To Study The Effect of Work Stress on Performance And Productivity of Hoteliers in Hotels of Delhi And NCT

The research paper focuses on Performance and Productivity standards of hotels of Delhi and NCT. It is a Survey based research and focus on the work life balance i.e. commonly missing due to longer shifts, break shifts, no family life etc. leading to un-satisfaction and lowered motivation which badly affects hoteliers mental as well as physiological health and productivity. The never ending requisition of extra efforts, manpower and innovative techniques makes working in hotels highly challenging with unjustified remuneration leading to a high turnover of employees creating motivational instability. The result shows that role conflict, role ambiguity, peer pressure, highly competitive environment and performance pressure effect employee motivation positively and hence enhances the overall performance and productivity. As a suggestive measure the management must try to go for activity based appreciation, recognition programmes, certifications and even some monetary benefits if the employee has performed remarkably well. Management must organize some recreational activities for employees and help hoteliers increase their performance and productivity.


INTRODUCTION
The futuristic projection of Hospitality and tourism industry as per "World Travel and Tourism Council," is great and ready to cross all the boundaries as per the current comeback after global slowdown, if the industry is properly fueled and backed up by the PPP and government initiatives and enhanced service standards to a certain level where the guests feel the "waao" factor and retain a memorable experience. Indian Tourism and Hospitality industry has its roots embedded deep in the diverse geography, providing unique hospitality and tourism products and services, rich culture, excellent heritage and elegant cuisine. Indian destinations are gaining popularity even in the international market. "Atithi Devo Bhava", "Incredible India campaign", "Atullya Bharat" like hospitality campaigns showcases India as incomparable destination due to its rich bundled culture and tradition and various other aspects. As per the latest scenario of hospitality and tourism industry and government released data from Ministry of Tourism, FHRAI magazine, CII website etc The contribution of the entire travel and Tourism sector in India to Gross Domestic Product is estimated to rise from 8.6% (USD 117.9 billion) in 2010 to 9.0% (USD 330.1 billion) by 2020. Between 2010 and 2019 the demand for travel and Tourism in India is expected to grow annually by 8.2%, which will place India at the third position in the world. Travel and Tourism in India according to the same report also accounts for 49,086,000 jobs in 2010 (about 10% of total employment) and is expected to rise to 58,141,000 jobs (10.4% of total employment) by 2020. WTTC expects India to be a Tourism hotspot from 2009 to 2018, having the highest 10-year growth potential. As per WTTC, direct and indirect contribution of travel and tourism to the GDP are expected to grow by 8.1% and 8.8%, respectively, in the next ten years.
Hospitality industry has faced manpower deficiency traditionally leading to longer working hours, no work life balance, etc which leads to Job stress and a fast turnover of the employees in the industry. Lot of emphasis is laid by the service providers to ensure better service standards but still situation is so worsened that the management starts opting various cost cutting measures and even staff retrenchment.
Stress is can be defined as the bye product of the body caused due to interaction with any stimulus in the environment like peer pressure, highly competitive environment, job insecurity, politics, improper rewards and recognitions, etc. leading to un-satisfaction and lowered motivation which badly affects mental as well as physiological health of the workers which resultantly reduces the productivity. Job stress and frustration at workplace in hospitality industry could be due to various reasons which can be majorly grouped as controllable factors and uncontrollable factors. Stress can be positive (eustress) in terms of good performance or negative (distress) in terms of high turnover, absenteeism and other so many manifestations. There are different levels of stress management interventions i.e. primary, secondary and tertiary. Primary interventions attempt to alter the sources of stress at work (Murphy and Sauter, 2003) e.g redesigning jobs to modify workplace stressors (Bond and Bunce, 2000), providing coworker support groups (Carson et al., 1999;Cecil & Forman, 1990;Kolbell, 1995) and lastly increasing workers' decision-making authority i.e employee empowerment (Jackson, 1983). Secondly, the Secondary prevention programs are the most common stress management interventions aimed to manage and cope with stress (Giga, Cooper, and Faragher et al., 2003). They attempt to reduce the severity of stress symptoms before they lead to serious health problems (Murphy and Sauter, 2003). For this behavioral skills training, meditation, relaxation, deep breathing, exercise, journaling, time management, and goal setting are used to manage stress. Finally, the tertiary interventions are sort of employee assistance programs which are designed to treat employee's health condition via free and confidential access to qualified mental health professionals. (Arthur, 2000). Davidson and Cooper (1981) finds that workplace stress has been increasingly quoted as the main cause of accidents, job dissatisfaction, morbidity, and other physiological illnesses like heart attack, alcoholism and hypertension leading to decreased performance productivity. Stress is a major factor in up to 80% of all work-related injuries and 40% of workplace turnovers Atkinson (2004). Job stress is also a serious cause of mental health and health related injuries. Some of the clear indicators of work place stress and employee stress are: Increase in absenteeism, High employee turnover, increased no of verbal or physical conflict amongst employees, conflicts between management and employees, increasing guest complaints about the employee being irritable or stressed and even the Employee complaints in which stress can be listed as a contributory factor, Increase in number of stress related worker compensation claims etc.  (2003) has mentioned in his studies that one of the six factors of occupational stress is pressure originating from workload. Alexandros-Stamatios G. A. etal. (2003) also argued that "factors intrinsic to the job" means explore workload, variety of tasks and rates of pay. • Lawson and Luks (2001) have investigated the relationship between empowerment, job satisfaction and reported stress levels. They have favored the idea of empowering employees in order to reduce stress level. In their study they have concluded that if influence of employees on their areas of work is more, then there is greater level of satisfaction and eventually decreased level of job stress. In this study, inverse relation of empowerment and stress has been focused through positive relation of empowerment and job satisfaction. • Catherine et al (1995) finds that effect of these stressors on employees depends upon the employees' cognitive and behavioral responses to them. Employee resources and cognitive behavior are determined in turn, by the amount and the quality of resources that the employee can draw upon when faced with problem or potential stressor at work. • According to Donovan and Kleiner, 1994, job stress can be result of different things i.e. performance pressure, work load pressure, peer pressure, environmental factors etc. Physical stress could be overwork, lack of rest, and poor diet. Mental stress is related to the mental condition or health of the person. Situational stress may be due to various situational factors like interaction with environment, people etc • Ivancevich et al. (1990) examined that high effectiveness of secondary and tertiary stress management programs whereas temporary positive effect of primary stress management interventions. • Brumbrach (1988) has defined stress as performance means both behaviors and results, focusing performance and productivity. • Newman and Beehr (1979) defined job stress or workplace stress as "a situation wherein job-related factors interact with the worker to change his or her psychological and/or physiological condition such that the person is forced to deviate from normal functioning." • According to Beehr et al. (1976), Ursprung (1986, Cooper (1991), Cordes and Dougherty (1993), Dyer and Quine (1998) and role ambiguity exists when an individual lacks information about the requirements of his or her role, how those role requirements are to be met, and the evaluative procedures available to ensure that the role is being performed successfully.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
As Delhi is one of the longest serving Capitals and one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world it has been taken for the study along with the adjoining areas i.e. NCT. The areas studied for the coverage in the paper are subtopics covered directly or indirectly in the paper are limited to few Hotels of Delhi and NCT only: -i.

Q13
Some leisure trips and recreational activities must be scheduled and conducted every year for the employees.
2 2 7 8 10 Q14 The average working hours per day in hotel is approximately 10 to 12 with at least one day weekly off. 5 5 10 5 5

Q15
Work life balance can be maintained if a person can balance between the operational task at the workplace and family life. The management level and the senior level of managers are well understanding, unbiased, and helpful and generally do fair distribution of work and delegation of responsibility and authority. 9 7 7 4 3 Q20 Political environment de-motivates an employee. 2 2 5 11 10 Q21 You get motivated to perform better if your fellow mate is performing better every time and getting better pay.
1 2 8 9 10 Q22 Performance pressure on an employee is generally eased up by necessary supervision. 4 6 5 6 9 Q23 Productivity of the firm can be estimated by the level of employee motivation, initiation and interest to perform their job efficiently. 4 6 6 7 7 Q24 Highly competitive environment increases productivity but is highly exhaustive. 1 2 6 11 10 Q25 Regular stressful condition in a hotel is responsible for increasing number of ill health workers in hotel.
0 3 6 11 10 Q26 You are stressed out when you work for long hours without the capability of working further. 3 1 7 09 10 Q27 Job in hotels at the front of the house are highly challenging like to meet deadlines, to be creative Situations at times generate extreme stress in the mind of an employee.
2 2 5 11 10 Q28 Back of the house jobs in the hotels are really monotonous and require some interesting ways to avoid stress. 5 4 10 6 5 Q29 Employees working without any weekly off against will and stamina get a bitter taste of the industry due to which there is fast turnover of employees. 0 3 9 9 9 Q30 Overall experience in the hotel Industry is satisfactory 2 5 5 9 9 5. Analysis from the questionnaire, interviews and the keen observations 1). Labor & Skills Shortage: -Employee retention and employee motivation is emerging as a major issue of concern & hence Hospitality industry in Delhi and NCT is fac-ing shortage of employable staff with a positive service attitude. 2). Lack of proper documentation of employee agreements & employment, Escalated sexual harassment, bullying, harassment faced by women at work, and some mischievous conduct at work place. 3). Theft, cheating, void billing and showing of extra damages and breakages with an intention of steeling quality wine, food and equipment from the workplace is increasing even after security arrangements along with "Go slow attitude and Misuse and unlawful use various facilities is increasing" 4). Industry on one hand is not able to cope up with the peripheral Technology advancement, with new Emerging Markets and rising competition and on other the Flexible work hour style of work taken to its roughest form of break shift are making the conditions tougher for the workers. 5). Training of the hotel management students must be taken more carefully because as per records around 45% of the students leave the industry just due to the exhaustive working atmosphere and stressful environment. 6). Unionism and various similar group formations in Hospitality Industry is quite rampant which is evident as the Hotels don't pay much attention to Manage discipline amongst staff and many times unable to handle the grievances of staff leading to stress and frustration.

CONCLUSION
Stress is the bye product of the body caused due to interaction with any stimulus in the environment like peer pressure, highly competitive environment, job insecurity, politics, improper rewards and recognitions, etc. The result shows that role conflict, role ambiguity, peer pressure, highly competitive environment and performance pressure effect employee motivation positively and hence enhances the overall performance and productivity. Though there are negative but motivational factors applied by the management of the hospitality firms which might be tough for the work force to handle initially but in the longer run the same factors prove beneficial for the firm and the workers. Looking to the nature of the industry the never ending requisition of extra efforts, manpower and innovative techniques makes it highly challenging and hence the challenge is drenched down to the employees creating motivational instability.
7. Suggestions based on the study.
• Proper process of recruitment, selection, Training and development in hotels with a refined Performance appraisal system probably 360* appraisal must be followed in hotels. • Employees must be motivated and encouraged for personal and professional development. • Working on Compensation, Remuneration, Employee Retention, Retraining and redeployment plan in hotels because the current salary structure is very low in comparison to other fields. • Hotels must pay extra attention on training and development as locker room or bunker conversations mislead tourism and hospitality students. • Remuneration styles like skill based pay, salary reviews, and pay secrecy, below market vs. above market remuneration, monetary vs. non monetary rewards help in checking and overcoming absenteeism in hotels. • Management must organize some recreational activities; some family get together, some outdoor activities like picnics and must also perform corporate social responsibility to build a brand image of the organization externally.