ABSTRACT
The study examined the impact of job stress on employee performance in food and beverage firms in South East Nigeria. The study was conducted to determine the relationship between role incongruency and employee commitment; assess the relationship between work overload and employee effectiveness (competence); examine how work underload influences employee productivity; determine the effect of role conflict on capacity utilization; ascertain the impact of workplace culture on product innovation; determine how workplace violence affects organizational growth(expansion); determine the relationship between job insecurity and employee retention. The survey research design was adopted in the study. A structured questionnaire was the major instrument for data collection. The study has a population of 705 and a sample size of 477. The study employed descriptive statistics of percentages, mean and standard deviation. Correlation analysis was used to test hypotheses. It was found that incongruency significantly affected employee commitment; work overload significantly affected employee effectiveness (competence); work underload significantly affected employee productivity; role conflict significantly affected capacity utilization; workplace culture significantly affected product innovation; workplace violence significantly influenced organizational growth (expansion); job insecurity significantly affected employee retention. It was concluded that job stress affects employee performance. The study recommends among others that management should always ensure that role incongruency is managed in such a way that employee commitment is not discouraged. Also, work underload should be x-rayed by organizational management with a view to improving on employee productivity indicators.
TABLE
OF CONTENT
Title Page i
Declaration ii
Certification iii
Dedication iv
Acknowledgements v
Table of content vi
List of Figure vii
List of Table ix
List of Appendices x
Abstract xii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background to the Study 1
1.2
Statement of the Problem 4
1.3
Objectives of the Study 5
1.4 Research Questions 5
1.5 Research Hypotheses 6
1.6 Significance of the Study 7
1.7 Scope of the Study 7
1.8 Limitations of the Study 9
1.9 Profile of Study Organizations 9
1.10 Operational Definition of Terms 12
CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF RELATED
LITERATURE
2.1
Conceptual Framework 15
2.1.1 Stress
15
2.1.2 Model
of stress 18
2.1.3
Indices of job stress in the proposed
study 19
2.1.4
The principles of stress 19
2.1.5 The Nigerian
worker’s stressors 22
2.1.6 Symptoms of
stress 24
2.17 Causes of
stress 25
2.1.8 Occupational
stress 26
2.1.9 Kinds of
appraisal of stressors 27
2.1.10 Managing stress
within organization 29
2.1.11 Improving
working environment to manage organizational stress 32
2.1.12 Strategies for
enhancing working environment 32
2.1.13 Changes in
workload/job redesign 32
2.1.14 Preventing a
conflict of roles 34
2.1.15 Managing the
manager for survival 35
2.1.16 Issues of
organizational stressors 36
2.1.17 Work overload
or underload 37
2.1.18 Role
uncertainty and role conflict 37
2.1.19 Responsibility
of others 37
2.1.20 Isolation 38
2..1.21 Job
satisfaction 38
2.1.22 Job security 38
2.1.23 Workplace
violence 38
2.1.24 Sources of Job
Stress 38
2.1.25 Traditional
sources of job stress 39
2.1.26 Role ambiguity 43
2.1.27 The
importance of role clarity and role ambiguity for leaders 44
2.1.28 The
benefits of clear role descriptions 46
2.1.29 Work overload 48
2.1.30 How to handle work overload 49
2.1.31 Unfair performance appraisal 49
2.1.32 Performance 53
2.1.33 Product innovation 58
2.1.34 Capacity
utilization 61
2.1.35 Employee
retention 67
2.1.36 Business
operational expansion 69
2.1.37 Employee competence 70
2.1.38 Employee productivity 71
2.1.39 Employee commitment 76
2.2 Theoretical Framework 78
2.2.1 Cognitive-relational stress theory 78
2.2.2 Affective event theory 81
2.2.3 Role
theory 82
2.3 Empirical
Review 83
2.4 Gap in
Literature 91
2.5
Summary of the Reviewed Related Literature 91
Chapter
3: METHODOLOGY
3.1
Research Design 93
3.2 Sources of
Data 93
3.2.1 Primary
data 93
3.2.2 Secondary
data 93
3.3 Population of the Study 93
3.4
Sample Size Determination 94
3.5 Sampling
Technique 97
3.6
Description of the Research Instrument 97
3.7 Validity
of the Research Instrument 97
3.8 Reliability of the Research Instrument 98
3.9 Methods of Data Analysis 98
3.10
Decision Rule for Hypotheses 98
CHAPTER
4: DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS
AND INTERPRETATION
4.1 Return Rate of Questionnaire 100
4.2
Data Presentation 101
4.3 Data
Analysis
104
4.3
Testing of Hypotheses 117
4.5
Discussion of Findings 114
CHAPTER 5: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Summary of
Findings 126
5.2 Conclusion 126
5.3
Recommendations 127
5.4 Contribution
to Knowledge 128
5.5 Suggestions
for Further Studies 128
REFERENCES 129
APPENDICES 141
LIST OF TABLE
3.1: Organizations and their employees’
distribution 94
3.2: Selected
food and beverage firms for the study
(with the number of employees and the proportion
size considered). 96
4.1:
Questionnaire return rate
distribution 100
4.2:
Gender distribution 101
4.3:
Age distribution 101
4.4:
Level of education
102
4.5:
Respondents’ marital status 103
4.6:
Working experience 103
4.7:
Responses on the relationship between
role incongruency
and
employee productivity 105
4.8:
Responses on the impact of work
overload on employee effectiveness
107
4.9:
Responses on the relationship between
work underload and employee
productivity
109
4.10: Responses
on the relationship between role conflict and
capacity utilization 111
4.11:
Responses on the relationship between
workplace culture and
product
innovation 112
4.12:
Responses on the relationship between
workplace violence and
organizational
growth (expansion) 114
4.13:
Responses on the relationship between
job insecurity and
employee
turnover 116
4.15: Correlation
analysis on incongruency and employee commitment 117
4.17: Correlation analysis on work overload and
employee effectiveness
(competence) 118
4.19: Correlation
analysis on work underload and employee productivity 119
4.21: Correlation
analysis on managerial style and capacity utilization 120
4.23: Correlation
analysis on Workplace culture and product innovation 120
4.25: Correlation analysis on workplace violence
and organizational growth
(expansion) 121
4.27: Correlation analysis on job insecurity and
employee retention 122
LIST OF FIGURE
2.1: Model
of stress 18
2.2 Target
of organizational stress management programmes 30
2.3: Management
strategies of organizational stressor 31
2.4: Preventing
a conflict of role 35
2.2: Performance
appraisal process 52
2.5: The
Performance management cycle 55
2.6: Dimensions
of performance 56
2.9: Lazarus and folkman’s psychological model
of stress 80
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
of the Study
It
is the natural desire of any human element to consistently improve in the
performance of those tasks he or she willingly accepts, decides or agrees to
undertake. One of the factors that may undermine the ability of a worker to
continuously perform above board in a typical organization is no doubt the
inability to identify and deal with job stress and job stressors.
Ayala
(2002) defines stress as the way human beings react both physically and
mentally to changes, events, and situations in their lives. People experience
stress in different ways and for different reasons. The reaction is based on
one’s perception of an event or situation. If one views a situation negatively,
one will likely feel distressed- overwhelmed, oppressed, or out of control.
Distress is the more familiar form of stress. The other form, eustress, results
from a ‘positive’ view of an event or situation, which is why it is also called
‘good stress’. Eustress helps an employee to rise to a challenge and can be an
antidote to boredom because it engages focused energy. That energy can easily
turn to distress, however, if something causes the employee to view the
situation as being out of control. For instance, many people regard public
speaking or airplane flights as very stressful –causing physical reactions such
as an increased heart beat rate and loss of appetite while others brace up to
the event. It is often a question of perception hence a positive stressor for
one person can be a negative stressor for another (Ayala, 2002).
Stress
is therefore the mental and physical condition that results from a perceived
threat or demand that cannot be dealt with readily. Pawelek and Jeanise (2004)
opine that stress can be based on three identifiable classes namely:
stimulus-based; response-based and interactive-based. Stimulus-based class sees
stress as an environmental event that affects the body. In this interpretation,
stress is referred to as a ‘stressor’ that evokes reactions of the various
systems of the body. Response-based class conceives stress as a bodily response
or reaction to a stressor. The interactive-based class incorporates response
and stimulus elements and is an interactive state in which stressors and body
reactions affect each other. Interactive class/model suggests that certain
characteristics associated with individuals lead them to perceive some elements
or environmental factors as more threatening than others. The main ingredients
in stress are therefore a subjective appraisal of a demanding environment, a
realization that demands may outstrip resources and the important consequences
of not coping, (Pawelek and Jeanise, 2004).
Indeed,
some demands of personal and family life may have a negative impact on employees.
Personal problems spill over into the workplace and may directly impact job
performance. Therefore, factors contributing to workplace stress in the views
of Vitt and Calohan (2002) may not necessarily originate within the workplace
and, instead, may come from an external influence. The sources of job stress
include among others financial difficulties, marital problems, illness or death
of family member or friend and difficulty with personal relationships. Other sources of stress include
unrealistic expectations or demands of superiors, career development concerns,
financial pressures and changes in
the organization. Job stresses and personal stresses can manifest themselves as
psychological, physical, behavioural and mental symptoms that reflect in health
and productivity issues.
Trocket,
Barnes, and Egget (2000) classify the common symptoms of work stress into three
areas: physiological, emotional and behavioural symptoms. The physiological
symptoms of work stress can include fatigue, a decline in physical appearance,
health complaints, and signs of depression such as a change in eating habits or
weight. Emotional symptoms may include resentfulness and cynicism, appearance
of apathy and boredom, a sad or depressed appearance, and expressions of frustration,
hopelessness, and anxiety. Behavioural symptoms may entail absenteeism, and
tardiness, abuse of substances such as caffeine or alcohol, increased smoking,
irritable or hostile behaviour and reduced productivity. A worker who is
stressed may become overly sensitive; have confrontations with fellow employees
and in extreme cases, lash out violently against himself or herself.
Performance
is the degree of accomplishment of a task (Ayo, 2008). Stress has various
effects on various employee performance indicators. It can lead to absenteeism,
reduced productivity, loss of customers, accidents and worker compensation
claims, suicide, murder and inefficiency among others. Stress can be managed
when one sets priorities, practices facing stressful moments, examines one’s
expectations, and lives a healthy lifestyle and learns to accept changes as a
part of life, (Calderon, Hey, and Seabert, 2001). In the context of this study,
employee performance is the ability of management to properly manage role
ambiguity, work overload, false accusations and unfair performance appraisal in
order to boost employee commitment, employee competence and employee
productivity.
Anyanwu
(2006) maintains that job stressors are quite inimical to overall employee
performance. These stressors emerge from reasons related to organization or
jobs assigned to individual. Some jobs are of high stress levels hence they
involve hectic schedule and complex job responsibilities.
Also
if the skills of a worker remain underutilized, it leaves the person
demotivated due to scarcity of opportunities for growth resulting in frequent
absenteeism, aloofness, instability and dissatisfaction. This study on impact
of job stress on employee performance is geared towards unveiling the link
between various organizational stressors and various employee performance
indicators.
1.2 Statement of the
Problem
The
researcher has observed that many organizational stressors have affected
various performance indicators of workers in several organizations. It is often
disheartening when workers are subjected to various stressful situations. Such
has been observed to have triggered poor employee commitment, reduced employee
competence and employee unproductively. In many businesses enterprises, workers
seem to have suffered role incongruency and such could be a very stressful
situation at work. This is capable of adversely affecting employee commitment.
It could be quite stressful to a worker if those skills, abilities and
competences with which he/she came to the organization do not match the job
demands. This level of incongruency could be dangerous to business
organizations and harmful to employee commitment. Also, work overload has the
capacity to impede employee effectiveness and general performance. Likewise, it
is possible that work underload is someworth prevalent in business
organizations and such may adversely influence the productivity of employees.
In
addition, workplaces may have cultures that may not have gone down well with
the lifestyles and intellectual architecture of the worker. This is a serious
stressor which may have destroyed the quest for product innovation in gifted
workers. In the same vein, role conflict may have been wrongly managed to cause
job stress to the worker. This situation may have inflicted certain pains that
may have caused the enterprise sound utilization of available capacity in the
business organization. In fact, some workers may have been subjected to
workplace violence. Such constitutes a great stressor to the industrial staff,
a situation that may reduce the rate at which organizations grow in terms of expasion.
The
forgoing is compounded by possible job insecurity which has never done any
worker any good anywhere around the globe. Job insecurity is a great stress
component that may expose workers to employee turnover issues. Indeed,
empirical studies accessed by the researcher in the area of job stress did not
examine the relationships in the objectives of this present study. In a bid to
bridge these research gaps, this present study is conducted with a view to
contributing to knowledge.
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The
broad objective of this study is to investigate impact of job stress on
employee performance. However, the specific objectives are to:
i. Determine the relationship between role
incongruency and employee commitment.
ii. Assess the relationship between work
overload and employee effectiveness (competence)
iii. Examine the how work underload influences
employee productivity.
iv. Determine the effect of role conflict on
capacity utilization.
v. Ascertain the impact of workplace culture
on product innovation.
vi. Determine how workplace violence affects organizational
growth (expansion).
vii. Determine the relationship between job insecurity
and employee retention.
1.4 Research Questions
Based on the above stated problem and
objectives of this study, the following research questions were posed:
i. What is the relationship between role incongruency
and employee commitment?
ii. What is the relationship between work
overload and employee effectiveness (competence)?
iii. How does work underload influence employee
productivity?
iv. What is the effect of role conflict on capacity
utilization?
v. What is the impact of workplace culture on
product innovation?
vi. How does workplace violence affect organizational
growth (expansion)?
vii. What is the relationship job insecurity and
employee turnover?
1.5 Research Hypotheses
In
order to facilitate this work, the following hypotheses were posed:
H01: There
is no significant relationship between incongruency and employee commitment.
H02: There is no significant relationship between
work overload and employee effectiveness (competence)
H03: There is no significant relationship between
work underload and employee productivity.
H04: Role conflict does not
significantly affect capacity utilization.
H05: There is no significant relationship between
workplace culture and product innovation.
H06: There is no significant relationship between
workplace violence and organizational growth (expansion).
H7: There is no significant relationship
between job insecurity and employee retention.
1.6 Significance of the Study
This
work will be useful to various persons in various ways viz:
- Employeees: Employees in various
organizations will use this work to learn the effect of various stressors on
their job performance. It will help the employees to identify those stressors
that most frequently affect them.
- Consultants: Consultants
in the area of Managerial Psychology will update their knowledge in the area of
Stress Management for better services to their clients. This will enable them
to retain their clients.
- Employers of labour: They
will be exposed to the need to handle their workers with care. This will enable
them to avoid exposing the workers to emotional imbalances and other stressful
situations that may affect performance indicators.
- Future Researchers: They
will benefit in the review of related literature and in the methodology. They
will also benefit a lot in the data analysis.
- The Researcher: With
a thorough knowledge of stressors from this study, the researcher will
continuously reduce them to the barest minimum level. This will help to beef
her optimal level.
- Manager:
They will use this study to understand how important it is to always manage
stress more properly for effective performance. This work will make them better
managers of people.
1.7 Scope
of the Study
The
scope of the study is categorized into content scope, unit scope, geographical scope
and time scope.
Content Scope: The content scope is interplay of the
dependent and independent variables that constitute the topic under study. It
shows the relationship between: role incogrugency and employee commitment; work
overload and employee effectiveness (competence); work underload and employee
productivity; workplace culture and product innovation; role conflict and
capacity utilization; workplace violence and organizational growth (expansion);
job insecurity and employee retention.
Unit Scope: The
unit scope will comprise of the top management and the following functional
units in the study organizations: Human Resources, Production, Marketing,
Accounting/Finance and Security.
Geographical Scope: The
geographical scope will comprise of Onitsha, Aba, Enugu, and Owerri. This is
because, the study will focus on the Asamma Foods and Beverages Limited,
Onitsha; Gabson Bakery Industry Limited, Aba; Nigeria Breweries Plc, Enugu and
Nigerian Bottling Company Plc, Owerri. Onitsha is the main commercial nerve in
Anambra State. Owerri is the capital city of Imo State, the Eastern Heartland
and host to a good number of industrial institutions. It is neighboured by Aba,
Orlu, Mbaise, Okigwe, etc. Aba is of Abia State of Nigeria. It is the centre of
business activities apart from Onitsha, the economic hub of the South Eastern
Nigeria. Aba ranks next in economic activities. Aba is neighboured by Owerri, Imo
State, Port Harcourt of Rivers State and Umuahia the Abia State capital. Enugu
is the capital of Enugu State. It is the Coal City and the then Seat of defunct
Eastern Region of Nigeria. This explains the geographical scope proposed for
this study.
Time Scope: The
time scope proposed for this study is six (6) months.
1.8 Limitations of the Study
The study was
constrained by some factors which include:
Finance:
Financial resources were scarce since the researcher is a privately and
personally sponsored student who did not received any research grant.
Data: The research focused on job stress and
performance. Organizations generally guide their certain information jealously
especially in this era of trade espionage, competition and fraudulent people.
The uncooperative attitudes of Nigerians and their inherent low awareness of
research works did not help matters.
However, efforts
were made to contain these limitations. On finance, the researcher used his
personal savings to successfully carry out the study.
On the fears of
releasing essential information, the researcher designed the questionnaire in
such a manner that it will not necessitate disclosure of specific confidential
details. However, the respondents were assured that their responses would be
treated in strict confidence.
1.9 Profile of Study Organizations
Nigeria Breweries Plc., Aba
Nigerian
Breweries Plc. (NB) is the pioneer and largest brewing company in Nigeria. It
was incorporated in 1946, under the name, Nigerian Brewery Limited. The name
was changed on the 7th January, 1957, to Nigerian Breweries Limited and
thereafter to Nigerian Breweries Plc. in 1990 when the Companies and Allied
Matters Act of that year came into effect. The company is a subsidiary of
Heineken N.V. of the Netherlands, the latter having a 54.10% interest in the
equity of Nigerian Breweries Plc. NB recorded a landmark when the first bottle
of STAR Lager beer rolled off the bottling lines in its Lagos Brewery in June
1949. This was followed by the Aba Brewery which was commissioned in 1957,
Kaduna Brewery in 1963 and Ibadan Brewery in 1982. In September 1993, the
company acquired its fifth brewery in Enugu, while in October 2003, a sixth and
the biggest brewery, sited in Ama Enugu State was commissioned. Operations in
Enugu Brewery were discontinued in 2004. Thus, from its humble beginning in
1946, the company now has five operational breweries from which its high
quality products are distributed to all parts of the country.
NB
keeps pace with key international developments, thus ensuring that its systems,
processes and operational procedures are always in conformity with world-class
standards. It is in line with this policy that the company established a
Research and Development Centre in 1987 to enhance its research activities on
all aspects of brewing operations. The company is a socially responsible
corporate citizen with a very good record of corporate philanthropy in the
areas of education, the environment and sports, among others. The company in
1994 established an Education Trust Fund of N100mn to take more active part in
the funding of educational and research facilities in higher institutions, all
in an effort to provide and encourage academic excellence in Nigeria. This is
in addition to its secondary and university scholarship programme for children
of its employees. NB is the foremost sponsor of sports by variety in the
country with sponsorship covering Football, Athletics, Tennis, Cycling, Chess,
Golf, Badminton, Dart and Boat Racing. The aim of the company is to develop
Nigerian sportsmen and women and to participate in national and international
sports, and boost the sports profile of the country. The Nigeria Breweries Plc
has continued to make good profits over the years to the benefit of their shareholders
and other stakeholders. They are so committed to the performance of social
responsibilities especially in the areas of offering scholarship and giving
medical aid to members of the host communities.
Nigeria Bottling Company Plc. (NBC)
Coca-Cola
first arrived in Nigeria in 1951. That same year, the Nigerian Bottling Company
Ltd (NBC) was incorporated to bottle and sell carbonated non-alcoholic
beverages. NBC has the sole franchise to bottle Coca-Cola products in Nigeria.
Coco-Cola
was an instant hit with the Nigerian consumers and has remained so. Over the
past six decades, NBC has continued on its joinery keeping promise of
refreshing consumers, strengthening its communities, enriching the workplace and
preserving the environment while recording many memorable milestones along the
way, to mention but a few.
In
1953, production of Coco-Cola began at a bottling finality in Ebute-Metta,
Lagos State. The same year, the company opened its first bottling plant in
Apapa. In 1960, the year Nigeria gained independence, NBC exceeded the one
million cases a year mark. In 1961, it commissioned its second bottling
finality at Ibadan, Oyo State and rapidly expanded its operations over the next
couple of years. In 1972, it listed its shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange
and became a publicly quoted company. In 1991, it acquired the Eva Premium
Water and Schweppes brands. In 2000, it became a member of the newly formed
Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company S.A (an anchor bottling group with
operations in 28 countries worldwide). In 2001, it commissioned the first
ultra-modern fully automated NBC plant in Benin. In 2003, it launched the Five
Alive Juice Brand.
In
2004, it launched PET packaging for its sparkling soft drinks category. In
2006, it launched the energy drink, Burn. In 2007, it launched on-the-go can
packaging for core brands of Coca-Cola, Fanta and Sprite in 2006. In 2008, it
introduced the move environmentally friendly ‘ultra’ glass packaging for its
Returnable Glass Bottle product segment. In 2010, the operations stood at 13
facilities and depots across the country.
In
2011, the company was recognized for its Corporate Responsibility activities as
‘The Most Socially Responsible Company in Nigeria and ‘Most Environment
Friendly Company’ at the Social Enterprise Reporting Awards. The company
obtained Nigeria’s first Food Safety Systems Certificate (FSSC). Till date,
Coca-Cola has been with the flag. The Nigerian Bottling company Plc makes a lot
of profits over the years and has continued to do better. This has been for the
satisfaction of the stakeholders. The company has continued to do great social
responsibilities in terms of payment of taxes, employment and offer of
scholarships.
Asamma foods & Beverages Ltd
Onitsha
Asamma
Foods & Beverages, Onitsha is a food and beverage firm that specializes on
water (spring and bottled) concentrating deeply on Aquamax Ozonized Table
Water. It is located on Km 10, Onitsha-Owerri Express way, Oba, Onitsha,
Anambra State. This firm makes huge profits from its operations up to date. It
is based on the profits that it performs its social responsibilities to the
society.
Gabason Bakery Industry Ltd Aba
Gabason
Bakery Industry Ltd, Aba is into Bakeries and confectioneries. It is located at
37, Osunhwo Street, Aba, Abia State. This firm makes a lot of profits and it
handles its social responsibilities to the best of its abilities especially as
it relates to payment of its taxes and environmental management.
1.10 Operational
Definition of Terms
The
following terms were defined thus:
Career development issues: The
stagnation of workers growth-wise hence poor business expansion.
Employee commitment: The
existence of job stress (role in congruency) hence reduction in the level of
enthusiasm an employee has towards his/her tasks assigned at a workplace.
Employee effectiveness: The
process of experiencing work overloads which may affect the ability of
employees to achieve set goals.
Employee Productivity: The
process of experiencing work underload which may undermine the ratio of an employee’s input to the quality and
quantity of his/her outputs.
Employee retention: The
stability of tenure of employees which can be destroyed by job insecurity.
Job insecurity: The
state of having a job that is not secured and from which one is likely to be
dismissed, hence employee turnover.
Organizational growth (expansion): Existence
of workplace violence that may discourage employees from working for
geographical and product expansion and increase in number of staff.
Product innovation: The
process of experiencing unfavourable workplace culture which may impede new
product development and product modification.
Role conflict: The
act of having clash of roles or functions that may invariably affect capacity
utilization.
Role Incongruency: A
situation whereby a worker’s skills and competences do not match with the job
role hence reduced employee commitment.
Work overload:
The act of subjecting workers to work load more than the normal workload in an
organization hence reduced employee effectiveness (competence).
Work underload: The
act of subjecting workers to work load below their individual capacities
thereby reducing their productivity.
Workplace Culture: The
situation of having organization’s traditions, beliefs, behaviours and
attitudes that afflict the sensibilities of workers hence inadequate product
innovation.
Click “DOWNLOAD NOW” below to get the complete Projects
FOR QUICK HELP CHAT WITH US NOW!
+(234) 0814 780 1594
Login To Comment