Executive Health: An Oft-Neglected Aspect of HRD

Today's executive is constantly subjected to mental tensions, anxiety, depression and frustration. In other words, stress is an essen tial accompaniment of executive performance. Increasingly, it is being realized that concern for executive health is vital for organizational well-being. In this article, D M Pestonjee and Nina Muncherji describe various types of diseases executives are prone to and suggest how HRD interventions can help in promoting the overall health of the executive. </jats:p

Enhancing Role Efficacy: An OD Intervention

The role of mechanical/traffic inspectors and safety counsellors is of considerable importance in the prevention of rail accidents and in the development of selfprotective behaviour among the staff. Development of negative perceptions on their part is likely to lead the employees to poor work performance. This article by DM Pestonjee and Aniruddh Pandey emphasizes the need for conducting role efficacy interventions to strengthen and reinforce positive behaviours and weaken negative behaviours. </jats:p

Executive Stress: Should it Always be Avoided?

Executive stress is inevitable, but contrary to popular belief, it can also have positive effects. In this article, D M. Pestonjee demystifies the concept, discusses various types of organizationrelated stresses, and outlines the consequences of both too little and too much stress. He concludes the article explaining briefly proactive organizational interventions and indicating the strategies an individual can follow to alleviate stress. </jats:p

Modern Social Life and Mental Health

Indian society today is a society in transition. The age-old misconception that the Indian economy is predominantly rural is now eroding. It is true that one's village culture, community, caste, and familial ties still majorly impact the average Indian's way of life. However, due to both the ‘push' and ‘pull' forces of migration, the former, over time, have become more and more amalgamated with urbane and metropolitan influences stemming from, among others, the mass proliferation of white-collar jobs and the explosion of social media platforms. This hybridization of schemas often causes cognitive dissonance for a said individual in multiple facets of his/her personal and/or professional life. Since industry and service sector jobs are majorly concentrated in urban areas of the country, this individual now has an entirely new set of psycho-social adjustment problems to deal with. Another reason for why the work-life of India is drastically different from that of other countries is that organizations in India, at least the well-established ones, often have two to three generations working simultaneously, which combined with the rapidly growing average life-expectancy; thanks to cheap quality public health-care, which is estimated to increase to four to five generations shortly. The major problem to be expected by the future, and even to an extent, current HR managers is that multiple generations profess dramatically different superegos and/or value systems. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.387396

SPIRITUAL INTELLIGENCE: A MEDIATING FACTOR IN REDUCING BURNOUT AMONGST MANAGERS

Human beings are the only beings in this universe that question the very basic existence of something by asking the “Why” question. An intelligence that allows an individual to find answers to these very basic questions of meaning and existence has to move beyond the realm of body and mind into the realm of consciousness and connection to the ultimate reality. This connection is possible only through the individual manifestation of this reality- the inner Self or Spirit. Such intelligence has been named as Spiritual Intelligence. Research studies have proven that managers working in people-professions that involve interaction and interface with people on an on-going basis are more prone to burnout as constant emotional demands made by the clients or team members can tire people out emotionally and mentally. As these managers are required to present a very amicable and present personality irrespective of their actual mental or emotional state, they gradually get exhausted. This paper deliberates upon this very important but usually neglected side of the contemporary managers.</jats:p