AN INVESTIGATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SRI LANKAN IT PROFESSIONALS’ STRESS LEVELS WITH DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS AND WORKING ENVIRONMENT MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Priyageetha Jeyaram Department of Computer Science & Engineering University of Moratuwa January 2007 ii AN INVESTIGATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SRI LANKAN IT PROFESSIONALS’ STRESS LEVELS WITH DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS AND WORKING ENVIRONMENT By Priyageetha Jeyaram Supervised by: Dr. Kennedy Gunawardana The Dissertation was submitted to the Department of Computer Science & Engineering of the University of Moratuwa in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of Business Administration. Department of Computer Science & Engineering University of Moratuwa January 2007 iii Declaration “I certify that this dissertation does not incorporate without acknowledgement any material previously submitted for a degree or diploma in any university to the best of my knowledge and believe it does not contain any material previously published, written or orally communicated by another person or myself except where due reference is made in the text. I also give consent for my dissertation, if accepted, to be made available for photocopying and interlibrary loans and for the title and summary to be available to outside organizations.” ----------------- J. Priyageetha (05/9092) 13Pth P February 2008 The above particulars are correct to the best of my knowledge. -------------------------------- Dr. Kennedy Gunawardana (Supervisor) Senior Lecturer, Department of Accounting, Faculty of Accounting, University of Sri Jayawardenepura, Sri Lanka. iv Abstract This paper reports on the findings of a research work aimed investigating and analyzing the impact of demographic and working environmental factors and to check whether there is a relationship between them. In general stress is a major factor in Information Technology professional’s day to day life and work. The pressure that they work under is very high. Previous researches have already proved that programmer stress is both extremely common and extremely problematic. Then there arise questions in mind asking whether there is a relationship between levels of stress with the IT professionals’ work environment and demographic factors and what contemporary factors make more stress in Sri Lanka. The sample of the study included the IT Professionals with certain restrictions of the Software companies which were established five years and more. The Professionals were under the category that they posses more than 5 years of the field experience, at least five subordinates, does more than three projects per year and also posses a senior position in the company. A multiple response questionnaire was developed (Survey Instrument) online to measure the stress levels of the IT professionals, which was based on the Occupational stress indicator (OSI) and Pressure management indicator (PMI) by Williams and Cooper. The data was gathered from 50 respondents among 60 different Software development companies of Sri Lanka. The analysis was carried out using the regression methods and the final findings reveal that there is no relationship between demographic factors and stress levels but there is a relationship between the working environment factors and stress levels. The final result indicate that there is no impact of demographic factors on stress levels but there is a impact of working environmental factors on the stress levels among the IT Professionals of Sri Lankan Software development companies. From the final result of the research the data was also examined on finding a better solution for the problem and the implications of the study were discussed. Keywords: IT Professionals, stress levels, demographic factors, working environment v Acknowledgement My gratitude and ultimate indebtedness must necessarily fall on the guiding hands of my research supervisor, Dr. Kennedy Gunawardana. This research may not have been a reality without his invaluable support and guidance in every aspect of this research. Even though it was time consuming, this research study was transformed into a reality, more especially because of the unstinted support, which I received from a host of accommodating individuals as well as institutions. I shall fail in my duty if I do not mention with gratitude to Mrs. Vishaka Nanayakara, present coordinator of MBA in Information Technology University of Moratuwa who provided every facility to make the study a success with commendable encouragement and motivation. Very grateful acknowledgement is made to all the respondents of software development companies who spent their valuable time in sharing views, knowledge and opinions which made this research a reality. In the mean time I would like to thank everyone who assisted me in numerous ways. vi Table of Contents TUDeclaration UT iii TUAbstract UT iv TUAcknowledgementUT v T UTable of Contents U vi UList of Figures U ix UList of Tables U x UList of Abbreviations U xi UList of Abbreviations U xi UCHAPTER 01 U 1 U1. Introduction U 1 U1.1 Background of the studyU 1 U1.2 Problem StatementU 2 U1.3 Research Objectives U 2 U1.4 Significance of the study U 3 U1.5 MethodologyU 3 U1.6 Scope of the study U 6 UCHAPTER 2 U 7 U2. Literature Review U 7 U2.1 IntroductionU 7 U2.2 StressU 8 U2.3 Information Technology Professionals U 8 U2.4 Stresses among IT PersonnelU 9 U2.5 Factors that influence StressU 10 U2.6 Types of Stress Levels that may occur among IT ProfessionalsU 13 U2.7 Measurement of StressU 14 U2.8 The outcomes of Stress among IT ProfessionalsU 15 UCHAPTER 3 U 17 U3. Theoretical Framework and Hypothesis Development U 17 U3.1 IntroductionU 17 U3.2 Conceptual Framework U 17 U3.3 HypothesisU 28 vii UCHAPTER 4 U 30 U4. Research MethodologyU 30 U4.1 IntroductionU 30 U4.2 Research Model U 30 U4.3 Sample Selection U 31 U4.4 Questionnaires reviewed U 34 U4.5 Development of QuestionnaireU 35 U4.6 Pilot StudyU 37 U4.7 Reliability and ValidityU 37 U4.8 Data CollectionU 38 U4.9 Data AnalysisU 39 U4.10 Methodological Limitation U 40 UCHAPTER 5 U 42 U5. Data Analysis and ResultsU 42 U5.1 IntroductionU 42 U5.2 Descriptive Statistics U 42 U5.3 Inference AnalysisU 51 UCHAPTER 6 U 70 U6. Discussion of Results U 70 U6.1. IntroductionU 70 U6.2 Discussion of the respondent profileU 70 U6.3 Discussion of different stress levels among the IT Professionals U 72 U6.4 Discussion of different levels of stress in variation with the Demographic factors U 72 U6.5 Discussion of the Relationship between Demographic factors and the Stress Levels U 75 U6.6 Discussion of the relationship between Working Environment factors and Different Stress LevelsU 79 U6.7 Findings and Objective analysisU 83 UCHAPTER 7 U 86 U7. Conclusion and Recommendation U 86 U7.1 IntroductionU 86 U7.2 ConclusionU 86 U7.3 Recommendations of this study U 87 U7.4 Recommendations for further studies U 88 U7.5 Limitations of the study U 89 viii UAppendix A: References U 90 UAppendix B: QuestionnaireU 94 UAppendix C: General Information surveyU 101 UAppendix D: ANOVA one way out puts U 105 UAppendix E: Regression Out PutsU 108 ix List of Figures UFigure 3-1 Conceptual Framework U 18 UFigure 3-2 Conceptual frame works of relationships between Demographic Factors and Stress LevelsU 19 UFigure 3-3 Conceptual frame work of relationships between working environmental factors and stress LevelsU 20 UFigure 5-1 Gender observations of IT ProfessionalsU 43 UFigure 5-2 Age Observation U 44 UFigure 5-3 Designation observations of IT ProfessionalsU 45 UFigure 5-4 Qualifications Observation of IT ProfessionalsU 46 UFigure 5-5 Income Range observation of IT ProfessionalsU 47 UFigure 5-6 Marital Status Observation of IT ProfessionalsU 48 UFigure 5-7 Observation of IT Professionals having children U 49 UFigure 5-8 Distribution of Working Environment factors and Stress Levels U 64 UFigure 5-9 P-P Plot of Regression between Working Environment factors and StressU 64 ULevelsU 64 UFigure 5-10 Distribution of Working Environment factors and Psychological StressU 66 UFigure 5-11 P-P Plot of Regression between Working Environment factors and Psychological StressU 67 UFigure 5-12 Distribution of Working Environment factors and Organizational Stress Level U 69 UFigure 5.13 P-P Plot of Regression between Working Environment factors and U 69 UOrganizational StressU 69 UFigure 6-1 Averages of different levels of stressU 72 x List of Tables UTable 3-1 Operationalization table of Demographic factorsU 26 UTable 3-2 Operationalization table of Working EnvironmentU 27 UTable 3-3 Operationalization table of different levels of stressU 28 UTable 4-1 Distribution of the types of businessU 32 UTable 4-2 Responsibilities of the IT ProfessionalsU 33 UTable 4-3 Cronbach’s Alpha CoefficientsU 38 UTable 4-4 Questionnaire distributionU 39 UTable 5-1 Gender statisticsU 43 UTable 5-2 Age statisticsU 44 UTable 5-3 Designation StatisticsU 45 UTable 5-4 Qualification statisticsU 46 UTable 5-5 Income Range StatisticsU 47 UTable 5-6 Marital status statistics of IT ProfessionalsU 47 UTable 5-7 Statistics of having ChildrenU 49 UTable 5-8 Observation of working environment factorsU 50 UTable 5-9 ANOVA one-way tests between Gender and the Different Stress LevelsU 52 UTable 5-10 ANOVA one-way test between Age and the Different Stress LevelsU 53 U Table 5-11 ANOVA one-way tests between Designation and the Different Stress LevelsU 55 UTable 5-12 ANOVA one-way test between Qualification and the Different Stress LevelsU 56 UTable 5-13 ANOVA one-way tests between Income range and the Different StressU 58 ULevelsU 58 UTable 5-14 ANOVA one-way test Marital status and the Different Stress LevelsU 59 UTable 5.15 ANOVA one-way test between Having Children and the Different Stress LevelsU 61 UTable 5-16 Regression result of Working Environment Factors with Physical stressU 63 UTable 5-17 Regression result of Working Environment Factors with Psychological stressU 65 UTable 5-18 Regression result of Working Environment Factors with Organizational stressU 68 UTable 6-1 Measurement of stress in variation with gender U 73 UTable 6-2 Measurement of stress with variation with ageU 73 UTable 6-3 Measurement of stress in variation with designationU 74 UTable 6-4 Measurement of stress in variation with marital statusU 74 xi List of Abbreviations IT – Information Technology MIS - Management Information Systems HR – Human Resources IS – Information Systems OSI – Occupational Stress Indicator JSITS - Job Stress for Information Technology Personnel Scale PMI - Pressure Management Indicator SMDI - Stress Measurement and Determination Inventory MSQ - Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire SPSS – Statistical Package of Social Science