137 STRESS MANAGEMENT IN SERVICE SECTOR: A CASE STUDY OF LIFE INSURANCE CORPORATION OF INDIA Sanjay Bahl, PhD, Director Principal Sai Institute of Management, India Backdrop The advent of technological revolution in all walks of life coupled with globalization and privatization has drastically changed conventional patterns of working in all sectors of economy including services. The Insurance business, forming a part of financial services sector has also undergone swift and striking policy changes during the recent past, due to globalization and liberalization. These policy changes have resulted in competition, downsizing of work force, introduction of new technologies, multi-role training and new techniques of performance appraisal systems etc, which in turn have influenced and transformed the existing working orientation of employees in this sector. These changes in working orientation and relationships have resulted in various kinds of stressors. Scenario remains the same across all the segments of insurance viz. life as well as general. The 1990s saw radical policy changes with regard to setting up of Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), with a view to incorporate structural changes in Life Insurance Corporation of India, so as to prepare Life Insurance Corporation to cope with the new economic world order. With the Insurance sector opened to the private sector, national and multinational Insurance companies, the Life Insurance Corporation of India – the public player in this sector, is facing intense competition. Many big industrial houses like HDFC, ICICI, Reliance, Birla, Tata, Bajaj, Kotak-Mahindra etc. have already started making strong inroads in Insurance sector, with their attractive Insurance schemes. Also, these private companies have entered the market with corporate identity and professional customer orientation, which is posing a threat to Life Insurance Corporation of India in terms of market share. Clearly, therefore, globalization and privatization led policies have compelled the Life Insurance Sector to reform and adjust to have a competitive edge to cope with multinationals’ led environment. Again, the advent of technological changes, especially extensive use of computers in the sector has changed the work pattern of the Life Insurance Corporation’s employees and has made it inevitable to downsize the work force in the organization. The implications of the above said transformations have affected the social, economic and psychological domains of the employees and their relations. All these factors / issues discussed above are prospective attributes to cause job / occupational stress and related disorders among the Life Insurance Corporation employees. Thus, in view of the existing scenario, strive and effort for challenges of optimum growth and effectiveness for Life Insurance Corporation of India, becomes much more intense and competitive, calling for the interventions to manage the stress involved herein this process. Stress as defined by Selye (1956), who was the first to introduce the concept of stress into the Life Science in 1936, reads as “The force, pressure, or strain exerted upon a material object or person which resists these forces and attempts to maintain its original state." Thus, job stress can be defined as the harmful physical and emotional