OCCUPATIONAL STRESS INDEX AND WAYS OF COPING AMONG

BANKING PROFESSIONALS

Sajira Khatoon, Dhun Verma, Sandhya.S, Dr S.Usha Rani

Women’s Christian College, Chennai

Abstract

The present research was planned with the objective to assess the level of
Occupational Stress among banking professionals and the frequently used Ways
of Coping. For this purpose 30 banking professionals from Chennai were
selected as respondents using purposive technique. The sample comprised of 30
respondents occupying the managerial position. Descriptive statistical analysis
was used to interpret the data. A mean age of 38.5 and standard deviation
(SD) of 1.05 were obtained. For meeting the objective, Occupational Stress
Index (OSI) constructed by Srivastava and Singh (1984) and Ways of Coping
by Folkman and Lazarus (1988) were used in the study. The study concluded
that the employees of the bank experienced moderate levels of stress and used
the techniques of accepting responsibility, planful problem solving and positive
reappraisal for Coping. Finally, on the basis of the results obtained it could be
said that, stress produces negative effects for both the employee and the
organization. It is critical that occupational stress should not be considered a
private matter for the employee to deal with alone and in isolation, rather
they should be made aware of different strategies that can be used to cope
with stress effectively.

Keywords: Occupational Stress Index (OSI), Ways of Coping, Banking professional.

Introduction

In the contemporary times of globalization and privatisation policies there has

been growing complexities and pressures where human constitution and
capacities are being taxed severly. The banking sector is no exception to this
phenomenon. Evidence suggests that more than 60% of the bank employees have
problems directly or indirectly related to these changes. The stresses relating
to job have become a predominant feature of living, exerting effects on the
employees behavior and adjustments both professionally and personally. The
word stress is derived from the Latin word ‘strictus’ which means ‘to tighten.

  1  
McGrath (1976) has noted that, stress involves an interaction of person and
environment. Margolis and Kroes (1974) defined job stress as a “condition
worth interacting with worker characteristics to disrupt psychological or
physiological homeostasis”. The causal situation conditions are job stresses and
the disrupted homeostasis is job related strain. In recent years, the individual’s
need to cope with stress has grown substantially. According to Richard
Lazarus and Susan Folkman (1984), coping can be defined as “constantly
changing cognitive and behavioral efforts to manage specific external and/or
internal demands that are appraised as taxing or exceeding the resources of
the person”. Coping is a process that require effort and is not automatic. The
appraisals and reappraisals of the shifting person-environment relationship may
result from coping efforts that are directed outward towards changing the
environment or efforts that are directed inward towards changing the meaning
of the event. This shift results in appraisal which influences subsequent coping
effort.

The present study was undertaken to throw light on the levels of stress that
the banking professionals face and the most used coping strategy to cope with
the stress.

Method

Sample:

Managers working in different banks, specifically located in Chennai were

selected as respondents through the technique of purposive sampling. In total,
40 managers were contacted to whom the questionnaires’ were distributed over
a period of ten days from 2 February 2015 to 12 February 2015. Out of
these, 30 were received complete in all respects. Therefore, the exact sample
was 30. The age of the respondents ranged from 22-56 years out of which
59.1% are married and 40.9% are single. Exploratory research design was
used to collect the data.

Tools:

The Occupational Stress Index (OSI) developed by Srivastava and Singh

(1983) was administered on banking professionals to measure the extent of
stress which the employees perceive, arising from various constituents and

  2  
conditions of their job. Researchers have developed the scales which measure
stress arising exclusively from job roles. The scale consists of 46 items, each
to be rated on a five point scale. Out of 46 items, 28 are “true keyed” and
the rest 18 are “False keyed”. The items relate to almost all relevant
components (subscales) of the job life such as role overload, role ambiguity,
role conflict, group and political pressure, responsibility for persons, under
participation, powerlessness, poor peer relations, intrinsic impoverishment, low
status, strenuous working conditions and unprofitability. The reliability index
ascertained by the split half method was found to be 0.935 and the Cronbach’s
alpha coefficient for the scale to be 0.90. The reliability indices for the 12
subscales were also computed on the split half method. The Validity of the
O.S.I was determined by computing coefficients of correlation between the
scales on the O.S.I and the various measure of job attitudes and job behavior.
The different patterns of scoring were adopted as the questionnaire consists of
both true-keyed and false-keyed items. The scoring ranges from strongly
disagree, disagree, undecided, agree and strongly agree.

Ways of coping questionnaire developed by Folkman and Lazarus (1985) was

used to assess thoughts and actions banking professionals use to cope with the
stressful encounters at their workplace. The questionnaire consists of 66 items
comprising of a broad range of cognitive and behavioral strategies. The
respondents were asked to choose from an array of coping strategies such as
Confronting coping, Distancing, Self Controlling, Seeking social support,
Accepting responsibility, escape-avoidance, Planful problem solving and Positive
reappraisal. Subjects responded to each item on a 4 point likert scale
indicating the frequency with which each strategy is used. Reliability was
evaluated by examining the internal capacity of the coping measure, estimated
with Cronbach’s coefficient alpha. Evidence of construct validity is found
consistent with the theoretical predictions namely 1) Coping consists of both
problem-focused and emotion-focused strategies and 2) Coping is a process.
That is, how people cope varies with in relation to the demands and
constraints of the context also in relation to changes in those demands and
constraints as the encounter unfolds. The construct validity of the ways of
coping questionnaire is thus supported to the extent that the findings are
consistent with our theoretical predictions.

  3  
 Results

Graph 1 Represents the levels of stress experienced by banking

professionals.

Occupational Stress Index

56.7%

23.4% 20%

Low Moderate High

Table 1 Represents the sub-scales (occupational stressors) and the

corresponding percentages obtained by the respondents.

Sub-scales (oocupational stressors ) Percentage

Role overload 68%

Responsibilty for persons 63.1%

Powerlessness 61.6%

Strenuous working condition 58.3%

Unprofitability 55.9%

Under-participation 55.9%

Unreasonable group & political pressure 55.3%

Poor peer relations 54.5%

Intrinsic impoverishment 50.9%

Role ambiguity 47.9%

Low status 44.3%

Role conflict 40.8%

  4  
Table 2 Represents the ways of coping frequently used by the respondents.

Ways of coping Percentage

Positive reappraisal 30%

Planful problem solving 23.4%

Accepting responsibility 23.4%

Seeking social support 13.4%

Confronting coping 10%

Self controlling 10%

Escape avoidance 10%

Distancing 6.7%

Discussion:

The current study found that 56.7% of the managers experienced moderate
levels of stress in the workplace which takes a toll on their professional and
personal life. The occupational stressor that caused maximum level of stress
included Role overload (68%), which indicated that most of the managers
were faced with incompatible role expectations and lack of balance, sometimes
resulting in delay in carrying out functions. The other occupational stressors
that caused equivalent amount of stress included Responsibilty of persons
(63.1%) and Powerlessness (61.6%) which indicated that most managers
experienced stress in situations where they lacked credit and authority, and
had limited capacity to act. The occupational stressor on which the
respondents experienced least stress is Role conflict (40.8%). Table 2 indicated
that the frequently used coping technique by respondents was Positive
reappraisal (30%) which shows that they make efforts to give a positive
meaning to problems by focusing on personal growth. The respondents also
used the coping techniques of Planful problem solving (23.4%) and Accepting
responsibility (23.4%), which indicates deliberate problem-focused efforts to

  5  
alter situations coupled with using analytical approaches to find solutions. Also,
acknowledging one’s own role in problems and trying to put things right. The
least used coping technique by respondents was Distancing (6.7%).

Conclusion:

From the above findings it can be concluded that stress exists in the
employees of the banks under study, specifically higher on the dimensions of
role overload, responsibility of persons and powerlessness and the most used
coping techniques were positive reappraisal, planful problem solving and
accepting responsibility. It is further concluded that the problem of stress is
inevitable and unavoidable in the banking sector. Hence, the management must
take several initiatives in helping their employees overcome its disastrous
effects. The growing importance of interventional strategies is felt more at the
organisational level. Thus, this study was intended to determine the impact of
occupational stress on bank managers. Although certain limitations were met
during the study, every effort has been made to make it comprehensive.

References:

• Folkman, S. & Lazarus, R. (1988) Manual, Test booklet & scoring

key of ways of coping questionnaire, Consulting Psychologists Press Inc,
California.
• Lazarus, R.S. and S. Folkman (1984), Stress, Appraisal, and Coping,
New York: Springer.
• Mcgrath, J.E. : Stress and behavior in organizations. In M.D. Dunnette
(Ed), 1976 Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Palo
alto, C. A. Counseling psychological stress.
• Srivastava, A.K. & Singh, A.P. (1981) Manual of the Occupational stress
Index, Department of Psychology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi.
• Selye, H. (1974). “Stress without Distress.” Harper and Row Publications,
U.S.A.

  6