Readiness of the New Generation Executives of

Bangladesh to Address the Changed Stress-level

caused by increasing Use of IT
Research Proposal

Research Proposal for Conducting Research on

Readiness of the New Generation Executives of Bangladesh to Address the Changed Stress-
level Due to Increasing Use of IT

Course: Management Information System

Submitted to

Mr. A.T.M. Jakaria Khan

Lecturer
Institute of Business Administration
University of Dhaka

Submitted by

Name Class ID Batch

Md. Qousik Ahmed 29 MBA 54D
Gazi Mueedur Rahman 35 MBA 54D
Mir Al Mansur Shoaib 59 MBA 54D

27/2016

Contents
1.0 Introduction............................................................................................................... 1
2.0 Concept.................................................................................................................... 2
3.0 Rationale.................................................................................................................. 3
4.0 Methodology............................................................................................................. 5
4.1 Research Question and Objective.................................................................................5
4.2 Nature of the Study................................................................................................... 5
4.3 Data Collection....................................................................................................... 5
4.4 Data Type.............................................................................................................. 6
4.5 Ethical Issues Relating to this Study..............................................................................6
4.6 Scopes and Limitations.............................................................................................. 6
5.0 Literature Review........................................................................................................ 7
6.0 Outline of the Research............................................................................................... 11
References................................................................................................................... 12
1.0 Introduction
Quality of life is a highly subjective measure of happiness that is an important component of
many individual and social elements. It is the general well-being of individuals and societies,
outlining negative and positive features of life. It observes life satisfaction including everything
from physical health, family, education, employment, wealth, religious beliefs, finance and the
environment. As technology is rapidly driving into a new shell, it certainly affects different
fundamental dimensions of life. With emerging speedy internet everybody seems to have an
exposure to something called do-it-fast type terminology, which ultimately resulted in growing
restlessness among people because of growing intensity of competition. As it is seen that, with
vast information systems & automation, the burden on key decision maker has been increasing
faster than ever, it also causes an introduction of new set of working standards. It forces the
people to adopt technology faster and invest more time to survive in the competitive
environment. People have started facing problem with work-life balance. Technology is also
causing physiological and psychological stress to many people.

The number of internet users in Bangladesh has increased by more than 300% from 2011 to
2016. The management bodies of private and public-sector organizations have started using
Information Technology and Information Systems in their day-to-day business. They also have
started teaching their workforce how to use IT, but the question is whether this large workforce is
ready to handle the stresses and changes in work-life balance due to the adoption of IT. In an
emerging economy like Bangladesh, where people usually adopt the technologies and knowledge
that are devised and created in developed countries, are likely to ignore the side-effects of
adopting something new which lead them to suffer from the drawbacks due to the lack of proper
knowledge and training.

So, it is important to make future executives of Bangladesh ready to face challenges of facing the
new challenges of changing stress-level and work-life balance caused by increasing use of IT and
information systems in business. Readiness of the New Generation Executives of
Bangladesh to Address the Changed Stress-level Due to Increasing Use of IT will be the
title of the research work and the report.

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2.0 Concept

One important dimension to be considered while shedding light on information technology from
an ethical perspective is the risk of negative impact of IT adoption on the personal, social and
professional life of people. Though the use of IT has facilitated executives with integrated data
management, ease of maintaining firm-supplier-customer relationship, analytical tools, real-time
response etc, it also demands the executives and staffs to sit in front of computer for hours at a
stretch; sometimes, a day. This can worsen the medical condition of a person. Sitting in front of
computers or being exposed to light-emission and radiation for hours can cause life-threatening
diseases. This is the case of Technostress (Laudon and Laudon, 2000).

Technostress is a new term used to describe computer-related malady. Technostress is used to

describe the condition which is caused by the excessive use of computer & cell phone. Its
symptoms include hostility, impatience, aggravation and fatigue. Although recent technological
advancements have made it easier to access, use and share information, experts suggest that is
prevents people from focusing and thinking deeply.

Use of IT can also cause over-dependence on the software and hardware in case of decision
making and performing everyday tasks. The individuals and organizations may become
dependent on uninterrupted flow of information, sophisticated analytical tools, and other
facilities. Any failure of such systems may lead them to lag behind in the competition which may
put them in the face of losing jobs and other threats of the competitive environment leading them
to suffer from stress (Laudon and Laudon, 2000).

In a third world country like Bangladesh, there are so many other factors that come before
maintaining and ensuring quality. Information technologies have brought about rapid change in
providing response. Just-in-time philosophy may lead Bangladeshi people, who are usually
very much attached to their friends and family, to work from home even in odd times frustrating
their family members. Maintaining boundaries among family, professional life and leisure is

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often a challenging task to deal with even for the people from developed countries. Therefore,
there are many things to take into account while thinking of responding to the rapid change of
the technological environment.

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3.0 Rationale

It turns out to be an intriguing topic which deserves deep study to find insights. While everyone
knows more or less how to deal with life, it remains as a very vague point of understanding of
how people derive satisfaction from life. So this leads the students to look into the question of
how quality of life will be improved as much as satisfaction from technology, information
systems & other technical stuff will not be reduced. Particularly in Bangladesh, the real paradox
come into play by raising issues of cultural perspectives, values, personal expectations and goals
of what we want from life. Very few people are concerned about these new pragmatic shifts in
their life caused by increasing dependence on IT. These facts started encouraging students and
academics to know interpretation of facts and events, which helps to explain why some people
can report an excellent quality of life while others cant. This report is expected to reveal and
organize new insights into the status quo.

Bangladesh is an emerging economy that actually uses the knowledge and technologies created
in the developed countries. Therefore, the risk of being affected by the negative effects of IT is
also high. Even, the developed countries are still facing many changes that are not welcomed.
For example, a study of GFI software reveals that 80% workers in San Francisco, Denver and
Philadelphia says that they find the IT part of their job stressful, and overall 57% of the UK IT
workers want to leave their job. Among them, some told they want to pursue different career
(Brooks, 2013). Keth Hampton et. Al, (2015) identifies that the risks of undesired events, abuse
and violation of personal matters are high in the developed countries where there are high rate of
literacy, economic stability, availability of resources, strict laws, code of conducts, and law
enforcement bodies.

A research conducted in 2012 on 4100 young people (age: 20 to 25) by University of

Gothenburg, Sweden, resulted in the findings that are as followings:

Those constantly accessible via cell phones were the most likely to report mental health issues.

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 Men who use computers intensively were more likely to develop sleeping problems.

Regular, late night computer use was associated with sleep disorders, stress and depressive
symptoms in both men and women.

Frequently using a computer without breaks further increases the risk of stress, sleeping
problems and depressive symptoms in women.

A combination of both heavy computer use and heavy mobile use makes the associations even
stronger.

(Volpi, 2012)

This reveals that even the people of the developed countries are having difficulties in handling
the drawbacks of being heavy users of and dependent on IT. Padma et. Al, (2015) conducted
research on 1000 IT professionals in India and find that around 56% had musculoskeletal
symptoms. 22% had newly diagnosed hypertension, 10% had diabetes, 36% had dyslipidemia,
54% had depression, anxiety and insomnia, and 40% had obesity.

These discussions support the need of the study of such risk in Bangladesh. Almost no works are
available addressing this particular issue in Bangladesh. Therefore, this issue seems to be a field
of research that attracted the students to understand how it will be in Bangladesh when people
face the challenges of changing work-life dimensions and stress-level.

This research will be targeted at the young executives in Bangladesh as the adoption of IT is
mostly done by this group. However, this study wants to reveal whether this group of people is
ready to face the side-effects of IT adoption and will recommend some strategies to improve the
status quo, if necessary, so that the quality of life of the future generation of Bangladeshi
executives improves.

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4.0 Methodology

4.1 Research Question and Objective

The Research Topic is Readiness of the New Generation Executives of Bangladesh to
Address the Changed Stress-level Due to Increasing Use of IT. The objectives can be listed
as follows:

To find out the IT environment surrounding the day to day life of the people of
Bangladesh.
To find the impact of the IT environment on the stress-level and work-life balance of
people.
To check for the available resources intended to make people aware and assist them in
case of stress caused by increased use of IT.
To understand the awareness level of people about the ongoing and upcoming problems.
Making Recommendations.

4.2 Nature of the Study

This work will be a descriptive research aimed at finding out the current scenario of the impact
of IT and Ecommerce on the quality of the life on the lives of the people of the selected territory
(Bangladesh). Only the status quo and the characteristics of the variables such as peoples
attitude and behavior, impact on the existing practices on peoples lives, and the nature of the
practices and the overall scenario are expected to be described through this effort.

4.3 Data Collection

Data will be collected mainly from the secondary sources. This will facilitate the literature
review and provide information for further analysis. Secondary data will be collected from the
books, newspapers, journals, blogs, websites and other resources. As secondary data are the
information that is derived by other parties for different purposes, it will not fully facilitate the
approach to answer the research questions. Secondary data will be used to set the context for
study. In addition to that, some necessary information can be prepared for answering the
questions by analyzing the secondary data.

Primary data will also be collected from a sample. A sample of people taken from the pool of
young executives from different industries will be given a short questionnaire which will be

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developed to get their perspective to their behavior in response to the IT environment.
Information prepared by analyzing these data will be checked against the findings of the
secondary research to have in-depth knowledge about the real situation of the subject of study.

4.4 Data Type

This research will be conducted using mainly qualitative data. However, Likert scale will be used
to quantify the opinions of the respondents on certain statements given to them. Though Likert
scale is useful for presenting ones opinion on something in a numeric manner, this does not give
any idea about how far good or strongly agree is from bad or strongly disagree. This is a
limitation of using Likert Scale. Still, this is useful for having an insight into the opinions of the
respondents when the opinions are analyzed together, and for summarizing the findings.

4.5 Ethical Issues Relating to this Study

This is an academic effort having no commercial interest lying in itself. In case of gathering the
secondary data, sources that are publicly available will be used. The sources will be
acknowledged through proper referencing. In case of collecting primary data, confidentiality will
be ensured. The identity of any respondent will not be revealed to the public without his/her
permission. For conducting this research, any kind of plagiarism, copying, and acquisition of
information in unethical way (such as stealing or buying from illegal sources) will be completely
avoided. This is intended to be an original work.

4.6 Scopes and Limitations

This is a purely academic research with no objective of commercial gain. This study is conducted
within the territory of Bangladesh including the variables that are relevant to the status quo of
Bangladesh. The research, however, can be done including more people, more comprehensive
study and resources with more time and financial assistance on the basis of the findings of this
research.

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5.0 Literature Review

Most of todays successful organizations offer better work-life balance to attract and retain
skilled and talented people. Being devised and implemented in developed countries, this idea is
now getting popularity in the developing countries. Work-life balance improves productivity.
A report by the Corporate Executive Board, which represents 80% of the Fortune 500 companies,
found that employees who feel they have good work-life balance work 21% harder than those
who dont (Robbinson, 2016). More than one in four employees at organizations who perceived
no support for work/life balance plan to leave their employers within the next two years,
compared to 17 percent of employees who feel supported (Rampton, 2016). Again, the average
cost of employee turnover was 21 percent of an employee's annual salary (Boushey and Glynn,
2012)

Heskett (2004), shows in his article Work-Life: Is Productivity in the Balance? that the impact
of technology on work-life balance started worrying people of east as well as of west. He also
scrutinizes if family can be made a part of the work team, but rejects the idea considering the
family traditions in the eastern part of the globe. He even suggests that USA is adopting the
European idea of working to leave instead of living to work. On the contrary, he shows people
from the east think that internet and IT erases the line between work and life.

Internet and IT has notable impact on work-life balance. A study of Ranstad finds that American
workers are beginning to resent the encroachment of technology into their personal lives;
employees fear retribution for being unavailable or failing to check-in on a constant basis when
off the clock. Up to 45 percent of employees feel obligated to check-in after business hours or
while on vacation, and another 26 percent feel guilty for using their vacation time, not working
from home or if theyre sick (. While many American companies are becoming more flexible in
their approach to the work/life balance, clear policies are still needed to curtail fear and burnout,
and ensure employees down time is respected.

Anne Bardoel (2012), Assistant Professor of Monash University refers to the findings of Linda
Duxbury, a Canadian researcher, which show that electronic tools such as email, BlackBerries,

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iPhones, laptops have increased the expectations of being available anytime, anywhere by
increasing the ability to work from home. She also found that there were two main types of
technology users. There were those who were slaves to the technology. These people had high
expectations and workloads, felt they needed to work long hours and be accessible 24/7 if they
were to advance in their organization, and were addicted to work. They also often worked for
organizations where the culture drove this kind of use and it was not acceptable to say no. The
other group is moderate users of technology who used technology as a tool for both personal and
work life and these people reported that technology increased their ability to manage their time
and increase control of their lives (Anne Bardoel, 2012).

However, in the west, very few people kept themselves out of use of technology in their
professional life. The most recent survey data from Pew Research in late 2013 shows that 94% of
jobholders are internet users and they work in all kinds of enterprises from technology
companies to non-technology firms; from big corporations to small proprietor operations; and
from those in urban areas, farms, and places in between (Purcell and Raine, 2016).

Stress is a physiological disorder owing to exposure to harmful situations. As globalization is

getting a household word in every sphere of life, people across the globe are to handle a vast lot
of work than before. Since the inception of global communicative platform, people are expected
to work round the clock regardless of place, time and the like.

With this newly defined busyness, the new roles and types of stress come. Now it is hard to put
aside the fact that computer & other IT devices can do no harm in the long run. Looking into the
matter, it will be very obvious that much of the causes of stress in working peoples lives
basically are lying in between usage rate of & exposure to IT devices. Modern technology is
affecting our sleep. Heavy exposure to TV & computer causes a serious damage to sleep (Volpi,
2016).

Frequently using a computer without breaks further increases the risk of depressive symptoms in
men & women. It has also been found that certain portion of computer users are not compatible
with the counseling of other experienced computer users when run into a problem. This can lead
to the anxiety issues of stress. Many people have this hurry of installing a program & running it
without reading the user manual. They just do it in the name of saving time. But ultimately it

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actually have them spent a great amount of time in the long run. And it resulted in a computer
related headaches (Orman, 2016).

Another thing is peoples unrealistic expectations of getting things done every time they prepare
report, research, e-mail & the like through internet. Sometimes internet is clogged, or there are
heavy jams on internet so as to make people angry about functional aspect of IT devices, central
network system & so on (Orman, 2016). This ultimately unleashes emotional symptoms of
stress including agitation, frustration, feeling lonely and worthless or losing control of life.

People often do make mistakes such as installing a program incorrectly, deleting important files
mistakenly & the like. As they are being lead to perfectionism, it gives a notion that they are
forgetting to admit mistakes in a peaceful manner. As long as they are doing it, it affects the very
next moment of their functional work and makes Cognitive symptoms of stress including lurking
thoughts, inattentiveness and being unable to make correct judgment (Volpi, 2016).

There may be some conflicts over using time of pc, giving hardly any time to family members
who can lead to the destruction of relationship building and isolating of oneself from other
people. This is a very costly consequence and might increase stress effects in a higher level.
While everything is said and done, all physical symptoms of stress come into being such as low
energy, upset stomachs, chest pain and rapid heartbeat, insomnia, frequent colds and infections,
dry mouth etc. because of stress resulted in for any reason (Pietrangelo, 2016).

Technological advancements have brought about radical changes in modern workplaces. Things
have been changed in work places. We need to acknowledge the fact that modern technologies,
approximately, generate comfort and discomfort at the same time. Employees at the work places
suffer from psycho-dynamic ambivalence that causes discomfort.

Psychological impacts are defined as how a persons psychological aspects are affected by the
biological or environmental factors with or without intention. (Buchain & Vizzotto, 2016)
Various internal and external factors can be responsible for being psychologically ambivalent. In
recent days, employees are becoming psychologically distressed in an alarming rate. At psycho
dynamic level, this type of ambivalence caused by the excessive usage of technological

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instruments is expressed by technophilia (excessive attraction to technology) and technophobia
(rejection of technology). (Osiceanu, 2015)

WHO priorities employees health and safety concerns and deeply committed to secure this in
the workplaces around the world. (WHO Department of Communications, 2016) Employees
rights should be protected in all the organizations.

In Bangladesh, employees enjoy a little flexibility in their working environment. Employees are
often compelled to work extended hours directly with technological instruments like computers,
radiation emitting equipment etc. These types of practices have been established as regular
phenomena in the work places in Bangladesh. (Centre for Policy Dialogue, 2016) For this
reason, employees working in Bangladesh are endangered to the adverse effect technological
advancement.

Employees working in the corporate sectors are prone to becoming psychologically ambivalent.
Employer in Bangladesh usually wants to maximize their profitability even in lieu of their
employees psychological health. Employees are bound to the restrictions set by their supervisors
in work places. Thus the working conditions in Bangladesh are becoming threatening to the
mental and psychological health of the employees.

Employees are becoming more and more psychologically unstable, in other words, ambivalent.
Research carried out in a pharmaceutical company shows, about 40% of the total number of
employees are psychologically ambivalent. About 24% of the total employees show excessive
fondness to technological gadgets and on the other hand 16% of the total employees show
negligence to the electric gadgets. (Lewis, Thomas, & Amin, 2016) These type results are not too
uncommon in the corporate sectors of Bangladesh.

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6.0 Outline of the Research
i. Introduction:
ii. Basic concept of change in stress and work-life balance caused by IT
iii. Rationale: Why it has been an important and interesting thing to study
iv. Methodology: A short description of how the research has been conducted.
v. Literature Review
vi. History and Trends
a. Short History of IT adoption in Bangladesh
b. History of increasing use of computer in public and private sector affairs.
c. Status Quo
vii. Current stress and work-life balance issues in case of IT use and adoption
a. Who are the victims?
b. How do they become victims?
c. Who are responsible for it?
d. Why and how these things are happening?
e. What are the existing legal mechanisms?
viii. Primary Research (Interview and Survey)
ix. What are the available resources for increasing awareness among the future executives?
x. How aware are the future business executives of Bangladesh of the upcoming challenges?
xi. Recommendations and Conclusion

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