Predictors & Outcomes of Employee Engagement:

Implications for the Resource-based View Perspective

Jyotsna Bhatnagar & Soumendu Biswas

This paper extends the resource Resource-based View

based view of the firm to employee
engagement and explores linkages We extend the resource based view
with firm performance. It argues of the firm to employee engagement and
that employee engagement interacts try to explore linkages with firm per-
with other intangible variables such formance. By developing these intan-
as the sense of justice and psycho- gible capabilities of employee engage-
logical contract which an individual ment, it’s antecedents and outcomes,
feels and expects, respectively. The which are path dependant, a firm can
individual’s psychological contract stay ahead of it’s competitors (Teece
is shaped by organizations’ HR poli- et al 1997; Colbert 2004) and leads to
cies along with many social cues VRIN which is difficult for competitors
from the work environment. This may to imitate (Barney 1991).This is in line
affect the employee engagement. with the dynamic capability perspective,
Further, there may be a positive ef- which extends the RBV (http://www.
fect of Employee Engagement on valuebasedmanagement.net methods_
Organizational Commitment and Or- barney_resource_based_ view_firm.
ganizational Citizenship Behavior. html/accessed 28th March 2009). It also
The entire equation may lead to high fills in the lacunae pointed by research-
firm performance which in turn may ers like Foss et al (1996b). Foss and
affect Employee Engagement. It pro- Ishikava (2006) point out to the short-
poses a conceptual model of these comings of RBV and state that process
intangible variables and their link- orientation has not made the theory
age with the tangible variable of firm dynamic. Foss (1996b) speculates that
performance. various “competence-based,” “capabili-
ties,” “dynamic capabilities,” etc. ap-
Jyotsna Bhatnagar (Email: [email protected]) is
Associate Professor (HRM), Chairperson-PGHR & proaches which all try to highlight dy-
Soumendu Biswas (Email: [email protected]) is namics in various ways (e.g., Hamel
Assistant Professor (HRM) in Management and Prahalad 1994) in RBV should be
Development Institute, Gurgaon. the focus of research.. 

The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 46, No. 2, October 2010 273
 Jyotsna Bhatnagar & Soumendu Biswas

The resource-based view suggests gagement on Organizational Commitment

that human resource systems can con- and Organizational Citizenship Behaviour.
tribute to sustained competitive advan- There may be an interactive effect be-
tage through facilitating the development tween these, leading to lower intention
of competencies that are firm specific, to quit. The entire equation may lead to
produce complex social relationships, are high firm performance which in turn may
embedded in a firm’s history and culture, affect Employee Engagement. We exam-
and generate tacit organizational knowl- ine this variable in the configurational
edge (Barney 1991). Much work has approach (Delery & Doty 1996) of theo-
been done in behavioral perspective, rizing SHRM. The configurational school
leading to a non-conclusive view that in organization studies follows a holistic
role behaviour may be copied by com- principle of inquiry and is concerned with
peting firms (Colbert 2004). HR practices how patterns of multiple interdependent
and strategic HR roles on the other hand variables relate to a given dependent
emanate certain intrinsic motivational variable (Meyer, Tsui & Hinings 1993).
effects like Organizational Commitment Researchers gather multiple dimensions
and lead to high firm performance of organizations, such as strategies,
(Bhatnagar 2007, Bhatnagar 2009a).The structures, cultures, and processes, into
motivational basis of employee work at- typologies of ideal types and treat the
titudes and behaviors is regarded as an types as independent variables (Colbert
important component of research agenda 2004:344).
relating to management practices (Aryee,
Budhwar & Chen 2002) especially in an Measurement of Employee
employment relationship domain Engagement
(Bhatnagar 2009a:171). In the current
study we explore the processes which Employee Engagement is a key to
emanate in organizations due to certain retention of talent (Glen 2006) and is an
HR practices in the workplace. We are area where lead has been taken by prac-
not studying the HR practices of the or- titioners (Bennett & Bell 2004, Baumruk
ganization in this paper, but the processes et.al 2006, Gallup Management Journal
which serve as an important competitive 2006, Parsley 2006, Woodruffe 2006). It
advantage for the firm. These are cap- is an area where rigorous academic re-
tured through the sense of justice and search is required (Macey & Schneider
psychological contract and individual 2008, IOP Speical Issue 2008)
feels. The formation of the individual’s
psychological contract is shaped by com-
Employee engagement is a key to
pany policies related to recruitment, com-
retention of talent
pensation, claims etc along with social
cues from the work environment (Boxall
& Purcell 2002).This in turn may affect Employee Engagement (Cartwright
the employee engagement. There may be & Holmes 2006, Joo & Mclean 2006,
a positive effect of the Employee En- Rothbard 2001) is an important mediator

274 The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 46, No. 2, October 2010
 Predictors & Outcomes of Employee Engagement

variable which research studies in India states, psychological and behavioral out-
and globally have not investigated comes in a variety of contexts (e.g., Ryan
(Bhatnagar 2007a, Saks 2005). In their & Connell 1989). The authors propose
research, Robinson, Perryman and to map the antecedents of Employee
Hayday (2004) note that Employee En- Engagement, which reflect a degree of
gagement has been highlighted by prac- need satisfaction. Variables of justice, like
titioners, but largely undermined in aca- procedural and distributive may provide
demic literature. Although Kahn (1990), a perception of fairness to the employ-
Saks (2006), and Bhatnagar (2007a) have ees. The formation of the individual’s
tried to provide a concrete conceptual psychological contract is shaped by com-
definition of the Employee Engagement pany policies related to recruitment, com-
construct, yet literature revealed that the pensation, claims etc along with social
conceptualization and definition of the cues from the work environment (Boxall
construct is frequently contaminated with & Purcell 2002). The motivational basis
its identification with other outcome vari- of employee work attitudes and behav-
ables such as job involvement, intrinsic iors is regarded as an important compo-
motivation, organizational commitment, nent of research agenda relating to man-
and organizational citizenship behavior. agement practices (Aryee, Budhwar &
(Bhatnagar 2007a; Saks 2006) This was Chen 2002) especially in an employment
seen when Gallup q 12 (Buckingham & relationship domain (Bhatnagar
Coffman 1999) or Gallup Workplace 2009a:171).
Audit was used (Bhatnagar 2007a). We
would like to extend the work and would Over the past decade or so, numer-
measure using Employee Engagement ous studies have provided empirical sup-
with a different scale of Saks (2006) in port to the notion that psychological con-
the Indian context. It is hypothesized: tract as an important motivator for em-
ployees (e.g.,) Sturges, Conway, Guest
Hypothesis 1: Employee Engag- and Liefooghe, 2005, Rousseau 2004).
ement is a holistic measure of job En- Wilhelm et al. (2007) state that the re-
gagement and Organizational Engag- sults of these studies and highlight that
ement. when individuals perceive breach of
promises by their employer; their moti-
Predictors of Employee vation and commitment to the organiza-
Engagement tion decreases and their intention to leave
their jobs increases (Tekleab, Takeuchi
Measurement of employee engag- and Taylor 2005) as cited in Bhatnagar
ement has entered into academic and (2009:172). This current study proposes
practitioner debate (Meyer & Gagne to measure the predictors of Employee
2008:61). The authors state that Self Engagement. These are variables of jus-
Determining Theory has guided the mea- tice and psychological contract. The au-
surement of engagement relevant vari- thors propose to test the following hy-
ables like: need satisfaction, motivational pothesis:

The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 46, No. 2, October 2010 275
 Jyotsna Bhatnagar & Soumendu Biswas

Hypothesis 2: Procedural and distri- Indian sample. They found the firm’s
butive justice; transactional and relational competitive advantage emerging due to
psychological contract will be predictors organizational commitment. More re-
of Employee Engagement cently Employee Engagement has been
related to building a firm’s competitive
Outcomes of Employee advantage. Employee Engagement, in
Engagement fact, can make or break the business
bottom line (Lockwood 2006). Martel
Consultants have focused on Em- (2003:30, 42) is of the opinion that in or-
ployee Engagement encompassing in der to obtain high performance in
some combination affective commitment postindustrial(sic), intangible work that
(e.g., pride in the organization, willing- demands innovation, flexibility, and speed,
ness to recommend the organization as employers need to engage their employ-
an employer), continuance commitment ees. Engaging employees—especially by
(e.g., intention to remain with the orga- giving them participation, freedom, and
nization), and OCB, described as discre- trust—is the most comprehensive re-
tionary effort (e.g., feeling inspired by the sponse to the ascendant postindustrial
organization, being willing to go above and values of self-realization and self-actu-
beyond formal role requirements). Macey alization. Performance data of the best
& Schneider 2008:57). Bhatnagar (2007) companies in the US show that in all the
reports studies on organizational commit- practice areas discussed previously. Ob-
ment as an explanatory factor of employ- jectives are more easily met when em-
ees’ mobility. Linkages between ployees are engaged and more likely to
mentoring and organizational commitment fall short when they are not. In order to
and source of support and target of com- maintain an Employer brand we see an
mitment have been explored by Lin et al., emergence of a series of studies on em-
(2005), Payne & Huffman (2005), ployer of choice, which also measure
Stinglhamber and Vandenberghe (2003). engagement index and financial perfor-
However, Bhatnagar and Sharma mance (Coleman 2005).
(2009:292) report recent research
(Iverson & Zatzick 2007: 456) which has
Objectives are more easily met
highlighted “the economic and political
when employees are engaged and
conflicts associated with such practices
more likely to fall short when they
(Godard 2001a), including the financial
are not.
costs that may offset productivity gains
(e.g., Cappelli & Neumark 2001) and the
intensification of work that results in A recent SHRM Conference (2006)
greater burnout and stress for employ- reported the results of a new global Em-
ees (e.g., Green 2004, Ramsay, ployee Engagement study showing a dra-
Scholarios & Harley 2001). They have matic difference in bottom-line results in
further found organizational commitment organizations with highly engaged em-
to be a predictor of firm performance in ployees when compared to organizations

276 The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 46, No. 2, October 2010
 Predictors & Outcomes of Employee Engagement

whose employees had low engagement become more engaged in their jobs, be-
scores (Bhatnagar 2007a). A compelling cause they derive fulfillment from it
question is: how much more productive (Schaufeli & Bakker, 2004) and inturn
is an engaged workforce compared to a they perform better (Bakker 2009).
non-engaged workforce? (as cited in
Seijts & Crim 2006 and reported in Further, given the logic of self deter-
Bhatnagar 2007a). mining theory (Meyer & Gagne 2008:61)
the current study proposes to measure
According to Soupata (2005) orga- the antecedents and outcomes of Em-
nizations should strive towards ‘enter- ployee Engagement, which would predict
prise excellence’. In this context, pro- higher firm performance at the organi-
cesses such as employee commu- zational level and lower intention to quit
nication, employee relations, and their at the individual level . These support di-
learning and development assume an im- rectly the outcome variables of Employee
portant role in predicting an employee’s Engagement as pointed by Macey and
performance and his/her attachment to Schneider (2008). They focus primarily
his/her job and organization. It is in this on task performance and organizational
context that we consider employee en- effectiveness as outcomes of engage-
gagement as a peremptory construct in ment. This further supports the SDT
explaining an employee’s attachment to theory implications on employee well
his/her job and his/her organization. As being as pointed by Meyer and Gagne
reported by Xanthopoulou et al. (2009 : (2008:61). Individuals who experience
184), the motivational process of the job the feeling of well being in an organiza-
demands–resources ( JD-R) model tion due to high Employee Engagement
(Bakker & Demerouti 2007) suggests may exhibit lower intention to quit.
that job resources are the main initia-
tors of employees’ work engagement
Individuals who experience the
and consequently of enhanced perfor-
feeling of well being in an organi-
mance. Job resources refer to physical,
zation due to high employee en-
social, or organizational aspects of the
gagement may exhibit lower inten-
job that are functional in achieving work-
tion to quit.
related goals, reduce demands and the
associated costs, and stimulate personal
growth and development (Bakker & Extending this work and building on
Demerouti 2007). As intrinsic motiva- RBV, the authors propose organizational
tors, job resources fulfill basic human commitment, lower intent to quit, and
needs (i.e. need for belonging) and fos- firm performance to be the outcome vari-
ter individuals’ development (Deci & ables at individual and firm levels. These
Ryan 1985). As extrinsic motivators, would provide a competitive advantage
they encourage employees’ to exert ef- to the firm. This line of research would
fort towards a task (Gagne´ & Deci fill in the caveat in RBV as pointed by
2005). In both cases, employees may Colbert (2004). It answers the question:

The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 46, No. 2, October 2010 277
 Jyotsna Bhatnagar & Soumendu Biswas

how does a firm actively build and con- Hypothesis 4: Organizational Commi-
tinuously renew strategic human and or- tment and Organizational Citizenship
ganizational resources to fuel competi- Behaviour will be predicted by Employee
tive advantage? Engagement.

With the resource-based view of the Hypothesis 5: Organizational Commi-

firm as the basis, the authors propose that tment and OCB will predict lower inten-
Employee Engagement would lead to tion to quit
higher levels of organizational commit-
ment, lower levels of quit intention, and Hypothesis 6: Firm Performance will
higher level of firm performance as the predict Employee Engagement.
outcomes. This would lead to an inimitable
and sustained competitive advantage to the Mediator Role between Predictors
firm. It is expected that by proving this & Outcomes
line of thought, the authors would be able
to answer the doubts raised by Colbert Furthermore, we intend to conceptual-
(2005) that firms may find it difficult to ize Employee Engagement as a factor within
develop and renew strategic human and the wider concept of ‘Hidden Assets’ (Ehin
organizational resources and practices to 2005) of an organization. Besides, we aim
maintain competitive advantage. at testing the proposed conceptual model
(Fig. 1) as a non-recursive one wherein we
Hypothesis3: An employee’s commi- posit Employee Engagement as an impor-
tment to his/her organization and Orga- tant mediator variable, in place of an out-
nizational Citizenship Behavior may in- come variable as suggested by previous lit-
teract to result in lower intention to quit. erature (Kahn 1990, May et al. 2004).

Fig. 1 - The Proposed Conceptual Model Hopkins and Washington (2006) in-
 vestigated the perceptions of distributive
justice, procedural justice, organizational
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278 The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 46, No. 2, October 2010
 Predictors & Outcomes of Employee Engagement

mediated by trust perceptions (Hopkins isfaction with the organization (Cohen-

& Washington 2006:477). Charash & Spector 2001, Mishra and
Spreitzer 1998). The accumulation of
Later, a study by Loi et al (2006) these negative perceptions and feelings
investigated the empirical linkage be- may lead to an increase in turnover among
tween employees’ justice perceptions, survivors (Aryee, Budhwar & Chen
perceived organizational support, orga- 2002, as cited in Hopkins & Washington
nizational commitment and intention to 2006:478). Recent research in engage-
leave. A hypothesized model was devel- ment literature (Bakker 2009) has con-
oped to empirically test the linkage be- sistently found work engagement (i.e. a
tween the relationships among employ- positive affective/motivational reaction
ees’ justice perceptions, perceived or- towards the job that is characterized by
ganizational support (POS), organiza- vigour, dedication, and absorption), when
tional commitment and intention to measured as a general well-being indi-
leave. This model was tested using hi- cator, has been found to be positively
erarchical regression analyses on a related to individual job performance (for
sample of 514 practicing solicitors in a review see Bakker 2009). Sonnentag
Hong Kong. The results indicated that (2003) found that employees’ day-levels
both procedural and distributive justice of work engagement predicted their day-
contributed to the development of POS, levels of proactive behaviour, after con-
and POS mediated their effects on or- trolling for general levels of engagement
ganizational commitment and intention and work characteristics. This is in con-
to leave. As expected, organizational sonance with the strain of research cited
commitment was negatively related to earlier and that Employee Engagement
intention to leave. would be a predictor to organizational
commitment, organizational citizenship
More recently, a relationship antec- behaviour and may lead to lower intent
edent model was developed by assimi- to quit. Given the mixed findings in re-
lating research findings on organizational search we postulate the following hypoth-
struct-ure, internal communication, and esis to be tested in Indian industrial con-
organizational justice into relationship text.
management theory by Kim (2007:170)
where justice is the mediator between Hypothesis 7: Employee Engagement
internal communication, organizational will mediate the relationship between
structure as antecedents and organiza- Justice and psychological contract as
tional trust, commitment satisfaction and antecedents and organizational commi-
relationships as outcome variables. tment, OCB, intent to quit and firm per-
formance as outcome.
Evidence also suggests that de-
creased perceptions of organizational jus- Very few studies investigate the link-
tice and trust can adversely impact an age between Employee Engagement and
employee’s level of commitment and sat- firm performance. Recent work of

The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 46, No. 2, October 2010 279
 Jyotsna Bhatnagar & Soumendu Biswas

Xanthopoulou et. al., (2009) has found which they have tried to establish through
this linkage, but with diverse variables. case studies. Looking at this gap in lit-
Xanthopoulou et. al., (2009) investigated erature we propose to test our model sta-
how daily fluctuations in job resources tistically and would apply Amos (version
(autonomy, coaching, and team climate) 17.0; Arbuckle & Wothke 1999) for the
are related to employees’ levels of per- same, and would conduct our data to
sonal resources (self-efficacy, self- es- structural equation modeling.
teem, and optimism), work engagement,
and financial returns. Forty-two employ-
Changes in management prac-
ees working in three branches of a fast-
tices that increase employee sat-
food company completed a questionnaire
isfaction may also increase busi-
and a diary booklet over 5 consecutive
ness-unit outcomes, including
workdays. The multi-level analyses, uti-
profit.
lized in the research study, confirmed that
day-level job resources had an effect on
work engagement through day-level per- In a related research by Schneider,
sonal resources, after controlling for gen- Hanges, and Smith (2003) on employee
eral levels of personal resources and en- attitude data from 35 companies over 8
gagement. Day-level coaching had a di- years were analyzed at the organizational
rect positive relationship with day-level level of analysis against financial (return
work engagement, which, in-turn, pre- on assets; ROA) and market performance
dicted daily financial returns. (earnings per share: EPS) data using lagged
analyses permitting exploration of prior-
Harter, et. al,. (2002a) used meta- ity in likely causal ordering. Analyses re-
analysis to examine the relationship at the vealed statistically significant and stable
business-unit level between employee relationships across various time lags for 3
satisfaction-engagement and the busi- of 7 scales. Overall Job Satisfaction and
ness-unit outcomes of customer satisfac- Satisfaction with Security were predicted
tion, productivity, profit, employee turn- by ROA and EPS more strongly than the
over, and accidents. Generalizable rela- reverse (although some of the reverse re-
tionships large enough to have substan- lationships were also significant). Research
tial practical value were found between has usually not indicated reverse causal
unit-level employee satisfaction-engage- indicators on employee engagement though
ment and these business-unit outcomes. related studies (Schneider, Hanges, &
An implication is that changes in man- Smith 2003), quoted above, on Employee
agement practices that increase em- attitude, Job satisafaction and Financial per-
ployee satisfaction may also increase formance are present.
business-unit outcomes, including profit.
Further, in a related work Harter et al In our study we propose a linkage
(2002 b), stated that methodologically in between firm performance and Employee
their meta-analysis, they could not ad- Engagement, but in a reverse feedback
dress the issue of statistical causality, loop. This entails that those firms which

280 The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 46, No. 2, October 2010
 Predictors & Outcomes of Employee Engagement

are financially robust will have a higher The hypotheses above are presented
Employee Engagement score. This line in a proposed conceptual path model
of research is in consonance with the (fig.1) along with a competing model
findings of a study by Towers Perrin (fig.2). Which ever model emerges after
(2003). Their Talent Report reflected testing the hypothesized relationships and
operating margin with 5%, 10%, 15% applying structural equation modeling to
change in engagement. More recently, confirm or reject the hypothesized rela-
MacLeod (2009) found in both public and tionships, will be adopted for discussion
private sectors that leadership, line man- and further implications.
agement, employee voice and integrity are
key enablers of engagement and that the Sample: We collected data for the
correlation between engagement, well-be- present study from 310 working executives
ing and performance is repeated too of- employed in different industry sectors. For
ten for it to be a coincidence. The study this purpose different strata of managers
was conducted in the western context. viz., senior-level, middle-level, and junior-
level managers were randomly assigned the
We posit thus: survey instrument. Thus, purposive sam-
pling in selecting the organizations of the
Hypothesis 8: There may be reverse respondents and stratified random sampling
causality between Firm Performance and for selecting the respondents themselves
Employee Engagement. was applied for data collection.

Further the study by Bhatnagar Measures: For the purpose of mea-

(2006) reported vast differences in or- surement, items have been selected
ganizational learning capabilities in Indian from standardized questionnaires to
industrial sectors, especially in the sun- make up a survey instrument compris-
rise sectors at that time (IT, ITES). Fol- ing 102 items, excluding items related
lowing that line of research and variance to demography. Emotional engagement
found in the Indian context, and given the
context of recessionary pressures on the Fig. 2: Competing Model: Employee Engage-
economy, we would like to test the fol- ment –Correlates and Outcomes
lowing hypothesis:
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dustry sectors will differ in Employee 2UJ

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sectors like ITES may have higher Em-
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ployee Engagement and firm perfor- 2UJ

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facturing/engineering sectors

The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 46, No. 2, October 2010 281
 Jyotsna Bhatnagar & Soumendu Biswas

was measured using 11 items of the posed variables. We propose to examine

scale developed by Saks (2006). This the data by administering regression; in-
measure takes into consideration two teractive effect and mediating effect us-
facets of Employee Engagement, that is, ing generalized least square (GLM)
job engagement and organizational through the Statistical Package for Social
engagement comprising five and six Sciences (SPSS) version 16.0, and test-
items respectively. Organizational jus- ing a structural equation model using Ap-
tice was calculated on the basis of the plied Moments of Structure (AMOS) ver-
scale reported by Collquit (2001). The sion 16.0 to confirm the causal relation-
construct of organizational justice com- ships between the identified variables.
prised Distributive justice (four items)
and Procedural justice (seven items). Theoretical and practical implica-
Psychological contract comprising tions: We will present the model which
Relational contract and Transactional is confirmed through our results. This
contract are proposed to be computed model may strengthen the dynamic na-
with the help of nine items and eight ture of RBV and will help us draw fur-
items respectively of the scale devel- ther implications for theory based on our
oped by Raja, Johns, and Ntalianis empirical findings in the Indian context.
(2004). Organizational commitment This work contributes to the Employee
was computed using the scale developed Engagement and RBV literature and
by Rhoades, Eisenberger, and Armelli throws important implications for HR
(2001). The scale comprises six items. managers who may design intervention
Organizational citizenship behavior to improve Employee Engagement and
(OCB) was computed on the basis of increase competitive advantage for their
the scale developed by Lee and Allen firms.
(2002). This scale comprises eight
items. Of these eight items, four repre- Acknowledgements
sent Organizational citizenship behavior
directed towards individuals (OCB-I) An earlier version of this paper was
and four characterize Organizational presented at the Indian Academy of
Citizenship Behavior directed towards Management Inaugural Conference held
the organization (OCB-O). Intention to at XLRI Jamshedpur, December 2009.
quit was measured using the three item
scale reported by Colarelli (1984). Firm References
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286 The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 46, No. 2, October 2010
Role, Work Perception & Stress in a High Reliability Work
Environment

Omer Bin Sayeed & Satish Chandra Kumar

An empirical study of work attitude, role Air Traffic Controllers

efficacy and stress experienced in a high (ATCs)
reliability professional group was under-
taken using a sample of 52 Indian Air Traf- Air Traffic Control is basi-
fic Controllers (ATC) working in the cally a ground-based system
Mumbai Airport. Results showed that ATCs dedicated to the safe, orderly
experienced role stress with regard to in- traffic control and expeditious
ter-role distance, role isolation, resource flow of air traffic. The Air Traf-
inadequacy, role erosion and role stagna- fic Controllers (ATCs) who man
tion. ATCs maintained high confrontation the system are well trained pro-
or problem solving skills in their role fol- fessionals. They work under ex-
lowed by helping relationship, perceived tremely demanding conditions for
integration with the job and managing well the safety of more than one air-
their inter-role linkages. Results further craft at any given time. Safety is
showed significant relationships between maintained through a system of
work attitude and role efficacy dimensions. airways and separation standards
Regression analysis within respective ca- and the air traffic controllers pro-
nonical variable sets revealed role stress vide continuous instructions to the
being a significant predictor of attitude to- pilot through the medium of Voice
wards supervisors and management, while Radio Telephony (VRT) from the
role efficacy dimensions (role making, role moment of start off to the final
centering and role linking) showed signifi- taxiing of the plane into the park-
cant explanatory power equally strongly ing slot.
with respect to attitude towards work,
working conditions, co-workers, supervi- The Air Traffic Control Sys-
sors, and management. tem in India is divided into five
units, namely, (a) Surface Move-
Omer Bin Sayeed is Professor of Organizational Behaviour/
HRM in National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Mumbai
ment Control (b) Control Tower
400087 Email: [email protected]. S.Kumar is Reader (c) Approach Tower (d) Area
in the Department of Applied Psychology, Mumbai Control Center (e) Flight Informa-
University, Mumbai- 400 098. tion Center. These units function
in coordination with each other in

The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 46, No. 2, October 2010 287
 Omer Bin Sayeed & Satish Chandra Kumar

order to ensure the objectives of safety aviation. As a result of this liberalization

and expeditiousness. The Air Traffic policy there has been an advent of pri-
Controller (ATC) is a trained professional, vate airline companies. This has resulted
a quick thinking man who does not have in increased number of flights and con-
the privilege to stall. His job calls for a sequently increased air traffic. Such a
great deal of control and quick decision- situation directly translates into higher
making. All his instruction to the pilot are amount of work pressure and workload
recorded continuously on tape and any in- for the ATCs. Mumbai (previously known
structional delays are traceable to replay. as Bombay) India’s commercial capital
Hence, the ATCs are under continuous has a Flight Information Region (FIR)
scrutiny and function to standards of pin- stretching to 1.2 lakhs square kilometers,
point accuracy with a traffic load over making it the biggest FIR in South Asia,
which they have no control. An incorrect yet it operates with a single runway.
decision on his part can mean a loss of Technically, Mumbai has two runways,
human lives and millions of rupees as he, but they cannot be used simultaneously
at any point of time, is responsible for because they intersect each other in the
more than one aircraft. Adding to the pres- middle. Being the busiest Airport in the
sure is the almost intolerable requirement country Mumbai handles more than 320
that the ATCs must retain an outward flight movements per day (i.e., 24 hours)
calm revealing no feelings of pressure or in addition to 100 flights, which over fly.
anxiety to the pilots. Simultaneously, they Besides regular flights, the ATCs at
have to maintain an optimum tension level Mumbai also have to handle helicopter
to ensure mental alertness. These two re- movement from Juhu and the Oil Rigs at
quirements – contradictory in terms of Mumbai High and also the Naval heli-
human nature – are exhausting mentally copters. This adds tremendously to their
and in the long run takes a toll on the workload, as managing helicopter move-
ATCs’ mental and physical health (Crump ment is very time consuming job.
1979). Perhaps, due to these reasons such
professions which require higher levels of Review of Literature
mental alertness, continuous monitoring at
the personal level and extremely higher Given the highly demanding condi-
levels of risk (likely human and financial tions under which the ATCs work and the
losses) involved in making decisions are absolute nature of the decisions they
generally termed as high reliability profes- must take, most studies in the West on
sions. Since ATCs jobs involved all the this group have focused on the stressors
three criteria mentioned above, it is but associated with their jobs (Grandjean
right to characterize their occupational 1968, Grandjean & Wotzka 1971, Krol
domain of work as a high reliability pro- 1971, Repetti 1993). The primary short
fession. term but uncontrollable stressors for
ATCs is their burgeoning workload. It is
In 1993, the Government of India easy to observe that there is a direct pre-
announced the ‘Open Sky Policy’ in civil dictable relationship between the

288 The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 46, No. 2, October 2010
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