Statement of Purpose

Mehak (mehakahuja1419@gmail.com)

Postgraduation opened my eyes to the excitement and broader benefits of research. I had a chance
to talk to professors about their journey and observed enthusiastic young professors who were
doing research by side. All my observations and curiosity inspired me to take up the challenge of
Ph.D. I have been a topper throughout my school life and then in college too. I would love to
combine all my studies to discover new knowledge. My idea of PhD has been to get the necessary
foundation right for lifetime career and research.

I always aspired to get into IIMs for research. IIM Udaipur gives due emphasis on research and is
rated 4th among Indian Business schools based on research published in leading global journals.
Moreover, my research interest is matching with the professors who are already there in the
institute.

We all have been reading people almost all our life by watching their actions and interpreting what
we see or by trying to predict what people might do under different conditions. I want to know the
organizations and their people. I am keen to research with people. I understand my own personality
and I feel that I am interested in knowing about human beings, how humans behave in their lives.
OB/HRM has become the gradual love for me as I have studied these subjects during graduation and
post-graduation. My interest in OB/HRM led me to explore some research papers and I got a
research idea of understanding the connections between work stress and work performance in the
presence of moderators. Work stress has been a widely researched topic but I want to target the less
researched area within this topic. I want to pick the new relevant variables related to work that can
be the causes of stress impacting the performance. Workplace of 21st century is expeditious and
ever-changing giving rise to stress. Learning becomes better with experiences. Stress is part of our
lives, we live with it, deal with it and above all worry about it. After reading some of the papers and
books, I found that work from home, goal conflict, workplace bullying and favouritism can be the
factors causing stress and are not or less researched. These factors have an effect on employees’
performance. I am interested in finding out various moderators affecting the causality between work
stress and work performance. It would contribute to the new mechanisms linking stress and work
performance. The study would extend the limited body of research that has examined the
underlying mechanism in the stress-performance relationships. There is a large spectrum of negative
stress and related aspects. Sadly, while plumbing the depths of what is worst in life, psychology has
lost its connection to the positive side of life – the knowledge about what makes human life most
worth living, most fulfilling, most enjoyable and most productive. (Martin E. P. Seligman, 1998). How
can we relate it to positive psychology is a matter of concern which needs to be unearthed.

Overall, I am fascinated with OB/HRM and very much enjoy research. My fascination with research
will provide me with the necessary ambition to succeed in Fellowship program of IIM Udaipur, while
my extensive coursework and preparation will provide me with the necessary skills to achieve
success in fellowship program.

My future goal is to be an active and productive member of research community writing research
papers and getting them published. Doing PhD is like opening doors of knowledge leading to a whole
new world of research, I want to be equipped with reading new books, new authors and building
new theories. By the time I will finish my PhD, I should be able to understand the literature and to
write and teach well. I want to gain experience as a professor. I want to understand my subject in
depth and do myself widest scope of understanding. Further I want to pursue post-doctoral degree
and continue doing research for life.