INTRODUCTION:

Pestonjee (1992) categorized stress as follows:

· Eustress: The term “Eustress” was coined by the pioneers of stress research from the Greek word “Eu” which means “good”. This type of stress is caused due to sudden over joy. It is not long lasting. It is a state of happiness. Therefore, eustress is not harmful, being occasional and fleeting.

· Distress: It is anti-thesis of eustress. Distress is caused because of the demands of the modern life and anxiety to cope with them. This results in feelings of inadequacy, anxiety, nervousness, loss etc. This type of stress is harmful and has caused more havoc in the life of the executives. It is this stress that justifies the saying, “Ulcer is the surest sight of executive success”.

· Hyper work stress: This type of stress is caused because of the hyper activity and travails of life to meet deadlines. Target mindedness and the eleventh-hour rush or continuous overwork cause hyper stress.

· Hypo work stress: This type of stress is the opposite of the hyper stress. This stress is caused by less than optimum activity. The effects of hypo stress are slower than other types of stress but are more penetrating and long lasting. Sometimes organizations deliberately create hypo stress by denying legitimate work to their employees. Such situations, beyond creating stress, deprive a person of the fulfillment of self-esteem needs. More often the retired persons experience this type of stress. For them it is a transition from hyper stress to hypo stress.

Hinkle (1973) mentioned, “To be alive is to be under stress”. According to several researchers, some sort of job stress have functional qualities while others have reported that partial degree of stress is required to motivate the employees to maximise their effectiveness. Ketz de Vries (1984) observed that each employee requires a moderate amount of stress to be alert and capable of functioning effectively in the organization. Again, Anderson (1976), after observing inverted “U” shaped relationship between stress and job performance, concluded that moderate level of stress is optimal for performance, whereas low and high degree of stress leads to deterioration in the level of performance. According to Hall and Lawler (1971), job pressures involving time, financial responsibility and quality factors lead to positive organizational outcomes. Srivastava and Krishna (1991) while measuring “functional role stress” identified five role stressors having positive value like responsibility for persons, excessive responsibility (with authority), taking decisions that affect others, strenuous tasks that bring recognition and facilitate personal growth, and perceiving oneself not fully competent.

In today’s knowledge-driven business, quality of human resource assumes even greater significance. It is generally seen that a healthy and committed workforce ensures increased efficiency and productivity for organizations. It is found that an individual is subjected to serious consequences of stress. Since stress triggers each and every individual, one should be well equipped to manage stress. Various stress researchers have evolved several techniques for the management of stress of job life as well as personal life. Researchers have suggested ways to prevent stress at individual level and at organizational level.

In this backdrop, the present paper is an attempt to study the different variables causing occupational stress among the bank employees of Kolkata.

OBJECTIVES:

The main objective of the current study is

· To assess the importance of different attributes causing stress among bank employees

· To provide suggestions to reduce stress

REVIEW OF LITERATURE:

Kishori, B., and Vinothini, B. (2016) the authors found that productivity was a decisive factor for the success of any organization. In the highly dynamic and competitive world of today, an employee was exposed to all kinds of stressors that could affect them in all aspects of life. The research intended to study the impact of occupational stress on Nationalized Bank employees.

Kannan, P and Suma, U (2015) were of the view that, in order to manage stress, the organization had to encourage employee development with necessary training as and when required. Training, specifically one related to policies and policy implementation, was a key priority. Stress in banking sector was mostly due to excess of work pressure and work life imbalance. The organization should support and encourage taking up roles that help them balance work place and home. (Shukla and Garg, December 2013) The author has discussed that most of the employees fear with the fact that lack quality in their work puts stress on them. It is found that maximum number of employees in banks remains in stress. 50% employees feel that they are overloaded with work. 44% employees feel tensed due to their non-achievement of their target of work. 38% employees accepted that they will obey the order of their boss by sacrificing their important domestic function. It indicates fear and stress among employees. 24% employees feel stress due to their family related problems. It means such employees feel greater level of stress as compared to other employees. Half of the employees accepted that there is conflict among the employees. It is a concern for top management. Only 48% employees feel that strategies used by banks to manage stress of employees are effective. Majority of the employees try to find solution to relieve them from stress.50% employees use YOGA or other ways to relieve them from stress. In spite of stress, majority of the employees balance in their social life.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

The present study is exploratory and empirical in nature. The study identifies the importance of different attributes causing stress in different banks. The study is based on mainly the information available through a structured questionnaire among selected respondents of different categories of employees like branch managers, officers, clerks, peons, etc related to banking sector in and around Kolkata by convenience sampling technique. Moreover, available information on this context published in different journals and websites is taken into consideration for the study as secondary source. The structured questionnaire is formed with the help of psychometric instrument like Occupational Stress Index (Srivastava and Singh, 1988). Likerts’ Summated scale is adopted for qualitative analysis data. Primary data is assembled using convenience sampling approach. Data have been gathered through Google forms and face – to -face survey by handing over questionnaire to the respondents. 160 questionnaires were distributed out of which 10 incomplete responses were rejected. Hence 150 completed responses have been considered in this study. The primary data is mainly collected from northern and southern parts of Kolkata. The time taken for data collection procedure was two months. Data were analysed through SPSS package by using different statistical tools like descriptive statistics, analysis of variance, etc.

FINDINGS OF THE STUDY:

In this section data have been analysed from the responses received by administering questionnaire to 150 employees of various banks of Kolkata.

150 respondents were interviewed comprising of 60% male and 40% female. They belong to age group varying between 30 to 60 years. Respondents belong to different public and private banks of Kolkata.

The study is based on the primary data collected by interviewing significant representative sample from among employees of service sector to find out the actual picture. In order to collect primary information from the employees, a structured questionnaire is drafted initially and a pilot survey is done to finalize it. The questionnaire is formed with the help of psychometric instruments like Occupational Stress Index (Srivastava and Singh, 1981), Job Anxiety Scale (Srivastava, 1985), Stress Resistant Cognitive Behavioral Patterns Scale (Srivastava, 1997) and Coping Strategies Scale (Srivastava and Singh, 1988).

General Profile of Respondents:

150 respondents were interviewed comprising of 60% male and 40% female as shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Gender Distribution of Respondents

Gender

Frequency

Percentage

Male

Female

Total

150

100

The respondents belong to the age groups varying widely between 30 to 60 years as shown in Table 2.

Table 2: Age Distribution of Respondents

Age Groups

Frequency

Percentage

30-below 40

40-below 50

50-below 60

23.33

32.67

Total

150

100

Source: ‘The Author’

The above table shows that 23.33% fall in the age group 30- below 40 years, 32.67% respondents lie between 40-below 50 years and 44% belong to the age group 50-below 60 years.

Table 3: Marital status of the Respondents

Marital Status

Frequency

Percentage

Married

Unmarried

65.33

34.67

Total

150

100

Source: ‘The Author’

The above table shows that 65.33% are married and 34.67% are unmarried.

Table 4: Number of Children of the Respondents

Number of Children	Frequency	Percent
0	31	31.63
1	25	25.51
2	42	42.86
Total	98	100

Source: ‘The Author’

The study reveals that 31.63% of the respondents have no child, 25.51% have one child and 42.86% possess two children.

Regarding educational qualification of the respondents, it is found that 3.33% have passed Secondary Examination, 13.33% respondents have passed Higher Secondary Examination, a bulk of 57.34% are graduates and 26% are post graduates or having equivalent professional degrees (Table 5).

Table 5: Educational Qualification of the Respondents

Educational Qualification

Frequency

Percentage

Secondary

Higher Secondary

Graduation

Post Graduation

3.33

13.33

57.34

Total

150

100

Source: ‘The Author’

Table 6: Monthly Salary of the Respondents

Monthly Salary (RS.)	Frequency	Percentage
20001-25000	23	15.33
25001-30000	15	10
Above 30000	112	74.67
Total	150	100.0

Source: ‘The Author’

From the above table, it is revealed that 15.33% of the respondents fall within the monthly salary structure of Rs. 20000-Rs.25000, only 10% of the respondents earn Rs. 25000-Rs.30000 per month and monthly earning of 74.67% of the respondents are above Rs. 30000.

Table 7: Number of Years of Service of the Respondents.

Number of years of service	Frequency	Percentage
0-5	7	4.67
6-10	14	9.33
11-15	29	19.33
16-20	24	16
21-25	32	21.33
26-30	44	29.34
Total	150	100.0

Source: ‘The Author’

The table shows that 4.67% of the respondents are working for less than 5 years, 9.33% of the respondents fall in the range of 6-10 years of service,19.33% of the respondents fall within 11-15 years of service, 16% of the respondents are working for 16-20 years, 21.33% of the respondents fall within 21-25 years of service and 29.34% of the respondents are working for 26-30 years.

The respondents belong to three types of organizations: public, private and foreign. Foreign organizations offer different work culture than private Indian organizations, hence, they are treated separately. Table 8 shows a clear picture.

Table 8: Distribution of Respondents in different types of organizations

Type of organization

Frequency

Percentage

Public

Private

Foreign

57.33

25.33

17.34

Total

150

100

Source: ‘The Author’

The above table shows that 57.33% of the respondents belong to the public sector, 25.33% are from private sector and 17.34% belong to foreign organizations.

Important Characters:

A five point scale has been designed to measure the degree of importance of the questions to the respondents where 1 denotes ‘Not important at all’, 2 denotes ‘Not very important’, 3 denotes ‘Somewhat important’, 4 denotes important and 5 denotes ‘Extremely important’. With the help of this scale, the following personality characteristics are considered important by the respondents: patience, sensitivity, self-esteem, being practical, competitiveness, risk taking ability, energetic, locus of control, and so on. Physical symptoms of stress like loss of appetite, headaches, gastric troubles, back pain, sleeplessness, obesity, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, constipation, migraine, visionary problem, etc., psychological symptoms like guilty feeling and worthlessness, boredom, frustration, worry about job security, temper outburst, helplessness, feelings of tiredness and behavioural symptoms like adaptability, intake of alcohol, smoking, job satisfaction, decision making ability, etc. are considered important by the respondents.

Table 9: Importance of the Attributes under the Personality Characteristics of the Respondents

Attributes	Rank	Mean	Std. Deviation
Sensitivity	1	4.63	0.542
Patience	2	4.59	0.605
Does two things one by one	3	4.54	0.635
Self-esteem	4	4.5	0.582
Practical	5	4.47	0.684
Intra-psychic conflicts	6	4.39	0.597
Aggressiveness	7	4.39	0.738
Anxiety level	8	4.34	0.534
Locus of control	9	4.34	0.481
Walks, eats, talks rapidly	10	4.33	0.766
Energetic	11	4.3	0.602
Tolerant	12	4.28	0.688
Extrovert	13	4.27	0.828
Non-convincing	14	4.23	0.81
Independent	15	4.23	0.717
Flexible	16	4.21	0.553
Good listener	17	4.19	0.786
Level of competitiveness	18	4.18	0.817
Never in a hurry	19	4.16	0.807
Unimaginative	20	4.13	0.786
Relaxes without guilt	21	4.07	0.838
Takes risk	22	4.05	0.731

Source: ‘The Author’

According to the respondents, sensitivity scored highest important character while risk taking is the least among the personality characteristics of the respondents. Bank clerks, officers and branch managers do not take risk.

Table 10: Importance of the Attributes under the Physical Symptoms of the Respondents.

Attributes	Rank	Mean	Std. Deviation
Headaches	1	4.55	0.652
Heart disease	2	4.51	0.612
Loss of appetite	3	4.44	0.716
Loss of hair	4	4.35	0.774
Tension on muscles	5	4.33	0.702
High blood sugar	6	4.3	0.74
Constipation	7	4.29	0.846
Obesity	8	4.25	0.716
Visionary problem	9	4.24	0.862
High blood pressure	10	4.24	0.694
High cholesterol	11	4.22	0.76
Gastric trouble	12	4.2	0.676
Sleeplessness	13	4.17	0.721
Weakness	14	4.16	0.754
Rash	15	4.11	0.769
Indigestion	16	4.11	0.78
Migraine	17	4.1	0.821
Skin problems	18	4.04	0.751
Back pain	19	3.94	0.868

Source: ‘The Author’

Headaches scored as the most important character while back pain scored as the least important character among the physical symptoms of the respondents. High blood sugar, heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol are very common symptoms among the respondents.

Table 11: Importance of the Attributes under the Psychological Symptoms of the Respondents

Attributes	Rank	Mean	Std. Deviation
Loss of interest in activities	1	4.45	0.768
Low enthusiasms	2	4.44	0.665
Lack of self-confidence	3	4.43	0.69
Worried about job security	4	4.41	0.729
Feelings of tiredness	5	4.34	0.749
Temper outburst	6	4.34	0.827
Elicit sympathy from others	7	4.33	0.711
Forgetfulness	8	4.26	0.84
Helplessness	9	4.23	0.892
Suicidal thoughts	10	4.11	0.647
Boredom	11	4.11	0.863
Guilty feeling and worthlessness	12	4.01	0.831
Negative self-talk	13	3.98	0.775
Poor concentration	14	3.95	0.845
Frustration	15	3.91	0.893
Nervousness	16	3.9	0.798

Source: ‘The Author’

Among the psychological symptoms of the respondents, loss of interest in activities scored as the most important symptom while nervousness scored as the least important character due to stress. Regular monotonous work causes loss of interest in activities. Private and foreign bank employees are mainly worried about job security. Feelings of tiredness and temper outburst are prevalent among all the respondents. Long working hours give rise to fatigue among the respondents. Continuous interaction with different types of customers cause temper outburst among the respondents.

Table 12: Importance of the Attributes under the Behavioural Symptoms of the Respondents

Attributes	Rank	Mean	Std. Deviation
Distrust	1	4.63	0.541
Inability to communicate	2	4.36	0.725
Poor decision making	3	4.35	0.69
Talking around a subject	4	4.34	0.78
Poor eye contact while talking	5	4.33	0.707
Takes anti-depressive drugs	6	4.22	0.752
Decreased work performance	7	4.19	0.798
Feeling of loneliness	8	4.07	0.65
Increased smoking	9	4.04	0.9
Increased intake of alcohol	10	4.01	0.754
Job-satisfaction	11	3.94	0.654
Adaptability	12	3.82	0.796

Source: ‘The Author’

Distrust scored as the most important symptom whereas adaptability to score as the least important behavioural symptom among the respondents. Lack of trust exist in the working environment of the respondents. Poor decision making and talking around a subject are also found among the employees.

CONCLUSIONS:

It can be concluded that regular monotonous work causes loss of interest in activities. Private and foreign bank employees are mainly worried about job security. High blood sugar, heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol are very common symptoms among the respondents. Distrust scored as the most important symptom. Among the psychological symptoms of the respondents, loss of interest in activities scored as the most important symptom.

SUGGESTIONS:

Based on the findings a number of suggestions can be done to reduce occupational stress in the banking sector, in particular, in and around Kolkata.

· A strong personality type can combat job anxiety better than a weaker one. Hence, organizations should arrange for personality development programmes periodically for the job occupants.

· Apart from conventional education, professional, job specific and moral education should be introduced at institutions for overall grooming of the individuals.

· More and more women are working today, but still they lack equality status in the work fronts. “Genderlessness” should be practised in the organizations.

· Employee assistance programmes should focus at managing change, grief and bereavement, marriage and family problems, depression, integrating work and life and managing personal stress through orientation programmes, face to face counselling, telephone counselling etc. Building up informal relations with the members of the staff may reduce the problem.

· Choosing the right profession analyzing one’s strengths, weaknesses and area of interest can help to reduce work-related stress to a great extent. In a labour surplus economy, it may be difficult to practice but a beginning may be made to help individuals or job seekers for the right career planning. Frequent orientation programmes at the academic institutions may be one approach.

· Yoga is the most effective source of man’s permanent satisfaction in life. It is the source of continuous well-being, a forum where moments of happiness can briefly appear. Practice of yoga develops an inner state of deep awareness in individuals to realize the meaning of life with the increase in executives’ age. The practice of yoga optimizes the self-affirmation and self-care of the job occupants as their age increases and balances the self-confidence, self-motivation, self-potency and interpersonal relations.

· In order to keep the organizational stress under control, management should constantly monitor and review the stress management interventions and the results so that they could be changed and modified with time.

REFERENCES:

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Received on 14.09.2024 Revised on 07.10.2024

Accepted on 23.10.2024 Published on 06.12.2024

Available online on December 31, 2024

Asian Journal of Management. 2024;15(4):347-352.

DOI: 10.52711/2321-5763.2024.00054