Affect of Adversity Quotient on the Occupational Stress of IT Managers in India

Abstract

All people experience adversity during their lifetime. Dictionary defines adversity as a difficult or unlucky situation or event. Challenges, disappointments, sadness, despair and hopelessness are difficult parts of life, making people react in peculiar ways to get over these. Each person’s happiness, growth and success depend largely on his or her responses to the difficulties of life. The science of resilience or the adversity quotient (AQ) is a measure of the capability of an individual in facing the difficult situations in life. Dr. Paul Stoltz coined the term Adversity Quotient in 1997 in his book ‘Adversity Quotient: Turning Obstacles Into Opportunities’1 . Stress is a result of an adverse or difficult or demanding situation which has psychological or emotional tension or pressure on an individual. Stress can be caused by a string of things, from physical like some threat or danger to emotional such as tension or worry at job or for family. Occupational stress is caused by unfavourable conditions at the work place. These conditions may be related to the organizational policies such as downsizing or re-designing leading to fear of job-loss, politics among the co-workers, excessive demanding supervisors, overload of work leading to burnout or lack of coordination among the teams causing bottlenecks and unnecessary delays. Such stress is even higher among the IT professionals, often leading to unpleasant and explosive situations. This research is an attempt to uncover if there exists any link among the Adversity Quotient and Occupational Stress of IT managers in India. Results indicate that there is a significant relationship between Adversity Quotient and Occupational Stress.