G. SVYASA Ph. D. Theses

BACKGROUND: Organizational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB) is a newly emerging concept in the stream of organizational behavior. In today’s global competitive world, any and every organization wants to have excellent employees those who do not only work hard but also display discretionary behaviours, positive traits, good interpersonal relationship, supportive team work, self-motivation to collectively achieve organizational goals and success. Despite an increasing number of studies on OCB, not many unifying works are focused on the improvement of the same. Here we also study about two most important personality traits namely Positive affectivity and Negative affectivity of employees in an organisation. AIMS and OBJECTIVES: This study seeks to investigate the impact of Self-Management of Excessive Tension yoga program on Organisational Citizenship Behaviour, Positive and Negative affectivity and Occupational stress (OS) of the employees. METHODS: Participants: A sample of 240 employees consisting of both male and female, working for a BPO office in Bengaluru, India belonging to an age group of 20-45 years participated in the study. Design: It is a randomised two group (yoga and control group), intervention study with pre and post assessments. Assessment: Organisational Citizenship Behaviour scale, Positive and Negative Affectivity Schedule (PANAS) scale and Occupational Stress Index (OSI) scale were used to administer the study parameters. Data was analysed by using SPSS software version 25.0. Intervention: Self-Management of Excessive Tension module practice is given to employees as Intervention. Results: A considerable increase in mean values (difference in pre and post data) were observed after SMET intervention for various dimensions of OCB, PANAS and OS. The results were found to be significant with p < 0.05.Conclusions: Study showed that SMET helped to improve OCB and to reduce the occupational stress of the employees. Study also proved that SMET helped to increase Positive affectivity and to reduce the Negative affectivity of the employees. Key words: Cyclic Meditation, Negative Affectivity, Occupational Stress, Organisational Citizenship Behaviour, Personality Traits, Positive Affectivity, SMET, Yoga

BACKGROUND Psychological distress is highly prevalent among working professionals. Workplace yoga interventions to enhance psychological wellbeing and further follow-up studies are limited. Physical manifestations of stress include musculoskeletal pain, headaches, constant fatigue, sleep disorders, gastrointestinal disorders, cardiovascular illnesses, and substance use, while its psychological manifestations include lack of concentration, negative affect, low self-esteem, aggression among others. Stress is experienced in response to a range of physical, occupational and emotional stimuli. Within manageable parameters one’s sense of well-being is maintained, but if these stimuli go beyond normal limits they become stressors. Exploring new pathways, such as mindfulness, can lead to the development of novel tools for enhancing employee wellbeing at work (Schultz et al., 2015). Mindfulness based intervention studies have shown exponential growth over the past three decades. Potential benefits of mindfulness interventions range from mental and physical health outcomes to cognitive, affective and interpersonal outcomes. Descriptions of mindfulness and methods of cultivating it originate in eastern spiritual traditions. First generation mindfulness intervention studies focused mainly on treating adult patients in clinic settings. Over the last ten years, there has been a shift in moving mindfulness intervention studies out of the clinic into institutional settings. Mindfulness interventions are multidimensional in nature and involve multiple active components. Mindful yoga component is shown to produce a significant differential effect on the outcomes. As a means of providing a unified body-mind experience, Yoga has few equals (Salmon et al., 2009). The current study examined the efficacy of cyclic meditation, as a unique yoga based mindfulness intervention for workplace wellbeing. Two studies were conducted across two distinct employee cross-sections of a large Indian multinational corporate. First study was on leadership professionals and the second study was on offshore professionals who are engaged in a high-risk work environment. Effect of a five day residential yoga intervention and later follow-up after three months of home practice was examined in these two study groups. Participants were assessed for various psychological constructs like mindfulness, emotion regulation, positive and negative affect, and perceived stress. Results of linear mixed effects model showed that all the variables had significantly influenced the perceived stress, except for emotion regulation. Findings suggest that intervention is effective in addressing the stress of professionals by improving mindfulness, positive affect, and better emotion regulation strategy, but due to lack of supervised guidance after the program, there is a high chance of further relapse, which needs further attention to maintain an environment of sustained wellbeing. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES AIM 1. The aim of this study is to examine the efficacy of cyclic meditation as yoga based mindfulness intervention for enhancing wellbeing in working professionals. 2. The study aims to examine the effect of yoga intervention in two different work groups – Study1 on leadership professionals and Study2 on offshore professionals, who are engaged in a high-risk work environment.3. The study further aims to examine the follow-up effect of the residential intervention and also to examine the relationship between mindfulness, positive affect and perceived stress. OBJECTIVES 1. Examine the effect of yoga intervention on mindfulness in working professionals 2. Examine the effect of yoga intervention on emotion regulation, perceived stress, positive and negative affect in working professionals 3. Examine the effect of yoga intervention at multiple time points - after a 5 day residential yoga intervention and after 3 months of home practice 4. Examine the mediating role of mindfulness in the relationship between positive affect and perceived stress METHODS Participants Study1: Effect of yoga based intervention on leadership professionals Participants were recruited from a large Indian multinational public sector undertaking, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).102 senior level leadership professionals with a mean age of 53.85 years and ranging from 30 to 60 years participated in the study. Both males and females who volunteered for the program were included in the study. Out of the 102 participants who attended the full 5-day residential intervention, 83 participants provided follow-up data after 3 months. Study2: Effect of yoga based intervention on employees in high risk work environment Participants were recruited from a large Indian multinational public sector undertaking, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).77 offshore male employees of ONGC organization reported for the residential program located in a Yoga university setup at Bengaluru. The participants had a mean age of 42.67 years and ranging from 23 to 59 years. Out of the seventy-seven participants who attended the full 5-day residential intervention, 61 participants provided follow-up data after 3 months. Design Repeated measures design with a single group followed at three time points, baseline, after the intervention, and after the follow-up for 3 months. Assessments Mindfulness was measured using the Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS). Emotion regulation was measured using the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ). Positive affect and negative affect were measured using the positive affect and negative affect schedule (PANAS). Perceived stress was measured using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Intervention The residential program covered theory sessions that provided conceptual understanding of yoga, stress and its release, concept of executive growth and group dynamics. Theory sessions were followed up with practice sessions on cyclic meditation (CM) technique. Interaction sessions were conducted to address any participant queries. In addition, the program had components on yogäsanas (postures), kriyä (cleansing techniques), präëäyäma (breathing practices) and bhajan (devotional sessions). Simple, healthy nutrient rich vegetarian diet was served. Following the residential program, participants were expected to continue their daily practice of 35 minutes of cyclic meditation on their own for an additional period of 3 months. Standardized guided instructions in audio format were provided to facilitate the individual practice. Results Results of linear mixed effects model showed that all the variables had significantly influenced the perceived stress, except for emotion regulation. Findings suggest that intervention is effective in addressing the stress of senior managers by improving mindfulness, positive affect, and better emotion regulation strategy, but due to lack of supervised guidance after the program, there is a high chance of further relapse, which needs further attention to maintain an environment of sustained wellbeing. Conclusion In both the distinct studies on senior level managers and on offshore employees, findings suggest that yoga intervention is effective in addressing the stress by improving mindfulness, positive affect, and better emotion regulation strategy, but due to lack of supervised guidance after the program, there is a high chance of further relapse, which needs further attention to maintain an environment of sustained wellbeing.

Over the last two decades, Information Technology (IT) bases industry in India has transitioned from million dollar industry to billion dollar industry.

The two-fold process in the Cyclic Meditation (CM) namely concentration as stimulation to break the stagnation of mind and sustained attention to calm down the distraction of the mind helps in the growth of practitioners. Six Letter Cancellation for the first and Digit Letter Substitution test for the second are apt tools to their measures. No normality tools were available for Indian Students as also data related to use of CM for students. Hence, this study was taken up.

G. SVYASA Ph. D. Theses

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