D. Pestonjee

Understanding HRD in Southeast Asia cannot be complete without looking at prominent global and regional economic, political, and technological trends. Among these, the most critical are the globalization of economies, accelerated technology and innovation, the information and communication revolution, rapid organizational change and outsourcing of manufacturing/services operations of multinational corporations (MNCs). The role of HRD has been invaluable in preparing a diversified workforce by unleashing human expertise to face the challenges arising from the rapidly changing global business environment. However, South Asian countries often suffer from ineffective government policies, political uncertainty, and lack of trained HRD experts to initiate effective HRD practices at multiple levels. Inadequate emphasis of respective governments on enhancing employee productivity and organizational change has made most South Asian countries vulnerable to rapid global changes, thereby increasing poverty combined with social, political, and economic inequality. Slow economic growth and increasing youth unemployment (9.6% compared to global youth unemployment of 4.2%) has aggravated this situation (ILO, 2012). Even though globalization has influenced expansion of international markets, the accelerated speed of business transactions, aided by information communication technologies, and internationalization of MNCs, South Asian countries still lag behind compared to their neighboring Asian Tigers: Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea.

The present study is aimed to understand impact of work environment on perceived work stress of oil & gas professionals working in Indian oil/gas companies and their expectations about stress management interventions in context of their organizations. To understand dynamics of work stress in Indian oil and gas industry companies, we decided to adopt qualitative approach in this research study. A convenient sample of 51 male executives who possess an average of seven years’ experience from 16 leading companies in the Oil & Gas industry in India were interviewed face-to-face by using open-ended questions that focus on work conditions, work stress, reasons of work stress, impact of work stress on individuals’ professional, personal, family and social life. The interviews also covered questions on employees’ expectations from their organizations about organizational interventions to manage stress at individual, team and organizational levels. Deadlines, project management issues, lack of resources, high responsibility and multitasking were cited as most dominant reasons of high work stress in the work environment of oil/gas industry professionals. Regarding employees’ expectations about their organization’s role in stress management interventions, majority of our respondents agreed that organizations can definitely play a major role in managing work stress of employees at individual, team and organizational levels by adopting various organizational processes and mechanisms. The findings of this study may provide many insights to HRD managers in designing workplace stress management interventions for creating a positive, proactive work culture which induce positive stress for better performance and achieving excellence.

Stress and Work focuses on the problem of stress from various angles and perspectives and provides empirical findings relevant to different occupational settings. It provides comprehensive research literature, which has been divided along the following theoretical perspectives: Occupational Stress and Burnout; Work–Family Conflict and Stress; Positive Stress Management; and Stress and Spirituality.

This volume will be a resource-book for researchers and practitioners of management, psychology, sociology, and behavioral sciences. The prospective reader of human society and human nature will find this volume to be of immense utility.