Role Demands As A Factor of Stress in Working Women – with Specific Reference to Information Technology

Studies of the roles and responsibilities associated with stress in working women in IT(information technology) and information technology enabled services have implicated multiple and conflicting demands which might not be without some resultant effects. However, little research has been conducted on these role demand factors in Indian context to determine how these might impact the women employees' performance due to the comprehensive economic changes along with the change in the social and demographic structure of the society and family. There is need for evidence-based empirical findings to facilitate improvement in information technology and information technology enabled services. IT BPM industry revenues in India (excluding hardware) is estimated at around US$ 130 billion in FY 2015-16 and is estimated to be at US$ 154 billion in FY 2016-17. The domestic revenue of the IT industry is estimated at US$ 38 billion and export revenue is estimated at US$ 117 billion in FY17. Currently it has an employee base of 3.9 million with 2.5-3 million new jobs to be created by 2025.(NASSCOM). The IT-BPM industry has been fairly neutral from the starting, believing in providing equal opportunities for both women and men. The participation of women in the work force has been a critical enabling factor for the continued growth of the industry, though in practicality there is some difference. Although stress is felt by both men & women, the stress in women is somewhat different. This paper focuses on the stress in working women in India in information technology sector. Based on the research of around 300 women working women in information technology sector of Delhi-National capital region, role demands were found to be a definite factor leading to job stress. The role demand s the stress felt by employees because of the role (job) that they do in the organization. Each position has an expected role to be played by the person at that position Role conflict, ambiguity, and overload together constitute important parts of role stress. The research was carried out using both secondary & primary data. Item response theory was used to analyze the data. Out of the various sub factors analyzed under role demands, lack of information and non-clarity of the role were found to be significant factors influencing job stress in women.