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The Chittagong University Journal of Business Administration
Vol. 27, 2012, pp. 57-76. ISSN : 2224-4843.
57
Impact of Stress on Task Performance:
An Empirical Study
Abstract
This study has been conducted for identifying the impact of stress on task
performance. For investigating the results, three important factors of stress
i.e., family stress (FMS), financial stress (FNS), and social stress (SCS) have
been taken into consideration for measuring its impact on task performance
(TP). For achieving the objectives, the authors have conducted a questionnaire
survey and data has been collected from 211 respondents who were working
in five different private commercial banks in Chittagong, Bangladesh. The
theoretical statement reported that stress is an indispensible part of a human
being. If anyone wants to perform better, he/she has to cope with stress for
achieving a successful or unique outcome. Thus, stress has a significant
influence on task performance. If the impact of stress goes up beyond the level
of tolerance, it may harmfully affect physical and mental health of a person.
The quantitative analysis demonstrated that there is a relationship between
FMS and TP, FNS and TP, and SCS and TP. Additionally, FMS, FNS and SCS
have a great impact on TP separately. The necessary implication of this study
is that management should take and implement initiatives to reduce stress
for increasing productivity of the employees. Limitations and future directions
are also discussed in this paper.
Keywords: Family Stress, Financial Stress, Social Stress,
Banking osrganization and Task performance.
M. Phil Conferred and Researcher, University of Chittagong
(Former Faculty of BGC Trust University Bangladesh)
**
Professor, Department of Management, University of Chittagong, Chittagong, Bangladesh
.
Nuray Akter*
Md. Sahidur Rahman**
Impact of
Stress
Received : 03/09/2015
Revised : 15/02/2016
Accepted : 06/03/2016
The Chittagong University
Journal of Business administration
Vol.27, 2012, pp. 57- 76
Faculty of Business Administration
University of Chittagong
ISSN : 2224-4843
The Chittagong University Journal of Business Administration
Vol. 27, 2012, pp. 57-76. ISSN : 2224-4843.
58
Introduction
In today`s business world, banking sector has an immense contribution to run the financial
wheel of a country. The employees who are working in the banking organizations have a great
role in this contribution. They have to face a lot of stressors which have a great impact in the
time of performing their duties and responsibilities. In this study, the authors aim to analyze
the relationship between various factors of stress and task performance at private commercial
banks in Chittagong, Bangladesh. Generally, stress can be referred as an aversive or
unpleasant emotional and physiological state resulting from adverse work experiences, that
are uncertain or outside the employee’s control (Beehr & Bhagat, 1985; Hart & Cooper, 2001).
Stress is usually comes from the perception of pressure for utilizing the opportunity, demand
and scarce resources to what a person expect and the situation of a person cannot handle the
requirements (Bashir & Ramay, 2010). If these requirements are huge and continue for a
longer period of time without any interval; mental, physical, or behavioral problems may
occur (Health & Safety Executive UK, 2010). Some other concepts include stress as a general
type of phenomena (Selye, 1956) which can be demonstrated as a situational condition
(Hill, 1958) or as a reaction ( Janis, 1958) and as a term for designating a broad area of
study (McLean, 1974; Blau, 1981) which has a dysfunctional impact on individual and
organizational outcomes (Cooper & Cartwright, 2013).
From the other view of point, stress is one of the major facets of our contemporary life,
resulted from the swift changes and modernity in human beings (Kashif, Shazia, & Farzan,
2013). Banking employees undergo from many stresses like excess duties and responsibilities;
e.g., services have to provide within short period to the customers or investors, target for
collecting large amount of deposit from the people, late promotional policy etc. which may go
beyond their persistent, abilities or expectations. The banking staff who is also a
mother/father has her/his own stress resulted from child schooling, housekeeping, and family
related issues. Sometimes the same person undergoes from different kinds of stress at the
same moment (Hussien & Hussien, 2006). Actually stress is an inevitable part of life (Oloyede
& Akinbile, 2010). It can lead to feelings of frustration, depression, and anxiety (Olorunsola &
Ajibua, 2012). Stress can take a toll both physically and emotionally, causing psychosomatic
illness (Ola, 2008). This illness may occur for the impact of various factors of stress such as
family stress, social stress, and financial stress. These stresses may influence the task
performance of a banking employee seriously, moderately or poorly.
The family has a great impact on the seriousness of the family stress (McCubbin & Patterson,
1983). A family’s values and its previous experiences can affect the task performance of an
employee (Franklin, 2009). Boss, (2001), Hill, (1958), McCubbin and Thompson, (1995), and
Patterson, (1988) have interpreted the coping theory of family stress i.e., how various
requirements of a family can create stress and after a certain period, this family stress can
affect the task performance of employees from different angle (Patterson, 2002). Financial
stress is the another factor of stress can be raised from the organization’s financial policy and
condition or from the individual’s financial demand; this financial stress has relevant link to a
person’s physical, psychological, and mental health (Cooper & Cartwright, 1994). Because
financial stress has a contribution to the downturn in the economy of a country by boosting
the cost of credit and making business, households, and banking organizations highly cautious
(Hakkio & Keeton, 2009). Again, Kessler and Neighbors (1986) have offered theoretical
justification on social stress to take the fact of social class of many outcomes (e.g., educational
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59
attainment and financial achievement) and race of the people for maintaining that social class;
these class and race of the people are interactive factors of social stress.
Task performance refers patterns of behaviors that are directly involved with all procurement
of documentations until the returning the final outcomes by the employees and in producing
goods or services that provide indirect support for the organization’s core management and
technical processes (Kiker & Motowidlo, 1999). Many researchers have identified the
disruptive effect of different stressors on the task performance (Maglio & Campbell, 2000) by
the interruption on tasks with annoyance and anxiety (Bailey, Konstan, & Carlis, 2001).
Banking employees are under a great deal of stress and due to many antecedents of stress
such as overload, role ambiguity, role conflict, responsibility for people, participation, lack of
feedback, keeping up with rapid technological change, being in an innovative role, career
development, organizational structure and climate, and recent episodic events; one of the
affected outcomes of stress is on task performance accordingly on job performance (Bashir &
Ramay, 2010).
Different factors of stress lead to decrease in employees’ efficiency, increase in absenteeism,
and turnover (Ali, Raheem, Nawaz, & Imamuddin, 2014). Moreover, stress leads to
absenteeism, low productivity, staff turnover, workers’ compensation, medical and other
stress related expenses. In the banking organizations, specially, if the employees work without
any stress, they can deliver better service to customers, clients, investors, or general people
and can also engage themselves actively in the upgrading of banking activities. Hence, it is
indispensible to study the impact of various factors of stress on task performance in banking
sector.
Objectives of the Study
The main objective of the present study is to investigate the impact of stress on task
performance of the employees working at the selected private commercial banks in
Chittagong city. To attain the main objective, this study sets the following objectives:
2.1 To investigate the relationship between family stress and task performance
measured by the employees’ perceptions who are working at the private commercial
banks in Chittagong city.
2.2 To identify the relationship between financial stress and task performance
justified by the employees’ perceptions who are working at the private commercial
banks in Chittagong city.
2.3 To examine the relationship between social stress and task performance
measured by the employees’ perceptions who are working at the private commercial
banks in Chittagong city.
2.4 To address some implications of management for managing different types of
stress with a view to increasing the task performance of the banking staff.
Literature Review
Stress
The idea of stress first incepted into the life science by Selye (1936). His work started from the
developmental phenomenon of stress and its consequences. He interpreted that in each
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reaction of stress has three phases such as alarm stage, resistance stage, and exhaustion
stage. In the early age, many researchers interpreted the different factors of stress where
they showed that these factors act as moderators in the process of the effects of job
performance (Schwarzer & Hallum, 2008; Salanova, Schaufeli, Martínez, & Bresó, 2009; Bakker
& Bal, 2010; Brackett, Palomera, Mojsa-Kaja, Reyes, & Salovey, 2010). They also studied about
the effect of resources and personality traits on stress.
Some researchers explained stress as a positive force in organization such as increasing
productivity (Wright & Bonett, 1997; Wright & Staw, 1999), extra-role proficiency (George &
Brief, 1992; Munz & Kohler, 1997), low absenteeism (George, 1989), and organizational
assessment (Munz, Huelsman, Konald, & McKinney, 1996). Cote´ (1999), after reviewing the
recent literature about impact of stress on performance, concluded that affect is a stronger
predictor of task performance (Munz et al., 2012). Halkos and Bousinakis (2010) identified the
effects of stress on job satisfaction which focus on several factors such as number of work
hours, good relations between management and employees, good function of the group and
work related to employees' area of education. On the contrary, some other researchers
characterized stress as a negative element in an organization which represents an opposite
impact of stress on task performance (Muse, Harris, & Feild, 2003).
Measuring of stress is one of the effective and popular ways to alert the employees of banks
with regard to adverse unexpected outcomes related to variety of risks and provides an
indication how these risks can be reduced by developing task performance (Bhuiyan, 2013).
Again as like as bankers, teachers’ performance is also negatively influenced by different
stress contributing factors which either exists within or outside the educational institution,
that impede the performance of teachers, resulting in lower individual as well as institutional
productivity (Khan et al., 2012). Research findings, outside the private commercial banks,
suggest that the connection between factors of stress and task performance is not manifest
till now; although the majority of studies claim that high levels of stress has a direct negative
relationship with task performance, others see stress as necessary for improving overall
performance (Jacobs, Tytherleigh, Webb, & Cooper, 2007).
Concept of Stress
Selye (1956), a pioneer researcher of stress, defined stress as an individual's reaction to an
environmental force that affects an individual performance. It is also defined as the corporeal
and cognitive response to acute circumstances (Selye, 1974). He explained again stress as the
force, pressure, frustration or tension subjected upon an individual who resists these forces
and attempts to uphold its true state. Furthermore, stress is defined in terms of a relationship
between the person and the environment (Blau, 1981). In addition, Mandler (1982) and Burke
(1991) interpreted stress as an idea of overload, Ibrahim (1998), Greenberg and Baron (2000)
defined stress as personal, physiological, and emotional reactions against stimulus resulted
from internal or external change. Others explained stress as the state by which the individual
undergoes from substantial and mental hyper tension resulted from aspects that can't be
gripped and exceeds human aptitude to deal with the situation (Selye, 1973; Hussien &
Hussien, 2006); Kashif, Shazia, & Farzan, 2013).
Finally, stress is a unique reaction to events and it is an internal process (Sultana, 2011)
that happens when pressure, force, frustration, tension, anxiety, irritation etc. works in an
individual to face the critical situations, to balance undesirable consequences and unable to
effectively and efficiently handle demand of positions with scarce resources.
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Major Factors of Stress
The factors of stress has been identified and studied by a number of scientists and researchers
such as Wright and Bonett (1997), Wright and Staw (1999), Halkos and Bousinakis (2010),
Hussien and Hussien (2006) in relation to their intensity, regularity or duration of the stress.
Weightman (1999) categorizes stressors into three major types: sudden trauma, chronic
stressors, and daily irritation. Again, other prominent authors (Omolayo & Mokuolu, 2008; Ali
& Newaz, 2010) have identified various factors of stress such as burn out, job pressure,
inadequate working hour, anxiety, less time for family etc. whether (Khan et al., 2013)
specified some other factors of stress e.g., family stress, emotional stress, work stress, social
stress, job stress, and financial stress. In the present study, the authors have taken three
major factors of stress e.g., family stress (FMS), financial stress (FNS), and social stress (SCS)
for measuring its impact on the task performance of the banking employees.
Family Stress
Family stress can be defined as a real or imagined imbalance between the demands on the
family and the family’s ability to meet those demands (Franklin, 2009). In this definition of
family stress, the demands in the family are commonly referred to as stressors. A stressor is a
life event or transition that happens in the family. It can be either a positive or a negative and
can be a cause to change a family’s pattern. Examples of family’s stressors could be an event
like the birth of a child, drought, death, or divorce – which concerned with family stress
process (McCubbin & Patterson, 1983). McCubbin and Patterson (1983) also developed a
model that focused on various crisis of a family which creates family stress. Anderson (2002)
represented that family conflicts are the predecessor of family stress. The other study showed
that family stress of an individual can be born from the cognitive hardiness when it buffers
(Nowack, Kenneth, Hanson, & Alan, 1983). Family stress can be emerged from work related
stress (McCubbin & Figley, 1983) too. So, there is a significant body of research which deals
with work and family affairs (Jacobson, 1987) where there is relatively little research which
deals specifically with perceived job insecurity, marriage and family life (Buss & Redburn,
1983).
Financial Stress
Financial stress is defined as the difficulty that individual or household may have in meeting
basic financial commitments due to a shortage of money. It is not unknown for many families
about some experience of financial stress (Brown, 1993; Garman et al., 1996; Joo, 1998).
Financial stress may occur from personal financial problems (Cash, 1997) of individuals which
can create stress to fulfill their need, demand, and expectations of life. This financial stress
sometimes may exit the tolerance level and can affect an individual’s physical and
psychological health, for which performance of an employee may also be directly impacted.
Furthermore, the last thirty years have witnessed a significant, global shift away from state
socialism towards entrepreneurial capitalism (Megginson, Nash & Randenborch, 1994).
Because of this capitalism profit-seeking organizations are providing more pressure to take
workload with lump-sum payment which also hampers the performance of the employees.
Financial stress can be thought of as an interruption to the normal functioning of financial
institutions and markets and one common sign of financial stress is increased uncertainty
among lenders and investors about the fundamental values of financial assets (Hakkio &
Keeton, 2009). Some recent research suggests that personal financial wellbeing and worker
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62
productivity are related (Joo, 1998; Kratzer, Brunson, Garman, Kim, & Joo, 1998; Williams et
al., 1996). If employees were not stressed due to financial concerns, perhaps they could be
able to focus their efficiency on jobs performance.
Social Stress
Social stress generally comes from one’s relationships with others and from the social
environment (Wikipedia, 2014). Social stressors are defined as behaviors, situations, social
nature that is related to physical and psychological strain (Powell, 2011). Cobb (1976)
explained about social stress and suggests that for minimizing social stress people need social
support – where the French sociologist Durkheim (1858-1917) identified ways that individual
behaviors are shaped by larger social forces (Durkheim, 1897). Social stress can be understood
by incorporating interruption theory which drawn from identity theory and from this
perspective social stress result from interruption of the feedback loop that maintains identity
processes (Burke, 1991). Lastly, social stress in our culture, but not in all cultures, is mostly
derived from members of the family, then from peers at work and in the community, and
perhaps, in case of special need or from a member of the professions (Cobb, 1976).
Task Performance
Basically, task performance defined as how an individual behave with the tasks and
responsibilities at his/her job place. It is the part of concept of industrial and organizational
psychology that deals with work place where people are working (Wikipedia, 2013). Borman
and Motowidlo (1993) identified two broad classes of performance: task performance and
contextual performance are presumed to contribute to organizational effectiveness, but in
different ways (Kiker & Motowidlo, 1999). So many evidences have been demonstrated that
supervisor’s weight should be equal for subordinate’s task and contextual performance when
making overall judgments of their performance (Borman & Motowidlo, 1997). In this study,
the authors are focusing on task performance. Primary task workload is inversely reflected in
secondary task performance (Wickens, 1981). A general theoretical model of task
performance is presented with three essential components which is interpreted some
dimensions of task complexity (Wood, 1986). The another study examined the effect of
ability, self- efficacy, goals and task strategies which were all related to task performance
(Locke, Frederick, Lee, & Bobko,1984).
Theoretical and Hypothetical link between the factors of Stress and Task Performance
Family Stress and Task Performance
A series of research propositions have been developed on the basis of confliction for family
and performance of a person. A model of work-family conflict (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985) is
proposed to show a relationship between family stress and performance. Research on the
interface between tasks and family problems suggests that problems at home may affect task
performance (Forthofer, Markman, Cox, Stanley, & Kessler, 1996). Sometimes, an employee is
affected by personal problems for which job performance can be impacted (Masi, 1992) and
the quality of life too (Greenhaus & Powell, 2006). A study examined the mechanisms by
which negative affectivity influences two directions of task–family conflict: task interference
with family and family interference with task (Stoeva, Chiu, & Greenhaus, 2002). Based on
task, Kahn et al. (1964) and Greenhaus and Beutell (1985) measure the role of work-family
conflict on task performance; whether work–family conflict is a mediator (Judge & Colquitt,
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2004) between task performance and family stress and the findings indicate that work and
family are significant sources of stress. However, the studies underemphasized the cognitive
appraisal process by which work and family generate stress (Edwards & Rothbard, 1999).
Even, the employees who are concerned with customer services and customer evaluations are
also affected by the various factors of family stress (Netemeyer, Maxham, & Pullig, 2005).
Therefore, the following hypothesis can be developed:
Hypothesis – : There is a significant impact of family stress on task performance perceived
by the employees of Bank.
Financial Stress and Task Performance
Financial stress predicts the likelihood of a firm ceasing business. A financial stress can occur
from financial problems. It is revealed that a portion of workforce is affected by financial
problems to the extent that they negatively affect job productivity (Brown, 1993; Garman,
Leech, & Garble, 1996; Human Affairs International, 1996; Luther, Garman, Leech, Griffith, &
Gilroy 1997). Financially stressed organizations are those which have ceased operations for
bankruptcy, ceased operations with loss to creditors, voluntarily withdrawn from business
operation leaving unpaid obligations or are in receivership, reorganization, or have made an
arrangement for the benefit of creditors (Cooper & Cartwright, 1994). The financially healthy
organizations are likely to be those which are not successful in maintaining and retaining a
workforce characterized by good physical, psychological and mental health. Productivity of
the employees will be improved (Williams, Haldeman, & Cramer, 1996) and business problems
will be solved (Beer, Spector, Lawrance, Mills, & Walton, 1985) if they got monetary help to
meet their financial problems. It is in the best interest of employers to focus on their workers’
personal financial problems as they have a direct bearing on the workplace; if mishandled,
human resources can be a source of distress to banking employees (Cascio, 1995). Financial
problems which are related to financial stress may have an effect on various functioning in the
different areas (Sporakowski, 1979). There are some financial problems which have a direct
impact on the performance of the employees (Masi, 1992). Thus, the following hypothesis can
be devised:
Hypothesis - H
2
: There is a significant impact of financial stress on task performance perceived
by the employees of Bank.
Social Stress and Task Performance
Many scholars and researchers of sociology identified social factors or forces such as social
support, unemployment (Blau, 1981) as stressors (Beehr, 1994; Folkman, 1981; Kinicki,
McKee, & Wade, 1996) which also contribute to the performance of the employee in different
ways. There are well-documented relationship between social stressors and task performance
(Beehr, 1985; House 1981; Fisher & Gitelson, 1983; Jackson & Schuler, 1985), where social
support works as intervene variables (Ganster, Fusilier, & Mayes, 1986; Turner, Frankel, &
Levin, 1983; Vaux, 1988). Social support has been defined as “the availability of helping
relationships and the quality of those relationships” (Leavy, 1983; Viswesvaran, Sanchez, &
Fisher, 1999). Perceived social support from coworkers enhanced the level of reported job
performance and decreased the level of reported job stress (AbuAlRub, 2004; Viswesvaran,
Sanchez, & Fisher, 1999). Social stress operates through identity process and the identity is a
continuous process rather than as a state or trait of an individual; with the interruption of this
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64
identity process (Burke, 1991) a person fall in social stress which may affects an individual task
performance. Therefore, the following hypothesis can be addressed:
Hypothesis – H
3
: There is a significant impact of social stress on task performance measured by
the employees of Banks.
On the basis of previous hypotheses, the following hypothetical model can be depicted:
Figure 1: Hypothetical Framework of stress and task performance
Source: Authors’ own contribution, 2015
Research Methods
Survey Instruments and Participants
This study has been conducted using a quantitative research design. For this, a convenience
sampling technique has been used for selecting five private commercial banks from the
Chittagong city. Five employees have been purposively selected from each bank for data
collection. A predesigned survey questionnaire was sent to collect data on various factors of
stress and task performance. Selected employees were asked to give their opinion regarding
factors of stress and task performance on a seven-point Likert scale from 1 (strongly disagree)
to 7 (strongly agree).
The items of different types of stress have been taken from Khan, Gulzer, and Yahya (2013)
and measured on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 7 (strongly agree) to 1 (strongly
disagree). Sample items were ‘I have so many problems at my home’ (family stress), ‘I can't
spend money on buying goods like others’ (financial stress), and ‘Wherever I go I gain fame
and love from people’ (social stress).
The items of task performance have been taken from Tsui, Pearce, Porter, and Tripoli’s (1997)
task performance scale. The items were measured on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 7
(strongly agree) to 1 (strongly disagree). Sample items are ‘my quantity of work is much
higher than average’, ‘my quality of work is much higher than average’ etc.
The questionnaire had been sent to 350 employees of bank and only 211 usable responses
have been accepted for the study purposes. All data received from the survey have been
Family
Stress
Financia
l Stress
Social
Stress
Task
Performance
Factors of Stress
H
1
H
2
H
3
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65
entered into an Excel file for summarization and then imported into the SPSS statistics 16.0
database. Exploratory data analysis has been carried out first to determine the normality of
the distributions of the variables. Descriptive statistics, such as means and standard deviations
have been generated for relevant variables. In addition, inferential statistics, such as
correlation and regression analysis have been used to investigate the impact and relationships
between the factors of stress and task performance of the employees who were working at
selected five commercial banks at the Chittagong city.
Scope of the Study
This research study has been conducted on five different private commercial banks in the city
of Chittagong, Bangladesh for determining the impact of the various factors of stress on task
performance through collecting data from the employees of banks such as executive vice
president (EVP), assistant vice president (AVP), managers, assistant managers, principle
officers, senior officers, officers, junior officers, and assistant junior officers.
Reliability of the Scales and Validity of the data
In case of reliability test, the most popular Cronbach’s alpha method (Page & Mayer, 2000;
Cooper & Schinder, 2001; Malhotra, 2002; Hair et al., 2003) has been used in this study.
Cronbach’s alpha for family stress, α = 0.77; financial stress α = 0.71; social stress α = 0.74 and
for task performance, α = 0.89 which were satisfactory and highly reliable for data collection.
In this study, the existence of criterion validity is very strong. Because criterion validity
denotes the criterion variables i.e., demographic characteristics, attitudinal, and behavioral
measures those are collected at a time. Content validity is also presented here because the
measurement instruments provide adequate coverage of the topic under this study.
Result Analyses
Table – 1 reveals descriptive statistics i.e., mean (M), standard deviation (SD), and Pearson
correlation coefficients of the factors of stress (FMS, FNS, and SCS) and task performance (TP).
The mean and standard deviation for FMS, FNS, SCS and TP are consistent with the previous
research (Greenhaus et al., 1985; 2006; Forthofer et al., 1996; Judge & Colquitt, 2004; Blau,
1985; Beehr, 1985; 1994; Folkman, 1981; Kinichi et al., 1996; AbuAlrub, 2004; Viswesvaram et
al., 1999; Williams et al., 1996; Beer et al., 1985; Megginson et al., 1994; and Hakkio & keeton,
2009). It is noted that the mean (M), standard deviation (SD) of factors of stress and task
performance has been calculated for the first time taking samples from selected five private
commercial banks in Chittagong, Bangladesh which is consistent with Khan’s et al. (2013)
study.
Table: 1- Mean, Standard Deviations, Reliabilities, and Correlations between the Factors of
Stress and Task performance
Variables
M
SD
α
Correlations
1
2
3
4
1.
FMS
5.28
0.63
0.77
1
2.
FNS
5.14
0.52
0.71
0.50**
1
3.
SCS
5.39
0.57
0.74
0.65**
0.51**
1
4.
TP
5.91
0.57
0.89
0.67**
0.52**
0.70**
1
Source: Authors’ own research, 2015
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66
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). N = 211. FMS = Family Stress; FNS =
Financial Stress; SCS = Social Stress; TP = Task Performance. M = Mean; SD = standard
deviation; α = alpha.
Correlation between the factors of stress and task performance has been demonstrated in
Table – 1 is significant. As the results revealed a moderate significant relationship between
FNS and TP (r = 0.52, p < 0.01) while a higher significant relationship found between FMS and
TP (r = 0.69, p < 0.01). Additionally, a strong significant relationship exhibited between SCS
and TP (r = 0.70, p < 0.01). Hence, all three hypotheses are supported by the results.
Table – 2b demonstrates only 5%, 6%, 4%, and 8% of the variance in family stress, financial
stress, social stress, and task performance have been explained by socio-demographic
features (e.g. gender, age, experience, position, education, and organization). This indicates a
large portion of variance in the factors of stress and task performance is unexplained. These
unexplained variances suggest that there are other potential variables which have an account
for variations in the three different factors of stress and task performance.
Table 2a: Summary of Regression Analysis of Demographic Characteristics with FMS, FNS,
SCS, and TP
Covariates
Co-efficients
(β)
S.E.
(β)
Value of
t-statistic
FMS
FNS
SCS
TP
FMS
FNS
SCS
TP
FMS
FNS
SCS
TP
Gender
.06
.17
.02
.05
.09
.08
.09
.08
.67
2.08
.21
.56
Age
.04
-.12
-.01
.12
.10
.08
.09
.09
.41
-1.4
-.15
1.3
Experience
-.23
.09
-.07
.04
.13
.11
.12
.12
-1.7
.85
-.60
.29
Position
.24
.01
.02
.17
.14
.11
.13
.13
-1.6
.10
.12
1.4
Education
.19
.11
.24
.13
.27
.22
.25
.25
.70
.49
.95
.52
Organization
-.04
-.06
-.07
.04
.03
.02
.03
.03
-1.4
-2.5
-2.6
1.4
Source: Authors’ own research, 2015
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level. N = 211; FMS = Family Stress; FNS = Financial
Stress; SCS = Social Stress; TP = Task Performance.
Table 2b: Summary of Regression Analysis of Demographic Characteristics with FMS, FNS,
SCS, and TP
Covariates
Value of R
2
Value of F –statistic
FMS
FNS
SCS
TP
FMS
FNS
SCS
TP
Gender
.05 .06 .04 .08 1.84 2.15 1.44 2.81
Age
Experience
Position
Education
Organization
Source: Authors’ own research, 2015
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level. N = 211; FMS = Family Stress; FNS = Financial
Stress; SCS = Social Stress; TP = Task Performance.
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Table – 3 indicates that about 35%, 27% and 38% of the variance in TP has been explained by
FMS, FNS, and SCS respectively. It is, therefore, suggested that all three factors (FMS, FNS, and
SCS) of stress have strong impact on task performance, thus, may be significant predictors in
explaining task performance (TP).
Table – 3: Summary of Regression Analysis regarding the Factors of Stress and Task
Performance
Predictors
DV
Coefficient (β)
S.E.
(β)
Value of
‘T’
Value of
‘ ’
Value of ‘F’-
statistic
FMS
TP
0.11
0.10
17.98**
0.35
16.96**
FNS
TP
0.10
0.09
14.88**
0.27
14.78**
SCS
TP
0.12
0.11
18.81**
0.38
17.29**
Source: Authors’ own research, 2015
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level. N = 211; FMS = Family Stress; FNS = Financial
Stress; SCS = Social Stress; TP = Task Performance. DV = Dependent Variable.
Discussion
The findings of the study supported that there is a significant impact of different factors of
stress on task performance perceived by the respondents of various banks.
The first objective of this study was to investigate the impact of FMS on TP, and hypothesis – 1
states that there will be a significant impact of FMS on TP measured by the respondents’
perception. The result of the current study supported this argument. The significant impact of
FMS on TP is relevant with the findings of previous studies (Greenhaus et al., 1985; 2006;
Forthofer et al., 1996; Judge & Colquitt, 2004). The result provides a theoretical proposition
that family stress should be minimized to enhance task performance.
The second objective was to identify the impact of FNS on TP, and hypothesis – 2 assumes
that there will be a significant impact of FNS on TP judged by the perception of respondents –
which is also supported by the result of this study. The significant relationship between FNS
and TP is also consistent with the number of previous studies (Blau, 1985; Beehr, 1985; 1994;
Folkman, 1981; Kinichi et al., 1996; AbuAlrub, 2004; Viswesvaram et al., 1999). This theoretical
assumption implies that financial stress (FNS) of employees of banks should be reduced to
improve their task performance (TP).
The final objective was to examine the impact of SCS on TP. Hypothesis – 3 refers that TP has
been significantly impacted by the SCS which was measured by the perception of banking
employees. The result is supported by this assertion too. The significant impact of SCS on TP
found to be consistent with the propositions of previous studies (Williams et al., 1996; Beer et
al., 1985; Megginson et al., 1994; and Hakkio, & keeton, 2009). The result of this study gives
support for the assumption that social stress (SCS) must be managed to increase task
performance (TP) of the employees of banks in Bangladesh.
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68
Implications for Management
An important implication of the study is that top management should take initiatives to
reduce the stress of the employees of the banks to improve their task performance.
Essentially, stress free employees can contribute a lot to achieve the goals and objectives of
the organizations. How to minimize the impact of stress is an important issue in the field of
human resources and in advancing the strategic capability of the organizations. In today’s
competitive environment, organizations are desperately looking for innovative ways to
address different types of stress, thus, managing stress is recognized as a high priority for
them. The stress management strategy should be evaluated from time to time by conducting
a survey among the employees and should take necessary steps to reduce stress or manage
stress for improving task performance. As the impact of stress varies from one individual to
another, therefore, organizations need to consider it and can provide full support for the
employees for reducing stress not only for the best performance but also for the stress free
productive nations for a country. The current study is relevant to researchers, practitioners,
entrepreneurs, and business leaders as the findings may help them to take proper strategies
to address FMS, FNS, and SCS of employees for increasing productivity and task performance.
Limitations
This study has been suffered from a number of limitations. One of the limitations is using
convenience samples rather than random samples. The sample of banks (five banks) and
sample size (N = 211) posed another limitation of this study. The other limitation of this study
is to use of self-rated instrument which was short of 360° assessment. The presence of
common method variance in the measures may have caused inflated relationships between
independent and dependent variables. Furthermore, a larger and more representative sample
is needed for future investigation of the relationship between the factors of stress (FMS, FNS,
and SCS) and task performance (TP).
Future Directions
In terms of future research directions, subsequent studies should be attempted to investigate
the relationships between the factors of stress and task performance in different industry
longitudinally. Future research would be benefited from a large sample size, using a variety of
samples. The structural equation model generates more reliable conclusion in terms of the
construct validity of the measurement used. Research examining the relationship between
stress and task performance with human recourses development will produce more
interesting results. Furthermore, research examining the relationships between stress and
other dependent variables, such as job performance or productivity is warranted.
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