R E S E A R C H includes research articles that focus on the analysis and resolution of managerial and academic issues based on analytical and empirical or case research Executive Summary KEY WORDS Job Burnout Stress Management Yoga Way of Life Transcendental Meditation Impact of Adoption of Yoga Way of Life on the Reduction of Job Burnout of Managers Hasmukh Adhia, H R Nagendra and B Mahadevan Burnout is a prolonged response to chronic emotional and interpersonal stressors on the job, and is defined by the three dimensions of exhaustion, cynicism, and inef-ficacy. Job burn-out is a debilitating psychological condition, which has serious re-percussions for an individual’s personal health as also on the organizational effectiveness. The past 25 years of research has established the complexity of the construct, and has placed the individual stress experience within a larger organiza-tional context of people’s relation to their work. As a holistic science concerned with all aspects of human functioning, yogic science provides a unifying framework by which stress can be understood and eliminated. Yoga involves a systematic method by which we can begin to expand our awareness of the processes which lead to stress and thus gain control over them. Yoga way of life has direct relevance to address the issue of stress and burnout. While several studies in the past have acknowledged this aspect and discussed vari-ous ways by which Yoga can address this aspect, till date very little effort has gone into empirically assessing the impact of Yoga way of life. The main contribution of this paper is to fill this gap. This study hypothesizes that managers who learn and adopt the Yoga way of life will be able to reduce their job burnout better than the others who engage in other things to improve their physical and mental progress. An experiment was conducted to collect data and test the hypothesis in a manufac-turing unit. The results show that adoption of the Yoga way of life can significantly reduce the job burnout of managers. The Yoga way of life is an integrated approach to the chang-ing physical, mental, vital and emotional personality of an individual. It is aimed at making managers more evolved individuals with better understanding of their job situation in the overall context of life. Through a rigorous literature review and un-derstanding of the science of Yoga as given in our scriptures, the paper also provides an explanation of the mechanism of how this happens. Among many suggested coping skills for stress, yoga happens to be fitting in the best, mainly because of its ability to change positively the individual responses to stress stimuli. However, in order to get benefit of Yoga in its entirety, one has to adopt Yoga as a technique of life management. The authors motivate the HR managers in organizations to explore ways of implementing the Yoga way of life as it promises to address the issue of stress at a fundamental level. VIKALPA • VOLUME 35 • NO 2 • APRIL - JUNE 2010 21 urnout can be defined as the end result of stress experienced but not properly coped with, result-ing in symptoms of exhaustion, irritation, inef- fectiveness, discounting of self and others, and problems of health (hypertension, ulcers, and heart problems). Per-haps the best-known fictional example of job burnout comes from the novel, A Burnt Out Case (Greene, 1961), in which a spiritually tormented and disillusioned ar-chitect quits his job and withdraws into the African jun-gle. Other literature, both fiction and nonfiction, has described similar phenomena, including extreme fatigue and loss of idealism and passion for one’s job. In mod-ern corporations, institutions working not-for-profit, and government organizations, one of the important con-cerns is the issue of burnout that employees experience at their workplace. This has serious consequences in-cluding reduced productivity at workplace, bad health, and mental stress for the employee. If not addressed ef-fectively, this can threaten to manifest as a social prob-lem at a later time. B Researchers have recognized the importance of address-ing the issue of stress and burnout. The factors that cause stress and burnout have been identified. Recent research has also identified the negative impact that burnout has on both the employees and organizations. Louise (2008) observed that the lifetime prevalence of an emotional disorder is more than 50 per cent, often due to chronic, untreated stress reactions. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) declared stress as a haz-ard of the workplace. Stress costs American industry more than $300 billion annually. In the physiology and management literature, job stress is usually defined as a characteristic of the individual, i.e., the psycho-physi-ological changes experienced as a consequence of job-related demands on the individual. In this context, stressors are environmental or internal demands lead-ing to adaptive (or maladaptive) responses on the part of the individual. Stress management refers to the adap-tive behaviour of changing any aspect of the environ-ment or person in such a way as to decrease stress response (sometimes referred to as “strain”) and pro-mote organizational and/or individual health. The Yoga way of life has direct relevance to address the issue of stress and burnout. While several studies in the past have acknowledged this aspect and discussed vari-ous ways by which Yoga can address this aspect, till date very little effort has gone into empirically assessing the impact of the Yoga way of life. The main contribution of this paper is to fill this gap. Using a controlled scientific experimentation of employees in a manufacturing unit, we provide an empirical assessment of the impact of the Yoga way of life on stress and burnout. Taking cue from this, we pose the question, “Can adop-tion of a complete Yoga way of life reduce significantly the job burnout experienced by most executives? If so, can we empirically observe this phenomenon and pro-vide relevant literature support to explain this? To the best of our knowledge, there is no empirical research available so far to answer these questions. We study these issues in this paper using an empirical study con-ducted in a manufacturing unit involving 84 executives. We show that the adoption of the Yoga way of life can reduce the stress and strain of managers and that, in turn, can reduce their job burnout comprising of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and diminished personal accomplishment. Through a rigorous literature review and understanding of the science of Yoga as given in our scriptures, we also provide an explanation of the mecha-nism of how this happens. We also motivate the HR managers in organizations to explore ways of imple-menting the Yoga way of life as it promises to address the issue of stress at a fundamental level. STRESS AND BURNOUT: CAUSES AND IMPACT Burnout can be defined as the end result of stress expe-rienced but not properly coped with, resulting in symp-toms of exhaustion, irritation, ineffectiveness, discount-ing of self and others, and problems of health (hyper-tension, ulcers, and heart problems). Maslach and Jackson (1981) conceptualized burnout as a syndrome consisting of three components. Emotional exhaustion refers to mental and physical tension and strain result-ing from job-related stressors. Depersonalization refers to distancing of oneself from others and viewing others impersonally. Diminished personal accomplishment is a feeling of negative self-evaluation. Exhaustion is the central quality of burnout and the most obvious mani-festation of this complex syndrome. When people de-scribe themselves or others as experiencing burnout, they are most often referring to the experience of exhaustion. Maslach (1982) reviewed literature on burnout and con-cluded that there is no single definition of burnout that is accepted as standard. However, despite the differ- 22 IMPACT OF ADOPTION OF YOGA WAY OF LIFE ON THE REDUCTION OF JOB BURNOUT OF MANAGERS ences, there are also similarities among various defini-tions of burnout. First of all, there is general agreement that burnout occurs at an individual level. Second, burn-out is an internal psychological experience involving feelings, attitudes, and motives and expectations. Third, there is also general agreement that burnout is a nega-tive experience for the individual, in that it concerns problems, distress, discomfort, dysfunction, and/or negative consequences. Several studies in the past concluded that burnout has negative effects on job performance. Burnout leads to lower productivity and effectiveness at work (Maslach, Schaufeli and Leiter, 2001). Consequently, it is associ-ated with decreased job satisfaction and a reduced com-mitment to the job or the organization. People who are experiencing burnout can have a negative impact on their colleagues, both by causing greater personal con-flict and by disrupting job tasks. Thus, burnout can be “contagious” and can perpetuate itself through infor-mal interactions on the job (Maslach, Schaufeli and Leiter 2001). Burnout can be defined as the end result of stress expe-rienced but not properly coped with. Stress in organiza-tions has been documented to produce wide-ranging psychological, physical, and behavioural ill-effects. The costs of stress are variously estimated at hundreds of billions of dollars annually, or 12 per cent of the US GNP (Siu, Lu and Cooper, 1999). The visible portion of these costs stems from compensation claims (Kottage, 1992), reduced productivity and increased absenteeism (Manuso, 1979), added health insurance costs (Mulcahy, 1991), and direct medical expenses for related diseases such as ulcers, high blood pressure, and heart attacks (Newman and Beehr, 1979). Louise (2008) observed that 43 per cent of all adults in the US suffer adverse health effects from stress. He further reported that 75-90 per cent of all the doctors’ office visits are for stress-related ailments and complaints. Stephen and Lesley (2002) opined that although the ‘of-ficial’ figures for the cost of stress vary widely, they have one common feature – they are all massive. They sug-gest that there is a huge cost to individuals and to or-ganizations. However, we believe that the cost is not just financial; there are mental, physical, and social costs as well. The evidence for stress-related ill-health is all around us. If we look at several of the modern organiza- VIKALPA • VOLUME 35 • NO 2 • APRIL - JUNE 2010 tions, it is likely that some of the workforce would re-port very low levels of satisfaction with both their jobs and the organization. Some others would report having suffered some major life event in the past three months and still others would report levels of mental ill health that are worse than those of psychiatric outpatients re-ceiving clinical treatment for anxiety and depression. A study of the literature reveals that several variables were tested for their moderating effects on stress. Peo-ple who display low levels of hardiness (involvement in daily activities, a sense of control over events, and openness to change) have higher burnout scores, par-ticularly on the exhaustion dimension. Burnout is higher among people who have an external locus of control (at-tributing events and achievements to powerful others or to chance) rather than an internal locus of control (at-tributions to one’s own ability and effort) (Maslach, Schaufeli and Leiter, 2001). Srivastava (1985) studied the moderating effect of the need for achievement on the relationship between role stress and job anxiety. Another study (Pestonjee and Singh, 1988) investigated the moderating effect on lo-cus of control on the stress and job satisfaction relation-ship in the case of 101 role incumbents of a private electricity supply company. Pestonjee and Singh (1988) also investigated the moderating effect to Type-A pat-tern of behavioural disposition on the relationship be-tween role stress and state-trait anger. The finding revealed that stress,Type-A behaviour, state and trait anger were correlated positively and most of the coeffi-cients of correlation (for example, 79 out of 88) were sta-tistically significant. (Pestonjee, 1999) Singh and Srivastava (1996) tried to examine the inde-pendent and moderating effect of Type-A behaviour pattern on the stress-health relationship. Type-A mana-gerial personnel scored significantly higher on role am-biguity, role conflict, and overall job stress in comparison to Type-B managers. Type-A managers also showed el-evated levels of systolic and diastolic blood pressure as compared to Type-B managers. Based on these studies, we conclude that several vari-ables have a moderating effect on stress. These include organizational climate, locus of control, Type-A behav-iour pattern, needs (need for achievement, need for self-actualization, and need for personal growth), mental 23 health, job satisfaction, hierarchical level, coping strate-gies, group-oriented attitude, participation in opinion-seeking, cognitive failure, and effort and outcome orientations. YOGA WAY OF LIFE AND ITS RELEVANCE TO STRESS MANAGEMENT Yoga is one of the six foundations of Indian philosophy and has been used for millennia to study, explain, and experience the complexities of the mind and human ex-istence (Feuerstein, 1998). Patanjali, an ancient Yoga sage, defines Yoga as 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 har-mony (Becker, 2000). These guidelines, which include ethical and moral standards of living in addition to postural and breathing exercises, are primarily used to foster spiritual growth and evolve one’s consciousness. Ashtanga Yoga encompasses cognitive learning, moral conduct, physiological practices, and psychological therapy. The first two steps of Yama and Niyama seek and shape external behaviour and thought patterns and thus minimize disturbances in the mind and the body. On the behavioural side, abstention is sought from vio-lence, falsehood, dishonesty, sexual excess, and acquisi-tive tendencies. On the cognitive moral side, the ideals prescribed are: purity, contentment, austerity, self study and forbearance. The stages of Asana and Pranayama are meant for disciplining the body and regulating subtle energy flows. In the fifth stage of Prayahara, secondary input is regulated so that the mind is not distracted. The stages of Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi are for uplifting one’s spiritual self and for heightening consciousness. According to Srinivas (1994), a series of techniques col-lectively known under the general label, ‘Yoga,’ present a rich source for generating indigenous organizational development techniques that may perhaps find better acceptance than imported intervention designs from the West. “Originally developed for personal spiritual growth, Yoga offers a well formulated approach to planned change.” (Srinivas, 1994). As a holistic science concerned with all aspects of hu-man functioning, the science of Yoga provides a unify-ing framework by which stress can be understood and eliminated. According to Yoga, we are unconscious of those mental/emotional/perceptual processes which habitually create stress. Yoga involves a systematic method by which we can begin to expand our aware-ness of these processes and thus begin to gain control over them. So, in a very practical sense, Yoga gives us the tools and techniques by which we can expand our conscious awareness into the unconscious parts of the mind in order to become aware of the patterns and hab-its which lead to stress. Yoga is by far the most impor-tant technique used by the Indians to cope with the problem of stress and burnout. In any stress disorder, the para-sympathetic auto-nerv-ous mechanisms fail to function adequately to minimize the impact of stressful stimuli. Among several relaxa-tion practices, Yoga has the potentiality to influence the auto-nervous mechanisms in various ways. The science of Yoga is based on the principle of stimulating one’s body and mind and then relaxing it turn by turn. This restores the functioning of sympathetic and para sym-pathetic nervous systems and so stress does not get built up. Bhole (1977), in his conceptual paper, explained differ-ent 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, medi-tation, etc.). Practising this knowledge may bring about a complete transformation of one’s personality, on physi-cal, mental, emotional, and spiritual levels which strengthens his stress-coping skills. According to Bhole (1977), hatha-yoga practices like asanas (i.e., posture), pranayama (i.e., breathing practices intended to influence vital forces), kriyas (i.e., cleaning process), mudras (i.e., certain internal attitudes) and bandhas (i.e., neuro-mus-cular locks) are mostly taught as physical practices. While various meditation techniques work at the men-tal level, all these practices are intended to develop a certain type of awareness within oneself. This in turn is expected to bring about a change in the emotional and visceral functions and through them, a change in the intellectual and somatic functions of the individual. 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), 24 IMPACT OF ADOPTION OF YOGA WAY OF LIFE ON THE REDUCTION OF JOB BURNOUT OF MANAGERS and locus of control have their parallels in the ancient Indian thought. Misra (1989) found that effort orientation rather than concerns for outcome leads to greater intrinsic satisfac-tion. Chakraborty (1987, 1993) provides experimental evidence that practising Yoga, meditating, controlling breathing and stilling the turbulent mind can enable workers and managers to purify their chitta and make it spiritual, expand their self to include others around them, and help them grow and transform themselves without expecting anything in return. According to Fersling (1997), although there is a lack of controlled studies, Yoga is regarded as a promising method for the treatment of stress-related problems. Several studies have shown Yoga to be promising for physiological (Murugesan, Govindarajulu, and Bera, 2000) and psy-chological outcome measures (Malathi, et al, 2000). Studies such as those conducted by Singh and Udupa (1977), Datey (1977), Sachdeva (1994), Vasudevan (1994), Venkatesh (1994), and Rao (1995) throw light on the positive effects of yogic practices on experienced stress. Udupa, Singh and Dwivedi (1977), in their study on two groups of volunteers who practised vipasana meditation for 10 days, had noted a significant increase in the levels of acetylcholine, cholinesterase, catecholamine, and histamines activities in the blood. On the other hand, there appeared to be a reduction in the level of plasma cortisol, urinary corticoids, and urinary nitrogen. These findings suggest that volunteers were neuro-physiologi-cally more active following yogic meditation and yet, were physically and metabolically stable. In a study done by Granath, et al (2006), a stress man-agement programme based on cognitive behavioural therapy principles was compared with a Kundalini Yoga programme. Psychological (self-rated stress and stress behaviour, anger, exhaustion, quality of life) and physio-logical (blood pressure, heart rate, urinary catecho-lamine, salivary cortisol) measurements obtained before and after treatment showed significant improvements on most of the variables in both groups as well as me-dium-to-high effect sizes. However, no significant dif-ference was found between the two programmes. The results indicate that both cognitive behaviour therapy and Yoga are promising stress management techniques. In a study done at Vivekanand YogaAnusandhan Samsthan, Bangalore, Telles et al (2004) found that Yoga training VIKALPA • VOLUME 35 • NO 2 • APRIL - JUNE 2010 can help people to reduce their heart rate, which has possible therapeutic applications. In another study done at the same place, Patil and Telles (2006) found Cyclic Meditation Technique, developed by Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhan Samsthan, Bangalore, to be more effective in achieving voluntary heart rate variability as compared with another yogic technique of Supine Rest (Savasan). An experiment on stress reduction using the Transcen-dental Meditation (TM) technique and Progressive Mus-cle Relaxation (PMR) was conducted at a South African firm with 80 employees (Broome et al, 2005). Six weeks of TM practice produced greater reductions in psycho-logical stress than six weeks of PMR (p<0.03). A review of studies conducted on Transcendental Meditation (TM) by Orme-Johnson, Zimmerman and Hawkins, 1997) through over 500 experimental studies in 200 Universi-ties from 33 countries revealed that TM helps expand consciousness, decrease oxygen intake and stress level, increase basal skin resistance and coherence in EEG, and virtually suspends breathing up to one minute. Tran-scendental Meditation is a skill of effortlessly minimiz-ing mental activity so that the body settles into a state of rest deeper than deep sleep while the mind becomes clear and alert. They showed that meditators displayed a greater physiological equilibrium than non-meditators. They also showed that meditators maintained this equi-librium under stress more effectively than non-medita-tors. Sahasi, Mohan and Kacker (1989) conducted a study to measure the effectiveness of yogic teachings in the man-agement of anxiety. A group of 91 patients suffering from anxiety neurosis were taken up for treatment. Patients were randomly assigned to Yoga therapy (Group I) or drug therapy (Group II), subject to their willingness to participate in the yogic practices. There were 38 patients in the former group while 53 patients were administered drug therapy. Patients were assessed clinically and ad-ministered psychological tests prior to the commence-ment of the treatment schedule and also after its completion. The anxiety level in Group I decreased, the Locus of Control Scale revealed increased attention/con-centration though it was not statistically significant. In the drug therapy group, pre- and post-treatment scores were not statistically significant on any test except the Locus of Control Scale. Sachdeva (1994) investigated the effect of 12 weeks of 25 yogic life-style on hypertension in a sample of 26 hyper-tensive and 20 normotensive subjects. The yogic lifestyle comprised meditation, breathing techniques, correct postures, a low-fat, non-spicy vegetarian diet, and be-havioural modification. Findings revealed a significant reduction in systolic and diastolic BP, body weight, se-rum cholesterol and triglyceride levels following the implementation of the yogic lifestyle. Rao (1995), in his paper, has dealt with the scientific and psychological significance of Yoga as a means of attain-ing spiritual emancipation. According to this author, findings from empirical studies on Yoga revealed that long-term practitioners of Yoga had acquired a remark-able voluntary control over their autonomic processes, which helped them in coping with psychological stress. The author describes Yoga as a system of psychotherapy and calls upon clinicians to perfect Yoga therapy so as to make its application universal. Taking cue from the philosophical texts of India, Pandey and Naidu (1986) studied the effort and outcome orientations as moderators of the stress-strain relation-ship. 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 orienta-tion, according to this doctrine, is the ‘individual’s fo-cus on task at hand’ and ‘advice of not to focus on or to be concerned about the outcomes of that activity.’ Fur-ther, 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. The authors theorized that the effort and outcome orientations may moderate the stress-strain relationship for three reasons. First, the individual practising 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 psy-chic energies and hence, the subject would be less af-fected 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 orien-tation compared to those with a high outcome orienta-tion: (a) the correlation between stress and strain events would be smaller; and (c) the means of different strain scores would be smaller. A battery of three questionnaires was administered to 190 male and female students of Allahabad University in the above research done by Pande and Naidu (1986). An 18-item questionnaire was specially designed to measure outcome, Effort-I and Effort-II orientation in-dices; 33 items were selected from the scales developed by Agrawal (1985) and Tandon (1986) to measures stress. Caplan, Naidu and Tripathi (1984) Scale was used to measure strain. Pearson’s product moment coefficients of correlation and sub-grouping analysis were used to analyse the data. On the basis of these findings, the au-thors concluded that (a) concentration on the task at hand not only protected the subject from succumbing to his/ her stressful experiences but also improved his/her health even in the face of overt stress; (b) the absence of concern regarding outcomes during work activities mini-mized the strain and fostered positive health status. The above study done by Pande and Naidu (1986) is the main motivation for this research. This study addressed only one aspect of Yoga philosophy (effort orientation instead of outcome orientation) and reported positive results on the stress-strain relationship. The study only tried to measure and find out that people with effort orientation are less strained. Two questions arise from this. Is it possible to develop effort orientation by some training? If only one aspect of Yoga philosophy, i.e., ef-fort orientation instead of outcome orientation (Karmanye Vadhikarastu Ma Phaleshu Kadachana) can have positive impact on stress, how much better would be the impact of total adoption of the entire philosophy and practice of Yoga? Our study here tries to find an answer to these two questions. Also from the literature survey done so far, we can con-clude that: • Burnout is an outcome of a number of factors but the more important ones are internal psychological fac-tors such as internal desires, insecurity, external lo-cus of control, outcome orientation, etc. 26 IMPACT OF ADOPTION OF YOGA WAY OF LIFE ON THE REDUCTION OF JOB BURNOUT OF MANAGERS • While attempts have been made in the past to meas-ure the impact of each of these individual disposi-tional factors on job burnout, no research has been done to find out if the wisdom enshrined in our scrip-tures in the form of science of Yoga can help in allevi-ating a major part of burnout. • There have been some attempts in the past to meas-ure the impact of any one dimension of the Yoga phi-losophy (such as Vipasana or Transcendental Medita-tion) on stress, the overall effect of adoption of the Yoga way of life on job burnout has not been studied. So also, the link between Yoga and absence of burn-out has not been well understood. Taking cue from this, we pose the question, “Can adop-tion of a complete Yoga way of life reduce significantly the job burnout experienced by most executives? If so, can we empirically observe this phenomenon and pro-vide relevant literature support to explain this? To the best of our knowledge, there is no empirical research available so far to answer these questions. Therefore, we hypothesize that managers who learn and adopt the Yoga way of life will be able to reduce their job burnout bet-ter than the others who engage in other things to im-prove their physical and mental progress. We set up an experiment to collect data and test the hypothesis. EMPIRICAL STUDY AND RESULTS Research Design Grasim Industries Limited, a flagship company of the Aditya Birla Group, ranks among India’s largest private sector companies, with a consolidated net revenue of Rs.141 billion and a consolidated net profit of Rs.20 bil-lion (FY2007). Starting as a textiles manufacturer in 1948, today Grasim’s businesses comprise viscose staple fibre (VSF), cement, sponge iron, chemicals, and textiles. Its core businesses are VSF and cement, which contribute to over 90 per cent of its revenues and operating profits. The Aditya Birla Group is the world’s largest producer of VSF, commanding a 21 per cent global market share. The company meets India’s entire domestic VSF require-ments. Grasim’s VSF plants are located at Nagda in Madhya Pradesh, Kharach in Gujarat, and Harihar in Karnataka, with an aggregate capacity of 270,100 tonnes per annum. This controlled experiment was conducted at Birla Celluloise, one of the units manufacturing viscose sta- VIKALPA • VOLUME 35 • NO 2 • APRIL - JUNE 2010 ple fibre owned by Grasim Industry, located at Kharach village near Bharuch. This unit has more than 120 peo-ple in the managerial cadre and more than 1,000 in the workers’ category. Most of them are staying in the town-ship of the company, which facilitated the study. The VSF plant, where this study was conducted, was set up in 1996. The average total work experience of the sam-ple group is 16.11 years. The salient aspects of the study methodology are sum-marized below: • The managers of the company were given the option of joining this experiment after explaining to them about the purpose and modality of this experiment and making clear to them the expectations of regu-larity, etc. Written consent for being a part of the ex-periment was obtained. • Those who opted were initially divided into two equal groups of 42 each — Group I being called the Yoga group and Group II being called the physical exercise group, which was the control group for this experiment. • The Yoga group was given 30 hours of Yoga practice (75 minutes every day) and 25 hours of theory lec-tures on the philosophy of Yoga. The theory lectures were given by the first author of this article and in-cluded topics such as definitions of Yoga way of life, implications of four types of Yoga (Raja Yoga, Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, and Bhakti Yoga) on life, analysis on aspects of true happiness in life, Ashtanga Yoga steps, central theme of universality of consciousness as given in Vedanta, etc. Practice was given for asanas, pranayama, kriya, and relaxation by a well-trained Yoga instructor. • The control group was also given training of equal number of hours for normal physical work-out and lectures on success factors in life (based on modern thought and not Yoga). This was thought necessary in order to obviate the possibility of Hawthorne ef-fect on the experiment group. The topics for theory given to this group included success and happiness, importance of attitude, self-image, good relationship with others, goal setting, power of sub-conscious mind, communication, motivation, and leadership. The practice given to this group was fast exercises such as spot-jogging, bending, body rotation, hand and leg movements, etc. 27 • In order to prove or disprove the hypotheses, job burnout was measured for both the groups, pre and post, with the help of standard self-reported ques-tionnaire. In addition, measurement of certain physi-cal parameters such as weight, BMI, BP, Blood Sugar, etc., was taken for all, both pre- and post-experiment. By far the most widely employed measure of burn-out is the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), (Maslach and Jackson, 1981), which was initially developed to gauge levels of burnout specifically among service professionals but in 1996 was modified for use with other occupations. The scale has the strongest psy-chometric properties and continues to be used most widely by researchers. It is a 22-item Likert type scale with response on a 5-point scale which was adapted in this case to 7 points ranging from ‘completely agree’ to ‘completely disagree’. Exploratory factor analyses of the three MBI scales have tended to sup-port the construct validity of the instrument, as well as its convergent and discriminant validity (Burke and Richardsen, 1993; Cordes and Dougherty, 1993). • The pre-measurement of data was taken on Septem-ber 17, 2007. The intervention to both the groups was simultaneously given between September 18 and Oc-tober 24, 2007. The post-measurement of data was taken on October 24, 2007. • Out of the group of 42 in both groups, there were some who did not attend any of the theory and prac-tice classes on many days, and hence only top 30 (in terms of regularity) were included for both groups in the final sample for the analysis. This came to a minimum attendance figure of 65 per cent approxi-mately for both groups. In short, people with less than 65 per cent aggregate attendance were excluded from both groups. The profile of the sample can be seen in Table 1. Figure 1 schematically shows the study methodology and the group composition. The data collected was ana-lysed using SPSS. The sample profile given in Table 1 indicates that 80 per cent and 86 per cent of the partici-pants from Yoga and control group respectively are from the age group of 21-50, while the rest are above 50. Simi-larly, 20 per cent of the Yoga group and 17 per cent of the control group are from the top management (i.e., Deputy General Manager and above), while 57 per cent of the Yoga group and 63 per cent of the control group are the line level managers (Deputy Managers and Of-ficers). Before proceeding with further analysis, the scale Table 1: Profile of Sample Group Total Yoga Physical Age 21-50 24 26 50 (80.0%) (86.7%) (83.3) 51 and above 6 4 10 (20.0%) (13.3%) (16.7%) Level Line level 17 19 36 (56.7%) (63.3%) (60.0%) Middle level 7 6 13 (23.3%) (20.0%) (21.7%) Top level 6 5 11 (20.0%) (16.7%) (18.3%) validity was established by computing the Chronbach’s alpha. The pre-experiment construct (22-item scale) had a Chronbach’s alpha of 0.83 while post-experiment data of MBI had an alpha value of 0.89. Figure 1: A Schematic Representation of the Study Plan The mean and standard deviation of MBI score, pre and Employees in the Firm (About 1,120) Control Group Experiment Group (30 Managers) (30 Managers) Pre-study Pre-study Pre-study Pre-study Measurement Measurement Measurement Measurement post, for both groups can be seen in Table 2. The paired t-test analysis of the pre- and post-experiment data for the Yoga group (Table 3) showed significant reduction of job burnout (p=0.000). On the other hand, in the physi-cal exercise group, the job burnout level went up after the experiment. Furthermore, the difference was statis-tically significant at p=0.008. One plausible explanation is that the schedule of attending the practical and theory classes of physical exercise could have put further pres-sure on the already tight schedule of the managers. The burnout level must therefore have gone up temporarily post-experiment. Further analysis shows that while the difference in the average MBI between Yoga group and physical exercise group was not significant prior to the experiment, the same was statistically significant at the end of the ex-periment with p=0.000. (Table 4) 28 IMPACT OF ADOPTION OF YOGA WAY OF LIFE ON THE REDUCTION OF JOB BURNOUT OF MANAGERS Table 2: Average Scores of MBI (Group-wise, Pre and Post) Group AVGAMBI Average Pre MBI AVGZMBI Average Post MBI 1 Yoga 2 Physical Exercise 1 Yoga 2 Physical Exercise N Mean 30 2.8624 30 2.4782 30 1.9693 30 2.8586 Std. Deviation 0.87645 0.68454 0.79096 0.86580 Std. Error Mean 0.16002 0.12498 0.14441 0.15807 Table 3: Group Separate Paired T Test for MBI Yoga and Physical Exercise Groups Paired Samples Test Paired Differences Pair AVGAMBI Average Pre MBI 1 (Minus)-AVGZMBI Average MBI Mean Std. Deviation 0.8931 0.65296 Std. Error Mean t 0.11921 7.492 df Sig. (2-tailed) 29 0.000 a. Group = 1 Yoga Paired Differences Pair AVGAMBI Average Pre MBI 1 (Minus)-AVGZMBI Average Post MBI Mean -0.3804 Std. Deviation 0.72809 Std. Error Mean t 0.13293 -2.861 df Sig. (2-tailed) 29 0.008 a. Group = 2 Physical Exercise Table 4: Independent Sample T-Test comparing the Two Groups for MBI at Pre- and Post-Intervention Levene’s Test for t-test for Equality of Means Quality of Variance AVGAMBI Average Pre AVGZMBI Average Post Equal variance assumed Equal variance not assumed Equal variance assumed Equal variance not assumed F Sig. 0.614 0.436 0.561 0.457 t df 1.892 58 1.892 54.785 -4.154 58 -4.154 57.532 Sig. (2-tailed) 0.063 0.064 0.000 0.000 Mean Difference 0.3842 0.3842 -.8893 -0.8893 Std. Error Difference 0.20304 0.20304 0.21410 0.21410 Yoga as a Viable Tool for Stress and Burnout Management According to Rama Swamy, Ballentine and Swami (1976), “Yoga psychology integrates behavioural and introspective approaches to growth. It provides a per-spective in which one can become disengaged from in-volvement in the unhappy personalities he has created for himself and in the negative role he has adopted….. It moves quickly to a training programme for changing habits, thought patterns, and self concepts.” Job burnout is a result of two types of factors: Situational and Individual. The situational factors typically include job characteristics, occupational characteristics, and or- VIKALPA • VOLUME 35 • NO 2 • APRIL - JUNE 2010 ganizational characteristics. The individual factors iden-tified in the previous research are: demographic charac-teristics, personality characteristics, and job attitude. It has been argued that low levels of hardiness, poor self-esteem, external locus of control, and an avoidant cop-ing style typically constitute the profile of a stress-prone individual (Semmer, 1996). Obviously, the results from the burnout research confirm this personality profile. Research on the Big Five personality dimensions has found that burnout is linked to the dimension of neu-roticism. Neuroticism includes trait anxiety, hostility, depression, self-consciousness, and vulnerability; neu-rotic individuals are emotionally unstable and prone to psychological distress. 29 People vary in the expectations they bring in to their job. In some cases, these expectations are very high, both in terms of nature of work (e.g., exciting, challenging, fun) and the likelihood of achieving success (e.g., cur-ing patients, getting promoted). Presumably, high ex-pectations lead people to work too hard and do too much, thus leading to exhaustion and eventual cynicism when the high effort does not yield the expected results. The Yoga way of life, the concept presented in this pa-per, is an integrated approach to the changing physical, mental, vital, a nd emotional personality of an individual. It is aimed at making managers more evolved individu-als with better understanding of their job situation in the overall context of life. The teachings of Karma Yoga are useful in changing the outcome orientation to effort orientation, and in reducing the managers’expectations from the job. Attitude of acceptance of all situations re-sults in lesser friction and the resultant lesser job burn-out. The psychology of Yoga conceives self (atman) in terms of different levels of being. The inner-most core or atman is covered by a hierarchy of five sheaths or layers – the theory of Panch Kosha. Annamaya Kosha represents the gross physical body; Pranmaya Kosha consists of vital energy flow of the body; Manomaya Kosha is made up of mind including ego; Vijnanamaya Kosha is a sheathe of intellect (ability to understand what is good for me); and Anandmaya Kosha is the circle of bliss in our personality. This continuation of layers corresponds to a sort of step-wise ladder, leading inward to the atman; the journey inward forms the basis of growth and development: Bio-logical evolution from protozoan to man, psychological evolution from child to adult, consciousness enhance-ment from mere cognitive to universal consciousness, wherein there is no ego and there is realization that the concerns and needs of all people are the same, that what is good for one is good for all. In this growth process, feeling and emotions are accepted as having a place; they are not considered wrong or repressed but are trans-formed and redirected (Srinivas, 1994). Such a transfor-mation in one’s personality diminishes the job burnout of managers. Rao (1983) has very succinctly traced the origin of stress in Indian thought. Going back to the Samkhya and Yoga systems, he has pointed out that there are two Sanskrit words - klesha and dukha which approximates stress. The word klesha has its origin in the root khis which means to ‘torment’, ‘cause pain’ or to ‘afflict.’ Klesha is not a mental process but is a set of ‘hindering load’ on our mental process; it produces agitations which act as re-strictions or hindrances. The Samkhya Yoga system ex-plains that the fundamental non-cognition which leads to phenomenological stress is avidya (lack of true knowl-edge). This avidya leads to asmita (self-appraisal), raga (object appraisal), dvesha (threat appraisal) and abhinivesha (fear of death), which cause stress (klesha). The solution, according to Seer Patanjali, therefore lies in removing avidya by getting true knowledge of self. It is this true knowledge of self which changes one’s per-ception towards the so-called kleshas or stressful situa-tions. They no longer bother an individual. The system of Yoga is analytical and not only helps the individual in understanding his own stress but also leads him to the roots of that stress. It makes an individual more aware of his situation and allows him to give con-sidered rather than intuitive response to it. The amount of role stress is not as important for an individual’s men-tal and physical health as the way he/she copes with stress. Coping styles or strategies may either be oriented towards avoiding stress or towards dealing with stress. (Pestonjee, 1999). This way Yoga helps one deal with stress in a better way. Nagendra and Nagarathna (1988) have dealt with stress management in their book entitled, New Perspectives in Stress Management. According to them, the ancient In-dian science of Yoga holds the key for combating this modern menace. Some modern methods of stress man-agement and their limitations and the management of stress by Yoga are discussed in the book, for example, SMET (Self Management of Executive Tension) tech-nique; QRT (Quick Relaxation Technique). These are some of the programmes developed by the Vivekananda Kendra for the management of stress which have been found to reduce stress significantly. In most organizations, leaders play a pivotal role in driv-ing performance. There are a variety of leadership train-ing programmes being tried nowadays by successful companies, but the Yoga way of life is rarely taught. At the most, Yogasanas are being taught to the group as a part of morning physical work-out. There are a few com-panies that have of late started providing for medita-tion rooms at workplace, for the ease of managers who 30 IMPACT OF ADOPTION OF YOGA WAY OF LIFE ON THE REDUCTION OF JOB BURNOUT OF MANAGERS want to go into solitude to sharpen their creativities. It may be worthwhile to give systematic exposure of wisdom enshrined in our ancient scriptures to all mana-gerial cadres of companies, which would help them per-sonally as well as professionally. They can become better self-aware and self-regulated individuals, with a proper perspective of life and various relationships. The Yoga way of life is all about the correct attitude to life, which can result into reduced stress and job burnout for man-agers. In the Indian context, the assimilation of this knowledge may be better and easier, since the Indians have grown with all these concepts right from childhood. ‘How can one proceed in this?’ is a very important ques-tion. First of all, the top leaders of the company have to be convinced about the utility of this idea. They should themselves have the necessary trust in this philosophy and in the results it can bring. Some people may be un-necessarily apprehensive about the renunciation effect that introduction of this philosophy may have on the drive or killing instinct of their executives. Such appre-hensions come out of wrong understanding of true con-cepts of Yoga. For example, far from being against ‘goal orientation,’ the concept of Karma Yoga is so dynamic in nature that it frees an individual from all worries and propels him to action immediately. Also a person who is not excessively worried about the results can only be a true risk-taker, who will take tough decisions in the best interest of his organization. Once convinced about the utility of this kind of train-ing, the tougher challenge lies in finding the right peo-ple to train company executives. Secondly, this has to be a continuous training which is repeated periodically. Thirdly, an atmosphere of the Yoga way of life has to be created through the company policy. The company poli- REFERENCES Agrawal, M (1985). “A Study of Stresses among University Students,” Unpublished thesis, University of Allahabad, Allahabad. 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The results show a significant difference between those who are introduced to the practice of the Yoga way of life and others in burnout and stress. Among many suggested coping skills for stress, Yoga happens to be fitting in the best, mainly because of its ability to change positively individual responses to stress stimuli. However, in or-der to get the benefit of Yoga in its entirety, one has to adopt Yoga as a technique of life management. This would include not only the Raj Yoga practices of asana, pranayama, and meditation, but also imbibing the con-cept of detatched action (Karma Yoga), trust in God’s jus-tice system (Bhakti Yoga), and seeking the knowledge of self (Jnan Yoga). Such an integrated approach can yield superior results for individual happiness and also for organizational success. Based on our study, we are motivated to recommend similar experimental studies in multiple organizational settings to further refine these findings and insights. 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Singh, A P and Srivastava, U R (1996). “Social Support as a Moderator of Stress-Health Relationship among Indian Managerial Personnel,” Unpublished manuscript, as cited in Pestonjee, 1999. Singh, R H and Udupa, K N (1977). “Psychological Studies on Certain Hathayogic Practices,” Paper presented at the International Seminar on Stress in Health and Diseases, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. Siu,O; Lu, L, and Cooper, C L (1999). “Managerial Stress in Hong Kong and Taiwan: A Comparative Study,” Journal of Managerial Psychology, 14(1), 65. Srinivas Kalburgi, M (1994). “Organization Development: Maya Moksha In Kanunga, Rabindra N and Mendonca, Manuel (Eds.) Work Motivation Models for Developing Coun-try, New Delhi: Sage Publications. 32 IMPACT OF ADOPTION OF YOGA WAY OF LIFE ON THE REDUCTION OF JOB BURNOUT OF MANAGERS Srivastava, A K (1985). “Moderating Effect of Need for Achieve-ment on Role Stress-Job Anxiety Relationship,” Psycho-logical Studies, 30(2), 102-106. Tandon, S (1986). “Development of Measure of Stress Toler-ance,” Unpublished Ph.D thesis, University of Allahabad, Allahabad. Telles, Shirley; Joshi, Meesha; Dash, Manoj; Raghuraj, P; Naveen, K and Nagendra, H R (2004). “An Evaluation of the Ability to Voluntarily Reduce the Heart Rate after a Month of Yoga Practice,” Integrative Physiological and Be-havioral Science, 39(2), 119-25. Hasmukh Adhia is a senior member of the Indian Adminis-trative Service (1981), presently working as Principal Secre-tary to the Government of Gujarat in the Education Department. He holds a basic degree in Accountancy and a Post Graduate Diploma from the Indian Institute of Manage-ment, Bangalore. He was awarded the ‘Gold Medal’ for Aca-demic Excellence in Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy and Management by IIMB in 2004. He obtained his Ph.D. in Yoga from Swami Vivekananda Yoga University, Bangalore. Dr. Adhia has written two books –Reinventing Government through HRM Strategies and My Notes to Myself. These address the HRM issues in the government sector. e-mail: adhia03@hotmail.com H R Nagendra is at present the President of VYASA, Banga-lore, VYASA, International, VYERTI, Melbourne and the Vice Chancellor of SVYASA Deemed University. He has authored and co-authored about 35 books on Yoga, nearly 35 research papers in engineering and 60 in Yoga. He has awards from the Ministry of Health, a Yoga Sri award from BKS Iyengar and a Udupa, K N; Singh, R H and Dwivedi, K N (1977). “Biochemi-cal Studies on Meditation,” Paper presented at the Inter-national Seminar on Stress in Health and Diseases, Benaras Hindu University, Varanasi. Vasudevan, A (1994). “Meditation in Tension Headache,” NIMHANS Journal, 12(1), 69-73. Venkatesh, S (1994). “A Comparative Study of Yoga Practitio-ners and Controls on Certain Psychological Variables,” Indian Journal of Clinical Psychology, 21(1), 22-27. Stephen, W and Lesley, L (2002). Managing Workplace Stress: A Best Practice Blueprint, John Wiley & Sons. Senior Citizens Award from New Delhi. He is a consultant in Yoga to many Universities in Australia and USA, and a mem-ber of several bodies in the Government of India. e-mail: hrnagendra@rediffmail.com B Mahadevan is a Professor of Operations Management at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, where he has been teaching since 1992. Professor Mahadevan received his M.Tech and a Ph.D from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Ma-dras. He obtained his B.E. from the College of Engineering, Guindy, Madras. He is a member of the editorial board of the Production and Operations Management Journal and the Interna-tional Journal of Business Excellence. He has published several of his research findings in leading international journals. His research interests include supply chain management issues in e-markets and e-auction. His other interests include research-ing the possibility of using ancient Indian wisdom to address contemporary concerns. e-mail: mahadev@iimb.ernet.in Yoga is invigoration in relaxation. Freedom in routine. Confidence through self control. Energy within and energy without. — Ymber Delecto VIKALPA • VOLUME 35 • NO 2 • APRIL - JUNE 2010 33