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Job related stress and job satisfaction: a comparative study among bank
employees
Elizabeth George Zakkariya K.A.
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To cite this document:
Elizabeth George Zakkariya K.A. , (2015),"Job related stress and job satisfaction: a comparative
study among bank employees", Journal of Management Development, Vol. 34 Iss 3 pp. 316 - 329
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JMD
34,3
Job related stress and job
satisfaction: a comparative study
among bank employees
316 Elizabeth George
Received 25 July 2013
Department of Management Studies,
Revised 25 July 2013 Adi Shankara Institute of Engineering and Technology (ASIET),
Accepted 23 July 2014 Kerala, India, and
Zakkariya K.A.
School of Management Studies, Cochin University of Science and Technology,
Kerala, India
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Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine whether job satisfaction and job-related stress
differ among employees of different banking sectors.
Design/methodology/approach – Questionnaire were administered to 337 employees from various
banks belonging to private sector, public sector and new generation banks. One way ANOVA
was conducted to find out whether job satisfaction and job relates stress varied on the basis of three
different sectors of banks. Further post hoc test was conducted to find out which sector differs
significantly.
Findings – Results indicated that employees of different sectors of bank had different level of job
satisfaction and job-related stress. Further it was revealed that public sector banks have lower
job-related stress when compared to private sector banks and new generation banks; and higher job
satisfaction when compared to new generation banks.
Practical implications – With the rapid developments and competition in banks, measures should
be taken in private sector banks and new generations banks to reduce job-related stress and enhance
job satisfaction level of employees. This may also result in increased quality of services and reduced
labour turnover in banks.
Originality/value – The study is original and empirical in nature. It shows that the job satisfaction
and job-related stress differ among employees of different groups of banks in the banking sector.
If banking sector is considered as a true representative of the service sector, the results of this study
has wider implication in the service industry as a whole.
Keywords Employees, Job satisfaction, Banking sector, Job-related stress
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
The human resources are the most imperative component that affects the productivity
in an organization. In this modern era of rapid change and complexities, employees
are the competitive edge of any organization. But employees face various problems in
their work environment due to these changes. Stressful, depressed and dissatisfied
employees would not be able to obtain the same quality level of work and productivity
as those employees with low stress and high satisfaction. It is essential that the
employees’ psychological aspects are to be looked into. Employers can create a safe and
Journal of Management
Development reduced stress environment to work.
Vol. 34 No. 3, 2015
pp. 316-329
Stress has been defined by different people differently. According to Hans Selye
© Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0262-1711
(1976), Stress is the non-specific response of the body to any demands made upon it.
DOI 10.1108/JMD-07-2013-0097 It is an internal response where continued and prolonged stress may result in fatigue
and tension leading to depression and anxiety (Selye, 1946). Robbins (2001) defines Job related
stress as a dynamic condition in which the individual is confronted with an opportunity, stress and job
constraint or demand related to what he or she desires and for which the outcome is
perceived to be both uncertain and important. The factors causing stress in a person are
satisfaction
called stressors. Stress can be caused by environmental, organizational and individual
variables (Matteson and Ivancevich, 1999). Stress can be of two types. Positive stress is
called Eustress and negative stress is called Distress. Eustress may result in stimulating 317
and enhancing work performance. It may positively encourage workers to work harder.
Distress may result in negative effects and hence affect the worker’s health and work
performance. This directly affects the performance of the organization.
Job stress is different from general stress. It has individual element, organizational
elements and job-related elements. Caplan et al. (1975) stated that job stress refers to
any characteristics of the job environment which pose a threat to the individual.
Job stress can be defined as an employee’s awareness or feeling of personal dysfunction
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of banks in 1969, banking has been primarily in the Central Government’s domain. In
the early 1990s, as part of the government’s liberalization policy a few private banks
called New Private Sector Banks (NPSBs) also known as New Generation tech-savvy
banks were allowed to set up.
Banks play a pivotal role in developing the economy of a country. During the past
few decades banking sector of India has undergone a swift change due to liberalization,
privatization, globalization, policy changes, changes in technology and intensive
competition. The conservative approach in all the sectors of banks have changed.
Now banks focus more on customers, providing them convenience, quality of service,
innovation and the speed of the services. Bank employees play a crucial role in the
service quality and service delivery of customers. Due to these changes, the employees
in the banking sector are experiencing a high level of stress. Studies also reveal that
the employees are facing problems like burnout, tension and lack of satisfaction, etc. in
banking sector (Chen and Lien, 2008; Bajpai and Srivastava, 2004) because of these
changes. So it is essential that some measures are to be taken by the management to
retain the employees and to improve the customer services.
The present study addresses the specific problems of bank employees related to
job-related stress and job satisfaction. The organizational culture, reward system like
pay and other benefits in the public sector banks differs from that of the private sector
banks and also new generation banks. Hence the studies of levels of satisfaction and
stress level among private sector bank employees or new generation bank employees
may not be applicable to public-sector employees. Previous studies have not attempted
to compare the stress level and satisfaction level of employees in banking sector.
This study attempts to compare the job-related stress and job satisfaction experienced
by employees of three different sectors of banks: private sector banks, public sector
banks and new generation banks in Kerala.
was associated with high level turnover from public accounting. Role conflict was
significantly correlated to propensity to leave (Kemery et al., 1985). Several studies
confirmed that job stress leads to high turnover rate of employees (Jimmieson et al.,
2004; Fogarty, 1996). A study conducted by the American Institute on Stress (2005)
reveals that 40 per cent of turnover was caused by stress.
Michael et al. (2009) aimed to examine the impact of job stress on the organizational
commitment of a sample of coordinators in the Israeli educational mentoring
organization PMP. It revealed that stress hinders the coordinators’ sense of emotional
commitment. As the stress level rises, the coordinators’ sense of belonging decreases.
Fogarty (1996) also stated that stress is negatively related to commitment. Burnout is a
response to stress, especially when the individuals are troubled or having problems
(Maslach and Zimbardo, 1982). Moore (2000) states that increased environmental
stressors may cause employee burnout. Yunus and Mahajar (2009) in a study among
nurses in Malaysia found that that there was a relationship between work overload and
emotional exhaustion, and there was also a relationship among the role overload
and burnout.
According to Rahman and Zanzi (1995) the workplace stress adversely affects
employee productivity It also indirectly affected performance of employees in the
organization (Fogarty, 1996). Stress reduces the effectiveness of the organization
(Jimmieson et al., 2004). Several other factors also result from stress. In total, 60-80
per cent of workplace accidents occurred due to job stress (Moore, 2000). Tombaugh
and White (1990) indicated that during the organizational change, the employees have
to take more of a work load, which caused employees’ job stress. Absenteeism is yet
another consequence of stress (Rahman and Zanzi, 1995).
Review on stress literature in service sector reveals that the existence of stress
among employees leads to several problems like reduction in employee productivity,
absenteeism, job-related tension, job dissatisfaction and propensity to leave the
organization, employee burnout, poor performance, organizational commitment, high
rate of accidents, etc. According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and
Health (NIOSH, 2002), job stress has become a costly problem in the workplace. NIOSH
listed several occupations as highly stressful. The effect of job stress leads to physical
and mental health problems of employees. Job stress victims show lack of confidence,
low motivation at workplace, increased blood pressure, job dissatisfaction and
intention to leave the job. Individuals in service industries face particularly stressful
work situations. Stress if not managed properly will affect an individual’s productivity,
JMD effectiveness, personal health and quality of work. Therefore, stress management is
34,3 essential in an organization to cope up with and resolve stress. To find out whether
employees of all sectors of banks have same level of job-related stress, the following
hypothesis was formulated:
H1. Job-related stress differs among employees of various sectors of banks.
320
3.2 Job satisfaction in service sector
Studies in service sector reveal that job satisfaction is of great significance for effective
functioning of any service organization. According to Cooper and Locke (2000), job
experiences spill over into life and vice versa. Problems at home can affect satisfaction
at work and problems at work can affect home life. Armstrong (2006) advances that
organizational commitment has three components: identification with the goals and
values of the organization; a desire to belong to the organization and a willingness to
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4. Methodology
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4.1 Sample
The sample of the study consisted of 337 bank employees of private sector banks,
public sector banks and new generation banks in Kerala, comprising 223 males and 114
females. Multistage sampling was adopted to collect the data. Two banks from each
sector were selected and from each banks few branches were selected. The data were
collected from the employees of these selected branches. Since the banks have their own
restrictions and rules which prevent the researcher to collect information from all the
employees of the branch, the sample was restricted to available and permitted
employees. The distribution of the respondents with respect to the banks of different
sectors was as follows: 31 per cent from private sector, 34 per cent from public sector
banks and 35 per cent from new generation banks.
4.2 Measure
Job satisfaction was measured using Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) short
form developed by Weiss et al. (1967) to investigate employees’ satisfaction with their
jobs. MSQ short form is a 20-item scale. Lo (2003) pointed out that the short-form
MSQ consists of three scales: general satisfaction, intrinsic satisfaction and extrinsic
satisfaction. Houser and Chace (1993) explained that out of 20 items in MSQ, 12 items
were the intrinsic scale which measured the job achievement opportunities and
opportunities to do things for others, six items were the extrinsic scale which measured
company polices and the quality of working conditions and two items were included in
the general satisfaction scale. MSQ short form asked respondents to rate each of the 20
items on a five-point scale ranging from 1 (very dissatisfied), 2 (dissatisfied), 3 (neither
satisfied nor dissatisfied), 4 (satisfied) and 5 (very satisfied). Cronbach α for the scale is
tested and found to be 0.91.
Job-related tension index (JRTI) developed by Kahn et al. (1964) was used to measure
the job-related stress. The JRTI was developed and used in a national survey that
examined stress in 53 different jobs (Kahn et al., 1964). This tool provides a general
measure of job tension that arises from the social environment of the work place.
The theoretical framework that forms the basis for this measure proposes that role
conflict and role ambiguity result in job stress and tension (Kahn et al., 1964). The JRTI
is a 17 item scale. It measures the stress on a five point Likert scale from 1 ¼ strongly
disagree to 5 ¼ strongly agree. The index score is determined by adding the responses.
Higher scores indicated higher perceived occupational stress. Cronbach α of JRTI has
been tested and found to be 0.86.
JMD 5. Analysis
34,3 The mean percentage score and standard deviation of job satisfaction and job-related
stress in different sectors of banks-private sector bank, public sector bank and new
generation banks were calculated. One way ANOVA was conducted to find out the
relationship between Employees in Different Sectors of Banks and job satisfaction
and the relationship between Employees in Different Sectors of Banks and job-related
322 stress. Further post hoc test was also conducted.
Table I shows the mean percentage score and standard deviation of job satisfaction
and job-related stress. The mean percentage score of the job-related stress is seemed to
be the highest in case of the new generation bank with 44.83 per cent, followed by the
private sector bank with 42.95 per cent and the public sector bank with the lowest score
of 38.39 per cent which shows a large difference among the three sectors of banks.
A similar difference is observed in the case of job satisfaction also. The mean
percentage score of the job satisfaction for the public sector bank is the highest, with
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77.26 per cent followed by the private sector bank with 73.87 per cent and the new
generation bank with a lowest score of 72.67 per cent.
To test the hypothesis (H1) One way ANOVA test is conducted. The result of the
ANOVA is shown in Table II. The F value is 9.002. Since the p value is o 0.001
the hypothesis is accepted which means that job-related stress differ on the basis of
Table II.
One way ANOVA
showing the Sum of squares df Mean square F Sig.
relationship
between employees Job-related stress
in different sectors Between groups 1,823.190 2 911.595 9.002 o0.001
of banks and Within groups 33,824.217 334 101.270
job-related stress Total 35,647.407 336
different sectors of banks, namely, public sector banks, private sector banks and new Job related
generation banks (Tables III and IV). stress and job
To test the second hypothesis (H2), i.e. whether job satisfaction varies on the basis
of different sectors of bank, one way ANOVA was conducted. The p value is 0.007.
satisfaction
Hence it can be concluded that there exist significant differences in job satisfaction
among the employees of three sectors of the bank.
The significance of ANOVA does not indicate that all the three sectors have 323
significant differences with respect to the job-related stress and job satisfaction of the
employees. So further to identify which ever sectors have significant difference both for
job-related stress and job satisfaction, post hoc multiple comparison test was conducted.
The results show that public sector banks have significant difference with private
sector banks and new generation banks with regard to job-related stress and there is no
such difference between private banks and new generation banks. In the case of job
satisfaction of the employees, the significant difference exists only between public
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95%
confidence
Mean interval
Dependent difference Lower Upper
variable (I) Sector (J) Sector (I–J) SE Sig. bound bound
Job-related stress Private Public 3.87644* 1.36406 0.013 0.6651 7.0877
New generation −1.60448 1.34740 0.459 −4.7765 1.5676
Public Private −3.87644* 1.36406 0.013 −7.0877 −0.6651
New generation −5.48093* 1.32182 0.000 −8.5928 −2.3691
New generation Private 1.60448 1.34740 0.459 −1.5676 4.7765
Public 5.48093* 1.32182 0.000 2.3691 8.5928
Job satisfaction Private Public −3.38997 1.52802 0.070 −6.9872 0.2073 Table IV.
New generation 1.19440 1.50935 0.709 −2.3589 4.7477 Post hoc analysis
Public Private 3.38997 1.52802 0.070 −0.2073 6.9872 of job satisfaction
New generation 4.58437* 1.48070 0.006 1.0985 8.0702 and job-related
New generation Private −1.19440 1.50935 0.709 −4.7477 2.3589 stress of employees
Public −4.58437* 1.48070 0.006 −8.0702 −1.0985 in different sectors
Note: *The mean difference is significant at the 0.05 level of banks
JMD There are different studies that vouch such differences with respect to job stress in
34,3 different contexts. Spector et al. (2002) collected data on role conflict, role ambiguity and
role overload from middle managers in 24 nations and concluded that role stressors
varied more as a function of national and cultural variations, compared to personal,
demographic and organizational characteristics. Similarly, Liu and Spector (2005)
stressed the importance of examining the relationships between work stress and
324 outcomes in countries that differ from the west, particularly in terms of economic
development, cultural orientation and language. They noted that individuals with
different cultural backgrounds perceive their jobs differently. In a study of bank
employees by Gani (2012), occupational stress of bank managers were found higher
compared to those of non-managers. The result of the present study shows that job-
related stress of employees in banking sector differs on the basis of different sectors of
banks. So to identify which sectors have significant difference further analysis was
conducted and the result showed that public sector banks have significant difference
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with private sector banks and new generation banks. Public sector banks have lower job-
related stress when compared to private sector banks and new generation banks. This
may be because of job security and low work pressure in public sector banks.
A study by Tella et al. (2007) on job satisfaction of library personnel in academic and
research libraries shows that no difference exist in job satisfaction of library personnel
in academic and research libraries. Roy and Avdija (2012) stated that there was no
difference in job satisfaction among prison employees who work in the maximum
security prison compared to those who work in medium security prison. These findings
are in contrary with the present study which shows that job satisfaction of employees
in banking sector differs on the basis of different sectors of banks. At the same time it is
to be noticed that the difference in job satisfaction is between public sector banks and
new generation banks and no such difference is significant between private sector and
new generation banks. It is obvious that there could be larger difference between the
working environment between public sector banks and new generation banks in terms
of technology up gradation and implementation of new and modern practices and the
same may not be that evident between new generation banks and private banks. These
justifications are based on the findings of the study reported by De Santis and Durst
(1996). They investigated the job satisfaction levels of a selected set of public and private
workers and found that the factors that contribute to job satisfaction differ for public-and
private-sector employees. But, in Indian public sector banking scenario, a lot of changes
have been taking place recently as a result of globalization and the gap between public
sector and private sector banks have narrowed down. This may be the reason why
there was no significant difference in the level of job satisfaction between public sector
and private sector banks. At the same time there is a vast difference in the work culture
of public sector banks and new generation banks. This could be a reason for the
difference in job satisfaction between public sector banks and new generation banks.
7. Conclusion
Existence of job stress in organizations can result in negative effects like reduced
efficiency, decreased capacity to perform, a lowered sense of self-esteem, depression,
low motivation to work, dampened initiative and reduced interest in working, increased
rigidity of thought, a lack of concern for the organization and colleagues and a loss of
responsibility (Greenberg and Baron, 1995; Matteson and Ivancevich, 1982). Similarly
lack of job satisfaction also results in high absenteeism, low productivity, lack of
organizational commitment, etc. The present study reveals the importance of increasing
job satisfaction and trimming down job-related stress in organizations and that job- Job related
related stress and job satisfaction experienced by employees of different sectors of banks stress and job
differs on the basis of sector. From this it can be concluded that even in the same sector
there can be a variation in job stress and job satisfaction of employees. Compared
satisfaction
to public sector banks, new generation banks and private sector banks have variation in
job-related stress and job satisfaction. Hence private sector banks and new generation
banks have to take measures to increase job satisfaction and decrease job-related 325
stress among their employees which can solve various employee-related problems in
banking sector and lead to better performance of employees and reduced burnout of the
employees in these banking sectors.
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