Techniques used to manage stress and its impact on middle management’s performance in the hospitality industry in India.

Abstract

In today’s complex and volatile environment, the hospitality industry has developed a close link with job stress. Most factors resulting from this are job specific or organisation related. The globalisation and liberalisation of the world economy has made jobs more competitive and demanding. The acceleration of workers moving to multi-national companies has influenced cross-cultural conflicts between members of the same team. In addition, the faulty lifestyle of employees travelling to different countries, or excessive business visits away from the family, has exaggerated the problem. Hence, the increase in job stress that has taken place in the past two decades is related to globalisation, organisational change and lifestyle of employees. Various demands placed by organisations tend to pressurise employees, leading to stressful working environments. These stressful environments in turn affect performance, leading employees into stressful situations. Many hospitality organisations have started stress management programmes but staff turnover still remains high due to job stress. This research investigates stress management techniques adopted in hotels to manage organisational stress and the impact of stress on middle managements performance in five star hotels in the city of Mumbai, India.