Work Value Preferences of Information Technology Professionals in Chennai City

Work Value Preferences of Information Technology Professionals:

A Study in Chennai City

G.Suryanarayana Reddy and P.Govinda Reddy 
Management Matters, Vol.1, No.5, September 2002 

Work value preferences affect job satisfaction and job commitment. Work values are sub set of life values. Life values are intrinsic and enduring perspectives of what is fundamentally right or desirable.  Work values of employees affect corporate culture.  The knowledge of work values of information technology (I.T.) professionals will result in proper design of job attributes and selection process.

To measure work values, 28 constructs have been selected from Konrad et al. (2000). The relevance of each one of these constructs was discussed with five I.T. Professionals and a questionnaire was developed with these 28 items.  Each item is given seven responses with response one indicating “not at all important” and response seven indicating “very much important”.  The questionnaire was administrated to 107 I.T. professionals working in two different companies in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India and data were collected from them in the month of December 2001. 

The scores on the 28 constructs were factor analyzed with varimax rotation.  The factor analysis has condensed 28 constructs into eight orthogonal factors. 

1.      Professional skill development

2.      Authority and status

3.      Congenial social relationships

4.      Facilitating work environment

5.      Travel abroad

6.      Fringe benefits

7.      Job security

8.      Leisureliness in the job

The work value preferences are arranged according to values of means and standard errors. The I.T. professionals have rated the work value of professional skill development as the most important.  The next most important work value to them is job security.  Facilitating work environment, congenial social relationships, authority and status, fringe benefits, leisureliness in job and travel abroad are ordered on the basis of mean importance scores.

Z tests were conducted to test the significance of differences of mean importance scores between eight work values.  The difference in mean scores between the work values of professional skill development and job security is found to be significant at 95% confidence level (Z=3.4).  In addition, Z test indicated that professional skill development score is significantly higher in comparison to the mean scores of all other work values.  Professional skill development represents intrinsic work value.  The other seven work values represent extrinsic values.

Job security is not found to be significantly more important than facilitating work environment

(Z=0.44).  Job security is also not found to be significantly more important than congenial social relations (Z=0.82).  So, we club these three work values, namely, job security, facilitating work environment and congenial social relations as the set of work values which are second most important for the I.T. professionals.

Significant difference was found between the means of the work values of congenial social relations and authority and status (Z=2.2) at 95% confidence level.

There is no significant difference between authority between authority and status and fringe benefits (Z= 1.133).  Authority and status and fringe benefits are considered as third most important work values for the I.T. professionals.

There is no significant difference between the means of fringe benefits and leisureliness in the job (Z=1.979).  So leisureliness in the job is labeled as fourth most important work value.

There is no significant difference between the means of leisureliness in the job and travel abroad

(Z=1.884).  Travel abroad is considered as the least important work value among them.

I.T. companies shall focus on work values that are important for their employees.  Jobs in their organizations shall be designed with attributes that enhance employees’ professional skill development and that give employees job security, facilitating work environment and congenial social relationships.  The companies hall strive to match the important work values of their employees with the job attributes. Organizations shall upgrade their knowledge about the relative importance of their employees’ work values.

Family life among Information Technology professionals

Due to long hours of work at office combined with work pressure to complete the project within the time schedule may lead to tension among them. Some times, they have to work even after office hours from home to update their knowledge in the domain on which they work. Due to constant work pressure and tension, small adjustment problems are assuming serious proportions among some couples.  Interpersonal relations and peaceful family life are getting disturbed due to this.  In certain extreme situations, some of them  may end up with unexpected things.

Ocuupational Health hazards of Information Technology Professionals

People use different terms for the symptoms I.T. professionals’ experience in their occupation.  The terms normally used are Occupational Overuse Syndrome (OOS), Repetitive Strain Injury RSI), Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS), Computer Related Injury (CRI), Warrens Syndrome (WS), Cumulative Trauma Disorder (CTD), Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs)  etc.

Information Technology and Anthropology

Labour rules are not applied to information technology sector in India.  Thus, the employees in I .T. sector work upto 12 hours a day and some times even more. Long hours of operating computer lead to different health problems.  The I.T. employees are suffering from cervical spondalitis, back ache, pain in wrist and fingers, eye problems, constipation, piles and hemorrhoids.  Irregular food habits and sleep pattern due to work pressure and long hours of work also affect ther health in different ways.  They do not have time for regular physical excercise or even regular walking. Even at young age they are getting hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol.

Due to work pressure and long hours of working the employees are not able to spend much time with the family members.  Due to work pressure and tension, adjustment takes to backbenches in the family life.
Some times even simple difference of opinion may lead to conforntaion and conflict among them.  Some times, even it is leading to unpleasant things among some of the couples.  


There is a great need  for anthropologists to study the problems faced by the I.T. employees both at work place and at their residence and suggest remedial measures for their well being.


Dec 24, 2011
Technical support engineers working in Indian I.T.Companies have to work in night shifts when they are giving support for American clients. The unusual sleep timings due to night shifts is also disturbing their circadian rhythm of sleep patterns and to some extent their familial relations with other family members.

Jan 24, 2012
Online social networking is picking up. People started becoming members in many social networking sites and exchaning information. Business corporates are also thinking of using this media. Anthropologists should study this media to understand different sub cultures and interpersonal relations.

Jan 27, 2012
People started using Internet more time through desktops, labtops and mobile phones for different purposes. Since all the family membrs are busily using internet, little time is left for social interaction among them.

Feb 7, 2012
Only when Anthropologists become members in social networking sites and interact with other members, they will be in a position to do participant observation among them. Then they start analysing subcultures based on the interactions among members of these social networking sites.

March 5, 2012
Information Technology employees work for long hours in their offices and come home very late in the night.  After taking dinner, again they work for a few more hours in internet in order to cope up with the available knowledge in thier domain.  Due to this, they are starved of regular minimum sleeping hours daily.  This lack of sleep every day over a long period of time will lead to other health problems.  Information technology is revolutionizing different sectors in India. It is fetching foreign exchange to India and providing employment to Indians in India and as well as Abroad.   The employees in this sector are highly paid compared to other sectors. However, it is affecting health of the employees and also their family and marriage.