Review of existing studies on stress management of women constables

Schlenker and Gutek (1987) have made their comments on “ impact of stress in a large social service agency”. They have stated that work role loss was associated with lower job satisfaction; lower work related self-esteem, and higher level of intention to leave the job but at the same time they found that executives were not likely to report work related depression or lower life satisfaction as the discontent was focused on the new jobs but not on life in general or involvement and identification with the profession. Satisfaction with the job resulted in emotional exhaustion.

Joshi (1999) studied “ the job satisfaction, job involvement and work involvement of industrial executives”. The data obtained on these scale were analyzed by means of product moment correlation. The result revealed that the executive’s age, job experience and monthly income were significantly related to job involvement and work involvement. It was also found out that the monthly income was significantly correlated with job satisfaction. It was observed that the executive’s job satisfaction and job involvement were significantly associated. The result did not yield significant relationship between executive’s work involvement and job satisfaction.

Davidson. M. J. and Cooper. C. L. (1999) have given their finding under the title “ Occupational stress In Female Managers: A Comparative Study”. The research of the above authors speaks of the occupational stressors and stress outcomes associated with being a female manager. With a sample of 60 female managers a qualitative data was obtained. A qualitative data was also obtained by designing a survey. The result proved that women in management were experiencing higher pressure level from stressors in the work compared to men managers. Stress experienced by women at all levels of managers compared to their male counterparts was studied. In general, managers must learn techniques that help them to relax. There is an obvious need for cooperation and coalition of employers and executives, men and women to face problems jointly to resolve them.

Sparks et al., (2001) has given his abstract on “ Work schedule and work environment” and stated that compressed work time schedules, flexible work hours, increased satisfaction with the work environment and the work schedule itself leads to more efficiency.

Koustelios (2001) conducted research on “ satisfaction with the job itself and satisfaction with promotion”. He suggested that job satisfaction and job promotion were significant predictors for the personal accomplishment. Pestonjee (1999) explained that optimum level at which stress is functional is different for different persons and is dependent on a variety of factors like the personality of an individual, self-esteem, his educational background, authority to make decisions, control over various organizational and environmental variables and so on.

Christopher Orpen (2001) conducted research on “ Occupational stress, personal strain and its adverse effects”. Personal strain manifests itself as anxiety and depression with life added restlessness, excessive23 drinking, smoking, social withdrawal and inability to concentrate. Impact of stress on individual at each stage requires attention to ease their mind providing work enjoyment.

Charlene Marmer Solamon referring to workforce Costa Mesa (2002) has expressed her opinion on the title „ Stressed to the limit‟. The author has extensively studied on the effects of stress on an individual and the extracts produced by different researchers and psychiatrists. One of the professors of psychiatry has rightly said that all the factors operating in a person’s life at his work place converge to influence how he behaves. His stressful job can spill over to the family, health spheres and also into the work environment. To help out of such conditions the problem needs to be recognized and assessed. A good service agency such as EAP in an HMO can help. At the initial level a HR’s assistance is required before the individual is sent to the EAP. In order to help and prevent stress for executives one has to read the signs of stress in the workplace. It could be heavy workload, infrequent rest breaks, long work hours and shift work, lack of participation by workers in decision making, poor communication, career concerns, environmental conditions etc. Organizations with HR professional can do the best with regular review process and ease the stress of any individual.

Edwina Jordan K. (2003) has expressed ideas on “ stress management knowing well what many would face in the work force”. Job stress is ever present and therefore one needs attention to understand, live and work successfully. Stress is everywhere among the family, students, teachers of every elementary schools, etc. Stress is a significant factor. Better understanding with the healthy attitude can help one to avoid psychological counseling or other forms of doctor aided therapy. Learning to minimize stress is the best way to handle stress.

The author(2004) whose abstract is titled as “ Human resource management, guidelines, stress” is unknown. Negative effects of workplace stress is well known to HR professionals. They are still to learn that gender influences physical and mental reaction to stress. Both genders are exposed to risk of cardiovascular problems, depression and infectious diseases. These can affect health care cost, productivity and retention. Research has shown that women and men respond differently to stress. Women are prone to higher health risk than men as they worry more about each day. Therefore workplace stress needs to be reduced. There should not be excessive work. Too much work robs their time from spending with their families. Higher stress is noticeable among women. Work related causes of stress need to be identified and prevented for the well-being of both genders.

Mary Beth Grover referring to Farbes, New York September 6, (2005) has expressed her views under the above given title calling the stress “ Daddy stress”. Men are expected to take care of household chores, spend time with kids and family. This causes them to become guilty, depressed, do shoddy work and sometimes leads to divorce. Women are able to tolerate and balance lives and work but men on trying to solve problems are at a disadvantage in the workplace and appear as though they are not being committed to work or serious about their jobs. This confusing environment makes men rethink their priorities. Fathers are put in a state of conflict between their homes and their jobs. It is rather tough doing a good job as a father and a career loving man.

Marker. G. A. (2005) writes his abstract on “ It takes work to have a life in 24 x 7 world” as follows. Life demands work; people who work long days, nights and weekends receive credits of appreciation. Yet it is healthy to know your limits. It should never affect your mental, physical health or personal relationships. Be alert to set back and assess your job if your work load affects mental health. Re-align your diet and sleep if your physical health25 is affected. Think of what is most important if it affects personal relationships. Technologies can help you shape and balance your work instead of working for unusual hours of 10-12 hours a day. Not everyone is a happy workaholic. If you place undue stress, encourage yourself to take time and refresh yourself. Take time to know your executives and show genuine empathy when you are under stress.

Hayashi (2006) has focused a study on “ Job stress and absenteeism”. He stated that almost 10% of the workforce suffers from work related stress at one point of time and about 7 million working days are lost each year due to workforce stress.

Margaret Francis (2007) in her empirical study has made comments on “ Stress Personality Relationship”. Stress had been a noted problem among students for it evokes negative thoughts and feelings in a person. There has been a study of how personality influences stress which led to the finding that significant differences exist between low and high categories of stress. Low extraversion, high anxiety, etc., leads to higher stress. Thus study proves that personality factors have an impact on stress. 16 PF Personality Test and perceived stress scales were used as a guidance and support to publish their research.

Lakshmiram. D and Mishra. P. K (2008) have given notes and comments on “ Occupational stress among working women in Multinational Companies” after they made a study. They comment that profession has a major effect on the experience of occupational role stress. Women are particularly prone to experiencing stress as they shoulder more responsibilities at home and seek perfection in work. There are various types of occupational role stress (ORS) of which eight of them have important effects. Research suggests that women experience certain stresses to a greater degree than men.

Niharika Gaur (2008) has inferred his observations after he had made a study on “ Stress, Social support, Job Attitudes and Job Outcome across gender” among 240 information systems professional. He emphasizes a significant difference between male and female professionals on stress and on social support. His finding led to conclude that Men have higher job satisfaction, and commitment than Female professionals, but Female professionals have higher turnover intention.

Christo et al., (2008) have presented their study under the title „ Length of Service And Role Stress‟. Public and private sector banks in Goa consisting of 186 executives were taken for their study on stress. A scale namely (ORS) was used to measure ten types of role stress. Their study was made on the basis of service as short medium and long groups. In terms of different types of role stress and total role stress, experienced groups were analyzed. There appeared significant difference. Long tenure groups‟ experienced minimum stress, medium tenure groups‟ medium stress and short tenure groups the maximum stress. This result pointed to the existence of a negative relationship between length of service and role stress.

Avinash Kumar Srivastav (2008) expresses his findings on “ Role Stress in organizational roles across qualification levels”. It was his intense study made on management and labor. He clearly expressed that role stress is experienced differently across the qualification levels. Low qualification reflects impersonal inadequacy. Role stagnation and self-role distance are stronger in medium qualification. It is therefore logical that role stress depends on individual perception which is influenced by the level of education.

Maria Melchion and Jenny (2009) have given their views on “ Sickness absence from work predicts worker’s risk of later depression”. They comment on participants who were studied who were executives from the natural gas and Electricity Company. Required data (sickness absence) was obtained and assessed. The baseline for study on factors of age, gender, marital status, occupational grade, tobacco smoking, alcohol consumption, depressive symptoms and work stress were analyzed. The result obtained was that in a population of workers, those who take sickness absence are vulnerable to future depression. Sickness absence is an indicator to later health. Information of it may be useful to physicians, policy makers and employers to assess worker’s health.