idlife is considered as the afternoon of life. The onset of this phase is characterized by stagnation in life and career.

Though concreteness regarding the timing of midlife is not present, it is typically seen as starting at age 40 and extending to age 60, but with vague and fuzzy boundaries (Staudinger &Bluck, 2001). This phase has been conceptualized as transitional in nature marked by a turbulent phase is often stressful. Managers are prone to career change decision during midlife (Louis, 1980). In the extant literature varied conceptualizations of midlife are available. Yet a standard definition of midlife is lacking, however certain common themes can be identified by a critical perusal of literature from diverse sources, as by 1970s the theme of midlife became interesting for not only psychoanalysts and psychologists but also to sociologists, medical and management researchers.

Nowadays, careers are increasingly characterized by discontinuity, interruptions, and reformulation (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996;Sullivan et al., 1998). Reasons for these changing career patterns include organizational changes such as corporate restructuring, globalization, and technological advancements (Cappelli& Associates, 1997; Coovert, 1995;Rosenthal, 1995) as well as demographic trends such as more working women, part-time workers, and dualearner couples (Feldman et.al., 1994;Grover, 1999;London &Greller, 1991). These changing trends suggest that new ways of viewing organizational careers may be necessary. In order to have sustainable HR strategy the organizations need to specifically focus on the stress levels of their senior managers who are in their midlife. A number of studies underscore that stress dramatically impacts the career satisfaction of men and women (Burke, 2000;Phillips-Miller et al., 2000).

The importance of middle-aged managers should not be ignored as expertise, imaginative thinking skills, venturesome personality, and intrinsic motivation are the highlights of midlife (Dziegielewski et. al., 2002).But this phase is also the onset of decline and that the main psychological task of midlife is to come to terms with this decline (Cohen, 2005). In terms of developmental task perspective, mid-life is defined as the period during which a "struggle" occurs between generativity and stagnation (Lachman, 2004). If left unattended this may give way to burnout, premature withdrawal from work, change of careers, feelings of loneliness in family life, perceived conflict between work/career and family life, feeling of low energy and weakening, anxiety over ageing and death, perceived discrepancy between aspiration and achievement, sense of loss and worthlessness (Lu, 2011).

In order to understand the stress associated with midlife it becomes imperative to explore its constructs. In this endeavour we employ Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) to simplify the complexity of this issue. As ISM methodology can reduce complexity of relationships among constructs and helps to impose order and direction (Sage, 1977). Through this paper we propose to develop a hierarchical model for midlife career stress. The levels of different constructs will be analysed and their interrelationships will be studied. The major objectives of this paper are as follows: a) To identify the key constructs of Midlife career stress. b) To develop a hierarchical model of the constructs using Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) in order to aid HR managers devise a proactive HR strategy.

II.

For most professions there are five career stages: entry level, maturation/assimilation, mid-career achievement, reassessment plateau and career fulfilment (Higgins & Duxbury, 2005). Middle age came to be associated with reassessment (Vries, 1999;) in general but with the coining of the term "midlife crisis" by Elliott Jaques in a paper published in 1965 it acquired a negative connotation for many years to come. It has become crucial for modern organizations to understand this distinct phase (Jung, 1933; in the career of their employees. Though middleaged managers are considered at their peak (Neugarten, 1968), they tend to experience biological, social and psychological changes (Pillari, 1998) which may be stressful. Detailed literature review and discussions with subject matter experts has led to the identification of twelve constructs of midlife career stress.

Plateauing refers to a perception of stagnation which the manager in the midlife feels. This may happen due to both professional as well as personal reasons, like, job characteristics, or inadequate skill set. Middle managerial work is largely routine, fragmented, segmented, and repetitive (Nilakant&Ramnarayan, 1990). Feeling of skill obsolescence is also common among middle aged executives (Vries, 1993;McCune et al., 1988;. During this phase the executive has a feeling of discontentment with his lifeboth personally and professionally (Choy &Savery, 1998). Employees who experience career plateau would think that their employers have forsaken their careers. Career ceilings lead to plateauing in workers and hence they become disillusioned with the job (Theriault, 1998) which results in increase in turnover intentions and dissatisfaction (Lee, 2002). Though employees at all levels are susceptible to the career blues, which occur when their work is rated good enough, but they devote neither all their time at work nor talents to their work (Clawson and Haskins, 2000), this may result in crisis for experienced and talented managers. Mentoring role have been found to moderate the plateauing process (Lentz & Allen, 2009). On the other hand those mangers who had a favourable attitude towards their current job and felt that growth was in the right direction were more satisfied and least likely to shift career (Lentz & Allen, 2009).

According to Jaques (1965) coming to terms with our mortality is the central developmental task of midlife. Adults in midlife start worrying about deterioration in health and various manifestations of ageing (Dziegiel-ewski et. al., 2002). Watching physiological changes in oneself compels middle adults to confront death as a not so distant possibility (Freund & Ritter, 2009). The MIDUS survey found that physical health had a significant positive as well as negative affect across the adult years (Brim et al., 2004). Heart attacks are common in midlife (Clark et. al., 2000). Physical changes in men like decreased hair growth, voice depth, deterioration of the sex glands, wrinkles, slowing blood circulation, sluggish digestion, and the vulnerability of the prostate to problems, , including prostate cancer, a slow response time, a decrease in cardiovascular efficiency are commonly observed (Dziegielewski et. al., 2002). The person has a tendency to hold stronger opinions owing to regrets over physical changes associated with ageing (Lee, 2009). These are potential stressors in midlife which can increase anxiety and depression.

This relates to the unrealized dreams that manager in the midlife has aspired for regarding his career and life. An insecurity concerning present accomplishments as well as long term plans and life goals creeps in (Nachbagaeuer&Riedl 2002). Career needs not be limited by organizational boundaries, hence, the manager need to think about his career success beyond those boundaries (Feldman and Ng, 2007). This would help him in achieving his career and life aspirations and a more enriching life. With time stress related with the current job and the lack of passion for the same tend to increase and at this juncture career and life aspirations should match the goal of self-actualization (Nathanson, 2006). Midlife career crisis is the phase when the individual is no longer motivated to go to the work, resulting in strained relationships with the colleagues and lack of confidence about delivering result (Khwaja, 2008). The expectations that one has at the beginning of career can influence the future career life cycle concerns. As the gap between the life and career aspirations of the individual widens, their organizational utility decreases (Jackson &Vitberg, 1987). Initially in a career managers find themselves busy establishing themselves. But as a person advances in his career, the career aspirations may come to the fore and it may lead to a desire for a career change (Veiga, 1983). The conflicts in life and life aspirations are related to outcomes such as job dissatisfaction, job burnout, and turnover (Frone et al., 1992;Greenhaus, 1988;Pleck et. al., 1980). Thus when the individual no longer wanted to follow the oft treaded path of career and life, he found himself at a stagnation stage (Amundson, 2003) d) Value Crisis At mid-life point there tends to be a change in values and goals which the individual strives for (Jung, 1933). At this time, men tend to become less instrumental and outward-oriented, experiencing a new interiority and interest in the expressive mode (Neugarten et al., 1964;Gutmann, 1969). In midlife a conflict between organizational and personal values occur (Lee, 2003). This transitional phase is characterized by reappraisal of one's past and modification of one's life structure . In this phase of midlife man has to change or adapt his personal beliefs, values, expectations, feelings, and ways of coping Ciernia, 1985;Wolfe et al., 1990) in order to build a new life structure. If left unattended crisis may give way to burnout, premature withdrawal from work, change of careers, feelings of loneliness in family life, perceived conflict between work/career and family life, feeling of low energy and weakening, anxiety over ageing and death, perceived discrepancy between aspiration and achievement, sense of loss and worthlessness (Lu, 2011). Further dissatisfaction may result in midlife depression (Goldstein, 2005;Kertzner, 2007). The process of value change need to be incorporated in any model of midlife stress.

Work-life/family balance is critical for adding satisfaction to career success (Greenhaus&Beutell, 1985;Thompson et. al., 1999). Regrets over spousal relationships and maturation of children may also trigger midcareer stress (Amundson, 2003). Work/family balance is fast becoming an area of concern for the mangers as well as employees (Hall, 1990). Family decision making, even in dual-earner marriages, is often heavily influenced by the individual who is the primary financial provider for the family (Heer, 1963;Markham, 1987;Russo, 1985). As such, when making major life decisions such as whether to accept a relocation opportunity, one partner's career interests typically supersede the other's interests (Duncan &Perrucci, 1976;Felmlee, 1984). Given this pattern, it is not surprising that anecdotal accounts of relocations often note that one partner repeatedly benefits whereas the other partner repeatedly loses (Wilson, 1999). Pay-offs for visible work-life balance support of employees include reduced leaving intentions through increased job satisfaction and reduction of work pressures (Forsyth, 2007). Work-life imbalance may have serious implications on the parenting, infertility and ageing (Broughet.al., 2008). There is no surprize that managers who were generally more balanced in their work and life, advance at a faster pace than the others (Lyness&Judiesch, 2008). Thus managers who are middle aged and don't have balance in their work and life are more likely to look for career change. Increased economic pressure on organizations has created greater work pressures and work-life imbalance for individuals (Brough&O'Driscoll 2005). The ability of work-life balance policies to actually influence some key social and organizational issues should not be ignored by the organizations.

Generativity refers to a psychosocial space linking the developing person and the evolving social world. Erikson (1959) described generativity as "primarily the concern in establishing and guiding the next generation". The need to leave a legacy becomes paramount towards the end of the career. After the individual has earned a decent standard of living for himself and his family, the dormant need to leave behind a legacy resurfaces. Usually midcareer change is about leaving a legacy and a more self-fulfilling life (Leider, 1976). Midlife is a phase of reassertion and having gained enough experience a dormant need to mentor others comes to the fore. The self-actualization need of the individual motivates them to share their experience with the society and be remembered as a contributor.

The thoughts of changing job or career are common in midlife. But treading into an altogether new path is scary. This trip into the unknown may bring to the fore newer and unforeseen challenges. Also, they may face the pain of not getting the pay check. Such impediments can deter the manager from making a career change decision. Bosses, peers, subordinates as also family may deter them from making a desired career move (Levinson, 1977). The fear of unemployment is also a deterrent. Impediments to career changemay be the personal life standing such as children's career, difficulty to relocate may pose a threat to making a desired move (Swanson, 2003).The restraining forces in the midcareer change decision include the impediments for the career growth like career success of children being more important than one's own career, relocation decisions, aging, conflict between career and life aspirations, perceived change in the lifestyle, negative reaction from the peers, superiors and subordinates etc. (Levinson, 1977;Ibarra, 2002; McKee-Ryan et. al., 2005). The absence of a roadmap for the career shift also hinders this growth.Those who intend to change career, and are not able to do so because of certain factors, may experience more stress. Thus all these factors need to be taken into account once a decision is to be made.

Researchers have reported that personality may moderate or mediate the relationship between stressors and stress (Hurrell, 2005;Lazarus, 1993). Classification of individuals between Type A and Type B have helped in the study of individual differences and estimation of how an individual may reacts to environmental challenges and threats (Ivancevich& Matteson, 1984). Experience of stress at midlife may be determined by the perceptions which are shaped by the type of personality. For instance aggressive and hostile response may be expected form Type As (Cooper et. al., 1994;Friedman, 1967;Jamal, 1990;Rosenman& Chesney, 1985) when faced with stressful events. Other measure of personality like Conscientiousness positively related to job performance (Barrick& Mount, 1991; Salgado, 1997). For middle-aged managers experience of transition can prove taxing if there is a mismatch with personality traits.

The crisis can be triggered by anything, ranging from disruptive life events such as death of a loved one, especially parents to mere nostalgia (Levinson, 1986). Negative events in life can result in stress and depressive systems (Kuiper & Martin, 1998;Tesser& Beach, 1998). Middle adulthood is a busy period and a person may come across adverse events which can have a deep and lasting impact on his/her psychology. Events like divorce, trouble within family, legal entanglement, death of a close one, etc? can became a precipitating point for the onset of midlife crisis. j) Spiritual Quotient Spirituality is defined as the pursuit for meaning and purpose in life (Atchley, 1997;Wink & Dillon, 2002). 'A shift in meta-perspective from a materialistic and pragmatic view of the world to a more cosmic and transcendent one' (Tornstam, 1997) may be experienced by middle-aged managers. For managers in midlife spirituality may be psychologically beneficial (Landis, 1996;Laubmeier et. al., 2004;Simoni& Ortiz, 2003). Spirituality is positively related to happiness and self-esteem (Fry, 2000) and often act as cushion against negative affective outcomes (Simoni& Ortiz, 2003; Fabricatore et. al., 2000). Positive psychologists argue that positive religious coping styles help improve positive effect (Bush et al., 1999). k) Organizational culture Work culture is also a key determinant of midcareer stress. Physical as well as psychological stress has been often caused due to workload (Hurrell, 2005). Stress and job factors are among the most powerful determinants of mid-career satisfaction (Auster&Ekstein, 2004). Organizational culture with low levels of decentralization and high levels of formalization is negatively associated with increased managerial performance (Joiner, 2001). Organizational policies related to succession and development of midlife managers holds the key for the organizations. Organizational factors which include culture as well as role related ones have the potential to become daily stressors for midlife managers.

All aspects of occupational stress are impacted by social context (Bliese&Jex, 2002). At midlife a reevaluation of close interpersonal relationships takes place (Sarfaty, 2010). Having spent considerable time as a working professional middle-aged managers can acquire a fairly decent social circle. Progress in career can have a direct relationship with social support and relations (Phillips et. al., 2001). A turbulent transition for many executives, turning to siblings (Schultheiss et. al., 2002) and close acquaintances (Bozionelos, 2003;Higgins &Kram, 2001;Seibert et al., 2001) for emotional support and career development assistance can just be the apt medicine. This kind of assistance can positively impact career success (Allen et. al., 2004) and act as a buffer against stress. Individuals with more close relationships can have access to more social resources (Granovetter, 1973;Seibert et al., 2001), which in turn are crucial for a smooth midlife transition. III.

In order to accomplish the research objectives, interpretive structural modelling is employed. ISM was developed by Warfield (1973) in order to help structure the issues involved into a hierarchy. It is a process which can aid a group of people in evolving a consensus based hierarchical model based on their collective knowledge. It further simplifies the complexity involved by establishing interrelationships among issues at hand. In this way it helps overcome the limits of human brain where the problem is complex and number of elements is significant (Waller, 1975). Though it is primarily used by groups, but individuals can also apply it (Sharma et al, 1995, Faisal, 2010). In other words, ISM results into a structural model based on the interpretations of the group members when dealing with complex issues. Social Capital Enter V-When the row influences the column. A-When the column influences the row. X-When row and column influence each other. O-When there is no relation.

Figure 2 was presented to a group of experts comprising both academicians and practitioners. Three experts from academics having stress management as their research area were part of the group, along with three midlife managers from the area of training and development. All the experts were themselves in their midlife, and had familiarity with the issues of midlife. The latest available literature related to midlife career stress and related themes was supplied to the group befor-ehand. After a thorough discussion and minor modifications, twelve constructs of midlife career stress were agreed upon. A contextual relationship of "leads to" type was chosen.

Based on contextual relationship for each construct, the existence of a relation between any two constructs (i and j) and the associated direction of the relation is investigated. This results in the formation of SSIM (Table 2).

By substituting 1 and 0 in place of V, A, X and O in the SSIM, initial reachability matrix is formed. Following conversion rules apply: After transformation, the final reachability matrix is worked out, presented in Table 3. In this matrix the driving power and the dependence of each construct are also indicated. The driving power of a particular construct is the total number of constructs (including itself) that it influences. The dependence is the total number of constructs (including itself) which may be impacting it. These driving powers and dependency values will be used in classification of constructs in the MICMAC analysis (Godet, 1986(Godet, , 1987)), where these constructs shall be classified into four categories, namely autonomous, dependent, linkage and independent.

Level partitioning is done in order to classify the constructs into different levels of the ISM structure. A reachability set (Ri) that is a set of all the constructs that can be reached form the construct Ci, and antecedent set (Ai), that is a set of all the constructs that construct Ci can be reached by, are formed from the final reachability matrix (Warfield, 1974). Then the intersection of these sets are derived for all the constructs. In the first iteration, all constructs for which the reachability and intersection set are the same are considered as toplevel constructs. In successive iterations, the constructs identified as level constructs in the previous iterations are deleted and the new constructs are selected using the same rule. In this way all the constructs are arranged in a topological order. The issues at midlife are complex as well as inter-related. Taking these issues in isolation will present an oblique picture of the phenomenon. However, combining these issues into a model shall aid the management in better understanding of the underlying causes of the stress. A directional graph referred to as digraph, is a graphical representation of the constructs specifying their directed relationships and hierarchical levels. The digraph is modified accounting for all the transitivities and conceptual inconsistency. Finally, by replacing construct numbers with the actual construct description we arrive at the ISM model. Matriced'Impactscroises-multiplication appliqúe an classment (cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification) is abbreviated as MICMAC. The purpose of this analysis is to analyse the driver power and the dependence of the variables (Mandal andDeshmukh, 1994, Faisal andRahman, 2008). This analysis classifies the constructs into four clusters, namely: g) Autonomous constructs These constructs have weak drive power and weak dependence power. They are relatively disconnected from the system, with which they have few links, which may be very strong. i.

These constructs have weak drive power but strong dependence power.

ii.

These constructs have strong drive power as well as strong dependence power. These constructs are unstable in the fact that any action on these factors will have an effect on others and also a feedback effect on themselves.

iii.

These constructs have strong drive power but weak dependence power.

A construct with a very strong drive power, called the 'key construct' falls into the category of driver or linkage construct.

The results indicates that midlife career stress as a phenomenon does not have autonomous constructs. It suggests that no construct can be considered disconnected from the whole process and the management has to pay attention to all the identified stressors of midlife career stress. In the driver clustering we have critical life events, personality and organizational culture. These stressors have high driving power and low dependence, which indicates that these constructs may be treated as the root of midlife stress. There can be little control over occurrence of negative events in life but the response to stress depends on the personality as well as on the sensitivity of the organization towards midlife issues of their employees. This clearly outlines the importance of organizational climate and HR policy of the organization. Linking the needs of the midlife managers to training and development is critical for reducing midlife attrition as well as increasing on job satisfaction. Creatively engaging midlife managers through mentoring roles, "Stretch assignments", or out-of-comfort zone stretch targets, have been found to enhance motivation, performance, and creative decision-making (Thompson, Hochwarter, &Mathys, 1997). Profiling personality of middle managers may also help in effective designing of stress management interventions.

In the dependent cluster, we have two constructs, namely, impediments to change and generativity concern. They have little driving power but high dependence. Generativity concern, surely depends on individual aspirations, personality as well as spiritual orientation of the person. Impediments to change, too is dependent on variety of issues ranging from perception about health to social support. Spiritual orientation, social capital, value crisis, work-life balance, health and death concerns, and plateauing forms the linkage cluster. These stressors are the ones which are influenced by lower level stressors and in turn impact other constructs in the model. This is particularly true for work-life balance and social capital. In today's high pressure working environment middle managers may feel stretched to limits, causing an imbalance between work and family life. This will have its reflection on interpersonal as well as intrapersonal demeanour of the manager.

Contemporary midlife is characterized by expanding diversity in roles, relationships, and resources (Moen &Wethington, 1999), due to which organizations are faced with problems of higher midlife attrition, social loafing and uncertainty. Midlife employees', who are supposed to be most productive and loyal, are stressed out. The model developed in this paper helps to answer these questions and provides an understanding of mutual relationships among the stressors. The importance of this approach from an organizational standpoint is the emergence of this logical flow of causal influences that is not only logically consistent but is also a view that is owned and shared by the people experiencing midlife. It provides an opportunity to the management to integrate midlife issues in a wider context of the stress management. The main contributions of this research include the following:

? In this paper, an attempt has been made to identify the important constructs of midlife career stress. Although a large amount of literature is available on midlife crisis, most of this is scattered across different disciplines lacking an actionable insight for the management. This research assumes importance because it discusses stressors specific to midlife in the context of today's turbulent business environment. ? A key finding of this research is that critical life events, personality and organizational culture are the primary sources of stress during midlife.

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Profiling personality of midlife managers, sensitizing HR policy towards their needs and creatively enriching their job experience is critical. ? The stressors with high driving powers have more of a strategic orientation and there are other dependent constructs being affected by them. Thus, management should accord prime importance to these stressors. ? There are many linkage stressors and this throws light on the interdependence of these issues. ? The ISM model presented in this paper for analysing and representing relationships among the stressors in midlife is simple and easy to understand for both management and the individuals experiencing such stress.

V.

Midlife employees are not only experienced but also ripe for taking on leadership roles in the organization. Organizations which can manage its most critical resource i.e. humans in an efficient and proactive manner can gain a lasting competitive edge. The objective must be to strategically incorporate the identified issues and design a robust HR policy. In order to design and implement an effective stress management intervention, organizations need to focus on the organizational culture which may be unconsciously contributing to this stress, such as inefficient communication, role-ambiguity, poor or no succession planning, poor employee engagement, etc?Once such a policy is in place, it is imperative that the system should maintain its strategic focus. Finally, instead of reacting to stress related issues, which is the prevalent practice, the authors recommend a proactive and dynamic approach focussing on long-tern quality of life of their employees.

In this study, only 12 stressors are identified for modelling midlife career stress. Further, the model does not incorporate culture or industry specific stressors. In future research, more extensive studies are needed to explore constructs affecting midlife career stress. The help of experts has been sought to analyse the driving power and dependence of the constructs, but the framework developed depends on the opinion of relatively few experts and may have some element of bias. Through ISM, a logical model of constructs of midlife career stress has been developed but this model has not been statistically validated. Future researchers may apply path analysis or structural equation modelling approaches to test such a hypothesized model.