IMPACT OF JOB STRESS DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND ITS EFFECTS ON

EMPLOYEES’ JOB PERFORMANCE: A STUDY ON BANKING SECTOR IN

COLOMBO DISTRICT OF SRI LANKA

Ekanayake, I W1 & Pathirana, K P J M2

[email protected]

[email protected]

ABSTRACT

Employees are the most precious resource in every organization. Without competent employees, no
institution can succeed to beat its competitors. The success of any organization depends on the
employees’ performance. However, job stress is a frequent problem in the workplace, and it directly
impacts the job performance. Banking sector is not an exceptional one. An adverse level of stress affects
overall performance of the bank. For optimum performance to be attained, stress should not be too high
nor too low. It must be at a tolerable level which the employee can manage. The Sri Lankan economy,
which experienced a potential growth in recent years, encountered renewed challenges amidst the
outbreak of COVID-19. Most individuals in the banking sector had to work in an extremely competitive
environment during COVID 19 pandemic. This research has been conducted to assess the impact of job
stress during COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on employees’ job performance. This study was carried
out in the Colombo District of Sri Lanka, with the objectives to identify the factors that are responsible
for job stress of bankers during COVID-19 pandemic, to investigate the effect of job stress on bank
employees’ job performance during COVID-19 pandemic and to find out the relationship between job
stress during COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on employees’ job performance of the banking sector in
Sri Lanka. The sample for this study is 150 bank employees in Colombo District of Sri Lanka. The
research was carried out according to the quantitative method while aiming at non-executive employees at
public sector banks. Results of the study was analyzed using SPSS. Correlations and coefficient are
carried out to determine the relationship between variables. To test the effect of stress over performance,
a regression analysis is carried out. The findings of the study show a significant negative relationship on
the employees’ job performance regarding the factors of fear of infection, sense of isolation, different
workspace, and schedule. It revealed that stress due to COVID-19 pandemic has made an impact on the
performance of the employees of banking industry. The research concludes by outlining limitations and
providing directions for future research.

Key Words: COVID-19 pandemic, Banking Sector, Employees’ Job Performance, Job Stress

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INTRODUCTION

British Colonial rulers commenced the banking industry in Sri Lanka for the comfort of their trading in
1880’s. Until 1948, there was a liberal economic system in Sri Lanka which had minimum direct
government participation in economic activities. Direct government intervention in the banking industry
began after the country gained its independence from Britain in 1948. The State Council of Ceylon has
approved for the establishment of a National Bank in Ceylon in 1934. Accordingly, Bank of Ceylon
(BOC) was established in 1939. In 1950, Government of Sri Lanka established the Central Bank of Sri
Lanka as the main regulatory body which governs the financial services sector. Financial reforms in Sri
Lanka began in 1977 with the introduction of open economic policies. The trade liberalization has
increased the demand for funds. With the relaxation of entry barriers, a number of foreign banks and
private banks has entered the system (Wanniarachchige & Suzuki, 2010). Although the banking sector
reformations started in 1977, the expansion of the banking sector with respect to the number of branches,
and credit and transaction volumes subsequently occurred. Currently, the banking sector in Sri Lanka
comprises of 26 Licensed Commercial Banks (LCBs) and 6 Licensed Specialized Banks (LSBs) which
dominates the financial system. The banking sector continued to support the financial intermediation of
the economy by enhancing banking services and expanding the banking network, thereby promoting
financial inclusion (Annual Report of CBSL, 2019). Competition among banks is growing day by day
thus it increases the levels of stress among employees. The banking sector is particularly well-deserved of
a specific and systematic analysis, in view of the recent growth in psycho-social disorders of employees.
Bankers are under a great deal of stress and due to many aspects of stress such as overload of work, role
ambiguity, role conflict, responsibility for people, participation, lack of feedback, keeping up with rapid
technological change, being in an innovative role, career development, organizational structure and
climate, and recent discontinuous events (Bashir & Ramay, 2010). An adverse level of stress affects
overall performance of the Bank. For optimum performance to be attained, stress should not be too high
nor too low. It must be at a tolerable level which the employee can manage and excel in his/her
performance (Fonkeng, 2018).

Recently, coronavirus (COVID-19) which is an infectious disease that is dangerous to public health has
taken the world by storm. During the COVID-19 outbreak, all the organizations were forced to shut its
regular working process and start the official work through the digitalization process with the help of
technologies. As per new political and social rules, emergency action plans were executed like; work
from home (Ince, 2020). It was a great challenge for the organizations to handle the impact of the
COVID-19 outbreak as well as employees. Now the challenge is employee's safety and their performance
(Carnevale et al., 2020). During the current COVID-19 pandemic, to keep the operation going, businesses
are forced to move to ‘Work from Home’ (WFH) mode for their employees, wherever possible. COVID-
19 impacts business organizations and economy in a negative way, this has also forced companies to look
at alternative way to run operations through remote connection and adoption of digital technologies
(Kaushik & Guleria, 2020). However, COVID-19 pandemic has compounded the prevailing challenges
related with stress and anxiety in the workplace (Rahman et al., 2020). For some, the experiences of
working in public during a global pandemic raise considerable health and safety anxieties. For others,
working from home involves disputes of its own. They even now find themselves unemployed and in
serious financial straits, which severely contributes to stress and anxiety as well (Hamid et al., 2020).

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Further, COVID-19 pandemic has developed a pressure on the banking system which is growing and
getting higher day by day (Moorthi et al., 2020). Banking sector, as the backbone of the country’s
economy, has played an important role in the safeguarding the economy. In this regard, banks have
implemented some precautions and procedures at all their branches. With these new implements, bank
employees are under a great deal of stress due to COVID-19 pandemic and each banker in their work is
exposed to anxiety. Since banking sector is an essential and unavoidable service, bank employees were
supposed to work on a compulsory basis (Moorthi et al., 2020). Bankers are working long hours to cover
for sick colleagues or run additional shifts. Bank workers are concerned about the fact that they will get
the virus and bring it home to family members. The work environment and mandates change every day.
Bank employees cannot allow the time to relax and they are confronted with work diversity,
discrimination, delegation, and contradictory duties. Amongst this stress, the banking people worked
unhindered to guarantee customer service without interruption (Moorthi et al., 2020). When considering
the above stress factors, a very little research has been done so far. Therefore, this study will be able to fill
the gap by investigating about stressors which arise due to COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on
bankers’ performance.

RESEARCH ISSUE

Without competent employees, no institution can succeed to beat its competitors. The success of any
organization depends on the employees’ performance (Bashir & Ramay, 2010). In today’s dynamic
environment, Banks play an important role in the process of economic development and improving the
social welfare through its involvement in mobilizing and investing majority of the savings of the society
(Wanniarachchige & Suzuki, 2010). Also, the changes in the banking policy reflect not only on the
economy of the nation and customers but also on the employees (Moorthi et al., 2020). Sri Lankan
banking industry is not an exception to this. It dominated the financial sector accounting for 62.1 per cent
of total assets in the financial system (Annual Report of CBSL, 2019). Banks as the major segment of the
financial sector, exhibited resilience amidst a challenging business environment prevailed both global and
domestic contexts, by maintaining capital and liquidity well above the regulatory minimum requirements
(Annual Report of CBSL, 2019). Thus, in the bank dominant Sri Lankan financial system, the
maintenance of the efficiency of banking system remains a critical concern in facilitating economic
growth (Wanniarachchige & Suzuki, 2010). Most individuals in the banking sector had to work in an
extremely competitive environment during COVID 19 pandemic. Banks are also expected higher
productivity and it may cause to burden employees with overload of work to meet deadline (Moorthi et
al., 2020). Further, it seems that during a pandemic outbreak, especially in the case of an unknown new
virus, individuals’ mental health issues can sometimes be largely overlooked (Hamouche, 2020).
Furthermore, this might have psychological and physical effects on the bank employees which may result
in something contrary to what these banks want to achieve. Ensuring employee health through the
prevention and control of the pandemic does ensure smooth running of the operations of the organization
(Opatha, 2020). Thus, it is necessary to conduct research to find out the main factors on employee stress
due to COVID-19 pandemic and suggest ways to overcome the problem of employee stress among bank
employees. Even though there are many research to identify the stress of employees due to various
factors, there is still limited literature on employee stress arising due to COVID19 pandemic in
developing countries like Sri Lanka. This study is aimed to minimize the gap between effect of stress and
employee performance during COVID-19 pandemic in literature and it will setup the basis of
understanding of human resource management during pandemic situations.

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LITERATURE REVIEW

COVID-19 Pandemic

The current novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) that has taken the world by storm is an infectious disease that
is dangerous to public health (Rahman et al., 2020). Hamid et al. (2020) stated that COVID-19 spread out
to the entire world very quickly. Because of the rapid spread of coronavirus, all the organizations and
businesses had to lockdown overnight. From June to July 2020, many countries open its organization and
start its production with ‘new normal’ rules. It has been observed in Sri Lanka that the government-
imposed curfew to curb with Corona during the crisis time especially in March and April 2020 (Opatha,
2020). The curfew which is an environmental stressor resulted in repercussions such as severe traffic,
very long queues to buy foods and other goods and services, separations from loved ones and relatives,
financial difficulties, higher cost of living due to inflated prices of goods and services, and quarrels with
customers, sellers, healthcare personnel, and police personnel. Also, the domestic and global outbreak of
COVID-19 posed a significant hindrance to service delivery and development activities pertaining to the
economic and social infrastructure in the country. Public transport activities in Sri Lanka were severely
affected by the imposition of island wide lockdown from mid-March to mid-May (Central Bank of Sri
Lanka, 2020).

Job Stress

Job stress has been described in numerous ways throughout these years. Job stress is an outcome or
response to certain stimuli in the environment (Vijayan, 2017). Ratnawat & Jha (2014) stated that the
definition of stress has changed over the years. Initially it was considered as environmental pressure, then
strain within the person. Stress is a psychological and physical state that result when the resources of the
individual are not sufficient to cope with the demands and pressures of the situation. According to Bashir
& Ramay (2010), stress is a dynamic state in which a person is confronted with an opportunity, demand,
or resource related to what the individual wishes for and for which the outcome is perceived to be both
vague and vital. Khuong & Yen (2016) explained that organizations have finally recognized the fact that
because of job stress, lots of human potentials are being disappeared. Almost every employee says that
they are under high stress at workplace. Hence, job stress is one of biggest problems in the global world.
Vijayan (2017) stated that job stress is a double-edged sword, and it can be both productive and
counterproductive. Ratnawat & Jha (2014) explained that in the day-to-day life however, stress is only
negative. Stress can be managed better if one knows the stressors or sources of stress. Priya & Soni
(2017) found that job stress is a frequent problem in the workplace and it impacts directly on the job
performance. It takes a holistic picture of surroundings of job stress by including the effects of
personality. According to them, there are two types of stress either positive or negative, depending on
one’s perception. Jayasinghe & Mendis (2017) stated that stress is the response of a person to a stimulus
that disturbs physical or mental equilibrium. Further, stress will encompass a positive impression on
workers only with a particular amount at which a worker can handle, however, mostly it exceeds the
tolerable limits and has a negative impact on workers (Khuong & Yen, 2016).

Causes of job stress during COVID-19 pandemic

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There are numerous factors that can have effects on job stress during COVID-19 and employee
performance. There are many antecedents of stress that are mostly used by researchers, but the field of
this study is during COVID-19 pandemic, this research will focus on four factors that are fear of
infection, work overload, sense of isolation and different workspace, schedule.

Fear of infection

Fear of infection can be defined as an unfavorable feeling the employee has when he or she thinks that he
or she is in danger due to Corona. Negatively and directly or indirectly all employees in all organizations
in the world were affected, are being affected, and will be affected by Corona (Opatha, 2020). It is normal
to fear coronavirus as it spreads without touching. But with ‘new normal’ rules it is possible to minimize
the risk. All the organizations are implementing these rules to minimize the risk as well as the fear of
employees. Thus, employees can perform better without any fear at workplaces (Solis et.al., 2020).
Organizations can ask their employees to stay at home while they are ill or if they show the symptoms of
coronavirus (fever, cough, sore throat, and shortness of breath etc.). This attempt will ensure that other
employees in the organization are not at risk of being infected by corona and avoid presenteeism which
means that employees come to work while they are ill and do not work productively (Opatha, 2020). This
makes other employees to work confidently at office. Further, employee’s awareness of COVID-19 is
very important in terms of performing works. Employees must know safety measures, their attitude needs
to be positive about the changes, and at last employees need to practice safety measures to minimize the
threat of coronavirus. Then they will feel comfortable working without being frightened at the workplace
(Das, 2020). Begum & Mobeen (2020) found that a significant number of employees are also having
trouble due to the non-availability of appropriate transportation facility because public transport is not
available in lockdown. This condition, if prevails further, may cause employee demotivation, reduced
productivity, and economic slowdown in the long run. Hamid et al. (2020) stated that social distancing is
one of the major changes that employees have in the workplace. Most employees agree that using masks
affects their communication during performing work at the organization. Also, maintaining hand hygiene
is quite difficult for the employees while following and giving full concentration on work. Since they had
to wash their hands from time to time and use sanitizer to avoid the possible risk of coronavirus that could
spread from materials (Hamid et al., 2020).

Work overload

Work overload is one of the major factors which affects the productivity of employees and efficiency. Job
stress caused by high workload has become common in today’s scenario (Vijayan, 2017). It can be also
defined as being asked to do too much work and being asked to do work that is too difficult (Ali &
Farooqi, 2014). Workload can be a result of certain constraints like time pressure, shortage of adequate
and timely help, inadequate resources to accomplish a task, inefficient co-workers, role conflicts etc.
(Vijayan, 2017). Goswami (2015) analyzed role related factors and found that overloaded role leads to
stress among employees followed by over expectations and role ambiguity. Further, work overload is a
case when people feel pressure on themselves, or when the demands of a situation are larger than they can
handle; and if it continues for a long time without any pauses or breaks, then different physical,
behavioral, and mental problems may occur and can lead to death (Khuong & Yen, 2016). However,
work overload is a big concern for all the organizations. Some people experienced pressure due to work
overload, some may experience job dissatisfaction (Ali & Farooqi, 2014). Work overload has many
consequences. Particularly, its occupational disease risks, increases stress, absenteeism, and most

5
importantly it lowers the job performance (Ibrahim, 2013). The effect of huge workload will cause lower
performance levels and, as a consequence it will contribute to low morale and high employee turnover in
organizations. Kachalia & Lopes (2016) expressed that organizations with the aim of attaining higher
productivity end up saddling employees with overload of work to meet deadline and this might have
psychological and physical effects on the employees which may result in something contrary to what
these organizations want to achieve. Unhealthy job work overload among the people responsible in
assisting the future generation’s service will ultimately affect their intellectual and social abilities (Ali &
Farooqi, 2014). Further, Fonkeng (2018) explained that the employees who work for long hours with little
or no rest or sleep may find themselves in difficult conditions. . There is also high risk and danger. A job
that presents risk and danger to the employee will aggravate the stress level encountered by him/her.

Sense of isolation

Sense of isolation can be defined as the physical, mental, and emotional absence of an employee in an
organization or state of being without any company (Marshall et al., 2007). Remote working is a strategy
whereby an organization’s employees work offsite. When working remotely, the employees can
experience workplace isolation that could disengage them from their work and ultimately disrupt their
performance and well-being (Collins et al., 2016). Kaushik & Guleria (2020) stated the aspect of remote
working that the recent COVID19 outbreak has brought to the fore which causes loneliness and isolation.
If remote working is to be normalized over time, companies will need to find ways to get around this.
However, remote working is a challenge for employees because of workplace isolation, family
disturbance, peer absence, lack of suggestions to the employees, and working too much or not working at
all (Prasad et al., 2020). Further, workplace isolation occurring with remote workers does support the
notion that when the manager and employee are clear about expectations and their work priorities, it is
less likely that the employee will experience isolation (Collins et al., 2016). Banerjee & Rai (2020)
explained that this social isolation leads to chronic loneliness and boredom, which in the long run can
have detrimental effects on physical and mental well-being. The timelines of the growing pandemic being
uncertain, the isolation is compounded by mass panic and anxiety. The study of Greer & Payne (2014)
puts forward some strategies identified by teleworkers that has helped to overcome the challenges of
teleworking. These strategies encompass continuous communication with co-workers and supervisors
about expectations, work progress and availability during teleworking. Teleworkers also need to be
trained on the utilization of technology to facilitate their work and communication while they are away
from their workplace, which will reduce their level of stress. Furthermore, managers should maintain
continuous communication with their employees despite the fact that, their employees are physically
present or not in the workplace (Greer & Payne, 2014).

Different workspace and schedule

This can be defined as the work that is completed outside the employee’s organizational office and using
various technologies to communicate with colleagues and customers or telework, telecommuting,
anywhere work, and virtual work (Collins et al., 2016). It has proven that when employee feels
comfortable with their working environment, they will perform more effectively and enjoy the working
process better than those who feel uncomfortable. Therefore, it is necessary for managers to consider their
employees’ workplace factors carefully (Khuong & Yen, 2016). During Covid-19 pandemic, the need of
social distancing gave rise to the concept of “working from home concept (WFH)” for corporate for
keeping alive the working spirit of the employees. Work from home (WFH) is where the individuals can

6
do their job from home through massive use of digital platforms (Kaushik & Guleria, 2020). Beaunoyer
et.al. (2020), works on the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis and digital inequalities where it was explained
that technological differences, ethnicity, and differences of other staff create these inequalities. Kaushik
& Guleria (2020) found that companies will need to ensure that employees are well equipped to deal with
remote working practices. Some firms already do this by offering them an allowance to set up a home
office where they can work uninterrupted, should the need arise. According to the findings of Kaushik &
Guleria (2020), while working from home due to COVID-19 pandemic, one should minimize the
distractions at home. Otherwise, it is difficult to concentrate on a demanding activity.

Employee Job performance

Definitions of Employee Job Performance

Employee performance is also known as job performance or individual performance. There is no simple
definition of employee performance, there exist a plethora of definitions of the term as there are multiple
facets to performance (Fonkeng, 2018). Kazmi et al. (2008) viewed job performance as the result of three
factors working together. They are, skill, effort and nature of work conditions. Skills include knowledge,
abilities, and competencies of the employees. Effort is the degree of motivation the employee puts forth
towards completing the job and the nature of work conditions is the degree of accommodation of these
conditions in facilitating the employee’s performance (Kazmi et al., 2008). Scullen et al. (2000) described
job performance comprising of four aspects. They are as general performance, human performance,
technical performance and administrative performance. Many business personnel directors assess the job
performance of each employee on an annual or quarterly basis to help them identify suggested areas for
improvement (Ibrahim, 2013). Ramawickrama et al. (2017) defined job performance as the extent to
which the employee has shown his or her traits, engaged in behaviors and produced results which are
appropriate to task performance, and has engaged in citizenship performance and counterproductive
performance during a particular period. However, there is the fact that, the lower the employees’
performance, the lower the productivity of the whole company. It is important for managers to understand
employee performance and must be put in right direction (Khuong & Yen, 2016).

Elements of Employees’ Job Performance

Employee’s job performance is a human behavior the result of which is an important factor for individual
work effectiveness evaluation. From this view, it could be said that organization's success or failure
depends on job performance of the individuals in that organization. Job performance is individual
productivity in both quantitative and qualitative aspects. It shows that how well a person is doing his job
and extent to which the employee meeting their job duties. Performances of the employees are generally
measured by the outcomes and Armstrong (2000) argued that performance can also be measured by
personal behavior. However, performances can be calculated against standards of performance
implemented by the entity. There are various terms that can be used in measuring performance figure like
efficiency, quality, productivity, and effectiveness level. Efficiency is capacity of producing desired
output by adopting minimum resources and effectiveness and capacity of employees to fit with desired
targets. Furthermore, productivity is defined as relationship between ratio of outcome and input (Melville,
2015). Therefore, productivity measures how industry or individual transfer input resource to a product.
Further, Fonkeng (2018) found that performance is associated with quantity of output, quality of output,
timeliness of output, efficiency and effectiveness of work completed.

7
Job stress during COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on employees’ job performance

Moorthi et al. (2020) stated that whether working at home, office or at bank, COVID 19 has changed the
way of work of people. Fear and anxiety about this new disease and other strong emotions can be
overwhelming, and workplace pressure can lead to stress. Almost all the employees around the world are
in the most dangerous situation. Even education sector is also affected by COVID-19 (Wang et al., 2020).
According to Ince (2020), employee's performance during COVID-19 has been decreased compared to
the condition before COVID-19. Due to COVID-19, employees must work from home, and it has
negatively impacted employee's productivity. Hence employee performance reduced during the COVID-
19 pandemic. As per new political and social rules, emergency action plans were implemented like; work
from home (Ince, 2020). It was a great challenge for the organization to handle the impact of the COVID-
19 outbreak as well as employees. Now the challenge is employee's safety and their performance
(Carnevale et.al., 2020). This pandemic has compounded the existing challenges associated with stress
and anxiety in the workplace (Carnevale et.al., 2020). Frustration, work-family conflict, digital
inequalities, stress, not all work can be done from home, and many more issues affecting employee's
performance (Wang et al., 2020). Hamouche (2020) mentioned in his studies that the employee's mental
health specifically stresses, and depression increased during this COVID-19 pandemic. Employees are
most concerned about safety, risk of virus, social exclusion, financial loss, and job insecurity. These are
the main reason for employees' stress and loss of performance at the workplace. Prasad et al. (2020) found
that independent factors like peer, role ambiguity, organization climate, and job satisfaction are
significantly influencing the psychological well-being of the employees in the information technology
industry during COVID-19 pandemic. Circulating awareness, counselling, and system immune supporters
may help to reduce the stress and anxiety among the bankers (Moorthi et al., 2020). However, despite all
the efforts, there are still reported stress-related issues at these difficult economic times, for example,
absenteeism, high labor turnover, frequent illnesses, conflicts, unexplained loses, sluggishness among
others posing challenges in service delivery (Rahman, 2020). Hamouche (2020) found that there is a
negative impact of COVID-19 on individual’s mental health. Stressors include perception of safety, threat
and risk of contagion, infobesity versus the unknown, quarantine and confinement, stigma, and social
exclusion as well as financial loss and job insecurity. Sri Lanka is also affected by this infectious disease
called COVID-19. It is not only about the physical health of the employees but also about the mental
health of the employees. According to Opatha (2020) there are some fears for employees due to COVID-
19 and some of them are fear of attending the work, fear of getting sanctions, fear of peer pressure, fear of
harsh customer response, fear of losing the job, fear of continuity of business operations, fear of inability
of implementing plans developed, and fear of loss of pursuits of pleasure. These psychological effects of
outbreaks of serious infectious diseases on the banking staff, becomes severe particularly when associated
with increased workload and stress with high risk of infection. Moreover, the banking sector is a
representative sample of the working population at the time of a pandemic crisis (Moorthi et al., 2020).

METHODOLOGY

This research is conducted as a quantitative study. Quantitative data is collected and analyzed to get a
better understanding of the research problem since this method is more compelling and powerful as the
research depends on human experience. This survey has been designed as a more convenient way to study
on variables as it enables data collection from broader area.

Study Population, Sample & Data analysis

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The target population for this study was non-executive employees of public banks in Colombo district.
Sample frame includes non-executive employees in the banking sector of Sri Lanka. A random sample
has been adopted to attain the size of the sample and population as simple random sampling technique
fulfill that every element in the population has a known and equal chance of being selected into the
sample. Size of the sample for this study is 150 bank employees at public banks of Colombo district in
Sri Lanka. The survey is aimed at non-executive employees. Primary data was collected by distributing a
questionnaire to enhance high responsive rate. A set of closed ended questions are administered to the
selected sample of the study. Data is analyzed using an analytical tool called Statistical Package for the
Social Science (SPSS). Also, data from the research are represented using descriptive statistics like mean,
standard deviation and simple linear regression. The findings are presented in tables and charts.

Hypothesis

Based on the objectives of the study, following hypothesis were developed.

H1 - There is a significant relationship between fear of infection and employee performance.

H2 - There is a significant relationship between work overload and employee performance.

H3 -There is a significant relationship between sense of isolation and employee performance.

H4 -There is a significant relationship between different workspace, schedule, and employee

performance.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Reliability
Cronbach’s alpha value should be higher than 0.6 for it to be considered valid. Therefore, with a 0.760
Cronbach’s Alpha it can be observed that the Likert scale items that are used in this research are reliable.
Table 1 depicts the reliability analysis of the study.

Table 1. Reliability analysis

Cronbach's Alpha Cronbach's Alpha N of Items
Based on
Standardized Items
.760 .771 5
Source: Survey Data

Analysis of Demographic Factors

The questionnaire was distributed among 150 non-executive bank employees at public banks in Colombo
district. Data regarding the gender, age, civil status, educational level, current salary level and working
experience are summarized as below.

Table 2. Demographic analysis

Cumulative
  Frequency Percent Valid Percent
Percent

9
 Female 86 57.3 57.3 57.3
Gender
Male 64 42.7 42.7 100
20-29 71 47.3 47.3 47.3
30-39 55 36.7 36.7 84
Age
40-49 19 12.7 12.7 96.7
50-59 5 3.3 3.3 100
Married 68 45.3 45.3 45.3
Civil status
Unmarried 82 54.7 54.7 100
Masters 23 15.3 15.3 15.3
Educational Bachelor’s degree 58 38.7 38.7 54
qualification Diploma 46 30.7 30.7 84.7
AL's 23 15.3 15.3 100
30,000 - 50,000 19 12.7 12.7 12.7
Current 50,000 - 70,000 18 12 12 24.7
salary level 70,000 - 90,000 52 34.7 34.7 59.3
Above 90,000 61 40.7 40.7 100
less than 3 years 22 14.7 14.7 14.7

between 3 and 5 years 27 18 18 32.7

Working
between 5 and 10
experience
years 61 40.7 40.7 73.3

more than 10 years 40 26.7 26.7 100

Source: Survey Data

Correlation

Correlation (Table 3) depicts that employees’ job performance negatively correlate with all variables.
Work overload also has a negative correlation with the employees’ job performance, but it is significant
only at 0.05 level whereas all other variables correlate at a 0.01 level of significance. All variables
including fear of infection, work overload, sense of isolation, different workspace and schedule correlate
each other at 0.01 and 0.05 levels of significance.
Table 3. Correlations

Fear of Work Sense of Different Employee

infection overload isolation workspace performanc
and e
schedule
Pearson 1 .276** .247* .252* -.513**
Correlation
Fear of infection
Sig. (2-tailed) .006 .013 .011 .000
N 150 150 150 150 150

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 Pearson .276** 1 .359** .209* -.226*
Correlation
Work overload
Sig. (2-tailed) .006 .000 .037 .024
N 150 150 150 150 150
Pearson .247* .359** 1 -.602** -.555**
Correlation
Sense of isolation
Sig. (2-tailed) .013 .000 .000 .000
N 150 150 150 150 150
Pearson .252* .209* -.602** 1 -.482**
Different workspace and Correlation
schedule Sig. (2-tailed) .011 .037 .000 .000
N 150 150 150 150 150
Pearson -.513** -.226* -.555** -.482** 1
Correlation
Employee performance
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .024 .000 .000
N 150 150 150 150 150
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

R-Square value of the Model Summary (Table 4) represents that there is a 53.4% variance of the
employees’ job performance can be explained by the independent variables. Adjusted R-square value
provides a more honest opinion on the model. According to the Adjusted R-square depicts that 50.9% of
the variance of the employees’ job performance can be explained by the independent variables. Standard
error of estimate provides an estimate of the interval in which the population parameter will fall. Here, it
is estimated at 0.63 which indicates that the model is accurate.

Table 4. Model Summary

Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the

Estimate
1 .731a .534 .509 .63124
a. Predictors: (Constant), Different workspace and schedule, Sense of isolation, Fear of infection,
Work overload

The ANOVA table (Table 5) represents the Analysis of Variance. The difference of the mean values
between variables are tested by ANOVA. According to Anova table overall model is significance.
Because P value is less than 0.01. And according to the regression, there is a 99% confidence level. And
thus, the model is indicating a validation of the model at 99% confidence. Accordingly, it can be stated
that the Independent variables are jointly influencing the dependent variable.

Table 5. ANOVAa
Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
1 Regression 42.967 4 10.742 21.567 .000b

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 Residual 37.455 145 .258
Total 80.423 149
a. Dependent Variable: Employee performance
b. Predictors: (Constant), Different workspace and schedule, Sense of isolation, Fear of
infection, Work overload

According to the coefficient table (Table 6), fear of infection beta coefficient value is -0.303 with a
significant value of 0.001 which is lesser than 0.05. In this case, fear of infection has a negative
significant influence on employee performance. Work overload’s beta coefficient value stands at 0.034
with an insignificant value of 0.750 which is higher than 0.05. In this case, work overload is not
significant. This means that workload does not have a significant influence on employee performance.
Sense of isolation’s beta coefficient value indicated -0.278 with a significant of 0.019, that is lower than
0.05. This means sense of isolation has a negative significant influence on level of stress and employee
performance. Different workspace and schedule’s beta coefficient value is -0.307 with a significant value
of 0.001 which is lower than 0.05. Hence, different workspace and schedule has a negative and significant
influence on employee performance.
Overall, fear of infection, sense of isolation and different workspace and schedule have a negative and
significant influence on employee performance and work overload does not have any significant influence
on employee performance.

Table 6. Coefficientsa
Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized t Sig.
Coefficients
B Std. Error Beta

1 (Constant) 4.5649 .473 12.523 .016

Fear of infection -.303 .085 -.370 -2.484 .001

Work overload .034 .119 .029 .284 .750

Sense of isolation -.278 .116 -.257 -2.389 .019

Different -.307 .077 -.370 -4.002 .001

workspace and
schedule
a. Dependent Variable: Employee performance

Testing of the Hypotheses

H1 - There is a significant relationship between fear of infection and employee performance.

According to the results of the correlation analysis, there is a negative relationship between fear of
infection and employees’ job performance because Pearson correlation is -0.513 and it is statistically
significant because P value is less than 0.01 (0.000<0.01). Also, when analyzing the coefficients of the
respective variables, it is clearly shown that fear of infection has a negative and significant influence on
employee performance. Therefore, first hypothesis (H 1) is accepted.

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H2 - There is a significant relationship between work overload and employee performance.
According to the results of correlation analysis, there is a negative relationship between work overload
and employees’ job performance. However, it is not statistically significant. Also, when analyzing the
coefficients of the respective variables, it is clearly shown that work overload has not a significant
influence on employee performance. Therefore, second hypothesis (H 2) is rejected.
H3 - There is a significant relationship between sense of isolation and employee performance.
According to the results of the correlation analysis, there is a negative relationship between sense of
isolation and employees’ job performance because Pearson correlation is -0.555. It is statistically
significant because P value is less than 0.01 (0.000<0.01). Also, when analyzing the coefficients of the
respective variables, it is clearly shown that sense of isolation has a negative and significant influence on
employee performance. Therefore, third hypothesis (H3) is accepted.
H4 - There is a significant relationship between different workspace, schedule and employee performance.
According to the results of the analysis, there is a negative relationship between different workspace,
schedule with employees’ job performance because Pearson correlation is -0.482. It is statistically
significant because P value is less than 0.01 (0.000<0.01). Also, when analyzing the coefficients of the
respective variables, it is clearly shown different workspace and schedule have a negative and significant
influence on employee performance. Therefore, fourth hypothesis (H 4) is accepted.
CONCLUSION

The main objective of conducting this study was to find the relationship between job stress during
COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on employees’ job performance. Following relationships between the
variables can be observed when looking at the analyzed data. According to the data analysis, it is evident
that there is a negative relationship between the employees’ job performance and fear of infection, sense
of isolation and different workspace and schedule. However, according to the results of the study, the
relationship between employees’ job performance and work overload during COVID-19 pandemic was
insignificant. Previous researchers have identified that there is a negative relationship between job stress
during COVID-19 pandemic on employees’ performance. Hamid et al. (2020), Begum & Mobeen (2020)
found that COVID-19 and employee's reactions to changes have a significant negative impact on
Employee's Performance. These ‘new normal’ changes negatively affected employee's work
concentration, way of communication, and concentration on work significantly. Research findings of
Hamouche (2020), 48 Hickman (2019) found a negative impact of COVID-19 on employees’
performance. Stressors include perception of safety, threat and risk of contagion, infobesity versus the
unknown, quarantine and confinement, stigma, need of social interaction, manager communication, and
peer-to peer interactions that had an influence on job performance.

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