Title:
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ICT SUPPORTED OCCUPATIONAL STRESS
MANAGEMENT: THE VIEWS OF HR MANAGERS IN SRI
LANKAN SOFTWARE COMPANIES |
Author(s):
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Manoja Weerasekara, Åsa Smedberg and Hélène Sandmark |
ISBN:
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978-989-8704-18-4 |
Editors:
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Mário Macedo |
Year:
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2020 |
Edition:
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Single |
Keywords:
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Well-Being, Digital Health Intervention, Occupational Stress Management, Sri Lanka, Software Industry, Human
Resource Managers |
Type:
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Full |
First Page:
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27 |
Last Page:
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38 |
Language:
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English |
Cover:
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Full Contents:
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click to dowload
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Paper Abstract:
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The software industry is considered to be a growing industry worldwide but with a high propensity to cause stress
reactions among employees due to its demanding and technology-driven nature. As a human capital-intensive industry,
too much of stress on employees can also create a negative impact on the quality of work. Thus, organizations take
numerous initiatives at both individual and organizational levels to address this problem. One area of concern is the use
of ICT supported occupational stress management interventions. In Sri Lanka, the dominant ICT occupation today is
software engineer, and there is a national awareness of mental health issues due to occupational stress. Thus this study
aims to investigate current practices used to frame employees well-being inside software organizations in Sri Lanka, and
to understand Sri Lankan software companies viewpoints of using ICT supported occupational stress management
interventions through the lens of human resource (HR) managers. Ten HR managers were interviewed covering eight
software companies. Through thematic analysis, we identified three main themes and multiple subthemes. Results
revealed various types of individual level and organizational level strategies, policies and practices implemented to create
a healthy work setting for the employees. Findings also show that the HR managers had limited knowledge and
experiences of ICT supported occupational stress management interventions. Nevertheless, they appreciated the
immediate possible benefits of ICT interventions and demonstrated the willingness to adopt them in their organizations.
Moreover, they revealed several functional requirements and feature sets they would like to see in such applications to
better support their employees. Therefore, this study can possibly provide insights for researchers and practitioners who
are to design and develop ICT supported interventions to manage occupational stress, to promote well-being and healthy
organizations. |
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