Committee Chair

Cunningham, Christopher J. L.

Committee Member

Weathington, Bart L.; O'Leary, Brian J.

Department

Dept. of Psychology

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Abstract

This study focuses on the challenges faced by Indian expatriates working in the IT industry in the USA. It specifically examines participants’ work-nonwork role relationship quality, identity salience, and break taking behaviors. The sample for this study consisted of 415 Indian expatriates working in the IT industry. A computational tool called PROCESS was used to test the path analysis-based moderation and mediation analyses and their integrated form of conditional process models to determine whether work-nonwork role relationship quality mediates the relationship between work-related stressor and wellbeing. The relationships among work-related stressors, work-nonwork role relationship quality, and wellbeing were examined, while also considering the conditioning effects of identity salience and break taking behavior. Results showed that work-nonwork role relationship quality completely conditioned the relationship between work-related stressors and wellbeing. Identity salience and break taking behaviors also reduced the strength of this relationship. The present study serves as a starting point to investigate further the complex relationships involving stressors, work/nonwork roles, work/nonwork identity salience, and break taking behaviors among Indian expatriates. The results of this study may also help American companies understand complex work/nonwork role relationship challenges faced by this specialized workforce.

Acknowledgments

I would like to express my gratitude to my thesis advisor Dr. Chris Cunningham for his direction, patience, encouragement and for having faith in my abilities in completing my thesis project. I am grateful to him for giving me an opportunity to learn concepts in psychology and gain insights on academic research. My sincere thanks also go to my thesis committee members Dr. Brian O'Leary and Dr. Bart Weathington for their support and valuable feedback regarding this project. I would like to acknowledge and thank Michelle Pelfrey and Susan Long for their administrative assistance. I am thankful to the department of Industrial-Organizational psychology at University of Tennessee Chattanooga (UTC) for providing a warm and supportive environment which has helped me grow as a person. My sincere thanks to the Indian expatriate community in the USA for their support and participation in this study. I also value the support of Provost student research award funds provided by UTC which helped reward my participants. I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Narasimhan (Founder of Indian Professional Network and Board member of Georgia Indo- American Chamber of Commerce), Dr. Sanjeeva Reddy (President of North American Telugu Association) and Mr. and Mrs. Pradeep Vittalmurthy (President of Atlanta Kannada Koota, North American Kannada Association) for helping in recruiting participants for this study. Last but not the least I would like to thank my parents Vijayakumar and Mahalakshmi, brother Avinash, in-laws Madhvesh and Bharathi, relatives, and friends for their love, support, and well wishes.

Degree

M. S.; A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Science.

Date

5-2015

Subject

Adjustment (Psychology); Identity (Psychology); Identification (Psychology); Intercultural communication; Aliens -- Cultural assimilation -- United States

Keyword

Identity Salience; breaks; minibreaks; work-life balance; expatriates; Indian; Information technology

Discipline

Industrial and Organizational Psychology

Document Type

Masters theses

DCMI Type

Text

Extent

xi, 82 leaves

Language

English

Rights

https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

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