International Journal of Business

Management & Research (IJBMR)

ISSN 2249-6920
Vol. 3, Issue 4, Oct 2013, 19-28
TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ORGANIZATIONAL ROLE STRESS AND JOB

SATISFACTION AMONG MALE AND FEMALE EMPLOYEES OF ORGANIZED RETAIL
SECTOR
AFROZE NAZNEEN & PRETTY BHALLA
Innocent Hearts Group of Institutions, Jalandhar, Punjab, India

ABSTRACT
The aim of this study is to explore the differences in job-related stress, if any, between male and female
employees, based on ten role stressors. It also examines the job satisfaction levels of both male and female groups. Our
methodology entails a survey of 218 male and 132 females employees in Punjab, India, whose responses are measured
according to an occupational role stress scale. There is no significant difference between male and female employees in
terms of total stress levels and have almost similar job satisfaction levels. The major limitation of this study is that it was
conducted in Punjab alone, while the culture of organizations other than in Punjab may be different.

KEYWORDS: Occupational Role Stress, Job satisfaction, Retailing

INTRODUCTION
HIGH employee turnover rate in retail sector has increasingly been an issue of interest to both practitioners and
academicians, not just in developed countries but also in the developing countries. Work stress is thought to affect
individuals psychological and physical health, as well as organizations effectiveness, in an adverse manner. Workers who
are stressed are also more likely to be unhealthy, poorly motivated, less productive and less safe at work. Their
organizations are less likely to be successful in a competitive market. Stress can be brought about by pressures at home and
at work. Employers cannot usually protect workers from stress arising outside of work, but they can protect them from
stress that arises through work. Stress at work can be a real problem to the organization as well as for its workers. Good
management and good work organization are the best forms of prevention.
If employees are already stressed, their managers should be aware of it and know how to help. Stress results from
a mismatch between the demands and pressures on the person, on the one hand, and their knowledge and abilities, on the
other. It challenges their ability to cope with work. This includes not only situations where the pressures of work exceed
the workers ability to cope but also where the workers knowledge and abilities are not sufficiently utilized and that is a
problem for them. A healthy job is likely to be one where the pressures on employees are appropriate in relation to their
abilities and resources, to the amount of control they have over their work, and to the support they receive from people who
matter to them.
Stress has been approached in at least four different ways. Firstly, as the stimulus or external force acting on the
organism; Secondly, as the response or the change in physiological function; Thirdly, as an interaction between an external
force and the resistance to it; and finally, as comprehensive phenomenon encompassing all the three.
Hans Selyess (1956) General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) has been widely held as a comprehensive model to
explain the Stress phenomenon. This threestage model states that when an organism is confronted with a threat to the
general physiology response occurs in three stages:

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Afroze Nazneen & Pretty Bhalla

Alarm Reaction: The first stage includes an initial shock phase in which resistance is lowered and a counter-shock phase
in which defensive mechanisms become active.
Stage of Resistance: Maximum adaptation occurs during this stage. Resistance increases to levels above normal. If
stressors persist, or the defensive reaction proves ineffective, the organism deteriorates to the next stage.
Stage of Exhaustion: When adaptation energy is exhausted, sign of alarm reaction reappears and resistance levels begins
to decline irreversibly, the organism collapses. One of the major areas of research in India in the field of stress in the
organizational role stress. The concept of organizational stress first evolved in the classic work of Kahn et al.(1964). An
organizational can be defined as a system of roles. From the point of an individual, there are two role systems: Role Space
and Role Set (Pareek, 1993). Pareek (1983) pioneered research work on role stress by identifying as many as 10 different
types of organizational role stresses. This are described here briefly:
Inter-Role Distance (IRD): When there is conflict between the organizational role and other roles, e.g., an executive not
being able to divide his time between work demands and family demands.
Role Stagnation (RS): when there are few opportunities for learning and growth in organization.
Role Expectations Conflict (REC)
When there are conflicting demands made on the role by different people in the organization.
Role Erosion (RE): When an individual feels that some important functions which re related to his work are given to
someone else to carryout he/she feels that the job which he is doing is not challenging. The stress indicators found to be
related to role erosion are a feeling of worthlessness, low self-esteem, mood swing, low motivation to work, etc.
Role Overload (RO): When there is a feeling that too much is expected from the role than what the occupant can cope
with.
Role Isolation (RI): When there is a lack of appropriate linkage of ones role with the others role in the organization .
Personal Inadequacy (PI): When there is a lack of knowledge, skills or adequate preparation to be effective in a particular
role.
Self-Role Distance (SRD): When there is conflict between ones values and self-concepts with the requirements of the
organizational role.
Role Ambiguity (RA): When an individual does not have a clear picture of work objectives, co-workers expectations and
the scope and responsibilities of his/her job. The stress indicators found to relate to role ambiguity and depressed mood,
lowered self-esteem, low motivational to work and intention to leave the job.
Resource Inadequacy (RI): When there is non-availability of resources needed for effective role performance.

JOB SATISFACTION
Job satisfaction is defined by Arnold and Feldman (1986:86) as the amount of overall positive affect
(or feelings) that individuals have toward their jobs. Robbins (2001:69) defines job satisfaction as ones general attitude
towards work. He states further, that an individual with high job satisfaction has a positive attitude to the job and a
dissatisfied individual has a negative attitude about the job. Spector (1996) contends that job satisfaction is not only how
people feel about their jobs overall, but also how they feel about the various facets of the job. Luthans (2005: 212)
provides a good definition of job satisfaction comprising of three dimensions. Firstly, it is an emotional response to job

A Comparative Study of Organizational Role Stress and Job Satisfaction among

Male and Female Employees of Organized Retail Sector

21

satisfaction and therefore it cannot be seen only inferred. Secondly, it is often determined by how well outcomes meet or
exceed expectations. Finally, it represents several related attitudes
Review of available literature has shown considerable interest in the study of job satisfaction. In fact, as noted by
Spector [1997], job satisfaction is the most frequently studied variable in the organizational research. The extent to
which people like (satisfaction) or dislike (dissatisfaction) their job has received enormous attention mainly due to its
associations with issues that are of high concerns to organizations such as commitment, absenteeism, and staff turnover .
Many studies conducted amongst the employees in the western countries consistently showed negative and significant
relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention. Similarly, studies conducted in the Eastern countries, for
instance in China also supported the generally agreed notion of a negative association between job satisfaction and
turnover intention among employees. It is therefore reasonable to conclude that regardless of the differences between both
the cultures, job satisfaction is negatively related to turnover intention among employees. Studies in the retail sector have
also revealed similar pattern of findings. Saks(2006) and Lucas(1986) for example, found negative and significant
relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention. Likewise, job dissatisfaction has been found to be positively
and significantly associated with turnover intention among retail employees (Goldsmith et al 1991). Overall, although
limited, studies in the retail context have interestingly revealed similar pattern of findings to other industries. This is
certainly undesirable for the customer-orientated retail business as studies have found that the level of employee
satisfaction is positively related to customer satisfaction.

RETAIL IN INDIA
Retailing was regarded as a young generation industry: older people struggle to keep up with the pace of change
in the industry and fears of outmoded were real. The youthful nature of the industry added an extra load on managers to get
acknowledged early on in their career, demanded long work hours. This created frustration which resulted retail job a very
stressful one. The rapidly changing job description created further problems in gaining appreciation. Managers duties and
responsibilities continually kept on changing. Career development issues related to pay rise and gender discrimination and
injustice still prevailed. Some female managers believed that retail sector was occupying a male dominated culture while
some male managers accepted that there is a need for more women on senior rank to offset the existing culture. Retailing
as a sector is witnessing a great revolution in India. Retailing in India is gradually becoming the next boom industry. The
growth of India's retail sector is not only limited to urban areas but is also growing in rural areas. In the next few years,
India's retail industry can be expected to expand more than 80%.
The Indian apparel retail industry had total revenue of $28,102.6 million in FY10, representing a compound
annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.9% for the period spanning 2005-2009. Indias Apparel industry (domestic + exports) is
expected to grow from the current $ 70 billion to $ 220 billion by 2020. The Indian domestic Apparel market size in FY10
was $ 47 billion and is expected to grow at 11% CAGR to reach $ 140 billion by 2020. Indias exports have also recovered
in FY10 following increased global demand and is currently worth $ 23.5 billion India has been ranked as the top retail
destination globally for retail investment attractiveness among 30 emerging markets in the world. The Indian retail sector is
the second largest untapped market after China. Retail business contributes around 11 percent of Indias GDP.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Bemana et al (2013) conducted a study on 200 public municipality personnel from Shiraz area in Iran to
investigates the relationship between job stress and job satisfaction. The results show there is a significant negative
relationship between job stress and job satisfaction. The result also shows that there isnt significant difference between

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Afroze Nazneen & Pretty Bhalla

two genders in job stress and job satisfaction and it is suggested that constant appraisal programs and appreciation should
be given to reinstate and motivate the employees. Khan et al (2013)suryed 40 respondents of Operations Department of
Islamic Banks in lahore Pakistan to determine the Level of Job Satisfaction (JS) and also analyze Islamic Banking
Workplace Management to know; is job satisfaction determined through crucial Organizational Climate and professionals
own Occupational Stress? And is Age and Gender having significant impact on the Level of Job Satisfaction (JS)?The
results reveal that; Organizational Climate and Occupational Stress have significant impact on the Level of Job Satisfaction
(JS), Age Level doesnt matter and have significant impact but in Gender; Males were more satisfied than Females.
Suryawanshi et al (2013) analysed 200 employees of different orgnaisations of Surat region to study various
dimensions of Organizational Role Stress like role stagnation, role overload, inter role distance, role ambiguity and role
expectation conflict in relation to job satisfaction. Stress and Job Satisfaction have no significant causal relationship it may
be because job satisfaction may get influenced by other factors like incentive, performance appraisal. Sharma (2012)
studied a 550 frontline employees of commercial banks of Jammu and Kashmir State (India) to find out basis of role stress
experienced at the workplace . The research concluded that the commercial banks are required to wake up to the fact that
role stress has multifaceted relationship with performance-related benefits.
Malhotra et al (2012) conducted a research on the 300 employees working in the call centers of the Mohali,
Panchkula and Chandigarh to study that job satisfaction is the reason to raise the stress among the employees . The result
reveals that salary, job task, colleagues, sense of purpose, career path opportunity, work environment, autonomy and
workload are the major variables to introduce the stress among the employees. The paper also purposed the Stress
management Programmes for employees.
Lehal (2007) conducted research on 200 executives (men and women) from both public and private sector sector
units to study Organisational role stress and Job satisfaction. The study reveals that in case of ORS and JS both, the results
of public sector are better than private sector. Further in public sector, female executives are more stressful than males. But
in case of JS, in the same sector, female executives are more satisfied with their jobs. The correlation analysis brings to
light that there is a strong but negative relationship between two variables.
Broadbridge (2002) investigated a sample comprised of 44 retail managers and represented 13 retail companies
to the factors causing stress to retail managers and their coping strategies. the result indicated that the main stressors of
retail industry are highly competitive and cut throat nature of the industry, tight resources, customer attitudes and threats
of violence, coping with seasonal demands, threats of store visits from directors and the pressure to constantly perform.
The effects of stress to an organization are insidious, and may not be clearly measurable, but organizations leading up to
the new millennium must make themselves aware of the causes of organizational stressors, and then take preventative
measures to alleviate them.
Wetzels (2000) studied a sample of 148 retail sales persons from seven major retailers in Belgium to investigate
the impact of the service control versus the empowerment model on role ambiguity and role conflict and we look at the
effect of these role stressor on commitment towards the organization and to delivering service quality by retail sales
persons and the result showed that both formalization and empowerment reduce role ambiguity. Role ambiguity in turn is
negatively associated with both organizational commitment and commitment to quality and commitment has a positive
impact on customer perceived quality.

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

To examine the level of Job Satisfaction and Organization Role Stress in retail sector.

23

A Comparative Study of Organizational Role Stress and Job Satisfaction among

Male and Female Employees of Organized Retail Sector

To examine the relationship between Job Satisfaction and Organizational Role Stress

To examine the effect of organizational role stress on employees Job Satisfaction in retail sector.

To offer suitable suggestions to stake holders for improving the Job Satisfaction, reduce Organizational Role
Stress in retail sector.

METHODOLOGY
Sample
The present research was conducted on a sample consisted of 350 employees-218 males & 132 Females drawn
randomly from different Retail organizations located in Punjab. The age of the employees vary from 29-52 years.
Measures
Organizational Role Stress Scale (Pareek, 1981) consists of 50 items and measure 10 type of role stressors. Each
dimension of ORS is measured by five questions. The ORS scale has high reliability and validity, and detailed norms have
been worked out for different types of organizations. Khanna (1986) has suggested ORS norms for managers. Likewise,
Surti (1983) has suggested ORS norms for working women; Sen(1982) for Indian bankers; Susniati (1986) for Indonesian
Salesman; Rieffel (1986) for American Directors of Special Education; Pestonjee and Singh (1982) for Electric supply
managers and EDP managers ; Pestonjee (1983) for civil servants.
Job Satisfaction Scale
Scale on Job Satisfaction developed by Singh (1989) will be used in the study. This questionnaire consists of 20
items that measures the degree of job satisfaction. Each item was rated on five point rating scale ranging from highly
satisfied to highly dissatisfied with a weighted score of 5 to 1, the total score of an individual varies from 20-100.
Procedure
The measures were administered on the selected respondents and they were asked to read the instructions given in
the questionnaires. No time limit was given to fill the questionnaires but it was expected that respondents would fill the
same within 20-25 minute

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Table1: Showing Mean and SD Values of Employees of Retail
Sector on Various Dimensions of ORS and JS
Ors Variables

Mean

IRD
RS
REC
RE
RO
RI
PI
SRD
RA
RIN
Total Ors
Total Job Satisfaction

7.192
7.6
7.6
9.2
7.2
6.6
8.1
7.71
5.95
6.61
73.84
61.4

Standard
Deviation
3.49
3.38
4.06
3.78
3.45
3.82
3.38
5.34
3.78
3.53
26.06
13.96

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Afroze Nazneen & Pretty Bhalla

Table 2: Showing Mean and SD Values of Employees of Retail Sector on

Various Dimensions of ORS and JS of Male Employees
Variables

Mean

IRD
RS
REC
RE
RO
RI
PI
SRD
RA
RIN
Total Ors
Total Job Satisfaction

7.35
7.79
7.62
9.3
7.27
6.66
8.12
8.12
6.25
6.71
75.45
61.56

Standard
Deviation
3.56
3.41
3.98
3.7
3.58
3.86
3.38
6.21
3.95
3.47
26.17
13.7

Table 3: Showing Mean and SD Values of Employees of Retail Sector on

Various Dimensions of ORS and JS of Female Employees
Variables

Mean

IRD
RS
REC
RE
RO
RI
PI
SRD
RA
RIN
Total Ors
Total Job Satisfaction

6.93
7.28
7.58
8.83
7.00
6.61
7.94
7.02
5.04
6.43
71.16
61.13

Standard
Deviation
3.36
3.32
4.20
3.77
3.21
3.75
3.36
3.33
3.75
3.61
25.67
14.35

It is clear from the Table-I & II that the female & male employee of the retail sectors are showing substantially
level of organizational role stress and main stressors are role erosion ,role expectation conflict , personal inadequacy, self
role distance, resource inadequacy and role overload. Before discussing the results it is necessary to understand the nature
of the job in retail sectors. The timing in retail sectors are generally between 09.0 am to 10:00 pm, almost 11 hours
(for females) & 13 hours (for males) in one go and at the same time most of the employees keeps standing throughout their
duty hour and it is expected from them that they should be very attentive and polite with the customer. The most dominant
stressor in our research is role erosion which means the employees feels that some important functions which are related to
his work are given to someone else to carry out and they feel that the job they are doing is not challenging. The second
dominant stressor is inter role distance means when there is conflict between the organizational role and other role eg. this
happens when an employee fails to divide his time between work demand and family demand and its very natural because
employees of retail sectors are spending their almost full time doing activities for organizations and they do not have time
to perform other family and society related work which are equally important. The third dominant stressor is role isolation
means there is lack of appropriate linkage of ones role with others role in the organization and if we look in to the work
profile of retail sectors employees there jobs are highly independent in nature and they hardly see any coordination in one
role or others. The fourth important stressor in this research is self role distance means, when there is conflict between
ones values and self concepts with the requirement of the organizational role. During the data collection we interacted
informally with so many employees of various retail outlets and the general complaint that they describe to us was really

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A Comparative Study of Organizational Role Stress and Job Satisfaction among

Male and Female Employees of Organized Retail Sector

painful. They said that they are suppose to perform so many task or jobs that they never thought of doing and management
forced them to do the same which are very contradictory to their values and self concept and they are doing for the sake of
survival. The fifth dominant stressor is resource inadequacy means when there is lack of resources or non availability of
the resources needed to perform his role effectively. Employees of retail sectors are working with lot of resource crunch.
The last important dominant stressor in this case is personal inadequacy means when there is lack of knowledge, skills and
attitude needed to perform certain operation effectively. In retail sectors employees are not well trained and at the same
time they majority of them are not having adequate exposure in retail sector and also there is no any hard and fast
educational back ground they are looking for, because of very strenuous working environment they picks all those who are
willing to come with whatever back ground and this leads toward lack of required knowledge , skills and other ability to
perform their task effectively even they are do not have any appropriate training or induction programmes by doing so they
can remove or reduce their some difficulty.
The study shows that both male and female employees feel stressed and there is no significant difference between
the two as the mean factor of 218 male employees for stress is 75.45 and for 132 females is 71.16.
Table 4: Showing CR Values
Ors Component
IRD
RS
REC
RE
RO
RI
PI
SRD
RA
RIN
Total Ors
Job Satisfaction

Male
Mean(N=218)
7.34
7.79
7.62
9.3
7.27
6.66
8.12
8.12
6.25
6.71
75.45
61.56

Male
Sd
3.56
5.41
3.98
3.7
3.58
3.86
3.38
6.12
3.95
3.47
26.17
13.7

Female Mean
( N=132)
6.93
7.28
7.58
8.83
7.00
6.61
7.94
7.02
5.04
6.43
71.16
61.13

Female
Sd
3.36
3.32
4.20
3.77
3.21
3.75
3.36
3.33
3.75
3.61
25.67
14.35

Cr
Values
.34
.007
.009
.133
.078
.013
.053
.21
.31
.08
.16
.03

Table 5: Table Showing Correlation between ORS and JS in Employees of Retail Sector
Sr.No
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

Components
of Ors
IRD
RS
REC
RE
RO
RI
PI
SRD
RA
RIN
Total Ors

Job
Satisfaction
0.051
-0.151
-0.39
-0.26
-0.22
-0.22
-0.11
-0.12
-0.17
-0.28
-0.28

CONCLUSIONS
It is observed from this study that employee(both male and female) of retail sectors in India is suffering with
organizational role stress the dominant stressors are role erosion, inter role distance, role isolation, self role distance,
resource inadequacy and personal inadequacy.

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Afroze Nazneen & Pretty Bhalla

RECOMMENDATIONS
The effect of work appreciation and feedback is very high on job stress and at the time, stress level is also very
high as compared to other factors. Hence owners and managers should adopt various employee appraisal techniques. This
will not only give a better idea about job but, it will also motivate the employee and reduce stress.
Majority of the employees said they were not satisfied with their compensation, when compared to the hard work
they put in. Hence compensation of the employees should be increased. Increasing the non monetary part of the
compensation may work as it will motivate the employees and help them perform better. Many respondents said that, they
are facing health problems. Store managers or owners should provide proper sitting facilities and breaks so as that these
small health problems do not turn into sever stress and health issues.

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Male and Female Employees of Organized Retail Sector

27

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