Perceived employment - related health risks for mid-career employees in Sri Lankan IT- operation sector

Abstract

There are currently over 10,000 middle-aged IT workers in Sri Lanka, many of whom face increasing health problems as the country's IT sector grows rapidly since the 1990s’. This profession necessitates a lot of effort and stress on both a mental and physical level. They now require a better working environment in order to continue their operations, and research is being carried out to find them one. This is because the workplace serves as a person's second home. This research study focuses to determine the factors that influence employment-related health risk for mid-career employees in the Sri Lankan IT operation sector. The primary research goals were obtained by conducting a comprehensive review of the literature and interviews with top-level IT operation professionals in Sri Lanka. As a result of that, research could identify five main factors namely career model, Work life balance, occupational environment, work stress and working hours. Five hypotheses were derived from the conceptual model, each based on a different variable identified in the study. An online survey was sent to professionals in the mid-career IT operation sector in order to collect data for testing hypotheses developed to prove if there are associations between the identified variables and work-related health risks. Research evaluation was done using statistical analysis. Research findings reveal that all the factors have positive relationship with employment-related health- risk, such that work stress, career model and occupational environment have comparatively higher influence, whereas working hours and work life balance have the lower influence.