Mrs. Batra has been working in the administration department of a hospital in Mumbai for the last 20 years. She is highly dedicated to her job and has a very good rapport with her superiors and co-workers. About eight months ago, she was promoted into the upper ranks of management and was assigned to the supply department of the hospital as a manager. Everybody was happy for her and congratulated her on her promotion. The employees in this new department welcomed her and promised her all the cooperation. Mrs. Batra finds the job very challenging and psychologically rewarding. She is a very good manager and an interesting person. Everyone in her department likes to come to work because Mrs. Batra makes the day interesting. Since she became the manager, absenteeism is down by over 20 per cent. She has very pleasant personality and is always available to help her subordinates. She is efficient, responsible and responds to all communication in timely manner. She attends all meetings fully prepared to discuss all issues under consideration. This she was at least until last month. During the last month, she seems to have changed considerably for the worse. Both her superiors and her subordinates find her behavior strange. She is not as polite and amicable as she used to be. Last week she missed a very important meeting of the top administrators. She was requested to research an issue and prepare the material to present at the weekly meeting. She did not do so. She is often late to work and does not take much interest in the communication she receives from superiors and other departments and does not respond to these memorandums in a timely manner. She has become aloof and seems tired most of the time. The Director of the hospital, Mr. Verma, noticed this change in her behavior early and has been covertly monitoring her behavior for the last three weeks. Early today, Mr. Verma had a talk with one of the in-house psychiatrists explaining Mrs. Batra’s changing work behavior patterns. The psychiatrist, Dr. Rekhi suggested that perhaps she has been over-working herself and takes the job too seriously. Mr. Verma suggested to Dr. Rekhi that he should talk to Mrs. Batra and find out if there were any difficult situations at home that might be affecting her behavior. Mrs. Batra has been married for over 20 years and has no children. Mr. Verma is concerned that Mrs. Batra ought to get help before she suffers a total collapse. Dr. Rekhi promised to do so. Source: Richard M. Hodgetts, Organizational Behaviour, MacMillan Publishing Company, 1991, adopted from “Organizational Behavior”, 3rd Edition, 2005. Edited by Jit S. Chandan, Published by Vikas Publishing House, New Delhi.

a. Given the information above, what social challenges could be affecting Mrs. Batra’s work? Justify your answer. 

b. What steps would you take to assist Mrs. Batra upon realizing that all her problems caused her to burnout?