
stress reaction themselves is the thoughts and behavior, which occurs in respons
e to stressors. Stress is immensely complex both in origin and in its manifestat
ions. It must be seen in the full perspective of
health and quality of life. Stress needs to be clearly defined. This definition
needs to differentiate between pressure and stress. Most Managers under pressure
at work are not all under stress. Stress is not an unavoidable component of lif
e but rather a poor management of the individual is life style.
“Stress is a state manifested by a non specific syndrome which consist s of all no
n specifically induced changes within a biological system”. There is yet another d
efinition of stress at work and it as follows. Stress is the term given to the c
auses and consequences of less than optimum performance attributable to motivati
on which either by its nature or intensity is in appropriate to the work being p
erformed and to the personality and abilities of the worker.
It is also important to point out what stress is not a simply anxiety. Anxiety o
perates solely in the emotional psychological sphere where as stress operates th
ere and also in the physiological sphere. Thus stress may be accompanied by anxi
ety, but the two should not equated. Stress is not simply nervous tension. Like
anxiety nervous may result from stress, but the two are not the same, unconsciou
s people have exhibited stress and some people may keep it bottled up and not re
veal it through nervous system.
JOB STRESS
Psychological and behavioral aspects are important to the understanding
of job stress and coping strategies in modern organizations. Job stress has beco
me an important topic for this study of organization behavior and for the practi
ce of Human Resource Management for several reasons. Stress summaries some of th
e major ones as follows: (i) since stress can have damaging physiological effor
ts on employees, especially managers, it will affect their health and their cont
ribution to the effectiveness of organizations. (ii) Stress is a major cause of
employee turnover and absenteeism. One rough estimate in that stress related pro
blem cost the US economy about 10% of the gross National product (iii) Stress ex
perienced by one employee can affect the safety other employee or the public for
example a person who works with dangerous equipment of air traffic controller.
(iv) There is now enough knowledge and understanding of stress and work adjustme
nt to indicate that much of the stress experienced by today’s employees unnecessar
y and can be managed. By controlling dysfunctional stress organization can be ma
naged more effectively.
CAUSES OF STRESS
a) Individual Stress
There are many stressors at the level of individual which may be generated in th
e context of organizational life or personal life. There are several such events
which may work as stressors. These are life and career changes, personality typ
e, and role characteristics.
b) Organizational Stressors
An organizational is composed of individuals and groups and therefore individual
and group stressors may also exist in organizational context. However there are
macro level dimensions of organizational functioning which may work as stressor
s. The major organizational stressors are as follows:
1. Organizational Policies
2. Organizational Structure
3. Organizational Processes
4. Physical Conditions
c) Extra- Organizational Stress
Since an organization interacts continuously with its environment, events happen
ing outside the organization also work as stressors. Thus social and technical c
hanges, economic and financial conditions, social class conflicts, community con
ditions, etc work as stressors.
d) Group Stress
Group interaction affects human behavior. Therefore there may be some factors in
group processes which act as stressors. Following are the major group stressors
:
1. Lack of Group Cohesiveness
2. Lack of Social Support
3. Conflict
EFFECT OF JOB STRESS
Stress is not automatically bad for individual employees of their organi
zational performance. In fact, it is generally recognized that at least low leve
l stress can even enhance job performance. For example one recent study found th
at mild stress such as getting a new supervisor or being involuntarily transferr
ed may resulting an increased search for information in the job. This may lead e
mployees to new and job better ways it doing their jobs. Also mild stress may ge
t employees juices flowing and lead to increased activity change and overall bet
ter performance. Research is also emerging that indicating that the level of dif
ficulty and nature of the task being performed and personnel situation variables
may affect and the relationship between stress and performance followed. It is
still safe and to conclude that i) the performance of many tasks is in fact stro
ngly affected by stress. ii) Performance usually drops off sharply when stress r
ises to high level. iii) it is the dysfunctional effects of high levels of stre
ss that should be and are a major concern for contemporary society in general an
d for effective , human resources management in particulars. The individual can
exhibit the problem due to high level of stress physically psychologically or be
haviorally.
REACTION TO STRESS
Reaction to stress can be thought of as an attempt to deal with the diff
iculties perceived with the fight – fight also usual mechanism that we all have. N
ot every one reacts in the same way to stress. Who strove to get more and more a
ccomplished in less and less time. They called these people type A individuals a
nd pointed out that the behavior that characterized hence people bring heart att
acks. Type A people are often described this way.
1. Thinking or doing two or more things at the same time.
2. Scheduling more and more activities into less and less time.
3. Hurrying the speech of others.
4. Believing that if you want something done well you have to do it yoursel
f.
5. Gesticulating when you talk.
6. Making if a fetish of always being online.
7. Using explosive speech patterns or frequent used obscenities.
8. Playing nearly every game to win, even when playing against, children.
9. Measuring your own and others success in term of numbers.
10. Becoming impatient when watching others do things you think you can’ do be
tter or faster.
Type B personalities are the opposite uncontrollable, uncompleted, slower paced
and able to handle frustration easily. The Type B persons nuts his time in at wo
rk and seldom brings his work home. He is more inclined to have interests in spo
rts or leisure time activities. Time is not his master, and providing his worth
to himself or others is not a strong requirement of his personality. The type B
person is less likely to demand strong control of his life and environment. He f
lown with the river of life, he doesn’t fight upstream. As a rule type A because t
hey are more likely than type B’s to view as stressful and because they consequenc
es place themselves under a more constant strain than is felt by a type B. Perso
nality has difficult time recover physically and psychologically between real th
reats or challenges.
Stress is undoubtedly an important component of the work situation and i
s in part at least, unavoidable in many management rules. The experience depends
one one’s reactions to the situation possibility – training programmers can be desi
gned to alter these reactions. Alternatively, employees can deliberately select
those with a type B personality to handle high stress, situations, as well as gi
ve personnel the level of autonomy and personnel the level of autonomy and perso
nal control that type A’s require to function effectively.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
STATEMENT OF THE PROBELEM:
A study focuses the employee stress in reference to the “MPHASIS PVT.LTD. It is re
lated to find out the employee stress in present condition.

RESEARCH DESIGN:
Research design is the specification of methods and procedures for acqui
ring the information needed to structure and to solve the problem. It acts as a
framework for a study that guides the collection and analysis of data.
DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH:
Descriptive research includes surveys and fact-finding enquiries of
different kinds. The major purpose of descriptive research is description of the
state of affairs, as it exists at present. The main characteristic of this meth
od is that the researcher has no control over the variables. Researcher can only
report what has happened or what is happening. Descriptive research is used to
obtain information concerning the current status of the phenomena to describe “wha
t exists” with respect to variables or conditions in a situation.

CONCLUSION
To conclude, the project entitled a study on STRESS MANAGEMENT at Mphasi
s (An HP Company) (P) Ltd reveals that the Individual stress and the economical
factor causes stress to employees. The organizational factors does not cause str
ess to employees. The management cares and encourages the employee for the welfa
re of both the employee and the industry.
The study has helped to know the factors causing stress to the employees at work
place and to know the result of stress of the employees at their work and to fi
nd out the organizational factors of stress. It also assisted in identifying the
needs of employees to avoid stress. This helps to improve the performance of th
e employees in production with peace of mind.

REFERENCE
Books Referred:
• Stephen P.Robins, “ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR”, Prentice Hall of India.
• Fred Luthans, “ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR”, McGraw Hill Book Co., 1998.
• Dr. L. M. Prasad, “ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR”, Sultan Chand, 2000.
• Kothari C. R, “RESEARCH METHODOLOGY”, Reprint Edition 2002.
Web Sites:
www.ceridian.co.uk
www.mindtools.com
www.wikipedia.com
www.answers.com