استرس و رفتار شهروندی سازمانی در سازمان های برون سپاری فرآیند کسب و کار در هند

This study investigates the direct effect of organisational stress (as measured through ASSET) on organisational citizenship behaviours (OCBs). A sample of 402 operators was taken from business process outsourcing (BPO) organisations located in northern India. The authors hypothesised that there is a negative relationship between organisational stress and OCBs. Results of multiple regression analysis showed that stress had significant negative impact on OCBs. The implications for managers are discussed.

This paper is based on a study aimed at examining the strength of the relationship between organisational stress and organisational citizenship behaviours among operator level employees working in Indian business process outsourcing organisations (BPOs). Evidence from the field suggests that the hours of work and working conditions in the BPO sector lead to the stress syndrome, which in turn contributes to a 25–30% attrition rate among BPOs. Most of the young people who join BPOs attracted by the salaries, find it hard to cope with the long and irregular working hours (Data Quest, 2004). A meta-analysis conducted by Lee and Ashford (1996) on job burnout showed that several of the job demands (e.g., role conflict, workload and role stress) were strongly associated with higher levels of stress and emotional exhaustion. Studies in the area of working hours and mental wellbeing highlight the adverse impact of working longer hours on personal happiness, job satisfaction, workplace accidents, irritability, exhaustion, depression and relationships (Giga, Jain, & Cooper, 2009; Green & Tsitsianis, 2005). According to Head, Martikainen, Kumari, Kuper, and Marmot (2002) there is a higher risk of employees suffering from a psychiatric disorder if they are required to work at a constant fast pace, or are regularly faced with conflicting priorities. With increasing evidence of the impact of organisational stress (through sickness absenteeism, rising compensation payments and employee dissatisfaction) on businesses, it is important to meet the challenge by dealing with specific issues that cause excessive and long-term pressure (Cooper, 1999; Head et al., 2002).

In this study, we examined the relationship between organisational stress and organisation citizenship behaviour and found that the results were supportive and consistent with our hypothesis. The table of correlation shows the negative relationship between organisational stress and OCBs. These findings have wide theoretical support in the literature from the field of general psychology and organisational behaviour where negative relationship was established between stress and performance. Some recent studies have linked components of stress such as work–family balance, emotional exhaustion, role overload and job pressure with OCB (e.g., Bragger et al., 2005; Cropanzano et al., 2003). The initiative dimension of OCB has been found to be negatively linked with role overload and work–family conflict (Bolino & Turnley, 2005) which implies that those who take initiatives perceive higher stress and to reduce the level of stress they withdraw their involvement in OCB activities. In this study, dimensions of the ASSET questionnaire namely, work relationship, aspects of your job, overload and resources and communication were found to be the negative predictors of different dimensions of OCB. The present study has strengthened the findings of the previous work in this direction. However, the results are inconsistent with Cialdini, Baumann, and Kenrick's (1982) work on negative state relief model. According to this model, prosocial behaviour is motivated by a desire to reduce negative feelings of unhappiness or dissatisfaction. Therefore, it may be assumed that involvement in any kinds of positive behaviour (e.g., OCBs) may be likely to reduce the feeling of unhappiness and dissatisfaction. However, the present study shows that stress reduces involvement in acts of OCB. Despite this, some factors of ASSET questionnaire such as pay and benefits, control and to some extent job security were found to be the positive predictors of OCB dimensions.