Proposal for thesis

Occupational stress

How occupational stress affects employee’s job satisfaction? A research in the

occupational stress and human resource management practices in the
organization.

ABSTRACT

This study will present the empirical evidence on the nature and effects of some selected

occupational stress indicator and its impact on some human resource management practices

(HRM) in relation to employee’s job satisfaction of a organization (Alpha

Mega/Carrefour/any other organizations). For the analysis, data will be collected through

the novel survey on selected OSI(occupational stress index) and HRM practices which is

related to employee’s job satisfaction, based on a representative random sample of

employee from the entire employee (population) of the organizations (i.e:Alpha

Mega/Carrefour) using an appropriate questionnaire. To study how OSI affect the

employee’s job satisfaction, various statistical methods like percentage, co-relation and

regression etc. will be used. Finally, various conclusions and required recommendation

based on the findings of the study will be formulated.

INTRODUCTION

In everyday life, almost everyone is subjected to a wide range of pressures. Although today,

there are many wide ranges of resources and strategies for coping with pressure. Sometimes

individual’s cope well and do not feel that the pressure is having any adverse effect upon

them while on the other hand, sometimes individual’s do have difficulty in dealing with the

situation and that is when one can say that individual’s are under the term “stress”.

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Occupational stress is described as the strain to which people are subjected when demands

and expectations are out of keeping with their capabilities and skills. Occupational stress

results, for example, by excessive demands but also from the lack of stimulus entailed, for

example, by excessive monotony in the workplace. One can also define the Occupational

stress by just saying there are only two times I fell stress: Day and Night. “Occupational/job

stress can be defined as the harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the

requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources, or needs of the worker.

Occupational stress can lead to poor health and even injury.”

Occupational stress can also be described as a process, involving a transaction between an

individual and his/her work environment. The employee’s response to work stress can be

either psychological, physical or both (Cooper & Cartwright, 1994; Kristensen, 1996;

Santos & Cox, 2000), and is usually categorized as being acute, post traumatic, or chronic.

The issue of job stress is of utmost importance to the public health community and working

people. The economic costs of job stress in general (absenteeism, lost productivity) are

difficult to estimate but could be as high as several hundred-billions/per years (Schnall PL,

Landsbergis PA, Baker D. job Strain and Cardiovascular Disease. Annual Review of Public

Health; 15:381-411, 1994. Schnall PL, Landsbergis PA, Schwartz JE, Pickering TG. Job

Strain and Hypertension, Vol. no .2, p.167-8). Most importantly, there is the potential for

preventing much illness and death. More than 50 million Americans have high blood

pressure, and, in 95 percent of cases, the cause is unknown.

On the other hand, Human Resource Management (HRM) is the most important part of any

organizational goal achievement or success. Most organizations job satisfaction is a major

determinant of the organizational success. Job satisfaction does not occur in a vacuum. It is

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necessary to take a systems perspective and look not only at employees, but also at the

environments in which they are expected to perform. Organizational environment depends

on adopted particular HRM practices by the organization. It has been said that if a good

performers is put in bad systems, the systems will win every time.

All employers want employees who perform their jobs well. Job satisfaction is a

psychological state that refers positive motivation of an individual towards his/her jobs. It is

a relatively recent term that the organizations are focusing their attention. A person’s level

of job satisfaction can be influenced by many factors; some of these factors include the

level of pay and benefits, the perceived fairness of the promotion system within a company,

the quality of the working conditions, leadership and social relationships, and the job itself

such as the variety of tasks involved, the interest and challenge the job generates, and the

clarity of the job description or requirements.

Organizations must have employees who are able to quickly adapt to an ever-changing

world market. Therefore, companies need to concentrate on the job satisfaction

determininant factors such as: job description and specification, on going employee training

and development, reward and payment system, career planning and good working

environment in regard to their employees in order to achieve the best from the employees

(Guest 2003, 2004; Purcell 2002, 2004).

RESEARCH QUESTION

Employee performance or job Satisfaction is our goal. In order to reach our goal we

explained occupational stress as well as HRM practices of working environment. This study

is directed at testing a hypothesis that there is a relationship between occupational stress

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and Human Resource Management practices (HRM) of organizations in terms of job

satisfaction.

Based on the literature these key questions underpin this work.

1. What evidence is there that organization use HRM strategically with a view to

reducing their employee’s occupational stress?

2. Does the organization take a strategic approach to HRM experience for better

cope of occupational stress?

3. What will be employee’s job satisfaction level if organizations experience

occupational stress?

Based on the outcome of the above mentioned questions the study will be addressed the

following objectives:

1. To measure the occupational stress of the organizations.

2. To identify the HRM practices by the organization which deals with employee

health.

3. To determine the relationship between occupational stress and employee’s job

satisfaction.

LITERATURE REVIEW

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Work stress or occupational stress has been researched for several years now. Recently, it

has became a major concern for organizations since its effects imposed on an organization

could be tremendous and may range from lost productivity, to burnout, to increased

absenteeism which could hinder the organizations ability to accomplish its goals. According

to Anderson, Schalk and Humprey, work stress has been described as an incompatibility

between the individual and his or her environment.

According to Skues and Kirby coping with stress is multinational factors and particularly

the appraisal of the situation by the individual.

Researchers have proposed that a third group of coping responses can be idenfied, namely

perception-focused coping (Perlin & Schooler, 1978). This group can include strategies

such as positive re-appraisal, minimization or seeking meaning (Parry, 1990), and generally

involve attempts to minimize the threat associated with a problem, redefining the problem

or redirecting attention to a different aspect of the situation. The characteristic that appears

to differentiate these strategies from emotion-focused and problem-coping is that they tend

to focus on cognitions and perceptions rather than emotional or behaviors (Holahan &

Moos, 1983).

Keilhofner (1995) noted that if the employer-employee relationship is not restored quickly

or, at least replaced, the long-term outcome for the worker is likely to be negative. In cases

of work stress, the loss of work-related roles and relationships has the potential to

exacerbate the psychological condition of the worker, thus complicating the diagnosis and

management of work-related injury.

Different management techniques, especially new ones, such as Human Resource

Management, Lean Production, Business Process Reengineering, and total Quality

Management can be identified as causes of work-related stress. This is, because the

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thought of change and the fear of the unknown almost always create stressful situations. In

addition, time is needed for adjusting to new management techniques and until this

adjustment happens, the period in between may be quite stressful

(http://www.workstress.net/causes.htm).

Though popular applications of the Yerkes Dodson Law (Benson and Allen, 1980; Certo;

2003; Lussler, 2000), common management practice assumes that a ‘reasonable’ amount of

pressure in the work environment leads to higher performance among employees, than if

stress not present. (le Ferre, Matheny and Kolt, 2003).This coincides with some past belief

which generally assumed that, the relationship between performance and stress, was

curvilinear in nature, in other words low levels of stress were assumed to increase

performance, however, beyond some point increased levels contributed to a reduction in

performance.

However, this relationship may be true under some conditions. Recent evidence suggest that

stress (even at relatively low level), has mainly negative effects on task performance. For

example Danna and Griffin (1999) in their work, they state that occupational stress

represents a real threat to the quality of life for the employees. If a person is unable to cope,

or if support is lacking, stress then becomes a negative phenomenon which can lead to

physical illness and psychological problems. Such situations would ultimately lead to lower

levels of performance.

The Health and Safety Executive (2000) states that around half a million people in the UK

experience work-related stress at a level that they believe makes them ill. More recent

reports state that up to five million people feel “very” or “extremely” stressed by their work

and work-related stress, and it is estimated to cost society about £3.7 billion every year

(Johnson, Cooper, Cartwright, Donald, Taylor and Millet, 2005).Cartwright and Boyes

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(2000), argued and estimated that, in the UK, over 60 percent of the workplace absences are

due to stress. Further, according to Greenberg (2000), an American nationwide survey

conducted by a large life insurance company, showed that nearly 46 percent of American

employees believe that their jobs are “highly” stressful. Also as reported by the UK

Conferederatiion of Business and Industry (CBI), “work stress” was the second biggest

cause of absence in the UK workforce (CBI, 2001).

Harper and Vilkinas (2005) consider performance management systems (PMS) from key

stakeholders, managers, and employees’ perspectives. Their study makes two key points.

First, the stakeholders and managers stated that the PMS had a more positive impact on the

performance than did the employees and second the study highlights the difficulties

encountered when evaluating PMS. This research notes that differing evaluations of impact

will arise according to the perspective from which the impact is being observed.

.The effect of stress can be both physical and/or psychological. Stress has been defined by

stress researchers as the ‘silent killer’. According to Greenberg (2002) and others, medical

experts claim that there is a very strong link between stress and personal health, and

concluded that health related effects are not only very widespread but also extremely

serious; they can play a major role in determining the physical and/or psychological health

of an individual, as well as the success of an organization.

The issue of job stress is of utmost importance to the public health community and working

people. For this purpose, the job Strain Model has been developed by Robert Karasek,

who argues that work stress and the resulting physical and mental health effects of work

stress result, “not from a single aspect of the work environment , but from the joint effects

of the demands of a work situation and the range of decision making freedom (discretion)

available to the worker facing those demands…….Job s strain occurs when job demands are

high and job decision latitude is low.

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The “job strain” model states that the combination of high job demands and low job

decision latitude will lead to negative physical health outcomes such as hypertension and

cardiovascular disease(CVD). In addition , the model contains important predictions

regarding the socialization of personality traits and behavior patterns, which occur at work.

Chronic adaption to low control-low demand situations (“passive” jobs in figure ) can result

in reduced ability to solve problems or tackle challenges or feelings of depression.

Conversely, when high job demands are matched with greater authority and skill use

( controllable stressors or “active” jobs ) , more active learning and greater internal locus of

control develop. This can enable individuals to develop a broader range of coping strategies.

In final conclusion , the “job strain” model emphasizes the need to distinguish features of

the work environment that can be categorized as demands or control , examines the

interaction between demands and control, and emphasizes the stress-producing properties

of these objective factors, and not solely individual perceptions or persons-environment fit.

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Most problems associated with work stress are gradual in their build-up, therefore

identifying and dealing with the factors that cause them early on, can bring major benefits to

both the employees and the employer. Very importantly, reinforcing the implementation of

any stress reducing policies, and being open minded about issues on work stress, will

ultimately lead to a healthy work environment.

REAEARCH METHODOLOGY

Methods and procedures used in conducting research need very careful consideration.

Methodology should be such be that enables the researcher to collect valid information’s

and to analyze the same properly to arrive at correct decisions. The methodology of this

study will focus on quantitive approach. The methods and procedures which will be

followed in conducting this research are being described below.

Locale of the study

The locale of the research study will be supermarket of Alpha mega/Carrefour or any other

organization located in Nicosia, Lemassol and Larnaka.

Population and Sample

All the employees of Alpha mega/Carrefour/other organization will be considered as the

population of the study. An updated list of employees will be collected from the authority.

Out of all employees 100 employees (50 men and 50 women) will be selected purposively

as sample of the study.

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Instrument for Data collection

In this research study required data from the employee will be collected with the help of a

structured questionnaire designed for getting clean information about employees’ views,

ideas regarding Occupational stress and the human resource management practices of the

organization and their performance level as well. Both closed and open form questions will

be included in the questionnaire. Simple and direct questions in accordance with the

objectives of the study will be included to ascertain the opinion of the employees regarding

a number of aspects involved in this study. The questionnaire will be pre-tested with a few

portions of the employees to get necessary corrections, additions modification. The

modified and corrected questionnaire will be finally used for data collection.

Data collecting procedure

Data will be collected by the researcher himself. Prior to data collection researcher will

requested the employee to provide necessary help and co-operation for data collection. The

researcher will make all possible efforts to establish rapport with the respondents so that

they could feel free to response the questions contained in the questionnaire. Data

collection thus from the respondents will be then complied, tabulated.

Selection of dependent and Independent Variables

The successful selection of variables results in success of a research. In appropriate and

inconsistent selection of variables may lead to faulty results. The researcher selected the

variables for the study.

Employee performance or job satisfactions are the main focus of this study and it will be

considered as the dependent variables. Therefore, researcher selected some Occupational

stress index which is related to HRM practices such as equal employment opportunity,

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managing diversity, job analysis, job description, job specifications, recruitment, selection ,

training, and development, Career planning, performance management, compensation

strategies, and finally employee and Organizational relations as independent variables.

Data processing and Analysis

Compilation of data

After completion of field survey data from all the questionnaires will be coded, compiled,

tabulated and analyzed in accordance with the objectives of the study. In this process, all

the responses in the questionnaire will be given numerical coded values.

Statistical technique

The analysis will be performed using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences)

computer package. Descriptive analysis such as range, number and percentage, mean,

standard deviation and rank order will be used whenever necessary. Pearson’s Product

Moment Co-efficient of Correlation (r) will be used in order to explore the relationship

between the concerned variables. Throughout the study, at least five-percent (0.05 ) level of

probability will be used as basis of rejecting a null hypothesis.

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

1. The research will be conducted through the permission of the due authority to

conduct the study with their employee response.

2. Special care will be taken to avoid personal biasness and opinion of the

researcher to ensure fair consideration.

3. The research will be conducted under the assumption that the researcher will

keep the findings anonymous.

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 4. Result of the research work will be accurately represented what is observed based

on the actual response of the respondents. Reasonable and appropriate sample

will be selected to obtain reasonable standard of result.

5. Appropriate conclusions and recommendations will be drawn on the basis of the

findings of the research.

References

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3. Benson, H. (1992). The Wellness Book. New York: Simon & Schuster.

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6. Buys, N. & Kendall, E. (1998). Stress and burnout among rehabilitation counselors
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 10. cooper, C. L. & Cartwright, S.(1994). Healthy mind, healthy Organisations:
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11. Dr. Maria Michaelides and Panigiota Georgiou . ‘Employee Occupational Stress in
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!2. Dr. Maria Michaelides and Mouafak E-ali Elwka,(2003). Factors contributing to
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Books

1. Gary Dessler, (2008) Human resource Management, New Jersey, Prentice Hall, (11th
edition)

Websites

1. http://www.workhealth.org

2. http://www.library.thinkquest.org

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3. http://www.jobstresshelp.com

4. http://www.managementhelp.org/hr_mgmnt/hr_mgmnt.htm

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