A Study On Occupational Stress Among Employees in Nationalized Bank, Tiruchirappalli District
A Study On Occupational Stress Among Employees in Nationalized Bank, Tiruchirappalli District
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ABSTRACT
This paper examines the level of occupational stress among nationalized bank employees,
Tiruchirappalli District. Further, this study explores the level of effect personal factors on
occupational stress. Stress can be defined as a reaction to a stimulus that disturbs our mental
balance. It has its existence in everybody’s life nowadays. Stress refers to the strain from the
conflict between our external environment, leading to emotional and physical pressure. Stress
can’t be avoidable, but one can learn how to manage it. Occupational Stress scale was developed
by Dr.Srivastava and Dr.A.P.Singh, (1984). Sample bank employees were selected by using
simple random sampling method because of easy accessibility and affordability analysed by
using statistical package of social sciences.
Keywords: Stress, Occupational stress, Workplace stress, Bank employees, Nationalized bank
INTRODUCTION
Meaning of stress
The word, “stress” has been derived from the Latin Word, “Stringere” which means to
draw tight. The term is used to refer to hardship, strain, adversity or affliction. Various terms
have been synonymously used with stress such as anxiety, frustration, conflict, pressure, and so
on. Every human being has his/her own understanding of stress. Because all demand of
adaptability do evoke the stress phenomenon.
Stress is simply the body’s non – specific response to any demand made on it. Stress is not
by definition synonymous with nervous tension or anxiety. Stress provides the means to express
talents and pursue happiness. It can also cause exhaustion and illness, either physical or
psychological, heart attack or accidents. The important thing to remember about stress it that
certain forms are normal and essential. The result of continuing stress may because disruption is
one or more of the following areas of health, physical, emotional, spiritual and social.
Working in organisations not only provides individuals with life-sustaining income but
also exerts its own pressures on them. This can ultimately have negative consequences both for
achieving the goals of the organisational and meeting the needs of the individuals working in
them. Thus, the work environment is a source of social and psychological stress, which has
harmful effects on the well-being of the employees. Stress in general and occupational stress in
particular is universal and frequently disabling human phenomenon. Stress arising at work has
detrimental effect on the behaviour of people, which ultimately results in personal and
organisational inefficiency. Occupational stress can be described as a condition where
occupation-related factors interact with the worker to change (disrupt enhance) his or her
psychological or physiological condition, so that the person’s mind and/or body is forced to
deviate from its normal way of functioning
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
1. Davis and Newstrom (1985): Stress is a condition of strain on one’s emotion’s thought
processes, and Physical condition. When it is excessive, it can threaten one’s ability to
cope with the environment, ‘stress’ is the general term applied to the pressures people
feel in life. As a result of these pressures, employees develop various symptoms of stress
that can harm their job performance. People who are stressed may become nervous and
develop chronic worry. They are easily provoked to anger and are unable to relax. They
may be uncooperative or use alcohol or drugs excessively. These conditions occur from
other causes also, but they are common symptoms of stress.
2. Mathew (1993): Stress has a variety of meaning to people in the workplace. To the
production manager in a chemical plant, it may be the tension of missing the shipping
date of a large order for a major customer. To the business executive, it may be
frustration associated with the inability to acquire sufficient short-term loans from banks
to cover the operating needs, and so on.
In the words of Szilagyi and Wallace, stress is an internal experience that creates a
psychological or physiological imbalance within an individual and results from factors in
the external environment, the organisation or the individual.
3. D’Souza (1993): Today’s leaders not only live and work at a faster pace but also must
also deal with uncertainty and change. They need effective methods for coping with the
kind of stress that affects anyone in leadership positions. People popularly identify
managing directors or chief executive officers as those most susceptible to stress and
disease. However, people at all levels of management find themselves exposed to
comparable pressures.
4. Robbins (2005): Most of us are aware that employee stress is an increasing problem in
organisations. Friends tells us they’re stressed out from greater workloads and having to
work longer hours because of downsizing at their company. Parents talk about the lack of
job stability in today’s world and reminisce about a time when a job with a large
company implied lifetime security. We read surveys in which employees complain
about the stress created in trying to balance work and family responsibilities. In this
section, we’ll look at the causes and consequences of stress, and then consider what
individuals and organisations can do to reduce it.
5. Jha (1988) in his study on ‘Jobs Stress and Employee Strain in India Executives’ explains
the pattern of stress and strain in three work groups, namely production, personnel and
data-processing divisions in an organisation. Results indicated that job future ambiguity
had negative effect on job satisfaction in all the three groups. The patter of stress in the
three groups was different among different levels of management. Among different levels
of managers, the diddle level managers had more role ambiguity than others did.
6. Reddy and Ramamurthi (1991) in their study on ‘The Relation between Stress Experience
on the Job-Age, Personality and General ability’ analysed the influence of age,
personality and general ability of the individual in the perception of stress. It was found
that only age influenced the perception of stress. There was only very limited
contribution of personality and general ability of the individual to the intensity of stress
experience of the individual.
7. Singh and Sehgal (1995) in their study on ‘Men and Women in Transition: Patterns of
Stress, Strain and Social Relations’ highlight the patterns of stress and strain among men
and women as well as single- and dual-career couples. They found that male and female
managers did not differ significantly on various stress dimensions. Difference in gender
was however found in strains. Women were characterised by anxiety, whereas men
exhibited more symptoms of somatic problems comparing the single and dual couples. It
was found that male managers with working spouses experienced higher workload than
managers whose spouses were not working. In strains also single career male managers
had less irritability that dual career male managers, and overall single career male
managers had better psychological well-being than others. Working women managers
had better physical well-being that their working husband did but had poorer
psychological well-being.
8. Shah (2003) in his study on ‘Role Stress in the Indian Industry: A Study of Banking
Organisations’ describes adequate explanation of stress, and its nature, dimensions,
causes, manifestations and coping up strategies. It was observed that most of the
employees experience medium to high level of stress at work. Role stagnation,
inadequacy of role authority and role erosion is comparatively high-rated dimensions of
job stress. The study further reveals that employees belonging to the clerical cadre
relatively experience more stress on most of the dimensions.
9. Berhem et al (2004) in their study on ‘A New Model for Work Stress Patterns’ describe
that the role of ambiguity is the main source of work stress and self-knowledge as the
main coping strategy to overcome work stress. Work stress is believed to be one of the
most important factors affecting productivity.
10. Kang (2005) in his study on ‘Stressors among Medical Representatives: An Empirical
investigations’ tries to investigate the various stressors related with the job of a medical
representative. A sample of 140 medical representatives was taken for the purpose of the
present study. The results showed interference of job in personal life, unsupportive
colleagues, work load and continuous pressure for improved performance have been
found to be causing stress among the medical representatives.
11. Anitha Devi (2006-2007) in her study on ‘Occupational Stress: A comparative Study of
Worker in different Occupations” describes identifying the degree of life stress and role
stress experienced by professional women. It also studies the effect of life stress and role
stress on various demographic variables like age, experience and income. For the purpose
of study, 180 women professionals (six different occupations) were chose. It was found
that science and technology professionals and doctors experienced significantly greater
life stress and role stress.
12. Dhanalakhsmi (2008) in her study on ‘Actors Predicting Stress of Employees in a Public
Transport Corporation’ measures the level of stress of the transport corporation
employees and also studies the factors that could predict stress. It is found that the
OBJECTIVES OF STUDY
1. To measures the level of occupational stress among the nationalized bank employees.
2. To find out the relationship between socio-demographic variables and occupational stress
among the nationalized bank employees.
HYPOTHESES
1. There is a significant relationship between the age of the respondents and occupational stress.
2. There is a significant relationship between years of work experience of the respondents and
occupational stress.
3. There is a significant relationship between monthly income of the respondents and
occupational stress.
4. There is a significant difference between nativity of the respondents and occupational stress.
5. There is a significant difference between sex of the respondents and occupational stress.
6. There is a significant difference between type of family of the respondents and occupational
stress.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The Study on occupational Stress among Employees in Nationalized Bank at Tiruchirappalli
District. Hence the researcher adopted the descriptive research design for the study. The present
study is based on both primary and secondary data. Primary data have been collected by
conducting from employees of nationalized bank in Tiruchirappalli district in the state of Tamil
Nadu. Secondary data have been collected from books, journals, newspapers, periodicals, reports
and internet. Administering Occupational Stress scale was constructed and standardized by
Dr.Srivastava and Dr.A.P.Singh (1984). The first part of the questionnaire was related to
personal details of bank employees, second part relates with measuring of occuaptional stress
among the bank employees with the help of Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS). The
Occupational Stress Index (OSI) the scale consists of 46 items, each to be rated on the five-point
scale. Out of 46 items 28 are ‘true-keyed’ and rest 18 are ‘false-keyed’. The items related to
almost all relevant components of the job life which cause stress in some way or the other, such
as, Role overload, Role ambiguity, Role Conflict, Unreasonable Group & Political Pressures,
Responsibility for Persons, Under Participation, Powerlessness, Poor Peer Relations, Intrinsic
Impoverishment, Low Status, Strenuous Working Conditions and Unprofitability. The item
responses are to be elicited on a five-point scale that range from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5
(strongly agree).
SAMPLING DESIGN
A sample of 100 bank employees was taken to meet the sample adequacy, for conducting
factor analysis number of sample nationalized bank employees for the study were selected by
using simple random sampling method because of easy accessibility and affordability.
Low 48 48
High 52 52
10. Low Status
Low 48 48
High 52 52
11. Strenuous Working Conditions
Low 48 48
High 52 52
12 Unprofitability
Low 46 46
High 54 54
13. Overall level of Occupational Stress
Low 48 48
High 52 52
Regarding the present status level of occupation stress of employees in nationalized bank more
than half of the respondents are in high level. As far as the working employees are concerned
more than half (52%) of the respondents had high level and (48 %) of the respondents had low
level of role overload of occupational stress. Similarly more than half (58%) of the respondents
stated that they had high level and (42%) of the respondents had low level in role ambiguity of
occupational stress. Further, more than half (52%) of the respondents show the highest incidence
of high level of role conflict and low level of role conflict was reported by (48%) of the
respondents. Likewise more than half (58%) of the respondents stated that they had high level
and (42%) of the respondents had low level in unreasonable group & political pressures of
occupational stress. In additional more than half (58%) of the respondents stated that they had
high level and (42 %) of the respondents had low level in responsibility for persons of
occupational stress. Further more than half (52%) of the respondents stated that they had high
level and (48%) of the respondents had low level in under participation of occupational stress.
Similarly more than half (52%) of the respondents had high level and (48%) of the respondents
had low level in powerlessness of occupational stress. In additional more than half (52%) of the
respondents stated that they had high level and nearly half (48%) of the respondents had low
level in poor peer relations of occupational stress. Further more than half (52%) of the
respondents stated that they had high level and (48%) of the respondents had low level in
intrinsic impoverishment of occupational stress. In addition more than half (52 %) of the
respondents stated that they had high level and (48%) of the respondents had low level in low
status of occupational stress. Further more than half (52%) of the respondents stated that they
had high level and (48%) of the respondents had low level in strenuous working conditions of
occupational stress. Similarly more than half (54%) of the respondents stated that they had high
level and (46%) of the respondents had low level in unprofitability of occupational stress. In
overall occupational stress more than half (52%) of the respondents had high level and (48%) of
the respondents had low level of occupational stress respectively.
H1: There is a significant relationship between the age of the respondents and occupational
stress.
Table:2 Karl Pearson’ Co-Efficient of Correlation between Age of the Respondents and
Occupational Stress.
The above table illustrates that there is a significant relationship between age of the respondents
and with regard to various dimensions and overall level of occupational stress. The Karl
Pearson’s correlation value shows that there is negative relationship between the age of the
respondent and with regard to various dimensions and overall level of occupational stress level
among the bank employees. It explains that age of the respondents has an influence on the
occupational stress level among the bank employees. Hence null hypothesis is rejected.
H2: There is a significant relationship between years of work experience of the respondents
and occupational stress.
H3: There is a significant relationship between monthly income of the respondents and
occupational stress.
H4: There is a significant difference between nativity of the respondents and occupational
stress.
Table: 5 ‘F’ Test: One Way Analysis of Variance among the Respondents with different
nativity of Occupational Stress
influence on the occupational stress among the bank employees. Hence null hypothesis is
rejected.
H5: There is a significant difference between sex of the respondents and occupational
stress.
Table: 6 Z Test between sex of the respondents and Occupational Stress
H6: There is a significant difference between type of family of the respondents and
occupational stress.
Table: 7 Z Test between Types of Family of the Respondents and Occupational Stress
CONCLUSION
This study was conducted at Nationalized Bank employees in Tiruchirappalli District. The Main
aim of the study is to find out various reasons for the occupational stress level of bank
employees. This study analysed that the bank employees faced stress in their working area due to
their work pressure and inter personal conflicts. The results of the study it is clear that the
nationalized bank employees as a whole are found to be more than half high level of
occupational stress and less than half of the bank employees the low level of occupational stress.
The next finding of this study revealed that there is a significant difference among the various
areas of living of the bank employees with regard to the level of occupational stress. Further,
from the result it is clear that there is a significant relationship between the age of the
respondents and occupational stress. Further, from the result it is clear that there is a significant
relationship between Years of Work Experience of the respondents with regard to overall level of
occupational stress. Similarly, from the result it is clear that there is a significant relationship
between monthly income of the respondent and level of occupational stress. It explains that the
monthly income of the respondents has an influence on the occupational stress level among the
bank employees. Further, from the result it is clear that there is no significant relationship
between sex of the respondents with regard to overall level of occupational stress. It explains that
the gender of the respondents has on influence on the occupational stress level among the bank
employees.
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