Occupational Stress With Respective To Gender Psychology Essay

Published Date: 23 Mar 2015

Stress is an inevitable part and parcel of everyones life especially among the job holders .Stress is an inherent factor among employees irrespective of the gender which is of a great concern. This paper tries to investigate the gender specific stressors. There are unique stressors at work place which are associated with female employees such as glass ceiling, role conflict, work load and lack of career progress. It also explores the various symptoms, causes and its impact.

Hence this paper explores the various aspects related to male & female employees.

Keywords: Occupational stress, OSI, PMI, DASS, Glass Ceiling, and Occupational stress Intervention.

Introduction:

Stress according to Hans Selye is the non-specific response of the body to any demand upon it" That means good things ( e.g. job promotion) to which we must adapt to, termed Eustress and bad things (e.g. death of a loved one) to which we must adapt to, termed distress. Both are experienced the same way physiologically. Occupational stress is an extremely difficult construct to define. It is stress on the job, but stress on the job occurs in a person. Ooccupational stress can be defined as the harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources, or needs of the worker (NIOSH, 1999).Several sources of occupational stress exist; some of these are intrinsic to the job while some are related to the employer's role within the organization, some to career development, some to relationship at work, and some to structure and climate of the organization. Job stress produces negative effects for both the organization and the employee. For the organization, the results are disorganization, disruption in normal operations, lowered productivity, and lower margins of profit. For the employee, the effects are threefold: increased physical health problems, psychological distress, and behavioral

Changes (Rice, 1992).Today, there are many interventions that is used in stress management. The major interventions which are commonly used are the primary, secondary and tertiary. Primary interventions emphasize on identifying the possible causes of stress and their subsequent risks to employees, Secondary interventions are designed to provide and Tertiary interventions are interventions, which take care of individuals who are already suffering from the effects of stress training to the employees.

Occupational Stress

Literature Review:

Work stress is perceived as forces or stimuli or cognition from within or without, which create threat to the individual (Shailendra Singh, 1990). Occupational stress also known as job stress or workplace stress & these terms are often used interchangeably in organizations, but its meaning refers to the same thing (AbuAlRub ,2004 ; Larson 2004). Person-Environment Fit relates strongly to occupational stress because if a person does not fit into their workplace environment they will inevitably be stressed. If an employee does not have the same motives as a workplace then stress can occur because two different ends are trying to be met. The P-E theory was developed by French ( 1972) and his colleagues, who suggested occupational stress occurs if an individual lack the abilities ,skills or resources which are need to satisfy the demands of her or his of work and organizational climate

( French & Caplan 1972; French ,Caplan & Harrison 1982). The person-environment fit theory is a part of organizational psychology that can help determine conflicts in the workplace. Occupational stress is a part of business that may be caused from insufficient person-environment fit, and this organizational psychology theory can benefit many businesses and organizations. Researchers defined occupational stress in their own way e.g.,Behr and Newman (1978) define occupational stress as "A condition arising from the interaction of people and their jobs and characterized by changes within people that force them to deviate from their normal functioning." ,harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, responses, or need of the worker (National Institutes for Occupational Safety and Health, 1999),job stress is defined as any characteristic of the job environment that poses a threat to the individual, either excessive demands or insufficient supplies to meet the need and lead to a rising tension in a person (Hinshaw, 1993; Edwards, 1995), organizational psychologists, work-related stress is considered to be the product of an imbalance between environmental demands and individual capabilities (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984), job stress is defined as any characteristic of the job environment that poses a threat to the individual, either excessive demands or insufficient supplies to meet the need and lead to a rising tension in a person (Hinshaw, 1993; Edwards, 1995), occupational stress, in particular, is the inability to cope with the pressures in a job (Rees, 1997),because of a poor fit between someone's abilities and his/her work requirements and conditions (Holmlund-Rytkönen & Strandvik, 2005),job stress is a mental and physical condition which affects an individual's productivity, effectiveness, personal health and quality of work (Comish & Swindle, 1994, 26).

Most Stressful Occupation:

A few years ago the Health and Safety Executive published a report from Cardiff University which, among other things, compared stress levels in different occupations. The study - The scale of occupational stress - found that 20% of people reported high levels of stress at work. Yet among teachers the rate was double that. Indeed teachers topped this particular league table, with 41% reporting high levels of stress. The next highest was nursing at 31% then "managers" at 27%. Interestingly the more people earned, and the higher their level of educational qualifications, the more likely they were to feel under stress. A large-scale HSE report into the scale of occupational stress in 20001 found that the six occupations reporting the highest stress levels were:

1. Teaching;

2. Nursing;

3. Management;

4. Professionals;

5. Other education and welfare;

6. Road transport and security.

In all of these groups at least one in five respondents reported high stress. For teachers, notably, the figure was two in five. HSE research in 2000 found teaching to be the most stressful profession in the UK, with 41.5% of teachers reporting themselves as 'highly stressed'. For comparison, the incidence of any kind of stress across the working population is believed to be less than 20 per cent. From 2003 to 2006 statistics show that the highest reported rates of occupational stress, depression or anxiety were to be found in the teaching and research professions - indeed the levels of stress amongst teachers were twice that for 'all occupations'. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) rates nursing as the second most stressful occupation, only beaten by teaching.( 13th Dec 2007) .Teaching is one of the most stressful occupations ( Johnson et al , 2005; Kyriacou & Sutcliffe ,1977).

Comparative studies of occupations conducted by various researchers.

Occupational stress & position

Sr No

Researcher's Name

Occupational Stress - Occupation /Position wise.

1

Ryhal and Singh (1996)

Job stress among university faculty. A sample of 100 faculty members 30 professors, 31 associate and 39 assistant professors. Results revealed that assistant professor experienced higher job stress than associate professor.

2

Orpen (1996)

He compared the work stress among 136 nurses and 12 colleges lecturers. The results found that nurses experienced more stress than the lecturers.

3

Ansari and Singh (1997 )

They made an attempt to explore the contribution of demographic variables to the nature of stress experienced by the teachers in an agriculture university .The study comprised sample of 235 faculty members ( 23 professors , 74 associate and 139 assistant professors ).The professors were either in moderate or in high stress categories as compared to associate and assistant professors .

4

Upadhayay and Singh (1999)

They studied the level of occupational stress experienced by the 20 college teachers and 20 executives. The executives showed significant higher levels of stress than college teachers on role overload, role ambiguity, role conflicts factor .

5

Pandey and Srivastava (2000)

They had studied the female personnel working in rail way, bank and teaching institutions .A sample of 96 females ,16 subjects in each professional area were taken .The study identified that respondents among all the three dimensions , clerk of bank and railway experienced more work stress as compared to teachers

6

Aminabhavi and Triveni (2000)

They revealed that managers experience significantly highly occupational stress than clerks.The fact is that managers have greater responsibility of his position than clerks.

7

Anitha Devi (2007)

She aimed at identifying the degree of life stress and role stress experienced by professional women .A total sample of 180 women professionals belonging to six occupations were chosen for the study .The result showed science and technology professionals and doctors experienced significantly greater life and role stress followed by administrators and self employed Teachers and bankers experienced comparatively lesser stress in both role as well as life .

8

Chand and Monga (2007)

They examined the correlates of job stress and burn out among 100 faculty members from two universities. Respondents with internal locus of control, high social support and high job involvement experience less stress. Results also revealed that maximum stress is reported by professors and minimum by assistant professors .

9

Kaur and Kaur (2007)

They attempted to make a study on occupational stress and burn out among women police .The sample comprised of 80 women police and age between 25-45.The results concluded that police work is most stressful occupation and as the occupational stress increases the level of the burn out also increases.

Objective: The main objective to study the concept of occupational stress, its causes & assessment tools, effects and symptoms on employees. To study the impact of unique stressors on female as well as occupational stress intervention to manage stress.

Sub-objective can be-

To study the concept of occupational stress among male and female employees

To study the gender perspective related to occupational stress.

To study the various assessment tool used to measure occupational stress.

To suggest measures to overcome.

Concept of Occupational stress:

Stress can be caused by environmental, organizational, and individual variables (Matteson & Ivancevich, 1999;Cook & Hunsaker, 2001). Organizational-based factors have been known to induce job stressfor employees at the workplace (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985). These factors are commonly termed as organizational stressors since they serve as agents that trigger the various stressreactions (Von Onciul, 1996).The concept of stress in organizational psychology has different labels such as organizational stress or job stress or work stress (Shailendra Singh, 1990; Parker and Deotis, 1983) or occupational stress (Ross and Altmair, 1994; Luthans, 1989; Srivastava and Singh, 1981). Work-related stress is a pattern of reactions that occurs when workers are presented with work demands that are not matched to their knowledge, skills or abilities, and which challenge their ability to cope. These demands may be related to time pressure or the amount of work (quantitative demands), or may refer to the difficulty of the work(cognitive demands) or the empathy required (emotional demands), or even to the inability to show one's emotions at work. Demands may also be physical, i.e. high demands in the area of dynamic and static loads. Work-related stress occurs when some environmental factors ( stressors) interpreted by the individual ( cognitive interpretation ) ,may lead to stress ( Dua 1994,59).Main components of the work-stress process are potential sources of stress (stressors), factors of individual differences (moderators/mediators), and consequences of stress (strain) (Lu et al., 2003, 481). as figure 1 reveals. Stressors (job-related and extra-organizational) are objective events, stress is the subjective experience of the event, and strain is the poor response to stress. There are basically three symptoms are associated with job stress which comprises physical psychological and behavioral problems . Physical symptoms that may occur because of occupational stress include fatigue, headache, upset stomach, muscular aches and pains, chronic mild illness, sleep disturbances, and eating disorders. Psychological and behavioral problems that may develop include anxiety, irritability, alcohol and drug use, feeling powerless and low morale.[

Fig1:A Model of Stress At WorkSource: Cooper, C.L., Marshall, J (1976) Occupational sources of stress: a review of the literature relating to coronary heart disease and mental ill health, Journal of Occupational psychology, vol. 49, No. 1, pp.12

Cause of Job Stress:

A large amount of research has been carried out on the causes of stress The cause of stress is known as "stressors "& stressors are conditions and events that evoke strain (Kahn & Byosiere, 1992). Stress can be caused by environmental, organizational, and individual variables (Matteson & Ivancevich, 1999; Cook & Hunsaker, 2001). Organizational variables or factors or stressors have been known to induce job stress for employees at the workplace (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985). These factors are commonly termed as organizational stressors since they serve as agents that trigger the various stress reactions (Von Onciul, 1996). A large amount of research has been carried out on the causes of stress.According to Cooper and Marshal (1976) stated that occupational stress includes the environmental factors or stressors such as work overload, role ambiguity, role conflict and poor working conditions associated with a particular job .P-E misfit contribute to many occupational stressors such as conflicting role demands ,work overload & role ambiguity ( Hart & Cooper 2002).Role conflict, ambiguity, and overload frequently have been studied as antecedents of occupational stress (e.g., Brief & Aldag, 1976; Ivanceyich, Matteson, & Preston, 1982; Kahn, Wolfe, Quinn, Snoek, & Rosenthal, 1964; Manning, Ismael, & Sherwood, 1981; Rosse & Rosse, 1981).According to Beehr et al ( 1976),Cordes & Doughtery (1993),Dyer & Quine (1998) and Ursprung (1986) have been studied role ambiguity as a source of stress. Cooper (1983; 1985) summarized and categorized six factors responsible for stress 1. Factors intrinsic to the job (heat, noise, chemical fumes, shift work); 2. Relationships at work (conflict with co-workers or supervisors, lack of social support); 3. Role in the organisation (for example, role ambiguity); 4. Career development (lack of status, lack of prospects for promotion, lack of a career path, job insecurity); 5. Organisational structure and climate (lack of autonomy, lack of opportunity to participate in decision making, lack of control over the pace of work); 6. Home and work interface (conflict between domestic and work roles; lack of spousal support for remaining in the workforce).Foot and Venne ( 1990) found that there is positive relationship between barriers to career advancement and work stress.When there is lack of career opportunity ,employee feel uncertain about the future in organization can cause job stress.Poor physical working conditions, physical danger (Cooper & Smith, 1985), role conflict has been found to have positive relationship with job stress ( Roberts et al 1997),a work environment associated with unpleasant organizational climate ,lack of privacy ,a lot of hassle in conducting work ,and distractions can result in high stress ( Miller & Ellis1990).

How To Measure /Assess Occupational Stress?:

One of the major factors hindering research into occupational stress is the lack of consistency in the measurement tools. In an interest-comparison of different stress scales, Jick (1980) compared three stress scales taken from slightly different scaling schemes. Each of the scales was statistically reliable and conceptually plausible. How-ever, the scales did not agree on the identification of high-stress individuals. Only 50% of the highly stressed individuals overlapped between any pair of measures. The absence of a reliable, valid, and usable standardized measuring instrument makes studies of occupational stress highly problematic (Love &Beehr, 1981).

1)The Occupational Stress Indicator (OSI)- ) A stress audit instrument, such as the Occupational Stress Indicator (OSI) (Cooper et al., 1988) , which measures the level of perceived stress. The OSI is based on a model of occupational stress which identifies sources of pressure (experiences in the workplace) as causing stress effects (low job satisfaction, poor mental and physical health) which are moderated by individual differences (coping skills and stress prone personalities). The OSI takes 40 minutes to complete & involve 167 questions in seven sectionsThe OSI has a score range of 28-196. The median split method was used in categorizing the stress scale into high and low levels. The high score ranges from 112 to 196 and low score ranges from 28 to 111 (Broadbridge, 2000; Cooper et al., 1988). High scores indicate more pressure faced by the individual. The study measured sources ofThe OSI has a score range of 28-196. The median split method was used in categorizing the stress scale into high and low levels. The high score ranges from 112 to 196 and low score ranges from 28 to 111 (Broadbridge, 2000; Cooper et al., 1988). High scores indicate more pressure faced by the individual. The study measured sources of alphas were calculated by using data from this large, diverse participant group (N = 14,455).other researchers who have expressed concern about some of the scales of the original OSI (see Williams &Cooper, 1997, for a review of reliability and validity studies). The literature presents a consistent picture of strong scales measuring job satisfaction, mental and physical health, and sources of pressure (Cooper & Bramwell, 1992; Rees & Cooper, 1992; Robertson et al., 1990). However, the measure of Type A behaviour appears to be problematic and requires further development; the Locus of Control and Coping Strategies scales are also flawed (Ingledew, Hardy, & Cooper, 1992; Kirkcaldy, Cooper, Eysenck, & Brown, 1994) and need to be improved or redesigned (Williams & Cooper, 1997). The subscale reliability as reported by Williams and Cooper (1998)showed subscale coefficient alphas as follows:

Factors

Coefficient Alphas

Factors Intrinsic to job

0.7

Managerial Role

0.8

Relationship with other people

0.78

Career & Achievement

0.78

Organizational structure and Climate

0.83

Home-work interface

0.84

2) Pressure Management Indicator ( PMI)- Pressure Management Indicator was developed by Williams and Cooper (1998) from the Occupational Stress Indicator developed by Cooper, Sloan & Williams in 1988 in order to address shortcomings in some scales of the Occupational Stress Indicator. The Pressure Management Indicator is a 120 item self-report measure, encompassing many areas of stress evident in the workplace. Pressure Management Indicator contains a demographic sheet and 8 subscales, which examines 1. Satisfaction 12 Items ,2. Organization 26 Items ,3. Mental Well-being 12 Items ,4. Physical Well-being 9 Items 5. Sources of Pressure 40 Items 6. Type A Behaviour 15 Items 7. Influence and Control 15 Items 8. Coping and Interpersonal Support 17 Items. The PMI is more reliable, more comprehensive, and shorter than the OSI. It the Pressure Management Indicator (PMI;Williams & Cooper, 1996), and shows how it has evolved from the Occupational Stress Indicator (OSI;Cooper, Sloan, & Williams, 1988) into a standard-ized, reliable, compact, and comprehensive second-generation instrument.

3)DASS-The Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale ( DASS) is a 42 item self-report measuring current ("over the past week) symptoms of anxiety ,depression and stress developed by Lovibond and Lovibond ( 1995) which is increasingly used in diverse settings. It is extensively used worldwide particularly in Australia and other parts of the world in research studies, clinical assessment and outcome evaluation . The DASS was specifically designed to distinguish between, and provide relatively pure measures of the three related and clinically significant negative emotional states of depression, anxiety and stress. The DASS was originally intended to consists of only two subscales-one measuring anxiety ,the other depression .Now DASS consists of three subscales: depression scale, anxiety scale and stress scale. Each subscale consists of 14 questions Each a high score is indicative of lower mental health Lovibond and Lovibond (1995) report Gamma coefficients of 0.71 for depression, and 0.86 for anxiety. Reliability of the scales is considered adequate and test-retest reliability is likewise considered adequate with 0.71 for depression, and 0.79 for anxiety.

4)The Occupational Stress Index -Srivastava, A.K., and Singh, A.P., 1981) was used for data collection. The scale consists of 46 items, each to be rated on the five point scale. Out of 46 items 28 are 'True - Keyed' and last 18 are 'False - Keyed'. The items relate to almost all relevant components of the job size which cause stress in some way or the other, such as, role over-load, role ambiguity, role conflict, unreasonable group and political pressure, responsibility for persons, under participation, powerlessness, poor peer relations, intrinsic, impoverishment, low status, strenuous working conditions and unprofitability.

The Occupational Stress Inventory Revised Edition (OSI-R) was developed by Osipow in 1998 and is not intended for clinical utilization but rather for research purposes. The OSI-R was based upon a previous version of the instrument that was developed by Osipow and Spokane in 1987 to measure occupational adjustment on three different dimensions. The OSI-R's three dimensions are defined as the Occupational Roles Questionnaire (ORQ), Personal Strain Questionnaire (PSQ), and the Personal Resources Questionnaire (PRQ).Each dimension has its' own scales which assess specific characteristics that subsequently

contribute to the total overall score. The three dimensions can be used together, like in this

study, or individually based on the research questions. The three dimensions are further divided into the following scales:

1. Occupational Roles Questionnaire (ORQ) - Role Overload, Role Insufficiency, Role

Ambiguity, Role Boundary, Responsibility, and Physical Environment.

2. Personal Strain Questionnaire (PSQ) - Vocational Strain, Psychological Strain, Interpersonal

Strain, and Physical Strain.

3. Personal Resources Questionnaire (PRQ) - Recreation, Self-care, Social Support, and

Rational/Cognitive Coping.

Each scale is comprised of ten items, with the total number of items for all scales being

140. The ORQ consists of sixty items and the PSQ and PRQ have forty items each. The revised version of the OSI-R manual and several research studies provide strong support for the reliability and validity of this carefully constructed assessment.

5) The Occupational Stress Inventory - Revised (OSI-R) (Osipow, 1998)- The Occupational Stress Inventory Revised Edition- OSI-R (Appendix C) developed by

Osipow & Davis (1998) was used to measure occupational stress. The revised edition of the Occupational Stress Inventory (OSI-Râ„¢) is divided into three sections, the Occupational Role Questionnaire (ORQ), the Personal Strain Questionnaire (PSQ), and the Personal Resources Questionnaire (PRQ). These questionnaires provide a concise measure of three important dimensions of occupational adjustment: occupational stress, psychological strain, and coping resources. For each of these dimensions, scales measure specific attributes of the environment or individual that represent important characteristics of occupational adjustment The OSI-R can serve as a reliable and consistent outcomes measure to establish the effectiveness of individual or organizational interventions. The revised edition of the OSI measures domains of occupational adjustment that include not only occupational stress, but also stress associated with the client's inability to cope effectively with stressors in the workplace and other settings. It also assesses coping resources available to the client to combat the effects of stressors and to alleviate strain.

Assess three dimensions of occupational adjustment

Six scales (i.e., Role Overload, Role Insufficiency, Role Ambiguity, Role Boundary, Responsibility, and Physical Environment) measure occupational stress and make up the Occupational Roles Questionnaire (ORQ).

Four scales (i.e., Vocational Strain, Psychological Strain, Interpersonal Strain, Physical Strain) measure psychological strain and make up the Personal Strain Questionnaire (PSQ).

Four scales (i.e., Recreation, Self-Care, Social Support, Rational/Cognitive Coping) measure coping resources and make up the Personal Resources Questionnaire (PRQ).

······························

·······························

Role Overload (RO) 38 70 68 69

Role Insufficiency (RI) 24 49 48 49

Role Ambiguity (RA) 30 62 66 64

Role Boundary (RB) 26 54 56 55

Responsibility (R) 35 62 64 63

Physical Environment (PE) 19 45 53 47

Personal Strain Questionnaire (PSQ)

Raw --

Who experience more stress Male or Female?

Researchers investigated that female experience more stress as compare to male. Female HR professionals reported significantly more pressure and reported a greater number of stress manifestations than their male counterparts (Davidson and Cooper, 1983). Female managers suffer from role conflicts and role ambiguity (terborg, 1985), which brings with it pressure felt from tokenism (Rosen, 1982; Davidson and cooper, 1983; Offermann and Armitage, 1993) isolation (Nelson and Quick,1985; Davidson and Cooper,1985) and not feeling fully accepted by their peers (kanter,1977). Female managers are also more likely than male managers to suffer from a lack of support, be this lack of encouragement from superiors (Davidson and Cooper,1983), absence of mentors (Jick and Mitz, 1985; Terborg,1985) or lack of social support (Davidson and Cooper,1983 ; Offermann and Gowring, 1990). Ventouratos & Cooper, 2005) found that female managers are under much more pressure than their male counterparts, and Antoniou et al. (2006) found that female teachers experienced significantly higher levels of occupational stress compared to their male counterparts Women's minority managerial status and male-dominated company policies have been used to claim that female managers are subjected to a greater number of work related pressure than male managers (Davidson and Cooper, 1983). Martocchio and O'Leary (1989) found no significant difference in occupational stress between men and women. On the other hand, Mc Donald and Korabik (1991) found that women reported being subjected to different types of stress than did men. Females have significantly higher stress than males (Kumari & Prakash 1986, Miller 1990, Godzella et al. 1992, Medvedona 1997, Singhvi and ) Men and women respond to stressors in differently because of to structure in brain Working women, in particular, are exposed to unique stressors: multiple conflicting roles and stymied careers brought about by glass ceilings, sex discrimination, and stereotyping (Cocchiara & Bell, 2010). Women are also confronted with potentially unique stressors such as discrimination, stereotyping, social isolation, and work/home conflicts. In addition, taking care of children and aging parents continues to be a source of stress for women who work outside the home (Repetti, Matthews, & Waldron, 1989).

Unique Stressors for Female:

1) Glass Ceiling 1) Glass Ceiling -"Glass ceiling" is a term coined in the 1970s in the United States to describe the invisible artificial barriers, created by attitudinal and organizational prejudices, which block women from senior executive positions. For example, women hold only 2% of senior management positions and only 5% of corporate board positions (Friedman, 1988). The glass ceiling phenomena means the invisible yet an impenetrable barrier which hinders women from making it to the executive positions in the business world. This is regardless of the women's achievements and qualifications (Federal Glass Ceiling Commission, 1995).When women occupied more professional, managerial and other related occupations only 16.4% of them  formed  the team of the corporate officer posts (U. S Bureau of  Labor Statistics, 2006), and between 2002  and 2005, there was only an increase by 0. 7% for women acquiring the top managerial positions (Catalyst, 2009). For example in India ICICI Bank, is headed by a woman, Chanda Kochhar; so is the case with the third largest in the private sector, Axis Bank, which has Shikha Sharma on the top seat" and "One of the largest foreign banks in the country, HSBC, and the Indian arm of the global financial powerhouse JP Morgan are also headed by women, with Naina Lal Kidwai and Kalpana Morparia respectively overseeing their operations". But exceptions can‟t make history. In terms of Gender Development Index, still India‟s 113th rank out of 157 countries demands immediate and necessary action for gender equality.The term 'glass ceiling' refers to the transparent but real and strong barrier which prevents women from moving.The term glass ceiling refers to the transparent but real and strong barrier which prevents women from moving up in the management hierarchy in an organization ( Morrison & Glinow 1990) . The minority of women in senior management has led many researchers to investigate whether glass ceiling barriers such as sexual discrimination, gender wage gap, gender stereotype, harassment and lack of family-friendly workplace policies in the organizations are at play and how these barriers affect the performance of female employees in the organizations (Jeavons &Sevastos, 2002). The 'glass ceiling' describes the largely invisible barriers that limit career advancement for women, particularly in large organizations and in male-dominated professions such as engineering and medicine.In 1997,Tokunga & Graham looked at employees in the technical divison at one large Fortune 500 corporations and found that female engineers could not advance as far up the corporate hierarchy as did male engineers and could not advance as far up the corporate hierarchy as did the male engineers ,thereby providing evidence for the existence of a "glass ceiling" against women.A research conducted by Veale & Gold ( 1998) in Metropolitan District Council situated in Yorkshire ,UK also confirmed that glass ceiling did exist within the council and this inhibited women's progression into senior management. There a number of factors that keeps the glass ceiling in effect. One of them is the gender stereotype. Schein (2007) found that gender stereotyping of the managerial position has continued to be the major barrier to women's progress in management, worldwide. Apart from gender stereotyping, gender wage gap also plays its role in the organizations. Across sample of eleven European Union countries in 1995-2001 Booth & Bryan (2007) found that women were paid less than men and this wage gap typically widened toward the top of the wage distribution (the "glass ceiling" effect), and in a few cases it also widened at the bottom (the "sticky floor" effect) Shown in Fig:1. In recent studies of promotion to partner process, Kumra & Vinnicombe(2008)concluded that the disadvantages women face in organizations in relation to the promotion to partner process arise from a combination of firm-based and societal based factors. Discussing the relationship between discrimination harassment and glass ceiling( Bell,Mc Laughlin & Sequaria ,2002),glass ceiling was referred as one of the form of sex discrimination. In the study it was concluded that because In the study it was concluded that because all three have some common antecedents, steps to reduce one of them will likely affect the others. Glass ceiling affects the performance of women at managerial posts. Some researchers find that women achieve lower financial performance than men (Hisrich & Brush, 1984; Loscocco, Robinson, Hall, & Allen, 1991; Lustgarten, 1995; Chaganti & Prasuraman,1997; Fasci & Valdez, 1998), while others argue that there is no performance difference betweenmale & female owned enterprises (Fischer, Reuber & Dyke, 1993; Kalleberg & Leicht, 1991).Davidson & Cooper (1983) found that managerial women experience greater strain and feel more isolated at work than males which in turn affect their performance..Glass ceiling barriers such as sexual discrimination, gender wage gap, gender stereotype, harassment and lack of family-friendly workplace policies in the organizations are at play and how these barriers affect the performance of female employees in the organizations (Jeavons &Sevastos, 2002).

Sexual Discrimination

Glass Ceiling

Gender wage-Gap

Glass Ceiling

Factors

Gender Stereotype

Sexual Harassment

Lack of family -friendly Policies

Fig:2( Factors affecting Glass ceiling)

2)Role conflict - Role conflict is defined as "job roles that interfere with on another"

(Drafke, 1998)) and "incompatible expectations associated with a social position, such as student, employee, or mother" (Schafer, 1998).Inter-role conflict is a form of role conflict and it occurs when role pressures from the work and family domains are mutually in compatible in some respect. Inter-role conflict is a form of role conflict and it occurs when role pressures from the work and family domains are mutually in compatible in some respect. According to Kahn et al (1964) have defined role conflict as the simultaneous occurrence of two (or more) sets of pressures such that compliance with one would make more difficult compliance with the other". There is positive relationship between Job stress & inter-role conflict .Role ambiguity and role conflict have been identified as a major source of stress and job tension.( Ivancevich & Matteson 1980;French Caplan & Harrison 1982) .Working women face more inter-role conflict & role overload as compare to men /or non-working ( Kapur,1974).Working mothers with more number of children experience high -level of conflict than those who have fewer children(Itshree Padhi,1999) .Kala Rani (1976) also found a similar correlation pattern in her study. Cooper and Davidson ( 1982) reported that the female executives have more role conflict and role overload because of dual responsibilities .Herman and Gyllstrom ( 1977) found that married person experienced more stress than unmarried person did. Married working women have to perform dual role and child bearing could be one reason .At infancy stage of her child working mothers prefer to spend more time with her children rather than at work-place which may lead into poor attendance at workplace and less job satisfaction . Andrisani and Shapiro (1978) reported that job satisfaction is very low among working women in their 30-40s. Increasing age was associated with ability to tolerate stress (Petit, 1973;Parasuraman & Alutto, 1984). But contradictory findings were obtained by Madhu and Harigopal (1980). They found a positive relationship between age and role conflict .Most of the studies support negative relationship between age & role conflict (Peltit,1973: Simpson, 1979:Schwab,1981) and some studies which prove the opposite (Redfeck,1973; and Flora 1977, Madhu & Harigopal, 1980). According to De Souza, 1963.having less time and more demands of roles result in more role conflict in modern situations. It has been found that the higher the role conflict, the lower the job satisfaction.( Srilatha ;1991,Keller ;1975,Krant ;1966,Senatra ;1977,Carter ;1878,Singh ;1983, Coldwell ;1984.Jagdish and Srivastava; 1984. Libby, 1978; Simpson, 1979; Price, 1971; Flora, 1977; Wilson,1980; Miller 1979; Riggling, 1979; Yarworth, 1979; Monnelt, 1980; Ahrens, 1977) . But according to Hamner and Tosi (1974) reported no relationship between role conflict and job satisfaction in a study among a sample of managers. Christopher Orpen & John Bernath (1987) report that correlation between role conflict and job satisfaction is not significant.

3)Workload - Work overload also known as role overload & Work-Overload occurs simply when employees have more task than he or she can handle. It can be either qualitative & quantitative .Quantitative task can be defined as the person has too many tasks to perform or too little time to perform them and Qualitative occurs when person lacks ability to perform task .Several studies have highlighted the deleterious consequences of high workloads or work overload. According to Wilkes et al. (1998) work overloads and time constraints were significant contributors to work stress among community nurses. Workload stress can be defined as reluctance to come to work and a feeling of constant pressure (i.e. no effort is enough) accompanied by the general physiological, psychological, and behavioural stress symptoms (Division of Human Resource, 2000).Work overload both quantitatively and qualitatively has been empirically linked to a variety of physiological ,psychological and behaviour strain symptoms(Beehr & Newman, 1978; Roberts et al., 1997; Miller &Ellis, 1990).According to Bateman ( 1981) found that role overload resulted in poor performance Most of the researchers explored negative relation length of service ,age & span of control ( Philip C Koshy ,1994 ,Gupta & Pratap,1987 ;Pestonjee ,1992 ; Sen ,1981) .Cooper and Davidson ( 1982) reported that the female executives have role conflict and role overload because of their dual roles in the family and the office. .Mehta ,Chandwani & Mehta were of the opinion women face more workload as compare to men.Coverman (1989)) found that the role overload scores of women were higher than men .But men have higher overall satisfaction than women .Role overload could be one of the major reason of women's psychological stress. Since society perceives women as the primary caregivers, it is probable women experience greater workload & inter-role conflict than men Reed (1994).For example Johnson et al .(2005) conducted comparative studies of 26 occupations(2005) concluded that teaching is one of the most stressful occupations. The most stressful aspects of the job perceived by teachers include workload, timepressures and no guidance pertaining to various teacher roles (Hui & Chan,1996). In Australian universities, a national survey on occupational stress.Research shows that employees at senior level face more workloads and more role-overload (Dua, 1994; Lease, 1999; Winter et al., 2000). .Pleck (1985) has suggested that women complain of role overload not because of exhaustion or doing too much, rather her husband is doing too little. Role sharing between husband & wife can minimize role overload .Bateman 1981) found that role overload resulted in poor job performance.

Lack of Career Progress - Foot and Venne (1990) discovered a positive relationship between barriers to career advancement and job stress. Lack of Career Progress towards achieving their career goals present another source of stress for many working women ( Gyllensten & Palmer 2005; Nelson ,Quick ,Hitt & Mosel ,1990).Despite having similar credentials women managers fail to move up corporate hierarchies as quickly as men managers .( Strah,Brett ,Reilly 1992).

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Impact of Occupational Stress:

Occupational Stress has two major dimensions: physiological stress and psychological stress. Physiological stress is often viewed as a physiological reaction of the body (headache, migraine, abdominal pain, lethargic, backache, chest pain, fatigue, heart palpitation, sleep disturbance and muscle ache, as well as changes in eating, drinking, sleeping and smoking habits) to various stressful triggers at the workplace (Antoniou et al., 1998; Beehr et al., 2001; Critchley et al., 2004; Mansor et al., 2003). Psychological stress is often seen as an emotional reaction (anxiety and depression burnout, job alienation, hostility,depression, tension, anger, anxiety, nervousness, irritability and frustration as a result of the stimuli at the workplace (Antoniou et al. 2003; Millward, 2005; World Health Organization, 2005).According to Spielberger and Reheiser, 1994; Spielberger et al., 2002), has clearly established that job-related stress has an adverse impact on productivity, absenteeism, worker turnover and employee health. In addition to these severe consequences of stress-related problems in the workplace, reduced productivity and diminished customer services are hidden costs that often result from 'exhausted or depressed employees who are not energetic, accurate, or innovative at work' (Karasek and Theorell, 1990, p. 167). According to Matteson and Ivancevich (1982), costs in the US economy relating to reduced productivity, absenteeism and worker turnover have continued to escalate as a function of measured occupational stress. A study conducted by the Princeton Survey Research Associates (1997) found that 75 per cent of employees believed that they experience more on-the-job stress than workers did a generation ago. workplace stress is associated with increased levels of employee absenteeism and turnover, decreased levels of productivity, as well as lost workdays due to disability or sick leave (Williams, 2003). The APA survey found three quarters of people have experienced physical symptoms as a result of stress, such as headache, fatigue, and an upset stomach in combination with feelings of irritability, anger, nervousness, and lack of motivation. Moreover, work-related stress has also been associated with a number of other ill-health outcomes, such as cardiovascular diseases (e.g. Kivimäki etal, 2002), musculoskeletal disorders, particularly back problems (e.g. Hoogendoorn et al, 2000) and neck-shoulder-arm-wrist-hand problems (the so-called RSI-repetitive strain injuries; e.g. Ariëns et al, 2001), as well as absence from work (e.g. Houtman et al, 1999).

Effects of Occupational Stress & Gender:

Stress has a unique effect on different people and how they respond to pressure, symptoms may vary.. Gender is another factor that is important in determining susceptibility to workplace stress. Research indicates that women are more likely than men to experience the negative effects of stress. Jick & Mitzi conducted a very well cited review of the empirical evidence of sex differences in stress .Nineteen studies were reviewed and in these studies women tended to report higher levels of psychological distress than men. Bogg & Cooper conducted a study, with 1051 British civil servants, in which gender differences in occupational stress and strain were investigated. The OSI was used to measure job satisfaction, mental health and physical health. It was found that the female participants were significantly more job dissatisfied, and had poorer mental and physical health compared to the male participants.

Managing Occupational Stress:

Stress Management is living with stress in a positive way. Managing stress is a major problem in organizations for both employers and employees ( Gyllensten & Palmer, 2005 ). Around 30% to 40% of workforces in the USA and Europe are exposed to workplace stress, and those levels appear to have risen over the past 20 years ( Melchoir et al ., 2007 ). Stress can be managed by many interventions in organizations but the interventions, whichare commonly used, include the primary, secondary and tertiary Basically primary interventions include redesigning jobs to modify work place stressors, increasing workers decision-making authority (Jackson and Schuler, 1983) or providing co-worker support groups (Defrank and Cooper, 1987;Kolbell, 1995).Secondary interventions are designed to provide training to the employees. These intervention include seminar programs to help participants recognize and deal with stress and identify organizational stressors. They also serve a dual purpose of identifying the current stress factors and help .inoculate. seminar members from future

stress. Secondary interventions are aimed at reducing the severity of stress, treating symptoms before they lead to serious health problems in an individual and the organization at large (Murphy and Sauter, 2003).Tertiary interventions are interventions, which take care of individuals who are already suffering from the effects of stress. These interventions include counseling and employee assistance programs, consulting a stress manager or mental health professionals to assist employees to cope with to assist employees to cope with stress (Arthur, 2000). Abbreviated progressive relaxation training (APRT) intervention is also used to manage stress in organizations. This intervention has been found successful in reducing stress induced conditions such as heart rate and salivary cortisol (Carlson andHoyle, 1993; Pawlow and Jones, 2002).

Management

Training

Invention

Occupational Stress Intervention

Secondary

Intervention

Primary

Intervention

Tertiary

Invention

Source: Occupational stress in organization & its effects on organizational performance :Henri ongri & Joseph Evans Agolla( Journal of Management Research ,Dec2008)

Managing Occupational Stress & Gender:

While stress is an inevitable component of most any workplace, both men and women must learn to manage it in order to be successful. It has been found that in general, women tend to use more social emotional strategies to cope with stress, whereas men are more likely to use behavioural/mental or drug/alcohol disengagement. Men tend to cope by way of problem focused strategies while women characteristically use more emotion focused

strategies to manage their stress. According to Hofboll et all'as several studies have found that provision of workplace support was more effective in reducing occupational stress in men than women. Pleck (1985) has suggested that women complain of role overload not because of exhaustion or doing too much, rather her husband is doing too little. Role sharing between husband & wife can minimize role overload.

The most effective method for workers to manage stress seems to lie in solutions that combine stress management at both the organizational and individual level. Of the two, organizational strategies are more effective in reducing long-term stress and risk of illness, however, it is just as important that individuals have personal coping strategies at their disposal for when stress inevitably occurs (Cahill, Landsbergis, & Schnall, 1995).

Limitation: There is less research on Glass ceiling. The main argument is that a "glass ceiling" exists in the workplace. While glass ceiling phenomenon has been studied extensively in the western context, glass ceiling as perceived and dealt with in India remains largely an under researched area. My paper tried to highlight this un-explored area which acts like a unique stressors for female.

Conclusion: Occupational stress is high among females than male. Glass ceiling refers to "the seen, yet unreachable barrier that keeps women from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements. Gender stereotype, sexual discrimination, gender wage gap, harassment and lack of family-friendly workplace policies in the organizations are this inhibited women's progression into senior management. Female experience more negative consequences as compare to male. Men tend to use problem focused strategies while women more emotion focused strategies to manage their stress.