MANAGING OCCUPATIONAL STRESS IN THE BANKING SECTOR

ABSTRACT

This study is on Managing Occupational Stress in the Banking sector. The objectives of this study are to: analyze the causes of stress which bank employees’ encounter; evaluate the extent to which occupational stress affect job performance; analyze the various strategies adopted by the banking sector to reduce occupational stress and to analyze the impacts of stress on employee job performance. The design for this study is survey research design. The population for the study was one thousand seven hundred (1700) obtained from the selected commercial banks in Enugu State. From this, a sample size of three hundred and twenty four (324) was drawn, using Taro Yamane formula. Data were obtained from primary and secondary sources. To ensure that the research instruments are valid, a conduct of a pre-test of every question in the questionnaire was carried out. For reliability of the research instruments, a test-re-test method was adopted using Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient of reliability to calculate the result and the result gave reliability coefficient of 0.98. Four hypotheses proposed were tested using Friedman Chi-square (X2) and Multiple Linear Regression (MLR). The findings reveal that pressure of responsibilities and pressure to work longer hours are some of the causes of stress which bank employees’ encounter; occupational stress significantly affect job performance; redesigning job to increase challenge or reduce work load can be a strategy for reducing occupational stress and that absenteeism, low morale and reduced output are negative impacts of stress on employees’ job performance. The study recommends that the environment of work place should be made conducive so as to reduce stress; management by objective (MBO) should be adopted by organizations because employee stress level tend to reduce when he/she participate in decision making and finally, the employee should be trained properly in their respective fields so as to reduce the stress caused by role ambiguity.