Effect of SMET on Emotions and Self-esteem -A Study of Managers in a Large PSU in India
Rabindra Acharya*, Balaram Pradhan** and HR Nagendra***

Abstract

Stress and strain is an integral part of modern-day managers in corporations; more so, in the

current globalised world. It adversely affects their health, productivity and well-being. Managing

stress in the workplace of the managers appears to be a huge challenge for many corporations. Many  previous  studies  on  Self-Management  of  Excessive  Tension  (SMET)  have  indicated how SMET has led to a reduction of stress in managers. A pre-post study was conducted to investigate the effect of the five days residential SMET program for the managers of a large public sector energy Organisation in India. Two psychometric instruments; Positive Affect (PA) and Negative Affect (NA) Scale (PANAS) and Self-esteem Scale were administered before and after the SMET workshop. The study showed a significant increase, in PA scores as well as self-esteem scores and NA significant decrease in NA scores of the managers. The paper concludes how the SMET workshop enhanced emotional well-being and self-esteem of the managers in the Organisation. The author also indicates a few areas of further research.

Key Word: Yoga, Manager, Positive and negative affect, Self-esteem, SMET, PANAS, ONGC

Introduction

Economic liberalization: India had played an important role in global trade over the earlier centuries. Though it had closed the borders over last few decades, the change seems to have been initiated through the process of liberalization. The economic liberalisation in India refers to ongoing economic reforms in India that started on 24 July 1991. After Independence in 1947, India adhered to socialist policies. Attempts were made to liberalise the economy in 1966 and 1985.   In 1991, after India faced a balance of payments crisis, the IMF required India to undertake a series of structural economic reforms. The new neo-liberal policies included opening for international trade and investment, deregulation, initiation of privatisation, tax reforms, and inflation-controlling measures (Wikipedia, 2014).


Further,  India’s  growth  miracle  has  attracted  worldwide  attention,  particularly,  because

this growth has been pursued to the wide ranging economic reforms introduced in the early


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1990s. Many other developing countries intensified linearization during this period, but were

unable  to  experience  a  similar  spurt  in  their  economic  growth.  One  distinctive  feature  of

India Liberalization experience is the gradual and calibrated manner in which reforms were

introduced, especially with respect to external Liberalization, be it in the financial, agricultural or

manufacturing sector (UNCTAD, 2012).



In other words, Indian economy has gone through liberalization since 1990s, leading to rapid

globalisation. This pace of globalisation has been picking up, leading to economic growth,

infrastructure development, and employment generation.  On the other side, while meeting the

high targets and the rapid  pace of growth under constraints, the managers of large corporations

have been facing many challenges; time management, stress, health issues of non-communicable

diseases (Shah, &  Patnaik, 2011).



Stress at work place: In the corporate organisations, the managers are expected to meet the

challenges  of  profitability,  growth,  customer  satisfaction,  employee  attrition  and  statutory

compliance along with deadlines to achieve the above objectives. These challenges create stress

at workplace.

The relationship between work stress and well-being has flourished over the past 20 years. One of the major advances in this literature has been the emergence of the Allostatic Load model as a central organizing theory for understanding the physiology of stress. This has considered as health outcomes that are associated with exposure to psychosocial stressors at work and provide insight into how workplace experiences affect well-being. Within an Allostatic Load framework, with a focus on primary (e.g., stress hormones, anxiety and tension) and secondary (e.g., resting blood pressure, cholesterol, body mass index) mediators, as well as tertiary disease end points (e.g., cardiovascular disease, depression, mortality). Recommendations are provided for how future research can offer deeper insight into primary Allostatic Load processes that explain the effects of workplace experiences on mental and physical well-being (Daniel, & Christopher,

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2013).


Stress, according to Robbins (2003) is an opportunity, demand, constraint, threat or challenge

can create stress for an individual when the effect of the event is uncertain and important. Factors

relating to the environment, the organization, and the individual can also trigger stress (Robbins

& Judge, 2007). This happens especially when s/he is unable to deal with the demands or

constraints encountered. While stress at work as a concept has been in existence since long and

has been widely studied, both the antecedents and consequences of stress in modern day are very

different and have strong implications in ones’ personal and professional lives too.



Further, if the stress   continues for long duration, it affects the growth and potential development

of the individual and which starts declining at both personal and professional levels. This is more

so, as an individual goes against his or her own true nature of self. Eventually, the emotional

upsurges take over his/her discrimination faculties and lead him towards destruction. All these

leads to stress; leading to ill-health, lower the productivity, and other related issues.


As  the  business  environments  become  more  competitive,  businesses  more  dynamic  and

organizational roles become more complex, the potential for organizational role stress increases.

Varied sources of work stress have been identified by researchers. Five categories of stressors

were identified by Landy and Trumbo (1976) such as excessive competition, hazardous working

conditions, job insecurity, task demands and long or unusual working hours. Marshall and

Cooper (1976) classified stress as intrinsic to a job or role, career growth, relationship with

colleagues and Organisational climate and structure as five main clusters of work stress.






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Srivastava (2009) found that the role of an employee in the organization may create conditions

that cause stress for employees at work effecting the quality of work life. Such Organizational

role stress has been found to be negatively related to managerial effectiveness.   Nelson and

Burke (2000) suggest that a number of factors such as role ambiguity, lack of power and role

conflict can also be stressful. Sharma and Devi (2008) further add that role overload, lack of

senior level support, lack of group cohesiveness, inequity at workplace, role stagnation, resource

inadequacy in the role, constraints on change contribute to the stress of employee.



Role of yoga in stress:  Patanjali suggests a solution, that the above can be overcome by

adopting “Yoga as a way of life” (Taimni, 1961). According to him, Yoga is all about controlling

the thought processes of human beings (Taimni, 1961). In other words, Patanjali, many other

spiritual and Yogic leaders have recommended Yoga for overcoming stress and taking care

of the physical, emotional and psychological well-being of individuals. This has become an

imperative the modern day life.

Pattanjali defines yoga is a technique used to calm down mental thoughts to reach the true Self

(Iyenger, 1996) and skills to manage life that fosters moderation and harmony is the message of

Patanjali’s yoga sutra (Becker, 2000). Yoga harnesses our will, emotions, expands our power

of insight, vision and analysis. Yoga is a science to harness the will, calm the mind and steady

the emotions, without losing the sharpness of intellect is the key to human progress (Nagendra

& Nagarathna, 1997).   The integrated Yogic technique is able to accommodate and bring a

harmonious work culture without expecting any return (Chakraborty, 1978).








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Yoga  offers  us  a  holistic  lifestyle  of  bliss,  efficiency,  emotional  equipoise,  mental  clarity,

intellectual sharpness and physical well-being. It is towards the holistic lifestyle that we should

move through SMET (Nagendra & Nagarathna, 1997).

Emotional Intelligence: To meet various opportunities and challenges in a corporate setup,

more so, in a globalized world,   manager is expected to have high levels of their emotional

intelligence  (EI)  and  positive  emotion  that  helps  them  in  the  execution  of  work  without

hampering their well-being. If not adequate, there can be an opportunity to develop this EI.

Emotional Intelligence has evolved as an area in the last three decades. This has gained further

significance in the context of globalization. “Emotional Intelligence is the ability to perceive

emotions, to access and generate emotions so as to assist thought, to understand emotions and

emotional knowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions so as to promote emotional and

intellectual growth” (Mayer & Salovey, 1997).

While  elaborating  what  makes  a  leader,  Goldman  (1998),  the  thought  leader  of  EI  states

“effective leaders possess high degrees of emotional intelligence. Along with IQ and technical

skills, emotional capabilities are the entry-level requirements for executive positions. Emotional

intelligence is playing an important role at the highest levels of the company, and is often linked

to exceptional performance. Social skill is another key component to successful management”.



Review of literature on stress management: Few previous studies on executives had shown

significant improvement in EI. Specifically, an integrated yoga practice program of one month

has  shown  significant  improvement  of  the  EI  level  of  Managers  in  (Adhia,  Nagendra,  &

Mahadevan, 2010).   In another study, managers undergoing one-hours of SMET program for

one month period reported significant improvement in EI (Kumari, Nath, Nagendra, & Sharma,



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2007) and EC (Kumari, Nanth, & Nagendra, 2007). In another study, the five days SMET

program also showed significant improvement in EI (Ganpat & Nagendra, 2011) as well as

in executive functions based on Brain wave coherence (Ganpat & Nagendra, & Muralidhar,

2011). In a recent study of managers in ONGC, a large public sector energy corporation found

a significant increase in the scores of cognitive abilities, anxiety scores and in lowering the

symptoms of distress in ONGC managers (Singh, Pradhan, & Nagendra, 2013).

Effect of Yoga on Positive Affect Negative Affect Scale (PANAS): An emotion is defined

as a mental and physiological state associated with a wide variety of feelings, thoughts, and

behaviors. It is a prime determinant of the sense of subjective well-being and appears to play

a central role in many human activities as quoted by (Narasimhan, Nagendra, & Nagarathna,

2011).  These  emotions  were  grouped  under  positive  and  negative  effect.  Positive  Affect

Negative Affect Scale (PANAS) is a tool to measure the person both positive and negative

emotion aspect which is very essential for anybody irrespective of professions (Watson, Clark &

Tellegen, 1988). In a randomized control study design on prisoners in 7-British jail participated

in either yoga program (1 class per week) or a control group for 10-week. Yoga group had

increased self-reported a positive effect, and reduced stress and psychological distress compared

to  control  group  (Bilderbeck,  Farias,  Brazil,  Jakobowitz,  &  Wikholm,  2013).  Similarly,  an

open-arm  pre-post  study  having  450  participants  were  undergoing  integrated  yoga  module

that consisted of asanas, pranayama, relaxation, notional correction and devotional sessions.

Three hundred and twelve pre-post sets of data showed an increase in Positive Affect by 13%

and Negative Affect reduced by 47% after a week long Yoga program. Even short term open

armed study can bring a significant positive change in individuals positive and negative effect

(Narasimhan, Nagendra, & Nagarathna, 2011).



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Effect of Yoga on self-esteem: In a Randomized Control Trial study, which consisted of 226

normal,  healthy  participants  were  undergoing  a  set  of  integrated  yoga  module  that  include

asanas, pranayama, meditation, notional correction, and devotional sessions. The control group

took part in physical exercises (PE). Both groups had under supervision for 6-day/week, for eight

weeks, 1-hour/day. The effect size for self esteem in the Yoga group was higher than control

group in three domains of self-esteem. The results suggested that both groups had an influence of

self esteem in different magnitude of changes (Deshpande, Nagendra, & Nagarathna, 2009).



The  research  gap  of  present  study:  The  author  found  the  research  gap  in  India  and  the

significance of exploring the impact of SMET training on ONGC participant’s on their emotional

health benefits. Hence the current study aimed to evaluate the effect of SMET training on

Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS) and self-esteem.


METHODOLOGY

Keeping  the  above  objectives  in  mind,  the  researcher  selected  ONGC,  where  the  research

objectives can be met fruitfully. Purposive sampling was adopted for conducting the study.

ONGC is a large scale public sector undertaking in the energy sector.

Participants

In this research study, the sample size was calculated using the G*Power (a general power

analysis program) 3.1 (Faul, Erdfelder, Buchner, & Lang, 2009). The minimum sample size

need for this study was (no = 65) calculated based on previous study, i.e. The effect size was

calculated as 0.456, fixing alpha = 0.05, power = 0.95 (Narasimhan, Nagarathna & Nagendra,

2011) and But present current study consisted of seventy participants. All the participants were

recruited from ONGC executive undergoing Self-Management of excessive tension (SMET)


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workshop at S-VYASA. Both male and female participants with the age ranging from 25 to 60

years were included in this study. Participants having multiple ailments and health related issues

and women during menstruation were excluded based on general routine health check up by

resident doctors. The current study was approved by the Institutional ethics committee and an

informed consent form was obtained from all the participants after explaining them regarding the

trial of the research.


Limitations of the study: This study was confined to ONGC; only one large PSU managers

over a period of one year. Such studies could be done in other sectors with similar growth pattern

such as aviation, Hospitality, education, etc. to map and mitigate stress levels among employees.

Further, there was no control group and only subjective variables were measured, short term in a

residential setup.

Assessment


Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS): All subjects were recorded before the start

and end of the SMET workshop. Positive and negative affect schedule (PANAS). The PANAS

is comprised of a total 20-item with two sub-scales 10-item each measure to assess positive and

negative affect. Participants were asked to rate themselves on the scale over past 5-day using a

Likert scale from 1 (“very slightly or not at all”) to 5 (“extremely”). The PANAS alpha internal

consistency reliabilities are high, ranging from 0.86–0.90 for positive affect and from 0.84–0.87


for negative affect (Watson, 1988; Watson, Clark & Tellegen, 1988).

Rosenberg  Self-esteem  Scale:  This  is  a  self-reported  scale  consisted  10-item  evaluates

individual global feeling of self worth. The rating scale ranges from 1 (strongly agree) to 4

strongly disagrees). It is validated and reliable for self-esteem measures (Rosenberg, 1965).


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Study Design: The current study was designed as a single armed pre-post study, wherein the subjects

were interviewed on the record both before and after the 5 days SMET intervention.

Intervention Adopted
SMET Intervention: SMET comprises of a set of theory. The practices (Cyclic Meditation)

based on the principle of ‘stimulation followed by relaxation’ derived from Mandukyakarika.

Cyclic Meditation (CM), consisting of a set of eight techniques practiced cyclically, is a key process

in SMET, and was practiced for 30 minutes every day. CM is very different from any other form of

meditation. It comprises of a set of physiological stimulations (Yogic postures) followed by relaxation

techniques, i.e. The Instant Relaxation Technique (IRT), the Quick relaxation Technique (QRT) and

the Deep Relaxation Technique (DRT). The CM process is given below in a pictorial format and more

details about the structure of the SMET program are given in Table-1. As explained above, the SMET has

multiple component/dimensions. The details of SMET are provided in Figure-1.


Table 1: SMET Program details


SMET  THEORY Theory
1. Introduction to  SMET
2. Concept and Physiology  of Stress 3. Stress and it’s Release
4. Executive Growth 5. Group Dynamic
6. SMET and Yoga Therapy Research 7. Integrated Approach of Yoga therapy 8. Pranayama and Health
9. Yoga for Mastery over Emotion (Bhakti Yoga) 10. Action in Relaxation (Karma Yoga)
11. Concept and Basis of Yoga  (Happiness Analysis)

SMET Practices Practice session Cyclic Meditation









Figure-1: Schematic diagram of Cyclic Meditation


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Results
Data were analyzed using paired ‘t’ test to assess the effect of SMET intervention for five days.


PANAS


It was observed that the scores of negative affect were lower (p<0.001) and positive scores

were found to be higher (p<0.01) following the SMET intervention of five days. The significant

change in the scores is quoted in Table-2.


Self-esteem


It was evident that the self esteem scores was higher (p<0.001) following the SMET intervention.

The significant changes in Self-esteem scores were reflected in Table-2.


Table-2: The Pre & Post scores of positive & negative effect, self reported self esteem is given in the form of Mean±SD.


n=70

Positive affect
Negative affect Difference of (Positive-Negative) affect Self-esteem


PRE 37.4±6.35
14.13±6.09 23.27±9.10


21.79±4.05


POST 40.31±5.97***
12.54±4.26** 27.22±8.21


23.3±4.52***

Percentage changes
-7.78
11.25 -19.34


-6.93

P values

P<0.001
P=0.004 P<0.001


P<0.001

Legend: ***p< 0.001, **p<0.01, comparing Pre & Post scores of the above mentioned variables by using paired ‘t’-test.


Discussions

The present study found there were improvements in positive  affect, self-esteem score and

decrement negative affect scores after SMET training program.





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Our findings are supported by the previous scientific finding on the beneficial effects of yoga on

emotional effect measured using PANAS (Bilderbeck, Farias, Brazil, Jakobowitz, & Wikholm,

2013; Narasimhan, Nagendra, & Nagarathna, 2011) and self-esteem (Deshpande, Nagendra,

& Nagarathna, 2009). The current findings also substantiate the a few studies conducted in

targeted ONGC managers, where SMET has been shown positive improvements in EI (Adhia,

2010, Kumari, Nath, Nagendra, & Sharma, 2007), recent mental status symptoms somatisation,

anxiety, social dysfunction, and depression (Ganpat & Nagendra, 2011).

Mechanisms: The component of SMET consisted of cyclic meditation, lecture sessions, and

talks on Indian Psychology of Gita. The effect of Cyclic meditation immediately after a single

session  found  a  reduction  in  oxygen  consumption  (Sarang  &  Telles,  2006),  increase  high

frequency component of HRV (Patra & Telles, 2010); improve the cognitive domains measured

by memory (Subramanya & Telles, 2009), attention task (Sarang & Telles, 2007; Subramanya &

Telles, 2009), P300 auditory oddball task (Sarang & Telles, 2006). Further quality of sleep was

enhanced in subsequent night on day practice day of CM (Patra & Telles, 2009). This suggests

that CM which is a key practice of SMET practice could bring about change not only at the level

of gross level but also at the tissue level.

Major Findings and Conclusions: SMET program had enhanced the psychological well-being

of ONGC participants in a residential setup where in they were not exposed to any work related

stress. SMET appears to be a very powerful tool, with lesser investments (time, money, and

resources) resulting in high impact outcomes of positive affect, lower negative affect, higher

self-esteem. This study was first of its kind where in the strong psychological tools like PANAS,

self-esteem was studied in a considerably good sample size.





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Applications of the study: This study has a wide range of applied value. SMET practice can be

introduced in an industrial setup to ensure better health and to remain unfected with stress at the

workplace.

Suggestions for future: In the future a large sample size with a follow up and assessment of

objective variables needs to be studied to explore the effectiveness of SMET in the industrial set

up where the managers really face the challenge of work and targets.

In summary five days SMET program had a positive influence on positive affect scores, reducing

negative affect scores and enhancing self-esteem scores of ONGC participants.






































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