Innovative Journal of Business and Management 4: 3 May – June (2015) 45 – 51. Contents lists available at www.innovativejournal.in INNOVATIVE JOURNAL OF BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT Journal homepage: http://www.innovativejournal.in/ijbm/index.php/ijbm EFFECT OF YOGA ON CONSCIENTIOUSNESS AND PERFORMANCE OF EMPLOYEES: AN ACTION RESEARCH STUDY Chokkalingam, Sony Kumari, K.B.Akhilesh, H.R.Nagendra S. Vyasa University, Bangalore, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India ARTICLE INFO Corresponding Author: Dr.Sony Kumari, Associate Professor,SVyasa University,#19, ‘Eknath Bhavan’, Gavipuram Circle, Kempe Gowda Nagar,, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560019 Email: sonykarmanidhi@gmail.com Key Words Personality and performance of employee, Integrated Yoga, Conscientiousness DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.15520/ijb m.vol4.iss3.22.pp45-51 ABSTRACT Development of performance of employee is an important concern for employee, employer and society at large. In this study an important personality trait viz., conscientiousness, it’s importance in the performance of employee and impact of practice of integrated yoga on personality and performance of employee are studied. 51 employees are given Integrated Yoga intervention and another 51 employees, who comprise control group are not given any intervention for 4 months. Using the Big Five Personality Questionnaire, data about Conscientiousness is collected from Yoga intervention group and control group before the study, in the middle of the study and at the end of the study. The data is analysed using SPSS and significant increase (p value <0.001) in conscientiousness among subjects in Yoga intervention group is found and not in Control group. So it is concluded that practice of Integrated Yoga improves the Conscientiousness and thus performance of employee. ©2015, IJBM, All Right Reserved INTRODUCTION Improving the performance of employee is an important issue for employee, employer and society at large. The Big Five Personality Model identifies five personality dimensions namely Conscientiousness, Openness to experience, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism which influence the performance of employee(Stephen Robbins et al,2011) . Among these, Conscientiousness and it’s improvement through practice of Integrated Yoga is discussed in this article. In the first part different facets of conscientiousness, it’s importance in job performance and different methods in vogue to improve the conscientiousness are discussed. In second part, different aspects of Integrated Yoga are discussed. The third part discusses the details of empirical study. The fourth part discusses the results of the study, limitations and suggestions. Conscientiousness and Job Performance: According to John O.P. and Srivatsava S(1999) facets (and correlated trait adjectives) of Conscientiousness are Competence(efficient), Order(organized), dutifulness( not careless),achievement striving(thorough),self discipline( not lazy),deliberation (not impulsive). The pioneering studies on the relationship between personality and job performance are done by Barrick and Mount. They studied the importance of Emotional Stability on the following aspects of employee performance viz., Citizenship and non counterproductive work behavior, Low turnover and absenteeism, Leadership and entrepreneurship, Expatriate success, Earnings, safety, Compliance, Healthy behaviors and longevity, Motivation, Job satisfaction, commitment, Life satisfaction(Edwin A.Locke,2009) Most of the studies of Barrick and Mount show that conscientiousness is the most important trait among all the five traits, which contribute to the performance of employee. Eight meta-analyses reported that conscientiousness and emotional stability predicted overall job performance with an average true score validity of .24 and .15, respectively. Conscientiousness and emotional stability have been found to consistently (negatively) predict an individual’s propensity to withdraw from the job. Barrick and Mount showed that voluntary turnover was predicted by both personality traits . Mount and Barrick (1995) found that conscientiousness correlates highly with amount of effort exerted. This strong relationship indicates that conscientiousness affects task performance through increased time on task, which in turn affects performance through its effect on other mediating variables. Mount and Barrick (1995) found that conscientiousness is strongly correlated with quality . Another study by Barrick, Mount, and Strauss (1993) showed that highly conscientious sales representatives are more likely to set goals autonomously and to be more committed to their goal, which, in turn, led to higher performance . A study of the personality scores of 313 CEO candidates in private companies(of whom 225 were hired, and their companies’ performance later correlated with 45 Soni et. al/ Effect of Yoga on Conscientiousness and Performance of Employees: An Action Research Study their personality scores) found conscientiousness was more important than other traits . Employers are very interested in eliminating counterproductive or antisocial behavior at work. Research demonstrates integrity tests are valid predictors of these behaviors (Ones, Viswesvaran & Schmidt, 1993), and also predict supervisory ratings of performance . In addition, they identified more than 100 studies reporting correlations between integrity tests and temperament measures. It found that integrity tests were related primarily to conscientiousness and emotional stability (along with agreeableness). Ones and Viswesvaran (1996) found that emotional stability emerged as the strongest personality based predictor of customer service orientation followed by conscientiousness. Thus, a major component of what is measured by integrity tests and customer service tests is conscientiousness and emotional stability. Hurtz and Donovan ( 2000 ) found that conscientiousness and emotional stability influence citizenship behaviors at work through their relationship to job dedication and interpersonal facilitation. Berry et al. (2007) clarified how emotional stability and conscientiousness predict counterproductive behavior. They stated that the more conscientious and emotionally stable a firm’s employees are, the less likely they are to engage in counterproductive behaviors at work. Frei and McDaniel (1998) reported that customer service measures were strongly related to conscientiousness and emotional stability , along with agreeableness. Selecting employees on conscientiousness and emotional stability is also important from the viewpoint of conforming to laws on anti discrimination. In a meta-analysis reported by Hough (1995), when selection of employees are made based on personality tests differences in selections between different races were very small . Similar non-significant differences have also been found for gender. Feingold (1994) found only small gender differences were found on measures of conscientiousness and emotional stability. Thus, from a legal perspective, selecting on conscientiousness and emotional stability (and other personality dimensions) is advantageous. Conscientiousness and emotional stability are positively related to job satisfaction. Judge et al (1999) found that conscientiousness and emotional stability assessed at an early age (12-14) were strong predictors of overall job satisfaction in late adulthood and job satisfaction motives employees to perform well in their jobs Conscientiousness plays a major role in both job and life satisfaction because conscientious behavior is instrumental in attaining outcomes such as career success that achievement-oriented people value (McCrae & Costa, 1991). Schmutte and Ryff (1997) concluded that those high in conscientiousness are more satisfied because they achieve a heightened sense of control and competence through their diligent and responsible behavior. Conscientious people develop greater job knowledge and produce more and better quality output, they develop more positive beliefs about their capabilities to accomplish particular tasks. Chen et al (1999) have shown that employees with high scores of conscientiousness have scores of self efficacy and people with high self efficacy perform well in their tasks. During the 1980’s, the U.S. Army conducted the Selection and Classification Project (Project A). The findings from this large-scale project were that intelligence tests provided the best prediction of job-specific and general task proficiency (core technical proficiency and general soldiering proficiency), whereas the personality composites, particularly those traits measuring conscientiousness and emotional stability, were the best predictors of giving extra effort and leadership, exhibiting personal discipline , and physical fitness and military bearing(McHenry et al, 1990). In a cross sectional survey with a study population of 159 employees of a pharmaceutical company showed that among others Conscientiousness is directly related to task performance(S.Rothman and E.P.Coetzer). The highest validity (PV=0.20) was found for Conscientiousness among the all the Big Five. For all four of the occupational categories under the study, conscientiousness exhibited the highest estimated true validity ranging from 0.15 to 0.26 across occupations. Changeability of Conscientiousness As has been discussed, Conscientiousness is a personality dimension. Whether personality is changeable is an issue of long debate. According to Allport, one of the pioneers in research on personality, personalities are stable dispositions of an individual . But, Mischel (1968) suggests that human behaviour is largely dependent on situations . The study of both of the above theories is called Interactionism. Rather than saying that situations determine behaviour (which ignores differences in individual reactions) or that personality determines behavior(which is misleading because of low cross situational consistency of behavior) interactionism expresses it differently. This Interactionist approach allows us to assume that the person is free because his personality is not genetically determined and that some of his personality traits may vary because of his own decisions(Jose Hernandez and Ricardo Mateo 2012). Brent W.Roberts et al(2012) stated that it is only a common misperception that personality traits are highly heritable. They have provided an alternative vision of personality traits that expands on the structure, the developmental, as well as the contextual nature of traits (Roberts, 2009; Roberts & Jackson, 2008). Although conscientiousness is heritable, the best estimate of the heritability of conscientiousness-related traits is between 40% and 50% (Krueger & Johnson, 2008) . Thus, like almost all constructs studied in psychology, the majority of variance in conscientiousness is attributable to environmental influences . Empirical evidence has repeatedly shown that conscientiousness, and the related constructs that fall within the conscientiousness spectrum, such as impulse control, are both changeable and continue to develop and change well into adulthood (Roberts et al, 2006). Though changeability should not be taken as meaning inconsistency, it is clear that personality traits retain robust rank-order consistency over time while showing slow, incremental changes from year to year (Roberts & Mroczek, 2008). From the above discussion it is clear that environment can act as the facilitator for personality development . Conscientiousness can be improved, among other things, through employee empowerment, training, job enrichment and trust (Roberts,B.W.,& Mroczek,D, 2008). To the best of the knowledge of the authors, no study has been made so far to assess if practice of yoga can enhance conscientiousness. In this article, we want to study if 46 Soni et. al/ Effect of Yoga on Conscientiousness and Performance of Employees: An Action Research Study Integral Yoga can facilitate a change in personality of the employees to develop conscientiousness in them. Integrated Yoga as the facilitator to improve conscientiousness Yoga is one of the six schools of Indian philosophy and it is practiced by many people from ancient times (Feuerstein, 1998) An analysis of the term Yoga, as given by different scriptures and gurus in different contexts is as follows. “Yujyate anena iti yogah” –Yoga is that which joins.It implies that Yoga elevates a narrow minded person who is constricted in false ego(Ahamkara) to higher levels of consciousness where he identifies himself with his real ego(Aham) or the universe. Patanjali, an ancient Yoga sage, defines Yoga as Yogah Cittavritti Nirodhah –Yoga is a technique used to still the fluctuations of the mind to reach the central reality of the true self (Iyengar, 1966) . Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras outline a skillful way of conducting life that fosters moderation and harmony (Becker, 2000). According to Yoga Vashishta(3.9.32) Manah Prasamanopayah Yoga ityabhidhiyate- Yoga is a skillful and subtle process to calm down the mind The most important definition relevant for the present study is given by Bhagavadgita as “Yogah Karmasu Koushalam”(Bhagavagita chapetr 2, shloka 50). There is no synonym in English language for the word ‘Karma’ as used in the context of Bhagavadgita. However taking the spirit of Bhagavadgita to understand the word Karma and Koushalam the above definition can be interpreted as follows (Mahadevan,2014) Yoga is working with mastery over knowledge of means and goals of work,Yoga is dexterity and skill in action, Yoga is working with proper order and industry, Yoga is working with focus on present activity rather than future results which depend many external factors,Yoga is to work in a sustainable way of life and social order(Dharma),Yoga is work without stress,Yoga is working your way to contentment, Yoga is to work with excellence in execution. Yoga is work the knowledge and abilities of - how to react to real time events, of change management, there is no state of ‘no work’, work is the only means for evolution of one self, engaging in work is always superior to no work, other than the work itself, we have no locus of control on other aspects of work,work without attachment (what is in it for me) is bound to be always superior & fulfilling According to Swamy Vivekananda each soul is potentially divine. According to him every one can become divine by psychic control(Raja Yoga), devotion(Bhakti Yoga),Knowledge of self (Jnana Yoga),Selfless action(Karma Yoga). It is quite clear from the above statement that he brushed aside the notion that personality cannot be changed. According to him it is possible to bring perfection in a person. He suggests four ways for it viz., by Work(Karma Yoga), by Worship(Bhakti Yoga), by Philosophy (Jnana Yoga), by Psychic control (Raja Yoga).Yoga practice which aim at the integral development of the personality by a fine combination of the above four methods of yoga viz., Karma Yoga, Bhakthi Yoga, Jnana Yoga and Raja Yoga is called as Integrated Yoga. Based on the above principles Swamy Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthan(S-Vyasa)University, Bengaluru, India developed a Holistic and Integrated Yoga Module. It encompasses the philosophy of Raja yoga(Asanas,pranayama,dhyana etc), Karma Yoga(path of detached actions),Jnana Yoga(knowledge of self),Bhakthi Yoga(trust in the supreme order). Practicing this knowledge may bring out complete transformation of one’s personality on physical, mental, emotional and spiritual levels which, among other things, strengthen his performance levels. In modern times, some research has been done on application of Yoga for personality development which are summarised below: Bhole (1977), in his conceptual paper, explained different aspects of Yoga. The Yoga way of life encompasses the philosophy of Karma Yoga (path of detached action), Jnana Yoga (knowledge of self), Bhakti Yoga (trust in the supreme order) and Raja Yoga (asana, pranayama, meditation, etc.). Practising this knowledge may bring about a complete transformation of one’s personality, on physical, a mental, emotional, and spiritual level which strengthens his stress-coping skills. Pandey and Naidu (1986) studied the effort and outcome orientations as moderators of the stress-strain relationship. They noted that the concept of ‘detachment’ is highly valued in Indian culture. The doctrine of detached action calls upon the individual to serve the society by scrupulous performance of one’s duties with utmost skill but without desiring the fruits of actions so performed. It is one of the ways in which an altered super-conscious state or self-realization can be attained. Effort orientation, according to this doctrine, is the ‘individual’s focus on task at hand’ and ‘advice of not to focus on or to be concerned about the outcomes of that activity.’ Further, the doctrine emphasizes that an effort should be made to maintain emotional stability regardless of the outcome of the effort, be it success or failure. They theorized that the effort and outcome orientations may moderate the stress-strain relationship for three reasons. First, the individual practicing the ideal of detached action would concentrate on most of the activities in which he engages which, in turn, would lead to the attainment of a higher degree of skills. Second, the practice of being mentally less concerned about the outcomes may help in conserving the physical and psychic energies and hence, the subject would be less affected by mental distracters such as anxiety and fear of failure (which lead to energy dissipation). Third, it is likely that the person practising these ideals cognizes the stressful events in relatively more positive terms. In the light of these reasons, the authors hypothesized that in the case of subjects with a high degree of effort orientation compared to those with a high outcome orientation: (a) the correlation between stress and strain events would be smaller; and (c) the means of different strain scores would be smaller. Misra (1989) found that effort orientation rather than concerns for outcome leads to greater intrinsic satisfaction . Chakraborty (1987, 1993) provides experimental evidence that practising Yoga, can enable workers and managers to control their turbulent mind and develop their self to include others around them and work without false ego. Palsane et al (1993) have observed that modern Western psychological literature focusing on ideas related to the strength of motives and frustration and their behavioural consequences, the frustration-aggression hypothesis, ego involvement, mind-body interactions (psychosomatics), and locus of control have their parallels in the ancient Indian thought. 47 Soni et. al/ Effect of Yoga on Conscientiousness and Performance of Employees: An Action Research Study According to Srinivas (1994), a series of practicing Integrated Yoga (Intervention Group) and the techniques collectively known under the general label, remaining 51 of them not practicing Integrated ‘Yoga,’ way of management of human resources is better Yoga(Control group).The subjects for intervention group than western methods. He further states that Yoga is a well are taken from people who come voluntarily to learn and formulated approach to planned change.” practice Integrated Yoga in Andhra Pradesh Yogadhyayana Sripriya Krishnan(2006) in an empirical study Parishad, a state government establishment in Hyderabad. proved that yoga can develop personality and academic Subjects for control group were taken from employees in excellence among students. R.Rangan et al(2010) made a different organizations in Hyderabad, who volunteered to study on the students’ planning ability, visual and verbal participate in the study. memory, sustained attention and proved that Yoga system Inclusion and Exclusion: Employees-men and women, of education improves the planning ability. These three with normal health as declared by the subject are included abilities which are important for students performance in the study. Those who have any previous experience of which also are required for employee performance are any Yoga program or presently following any type of Yoga similar to aspects of conscientiousness. program or taking any medication for psycho somatic Aditi Kejriwal and Venkat R.Krishnan (2004) made problems or self occupied people or retired people are a study on what the organizations can do for enhancing excluded from the study transformational leadership by using the Guna( Sanskrit Data collection: The data for the study was collected word for ‘personality’) framework and by reinforcing the before the study i.e., before giving intervention(pre study), Vedic worldview and made recommendations for: in the middle of the study i.e, two months after the Designing training programmes to develop Sattva and intervention(post1) and at the end of the study.ie., four reduce Tamas, Building team-orientation and self-sacrifice months of the study(post2). for directing energies towards super ordinate goals, Base The period of study is four months i.e from 1st organizational policies on a competency framework built October 2014 to 31st January 2015. around Sattva and a Vedic orientation. In order to prove or disprove the hypothesis, data In a study by Sony Kumari( 2008) it is proved that was collected for both the groups before the study i.e, on practice of yoga improves Emotional Intelligence and October 1st 2014, in the middle of the study i.,e on Emotional Competence. Sudhir Deshpande (2009) in a December 1st 2014, at the end of the study i.e., on 31st randamised control trail of the effect of yoga on January 2015 personalities of 226 people stated that practice of yoga Intervention: The subjects in the intervention develops Sattva Guna(balanced personality) . According to group practiced Integrated Yoga for 4 months( 100 days, Tikheshyam Ganpath et al(2012) practice of Yoga can after deducting holidays, absents etc) for 1.5 hours a day. improve Emotional Quotient in employees and can enable The daily program contains Surya them to excel in execution . Namaskaras(Sun salutations), Asanas (Body Hasmukh Adhia(2009) conducted an important study postures),Pranayama(Breath regulation exercises), Self relating to Improving Organisational Performance by Awareness Meditation and 10 minutes lecture on practice of Integrated Yoga by employees . This study deals application of traditional Indian knowledge to modern with impact of adoption of yoga way of life on the work and personal lives. organizational factors responsible for success of the Every month a lecture viz., Jnana yoga class for 1 organization. It is established in the study that by practice hour on application of traditional Indian knowledge is of Integrated Yoga Module , Emotional Intelligence can be conducted by the first author on the following topics, either enhanced and Job Burnout can be reduced. Emotional thru oral lectures or audio visual presentations.1) Yogah Intelligence is positively correlated with Job Satisfaction, Karmasu Koushalam 2) Six Dimensions of Karma Yoga 3) Goal Orientation, Affective Organisational Commitment and Axioms of meaningful work 4) Lord Krishna as modern Organisational Citizenship Behaviour. Thus the study manager concluded that practice of Integrated Yoga can bring better The subjects in the control group were not given any organizational climate which can bring organizational intervention. success. Assessments: Details of study design: The Big Five Inventory developed by Oliver P.John Aim: The aim of the study is to see if conscientiousness is and Sanjaya Srivastava was used to assess the changes in improved by practice of Integrated Yoga conscientiousness . It is a five point likert scale , contains 44 Subjects: The subjects for the study were 102 employees questions , and 9 of them are related to Conscientiousness. (after considering drop outs the study), 51 of them It has a reliability of .82 and validity of .92 Figure 1: A schematic representation of the study plan 48 Soni et. al/ Effect of Yoga on Conscientiousness and Performance of Employees: An Action Research Study Table 1: Age and job experience of subjects Table 2: Sector wise distribution of subjects Age of Experience Age of Experience Sectors Intervention Control Intervention Of Control Of Control group group group intervention group group IT and related 21 20 group Finance and 14 13 Mean 34.784 10.627 32.21 7.2157 related std 6.6677 6.1722 4.7744 4.265 Others 16 18 dev Table 1 represents age and experience of subjects. shows that the background of subjects in terms of age and The average age of subjects in intervention group is 34.7 experience in control group and intervention group is years with standard deviation of 6.6 where as the average similar. age of subjects in control group is 32.21 with standard Table 2 represents the industries in which the deviation of 4.77. The average experience of subjects in subjects are employed. For the sake of study, the industries intervention group is 10.6 years with standard deviation of are divided as 1) Information Technology and related 6.17 where as the average experience of subjects in control services like BPO, electronics 2) Finance and related group is 7.21 years with standard deviation of 4.2 years. services include banking, insurance, mutual funds, The average experience of subjects of intervention group is accounting services 3) those who do not fall under the about 3.4 years more than that of control group. This is in above two are categorized as ‘others’. The table shows the line with the average age of subjects, where average age of similarity in distribution of the subjects in both control subjects in intervention group is more by 2.5 years. Table 1 group and intervention group. Table 3: Mean Change in scores of Conscientiousness in Intervention group during the study Pre Pre Post1 Post1 Post2 (Yoga group) (control group) (yoga group) (control group) (yoga group) Mean 28.549 28.176 31.2549 28.705 33.65 SD 3.8367 4.2056 3.931246 4.0843 4.46 Change 9.6 % 1.88% 18 % Post 2 (control group) 28.96 4.9 2.78% Table 3 represents the average changes in the conscientiousness among the subjects in intervention group and control group. Since the total number of items in conscientious are nine and scales are five, the maximum score is 45. The pre study i.e., base line data shows that score of conscientiousness is 28.54 with standard deviation of 3.8 in subjects of intervention group whereas the same for control group is 28.17 and 4.2 respectively which show that the subjects have similar traits before the study. The post 1 study i.e., data in the middle of the study shows that there is 9.6% increase in conscientiousness in intervention group ,but only 1.88% increase in conscientiousness in control group. Similarly post 2 study i.e., data at the end of the study compared to beginning of study shows there is 18% increase in conscientiousness where as it is only 2.78% in control group. These clearly indicate the increase of conscientiousness by 6.5 times more from beginning of study to the end of the study, in intervention group than in control group. Since the design of the study requires repetitive studies of the same subjects, Repetitive Measures ANOVA i.e. RMANOVA test was used to analyse the data which are collected before the study(pre study), in the middle of the study(post1 study) and at the end of the study(post2 study) both for intervention group and control group. The results of the shown in the table 4 Table 4: Change in Conscientiousness- between groups Time factor Group Significance (p value) Pre Y1 vs c1 .056 Post 1 Y2 vs c2 .000** Post 2 Y3 vs c3 .000** Table 5 shows that the difference in conscientiousness among subjects in intervention group and control group before the study i.e, baseline data is not significant (p>.05). It shows that the score of conscientiousness is relatively same in the subjects of both groups before study. Post 1 data i.e data in the middle of the study show that there is significant increase in the conscientiousness in intervention group compared to control group (p < .001).Post 2 study i.,e data at the end of the study shows that there is significant increase in the conscientiousness in intervention group compared to control group (p < .001). Table 5: Changes in Conscientiousness- Within group Group Time factor Significance (p value) Yoga Pre vs post 1 .000** Pre vs post 2 .000** Post 1 vs post 2 .000** Control Pre vs post 1 .275 Pre vs post 2 .327 Post 1 vs post 2 1.000 Table 5 shows changes in Conscientiousness with in Intervention group and control group during the study. It shows a continuous increase in conscientiousness from beginning to middle(p<.001), middle to end(p<.001) and beginning to end (p<.001) in subjects of intervention group . There is no significant increase in conscientiousness from beginning to middle(p>0.05), middle to end(p>.05) and beginning to end (p>.05) in subjects of control group Notes: • ** indicates that the values are significant • Pre,post1,post2 means the Study before intervention (baseline data), study in the middle of intervention, study at the end of intervention respectively • Y1,Y2,Y3 means yoga group(intervention group) at the time of before study, middle of study, after study • C1,C2,C3 means control group at the time of before study, middle of study, after study Limitations of the study and recommendations: 1. The subjects are from different organizations and sectors. The changes in environment of their respective organizations and sectors during the study period may affect their responses. For further research, It is 49 Soni et. al/ Effect of Yoga on Conscientiousness and Performance of Employees: An Action Research Study recommended to have subjects from the same organization. 2. The control group is not given any intervention, which may affect their interest to give response to the questionnaires and affect its accuracy. Considering the ethical issues it is difficult for an outsider to insist on interest of subjects of control group while giving responses. For further research, it is recommended to give some non yoga intervention to control group. 3. It is recommended for further research that if the intervention for both groups is given within the organization, the same physical and office environment for all subjects in both groups can ensure better accuracy, unbiased responses. CONCLUSIONS The following conclusions can be drawn from the study 1. Personality of employee especially consciousness has an impact on the performance of employee 2. Personality is changeable by suitable environment and training 3. Practice of Integrated Yoga brings a positive transformation in the personality traits especially Conscientiousness 4. 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