Psychological Distress and Burnout among Information Technology Professionals in India – A Pilot Study

Abstract

One of the first needs of an organization is to understand the needs of their employees. As the global environment is becoming more complex there is a growing need to understand the relationship between people and the implications for organizational functioning. There are 552 engineering colleges in Tamilnadu and around 1.75 Lakhs of engineers graduate every year. Majority of these graduates enter into Information Technology industries which forms the major portion of the service sector industries in India. It is important to study the Psychological Distress and Burnout levels of employees working in these industries. This study examines the levels of psychological health amongst the Information Technology professionals in India. There is a concern that the demands of the work environment in these industries may contribute to stress levels and psychological vulnerability among their employees. This paper also throws some light on the Burnout intentions of the professionals regarding leaving their organizations in a sample of 148 professionals working in different IT companies in Chennai, Tamilnadu. The sample included professionals working full time, with varying demographic details. Based on the objectives of the study the questionnaire consisting of three set of variable (1) Demographic variable -Gender, Marital Status, Educational Qualification, Employment Status, Living arrangements (2) Psychological Distress -General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) (3) Burnout -Maslach burnout inventory. The questionnaires were used to assess Psychological Distress and Burnout among Information Technology professionals. Findings show that 38% of IT professionals are facing significant Psychological Distress. Heavy workloads, inadequate staff along with role ambiguity affects their family life. Women are more vulnerable to this since they have to play the dual role of working professional and traditional homemaker. They are under great pressure to balance their work and family life. However, it was also seen that intentions to leave their organizations were not purely due to Psychological Distress and the reported levels of Burnout were relative low among them. This study examined the levels of Psychological Distress, their impact on the Information Technology professionals. This study also analyzed the Burnout intentions of the professionals regarding leaving their organizations. The study has suggestions for individual and systemic endeavors at employee stress management and working environment prevention approaches. The organizations should concentrate on various stress management activities and the involvement of both workers and management are crucial for the success of these activities. From this study, it can be concluded that prompt attention of the organization should be drawn so that they could take subjective measures to lessen the stress levels of their workers.