Stress, Workaholism and Job Demands: A study of executives in Mumbai

The changing nature of the economy and increased competition has put a great demand on professionals today. As a result, workaholism is emerging as a behavior pattern among professionals. The main objective of the study is an exploration towards identifying the relationship between workaholism, job demands, work values and perceived stress and anxiety among working professionals in Mumbai, India. The study was done under exploratory framework and the sampling procedure was purposive. Results reveal the dimensions of workaholism, work values and job demands that emerged as predictors of stress and anxiety. Some of the dimensions of job demands showing the extreme nature of the job came out as the negative predictor of stress, which reflects an entirely different perspective of people in the society. Professionals in the service sector suffer from more stress and anxiety compared to those in the manufacturing sector. Overall, the unmarried and a younger age group of professionals are perceived to have a higher level of anxiety and stress than married and the senior age group. Knowledge of these results may be utilized by academia and professionals in understanding the workaholic behavior of the current Indian professionals driven by globalization and economic boom.