OCCUPATIONAL STRESS AND HEALTH AMONG IT PROFESSIONALS IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

This study investigates the sources and effects of information technology (IT) occupational stress among professionals in Singapore. Using survey questionnaire method, quantitative data, including measures of personality characteristics, social support, coping behaviour, job satisfaction, mental health and demographic data were analyzed. The sample consisted of 250 young and better educated IT professionals who are past graduates of Department of information systems and computer science, National University of Singapore. The respondents working in small, medium and large organisations in Singapore come from various industry sectors (banking, manufacturing, computer company, etc) and they represent both the public as well as the private sectors, including the multinational companies. The demographic breakdowns show a good mix of IT professionals in terms of job function and gender. Factor analysis identified nine underlying thematic factors which represent the nine sources of occupational stress among IT professionals in Singapore. They were: (1) role in organisation; (2) home and work interface; (3) computer application backlog and breakdown; (4) administrative duty; (5) career development; (6) organisational climate and morale; (7) responsibility for people; (8) factors intrinsic to the job of IT professionals; and (9) relationships at work. These nine factors accounted for 56% of the variance. The top ten stressors reported by the sample of IT professionals in Singapore were: (1) time pressure and deadlines; (2) work overload; (3) keeping up with new technology; (4) dealing with difficult people at work; (5) dealing with ambiguous situations; (6) systems crash or programs do not run; (7) increasing demand for higher performance level; (8) frequent changes to objectives and priorities; (9) risk in implementing new technology; and (10) lack of consultation and communication in decision making. In terms of personality styles, over two out of three (68%) of the sample showed Type A coronary-prone behaviour. The Singapore sample reported higher social supports (from supervisor, peers and family) than their counterparts in the USA. It was found that the younger IT professionals in Singapore reported lower level of job satisfaction and higher level of psychological and mental strains than their older computer managers counterparts. Factor analysis showed that a tri-factorial structure in occupational stress coping strategies exists (Problem-focused, Flight or Fight, and Emotion-focused) among IT professionals in Singapore. These three factors accounted for 24% of the V3riance. The top ten frequently used coping strategies were: {1) scrutinize the problem and attempt to solve it in the best way; (2) work harder than usual at dealing with the problem; (3) find out more from the persons involved about one problems; (4) set priorities and deal with problems accordingly; (5) examine oneself after the fact to learn from it; (6) accept the situation and learn to live with it; (7) recognise one own limitations; (8) set aside evenings/weekends for one family members; (9) seek advice/direction from others; and (10) exhaust all possible avenues before asking others for help. Using multivariate analysis, it was found that the level of social support from the supervisor at work was a strong predictor of job satisfaction, while role in organisation was the major source of mental ill health in the Singapore sample. Implications for the organisations as well as for the individuals were discussed and the directions for future research were proposed. The study extends the existing knowledge base on research in Singapore on occupational stress and mental health among IT professionals who will grow in importance in the coming years.