effects of stress on organizational outcomes

8/6/2019 Effects of Stress on Organizational Outcomes

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ContentsContents ..................................................................................................................... 1

Executive Summary .................................................................................................... 3

Chapter 1 .................................................................................................................... 4

Introduction ............................................................................................................. 4

Background: ......................................................................................................... 4

Topic Details:........................................................................................................ 5

Objectives:........................................................................................................... 7

Limitations: .......................................................................................................... 8

Chapter 2 .................................................................................................................... 9

Research Model....................................................................................................... 9

Framework: .......................................................................................................... 9

Model: .................................................................................................................. 9

Variables: ........................................................................................................... 10

Hypothesis: ........................................................................................................ 10

Chapter 3 .................................................................................................................. 12

Research Methodology .......................................................................................... 12

Population: ......................................................................................................... 12

Sample Size:....................................................................................................... 12

Sampling Method: .............................................................................................. 12

Plan of Analysis: ................................................................................................. 14

Software Employed: ........................................................................................... 14

Chapter 4 .................................................................................................................. 15

Analysis and Findings ............................................................................................ 15

Frequency and Percentage: ................................................................................ 15


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Descriptive Analysis:.......................................................................................... 20

Hypothesis Testing: ............................................................................................ 21

Chapter 5 .................................................................................................................. 24

Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 24

Conclusion: ......................................................................................................... 24

Recommendations: ............................................................................................ 25

References ................................................................................................................ 26

Appendix ............................................................................................................ 28

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Executive Summary

Behind every topic there is a formal reason of selection. The reason we chose

Effects of Stress on Organizational Outcomes was because we wanted to give

importance on the nature of Job Stress and the relation with the Outcomes of the

Organization a person works in. It was observed that Stress often resulted in a negative

outcome from the employees and was taken as negatively from them. As expected it

turned out to be a much vast area of research and our study was very broad in nature.

The objectives included conducting research in South Asian corporations and

evaluating their comparative results with the local environment the same companies

operate in.

There were a few limitations in the study area namely subjectivity of the topic, the

impact of the influencing factors on it, the limited and scarce resources of the study and

very limited access to organizational members who were a part of our sample.

Our population is the Officers and Middle Management of various Multi-nationals

operating in Karachi. However, the Sample Size is 39 due to the low response rate i.e.

26% (150 questionnaires were distributed). Sampling Method used is of convenience

sampling in accordance with available resources. The qualitative analysis was done on

the Questionnaire responses have been done on SPSS (Statistical Package for Social

Sciences) in multiple aspects.

The conclusions which turned out from the study were that the more the people

were stressed; more were they losing interest in their job. Other than that, those whowere likely to switch their jobs, they were more dissatisfied in stressful situations. When

employees are dissatisfied or lose their interest in a job, they are highly likely to perform

lower than those who are satisfied.

There were a few positive recommendations which we derived from our study

which included that long working hours should be avoided by employers as they

resulted in not just stress but also fatigue and tiredness. Certain activities should be

provided so that employees can relax their minds in stressful situations. Motivational

therapies should be conducted so that employees can take stress as a positive factor

and should not think of it negatively.

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Chapter 1

Introduction

Background:

We examined the moderating effects of organizational commitment on the

relationship of stress with job satisfaction, intent to quit, and health during organizational

turmoil. Panel data were provided by hospital employees surveyed before and after a

major divisional consolidation. Findings indicated that commitment buffered the

relationship between stress and job displeasure (a canonically derived variate

combining residualized job satisfaction, intent to quit, and irritation). Stress increased

job displeasure only when commitment was low. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009

APA, all rights reserved). 2

These were the essence of the research that has already been conducted on this

topic and it was a brief background of the past researches and articles. This Stress

Organizational Outcomes relationship encouraged us to formulate the Impact of stressin the local environment and to develop the hypotheses for our research. In mid 70s,

more emphasis was on Division of Labor and scientific management, including time

and motion studies (By Fredrick Taylor) in order to increase Productivity and

performance. But today, more importance is given to Behavioral discourses such as

Stress-Outcomes relationship. It has now turned into broad area of investigation.

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Topic Details:

Stress

Researchers define stress as a physical, mental, or emotional response to

events that causes bodily or mental tension. Simply put, stress is any outside force or

event that has an effect on our body or mind. It can be defined as the body's reaction to

a change that requires a physical, mental or emotional adjustment or response. Stress

can come from any situation or thought that makes you feel frustrated, angry, nervous,

or anxious. It can be eitherPhysicalorMental.

Physical This occurs when the body as a whole starts to suffer as a result of a

stressful situation.

Emotional These responses are due to stress affecting the mind and include

anxiety, anger, depression, irritability, frustration, over-reaction to everyday problems,

memory loss and a lack of concentration for any task.

Psychological Long-term stress can cause psychological problems in someindividuals. Symptoms include withdrawal from society, phobias, compulsive behaviors,eating disorders and night terrors.

Major Causes of Stress

How workplace can be a cause for stress? In our work place we worry about

getting and keeping a good job. We become stressed over new responsibilities andduties. We struggle to climb the career ladder and are overwhelmed by the demands of

our bosses. The working conditions may change, or we may have some interpersonal

trouble at our work place. Home work for the students becomes a major cause. Work

stress is sometimes brought up by other, while some time we bring it to ourselves.

Three forces that can cause stress in the workplace environment can be:

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Work Overload

Task Deadlines

Long Working Hours

Emotional Dissonance

Nervousness etc.

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How can Stress cause Job Dissatisfaction?

In line with past researches, this study shows the evidence for the negative effect

of stress on various personal and organizationally valued outcomes. More specifically, job stress was negatively related to job satisfaction and affective commitment andpositively related to turnover intentions. These results highlight the possible negativeeffects of job stress in the workplace.

Even more dangerous consequence of chronic job stress is burnout. Job stresswas positively related to emotional exhaustion and cynicism. However, stress was notrelated to professional efficacy. These results show are in line with past research. Jobstress however, was not related to performance. Maybe, the limited job choicesavailable in economies such as Pakistan do not allow people to reduce theirperformance despite the fact that they are dissatisfied.

This arguments draws strength from the result that stress was positively relatedto turnover intentions. This implies that although people intend to quit the job if possible,they do not reduce their performance just because they do not have opportunities toswitch the job or they cannot afford to lose the job. Surprisingly, job stress waspositively related to creativity. We believe it is possible that people become morecreative in wake of situations that induce stress in order to effectively cope with suchsituations.

Objectives:

Job stress and burnout continue to be important constructs for research andinquiry in the OB literature. Reason for attention to these two constructs is theirpotentially negative relationship with personal and organization outcomes. Most of thetheory and research in this area has been developed and tested in North America or afew European countries. Little is known about how these theories would hold indeveloping countries such as Pakistan. Moreover, bulk of the research in this area hasbeen conducted on human service sector such as health care professionals and school

teachers with heavy reliance on self reported measures.

Field studies that have tried to map on the effects of job stress and burnout on avariety of outcomes in single study are very rare. Our study addresses these gaps inresearch by examining the effects of job stress outcomes relationships. Our majoremphasis will be to carry out conclusions of this model in the South-Asian context anddraw necessary recommendations for the local organizational environment.

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Limitations:

Subjective nature of Stress Means the terminology is very subjective

and it varies from person to person and so its measurement depends onlyon the personal feeling of an individual as we have no reliable measures.

Impact of other Influencing Factors Other factors that can impact the

performance of an individual can also have their impact on organizational

outcomes and they cannot be controlled as the research is totally

response based.

Scarce Resources The unavailability of appropriate resources has

restrained the research only in the Karachi City boundaries and therefore,

the generalizability of results can be different in other areas.

Limited Access to Organization members Most of the organizations

didnt allowed members to be involved in such type of Feedback Forms

and so we faced limited access to the individuals which prevented us from

getting desired information from the Top-Level management.

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Chapter 2

Research Model

Framework:

Job stress has been defined as an individually-based harmful physical andemotional response that occurs as a result of mismatch between person and theenvironment or the requirements of the job and capabilities (Jamal, 1984; Niosh, 1999) 3.Egor (2000)4 viewed stress as the way individuals respond to conditions that scare,threaten, anger, bewilder or excite them. Job stress has traditionally been associatedwith undesirable, expensive, and debilitating consequences which affect bothindividuals and organizations (Ross, 2005)5. In organizational setting, stress isnowadays becoming a major contributor to health and performance problems ofindividuals, and unwanted occurrences and costs for organizations. Many studies have

shown that stress is related to various individual and organizational outcomes such asjob satisfaction (Chen, Silverthorne, & Hung, 2006)6, organizational commitment (Jamal,1990; Chen et al., 2006)7, TOI (Turnover Intentions) poor physical and mental health(Jamal, 1990; Marzabadi & Tarkhorani, 2007)8 job performance (Jamal, 2004, 2007)9,and creativity (Demerouti, Willem, Verbeke, & Bakker, 2004; Halbesleben & Buckley,2004; Talbot, Cooper, Barrow, 1992)10. We believe that it is useful to test theuniversality of these relationships. As stress is more of a person focused construct, weexpect that the stress outcomes relationships would hold in the South Asian context.Therefore, we hypothesize a negative relationship between Job Stress and desiredOrganizational Outcomes.

Model:

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Variables:

Independent Variables:

Stress and Burnoutwere taken as the independent variables under consideration

as they are the subject of our research and in their impact upon Organizational

Outcomes has to be tested.

Intervening Variable:

In our proposed model, Job Satisfaction is placed as an intervening variable as

Workplace Stress and Burnout result in Job Dissatisfaction and finally impact on the

performance of individuals towards Organizational Outcomes.

Moderating Variable:

Turnover Intentions (TOI) will be a moderating variable that moderates the

relationship between Stress and Job Satisfaction.

Dependent Variable:

The dependent variable in our model is the Organizational Outcomes that will be

measured through work performance of individuals and their efficiency in achieving

Organizational goals.

Hypothesis:

Hypothesis 1: Job Stress will be negatively related to Job Satisfaction.

Hypothesis 2:Relationship between Job Stress and Job Satisfaction will be

moderated by Turnover Intentions.

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Hypothesis 3: Job Satisfaction will be positively related to Job Performance.

(Leads to Organizational Outcomes)

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Chapter 3

Research Methodology

Population:

Many Multi-nationals have widespread their roots in Pakistan over last two

decades and some are operating even more years ago. As we were interested to

formulate the relationship between variables in proposed Model in the South Asian local

perspective, we should have conducted the research Countrywide. But due the scarcity

of available resources and the intent of our research projects, our population is the

Officers and Middle Management of various Multi-nationals operating in Karachi.

Sample Size:

Even by properly utilizing all available adequate resources, we were unable to

generate as many responses as were expected. The main reason was the length of

questionnaire which included cross questions as well to validate the respondents

answers. The Sample Size is 39 due to the low response rate i.e. 26%. 150

questionnaires were distributed, among which half were partially filled out and were left

incomplete. It hindered the formulation of highlighted variables and so we had to

continue with the available and gathered data.

Sampling Method:

In accordance with the available resources, Sampling Method used is of

convenience sampling. This is because gathering data from diverse organizations in

limited time was not possible if we have applied any other method. Questionnaires were

evenly distributed among members of Multi-national Organizations including Silkbank

Ltd, P & G, Maersk, Dubai Islamic Bank etc. This sampling allowed us the convenient

distribution and collection of the research instruments among respondents and we were

able to generate data from employees of the mentioned organizations.

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Plan of Analysis:

The detailed analysis of collected information included many statistical tools via which

we were able to test the search results as well as we were able to draw necessaryconclusions regarding the proposed Model and the relationships among the variables

under consideration. These included:

Frequency and Percentage Cross Tabulation Descriptive Analysis Correlation Regression Analysis Hypothesis Testing

Software Employed:

Analysis on the Questionnaire responses has been done on SPSS (Statistical Package

for Social Sciences) in multiple aspects. Some of the graphical presentations and

comparison tables were also generated through Microsoft Excel.

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Chapter 4

Analysis and Findings

Based on the analysis, following results were generated from the gathered

information. Their interpretation is based on the findings through our research

instrument.

Frequency and Percentage:

Stress on the Job

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Valid Never 8 20.5 20.5 20.5

A few times a year 7 17.9 17.9 38.5

Once a month or less 5 12.8 12.8 51.3

A few times a month 7 17.9 17.9 69.2

Once a week 7 17.9 17.9 87.2

A few times a week 3 7.7 7.7 94.9

Everyday 2 5.1 5.1 100.0

Total 39 100.0 100.0

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Frequency

Never

A few times a year

Once a month or

less

A few times a month

Once a week

A few times a week

Everyday

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Physical Stress on Job


Valid Strongly Disagree 6 15.4 15.4 15.4

Disagree 17 43.6 43.6 59.0

Neutral 8 20.5 20.5 79.5

Agree 4 10.3 10.3 89.7

Strongly Agree 4 10.3 10.3 100.0

Total 39 100.0 100.0

0

2

4

6

8

10

1214

16

18

Frequency

Strongly

Disagree

Disagree

Neutral

Agree

Strongly Agree

Burnout


Valid 0 1 2.6 2.6 2.6

Strongly Disagree 4 10.3 10.3 12.8

Disagree 7 17.9 17.9 30.8

Neutral 13 33.3 33.3 64.1

Agree 10 25.6 25.6 89.7

Strongly Agree 4 10.3 10.3 100.0

Total 39 100.0 100.0

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Job Performance


Valid Never 2 5.1 5.1 5.1

A few times a year 1 2.6 2.6 7.7

Once a month or less 8 20.5 20.5 28.2

A few times a month 4 10.3 10.3 38.5

Once a week 9 23.1 23.1 61.5

A few times a week 5 12.8 12.8 74.4

Everyday 10 25.6 25.6 100.0

Total 39 100.0 100.0

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0

1

2

3

4

56

7

8

9

10

Frequency

Never

A few times ayear

Once a month or

lessA few times a

month

Once a week

A few times aweek

Everyday

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Switching the Job


Valid I would quit this job at once if i

could4 10.3 10.3 10.3

I would take almost any other job

in which i could earn as much as I

am earning now

4 10.3 10.3 20.5

I would like to change both my job

and my occupation3 7.7 7.7 28.2

I would like to exchange my

present job for another one5 12.8 12.8 41.0

I am not eager to exchange my

job, but I would do so if I could get

a better job

19 48.7 48.7 89.7

I can not think of any jobs which i

would exchange2 5.1 5.1 94.9

I would not exchange my job for

any other2 5.1 5.1 100.0

Total 39 100.0 100.0

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

1618

20

Frequency

I would quit this job at once i

i could

I would take almost any othejob in which i could earn as

much as I am earning now

I would like to change both

my job and m y occupation

I would like to exchange my

present job for another one

I am not eage r to exchange

my job, but I would do so if I

could get a be tter job

I can not think of any jobs

which i would exchange

I would not exchange my job

for any other

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Descriptive Analysis:

Mean Std. Deviation

Burnout 2.56 1.875

Feel Worn Out 2.72 2.038

Irritation on the Job 3.03 1.038

nervousness 2.13 1.080

Physical stress on job 2.56 1.188

Stress on the Job 2.38 1.830

Irritation on the Job 3.03 1.038

Job Gets Annoying 3.23 1.087

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

Mean Std. Deviation

Burnout

Feel Worn Out

Irritation on the Job

nervousness

Physical stress on job

Stress on the Job

Irritation on the Job

Job Gets Annoying

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Hypothesis Testing:

We tested the afore-mentioned hypothesis for the correlations among the

respective variables with a level of significance of 0.05. We observed the

following results:

Hypothesis 1: Job Stress will be negatively related to Job Satisfaction

The Correlation came out to be -0.40422 or negative 40.422%.

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Hypothesis 2:Relationship between Job Stress and Job Satisfaction will be moderated

by Turnover Intentions.

We used a partial correlation analysis with job switching being the controlled variable.

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Hypothesis 3: Job Satisfaction will be positively related to Job Performance.

The Correlation came out to be 0.005948 or 0.5% positive correlation

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Chapter 5

Conclusion

Conclusion:

The more the people were stressed, more were they loosing interest in their jobs.

Those who were likely to switch their jobs, they were more dissatisfied in

stressful situations.

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When employees are dissatisfied or lose their interest in a job, they are highly

likely to perform lower than those who are satisfied.

Recommendations:

Job Stress and Workload should be handled properly in organizations to keep

employees satisfied on their jobs.

Employees should be trained for Stress handling as it finally affects

organizational performance.

Employee satisfaction should be given priority if we intend to reduce the

Employee Turnover Rate.

Organizational goals should be aligned properly with Employee objectives in

order to avoid stress and burnout among Employees.

Long Working Hours should be avoided by employers.

Certain activities should be provided so that employees can relax their minds in

stressful situations.

Therapies should be conducted on how Stress can be taken positively, instead ofbeing taken negatively. Positive Stress can increase Job performance.

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References1. http://ebiz.bm.nsysu.edu.tw/2008/m954012025/(Job%20Satisfaction%20and

%20Job%20Performance)/1992%20Organizational%20Stress,%20Job

%20Satisfaction%20and%20Job%20Performance-%20Where%20Do%20We

%20Go%20From%20Here.pdf

2. http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=1993-47396-

001&CFID=4356304&CFTOKEN=34216728

Jamal, M. 1984. Job stress and job performance controversy: An empirical

assessment.

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. 1999. Stress At Work.

4676 Columbia Parkway

Ross, G. F. 2005., Tourism Industry Employee Workstress A Present and

Future Crisis,Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 19: 133-147

Jamal, M. 1990. Relationship of job stress and type-A behavior to employees

job satisfaction, organizational commitment, psychosomatic health problems, and

turnover motivation. Human Relations, 43: 727-738.

Chen, Jui-Chen; Silverthorne, Colin; Hung, Jung-Yao,.2006. Organization

communication, job stress, organizational commitment, and job performance of

accounting professionals in Taiwan and America. Leadership and Organization

Development Journal, 27: 4. 242-249(8)

Marzabadi e A, Tarkhorani H. 2007. Job stress, job satisfaction and mental

health.Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research [serial online]

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http://ebiz.bm.nsysu.edu.tw/2008/m954012025/(Job%20Satisfaction%20and%20Job%20Performance)/1992%20Organizational%20Stress,%20Job%20Satisfaction%20and%20Job%20Performance-%20Where%20Do%20We%20Go%20From%20Here.pdfhttp://ebiz.bm.nsysu.edu.tw/2008/m954012025/(Job%20Satisfaction%20and%20Job%20Performance)/1992%20Organizational%20Stress,%20Job%20Satisfaction%20and%20Job%20Performance-%20Where%20Do%20We%20Go%20From%20Here.pdfhttp://ebiz.bm.nsysu.edu.tw/2008/m954012025/(Job%20Satisfaction%20and%20Job%20Performance)/1992%20Organizational%20Stress,%20Job%20Satisfaction%20and%20Job%20Performance-%20Where%20Do%20We%20Go%20From%20Here.pdfhttp://ebiz.bm.nsysu.edu.tw/2008/m954012025/(Job%20Satisfaction%20and%20Job%20Performance)/1992%20Organizational%20Stress,%20Job%20Satisfaction%20and%20Job%20Performance-%20Where%20Do%20We%20Go%20From%20Here.pdfhttp://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=1993-47396-001&CFID=4356304&CFTOKEN=34216728http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=1993-47396-001&CFID=4356304&CFTOKEN=34216728http://ebiz.bm.nsysu.edu.tw/2008/m954012025/(Job%20Satisfaction%20and%20Job%20Performance)/1992%20Organizational%20Stress,%20Job%20Satisfaction%20and%20Job%20Performance-%20Where%20Do%20We%20Go%20From%20Here.pdfhttp://ebiz.bm.nsysu.edu.tw/2008/m954012025/(Job%20Satisfaction%20and%20Job%20Performance)/1992%20Organizational%20Stress,%20Job%20Satisfaction%20and%20Job%20Performance-%20Where%20Do%20We%20Go%20From%20Here.pdfhttp://ebiz.bm.nsysu.edu.tw/2008/m954012025/(Job%20Satisfaction%20and%20Job%20Performance)/1992%20Organizational%20Stress,%20Job%20Satisfaction%20and%20Job%20Performance-%20Where%20Do%20We%20Go%20From%20Here.pdfhttp://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=1993-47396-001&CFID=4356304&CFTOKEN=34216728http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=1993-47396-001&CFID=4356304&CFTOKEN=34216728


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Jamal, M. 2007. Job stress and job performance controversy revisited: An

empirical examination in two countries, International Journal of Stress

Management. 14:2. 175-187

Demerouti, E., Verbeke W., and Bakker. A. B. 2005. Exploring the

Relationship Between a Multidimensional and Multifaceted Burnout Concept and

Self-Rated Performance.Journal of Management, vol. 31: pp. 186 - 209

Halbesleben J., and Buckley M. R. 2004. Burnout in Organizational Life.

Journal of Management, 12: 30. 859 - 879

Talbot R., Cooper, C., Barrow, S. 1992. Creativity and Stress. Creativity and

Innovation Management. 4: 183193.

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Appendix

Self Report

Dear Participant,

Thank you for agreeing to fill out this questionnaire.

I am a candidate for the Masters in Business Administration at the National College

of Business Administration and Economics. I am conducting a study to explore the

consequences of stress at workplace. You could help us in our research by filling out

this questionnaire. I would greatly appreciate your participation in this study.

Please provide your honest and most accurate responses to the questions in this

Self Report questionnaire and hand over the Manager / Supervisor Report

questionnaire to the person to whom you report to. You are not required to give

your name or any other information that could reveal your identity anywhere expect

on the slip attached with the Manager / Supervisor Report questionnaire. This is

only to help your manager / supervisor to ensure that he / she is filling in the

questionnaire for correct person. Please request him/her supervisor to remove the

slip before handing in the questionnaire to one of our representatives. Although I

am not asking you for any sensitive personal information, I assure you that your

responses will be held in strictest anonymity. Keep in mind that resulting data will

be summarized on a general basis and not on an individual basis.

Please read the instructions carefully and answer all the questions. There are no

trick questions, so please answer each item as frankly and as honestly as

possible. It is important that all the questions be answered.

I once again thank you for your assistance and cooperation.

Sincerely,

Ramish Hasan

Bilgrami

Sohaib Ali

Khan

Munib Ahmed

Agha

M. Rabeet

Ahsan

Muzzammil

Hanif

effects of stress on organizational outcomes

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