Posted: June 5th, 2015

The Impact of Stress Management on Productivity in Public Service Organizations: Insights from Employees in the Ministry of Interior – UAE

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between stress at workplace, stress management, and productivity at the Ministry of Interior (MOI), a law enforcement organization that serves all residents. This study used an exploratory mixed methods design, sequentially compounded in two phases. Phase I: A qualitative inquiry which encompassed structured interviews of MOI employees. Phase II: A quantitative approach which consisted of MOI employees’ survey.

 

 

1.0   CHAPTER

1.2 INTRODUCTION

Stress is a condition of psychological and physical mental disorder that occurs in situations of pressure when the available resources are not capable of meeting individual por organizational demands. Job stress is widely experienced in the place of work where we spend much of our time. This is due to the rising responsibilities experienced at the work place. Work palce stress has received increasing attention over the last decades (Swanepoel et al., 1998). The world of work has become increasingly subject to fast changing forces like increased competition, innovation, and quality of doing business. Other sources of stress can relate to personal factors such as relationships with friends and use of free time.

Stress is not necessarily bad; it can offer opportunirties of making potential gains within a very short time. Whatever the situation is, it most of the time begins when individuals are placed a work environment that is not a match with their working style or temperament. This becomes worse when individuals discover that they can do little about the situation at hand. “Many organizations in the world are facing an alarming increase of negative effects of stress on employee productivity. Perfect examples are organizations in the US, United Kingdom, East and Central Africa and in other parts of the world. The American family of physicians reported that two-thirds of the visits to physiscians are the results of stress related symptoms” (Henry and Evans, 2008).

This study was conducted to highlight the effects of stress on employee productivity. It will be helpful to all statkeholders within the UAE as it will give the importance of strategic stress management and how effective it should be applied.

1.1 Background of UAE

1.1.1 Geography

According to UAE Federal Law, No.22 of 1995, regarding Organization of the Auditing Profession United Arab Emirates (OAPUAE) is a constitutional alliance consisting of seven emirates namely; Dubai, Fujairah, Umm al-Qaiwain, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ras al-Khaimah, and Ajman all located in the Persian Gulf Coast. Further to that, the UAE has been recognized for having an open economic system with high per capital incomes and a substantial amount of trade surplus.

1.1.2 History

As indicated by his highness Sheik Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum (2014), the United Arab Emirates was established in the wake of assuming power on 6^th August 1966. As the Ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheik Zayed stressed the importance of union unification. He therefore established the importance of solidarity and the need to work in co-operation with alternate Emirates.

1.1.3 Culture

The UAE diversity is a valuable asset for its residents and the aim is to expose the society’s economic, financial, social and cultural stability. The UAE is the most rapidly expanding region in the Middle East.  This strength, despite amazing hardship, was underpinned by society’s tribal structure, which has bound people together since progressive waves of movement, for more than 2,500 years prior, to the arrival of Bedouin Tribes to the area. The shifted landscape that these people possessed, i.e., desert garden, mountains and coast, managed a conventional way of life that went back hundreds of years. Under an age-old social structure, every family was customarily bound by commitments of common aid to relatives and to the tribe. Among the tribe an individual’s benevolent neighborliness was the wellspring of his honor and pride. The rules and regulations of the UAE supports the freedom of religion in accordance with established civilizations, and the government generally respects this rights in practice, however the federal constitution asserts that Islam is the official religion of the country.

In 1968 the British Government, under the weight of unfriendly monetary conditions, proclaimed the end of all its arrangements ensuring the Trucial States and its aim to withdraw from the Inlet before the end of 1971.

1.1.4 Population

According to Froilan T. Malit Jr. & Ali Al Youha (2013) the UAE had the fifth-biggest universal transient population on the planet with 7.8 million vagrants (out of an aggregate population of 9.2 million), in this manner, the national population is 1.4 million.

1.1.5 Socio-economic Situation

One of the world’s superior oil-rich countries found in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) area has turned into a mainstream terminus for people looking for job opportunities and higher expectations for everyday comforts. The UAE draws in both low- and high-gifted people because of its monetary allure, relative political security, and current framework notwithstanding a drop in oil costs and the worldwide financial crisis in 2008.

1.2. Background of the Problem

Stress is considered by Halkos & Bousinakis (2010) as “a state of affairs that we experience when requirements (work or not) cannot be countered with our ability to resolve them” (p 415). However, when stress is related to work, it is referred to as job stress. The definition of job stress as disclosed by Kazmi, Amjad & Khan (2008) is “individuals’ reactions to the characteristics of the work environment that appear endangering to them” (p.136). Among the triggers of stress within the workplace, as identified by Halkos and Bousinakis (2010), include working conditions and individuals’ responsibilities.

In fact, Halkos & Bousinakis (2010) recommend that the “creation of an environment of understanding and acceptance of such problems by the company is essential, so that the employee thinks that it cares for him/her and that he/she is an integral component of the organization” (p. 428). In a given workplace, stress is common among the employees, but affects each individual differently and at varying magnitudes. This is because “each person [employee] is and has different needs, expectations, values, history, attitudes and goals” (Re’em, 2011, p. 4). The symptoms of workplace stress includes: higher incidences of error prone work, memory loss, cribbing, over-reacting, arguing, irritability, anxiety, deteriorating health, absenteeism, escaping from work responsibilities, arriving late, leaving early, deterioration in work performance, higher accident rates, improper eating habits (over-eating or under-eating), excessive smoking and drinking, lack of sleep, and a wide array of similar conditions.

Avoidance of these conditions makes, the different responses in part contribute to stress among the employees and contribute to the multitude of negative issues that arise from excessive stress in the workplace, including absenteeism, low morale, and reduced performance. This is confirmed by Halkos & Bousinakis (2010) who contend that “reduced productivity which includes mistakes; low quality work; and absenteeism are signs of a stressed employee” (p.416). Currently, most organizations understand the need to control or manage job stress as a major milestone.

Being members of a collectivist culture where self-belonging is a defining characteristic supports the industry supposition that job performance is equal to ability times motivation (Latham, 2007). Moreover, employee-working motivation is identified as personal fulfillment rather than money, and they are concerned about their career development opportunities (Harrell, Lim, Werber-Castaneda, & Golinelli, 2004). Human resource development is a major concern for performance improvement as the causes influencing the human performance system output are behavioral in nature and interpreted differently by every performer (Rundle-Gardiner & Carr, 2005).

According to O’Connor (2007) Maslow’s motivational theory of the hierarchy of needs address all aspects of the dynamics of day-to-day human life by considering the satisfaction of physiological needs, safety, belonging, self-esteem, and self-actualization. Maslow’s hierarchies are consistent with employee motivations to work, such as family financial needs, job readiness, independence, and career development, which suggests that failure to cover those needs, could reflect in employee poor performance and lack of work satisfaction (Harrell et al., 2004).

Research conducted by Mimura & Griffiths (2003) on the impact of work-related stress noted that within any given organization, it is common for the management to establish programs of different kinds that are intended to minimize the effects of stressful conditions. Generally, the different programs specifically serve different purposes depending on the objective that the management had while introducing them. They also had earlier noted that in the modern day, competition for labor has increased among organizations. Furthermore, Nilufar, Zaini, David, and Syed (2009) revealed that organizations are developing different strategies to retain these employees and avoid turnover.

This is because employee turnover has been seen to have a disastrous impact on the overall productivity of an organization. In addition, Pooja and Renu (2006) asserted that in winning the competitive advantage, retaining employees has been among the critical issues in the modern day organization. This is due to the fact that retaining employees is valued for increasing their performance and productivity of the organization in general. In fact, “Employee retention is a critical aspect for every company regarding competitive advantage because human resource is the most critical asset of today’s modern world.” (Anis, Rehman, Nasir and Safwan, 2011, p. 679).

Corresponding research conducted by Robert and Brian (2004) further asserted that the main interest among modern day organizations is making sure that they establish better working environments for employees to overcome the challenge of reduced productivity. Similarly, Shahu and Gole (2008) noted that employees in different organizations particularly seek out good working environments with minimal stress-related challenges. Therefore, the employees are more prone to choose stress free environments because they also desire comfortable and stress-free workplaces. Concurrently, Orly Deborah & Pnina (2009) asserted that since work is an everyday routine for many people, it is the desire of the majority of the people to work in stress-free environments.

Chiefly, solutions for the respective types of stress are also dependent on the individual since individuals have varying needs and respond differently to the same things, as previously indicated. Therefore, it is a challenge for any given organization to handle stress effectively within the workplace because of the diversity of different indicator, such as the causes of the stress and the individuals involved. Nonetheless, finding out the most effective way of handling stress is important for an organization since the intention is to find the most appropriate solution at its disposal. In this case, it means that the task is basically on the management of an organization to establish a long-term solution to work-related stress.

Stress management programs have been noted among major scholarly works as a long-term solution to work-related stress. The scholars argued that with the establishment of stress management programs, organizations are able to monitor work-related stress and handle the same effectively. Being aware of the presence of stressors and its conditions or to seek therapy for additional back up, enables the human to deal with the circumstances that have led to this condition through particular venues and receiving information for viewing stress management allows for the provision of tools to defeat (Boyd, 2008) it. However, the scholarly works do not effectively discuss how these programs impact the employees’ productivity. Mostly, only general assumptions are developed in this case that effective stress management programs manages work-related stress and improves the performance of employees. However, further research is required to justify this assumption and advance justifiable hypothesis related to the same issue.

Evidence from scholarly and managerial sources indicates that there are different ways by which organizations can counteract and lower job stress instances or enhance the management of their occurrences. For instance, Halkos & Bousinakis (2010) generalize the approaches of counteracting stress by stating that job satisfaction serves as a stress regulating factor. While a stressed person reaches wrong resolutions and destroys good relations with colleagues, a satisfied individual is an important prerequisite for organizational performance and productivity (Halkos & Bousinakis, 2010). While numerous propositions have been put across concerning how to enhance employee and organizational productivity through stress reduction, stress intervention and management initiatives, investigating the impact that such initiatives have on employee productivity in the UAE in the MOI is yet to be researched.

1.3 Statement of the Problem

Majority of organizations have the aim of attaining high productivity from their employees but end up saddling them with lots of work tagged with deadlines. This ends up causing both psychological and physical effects on the employees resulting to something which is directly the opposite of what was needed. Organizations are paying more attention to the stress they are causing on their empoloyees but not much has been done to alleviate the causes of stress. There is more room for improvement and change in management strategies. This research explored MOI employees perceptions of stress at work place, stress management, and productivity, by examining their opinions that stress at workplace impacts their productivity and stress management better enhances their productivity.

1.4 Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between stress at workplace, stress management, and productivity. An exploratory sequential mixed methods design was used which involved collecting, analyzing, and mixing both qualitative and quantitative data from two separate research phases. In Phase I, structured interviews were used with 15 employees and data analysed qualitatively and in Phase II, 302 employees were surveyed quantitatively.

1.5 Significance of the Study

Due to the growth in diversity in the UAE, stress in the work place is highly prevalent and it affects employees’ productivity. Many employees come with their own problems such as leaving behind their love ones (family, parents, spouses, children, and friends). The researcher believed that this study was important and would go a long way in notifying all organizations on the need to ensure effective strategic management of stress for their employees. The findings of this study will also add to the already available studies and therefore enabling other people in othe countries to appreciate the problem. The study provides important suggestions on how stress can be avoided or reduced to increase outputs.

1.6 Primary Research Questions

1. The research was guided by the following overall research question: What are the implications of stress management on the productivity of UAE Ministry of Interior (MOI) employees? The other questions which guided the study wereIs there a negative relationship between employees’ age and stress, their stress management, and productivity respectIs there a difference in stress of MOI employees across demographic groups (based on race/ethnicity, gender, educational level, and years of experience in the organizaIs there a difference in the stress management of employees across demographic groups (based on race/ethnicity, gender, educational level, and years of experience in the organization)Is there a difference in the productivity of MOI across demographic groups (based on race/ethnicity, gender, educational level, and years of experience in the organization)? Is there a relationship between stress and productivity among the MOI employees?Is there a relationship between stress management and productivity among employees?

3.16 Hypotheses

The reason for this illustrative study was to investigate reasonability towards the assumptions, beliefs and expected results (perceived advantages and challenges) under the circumstances that influence the productivity levels in the UAE at the MOI. The following hypotheses were tested in the study:

 

H1: There is a negative relationship between employees’ age and their stress, stress management, and productivity individually. The MOI employees would report stress, less stress management, and lesser productivity.

H2: There is a difference in stress of the MOI across demographic groups (based on race/ethnicity, gender, educational level, and years of experience in the organization).

H3: There is a difference in stress management of the MOI employees across demographic groups (based on race/ethnicity, gender, educational level, and years of experience in the organization).

H4: There is a difference in the productivity of the MOI across demographic groups (based on race/ethnicity, gender, educational level, and years of experience in the organization.

H5:There is a positive relationship between stress and their productivity employees with greater stress will also report lesser productivity compared to employees with less stress.

H6:There is a positive relationship between employees stress management and their productivity. The MOI employees with greater stress management will also report better productivity compared to employees with less stress management.

Is there a relationship between stress and productivity at the workplace?

1.7 Hypothesis

The study hypothesizes that there is no relationship between work stress and employee productivity.

1.8 Scope of the Study

This study focused on Ministry of Ministry of Interior (MOI), a law enforcement organization that serves all residents in the United Arab Emirates. The researcher gave a lot of commitment to course and performed a thorough study; however, some impediments were faced during this process.

1.9 Limitations

This study was largely limited in scope due to resource limitations as well as research limitations. Some of the limitations were:

• The uncooperative response of respondents to answer the issued questionnaire during the data collection process was a challenge.
• Financial constraint was a major limitation when the researcher was undertaking the study.
• Time constraint was a hindrance to the whole study. The time allocated for the study did not provide enough room to carry out and collect all the required data within the styipulated procedures. The limited time had to be divided between main academic work and data collection.

1.10 Assumptions

Assumptions are factors in a study that are somewhat out of control of the researcher and whose disappearance makes the study or project irrelevant (Simon, 2011). It was assumed that the participants in this study were honest and truthful in their responses in describing the phenomena under study. At the same time, it was assumed that the researcher was capable of capturing, analyzing, and understanding the responses of the participants. The sample population of the study was expected to be a representative of the whole population the researcher intended to make inferences on.

 

1.8 Research Design

This study used a mixed methods study, which examined issues related to stress in the workplace, stress management, and productivity, Data was collected through structured interviews and surveys. Creswell (2009) defines mixed methods as processes that focus on collecting, analyzing, and mixing both qualitative and quantitative data in a single study or series of studies. This research required combining the two forms of research methods by connecting or sequentially mixing both qualitative and quantitative data.

1.9 Theoretical Framework

Stress refers to a reaction towards a stimulus that interferes with an individual’s mental and physical equilibrium. Long-term stress causes detrimental effects towards an individual’s health that can consequently affect an employee’s productivity at the workplace (Hodgetts & Hegar, 2008). A stress management framework is an analytical tool that has numerous disparities and frameworks that are used to identify the causes, apply decisions, and manage various forms of stress. This paper describes the stress management conceptual framework adapted from Jameela K. Almur (2014).

1.11 Definitions of Terms

Demographic factors:Epidemiological characteristics of a population, including age, marital status, family size, racial origin, income, and education (John et al., 2004).

Work place stress: a condition of psychological and physical mental disorder which happens or occurs in a situation of pressure, when one is overwhelmed by the demands of the organization or job he or she is undertaking (Naqvi, Khan, Kant and Khan, 2013).

Productivity: The output per unit of labor or employee’s ability to produce work or goods and services in line with the expected standards set by the employing authority (Meneze, 2006).

Stress Management: these are the strategies or techniques that help an individual to control the level of stress or eliminate stress in a bid to improve everyday functionality (Stanton, 2011).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.0 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

This chapter identifies and critically explores literature relevant to the research topic. It also provides the theoretical and conceptual framework for the research, with a view to providing literary basis for this study.

2.2 Genesis and Definition of Stress

 

Hans Selye, an endocrinologist, first used the term stress in a biological context in the 1930’s. He later came to broaden and popularize the whole concept of stress to include reference to the physiological response or reaction to pressure. Moorhead and Griffen (1998, p 181) defined stress as an “individual’s adaptive response to a stimulus that places psychological and physical demands on a person”. This means that stress can be caused by something physical or psychological, and the individual has to respond to stimuli. According to Pediwal (2011) job stress is “that phenomenon that every employer or employee faces at the workplace and handles it differently according to his strengths and capability”. Using Pediwals definition of job stress, it would be right to conclude that job stress is brought about by the mismatch of the employee’s capabilities and organizational demands.

In a similar way Sherman, Bahlander and Snell (1996) added to the definition of stress by saying “it is any adjustive demand on a person brought about by emotional, mental or physical factors that require a coping behavior.” Malek (2010) went a step further to define stress as a “distasteful situation that a person experiences when the demands of a job are not counterbalanced with his capacity or ability to cope with the situation.” According to Malek’s definition, stress will express itself in a person in a different way and it will vary from one job situation to the next.

“ Work place stress is the response that employees experience when presented with work demands and pressures” and thereforeis a well-known phenomenon that shows itself in different situations and affects individuals differently (Medi Bank Private Inc., 2008). Stress begins with the demand and opportunity for the environment for a person and culminates with the person’s response to that opportunity and need (Shah, 2003). . “Stress is becoming a global issue which is affecting categories of employees and societies in various countries” (Haida and Supriya, 2007). They further argue that “stress can cause an individual to experience dysfunction in an organisations expectation and personal needs” leading to low productivity in the area of work be it personal or an organization’s.

2.3 Characteristics of stress

Stress is a complex phenomenon which cannot be touched or is untouchable since it is related to inner emotions and biological processes within the body. “Stress occurs when there exists an interaction between an individual and the environment which results in emotional strain” that affects a person mental and physical condition (Bowin and Harvey, 2001). Stressors bring about stress by causing disequilibrium within an individual’s emotional aspects. “The productivity losses experienced through work place stress reduce the overall business productivity which results in lower GDP” (Bowin and Harvey,2001). This means that workplace stress can impose a direct economic cost on employers.

Stress was defined and expressed in terms of “external, usually physical, forces acting on an individual” (Ritchie and Martin, 1999) but later it was suggested to be an individuals perception and reaction towards stimuli. Blumethal (2003) concluded that “stress is anything that can upset people’s ability to maintain fundamental variables, which are psychological, social, spiritual or biological in nature within the normal limits.” Therefore, stress involves an event that is demanding or it can be as a result of the subjective feeling of distress experienced in the face of that event. .

A particular event could be experienced as “stressful depending if whether a person appraises it as distressingand this will largely depend on that person’s psychological orientation with things like values, culture, beliefs, and spirituality.” (Blumenthal, 2003).

2.4 Stress Response Cycle

According to Levi in Ekundayo (2014), “development of stress happens in three stages but the degree of response to stress varies from one individual to the next.” The first phase is Alarm stage, which is the acute stage. During this stage, adrenaline is produced to bring about a reaction to the current event being experienced. Resistance stage follows, where an individual’s body decides to choose between reaction or no reaction to the event. In this stage, the body tries to adapt fully to the situation and hopefully return to equilibrium. If the adaptation does not take place, this will lead to the third stage which is Exhaustion Stage. At the exhaustion stages, the resources of the body are depleted completely, and the body fails to maintain a healthy function. The results are serious nervous and psychological breakdown of the individual. This can be shown through illnesses.

2.5 Sources of Stress at Work

Dwamena (2012) identified causes of stress to be factors that are intrinsic to the job. This was in agreement with Arnold, Robertson and Cooper (1993) who had earlier identified five primary sources of work stress as: relationships at work, career development, factors intrinsic to the job, role in the organisation and organizational structure.

The factors intrinsic to the job include poor working conditions, shift work, long hours, risk and dangers, new technology and work overload. Studies done in Pakistan by Khattak et al. (2011) found out that employees experience stress due to workload, long working hours, inadequate salary, insufficient quality time with family, technological problems at work and job worries at home. Ismail and Hong (2011) in their study concluded that stress causes dissatisfaction among the employees. They also went ahead to say that the relationship with colleagues, work intensifications, and unfavorable working conditions are that major factors in creating stress. Tsaur and Tang (2012) contributed to this studies by arguing out that female workers in the health sector face a stressful situation due to long and irregular working hours, work overload and role pressure. They end up becoming nervous and anxious. These findings were echoed by Shahid (2012) who discovered that work overload, risky job, inflexible work hours and poor coworker relationships were the main contributors to stress in a working environment.

Job timings, bonus, pay, workload and peer attitude are among the several factors that cause stress in employees at their job (Manzoor, 2011). Dar et al. (2011) went ahead to say that the increase in designation leads to increase in stress. They also concluded that if an employee feels undervalued, fears to lose his or her job and experiences traumatic incidents at work; he or she will end up having stress.

Job strain is one of the causes of stress workers may face the job environment. Having a grave concern about the physical hazards and injuries sustained during work may bring about stress demands of work are still necessary and important to many even in the wake of technological development (Williams, 2003). Research findings show that the work that excessively demands and puts pressure on workers and yet the workers knowledge and ability are not matched to these demands is the most stressful type of work (Leka, Griffiths and Cox, 2004).

Work design and organizational culture play a crucial role in causing stress among the employees (Kerry and James 2003). Invariably, the degree of satisfaction one experiences from their work is directly relative to the amount of stress they perceive and whether it is distress or stress any dimensions, the following aspects of measuring the instructor’s line of work satisfaction include: Professionalism, teacher learning, innovation, and inter-personal relations (Suryanarayana and Luciana, 2010).

Dwamena (2012) identifys the role played in an organization as one of the leading causes of stress. If a person’s role in an organisation are well outlined and understood with all the expectations placed on being clear, stress can be minimized. However, this is not the case in many organisation. When employees do not know what is expected of them at the workplace, role ambiguity sets in. That is; employees do not know where they fit and are not sure of any reward no matter how well they may achieve the objectives of the organisation. Johns (1996) argues that role ambiguity can provoke stress. Sense of no direction can prove stressful, mostly for people who are not tolerant of such ambiguity.

Role conflict and responsibility can be a source of stress according to Dwamena (2012). Arnold, Robertson and Cooper (1993) identify responsibility in an organisation to be of two types. That of people and, responsibility for things such as equipment and budget. Responsibility for people and being responsible for people demands spending more time interacting with them, resolving disputes and, attempting to meet their needs. It all ends up causing a lot of stress. Luther (2002) differentiates role conflict into three categories. Conflict between the person and the role, conflict between expectations and how to carry out a given role and a conflict between two simultaneous roles that needs to be played at the same time.

2.6 Productivity

The output per unit of labor is what is termed as productivity. Higher employment rates in a country suggest high productivity (Skoczylas and Tissot, 2005). Productivity can also be termed as the employee’s ability to produce work or goods and services in line with the expected standards set by the employing authority (Meneze, 2006). Calculation of productivity can be done by comparing the total amount of health care outputs and the total amount of input used to facilitate the production of this output. Input is measured through intermediate goods and services, capital and labour (Bojke et al., 2012).

2.7 Individual Consequences of Stress and their Impact on Productivity

There are many different consequences of stress in the workplace that can result in high rates of employee absenteeism, poor productivity, inefficient work and reduced worker performance that result in decreased organizational performance. This section explains some of the resulting consequences of stress in the workplace and how they can become expensive for companies who do not adequately deal with the issue. Employee stress management is an ongoing problem that leads other associated issues like employee absenteeism and turnover rates that directly relate to reduced organizational performance, which means lower productivity and decreased profits.

Stress manifests itself in various ways according to Blackwell (1998). These can be physiological, psychological and behavioral symptoms. Psychological symptoms are the major consequences of stress and they affect the mental health of employees. Behavioural symptoms could include cigarette smoking, eating more or less, use of alcohol and drugs leading to absenteeism from work. The physiological symptoms are the changes that happen to the metabolism system of the body. They include the increase in heart rate, sugar levels among others. These result in illnesses such as heart disease, hypertension, diabetes and insomnia.

Stress puts drastic effects on employees making them not to meet the organisation set standards and goals because they face physical, psychological and organizational burnout (Khattak et al., 2011). Ismail and Hong (2011) found out that employees in service companies are always subjected to great levels of work-relatedstress, which is the major reason for poor performance.

The relationship that exists between stress and the performance of employees has been discussed by numerous scholars including Ronald and Aslaug (2005), Jonathan, Tom and Amanda (2010), Mimura and Griffiths (2003), Kwok and Wai (2005) and George and Dimitrios (2010). The majority of these authors establish a negative linear relationship between the two variables. A good number of scholars argued that the relationship between employee performance and stress can take the form of an inverted u-shape. Orly, Deborah and Pnina (2009) explain that the U-shape denotes that performance among employees is lower when stress is high. Optimal performance among employees, on the other hand, can only be achieved when stress levels among them are moderate (Sheena, Cary, Sue, Ian, Paul and Clare 2005). From a different though related perspective by Shahu and Gole (2008), it was clear that the cognitive performance of employees is affected by stress. On the same note, the decision-making capability by employees is also adversely affected. Therefore, different works have explained the relationship between these variables in varied ways.

Nilufar, Zaini, David and Syed (2009, pp. 102-115) note that “as a result of stress, employees might base their decision making on heuristics. In this case, decisions made might not be effective or appropriate because the individual employees might make hasty decisions without making the necessary considerations”. George and Dimitrios (2010, pp. 415-431) also argue that due to some high levels of stress within the workplace, there is a probability of employees suffering from narrow thinking. When employees suffer from narrow thinking, their performance is reduced because they do not engage adequate levels of innovation. It is also noted by Sandy and Brian (2003) that stress causes employees to lose their decision making ability.

Employee’s productivity is mutually related to stress and without stress, there is a death of human being (Salami et al., 2010). Job security, work relationships, work-home interface, compensations and benefits, role ambiguity, lack of management support, lack of job autonomy are the principal sources of job stress. Employee engagement to work decreases and ultimately affects employee productivity when these factors are in play (Coetzee and Devilliers, 2010).

Malik (2011) argues out that employees who have no control over their jobs face unsupportive management and lack financial rewards face serious physiological problems. Stress affects physical, psychological and financial equilibrium of employees. These results in employee’s absenteeism at the organisation, wasting working hours (Pediwal, 2011). Shehzad et al. (2011) found out that stress increases employee turnover, which directly affects employee productivity.

According to Bytyqi et al. (2010) stress has direct effect on the employee’s performance and health. Working beyond the normal working hours increases job stress. Increase in job stress subsequently ends up affecting the employee’s mental and physical strength. These effects not only affect the employee but also have adverse implications for the organisation (Salleh, 2008).

Influence of stress on people may be positive or negative. Positive impact is experienced in the early stages of stress and in most cases it ends up motivating employees. If it persists for a long time, it influences the employees in a negative way through increase of anxiety, tardiness and frustration (Jing, 2008). Ongori and Agolla (2008) in their study found out that if stress is not ignored it ends up affecting the organisation profitability by creating unnecessary costs. In the US, the annual costs of employee stress, including costs of missed salaries due to absenteeism, health care, and reduced productivity are estimated to be $200-300 billion. In United Kingdom, they stand at $64.8-66.1 billion while in Japan the costs are approximately $232 billion (Miree, 2007).

2.7.1 Measurement Model: Impact of Stress on Employee Productivity

The measurement model for impact of stress among employees on organizational productivity used in this research is consistent with the provisions of Richard (2009) which states that the impact of stress is measured through understanding its causes and the manner in which it affects employees both at a personal and group level. Additionally these findings reveal that stress in the workplace can affect and originate from individualistic or group-based characteristics that create disharmony in the organization.

The results obtained from both the interview and questionnaire of this research showed that the main causes of employees’ stress is unsuitable working condition. Nonetheless, findings from Valerie and Cary (2010) indicate that individual-based factors are the main contributors to the existence of stress in the workplace. However, this research-based its assessment of the impact of stress on productivity on various traits that reflect all aspect of stress-related causes, management, and consequences in the organizational context. Such an approach is consistent with the provisions of Ader (2001) that proposes an in-depth analysis of causes, management, and impact of stress on individuals’ isolated and group cases in order to capture the accurate measure of the impact of stress on organizational processes.

As such, various researchers have used different techniques in assessing the impact of stress. The applied measurements have their set of related advantages that have made this research conclusive given the high extent of secondary data that is used in the theory formation and hypothesis testing processes. Nevertheless, this research has its unique technique that is consistent with the primary qualitative and quantitative approaches applied in data collection and analysis processes. The diagram below shows items that were employed by different authors to measure the impact of stress on productivity.

Results obtained by Langley, Fonesca, and Iphofen (2006) showed that hindrance and challenge stressors coexist in a way that the positive emotional impact of challenge stressor balances out the negative psychological effects of hindrance stressors. In this case, these researchers assert that employees tend to adopt various coping strategies. However, the findings show that the inability of employees to adapt these coping strategies leads to a state of imbalance where the hindrance stressor create an extremely stressful working environment that undermines productivity.

The findings obtained from Everest (2008), and the research conducted by Chimhanzi and Morgan (2005) provided sufficient evidence to support the hypothesis that workplace stress is negatively associated with productivity and workplace performance. Additionally, findings from Buzznell (2010) revealed that work overload is the main cause of workplace stress while under working results in redundancy. Nonetheless, both cases result in underperformance. This research indicates that under-loading employs create anxiety as employees feel disposable and are in constant fear of losing their job.

The study conducted by Bahrami (2010), and the findings of Brenes, Mena, and Molina, (2007) avow that scarcity of resources and an increase in job demand results in fatigue and detachment of employees that results in increased stress and anxiety levels in the organization. Such an outcome results in decreased teamwork and collaborative work practices, and a general state of underperformance in the organization.

Table 2: Measuring items for Impact of Stress on Productivity

Study	Items
Langley, Fonesca, & Iphofen (2006)	·         Used Computerized Multi-Pearson Distributed Dynamic Decision-making (DDD) Simulation to measure the impact of stress on employee’s productivity ·         Enables me to understand the impact of hindrance and challenge stressor on employees’ psychological health ·         Facilitates the understanding of the significance of coping mechanism in eliminating the negative impact of hindrance stressors ·         Facilitated my ability to determine the impact of optimal decision-making strategies in the workplace in terms of its impacts on employees’ psychological health and productivity
Everest (2008), Chimhanzi & Morgan (2005)	·         Multiple regression analysis (ANOVA) to highlight the nature of relationship and association between workplace stress and employee performance. ·         It helps me to understand the way and extent of the impact that stress has on organizational productivity
Bahrami (2010), Brenes, Mena & Molina, (2007)	·         Used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) using Amos software that showed how different aspect of the organization affect employees psychologically ·         Helped me to understand the impact of limited resources and job demand on employee’s and their workplace performance
Buzznell (2010)	·         T-test was used to compare the difference in terms of impact of excessive workload and lack of lack of sufficient work on employees performance and stress level ·         The use of T-test helped me to understand the manner in which overworking and under working employees contribute to workplace stress and its impact on their productivity

 

2.8 Effect of Stress in Relation to Demographic Factors

Demographic factors and their influence on stress have been studied by a myriad of researchers (Bhatia et al., 2008; Akinnusi, 1994; Beena and Poduval, 1992). Laal and Aliramaie (2010) established significant differences between job experiences and gender with negative response to stress. They found out that males with low job experience were annoyed due to stress.

Marwat and Khan (2010), Chandriah et al. (2003) and Sharma et al. (2012) all reported more stress levels in young age groups compared to the others who were older. However, Bhatnagar and Bose (1985) failed to confirm whether age gives a person the ability and strength to cope with stress. In another study by Pandey (1997), it was identified that there was a positive relationship of age with all the sources of stress except role ambiguity.

Stress level changes over time and this is associated with periods of higher and then lower workload (Gillespie et al., 2001). According to Lai et al. (2000) gender, education, designation, age and work experience, when controlled, factors like uncertain job prospects, work pressures and professionalism contribute significantly to stress.

Stacciarini and Tro’ccoli (2004) went a step ahead to identify the relationship between job stress and demographic variables among which included age, gender, religion, marital status, institution, job grade, salary, concurrent job and graduate studies. They found out that there were no significant differences in employee stress based on the mentioned demographic variables. However, gender contributed significantly towards differences in physical and psychological ill health. Sharma et al. (2012), contrary to the above findings, found out that high income earning groups had high-stress levels.

2.9 Culture and Stress

The research of stress and its dependence on culture has indicated the significant relationship between the two. The influence of culture on stress can be attributed to four distinct ways. These are the appraisal of stressors, the choice of coping strategies and the mechanism for handling stress. Different cultures have different elements of stress. The norms and regulations of a culture may often pose various level of stress for employees (Contrada and Baum 2009). When individuals within the culture are stifled by the demands, it results in the creation of additional stress on them. The choice of coping strengths also is guided by the cultural values. As example in countries like India, China and other Asian countries, the organisation do not adopt to the hiring of a professional therapist for stress relieving of employees whereas this method is popular in the United States of America and Great Britain.

According to Asian culture, it is found that Asians are much more collectivist, and they fit much into a group. As a result, they generally help each other in handling matters of stress whereas in European society individual stress management is much more promoted. The difference in culture may also vary the elements of stress. Some elements which are perceived as stress in a culture may not appear so in other cultures. The driving factor of culture is an important aspect of stress management and before providing any solutions to the stress encountered; the cultural aspect should also be taken into account.
The impact of stress on employees also tends to vary with culture. The mental stability and the resistance for coping with pressure and stress vary according to the culture and the environmental circumstances which have significant effects on the upbringing of an individual. The three major parameters which define a culture are individualism, emotionalism, and determinism. Based on these attributes the cultures are defined and provide a benchmark for effective stress management (Kotler & Chen, 2007).

2.10 Organizational Consequence of Stress

The effect of stress on employees tends to produce a different level of impact on the organization. The effect of moderate stress on the employees tends to improve the efficiency of the employees (Antoniou and Polychroni, 2006). When new employees enter the organization, a moderate level of stress on them tends to increase their skills and raise optimum productivity from them. However, the continuous increase in the stress limits has negative implications for them (Yu 2011). The common negative impacts which are noticed as resulting from stress included burnout, absenteeism, organizational violence and increased heath care costs (Maria and Tore 2005).

The adverse effect of stress on employees is first noticed when they start experiencing burnout. Burnout happens when employees’ feel exhausted due to the causes of stress creeping up on them. They feel de-motivated due to the increasing anxiety and tensions. They exhibit cynicism towards their co-workers and the overall organization, in general. They are always depressed and frustrated. Due to overwhelming stress their efficiency in work is reported, and their performance in the workplace degrades. The emotional symptom which becomes evident is detachment towards other employees in the workplace and disinterest in the works assigned to them (Cunningham 2000).

2.10.1 Absenteeism

Absenteeism is a broad issue that has been studied in different fields of psychology and management. The link between absenteeism as a consequence of stress is also highlighted in different works including Chiu, Chien, Lin and Hsiao (2005) and Stinson (2010). However, the major issue that lacks in these works is what causes stress which result in absenteeism. Due to burnout in the workplace, employees tend to remain absent from the workplace for long periods of time and in a frequent manner (Chiu, Chien, Lin and Hsiao 2005). With burnout highlighted as a cause of stress that results in absenteeism, it is clear that employees tend to feel overburdened. However, Judith, Linda, Donna, Chris and Michael (2003) pointed out that linking burnout to stress and absenteeism is controversial in some situations because measuring the level of burnout is challenging. The major issue is at what level employees can be regarded as experiencing burnout. In fact, Zehava and Arie (2005) noted that some employees feign being overworked as a result of their absenteeism yet they are influenced by other causes such as the need for extra pay or off hours.

From a different perspective, Cohen and Golan (2007) discuss that the cause of absenteeism can be attributed to causes like physical and emotional ailments caused by increased stress and their failure to deal with it. However, this is not a justified reason of employee absentia because they have other options such as reporting to the management on such issues so that they can be handled (Cohen and Golan 2007,). Therefore, in such situations, employees are viewed as being driven by other causes best known to their knowledge. In the works of Shahu and Gole (2008), the causes of absenteeism are debated for two main reasons. Some employees may remain absent from work in order to recover from physical illness caused due to lack of strength while some remain absent to restore their mental peace. However, most of these works mostly look into causes of absenteeism among employees. They failed to develop a broader understanding of how stress can cause absenteeism and, as a result, lead to consequences within a given organization. With all the explanations of causes of absenteeism, it is also important to establish the relationship between absenteeism and its consequences to the organization (Zehava and Arie 2005).

2.10.2 Employee turnover

There are many factors that cause the turnover of workers and stress is undoubtedly one of them. Arguably, employee turnover is the rate at which a company loses employees according to Chiu, Chien, Lin and Hsiao (2005). Initially, the theory produced by March and Simon (1958) on employee turnover showed that the reasons for employees leaving a company were due to the satisfaction level with their current job and the ease and desirability of getting a new “better” job. The problem with this theory is that it is based on the idea that contemplation to leave a position is imposed by low job satisfaction levels and mitigated by an employee being committed to the organization that he or she works for. It hinges on the assumption that the turnover follows a rational and relatively intentional path. However, recent studies have shown that this theory is not as effective in predicting turnover because a methodical development from being dissatisfied with a position to searching for a different job does not necessarily take place (Morrell, Loan-Clarke and Wilkinson, 2001).

There has been increasing research which shows that there are other causes which play into the decision for an employee to leave his/her job such as stress, which has been discussed in major scholarly works. Employees who are unable to handle stress in the organization take the path of leaving the organization Sheena, Cary, Sue, Ian, Paul and Clare (2005). When too much pressure is exerted on employees and their position in the organization is hampered due to inability to perform, they resort to leaving the organization. Often employees are also sacked from their jobs due to consistent underperformance. Organisation around the world face a tough challenge in employee turnover as their overall cost increases in hiring new employees and providing them training in order to accustom them to their work environment. The factor of turnover also adversely affects productivity in the organization. Often new employees fail to deliver in the same manner in which an old employee would have performed. It is important to consider the fact that most of these studies look into turnover as a broad issue. Therefore, there is a need to narrow down on how stress affects employees and turnover as its resultant feature.

2.10.3 Organizational Violence

Stress has also been investigated by Shahu and Gole (2008), Lori, Snyder, Paula, Rashaun, Steven, and Naomi (2004), in addition to Pamela and Julie (1996,), among other scholars are advocates of various factors as being causes of violence within an organization. However, these scholars also integrate other issues that might result in violence within the organization therefore lacking some level of specialization of stress as a cause of organizational violence. Shahu and Gole (2008) discuss that in the workplace when employees find it difficult to succumb to the work pressure or other elements of stress they are often reported to lose control.

They often misbehave and show disrespect which affects the overall harmony of the organization. However, these works do not establish the argument that stress by itself causes violence within the organization. In addition, stressed employees are provoked by situations such as blame game among them as argued by Mohd, Maureen and Antony (2010). In such a situation, employees reiterate which is a major reason violence occurs. In addition, stressed employees are very composed, and they like being alone to handle their issues (Mohd, Maureen and Antony 2010). The problem arises when other employees interfere with their business either through questioning, challenging or blaming them.

On the other hand, stress inflicts conflict among employees through other situations (Lori, Snyder, Paula, Rashaun, Steven, and Naomi 2004). In such a case, employees tend to defend themselves or prove that they demand justice, which is why this results in violence. However, even with the different works looking into how stress causes violence, there is need to note that stress among employees might not be only driven by causes within the organization. Pamela and Julie (1996) note that stress might emanate from other causes besides the issues within an organization. Violation of the behavioral norms can also result due to drug or alcohol addiction which employees may opt as a method to handle stress. Besides, the stress level of one set of employees tends to hamper the others in the organization, which is observed as resulting to some form of violence within the organization (Aamodt 2009).

2.10.4 Counter Productive Work Behavior

Counterproductive work behavior relates to the actions of employees aimed at harming the organization or co-workers in the workplace. Behavior includes refusal to cooperate, verbal abusing and withholding of effort in the work assigned. The arousal of the feeling of counterproductive work behavior takes place when employees fail to handle stress and anxiety. Employees lose their control over the job and resort to destructive measures. When employees fail to handle the stressful situations, it creates dissatisfaction among them, and this gives rise to negative emotions. The risk of the person getting engaged in counterproductive work behavior rises.

2.10.5 Health Care Cost

An employee often reports to fall sick due to excessive pressure and stress created by them by the organization (Wilmar and Maria 2002). As a result owing to their poor health, they claim many medical benefits from the organization. The payment of these miscellaneous health costs by employers increases their organizational cost. It is observed that a considerable number of employees are found using the medical facility of the organisation on account of their stress (Wilmar and Maria 2002). Other than the health cost associated with the ailments, a sufficient number of leaves is also taken which hampers the regular operations of the business.

2.11 Stress and Group Functioning in an Organization

Stress affects group work within the workplace according to Jonathan, Tom and Amanda (2010). They noted that due to effect of stress on individuals, the same translates to diverse effects on the group. Therefore, stress can be regarded as a negative aspect of facilitating group work within the workplace. There are different aspects that result to proper and effective functioning of the group within the workplace including team spirit, communication and shared decision making (Ronald and Aslaug, 2005).All these aspects are identified as being affected by stress among group members. However, groups or teams are made up of individuals and with diverse individuals making up the group it becomes difficult to understand the different types and levels of stress within the group. Therefore, when establishing a research on how stress affects groups, it is also critical to understand individuals differently and how stress manifests among them.

As a result of stress, communication among group members is highly affected negatively in the sense that the members keep to themselves and rarely communicate or consult. This is because the individuals tend to lose focus on group work. The individuals are overshadowed with the effects of stress which includes lack of concentration. Therefore, they do not communicate effectively with other team members, which in turn lower the productivity of the group (Mimura and Griffiths, 2003). Conversely, shared decision making is also affected by stress among group members (George and Dimitrios 2010). In this context, it is noted that stress results in making decisions based on heuristics, which is more individual centered. Therefore, there is an obvious lack of cooperation among team members in decision making, which translates to poor performance. All these issues including poor decision making and poor communication contribute to lack of team spirit, which is a requirement in enhancing effective teamwork.

The biggest challenge in understanding how stress affects group functioning is the different individual attributes. Such a research that overlooks how groups function and looks into detail of the individuals is critical. However, it is challenging to conduct such a research because different groups have different individuals. Rather than discussing how groups are affected by stress, it is better to narrow it down to individuals because their stress translates to the stress within the group (Conti, Angelis, Cooper, Faragher and Gill 2006). In fact, it is difficult to generalize on stress and its effects on the group (Johnson, Cooper, Cartwright, Donald, Taylor, and Millet 2005).

2.11.1 UAE MOI Organization

The MOI is a public service policing organization, and there is wide recognition of the demanding and challenging nature of the profession (Howard, Donofrio, & Boles 2004; Harpold & Feenster 2002). Police officers are often faced with potentially volatile and unpredictable circumstances as, for example, when they engage in hot pursuit, investigate the scene of a violent crime, mediate in fatal disputes, and respond to alarm calls (Roberg, Novak & Gardner, 2005; Sheehan & van Hasselt 2003). In the research conducted by Ivie & Garland (2011), it is noted that police officers are accorded exemplary discretion while undertaking their duties. Simultaneously and typically, they are allowed little opportunity to make inputs to departmental policymaking. This situation has consistently catalyzed both distress and tension (He, Zhao, & Archbold, 2002; Coman & Evans, 1991).

2.11.1.1 UAE Stress Workplace

Froilan, Malit, and Youha (2013) report that UAE is strongly dependent on a foreign labor to sustain the economic growth and high standard of living in the country... Stress is common for public service employees who work under consistent pressure mainly due to the nature of their job such as in the case of the police service (Howard, Donofrio and Boles, 2004; Harpold and Feenster, 2002). Nonetheless, pressure that exacerbates stress levels does not always result in reduced productivity. Indeed, it has been seen to even enhance performance (Ivie and Garland, 2011). This indication notwithstanding, Santiago (2003) claims that when such pressure is excessive, it can result in a type of stress that in turn leads to negative outcomes. For instance, Ali, Farooqui, Amin, Yahya, Idrees, Amjad, &Irfan (2011, p. 2) states that, “In return, it can also be a cause of stress in inspiration for the employee assist them to perform their work efficiently”.

 

2.11.1.2UAE Police and Job Stress among Police Officers

It is important to highlight an example and discuss the many aspects of stress and how it relates to that particular profession. As such, the example of police officers provides a comprehensive insight in this regard and is examined.

Before the establishment of the force, the UAE had a social structure that ensured the sustenance of stability and peace. Nonetheless, following its 1971 independence and catalyzed by the speedy population increase, the UAE police became witnesses to abrupt changes and advancements in the creation of a safe environment for the UAE population and business (Abdulla 2009). The establishment of the DPF was through the first Dubai City police station known as the Naif station in 1956 and the force is now under the UAE vice president and prime minister’s authority (Abdulla 2009).

Initially, the organization of the force resembled that of simple organisation with modest structures and few employees with the responsibility of unsophisticated tasks like assisting authorities to enforce rulings, safeguarding the market and so on. However, following the UAE society’s increased complexity and diversity, the effective systems of security’s need became significantly inevitable (Abdulla 2009). Presently, the DPF is a central part of the Ministry of Interior (MOI), which deals with the affairs of the seven emirates’ headquarters.

A research by Bano helps to analyze the impact of stress on the police department working in India (Gregory, Robin and Darryl 2002). His research reflects that the job associated in a police department is challenging and involves various levels of pressure. The various causes of stress as highlighted by him; for example the negative working environment is determined as the primary cause of stress. Police personnel often need to implement tough decisions which cause a certain level of stress among them.

Their personal life is often found to be disturbed and the loss of public confidence among them also worries them to a large extent. Bano conducted the research on 65 police personnel where he used a structured questionnaire on stress and other demographic causes and distributed randomly among the sample chosen. A chi-square analysis on the data was conducted to derive the results. His results reflect that occurrence of stress was observed more in young and educated police personnel and those who were comparatively new to the job (Bano 2011). This research will follow similar approach in assessing stress levels of employees of MOI, but proceed to examine the correlation between stress and employees’ productivity.

With regards to stress and job satisfaction in the police force in general, Abdulla (2009) states that the nature of the work done by police at times can be a cause for tension and stress among the officers due to the fact that they encounter unpredictable circumstances like global terrorism and everyday hazards. Furthermore, the fact that police officers are consistently subject to stringent public scrutiny could expose them to criticism from the media and other public domains (Al-Fadley 1996). Such challenges and hardships have a/the tendency of creating different types of discomfort for police workers consequently affecting their productivity and job satisfaction (Abdulla 2009). Additionally, there is possibility of low job satisfaction levels within the police job because of its involvement with unique engagements like prevention of crimes, law enforcement and apprehension of criminals (Al-Fadley, 1996).

On the other hand, Miner (1992) contends that work done by police is normally categorized as a high-stress-occupation due to the exposure to conflict, work shifts and physical danger. On its own, law enforcement following a meta-analysis conducted by Malloy and Mays (1984) is an occupation characterized by stress, although no more than several other occupations. Conversely, Chandler (1990) disagrees that the police occupation is amongst the occupations that involve the highest stress levels. Nonetheless, Chandler (1990) consents that the stress problem is evident in police work as exhibited through feeble management, low morale and motivation. On the other hand, Davey, Obst and Sheehan (2001) insist that police work ranks highly among the occupations characterized by high stress levels because of its nature and as a consequence of numerous other influences connected to the work environment, i.e. stress can result from poor supervision and management, low pay and other similar causes (Davey, Obst and Sheehan 2001).

2.12 Stress Management

The rising impact of stress has affected organisation in a large way. In achieving the best out of their employees, organisations have burdened them with stress which has hampered the individual’s lifestyle which may affect them psychologically (Le Fevre, Kolt and Matheny, 2006). The concern of stress among employees has led management of various organisations to devise proper stress handling techniques.

Organisation arrange for various stress education and incorporate various stress handling techniques to provide a friendly and supportive atmosphere for employees to work in. Stress management programs educate employees regarding the origination of stress and its effect upon health and numerous stress management skills. Such campaigns undertaken by organisation help to increase awareness among employees in taking their own precautions for stopping stress from occurring. Employees are suggested to share their work related grievances with a colleague which matches his or her mentality to relieve the pressure. Various actions such as relaxation, meditation, feedbacks and appraisals are also suggested by employees. Follow up sessions are also suggested and maintained by various organisation (Le Fevre, Kolt and Matheny, 2006).

Stress can be managed through use of two approaches; organizational and individual approaches (Robbins, 2004). He says that individual approaches include exercise through walking, attending of aerobic classes, jogging, swimming and many other exercises. He further added that individuals can manage stress through relaxation as this will reserve the response for stress in the human mind-bogy system.

Lucey (1994) contributed to management of stress through organisation. This could be achieved through increasing employee autonomy in their job, allow more flexible working durations, increase or decrease responsibility, job rotations, better working conditions and inclusion of social clubs.

2.12.1 Stress Management Programs

According to Caulfield (2004), there are numerous different types of stress management programs that are very effective in addressing stress-related   problems and providing individuals, groups and organisation with appropriate treatments. These stress management programs can be broken down several ways to show that there are different issues that need to be addressed for coping with and developing adequate employee stress management and organizational stress management strategies. The most useful method involving whether they are conducted within the organization by the HRM to set up counseling, or as a partnership with an external organization like a medical clinic or hospital who will provide sufficient treatment as diagnosed by a professional physician (Van der Hek, 2009, 1-25).

Here are the main breakdowns of most global stress management programs:

1. In-house stress management programs—takes place within the organization; varies from 15-60 minute counseling sessions with either HRM or outsourced medical professionals that may partner with the organization; involves discussions related to the main reasons why the workplace stress is at such high levels and why it is negatively impacting employee productivity; also includes departmental managerial discussions on what co-worker conflicts may be occurring within the organization and which conflict resolution strategies will be required to resolve them effectively
2. Outsourced stress management programs—takes place at an external location and usually involves all-day seminars with medical professionals as lecturers providing useful tips on stress reduction to improve individual health; also can involve annual medical and psychiatric healthcare checkups for all employees to ensure stress levels within the organization are properly managed and contained on a regular basis; this will also ensure conflict resolution strategies to resolve co-worker conflicts are being implemented successfully to prevent them in the future; these strategies have been globally recommended as extremely effective in stress reduction and increasing productivity in major organisation worldwide (Richardson, 2008, 1-29) (Rabe, 2008, 1-14).

Hanson (2001) states that in order to properly deal with the overall stress management problems within organisation, there has to be two different types of stress management programs that focus on either individual employees getting treatment or overall organizational strategies for the entire company to cope with and resolve various workplace-related stress issues:

1. Individual Employees:

• Intervention stress management programs—one of the most effective programs for helping employees cope with stress-related health problems like depression, anxiety and stress due to workplace pressures; involves psychological treatment like outsourced counseling or psychotherapy; also helpful in treating physiological symptoms like extreme weight gain or weight loss, high blood pressure and alcoholism or drug abuse in employees who are suffering from severe stress and who are endangering their mental and physical health and job.

2. Organisation:

• Intervention stress management program—one of the most effective programs for coping with organizational stress related to decreased employee productivity and increased absenteeism; usually conducted by HRM as in-house counseling sessions where employees are able to have one-on-one personal sessions discussing what workplace stress issues are preventing them from performing their duties up to managerial expectations and optimal standards; it may also involve discussion sessions with departmental management (Richardson, 2008, 1-29).

2.12.1.1 Results of Effective Stress Management Programs

According to Lewis (2003), some of the most common results from global stress management programs that have been proven effective in many companies worldwide include:

1. Reduced employee stress
2. Reduced negative health affects due to stress
3. Reduced tardiness and absenteeism
4. Increased employee commitment to work
5. Increased employee job satisfaction
6. Increased employee efficiency and productivity
7. Increased employee performance (Richardson, 2008, 1-29) (Rabe, 2008, 1-14).

2.12.1.2 Schultz Stress Management Training Program

The impact of psycho-educational training program for handling stress has gained popularity in many organisation. The use of this method has helped to increase the performance of employees and lower their emotional exhaustion and strain in the workplace. The method guided employees in controlling their physiological reactions and raising the interpersonal awareness. The training program involves the three crucial elements of relaxation techniques, cognitive restructuring and the interpersonal awareness (Moser 2006). The adoption of these techniques has resulted in favorable results for the organization with increased participation from employees. Effective managerial leadership that realizes the importance of developing appropriate stress management strategies that adequately cope with employee stress helps to prevent it from resulting in long-term reduced organizational performance.

2.12.2 Effect of Leadership on Stress Management

Strong managerial leadership in the workplace has been proven to help reduce employee stress since it often involves management being aware of the early signs and symptoms of stress. Managerial leaders who recognize the initial symptoms of stress can develop suitable methods of prevention and reduction in the workplace. Leaders who realize the causes of stress can try to make the workplace less stressful and more enjoyable to reduce pressurized situations. Effective leadership is the key to preventing workplace stress since it involves managers talking with workers on a regular basis, gaining feedback and input and listening to their problems to help them develop suitable solutions. Since stress can be caused by individual as well as organizational causes (Sandi, 2002), there is a need to establish different leadership strategies that facilitate the management of stress within an organization.

Rocky (2005) recommends that organizational leadership is one of the strategies that would be effective in managing stress within the workplace. Clinton, Robert and Laura (2009) add that in using organizational leadership to manage stress among employees, the main issue is using different motivational tools among them. The motivational tools are noted as important because they are effective in developing a purpose among employees and improving their performance, which results in increased productivity. Influence, motivation and involvement are three crucial elements that organizational leadership implement to handle stress among employees (Philip and Michael 2002). The three elements are identified as supporting employees and facilitating an easy time in performing their tasks, which in turn reduces the level of stress.

From a different perspective, Hakan and Jamel (2006) note that organizational leadership can effectively help in managing stress among employees through encouraging fairness and equity within the workplace. Within an organization some of the major causes of stress among employees include unfair treatment and inequality across the hierarchies (Clinton, Robert and Laura 2009). In addition, when employees feel subdued by others or unfairly treated, the major possibility is that they develop some level of stress according to Sandi (2002). In this context, there is need to develop strategies, which oversee just and fair treatment for all employees across the leadership hierarchies. On the other hand, it is good to establish leadership within any given profession (Valerie and Cary 2000). Philip and Michael (2002) looked at autocratic leadership as involving setting an end goal but not allowing others to engage in the participation of decision-making process. This is regarded as an ineffective type of leadership that an organization can implement to manage stress among employees.

On the other hand, participative leadership is the most appropriate in situations where stress among employees heightens (Susan and Cary 1997). This type allows employees to take part in every stage involving decision-making and actively to seek the full participation of any activity within the institution. Through participative leadership, an organization’s management can be able to identify the immediate needs of employees; lack of performance can increase level of stress Ashley, Valerie and Cary (2010). Moreover, participative leadership is effective because it allows employees to work as a team and develop a high degree of commitment to the goals of the organization according to Philip and Michael (2002).

From a different perspective, stress among employees, which is caused by feelings of unfair treatment, can be managed through a “Laissez faire” form of leadership (Hakan and Jamel 2006). In Laissez faire leadership, every employee is given the opportunity to be part of the managing team within the organization. Therefore, there is theoretically equal representation, which helps in managing the organization effectively through teamwork. Divergently, leadership styles cause stress among employees because different leadership styles advance different expectations, ideals and roles within the workplace (Sandi 2002). These differences generally lead to tension between employees. To some employees, they develop some levels of dissatisfaction and in the end they give in to pressure, which results to tension among them.

Transformational leadership mainly focuses on “transforming” the organization and helping it build change in the process of expansion (Clinton, Robert and Laura 2009). With this form of leadership, the leader encourages the morale, motivation and performance of his followers through several mechanisms. These include encouraging a connection between employees’ sense of self and identity to the mission as well as the collective identity of the respective organization (Rocky 2005). The leader has to act as a role model for employees in effecting any form of change inspiring them to do the same. Conversely, the leader challenges employees to take ownership for their respective work, and understand the weaknesses and strengths of employees, so the leader can align employees in the process to help effect change within an organization (Hakan and Jamel 2006).

When mentoring employees, transactional leadership is effective in identifying how best to deal with stress among the employees (Rocky 2005). According to Burns transactional leadership “occurs when one person takes the initiative in making contact with others for the purpose of an exchange of valued things” (1978, p. 19).This is because the leaders are able to influence the employees to follow them, which is an effective way of managing stress among them.

2.12.3 Stress Management in UAE

The effect of work related stress has been increasing in corporate entities all over the world. Job related stress has spread in an increasing rate in the major economies of the world. A research by Bahrami (2010) reflects the research of job related stress in the United Arab Emirates. Research conducted by him reflects the fact that both levels of workers have been influenced by stress in their workplace. Work stress experienced by blue-collar workers is also different from the stress faced by white collar employees. The difference in the nature of stress also signifies different coping methods adopted by the different class of employees (Bahrami, 2010). Bahrami took the combined use of qualitative and quantitative data in his research methodology. The data collected for the research purpose was from one-to-one interviews with the employees. Bahrami used a sample size of 100 workers belonging to different levels of management.

The interview comprised of seven questions whereby the employees were asked to mention their work schedule, their reporting structure and their hierarchy in job. The employees’ relation with the employer and the supervisors were also questioned. Identification of possible stress building causes was done by the employees and they were also asked regarding the coping mechanism they generally adopt. His research reflects that the blue-collar workers were affected by stress level in a much bigger way than the white-collar workers.

The relationship between the blue-collar workers and the management team was not amicable and majority of the class of workers felt that they were neglected and discriminated. His results also reflect that the majority of white-collar employees were satisfied with the working conditions. The method of stress handling technique was also different among the two sets of workers.

Few white-collar workers visited bars and gym on a regular basis to cope up with stress while blue collared workers carried on prayers and meditations and had conversation with their families to relieve themselves from stress. The importance of the research of stress management in UAE reflects different levels of stress occupying various classes of employees based on their culture and makes it unique for thorough analysis. The research of the literature survey reflects the importance of stress, its negativity and the proper use of techniques and programs in order to relieve employees and help in the achievement of business aims and objectives (Bahrami, 2010)

2.13 Conceptual Framework of Stress

The concept of stress is central to this research and therefore need to be explored. This section will discuss an array of indicative definitions of stress and examine the variable causes as well as contributing causes that can result in employee stress. A range of definitions reveals the perspectives of the various authors, anchored in different, but complementary disciplines. As a consequence, there is no single, clear definition of stress. According to Robert (2002) a Stanford neurobiologist, stress is the undesirable and poor reactions, which people exhibit when excess amount of pressure and demands are exerted upon them. It is the general reaction which people reflect when they do not have the ability to cope with these demands (Kyoung-Ok, 2002, 57-115).

In addition, stress has also been explained as “to a prolonged internal and or environmental conditions in which an individual’s adaptive capabilities are overextended a psychological and physical reaction” (Williams & Huber, 1986, p. 243). However, stress is also perceived to be an internal or personal encounter that leads to the creation of a psychological or physiological inequity in a person (Matteson & Ivancevich, 1979). Stress is also definable as “the Pattern of emotional states and physiological reactions happening in reaction to demands from within or outside an organization (stressors)” according to Greenberg and Baron (2003, p. 122). Another contention is that, “stress is a condition of physical or mental strain or physical/emotional wear that can be the result of a real or perceived threat” (Lee & Kleiner, 2005, p. 179).

In terms of stress and work, an argument is put across that stress is work-induced and is a global phenomenon that affects numerous people across divergent professions (Khoury & Analoui, 2010). In addition, there exists higher a possibility for managers to encounter stress in their daily work. Dealing with claims that are related to stress also takes up substantial quantities of management time. It is therefore clear that there are strong financial and economic motivations for organisation to engage in the management and reduction of stress in the workplace, other than the obvious ethical and humanitarian considerations. Research conducted by Lee & Kleiner (2005) states that, although an overstressed situation can negatively impact individuals, there is stress that can lead to enhanced performance subject to its effective handling. In spite of work-related stress being associated mainly with the Western world, Khoury & Analoui (2010) reveal that developing countries also encounter their fraction of strain and stress, which significantly affects how efficiently one goes about ones work.

This project emphasizes on how managing workforce stress is essential to increasing and maintaining employee productivity. Management of stress is crucial when it can affect all aspects of life. Anastasiou (2008), stress has taken toll on most employees and strategies for managing it has become a necessity. Quoting from an interview within the article, one employee states:

“This researcher observes that there is always something that needs to be done, some of them reported that they work late at night she states” “It is very hard to juggle between family, work, and friendship. In Dubai majority of the individuals were not affected by tension as compared to nowadays whereby most of the residents are being affected with stress due to various factors that affect their lifestyle. Currently, stress is one of the side effects which is affecting people in the modern world as they go on with their day to day routine work and activities. According to Anastasiou (2008) strain is a situation where individuals have the ability to manage stress that affects them. The same article reveals that the major cause of stress in the UAE is the rising cost of living and further elaborates that the bulk of it is tied to the workplace.

Living standards is one of the main sources of stress that affect individuals in the United Arab Emirates. This is as a result of increased price in groceries, rent and other basic needs which the residents cannot do without in their day to day life. The increased living standards, traffic, inflation, are some of the most challenging situations which individuals are facing in Dubai. In Britain stress has become common affecting one person among five people in the workplace. This poses a great danger to the productivity and their relationship with other employees in the workplaces. Therefore stress management has become a core factor in workplaces because of the increased stress in workplaces (Anastasiou 2008).

In a work related perspective, stress is defined differently. Stress that occurs within the workplace is referred to as “work related stress”, according to Sparks and Cooper (1999, pp. 219-229); from their perspective, job related stress occurs mostly when employees face huge work demands. They also added that there are times when the employees’ skills and knowledge may not match the expectations of their employers when performing particular tasks, which contributes to certain level of stress. A study conducted by Kirkcaldy & Martin (2000) added that a wide range of circumstances within the workplace can result from stress.

However, they noted that confusion exists between situations that apply pressure and those that are stressful within the workplace. Pressure is mostly unavoidable because the work environment is usually diverse and employees have to meet different responsibilities. Therefore, when pressure mounts on an individual employee with expectations to meet his or her own responsibilities, this cannot be defined as stress. However, stress within the workplace may result from diminished ability to cope with pressure. This is mostly in cases where the pressure mounts on an employee who has responsibilities they are not equipped to fulfill (Nikolaou & Ioannis, 2002).

Therefore, it can be argued that there are different dimensions of stress as presented by different scholars. To better comprehend stress in a practical context, it is important to look into how it applies within specific circumstances. This literature review presents a synopsis of much of the relevant scholarly interpretations relative to the stated problem. Such a review not only reinforces researchers’ determinations regarding the importance of building resiliency in leaders, but it also serves to objectively present any opposing views or additional ideas, perspectives, or interpretations on the subject. Reviewing current and relevant publications allows this dissertation to present a compilation of all the pertinent details summarily. This literature review is laid out in multiple parts, where each section engages in the discussion of various different aspects of leadership with the intention of enumerating their pros and cons when they are applied in the professional environment. The second section of the review constructs a case for leadership resilience and employee resilience as essential factors in successful leadership building in schools that are situated within urban areas. The following section presents some of the identified causes of stress.

2.13.1 Stress Management Conceptual Framework

Stress can influence negatively on employees ‘productivity at the workplace. Workers under stress are more vulnerable to making mistakes at workplace, become demotivated, hence resulting in reduced satisfaction by the management (Treven and Treven, 2011; George and Dimitrios, 2010). As a result, conflict emerges between the managers and the employees due to reduced productivity. Besides, stress can lead to depression and other physical symptoms like ill health, which can lead absenteeism at workplace among the affected workers, resulting in reduced work, output at the workplace (Fink, 2010; Hodgetts & Hegar, 2008). Stress management conceptual framework provides various ways on how stress management can be achieved at the workplace. The framework involves the assessment of both individual and organisation in order to ensure a stress-free working environment and consequently improving the employees’ productivity.

Is Stress Impacting Your Work Productivity?

Source: Jameela K. Almur (2014)

 

2.14 Theoretical Models Related to Stress

This section explains some of the most important theoretical models related to stress and the causes, reactions and risks that are linked to them in the workplace which employees and managers must understand to properly address the issue.

According to Bossche (2004), the Workplace Stress Model below explains how there are many risks associated to work-related stress that can have various stress reactions and long-term consequences on both employees and companies. Some of the stress-related outcomes are even worse depending on various individual employee characteristics. Some of the main risks or causes of work-related stress include:

1. Large workload—employees often suffer from stress when they have additional work given to them, especially with short deadlines that cause them to work long hours away from their families
2. Not much control over workload—employees who are manipulated by their managers do not have much control over extra work given to them that requires long hours without any additional pay or recognition, causing stress
3. No support from management—many employees work hard, yet receive no emotional support or praise from managers, which causes stress and reduces morale and employee commitment and loyalty
4. Job insecurity—employees who do not feel their jobs are secure are often stressed because they worry if they get fired or laid off they will not be able to find other work or support their families
5. Long working hours—employees who get interrupted a lot at work or have heavy workloads often either stay late at the office or continue working from home, which causes stress, lack of sleep and poor family relationships
6. Poor wages—employees who are not properly compensated for their hard work will feel unappreciated, show poor performance and reduced productivity, and consider quitting, which causes stress since it is not easy to find other suitable work (Hellriegel and Slocum, 2007).

Vargo (2003) states stress management problems have become serious issues within many global companies due to the numerous underlying causes that lead to poor employee job satisfaction. Some of the stress reactions that result from high levels of workplace stress include:

1. Physiological—employees often function poorly when they are pressured and under severe stress
2. Behavioral—employees often act in an unprofessional manner when they are stressed and feel unappreciated for their contributions to the organization
3. Reduced productivity—employees often show lower productivity when they are under stress due to a lack of sleep and extra worrying about problems
4. Reduced efficiency–employees often show reduced efficiency when they feel stressed
5. High absenteeism rates—many employees start to take days off when they feel they need a break due to high stress rates, which reduces organizational efficiency
6. Increases in employee substance abuse with alcohol, drugs or smoking—many people who are stressed due to overwork use these products to relax and forget their problems in the office
7. Increases in mistakes—many employees start to make mistakes at work because they are stressed, tired and feel too pressured
8. Strong emotional reactions—many people become angry or upset when they are stressed, which can cause conflicts with coworkers
9. Cognitive reactions—some people feel mentally ill when they are stressed, causing certain cognitive reactions that prevent them from performing duties (Hellriegel and Slocum, 2007).

Demands that are viewed as challenges which have a tendency to result in a greater utilization of task-focused coping (for example, dealing with the demand and resolving any issues that might arise) and social support. In turn, these are associated with a higher level of positive emotional response (satisfaction, enjoyment, engaging with the task), lower intent to leave and a higher degree of job satisfaction. Demands that are viewed as threats have a tendency to result in avoidance (delay, distraction, procrastination, etc.). This usually brings about worse work-related and emotional outcomes: less job satisfaction, higher levels of stress, increased intent to leave, etc.

The exception to this is when an individual either seeks social support in order to come to terms with a threat or is provided with this type of support without having to actively seek it. This social support can come in the form of emotional aid or practical help. In this scenario, outcomes are usually positive and the person in question is able to successfully address the problem and be more optimistic about the outcome. Social support can be an important tool for helping to deal with occupational demands (Williams, 2002).

This Stress Factor Framework explains the job stressors, individual factors, acute reactions and illnesses of non-work factors and buffer factors like family that cause problems in the workplace. The job stressors include role ambiguity and conflict, physical environment, job future control and ambiguity, interpersonal conflict, quantitative workloads, employment opportunities, responsibility for people, variance in workload, underutilization of abilities, shift work and cognitive demands. The acute reactions include psychological reactions like job dissatisfaction and depression, while the physiological reactions like somatic complaints. The behavioral reactions include accidents, substance abuse and sickness absence. These reactions often lead to more serious illnesses, which include work-related disabilities and physician-diagnosed problems that could have long-term effects on employees.

The individual factors include gender, age, job title and tenure, marital status, self-esteem and personality type. The non-work factors include domestic and family demands that conflict with the workplace, making it difficult for people to have a meaningful work-life balance. The buffer factors include whether or not social support is provided by supervisors, co-workers and family, which refers to the emotional support that employees might receive from those people who are close to them to assist in coping with their work-related stress (Bossche, 2004).

2.14.1 Transactional Model of Stress

According to Folkman and Lazarus (1984), the Transactional Model of Stress explains how stress results from a consistent imbalance between available resources and demands. This model describes how stress is caused by the pressure of people being forced to take on more work than they feel they can handle. The research model found empirical evidence in support of an indigenous model for understanding stress in which coping strategies and personality and preceded and determined perception of job stressors, which consequently exerted an influence upon the psychological well-being of the person in question.

Although the research by Cooper was the first attempt at modeling the stress process, the workplace pressure begins to exceed the perceived overall capability of people being able to cope. Managerial expectations become more than what employees feel they can deal with and the result is often resentment, anger, frustration and resistance to perform. Employees who are pushed by managers beyond what they believe to be their acceptable limits will rebel and over time they might being to come in late, call in sick, or refuse to perform at all and quit their jobs (Bossche, 2004, 81-95).

This leads to companies having to invest more in advertising and employee recruitment to replace stressed out workers. It also involves higher training costs for starting over with new employees instead of managers just developing proper stress management strategies to help their existing workers cope with the stress. It is often due to poor managerial leadership that stress becomes a major part of the workplace. Managers who only care about profits and neglect employee relations issues like work-life balance are considered one of the main contributing causes to employee workplace stress. Lazarus states that effective stress management approaches for the workplace must involve identifying the underlying factors that cause the stress and how people can control their stress. It is also essential that people determine the proper intervention methods that will appropriately assist employees in coping with stress (Bossche, 2004, 81-95).

The Transaction Model of Stress states stress is not a direct reaction to stressors, but instead is a response to a person’s resources that they feel can deal with handling the stress and how well they will be able to change to get the stress under control. The Transactional Model of Stress emphasizes that stress is only a stressor if an individual perceives it as a threat to them. Managers can develop suitable stress management strategies with sufficient coping mechanisms where employees view stress as a challenge they have to overcome, rather than a threat they have to avoid. This model proposes that with positive managerial leadership role models employees can learn how to suitably manage their individual stress and focus on coping with any stressors that they have in the workplace. Managers who can effectively teach employees how to alter their perspective of workplace stressors and support them in gaining confidence to improve their capabilities for coping with them will help them overcome many kinds of stressors in life (Bossche, 2004, 49-62).

2.14.2 Health Realizations-Innate Health Model

The Health Realisation-Innate Health Model of Stress provides an alternative theoretical framework that is different from the Transactional Model of Stress. The Health Realization-Innate Health Model of Stress explains how stress is determined by people’s thought processes and how they react to stressful situations, not their appraisal of stressors according to their own coping abilities as detailed in the Transactional Model of Stress. The Health Realization-Innate Health Model of Stress describes how people evaluate themselves and the individual circumstances that relate to them according to the negative factors and insecurity that threaten their well-being. This model attempts to detail how stressed people should try to understand what is causing the stress and making them feel insecure so they can disengage from the negativity and focus more on positive feelings which will help with stress reduction (Bossche, 2004, 81-95).

In non-pregnant human beings and beasts Christian (2011) indicated that psychological stress “promotes immune dysregulation.” (p. 1). Corwin & Pajer (2008) Partum period are most likely responsible for the mental disorder known as postpartum depression (PPD), which agrees with Christian’s deduction, noted that, the fluctuations of the bidirectional Hypo-Physis Adrenal (HPA) and innate immune system during the postpartum. The immune system goes through substantial changes to back up a healthy maternity, by cutting down on inflammatory responses (Christian, 2011). This accommodation is thought to guard the fetus from falling victim to damage by the maternal immune system and being eliminated by it (Christian, 2011). For this reason, Christian (2011) during pregnancy has unique entailments for both maternal and fetal health, particularly preterm birth” indicated by “stress induced immune dysregulation.

In another observation, Wong, (2002) Noted that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can festinate/worsen the development of pre-existing health, medical and psychiatric conditions with various immunological profiles based on their pathophysiology.

2.15 Strategic Development and Performance

Strategic development and performance have become catchphrases in the discipline of business management. Practitioners and industry scholars have increasingly made consensus that business management ought to make a step beyond and incorporate strategic development and management (Brocke & Rosemann, 2010). The process of strategic development begins with analyzing the advantages, limitations, opportunities and perils of the company, developing and examining unconventional financial strategies, preparing the purposes of strategic management and formulating the methods of placing the selected strategy into use (Rausch & Sheta, 2013). An organization will allocate a group of managers, business specialist and relevant experts to assist in strategic development. Strategic performance, on the other hand, is the process whereby the propulsion of an organization occurs through the logical definition of mission, strategy as well as objectives of the organization, making the definitions quantifiable through critical success feature and critical performance indicators to allow corrective actions to be taken to maintain the organization on track (Fischer, 2007).This section explores how business organisation can employ strategic development and performance as part of the role of strategic management. The section begins with looking into the strategic development and planning then proceeds to discuss the organizational performance.

Strategic development has a direct link to the levels of stress that exist in an organization, as according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, social considerations should be incorporated into strategic development strategies and an important social consideration is keeping environmental stress at the lowest possible level in order to minimize its impact upon the staff at a company or institution (2006). This means that by focusing upon improving aspects of its techniques for strategic development, an organization can help to reduce the degree of stress that its employees suffer from and consequently make them more productive and keep the level of absenteeism at the lowest possible level.

Strategic performance is also linked to stress in the workplace. A study by Burney and Widener has concluded that having effective techniques for optimizing strategic performance in place can result in less stress being placed upon employees, which is a contributing factor in improving managerial performance within an organization (2007). Therefore the better the system for enhancing strategic performance that is implemented, the greater the degree to which employees are able to function because they will feel less pressurized.

2.16 Strategic Management

Strategic management is the practice whereby an organization deals with relationships with its exterior environment while adhering to its organizational missions (Ahmed & Sánchez-Triana, 2008). It is a way of keeping the sense of balance between the activities within the organization and strategies of managing responses to external environment or external factors. In order to implement strategic management techniques in an effective manner, it is important to perfect and improve on strategic planning (Ahmed & Sánchez-Triana, 2008). For individuals working in majority of organisation, the annual process of planning plays a critical role.

Other than formulating some aspects of the organization’s strategy, planning brings about a budget that establishes the map of allocating resources for the future months (Nag, Hambrick & Chen, 2007). For instance, it lays down operating and financial targets which are commonly used in determining metrics of compensation and also to give direction for financial markets. Planning also brings into line the administration team on the strategic priorities of the organization (Nag, Hambrick & Chen, 2007). The operative question for the top managerial teams is about ways of making the process of planning more effective in order to realize strategic management (Nag, Hambrick & Chen, 2007).

The formal process of strategic planning plays a central role in improving the entire satisfaction with strategy management and development (Mulcaster, 2009). There are a number of ways of conducting strategic planning. For instance, executives can immediately make use of five emergent ideas to improve the process of strategic planning (Mulcaster, 2009). The changes looked into in this research are the aspects most connected to the satisfaction of workers and their perception on the importance of the process. The steps may not guarantee that the correct strategic decisions are going to be made or that the execution of the strategy will be better but otherwise develops the process of planning, and hence improving satisfaction with strategy development. Therefore, the entire odds for success shall have been improved. The steps involved include the following:

1. Starting with the issue
2. Incorporating the right people
3. Adopting planning cycles to each business needs
4. Implementing a strategic performance management system
5. Incorporating human resources systems into the strategic plan
6. From management to strategic management
7. Strategic management and environment
8. Uncertainty
9. Strategic conversation
10. Organizational Performance
11. Organizational performance management
12. Developing strategic performance indicators
13. Components of Planning
14. Criteria for developing measures and indicators
15. Measures and indicators within an organization
16. Performance measures
17. SMART goals
18. Key Performance Indicators (KPI)
19. Implementation of project strategy to enhance performance
20. Motivational leadership
21. Strategy into action
22. Performance management

2.16.1 Starting with the Issue

Strategic planning entails anticipating great challenges and spotting significant trends (Moncrieff, 2008). However, to many companies, strategic planning is viewed as a rigid process driven by data and dictated by the production of financial forecasts and budgets (Moncrieff, 2008). If the annually based process is to perform a more important role in the overall strategy efforts in the company, it needs to harmonize budgeting focusing on strategic issues (David, Pisano, & Shuen, 2012). The very first freeing change that managerial team can make for the purpose of improving the quality of the process of planning is to thoughtfully and deliberately spot and discuss that strategic issue which will bring about the greatest effect on the future business performance. Identification of the fundamental issue will make certain that a lot of time and energy is not wasted by the management on less significant topics (David, Pisano, & Shuen, 2012).

2.16.2 Incorporating the Right People

The issue-based approach will only do much good if the most appropriate and relevant people are employed in the process (Boyne & Meier, 2009). A good number of companies give much attention to the data-gathering and packaging aspects rather than the crucial interactive elements of strategic planning (Boyne & Meier, 2009). If only strategic planners from the corporate level and the business unit are involved, strategic conversations will encompass little impact. It is prudent that those people who accomplish strategy ought also to develop it. The crucial strategy conversation therefore needs to take place among the leaders of business units, decision makers and those individuals with expertise relevant and appropriate to the discussion (Boyne & Meier, 2009).

This approach may assist in building a better understanding in the whole organization especially on the issues pertaining to business units. Such interactions, however, may have the risk of constraining the vigor and honesty of the discussion thereby placing the executives at the core of the discussion on the defensive (Hambrick & Chen 2008). Besides leading the corporate review, the top management assisted by the executive team members, should lead the review of the strategy for the business units. They can simply dedicate just a few hours to the business item under review (Hambrick & Chen 2008). The team members should therefore utilize the allocated time in taking part in collaborative discussion with the leaders of the business unit instead of attempting to absorb lots of facts during the review.

The best practice is that companies engage in the dissemination of significant financial and operational information to the team of corporate review prior to the day of the review to provide some context appropriate for the discussion (Hambrick & Chen 2008). The reading material also need to contain the most fundamental issues encountered by the business and come up with the proposed strategy, making sure that the review team is armed with well-thought-out questions.

2.16.3 Adopting Planning Cycles to Each Business Needs

Most managers are understandably concerned about time and resources needed to execute an issue-based approach of strategic planning (Chimhanzi & Morgan, 2005). One easy solution is to liberate business units from the need of carrying out this meticulous process each and every year. Indeed, forcing businesses to take on this exercise every single year is disturbing and can even be detrimental (Chimhanzi & Morgan, 2005). The managers should put much focus on implementing the major initiatives of the last plan, majority of which take between one to three years to be fully implemented. Some companies interchange the business units which experience the complete process of strategic planning (Chimhanzi & Morgan, 2005). This pace allows the corporate senior-management team, together with its strategy group, to dedicate more energy to the business units which are at strike. Also, it liberates the corporate strategy group to work straight with the senior team on key issues that influence the entire company (Chimhanzi & Morgan, 2005).

Other companies employ trigger mechanisms to make a decision on which unit to undertake a full exercise in a given year. While majority of metrics which determine the grade are financial, others may be operational to give a more absolute assessment of the performance of the unit (Chimhanzi & Morgan, 2005). Freeing business units from taking part in the process of strategic management annually, however, brings about a caveat. When significant changes in the outside environment take place, senior managers need to be able to engage with business units which are not under review to make the most important strategic decisions (Chimhanzi &Morgan, 2005).

Therefore, one merit of a modified planning cycle is that it develops slack in the system of strategic review, thereby permitting the management to attend to unforeseen but imperative strategic issues as they crop up.

2.16.4 Implementing a Strategic Performance Management System

In the final stage, a number of companies fail to implement the chosen strategy (Forman & Argenti, 2005); therefore, setting up a system for measuring and monitoring their progress is important for determining the effectiveness of the chosen strategy. Majority of the companies suppose that their present control systems as well as their processes of performance management consisting of operating reviews and budgets are the only ways of monitoring the progress of strategy (Forman & Argenti, 2005).

Consequently, the managers try to translate the decisions arrived at during the process of planning into budget goals or other financial targets. This practice is insufficient despite being sensible and essential (Forman & Argenti, 2005). It is hence estimated that an important section of the strategic decisions recommended to companies are impossible to track exclusively through financial targets. An organization carrying out a key strategic initiative to boost its capabilities of innovation as well as product development, for instance, ought to gauge a variety of input metrics like the quality of the existing talent as well as the number of plans and ideas at every stage in development, besides unadulterated output metrics like revenues from the sales of new products (Forman & Argenti, 2005).

The system of strategic performance management that should allocate liability for initiatives and ensure more transparency to their progress can have many forms (Forman & Argenti, 2005). Transparency is realized as a result of regular reviews and the utilization of financial and nonfinancial metrics. The accountability for reviews that make use of a range of landmarks and metrics in assessing the top ten initiatives is assumed by the corporate strategy team, chaired by the Chief Executive Officer and involving various relevant leaders of business units (Forman & Argenti, 2005).

When well-designed, the system of strategic performance management can provide an early caution regarding problems with strategic initiatives (Forman & Argenti, 2005). On the other hand, financial targets can solely at best give lagging indicators. A system is termed as being effective if it can permit management to come in and correct, redirect or even dump an initiative which is defaulting to perform as expected (Forman & Argenti, 2005). A regular review of the fundamental strategic metrics in opposition to the actual performance of an organization should therefore be put in place to alert the managers on any emerging problem.

One of the problems that could be uncovered by a well-designed system of strategic performance management is the detrimental effects of stress upon employees. Stress management can be viewed as a component of an organization’s strategic initiatives (Noe, 2013). Therefore it stands to reason that an effective system will aid in the minimization of the levels of stress that the workers suffer from.

2.16.5 Incorporating Human Resources Systems into the Strategic Plan

Monitoring the implementation of strategic initiatives alone is not sufficient. Successful implementation of strategic initiatives also depends on the way the managers get evaluated and compensated (Hantang, 2005). Even though strategy development is apparently a long term venture, organisation traditionally put emphasis on short term financial targets like improved margins and annual revenue growth, as the only metrics in gauging the manager and employee performance (Hantang, 2005). The approach is, however, steadily shifting. Delayed compensation models are widely used today for boards, senior managers and chief executive officers (Hantang, 2005).

Moreover, a large number of companies have supplemented the longer term performance targets with the shorter ones. In as much as the changes assist in persuading the managers to employ both the long term and the short term approaches in developing the strategy, they fail to address the necessity of linking evaluation and compensation to certain strategic initiatives (Hantang, 2005). One way of achieving this is by crafting a mix of performance targets which more aptly mirror the strategy of a company. This approach is advantageous in that it encourages managers to raise any predicament early enough during the implementation of the strategic initiative to enable the company to solve them (Hantang, 2005). A section of business leaders have found ways to accord strategic planning a more precious role in strategic management. Organisation that emulate their methods may experience satisfaction rather than frustration at the end of the annual process (Hantang, 2005).

2.16.6 From Management to Strategic Management

As a scholarly field, strategic management is young and upcoming (Harrington, 2006). Many organisation attempt to make long-term strategic judgments that maintain harmony with their environments to realize their mission. Among the many organisation that are present in the world, some prosper whereas others, either small or large, fail to survive long enough to stay in memory (Harrington, 2006). The thriving ones are normally considered as the core of the society. Successful companies irrespective of their sizes, hardly stay longer than forty years, the life expectancy of organisation having substantial size (Harrington, 2006). In as much as other companies persevere hundreds of years, some live merely as part of history with their brands or names.

Majority of organisation are not successful as a result of the narrowness of the perspective of their management (Harrington, 2006). They disappear because their management fails to view them as living organisation but rather focus on making profits from the manufactured products. Majority of the companies only transform when they observe some changes taking place in the external environment (Harrington, 2006). However, those organisation that survive for longer periods of time are open and they often tend to identify what goes on or what intends to happen in the external environment earlier. Majority of what they tend to understand however is uncertain as it lies in the future.

Managers would be able to develop a deep and realistic confidence on the results of their choices if they possess a good perception of uncertainties in the capricious world (Harrington, 2006). To be safe, the managers ought to look ahead and reflect on the reservations by assessing the kind of challenges they would expect and resolve on how to react in an event of the uncertainty. Many a times, the managers, use much of their time in trying to question what will happen to them rather than seeking answers to useful questions such as what they would do in the occurrence of a particular event (Harrington, 2006). In addition, the managers as well as the entire organization should be prepared to make key changes to go with the outside world.

2.16.7 Strategic Management and Environment

Organisation do not operate in vacuums. They influence and are affected by diverse factors both within the internal and the external environment (Schmidt & Brauer, 2006). Certain definite issues and problems along with different policies crop up and recede around companies. Increasing globalization has brought about a situation that cannot be easily predicted (Schmidt & Brauer, 2006). Most organisation have been progressively aware of the significance of understanding the actions in their environment and among the members of the society. In addition, business scholars and experts have maintained that organisation ought to make much more deliberate efforts towards discovering problems in their initial stages, that is, before they impact negatively on the organisation.

Failure to detect the problems in time can lead to their evolution into crisis which can be hazardous to the survival of the organization (Schmidt & Brauer, 2006). Through careful observation and scanning of the environment, problems can be identified by the organisation early enough to allow for proactivity in managing these problems. Unanticipated changes in the environment frequently influence organizational policies- fluctuations in the prices of the raw materials, technological advancements by the competitors, changes in the government policies, on the boundaries for the company among others (Boyne & Meier, 2009).

Sometimes, however, the managers make resolutions which aggravate problems as they are oblivious of these changes. Companies have undergone various environmental, political, technological and socio-economic uncertainties and changes whether in a discontinuous trend or in rapid and continuous fashion. Socio-political changes in the outside environment are a key element in making strategies (Boyne & Meier, 2009).

As companies enlarge their geographical markets, they progressively face complex challenges in management. The survival of an organization relies on the degree to which it can cope with the external situations. An organization environment is therefore any circumstance that impact on the strategic decisions of the organization and are beyond its control (Boyne & Meier, 2009). Environmental aspects like customers, competitors, governments, suppliers, employees and shareholders are acknowledged as sources of competitive advantage for organisation (Schmidt & Brauer, 2006).

Companies hence need to make plans and rules from various viewpoints to take care of the continuous key changes in the external environment. Competitive advantage also entails how promptly the company is capable of changing those rules (Schmidt & Brauer, 2006). The call for being sensitive and responsive about the environment is critical as the survival of any organization relies partly on the aptitude to monitor, interpret and effectively respond to the matters that threaten or improve the growth of the organization.

Organisation that survive try to be cohesive and possess a strong sense of identity (Schmidt & Brauer, 2006). Regardless of their diversities, they make a community and a strong organizational culture that provides a strong sense of belonging to the workers. They are also tolerant as they tend to decentralize power and spread themselves through creating positive correlation with the stakeholders outside and within the organization. Decision-making process in an organization is dependent on the insight of the company itself and its environment (Schmidt & Brauer, 2006). After perceiving the problem, collecting information and evaluating possible outcomes, the management arrives at a decision that comprise of significant outcomes for the organization.

2.16.8 Uncertainty

Uncertainty about the future is among the major reasons that call for strategic management. Uncertainty brings about questions like whether anything of use can be achieved, what is going to happen and how it will develop (Boulanger, 2008). There are three categories of uncertainties; risk, unknowable and structural uncertainties. Before a decision is made, all the types of uncertainties should be recognized and evaluated (Boulanger, 2008). Structural uncertainties arise when the happenings are not interpreted as per the predictable ways of thinking and strategies. In this case, entirely new strategies are needed. With the increase in the number of uncertainties in business, strategic management and planning have developed as a key area of business and management (Boulanger, 2008). Individuals intend to anticipate the future and predict it to ensure that they are not faced with any surprise. The way in which each and every individual looks into uncertainty in the business premises dictates how the person advances towards strategic management. For example, uncertainty is the key influencer in majority of long term strategies.

2.16.9 Strategic Conversation

Uncertainties are not only experienced in the external environment of the organisation but also in the internal environment (Hak, Moldan & Dahl, 2007). It is inappropriate to assume that people within an organization are sensible and possess clear understanding of their set goals and strategies (Hak, Moldan & Dahl, 2007). Conversation is a key aspect of the institutional existence (Hak, Moldan & Dahl, 2007). Organizational activities are based on thinking that results from communication process. Strategic conversation is modified by the way individuals within the organization view the world, that is, how they influence one another through sharing a common language (Hak, Moldan & Dahl, 2007). An effective strategic conversation therefore takes place in an organization in which people uphold balances on different perspectives, recognize weak signals in the environment and go halves on conclusions.

Each and every observation, experience and thought received in the environment can be organized and put into practice in the organization only by communicating (Hak, Moldan & Dahl, 2007). Majority of organisation fail to get involved in strategic conversation as a result of various reasons. Among the possible reasons is that the managers in most organisation do not familiarize themselves with the notion about undertaking informal conversations for formal activities, for instance, for the purposes of generating strategy (Hak, Moldan & Dahl, 2007). The management also, barely recognizes the essence of change. They tend to possess a narrow focus like in costs and on the return on investment.

Organisation also do not put much emphasis on the future for several reasons. Instead, they tend to consider the things as they are presently (Boulanger, 2008). To a certain level, individuals are accountable for the drawbacks due to the fact that they make decisions which contain defects. The managers tend to go behind their routine thought processes and pursue the habitual without any changes or challenges (Boulanger, 2008). Individuals may also have biases on matters and narrow scopes of thinking. As a result, they are notable to have diversified opinions. The organisation can also err in thinking (Boulanger, 2008). The control of thoughts by a group is one of the main drawbacks for decision making process in group discussions.

Management teams comprising of people with uniform backgrounds try to look for consensus and de-motivate dissenting voices irrespective of whether they are critical or not. As a result, they fail to closely look at the perils of existing strategies (Boulanger, 2008).

2.16.10 Organizational Performance

Organizational performance entails the actual results or output of an organization when measured against the projected outputs in terms of goals and objectives of that particular organization (Richard, 2009). Organizational performance incorporates three specific sectors of firm outcomes, and these includes financial performance like profits, return on investment, return on assets, product market performance, which covers market share, sales, and others and shareholder return like economic value added and total shareholder return among others. Organizational performance like operations, strategic planners, legal, finance, and organizational development have been a center of interest to several specialists in this field (Richard, 2009).

Several organisation, in the recent years, have tried to accomplish organizational goals through the use of the balanced scorecard method in which performance is trailed and measured in terms of multiple dimensions, for instance: customer service; financial performance like shareholder return; employee stewardship; and social responsibility like community outreach and corporate citizenship (Kotler & Kevin, 2006). In a bid to analyze what organizational performance really entail, this section will look into organizational performance management, the means of developing strategic performance indicators, components of planning, criteria for developing measures and indicators measures and indicators within an organization and finally, explore the SMART goals.

2.16.11 Organizational Performance Management

Performance management is not just about the end of the year assessment (Rausch, Sheta & Ayesh, 2013). It entails the translation of aims into results. It does not only focus on an individual but also on programs, processes, teams and the organization in general. A performance management that is well developed takes all the matters necessary for the proper creation and sustenance of a healthy and operational result-oriented culture for both individual and organizational performance into consideration. Public agencies are charged with a greater responsibility to outline and measure the results than the private sector organisation, as the results of such organisation are almost entirely based on the financial goals (Rausch, Sheta & Ayesh, 2013). The public agencies should also observe the complex regulations that have been placed to manage their performance management programs. An effective program management helps organisation to improve on the individual performance, upturn overall organizational success and to nurture the development of both the employees and the supervisor (Rausch, Sheta & Ayesh, 2013).

According to Iqbal, the precise nature of the system for organizational performance management that is put in place can have a major effect upon productivity, as performance appraisal can sometimes lead to a high degree of stress amongst employees, which can make them less productive (2013). This means that this issue is likely to be something that affects the amount of stress that workers suffer from. It suggests that organizational performance management techniques that are poorly thought out could not only contribute to the quantity of negative pressure that employees are placed under but also make them less capable of doing their jobs to the highest possible level of effectiveness.

2.16.12 Developing Strategic Performance Indicators

Organizational performance is measured through the observation on how well the set goals have been accomplished (Gary, 2009). Goal accomplishment in any organization always depends on a well written strategic plan. Strategic performance indicators are always developed so that an organization is provided with guidelines on how to identify the starting point, observe and determine progress, know whether it is headed to the right direction or not and to be able to know when the set goals have been achieved or the gap between where the organization is at the moment and where it is intended to be in the near future (Gary, 2009). In this way, this particular sub-section will deal with strategic planning in which the components of planning, criteria for developing measures and indicators, measures and indicators within an organization and SMART goals will be looked into details in this part.

2.16.13 Components of planning

According to Evard and Gipple (2007), stress reduction should be factored into the planning process. This approach is to reduce the extent to which employees’ exhibit resistance to the plan of action which is put into place on account of anxiety and related factors that are associated with the implementation of this approach (Evard & Gipple, 2007). Therefore the way in which planning is carried out is closely connected to the level to which employees suffer from stress, as an effective plan should put measures into place that keep the degree of pressure that is placed upon workers in the organization at the lowest possible level.

2.16.14 Criteria for Developing Measures and Indicators

If an organization has not developed suitable measures and indicators then it will be unsure of its performance in a variety of different areas. There is evidence to suggest that uncertainty and ambiguity in the workplace can lead to elevated levels of stress amongst the employees (Michie, 2002). This indicates that this is another area that is likely to exert a major influence upon the degree of stress that workers are placed under. It could therefore be argued that the more emphasis is placed upon putting suitable metrics in place, the less chance there will be of employees being placed under excess pressure and their performances suffering as a result

2.16.15 Measures and Indicators within an Organization

Developing desirable measures in planning could adopt some of its own planning (Bell & Morse 2008). The data-based evaluation and analysis that were used in the initial stages of establishing goals and strategies could be revisited to offer a starting point or even guidance in determining viable measures and indicators. Even though it is important to align the goals so that they are consistent all through the organization, actual measures, goals, indicators, actions and strategies will be influenced by the location of a unit in the organization (Bell & Morse 2008).

Therefore in order to minimize stress that stems from ambiguity, it is important to tailor the metrics to the specific departments they are applied to. This indicates that as opposed to utilizing the same measures and indicators for the entire organization, a variety of different approaches should be put in place in various different components of the overall body of organisation. Implementing such customized approaches will help to reduce the level to which uncertainty occurs and the negative consequences that stem from this phenomenon coming into play

2.16.16 Performance Measures

Performance measures are such factors that quantitatively denote the important things concerning a company’s products, services and the production processes (Poister, 2008). They are basically the tools that help in understanding, management and the improvement of the activities in the organization. Such measures let the organization know how they are doing, whether they are meeting goals, if their processes are really under statistical control, if the customers always get satisfied and the sectors that require improvement if any (Poister, 2008). They simply provide the necessary information to make smart decisions regarding what the organization does.  

Poor flow of information is one of the factors that have been identified as a catalyst for stress within workplaces (Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, 2012). Therefore having an effective system of performance measures in place is likely to be factor in stress reduction. It will ensure that all of the workers within an organization have access to all of the relevant data that is required in order for them to be able to do their jobs without feeling unduly pressured by the fact that there is a deficit of facts available to them that obstructs their progress.

A unit of measure and a number are the key features in the performance measure (Poister, 2008). While the number serves to display the magnitude of performance, the unit gives a meaning to the number. Performance measures are always based on a particular set goal or a target. They can be represented using single dimensional measurement units like hours, dollars, meters, numbers of reports, nanometers and many more (Poister, 2008). They could even show variation within a process, or even deviation when viewed from the design specifications. Single-dimensional units always represent the fundamental measures for some products or processes.

2.16.17 SMART Goals

The way in which goals and strategies are stated help in determining what should be measured. SMART is an acronym that has been widely used in developing goals and plans. It classifies five characteristics of an efficient goal. The characteristics as suggested by the acronym are; S- ‘Specific’, M- ‘Measurable’, A- ‘Achievable’, R- ‘Relevant’ and T-‘Time-based’. First and foremost, the goal should be reachable or simply, be achievable. It also has to be relevant, in that it is worth the resources that the goal will need to accomplish. The terms realistic, results-oriented, or resource-based have also been used alongside with the R in the acronym.

The rest three components of SMART have a close relation to measurement.

The specificity and the time-based aspects integrate all the data linked to accomplishment. To prepare a student specific goal, one could have to say to develop student orientation by adopting specific strategies like increasing information regarding the events related to student orientation or making sure that all can access timely information concerning student orientation events instead of merely expanding the communication concerning student orientation events.

The prerequisite of identifying the actual measure comes immediately after the identification of specific goals and strategies is completed. A number of options could be considered: simply using Yes or No to point out the accessibility status of the information; a survey intended to identify the number of population actually having knowledge of the information; or a measure like a web counter to note the frequency of visit to the information site. The outcomes of the activities that need to be redesigned, restructured, or changed regarding the timing of the events constitute other factors that have for a long time contributed to student orientation.

Performance indicators and measures are the tools used for organizational learning, strategic change, communication and improvement. It is able to take time to point out the possible measures and then evaluate them. This time and the effort involved should be considered as an investment with the prospect of yielding significant returns in the future. The development of indicators and measures at the beginning of the planning process increases the probability of having the baseline data that helps to identify the starting point and makes it easier to measure the rate of progress towards the goal. The data-based goals are also necessary for the reason that they offer information regarding the extent to which the advancement towards a goal has been made and subsequently enabling one to have a clear knowledge on the point at which the goal is accomplished.

There are numerous different variations of SMART goals, with ‘S’ sometimes being taken to stand for ‘simple’, ‘sensible’ or ‘significant’, ‘M’ sometimes meaning ‘meaningful’, ‘A’ being ascribed a range of different meanings, including ‘acceptable’, ‘action-oriented’ and ‘assignable’, ‘R’ being similarly malleable with regards to the range of different things that it can stand for and sometimes meaning ‘reviewable’ or ‘results-oriented’ and ‘T’ standing for eighteen different characteristics, including ‘time-related’, ‘truthful’ and ‘time-phased’. However the original acronym is taken to be the most effective. According to Rubin, implementing alternative versions can cause the setter of the goals to miss out on developing ‘real’ SMART goals (2002).

According to Edelstein, SMART goals are central components within each step of performance management. They help to ensure that the expectations that are placed upon employees are clear so that no confusion arises. It can result in smoother running organisation with fewer misunderstandings in which the staff are capable of carrying out their work at a high level of ability. This tends to result in productive organisation (Edelstein, 2006). It is highly likely that this is due to the fact that employees are less stressed, as it stands to reason that if the goals that they have been set are not clear, they can feel pressurized as a result of this. A clear link has been established between ambiguity and the degree of stress to which employees suffer from, as previously stated.

According to Edelstein, SMART goals do not need to be altered on a regular basis. They can be put in place in biannual meetings. This facilitates communication and means that everybody in an organization is fully aware of what is required of him or her. It ensures that there is no uncertainty with regards to who is supposed to do what and makes sure that productivity remains at a consistently high level (Edelstein, 2006).

2.16.18 Key Performance Indicators (KPI)

Key performance indicators can be interchangeably used with key success indicators (KSI) and assists organisation to delimit and measure the progress to the direction of organizational goals. After analyzing its mission, identifying its stakeholders and defining its goals, an organization requires means and ways of measuring how it progresses toward achieving those goals. KPI institutes such measurements.

Key success indicators are the quantitative measurements, previously agreed to, that point to the organization’s success factors. They differ from one organization to the other, like for instance, a business firm could have, among its key performance development indicators, the proportion of its income that originate from the customer’s returns while that of, say a school, could be focused on the students’ graduation rates. Any particular Key Performance Indicator must be able to reflect the goals of the organization have to be very important to its success and must be measurable. KPIs are always long-term deliberations. Their definition and mode of measurement do not change regularly. The goals for any given Key Performance Indicator could, however, change in case there is a change in the organisation’s goals or even as it nears accomplishing a goal.

 

2.16.19 Implementation of Project Strategy to Enhance Performance

Organisations are always observed to be having a wide range of experiences, but even with this, it is still possible to make strategies and plans to be individual actions, which are essential for the production of great organisational performance (Li-Ren, 2012). This is, however, not a very easy task. Several companies have, over the years, been unable to justly motivate their employees so that they are able to work with zeal all towards the process of attaining the organizational aims. Almost all organisation are aware of the business and the required strategies for success. However, several of such organisations and mostly the large one, have hard time in translating the theory and putting it into action plans so that they are effectively implemented and maintained (Li-Ren, 2012).

There are three major elements that are very crucial for a successful implementation of project strategy. The elements include motivational leadership, changing strategy to action and performance management. Motivational leadership mainly concerns itself with the achievement of sustained performance by the use of leadership that is value-based, personal growth and planning which has recognition for human dynamics. Changing strategy to action calls for a faced approach that connects the known performance factors to the strategies, initiatives and the projects meant for the development and optimization of individual and departmental activities. Performance management, on the other hand, entails constructing the organizational processes and the capabilities required to attain performance through the employees who deliver the results (Li-Ren, 2012). This section evaluates the elements further to demonstrate how implementation of project strategy to enhance performance.

2.16.20 Motivational leadership

Real leadership is required, not only for the organization to be able to compete effectively in the market but also to deliver growth through the development of proper strategies (Allio, 2005). Employees in any given organization depend on their leaders to bring to them meaning, put some sense into what according to them is unappeasable demand for the outcomes and the clamor for individuals to come into terms with the purpose and value. Leadership appears to be the common thread that cuts across the entire process to turn strategies into results and is the primary motivation for the engagement of the hearts and minds for the employees. Whether the intension is to distill strategy so as to achieve clarity of the intent, engaging the employees to drive the strategy to the point of action or performance as determined by the resulting actions, effective leadership will eventually make the difference (Allio, 2005). In this way, there will be successful implementation of project strategy and hence the enhancement in performance.

2.16.21 Strategy into Action

Strategy into action charts a course into the performance factors, connecting strategic thrusts in the project, individual activity and departmental area (Piskurich, 2011). The aim of this is to make it possible for the organisation to successfully convert strategic intent all through to result by means of a powerful process. The actual need is to systematically and creatively develop and liven it up by developing incorporated action plans all throughout an organization which will make sure that all the functions and the divisions are placed behind it. Following this will lead the team of managers or even employees of an organization. Going for the right people is quit essential for making of the right decisions on the priorities and for the creation of the action of plans that should be clear and aligned (Brenes, Mena & Molina, 2007). The main intention here is that any person in the organization is able to come to terms with the strategy and most specifically, how their actions will add onto the overall delivery. When all this is correctly done, then performance will be enhanced.

2.16.22 Performance Management

Quite often, great plans in organisation just remain as ‘plans’ (Lawler & Bilson, 2013). Naturally, the energy and zeal created during the process of planning quickly fades way, clogged by the pressure of the everyday operational issues. The organization and the stakeholders dwell more on fire-fighting and oversensitive task scheduling, rather than planning in the proactive manner so as to deliver a new strategic plan (Lawler & Bilson, 2013). In order to make ‘live’ the strategy, everybody in the organization has to get engaged and take action. This means: passing information about the strategic intent, action plans and thrusts, having individual goals and work plans that are in line with the strategic priorities, making use of strict principles of project management to avail the change agenda and then continually determining the extent of progress, appraising and offering feedback with regards to performance (Brenes, Mena & Molina, 2007).

Performance management is very important in the implementation of project strategy, as it is a key factor in the alignment and mobilization of the whole organization to reach high levels and collaboratively work together to bring forth results. A performance management system will only be considered effective when it is able to measure the actual time for performance, offer incorporated project management proficiency (Chimhanzi & Morgan, 2005).

It also has to acknowledge and give room for emotional contracting with the entire staff, which is very essential in linking the commitment of an individual and activity to the organizational plan attainment. The emotional contracting has been in many occasions overlooked by organisation, after which they wonder why the employees have actually failed to do all that they are expected of (Chimhanzi, 2004). This element forms a powerful and vital link between organizational intent and motivations, people’s aspirations and values. Performance management is therefore a very crucial tool in the implementation of project strategy, as it will effectively improve performance in the organization.

 

2.17 Literature Review Conclusion

Stress has been variously defined as the undesirable and poor reaction, which people exhibit when excess amount of pressure and demands is exerted upon them. It is perceived as the general reaction, which people adopt when they do not have the capability to cope with these demands. In general, the main reasons of work-related stress are intrinsic to the job, stress emanating from roles played within the organization, stress caused by relationships at work, stress emanating from career development, stress emanating from home-work interface and the organizational climate and structure. Cooper’s Model of the Dynamics of Work Stress, which was adapted from Cooper and Marshall, 1976, has been used in the review to summarize the causes of stress and its consequences.

In the context of job environment, the major issues reported include job dissatisfaction, scarcity of resources, job environment and job insecurity. It is important to understand that when employees are not contented with what happens in the workplace, they develop some level of dissatisfaction.

Dissatisfaction with a particular job is therefore a result of negative perceptions developing among employees about a particular job, which results to stress according to the literature reviewed. This is all the more so when employees are assigned to jobs they feel are not matching their skills and knowledge and when such duties do not contribute to realize their fullest potential (Kottler and Chen 2008). Additionally, the scarcity of material resources within an organization can be regarded as a major cause of stress. One major argument or complaint is that when employees are not able to complete their tasks because of inadequate resources, they tend to lose their motivation to work. In such cases these employees have deadlines and are stressed or pressured to work within a short time to meet the deadline.

Conversely, the job environment has a major impact on job attitude of the employees. It is observed that when employees feel comfortable with the workplace, they develop positive attitudes towards the workplace. Alternatively, when employees develop a negative attitude they are succumbed to high levels of tensions, which develop to stress. Job insecurity is also identified as a major factor that cause stress among employees. It is noted that when employees are unsure of the security for their jobs, they tend to develop some level of anxiety, which causes stress. On the other hand, if employees find that the organization has the hire and fire policy and is least concerned in providing secure jobs to the employees, it causes a high level of stress among them.

This review of literature also suggests that when employees are faced with stress within the organization, there are several organizational consequences including absenteeism, employee turnover, organizational violence, counterproductive work behavior and healthcare cost. Therefore, scholars seem to note that it is important to comprehend the best ways of managing stress within organisation and avoid such consequences that could be disastrous to the productivity of the organization. According to Buzznell (2010), a strong relationship exists between the levels of stress that are exhibited and the extent to which leaders are capable of coping.

Healthy programs for coping, for example maintaining a healthy diet and participating in balanced exercise programs, can facilitate the reduction of stress and result in better health outcomes. The objectives of this research are SMART as they are; well defined and detailed; measurable regarding the amount of nutrition intake or the hours of exercise and the number of days per week to implement the objectives mentioned; addressing the scope of health program and are definitely achievable.

In order to prevent the onset of Acute Stress Disorder in the work place, the author recommends that First Responders receive stress management education training. When First Responders are well-rested, it is much easier for them to keep their emotional balance when saving lives. They also have a better chance of becoming stronger and more resilient making them better equipped to manage stress at work without becoming overwhelmed. The author tested this approach on twenty-five employees at MOI with positive outcomes in managing employee stress and attainment of higher productivity.

Negative mechanisms for coping also need to be managed. These mechanisms could include drug abuse, alcohol abuse and even exhibiting negative attitudes that impact upon the personal well-being of the individual in question or the organization that he or she works for. It is possible to overcome this variety of coping mechanism via the utilization of proactive measures that are aimed at developing the resilience that is required in order to help employees to prevail over and challenge the exceedingly high expectations that many businesses possess.

In the research conducted by Bonanno et al, it was noted that people who exercise to a healthy degree have higher self-efficacy levels and a greater propensity for leadership than individuals who   do not participate in exercise regimes (2007). Organizational strategies, like leadership team meetings, should be incorporated into the preventative strategy of every business to prevent dysfunctions like burnout and fatigue in professionals due to stress (Hoffman, 2004). Time should be provided in which to share the challenges and successes in each department and site within the company as part of a comprehensive program designed to maintain resiliency in leadership by teaching ways to successfully manage stress, gain professional insight regarding difficult situations, and boost professional morale through the celebration of triumphs.

The meeting agendas should include icebreakers, the celebration of successes, humor, discussing challenges and splitting up into small groups in order to engage in the development of thoughts about potential solutions to important problems (Hoffman, 2004). Ongoing professional growth also appears to be a key factor in building resiliency. In addition to professional growth related to the internal operations, further leadership research in the areas of organizational theory, organizational development and business politics might contribute to additional insights on the part of leaders (Hoffman, 2004).

In this chapter, the literature relied upon has been introduced and discussed in order to help in bring out the potential impact of stress management in relation to employee productivity. While significant contributions can be established from the literature discussed, there is no evidence of research conducted to investigate how management of stress can impact on employee productivity. Therefore, this research will significantly and uniquely contribute to the extant literature relating to stress management and the links with employee productivity. Moreover, this research will contribute to the gap left by existing research on any plausible links between stress management and employee productivity. The key to stress reduction is getting away from the stressor. Creating new habits that regularly remove employees from stressors or distract their attention from them is an effective means of managing stress.

In contemporary society, it is extremely difficult, if not actually impossible, to alter stressful situations. What employees however do is alter and reduce the amount of exposure that their employees have to situations that they are likely to find to be stressful.

According to Everest (2008), there are many different types of stress management programs that can be beneficial for organisation to help with employee stress reduction and increasing productivity. These stress management programs can be effectively integrated into organisation to help both individuals and companies cope with workplace stress using in-house HRM and outsourced medical professionals and facilities to provide treatment.

Table 2: Stress Management Theories, Findings & Authors

Authors & dates	Theories& Findings
Selye, H. (1953)	General Adaptation Syndrome & Burnout (GAS) Theory— 3 stages of stress: 1.                  Alarm A—Reaction 2.                  Alarm B—Resistance or Adaptation 3.                  Alarm C—Exhaustion
Selye, H. (1974)	Stress as a body response to demands— Stress Quotient: Local Stress in Any One Part = Greater = You Need Diversion Total Stress in The Body = Greater = You Need Rest
Lazarus, R. (2002)	Theory of Stress–“Stress is a condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize”.
Benson, P. (2010)	Stress causes anger, moodiness, muscle tension, headaches, tiredness & insomnia
Cox, T. (1993) Arroba, R. & James, L. (1990)	Control Cycle & The Management of Stress— Acceptance of the fact that there are some problems that employee might be going through. Also, it includes analyzing the probability of such situations while also making meaningful identifications about the dangers involved in not attending to such situations. It also particularly entails the assessment of the health risks associated with stress and designing of the suitable strategies with realistic implementation and monitoring policies.
Yahya, H. (2005)	Socio-Therapy, psychotherapy & personality types; 5 Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) causes of stress: anger, fear, depression and anxiety.
Cannon, W. (1932)	Fight or Flight Theory—people who are faced with stress either confront the problem or run away to avoid it.
Naska, A. (2009)	Afternoon naps reduced stress & stress-related heart disease problems by 34%, 12% reduced fatal heart attacks; 37% reduced fatal heart disease; exercise greatly reduces stress
Miller, M. (2005)	Positive experiences like laughter greatly reduce stress & improve health—stress causes blood flow to be reduced by 35%, while laughter increases it by 22%; most negative experiences that cause stressful reactions result in 45 minutes of reduced blood flow; continued stress could permanently alter blood flow & damage blood vessels, resulting in death
Steptoe, A. (2006)	Definite correlations between positive emotional states like happiness and stress hormone levels being reduced
Stuber, M. (2004)	Laughter is an effective children’s pain reducer which prevents stress; clown doctors greatly reduce stressful experiences for children in hospitals when they require surgeries or treatments, increasing acceptance & tolerance of pain and stress
Hargrove, M. Quick, J. Nelson, D. (1979) (2011)	Theory of Preventive Stress Management (TPSM)—avoiding stress by monitoring, preventing & quickly resolving stressful situations can be very beneficial to long-term health.

 

 

2.18 Summary

Stresses arising from workplaces reduce the productivity of workers due to poor physical and mental health conditions that affect the employees. In order to effectively identify the causes and manage stresses among employees, it is important to integrate both individual and organization assessments within the stress management conceptual framework. Individual assessments help to manage the individual workers stresses while organizational assessments tend to manage workplace-related stresses among the employees. The successful stress management conceptual framework leads to sustainable programs within the organisation since it provides suitable programs for identification and management of work-related stresses. As a result, both individual and organizational frameworks serve as the most effective stress monitoring and indicator systems in an attempt to address the impact of workers’ stress to productivity. Most studies that have been done show stress to have a negative influence on productivity. Other have concluded that stress can be productive at times but not for a very long time.

 

 

 

2.0   CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

• Introduction

This chapter explains the research design used in this study, all the procedures and processes employed to collect and analyze the collected data. The instruments used for the study and methods of analysis have been explained.

• Research Design

The study applied both qualitative and descriptive research designs (Mixed methods design). Qualitative research design was used in the first phase while quantitative design was used in the second phase. Creswell (2009) defines mixed methods as focusing on collecting, analyzing, and mixing both qualitative and quantitative data in a single study or series of studies. This study required to combine the two forms of research methods in order to explore issues related to stress at workplace, stress management, and productivity by use of multiple sources of data. The specific type of mixed methods design used for this study was exploratory sequential mixed method research. The exploratory sequential design is characterized by an initial phase of qualitative data collection and analysis followed by a phase of quantitative data collection and analysis (Creswell, 2009). Priority was given to the qualitative phase of the study. The results from the qualitative phases helped develop and inform the quantitative phase. Creswel (2003), states that qualitative study involves more than just a collection of data. Measurement, classification, analysis, comparison and interpretation of data can be done using qualitative research. This design employed has an advantage of producing a good amount of responses from the sample population. The quantitative phase research was conducted utilizing a survey design. This was accomplished through the use of a descriptive rating, Likert-type survey provided by the Workplace Stress Survey AIS developed by the American Institute of Stress. The researcher utilized numerical data and analyzed it by using statistical procedures (Cresswell, 2009).The researcher used post positivism statements for developing knowledge including cause and effective thinking, reduction of specific variables, hypotheses and questions, use on measurement and observation, and the test of the theories.

A mixed methods approach was necessary for this study because no single data source could provide the depth and range of data necessary to address the research questions (Creswell, 2009). From the study conception to results, the mixed methods approach was used to guide all aspects of the study including research design, data collection, data analysis, and the reporting of findings.

• Study Population

Population of a study refers to the complete set of individuals, events, objects that have common observable characteristics that the researcher is interested in analyzing (Agyedu, Donkor and Obeng, 1999). This population must be clearly defined and identified to stand out from the rest. The target population was the staff of MOI. Ministry of Interior (MOI) is one of the essential federal authorities where there is full integration of police and security systems.

• Sample and Sampling Technique

Sampling was used to select a portion of the population which acted as the representative of the whole population. The total population (N=10000) was under study. Non-probability sampling was used to select a sample population of 15 employees (n=15) for phase one of the study and phase two of the study involved a sample population of n=370.. Only those who had one or more years of work experience were selected for the study. 10 male and 5 females were selected.

• Data Collection

Only primary data was collected from the respondents. A structured questionnaire and an open ended questions interviews were conducted to obtain data from the respondents. The questions included in the interviews were focused on stress, stress management, and productivity experiences. Each of the 15 individual was issued with questionnaires to fill alongside participation in the interviews. The researcher conducted the interviews in a private area in the employees’ work setting. The confidential interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed by the investigator. All interviews lasted 60 to 90 minutes. The consent form for agreeing to participate in the study was obtained and the researcher kept anonymity and confidentiality of the participants to maintain their privacy.

• Research Instrument

The researcher interviewed all 15 participants using structured questions that were open-ended questions. The participants were informed about employees stress, stress management, and productivity interviews. The demographic section included gender, age, nationality, years of experience in the organization, education, working for how many years as a manager, job title, number of employees their management. There was an interview guide with three (3) open-ended questions with three (3) prompts for each question that totaled 12 questions (Appendix C) addressed stress, organizational norms, and productivity related to participants who were identified as being under pressure.

The interview guide questions used during each interview incorporated components of retrospective interviews strategy with cognitive inquiries that focus on non-routine stress situations to generate a cognitive task analysis. The researcher obtained content validity of the 12 questions prior to initiation of this study, established by a panel of experts. Consensus on the developed instrument open-ended questions (three objectives) was followed by nine (9) prompts.

Written survey questionnaires and conduction of interviews was done in the quantitative design of phase two. The quantitative instrument utilized in this study was a self-administrated type questionnaire which was a compilation of different standardized questionnaires that were available online. The employees were given one week to complete the survey and then they were responsible for emailing the results back to the researcher once they had been completed. An analysis of the output from the questionnaires revealed the correlations between their responses on various types of stress and its impact on their performance. The aim of this method of data collection was to gather a large amount of data with effective and less time consuming method (Onwuegbuzie and Leech, 2005; Weinstein, Brown, and Ryan, 2009).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.5. Phase I: Qualitative Data Collection Procedure

 

 

 

 

 

                            

 

3.10 Ethical Consideration and Protection of Human Subjects

The researcher protected participants’ information by using numbers and letters for identification. The confidentiality of all information placed in a locked closet of the researcher. Ethical approval was obtained from GRENOBLE ECOLE DE MANAGEMENT

an institutional review board (IRB) (see Appendix for approval letters). The consent form for agreeing to participate in the study was obtained. The research kept anonymity and confidentiality of the participants to maintain their privacy. In addition, the purpose of the study was explained to the participants and given a letter that explained the risks and benefits of participation, why they were chosen, their right to voluntarily participate, and assurance of confidentiality. The researcher obtained the completed survey from the MOI, kept in a locked file cabinet and only the researcher had access. The researcher explained to subjects there is no direct benefit for them, but there could benefit by the improved work stress and productivity.

3.11 Mixed Method Data Analysis

3.11.1 Phase I: Qualitative Data Analysis

3.17 Qualitative Data Analysis

Analysis of qualitative data begins with the collection of data. Data analysis was continues throughout the study. Qualitative data analysis is done simultaneously with data collection. The data are reviewed multiple times seeking themes that either emerged during analysis (emergent themes) or established a priori (predetermined themes).

The interviews were recorded and transcribed. Qualitative software, ATLAS, was used to assist with data management. All interviews were given a participants number and imported into ATLAS. The researcher reviewed each interview multiple times to uncover emergent themes and subthemes. Categories or clusters of themes were developed based on the analysis of the interview data. With subject study research emphasis is placed on the descriptive narrative of the participants placed on the researcher’s interpretation of the data.

3.18 Quantitative Survey Data Analysis

Survey data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and test statistics including t-tests, ANOVAs and correlations. This study provided information on MOI employees’ demographic data in the form of percentages, ranges, means, and standard deviations of age, race, gender, educational level, and other characteristics. This researcher used SPSS version 20 to assist with the analysis. SPSS permits multiple comparisons with large data bases more efficiently. Independent t-tests or Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were used to test Hypotheses 2-4 Correlations were used to explore Hypotheses 1,5, and 6 and to determine if there was an association between the variables.

3.24 Pilot Study

Reliability is considered to be the extent that results remain constant over time, how accurately they represent the total research population, and whether similar results can be recreated in another research using similar methods (Golafshani, 2003). Validity, on the other hand, indicates accurate representation of whatever the research was intended to determine, data is the information collected, and analysis indicates the methods used to interpret the data (Golafshani, 2003). When conducting research, ensuring the integrity of the method utilized in the collection of utilized in the collection of the data, assemble the sample groups, and interpret the data is vital to the validity of the entire research process, any compromise on the research process could damage the researcher’s reputation and nullify the research and data collected.

For ensuring the reliability and validity of this study, an initial pilot study was conducted so to determine relationship present between variables; thus, the study was continued. The nature of the research plan had been quantitative and thus numerical answers are given to the research questions in the pilot study. The response to the questions put forward in the pilot testing phase of the study was given by the managers of the organization to ensure neutrality of the responses. The questions included in the pilot study are as follows:

1. On a scale of 1 to 20, with 1 being the lowest and 20 being the highest, how emotional would you rate your employee?
2. On a scale of 1 to 20, with 1 being the lowest and 20 being the highest, how well do you think the employee understood your direction to complete the task?
3. On a scale of 1 to 20, with one being poor and 20 being excellent, how would you rate the performance of the employee?
4. On a scale of 1 to 20, with 1 being a no and 20 being a yes, do you think the employee understood what needed to be done?

 

3.24.1 Ordinary least-squares (OLS)

These questions were projected to help the manager in rating the employees. With the numerical results, an ordinary least squares model was fitted to enhance easy interpretation of the results of the pilot study. The Ordinary least-squares (OLS) regression model was applied in pilot testing as follows:

Performance=B0 + B1 Emotionality +B2 Comprehension + error term

B1 and B2 must be statistically significant for this model to hold. The use of a quantitative approach was preferred in the pilot study to the use of qualitative approach because in the latter’s case, various surveys, data tabulation and interpretation would have been required. The result would not be mathematical and thus not easy to interpret because the basis of the results would be the number of responses as opposed to the relationship between the research variables.

3.33 Hypotheses Testing

For the due and effective purposes of hypotheses testing, there were a number of different statistical processes applied in the current study. The current mixed method study imperatively utilized the regression model to obtain results for checking impact of one variable over the other; while on the other hand, the study importantly utilized correlations to assert the relationships between various variables. The regression model equation model used in the study is outlined as follows:

DV = b0 + IV+ e

Where, DV is the dependent variable being assessed in the regression model, while b0 is the independent variable and e is the standard error estimate.

 

3.33.1 Findings for First Hypothesis

The first hypothesis tested in the current study importantly related to evaluating the impacts of stressors at work on the job performance of employee. For the sake of focusing the variables of the study, the stressors in this hypothesis were regarded as workload while job performance of the employees was tested through their scores on absenteeism rates and job satisfaction.

 

3.33.1.1 Impact of Workload (stressors) on Absenteeism

This impact being tested in the first hypothesis of the study was assessed with the method of regression. The statistical details of the regression model are provided in the tables 15-17 outlaid in the appendix section.

In the output presented in table 15, R-squared and adjusted R-squared are greater than 70%. Such a statistical inclination is a reaction on course showing that the hypothesis has a significant difference as relating to its variables. It shows that the chief test statistic is the F-value which regarded as fundamental to check the impact and also the p-value which, in this case, is shown as significant. In table 16, it is presented that the F-statistic for this regression analysis is 7771.1 with a p-value of 0.00. As the p-value obtained in this analysis is less than 0.05 which is the maximum acceptable value for the confidence interval in the study result, the F-statistic is held significant. It is thus depicted that the overall model of regression for gauging the impact of workload on absenteeism is significant.

Value of the workload as presented in table 17 is 0.858 which is depictive of the fact that an increase in the workload or responsibility evidently increases the rates of absenteeism in the employees. Also, the t-statistic for workload and responsibility is 27.769 with the p-value of 0.01 which is less than 0.05; thus, showing that the effect of workload or work responsibility on the rates of absenteeism is significant.

 

 

3.33.1.2 Impact of Workload on Job Dissatisfaction

This impact being tested in the first hypothesis of the study was assessed with the method of regression. The statistical details of the regression model are provided in the tables 18-20 outlaid in the appendix section. In the output presented in table 18, R-squared and adjusted R-squared are greater than 60%. This statistical inclination relates to the hypothesis having a significant difference as pertaining to the different variables in question. It gives additional explanations of the linear regression analysis are which presented in the next table which is table 19.

This table shows the overall significance. It shows that the chief test statistic is the F-value which regarded as fundamental to check the impact and also the p-value which, in this case, is shown as significant. In table 19, it is presented that the F-statistic for this regression analysis is 565.5 with a p-value of 0.00. As the p-value obtained in this analysis is less than 0.05 which is the maximum acceptable value for the confidence interval in the study result, the F-statistic is held significant. It is thus depicted that the overall model of regression for gauging the impact of workload on levels of satisfaction of the employees is significant.

Value of the workload as presented in table 20 is -.782 which is depictive of the fact that workload and rates of satisfaction are indirectly related to each other, as depicted by a negative value. It depicted that an increase in the workload or responsibility evidently decreases the levels of satisfaction in the employees. Also, the t-statistic for workload and responsibility is -23.781 with the p-value of 0.00 which is less than 0.05; thus, showing that the effect of workload or work responsibility on the levels of satisfaction is significant.

 

3.33.2 Findings for Second Hypothesis

The second hypothesis of the study was tested through the process of in depth analysis of the interview responses obtained in the data. These findings are presented in the next section of the chapter.

 

3.33.3 Findings for Third Hypothesis

3.33.3.1 Relationship of Stress and Job Satisfaction

As the third hypothesis of the study was set out to test the association between stress among the employees and the levels of their job satisfaction, the statistical method utilized in the study was Pearson correlation method. This method provided statistical values for assessing and evaluating the levels of stress and job satisfaction in the employees. The table representing statistical values of the Pearson correlation is outlaid in the appendix section (table 21).

From the analysis of this statistical method of data collection, it is interpreted that the levels of stress among employees and their job satisfaction are negatively correlated, as their correlational coefficient is -0.869. The negative value of the Pearson correlation signifies the direction of association between stress and satisfaction levels; while p-value denoted the significance of the association. The p-value of this correlation is 0.00, which is less than 0.05 that is the maximum standard for the p-value depicting 95% confidence interval. Thus, considering the value of Pearson correlation, its negative direction and the p-value statistics for this correlation, it was deduced that the higher levels of stress among employees are related to the decreased job satisfaction rates (or higher dissatisfaction). Therefore, an employee experiencing high stress would be dissatisfied with the job. Hence, the hypothesis holds a significant difference when its variables are equated.

3.33.3.2 Association between Satisfaction and the ways in which Stress in Managed

As another part of the third hypothesis of the study was set out to test the association between satisfaction levels in employees and the ways in which they impact the stress management strategies or methods utilized in the organizational context, the statistical method utilized in the study was the Pearson correlation method. This method provided statistical values for assessing and evaluating the satisfaction levels in employees and the ways in which they impact the stress management strategies or methods utilized in the organizational context. The table representing statistical values of the Pearson correlation is outlaid in the appendix section (table 22).

From the analysis of this statistical method of data collection, it is interpreted that satisfaction levels in employees and the ways in which they impact the stress management strategies or methods utilized in the organizational context are negatively correlated, as their correlational coefficient is -.805. The negative value of the Pearson correlation signifies the direction of association between satisfaction levels in employees and the ways in which they impact the stress management strategies or methods utilized in the organizational context; while p-value denoted the significance of the association. The p-value of this correlation is 0.00, which is less than 0.05 that is the maximum standard for the p-value depicting 95% confidence interval. Thus, considering the value of Pearson correlation, its negative direction and the p-value statistics for this correlation, it was deduced that the satisfaction levels in employees and the ways in which they impact the stress management strategies or methods utilized in the organizational context are significantly related but in a negative ways, implying that lower satisfaction among the employees would not be associated with higher stress management practices. Hence, the hypothesis holds an insignificant difference when its variables are correlated.

3.33.4 Findings for Fourth Hypothesis

The fourth hypothesis of the study importantly looked into how workload impacts the stress levels among the employees while further assessing the relation between these stress levels among the employees with the coping techniques utilized in the study. Therefore, this hypothesis was tested in two parts, one assessing the impact of workload on stress (regression) while the other pertaining to find out the association between the stress levels and coping techniques (correlation).

 

3.33.4.1 Impact of Workload on Stress

This impact being tested in the first hypothesis of the study was assessed with the method of regression. The statistical details of the regression model are provided in the tables 23-25 outlaid in the appendix section.

In the output presented in table 23, R-squared and adjusted R-squared are greater than 65%. This statistical value signified that the workload or work responsibility can be ascertained to explain at least 65% of the stress levels in the employees. The determination of the effect of the independent variable on the dependent one, additional explanations of the linear regression analysis are presented in the next table which is table 24.

This table shows the overall significance. It shows that the chief test statistic is the F-value which regarded as fundamental to check the impact and also the p-value which, in this case, is shown as significant. In table 24, it is presented that the F-statistic for this regression analysis is 603.430 with a p-value of 0.00. As the p-value obtained in this analysis is less than 0.05 which is the maximum acceptable value for the confidence interval in the study result, the F-statistic is held significant. It is thus depicted that the overall model of regression for gauging the impact of workload on stress levels experienced by employees is significant.

Value of the workload as presented in table 25 is .843 which is depictive of the fact that an increase in the workload or responsibility evidently increases the levels of stress in the employees. Also, the t-statistic for workload and responsibility is 24.565 with the p-value of 0.00 which is less than 0.05; thus, showing that the effect of workload or work responsibility on the levels of stress experienced by employees is significant.

3.33.4.2 Association between Stress and Coping Techniques

The second part of the fourth hypothesis of the study was set out to test the stress among the employees and its correlation with the coping techniques through the statistical method utilized by the Pearson correlation. This method provided statistical values for assessing and evaluating the levels of stress among the employees and their coping techniques. The table representing statistical values of the Pearson correlation of these variables is outlaid in the appendix section (table 26).

From the analysis of this statistical method of data collection, it is interpreted that the levels of stress among employees and coping techniques are positively correlated, as their correlational coefficient is 0.818. The positive value of the Pearson correlation signifies the direction of association between stress and scoping technique; while p-value denoted the significance of the association. The p-value of this correlation is 0.00, which is less than 0.05 that is the maximum standard for the p-value depicting 95% confidence interval. Thus, considering the value of Pearson correlation, its positive direction and the p-value statistics for this correlation, it was deduced that higher levels of stress among employees are associated with lower levels of coping techniques employed by them. Hence, the hypothesis holds a significant difference when its variables are correlated.

3.34 Overview of the Findings of Hypotheses

From the above tests and statistical inferences, it is deduced that except the third hypothesis of the study, all the other three hypotheses were proved significantly. It was deduced that as per the first hypothesis, workplace stressors are significantly influential over the job performance of the employees, measured through the rates of absenteeism and job satisfaction among the employees. Furthermore, it was also found out through the interviews that the adequate and suiting stress management strategies with adequate coping mechanisms utilized by the employees are influential in preventing negative outcomes of the stress among employees, which further related to the higher rates of satisfaction.

For the third hypothesis, the association between the stress and satisfaction was also found to be significantly negative in nature, while the satisfaction was also further found to be significantly correlated with good stress management but in the negative way. The fourth hypothesis of the study found out that the workload significantly impacted stress levels which further yielded significant and positive association with the coping techniques employed by the employees.

It also involved capturing of the relationship between ideas, as well as variables of interests (Eisenhardt, 1989). As such, the data in the study is presented in a descriptive form, which was projected to enhance comparative and content analysis of data, therefore, facilitating the understanding of the subject matter. The conclusion phase entailed the drawing of relevant and valid conclusions from the analyzed data, which provided answers to the research questions and met the study’s objectives.

 

3.34.2 Qualitative analysis

The interviews and their detailed responses provided by the interviewees were analyzed in this research through the process of coding. The codes were meticulously created for evaluating the responses according to specific, recurring and common opinions. Codes and their categorization for carrying out the analyses of interviews are illustrated in the table 6, provided below. The table is depictive of the strenuous process through which codes for analyzing the interview responses were developed and utilized in the data analysis carried out in this study.

The researcher created codes and their corresponding definitions for the imperative purposes of easing the procedure of carrying out analysis of the interview responses.

 

Table 7: Data Categorization Codes

List of codes	Definitions
1. adversity in the workplace	… describes situations that arise in the workplace that causes challenges for the leaders
2. distributive leadership	… describes when the manager delegates some of their work to others
3. driven/ vision	… describes when a supervisor perseveres through challenges but stays focus on the organizational goals
4. Reflections of own practice	… describes how person describes his/her own practice
5. Inquiry stance (individual)	… describes management critically questioning his/her own leadership skills
6. Inquiry community	… describes communal critically examining practice and skills of current leader
7. negative perception of challenges	… describes how a principal reacts to the challenges in a negative way with words or tone
8. optimism and hope	… describes when leaders speak to a challenge with hope and opportunity
9. Previous life experience	… describes a situation that occurred in the employee’s life that helped build resilience
10. Support	… describes leadership team and/or community support for employees
11. support of family	… describes their relationship with their family or significant other to help them with the challenges of their job
12. resilience	… describes when an employee speaks to bouncing back, pushing forward, towards their goals

 

The coding of the responses and production of their corresponding definitions in the current study were based upon the matching process carried out by the researcher. The observed themes and recurring patterns of the responses were matched and contrasted with credible existing literature related to the topic of study. Majority of these themes and patterns were found to be related to the ways in effective leadership styles or practices are influential means of stress management of the employees. It was also found to be in relation with the various important roles of leadership such as optimism, meaningfulness and efficiency of the works carried out by employees, the support required by subordinates and clear determination of the organizational goals. Albeit, the evolution of themes and their codes was initially started with these themes, the researcher incorporated new themes and codes as they started to emerge through the course of study (Rubin & Rubin, 2005).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4.0 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

4.1

Introduction

This chapter contains data which is analyzed. Data was analysed through use of SPSS software. Data has been presented in the form of ANOVA tables and others through figures and tables. 4.2 Survey Results

4.2.1 Employees’ demographics

The results of the study revealed basic demographic information about the employees who participated in the program and specifically participants who completed and returned information were disproportionate number of male employees which was consistent with the literature which identifies males as being the majority of employees.

 

 

 

 

4.3 Survey Findings

4.3.1 Description of the Respondents

Figure 1: Age of the respondents

From Figure 1 above, out of the 300 respondents, majority were of the 31-40 age groups which had 26% representation. This was followed closely by those in the age group of 20-30 who accounted for 25.7%, 41-50 age group accounted for 23.3% and 51-60 age groups represented 25%. The advantage was that majority of the respondents were in their active employment period.

Nationality

Figure 2: Nationality of the respondents

The united Arab Emirates had the highest representation of 87 percent against the 13 percent of the other nationals. This is evident that the UAE depends on foreign workforce within their organizations.

Gender

Figure 3: Gender of respondents

Figure 3 above shows that 300 respondents, 65% were male while 35% were female. This shows that there was a huge difference of gender representation in the workforce implying that the male employees do dominate the female employees in MOI.

Experience

Figure 4: Respondents year of Experience

Out of the 300 respondents, figure 4 above shows that 37% indicated to have an experience of 10-15 years.On the other hand, there were also respondents who belonged to the population segment having more than 15 years of experience (32%). Only a small segment of the sample population was the one who had less than 5 years of experience (5%). However, it was revealed that almost 26% of the employees who responded to the survey questionnaire were the ones having experiences between 5-10 years.

Academic Qualification

Figure 5: Academic Qualification of the respondents

Of the 300 respondents 33 % reported to have completed higher education or equivalent qualification. On the other hand, equal percentage of the sample population (33%) indicated having their Bachelors degree completed. A comparatively lesser percentage of the sample population (27%) specified qualification as diploma. It was noted that most of the immigrants from the Asian countries complete their diplomas in varied fields of education and work in the organizations abroad. Therefore, this population sample in the current study also entailed that most of the respondents of this survey were highly educated with only a minimal percentage of sample population (7%) being the ones who held only high school degree.

 

 

 

Table 8: Age

Age
		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	20-30	77	25.7	25.7	25.7
	31-40	78	26.0	26.0	51.7
	41-50	70	23.3	23.3	75.0
	51-60	75	25.0	25.0	100.0
	Total	300	100.0	100.0

n=300

Table___________

Pearson Correlation Matrix Age and stress, stress management, and productivity

________________________________________________________________

		Age	Stress Management Conflict Resolution	Workplace Stress	Absenteeism	Job satisfaction	Workload and Responsibility
Age	1		.513	-.013	.606	.234	.169
Stress Management Conflict Resolution			1	.160	.958*	.733	.560
Workplace Stress	-.013		.160	1	.673	.427	.094
Absenteeism	.606		.958*	.673	1	.810	.609
Job satisfaction	.234		.733	.427	.810	1	.530
Workload and Responsibility			.560	.094	.609	.530	1
_________________________________________________________________ *. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

 

4.4 Education

Employees’ education the independent samples t-test was conducted to evaluate hypothesis 2 that employees with different levels of education would report different levels of stress with a maximum of a high school education were compared to employees with post high school education. The results indicate there was no difference when considering educational level and stress,

 

4.5  ANOVA for Stress, Stress Management, and Productivity Table 9: ANOVA
				Sum of Squares	df	Mean Square	F	Sig.
Job satisfaction	Between Groups	(Combined)		362.003	1	362.003	.019	.890
		Linear Term	Unweight	362.003	1	362.003	.019	.890
			Weighted	362.003	1	362.003	.019	.890
	Within Groups			485186.962	26	18661.037
	Total			485548.964	27

 

*p < .05

 

4.6 Years of employment

This study, an independent t-test was also conducted to evaluate hypothesis 2 that employees with more experiences would report different levels of stress. Employees stayed more years less stress were compared to employees with experiences. The results indicate there was not a difference in stress Table

4.6  One-Sample Test Table 10: Ones Sample Test
	Test Value = 0
	t	df	Sig. (2-tailed)	Mean Difference	95% Confidence Interval of the Difference
					Lower	Upper
Age	38.110	299	.000	2.47667	2.3488	2.6046
Gender	56.873	299	.000	1.60667	1.5511	1.6623
Years of experience in the organization	57.657	299	.000	2.95333	2.8525	3.0541
Nationality	96.149	299	.000	1.87000	1.8317	1.9083

 

 

 

4.11.1 Internal Reliability and Consistency of the Items in Questionnaires

4.11.1.1 Stress

For the measurement and gauging of the factor of stress in the sample population of the study, the items were deduced from the Workplace Stress Survey developed by the American Institute of Stress in 2013. As depicted Appendix C of the study, the internal reliability of the scale of stress was considerably high with a Cronbach value of 0.95 which was depictive of the fact that the scale of stress administered on the sample population was importantly high and the scale measured the factor of stress with extensive effectiveness.

Also, the internal reliability and consistency of the items of this factor were also importantly found out to be significant. The table representing item correlation of stress scale is also presented in appendix C of the study and importantly depicted that the items which measured levels of stress among the employees were significantly correlated with each other. Thus, this statistical calculation of the internal reliability and consistency of the items of stress were important contenders that results obtained for employees’ stress levels were reliable.

 

4.11.1.2 Absenteeism

Rates, patterns and trends of absenteeism in the employees were significantly measured through the development of five items deduced from the literature search and analysis. The reliability of the scale measuring absenteeism in the employees was also found out to be importantly high and significant as the Cronbach Alpha for the factor of absenteeism in the survey questionnaire was found to be 0.94. This value for the reliability of the scale was depictive of the fact that the items measuring factor of absenteeism in the survey questionnaire were reliable.

Also, the internal reliability of the items measuring factor of absenteeism was also checked through the item correlation. As illustrated in the appendix C of the dissertation, the item correlation for factor of absenteeism was found to be significantly high.

4.11.1.3 Job Satisfaction

The instrument measuring levels of job satisfaction among the employees through the quantitative questionnaire was also found to be reliable for the analysis as the value of Cronbach alpha for the factor of job satisfaction was found to be 0.94, which is very high. This value of the reliability statistics is significantly depictive of the fact that the scale measuring the factor of job satisfaction in the survey questionnaire was reliable and consistent. Furthermore, the reliability and internal consistency of the factor of job satisfaction among the employees was also analyzed through the computation of item correlation of the job satisfaction scale (appendix C). Exhaustive and detailed correlation of the items of job satisfaction survey revealed high internal reliability and consistency of the scale.

 

4.11.1.4 Workload and Responsibility

The internal reliability and consistency of the scale measuring workload and responsibility of the employees was computed through the statistical analysis of reliability of the items related to this factor. The items aimed at measuring the workload and responsibility on the employees revealed the value of 0.9 on the statistical test of Cronbach alpha, which importantly imply that the scale measuring the factor of workload and responsibility of the employees was internally reliable and consistent. The measurement of workload and responsibility of the employees was thus ascertained to be effective and reliable.

Moreover, the internal reliability and consistency of the scale measuring the degree of workload and responsibility of the employees studied in the research was also analyzed through the computation of item correlation. As depicted in the table of item correlation presented in the appendix C of the study, all the items of workload and responsibility included in the scale yielded higher and significant correlation between each other. Thus, it was established that the scale had high internal reliability and consistency.

 

4.11.1.5 Stress Management/Resolution

The items for measuring the stress management or conflict resolution among the employees were significantly derived from the literature search and its extensive analysis of the related studies which revealed important aspects of stress management or resolution. These aspects were then deduced to make items for measuring the factor of stress management or conflict resolution. The items measuring this factor among the employees were found to be significantly having high internal reliability as the Cronbach value for the analyses of items was found to be 0.94; thus, depicting a considerably significant reliability of the factor of stress management items.

Moreover, item correlation was also computed for the eminent purposes of calculating the reliability statistics of the study. The table presented in appendix C section of the study importantly depicts the significant correlations between the items of the stress management or resolution scale employed in the study. These correlations of the items were importantly depictive of the strong relation or association between the items of the scale which illustrated and highlighted that all the items involved in measuring the stress management and conflict resolution are internally reliable and consistent.

 

4.12.7 Number of subordinates:

Almost 55% of the respondents asserted having 11-20 subordinates working under them; while on the other hand, 45% of the sample population affirmed having 4-10 people working under them.

 

4.13 Summary of the Results

This section of the representation of results is importantly representative of the overall inclination and explanation of the results obtained from responses of the participants. The instrument through which responses of the participants were recorded was the quantitative survey questionnaire based upon the Likert scale choices. The Likert scale choices are the choices for answers which are presented in the form of a continuum that might be ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. The survey questionnaire presented to the UAE police department officers for the sake of obtaining their responses to assess the impact of psychological stress upon their performance and to test other related hypotheses of the study, was chiefly based upon the Likert choices ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree on a scale of 1-5 with 1 representative of the strongly agree and 5 representing strongly disagree.

Thus, keeping this in mind, the table presented in appendix D section of the dissertation, reflects the overall inclination of the results obtained on the various scales utilized in the questionnaire. Using the descriptive statistics, mean and standard deviation of the responses of participants on the factors or variables of the study were calculated. The values of mean and standard deviation reflected whether the average responses provided by the people show predisposition towards certain levels of stress, absenteeism, job satisfaction, job workload and responsibility and stress management strategies that are employed.

 

4.13.1 Higher Stress Levels

A mean value of 2.23 and standard deviation of 1.2 on the stress scale reflected a greater and significant amount of responses of the police officers of UAE pertaining to higher levels of stress. As it was evident that on the scale of 1-5 the value of 1 significantly denoted strong agreement to the statement in the stress questionnaire while the value of 2 denoted agreement; the mean value of 2.23 mirrored the fact that police officers in the UAE police department have significantly higher stress levels. The value of standard deviation, on the other hand, represented that that most of the responses of the participants were found to be around agreement to the statements of presence of stress among employees. Thus, it was interpreted that the police officers employed in the UAE police department suffered from stress at their jobs.

 

4.13.2 Absenteeism

For the levels of absenteeism, the mean value of 2.48 also clearly reflected and signified that the rates of absenteeism were found to be considerably and significantly high among the employees in the UAE police department. Responses to the statements put forth in the survey questionnaire regarding absenteeism were found to be notably inclined towards the trend or pattern in the employees which importantly reflected higher rates of absenteeism among the employees. These considerably high rates of absenteeism among the employees in the targeted organization were also importantly related to the higher levels of stress found in the employees, which is also supported by other researches (Halpern, 2005; Anderzén, & Arnetz, 2005).

 

4.13.3 Job Satisfaction

For the scale of job satisfaction, the inclination of the responses received on the survey questionnaire was found to be eminently representative of the fact that employees in the UAE police department were not significantly satisfied with their job. It was reflected by the mean value (4.11) of responses received on the job satisfaction scale incorporated into the survey questionnaire that majority of the responses provided by people were towards disagreement. As the statements or proclamations included in the scale were regarded as being related to satisfaction of the employees, higher mean value of 4.11 reflected that most of the participants as respondents disagreed to the statement; thus, reflecting lower levels of satisfaction. A very minimal value of corresponding standard deviation on the satisfaction scale also reflected that responses of the people were mainly focused upon disagreeing to the statements of satisfaction. Job satisfaction is mostly related to higher levels of stress among the employees (Coomber and Louise Barriball, 2007; Lambert, Hogan and Griffin, 2007) and was thus, ascertained to be in relation to the higher levels of stress and absenteeism in the employees of the UAE police department.

 

4.13.4 Workload and Work Responsibility

The survey questionnaire compiled for the current mixed method study also importantly comprised of one the variables identified in the study which was workload and work responsibility. Analysis for summarizing the levels of workload and responsibility in the sample population revealed a mean value of responses as 2.32, which significantly depicted that the employees who participated in the study had noteworthy workload and work responsibility, as either their job description or additional duties.

The value of standard deviation corresponding to the mean value of responses of workload or responsibility (1.2) was interpreted to be reflective of the fact that none of the participants in large number reflected having lower amounts of workload. It was thus deduced that the increased workload, higher levels of stress and absenteeism, all combined to lower the satisfaction of the employees in UAE police department. These variables are all found to be related with each, having an interdependent impact on each other.

4.13.5 Stress Management/Conflict Resolution

For the sake of the fact that investigation of stress among employees should not be merely stopped at assessing the impacts of stress and satisfaction or absenteeism, the current mixed method study also importantly looked into the variable of stress management or resolution employed in the organizations. The survey questionnaire recorded responses of the participants on the scale measuring stress management strategies or techniques.

The analysis of descriptive statistics of the responses of participants on statements regarding stress management strategies, revealed that on average the responses of the people reflected their positive perception about stress management strategies employed at the administration, as well as, employee levels. The mean value of 2.25 was interpreted to be reflective of the fact that most of the respondents revealed agreement to the statements; thus, representing an inclination that they were in favor of the practice that effective stress management strategies are employed and carried out.

All the details of the descriptive statistics of the factors included in the survey questionnaire are presented in the appendix section of the dissertation (appendix D). These descriptive statistics were employed to get a start at interpreting the inclination of responses provided by the participants. These were however not considered wholly significant in drawing out conclusions for the study. For the purposes of testing the hypotheses formulated for the study, various other statistical techniques were applied which are presented in the subsequent section of the chapter.

 

4.14 Hypotheses Testing

For the due and effective purposes of hypotheses testing, there were a number of different statistical processes applied in the current study. The current mixed method study imperatively utilized the regression model to obtain results for checking impact of one variable over the other; while on the other hand, the study importantly utilized correlations to assert the relationships between various variables. The regression model equation model used in the study is outlined as follows:

DV = b0 + IV+ e

Where, DV is the dependent variable being assessed in the regression model, while b0 is the constant value and e is the standard error estimate.

 

4.14.1 Findings for First Hypothesis

The first hypothesis tested in the current study importantly related to evaluating the impacts of stressors at work on the job performance of employee. For the sake of focusing the variables of the study, the stressors in this hypothesis were regarded as workload while job performance of the employees was tested through their scores on absenteeism rates and job satisfaction.

 

4.14.1.1 Impact of Workload (stressors) on Absenteeism

This impact being tested in the first hypothesis of the study was assessed with the method of regression. The statistical details of the regression model are provided in the tables 15-17 outlaid in the appendix section.

In the output presented in table 15, R-squared and adjusted R-squared are greater than 70%. This statistical value signified that the workload or work responsibility can be ascertained to explain at least 70% of the rates of absenteeism in the employees. The determination of the effect of the independent variable on the dependent one, additional explanations of the linear regression analysis are presented in the next table which is table 16.

This table shows the overall significance. It shows that the chief test statistic is the F-value which regarded as fundamental to check the impact and also the p-value which, in this case, is shown as significant. In table 16, it is presented that the F-statistic for this regression analysis is 7771.1 with a p-value of 0.00. As the p-value obtained in this analysis is less than 0.05 which is the maximum acceptable value for the confidence interval in the study result, the F-statistic is held significant. It is thus depicted that the overall model of regression for gauging the impact of workload on absenteeism is significant.

Value of the workload as presented in table 17 is 0.858 which is depictive of the fact that an increase in the workload or responsibility evidently increases the rates of absenteeism in the employees. Also, the t-statistic for workload and responsibility is 27.769 with the p-value of 0.01 which is less than 0.05; thus, showing that the effect of workload or work responsibility on the rates of absenteeism is significant.

 

4.14.1.2 Impact of Workload on Job Dissatisfaction

This impact being tested in the first hypothesis of the study was assessed with the method of regression. The statistical details of the regression model are provided in the tables 18-20 outlaid in the appendix section.

In the output presented in table 18, R-squared and adjusted R-squared are greater than 60%. This statistical value signified that the workload or work responsibility can be ascertained to explain at least 60% of the levels of satisfaction in the employees. The determination of the effect of the independent variable on the dependent one and additional explanations of the linear regression analysis are presented in the next table which is table 19.

This table shows the overall significance. It shows that the chief test statistic is the F-value which regarded as fundamental to check the impact and also the p-value which, in this case, is shown as significant. In table 19, it is presented that the F-statistic for this regression analysis is 565.5 with a p-value of 0.00. As the p-value obtained in this analysis is less than 0.05 which is the maximum acceptable value for the confidence interval in the study result, the F-statistic is held significant. It is thus depicted that the overall model of regression for gauging the impact of workload on levels of satisfaction of the employees is significant.

Value of the workload as presented in table 20 is -.782 which is depictive of the fact that workload and rates of satisfaction are indirectly related to each other, as depicted by a negative value. It depicted that an increase in the workload or responsibility evidently decreases the levels of satisfaction in the employees. Also, the t-statistic for workload and responsibility is -23.781 with the p-value of 0.00 which is less than 0.05; thus, showing that the effect of workload or work responsibility on the levels of satisfaction is significant.

 

4.14.2 Findings for Second Hypothesis

The second hypothesis of the study was tested through the process of in depth analysis of the interview responses obtained in the data. These findings are presented in the next section of the chapter.

 

4.14.3 Findings for Third Hypothesis

4.14.3.1 Relationship of Stress and Job Satisfaction

As the third hypothesis of the study was set out to test the association between stress among the employees and the levels of their job satisfaction, the statistical method utilized in the study was the Pearson correlation method. This method provided statistical values for assessing and evaluating the levels of stress and job satisfaction in the employees. The table representing statistical values of the Pearson correlation is outlaid in the appendix section (table 21).

From the analysis of this statistical method of data collection, it is interpreted that the levels of stress among employees and their job satisfaction are negatively correlated, as their correlational coefficient is -0.869. The negative value of the Pearson correlation signifies the direction of association between stress and satisfaction levels; while p-value denoted the significance of the association. The p-value of this correlation is 0.00, which is less than 0.05 that is the maximum standard for the p-value depicting 95% confidence interval. Thus, considering the value of Pearson correlation, its negative direction and the p-value statistics for this correlation, it was deduced that the higher levels of stress among employees are related to the decreased job satisfaction rates (or higher dissatisfaction). Therefore, an employee experiencing high stress would be dissatisfied with the job.

 

4.14.3.2 Association between Satisfaction and the ways in which Stress in Managed

As another part of the third hypothesis of the study was set out to test the association between satisfaction levels in employees and the ways in which they impact the stress management strategies or methods utilized in the organizational context, the statistical method utilized in the study was the Pearson correlation method. This method provided statistical values for assessing and evaluating the satisfaction levels in employees and the ways in which they impact the stress management strategies or methods utilized in the organizational context. The table representing statistical values of the Pearson correlation is outlaid in the appendix section (table 22).

From the analysis of this statistical method of data collection, it is interpreted that satisfaction levels in employees and the ways in which they impact the stress management strategies or methods utilized in the organizational context are negatively correlated, as their correlational coefficient is -.805. The negative value of the Pearson correlation signifies the direction of association between satisfaction levels in employees and the ways in which they impact the stress management strategies or methods utilized in the organizational context; while p-value denoted the significance of the association. The p-value of this correlation is 0.00, which is less than 0.05 that is the maximum standard for the p-value depicting 95% confidence interval. Thus, considering the value of Pearson correlation, its negative direction and the p-value statistics for this correlation, it was deduced that the satisfaction levels in employees and the ways in which they impact the stress management strategies or methods utilized in the organizational context are significantly related but in negative ways, implying that lower satisfaction among the employees would not be associated with higher stress management practices.

 

4.14.3 Findings for Fourth Hypothesis

The fourth hypothesis of the study importantly looked into how workload impacts the stress levels among the employees while further assessing the relation between these stress levels among the employees with the coping techniques utilized in the study. Therefore, this hypothesis was tested in two parts, one assessing the impact of workload on stress (regression) while the other pertaining to find out the association between the stress levels and coping techniques (correlation).

 

4.14.3.1 Impact of Workload on Stress

This impact being tested in the first hypothesis of the study was assessed with the method of regression. The statistical details of the regression model are provided in the tables 23-25 outlaid in the appendix section.

In the output presented in table 23, R-squared and adjusted R-squared are greater than 65%. This statistical value signified that the workload or work responsibility can be ascertained to explain at least 65% of the stress levels in the employees. The determination of the effect of the independent variable on the dependent one, additional explanations of the linear regression analysis are presented in the next table which is table 24.

This table shows the overall significance. It shows that the chief test statistic is the F-value which regarded as fundamental to check the impact and also the p-value which, in this case, is shown as significant. In table 24, it is presented that the F-statistic for this regression analysis is 603.430 with a p-value of 0.00. As the p-value obtained in this analysis is less than 0.05 which is the maximum acceptable value for the confidence interval in the study result, the F-statistic is held significant. It is thus depicted that the overall model of regression for gauging the impact of workload on stress levels experienced by employees is significant.

Value of the workload as presented in table 25 is .843 which is depictive of the fact that an increase in the workload or responsibility evidently increases the levels of stress in the employees. Also, the t-statistic for workload and responsibility is 24.565 with the p-value of 0.00 which is less than 0.05; thus, showing that the effect of workload or work responsibility on the levels of stress experienced by employees is significant.

 

4.14.3.2 Association between Stress and Coping Techniques

Second part of the fourth hypothesis of the study was set out to test the stress among the employees and its correlation with the coping techniques through the statistical method utilized of the Pearson correlation. This method provided statistical values for assessing and evaluating the levels of stress among the employees and their coping techniques. The table representing statistical values of the Pearson correlation of these variables is outlaid in the appendix section (table 26).

From the analysis of this statistical method of data collection, it is interpreted that the levels of stress among employees and coping techniques are positively correlated, as their correlational coefficient is 0.818. The positive value of the Pearson correlation signifies the direction of association between stress and scoping technique; while p-value denoted the significance of the association. The p-value of this correlation is 0.00, which is less than 0.05 that is the maximum standard for the p-value depicting 95% confidence interval. Thus, considering the value of the Pearson correlation, its positive direction and the p-value statistics for this correlation, it was deduced that higher levels of stress among employees are associated with lower levels of coping techniques employed by them.

 

4.15 Overview of the Findings of Hypotheses

From the above tests and statistical inferences, it is deduced that except the third hypothesis of the study, all the other three hypotheses were proved significantly. It was deduced that as per the first hypothesis, workplace stressors are significantly influential over the job performance of the employees, measured through the rates of absenteeism and job satisfaction among the employees. Furthermore, it was also found out through the interviews that the adequate and suiting stress management strategies with adequate coping mechanisms utilized by the employees are influential in preventing negative outcomes of the stress among employees, which further related to the higher rates of satisfaction.

For the third hypothesis, the association between the stress and satisfaction was also found to be significantly negative in nature, while the satisfaction was also further found to be significantly correlated with good stress management but in the negative way. The fourth hypothesis of the study found out that the workload significantly impacted stress levels which further yielded significant and positive association with the coping techniques employed by the employees.

4.16 Results obtained from Thematic Analysis of the Data based on Qualitative analysis of Categorization Codes

This section of the results chapter in the current dissertation is reflective of the primary data collection the study through the conduction of interviews. The sample population for the conduction of interviews differed significantly from the sample who responded to the survey questionnaire. The interviews were projected to be included in the primary data collection procedure in the current mixed method study, so as to increase the depth of information collected for the analysis. The process of analysis of the interview responses significantly depended upon the extensive yet, exhaustive process of coding the responses received and then categorizing them. Table 7 in the methodology chapter, presented in the dissertation represents in detail about the comprehensive procedure of coding and categorizing the responses.

Interviews in this research study were importantly conducted for the purposes of analyzing the studied variables in more depth. The interview questions, their patterns and structure are outlaid in detail in the appendix section of the study (appendix B). The interview questions enquired in the interview were mainly constructed for the significant purpose of obtaining increased insight into the presence of stress among the employees, its impact on their performance and the ways in which it is perceived in relation to the stress management and resolution strategies employed by the organizations at management, or employees levels.

Interviews are chiefly and characteristically the qualitative forms of data collection and they are mostly revealing information in the form of lengthy or extended answers which then have to be analyzed thoroughly and evaluated eventually. These two interviews conducted with two UAE police officers with special permission to take their views or opinions were thoroughly analyzed and evaluated for the current research study. The extensive analyses and evaluations of the coding and categorization of the responses of interviews were significantly deduced to yield the following themes and patterns, which metered from the coding procedures. These themes were found to be generally depictive of the varied areas of experience of stress, its impacts and management identified in the responses of the participants who were selected for the interview responses. These themes mainly include presence of adversity in the workplace, the effectiveness of distributive leadership, importance of the drive or mission of the organization, beneficial practices of self -reflection, the procedures of accountability whether it is at the individual level or on the level of community, the perception of employees regarding challenges, impacts from the previous life experiences and the support they have from the surroundings and the resulting resilience.

 

4.16.1 Adversity in the Workplace

The analysis and evaluations of the interview responses importantly indicated that adversity in the work places mainly refers to both the internal and external challenges and difficulties encountered in the workplace. It is clear from the responses of the interviews obtained from participants that adversity can be exhibited in many different forms. It can significantly result from working with or under people who have problem solving, work styles and communication problems and are hard to comprehend. Moreover, results obtained from managers show that in the UAE, adversity commonly arises in the form of management where managers require their staff to work for longer hours than necessary. However, other respondents assert that adversity is not all bad.

Adversity in the workplace, at times serves to make an individual stronger with the capability of withstanding future challenges in the workplace. Additionally, most respondents assert that adversities in the workplace reduce the morale of staff to work efficiently; they intimidate the ability of employees to work hard and serve organizations better. However, these results indicate that managers in the UAE have learnt how to address the various adversities in their places of work with the intention of enhancing the productivity of their staff and the organizations at large.

Therefore, respondents believe that these managers mainly involve their employees in setting up realistic targets that are related to the performance of their jobs. Moreover, the employees should be regularly talked to and made aware of any struggles the organizations they work for are experiencing and alternative working techniques developed. For example, in the case study of this research, the Abu Dhabi police commanders and generals state that the instructions they give to the police officers who work under them are clear without contradictions. In addition, they ensure that they provide flexible working schedules for these police officers where practicable with the intention of rooting out stressors that reduce their motivation and dedication.

 

4.16.2 Distributive Leadership

The analysis and interpretation drawn from the responses of the interviewees indicated that the methods of leadership have changed in recent times from the traditional “heroic” leadership. Traditional or customary leadership concept, as indicated by the responses, was the ones where leadership reflected that one person heads or commands, directs, and teaches others in an organizational set up. However, respondents were also found to state that most organizations have adopted “post-heroic” leadership where leadership is shared between different individuals in an organization.

Therefore, respondents reflected to understand the concept of distributive leadership to refer to the process where managers and other leaders delegate part of their work to other employees in an organization. In addition, results obtained from police officers in MOI indicates that distributive leadership allows leaders to focus and put emphasis in particular few areas of management which improves the impact they produce in these areas since they do not have to handle many areas at the same time.

Moreover, most managers affirm that this kind of arrangement in leadership makes the administrators find their jobs to be more fulfilling since the differences they make are easily identifiable. Therefore, distributive leadership has significantly reduced the numbers of administrators in the UAE who quit their jobs because of stressful and strenuous working conditions and environments that contain many tasks that need detailed simultaneous attention. However, it is should be noted that respondents believed that distributive leadership should be properly conducted and only where necessary and applicable because the individuals with whom work is delegated to have to be capable of effectively handling these tasks.

 

4.16.3 Driven/vision

In the interview responses, the participants were found to be referring to vision as the non-cognitive and positive aspect that is centrally based upon the passion of individuals especially administrators have towards the realization of long-term goals despite encountering numerous challenges in the deliverance of their services. Despite several problems, most participants indicated that employees in the MOI remain focused and motivated to ensure proper functioning of these organizations. Moreover, this diligence of effort enhances the overpowering of challenges and hurdles that an individual faces in the course of achievement realization.

Therefore, generally vision or drive of the aim of organization refers to the ability of administrators to remain determined, goal-driven and focused in the realization of organizational set goals despite encountering several challenges and barriers. According to the results obtained from the interview analyses, because of the several limitations, taboos, sometimes-harsh climatic conditions, and limited power force in the UAE, it has become paramount for managers to be goal driven and focused to counter these problems to ensure effective performance of organizations. For example, in the case study of the Abu Dhabi police station, the police officers including the lieutenants and the generals in charge of different departments state that they have to overcome the difficulties in poor living conditions and work overloads and remain focused in ensuring that the rule of the land is upheld at all times and that there is sufficient security at all times to counter increased cases of terrorism.

 

4.16.4 Reflections of Own Practice

Respondents’ perception of own practice is based on the process of individual description of individual self-practices. Results obtained or deduced from the interview analyses importantly indicate that this is crucial because it provides the possibility of individual assessment of the various areas of focus in an organization and the examination of individual roles and areas that need adjustments to ensure effective performance. Reflections of own practice enhance the capability of individuals to be able to identify their weaknesses in regard to proper carriage of their roles in an organizational context. Moreover, respondents stated that their self- inspection/ evaluation practice enabled the organization to effectively identify its areas of strain which enables it to develop techniques and practices that counter these areas of strain, something that enhances the performances of organizations.

In addition, respondents in the managers’ sample state that this should involve the ability to think through the occurrence of past actions and the consequences that these actions brought with them. For example, in the Abu Dhabi police department, the lieutenants regularly encourage the police officers who work under them to constantly have personal reflections of own practice with the intention of advancing their own personal skills that help them in conducting the objectives and set goals for their job requirements and also to ensure that they have control over their various tasks.

 

4.16.5 Inquiry stance (individual)

Most respondents avowed that the main objective of inquiry stance is to aid organizations in achieving high performance and moving towards performance excellence. As such, respondents believe that this is made possible by the procedures involved in the inquiry stance that include the examination of the processes of an organization, evaluation of the influence these processes have on the organizational performance, and assessment of the general progress of the organization towards the achievement of set objectives and goals. Additionally, these analyses of the interview show that the inquiry stance gives the organization the capability to identify the opportunities and successes of the organization with the intention of fostering performance improvement.

Moreover, respondents argue that it empowers the organization in its ability to effectively align different resources in relation to the attainment of the organization’s strategic objectives. In addition, this research shows that the inquiry stance enables the organization to jump-start appropriate changes in its initiatives. Therefore, the findings show that this process gives organizations the momentum to surge forward with proper focus. Respondents insist that firms in the UAE have increasingly engaged with self-assessment tools in recent years in an attempts to identify their weaknesses, areas of stress and develop appropriate mechanisms and counter techniques with the main intention of improving the performance of these organizations.

 

4.16.6 Inquiry Community

According to the perception of participants, inquiry community is a technique that involves communal evaluation of the current leaders and managers of organizations. For this to happen, respondents believe that the management has to allow the involvement of the community which in most cases refers to the clients and customers who engage themselves in the operations, the products, and the services of the specific organization. For example, in the case of MOI Abu Dhabi police department, the police constantly link with the ordinary citizens who are allowed to express their opinions that regard to their levels of satisfaction in the way the police deal with the issues that concern national security and the upholding of the rule of the land. Therefore, research shows that program that is dubbed ‘police community patrol’ aims at using the ordinary people to gain access to information that concerns the rule of law while at the same time involving the regular citizens in the running of police matters but only where applicable due to high classification of police details.

 

4.16.7 Negative Perception of Challenges

The interview analysis included in the current study imperatively indicated that business and organizational prospects can be significantly degraded by the negative perceptions especially in regard to the operations of the organization. As such, respondents argue that negative perceptions to the diverse challenges that are encountered by organizations are usually regarded to as more than superficial imagery problems. They are majorly insidious and deep-seated in both the internal and the external operations of an organization. Moreover, in order for the organization to thrive and obtain excellence in its performances, organizations must be able to tackle and counter both the causes of these negative perceptions and appropriately deal with the effects that these negative perceptions bring about.

However, respondents state that most organizations in the UAE encounter huge problems in attempting to change the negative perceptions of their organizations because they are deeply rooted in the operations of the organization. On the other hand, when wrong approaches are used in efforts to counter negative perceptions to challenges, it can considerably lead to the development of sustained negative perceptions towards the diverse challenges that are encountered.

Therefore, respondents state that it has become critical for organizations to effectively deal with the negative perceptions towards the challenges they encounter in order to improve their performance. It is easy to over-focus on the competition caused by competitors especially if they advocate negative perceptions. A significant number of respondents state that organizations are meant to dispel any negative perceptions that are built in the minds of customers by competitors by talking them over. However, it is not possible to change the beliefs of all the possible clients. In addition, they argue that it is usually critical for organizations to be upfront and open about risks because there is usually a chance of omissions and errors.

However, these respondents understand that they should always be open with caution more so concerning prior difficulties in order to avoid or minimize prejudice. Moreover, organizations should majorly focus in their strengths and greatly reiterate these strengths to customers to win them over. Therefore, research shows that businesses in the UAE have to develop appropriate mechanisms of dealing with prejudice and negative perceptions towards the challenges they face such as countering competition.

4.16.8 Optimism and Hope

Respondents of the interview questions were found to be insistent of the fact that optimism and hope is one of the effective techniques which is utilized by the managers with the main aim of shifting the emphasis of the activities of an organization from the practices that are wrong to those that are right. Majorly, research indicates that it is a technique that focuses itself on the strengths of an organization as opposed to the weaknesses that it experiences.

Respondents show that, in so doing, organizations maintain affirmative prospects and attributions that concern both current and future success in its operations. Moreover, this research reveals that since there are many challenges that it experiences, it maintains perseverance towards its set objectives and where necessary, it redirects its course of actions with the main aim of succeeding in its operations. Research shows that a positive workplace develops a more engaged and happier employee workforce which enhances employee productivity. For example, respondents stated that in Abu Dhabi police department, the generals in charge of the various departments constantly organize motivational talks that are meant to enhance the optimism levels of police officers and motivate them to devote their lives and time in order to uphold the national security despite the many severe challenges they undergo.

4.16.9 Previous Life Experience

According to the responses obtained from respondents, previous life experiences are very critical in minimizing the levels of stress that are usually encountered in work places. As a result, this study reveals that previous life experiences boost the morale and esteem of people when they face similar situations in future because they already know how the situations feel like and they have knowledge of how to counter these situations owing to the experience they derived from the earlier happenings.

Additionally, respondents argue that experiences in life are meant to teach and advance the knowledge of people in the way they handle various situations. For example, in the Abu Dhabi police department, the police use the daily experiences of the encounters they come across in their daily quest to uphold national security to offer better services that are related to their operations. This research shows that cases of terrorism are used to build platforms for better management of similar occurrences in the future. Therefore, it can be conclusively said that, life experiences mainly build the capacity of individuals and organizations to handle similar future situations in a better and more organized manner.

 

4.16.10 Support

The responses of interviews in this study affirmed that supervisors and managers are solely responsible for the safety and health of their employees which includes making sure that they are not affected by stressors that are work related because these stressors negatively impact the performance of these employees. Therefore, respondents state that supportive management styles and practices are crucial to have since the management styles of leaders usually have impacts on stress. Moreover, managers and supervisors argue that they are not only required to be in a position to identify signs of stress in their staff but also be able to offer the most appropriate executive support to such staff who maybe experiencing stress.

In addition, the findings of responses showed that organizations should develop a supportive culture from both the colleagues, who make up the staff and the managers, enhance the ability of the employees to access supportive resources that aid them in the effective conductance of the operations of the organizations, and develop convenient feedback platforms from both the senior and junior staff. However, respondents assert that managers should always be in position to give both appropriate constructive and supportive criticism when required to do so because by so doing, they enhance the development of the individual capabilities of the employees.

Also, managers and supervisors in the MOI in the UAE asserted that they have in recent times increasingly adopted proper managerial styles that appropriately offer supportive structures to the employees. For example, the respondents stated that in the Abu Dhabi police station, the lieutenants and police generals offer supportive platforms to the regular police men and police women that include regular and constant review of work related pressures such as excessive tasks and workloads, tight timelines and deadlines, and staffing levels that need the development of staff skills. These are majorly done with the intention of easing the stress levels in the police staff with the aim of motivating them to perform better.

 

4.16.11 Support of Family

According to these findings, a strong family network is critical in aiding people through stressors related to their workplaces because it instills a sense of moral support and comfort that there are people who are there to hear out their problems. Family support provides a sense of belonging and well-being that advances the capability of employees to handle workplace stressors. This research indicates that family provides employees with the platform to be heard and majorly motivates them to deal with the stressors that they encounter in their various workplaces.

Furthermore, respondents stated that family support boosts the sense of self-worth amongst employees which improves their self-esteem and the capability to handle the stressors that they encounter. In addition, most respondents stated that family support instills a sense of security in an individual since family offers a sense of guidance, information access, and other forms of assistance that maybe needed by individuals to counter stress related effects. For example the families of the police officers in the Abu Dhabi police department are constantly urged to provide moral support to these police officers as they devote their lives to provide security and ensure laws and policies are adhered to.

 

4.16.12 Resilience

Analysis of responses in this research indicated that resilience is the most crucial defensive mechanism that people develop to counter stress. Therefore, respondents believe that resilience is the capacity to withstand and resist stress in a manner that gives them the capability to rebound and recover in spite of adversities. Most respondents indicated that resilience greatly involves continuous working through the effects and the emotions that are caused by stress.

As such, it can be deduced that resilience enhances the development of better self-management and thinking skills and advanced knowledge. Moreover, respondents asserted that several factors have been advanced that contribute to the development of resilience. These factors include: the ability of employees to manage strong impulses and feelings that are majorly developed in the workplace, the capability to cope with stress using healthy ways and the avoidance of harmful coping techniques that derail the realization of the objectives of the organization, advancement of proper communication skills and problem-solving techniques, and the capacity to develop affirmative self-esteem and confidence in the individual strengths and abilities of employees that enhance better performance.

According to these findings, in the UAE, resilience promotes the capability of individuals to circumnavigate highly challenging situations without harm to their psychological, emotional, and physical health. Moreover, respondents believe that resilience promotes affirmative benefits and advantages to both the employees and the organizations. Therefore, resilience is very critical in countering stress in an organization since it develops the psychological and emotional capacity of the employees of an organization to deal with the diverse stressors that they encounter in their attempts to carry out the operations of the organization.

 

5.0 CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSIONS

5.1.5 Conclusion and Recommendation

5.1.6 Discussion of the Results

As the current study vitally depicted considerably higher rates of absenteeism in the employees and linked it with satisfaction which is the most prevailing factor in current organizational scenario, there are numerous scholarly writings and researches which support this notion. Excessively high employee absenteeism rates are a major concern for many companies, detrimentally so in a large majority of customer service related industries. Further, effective employee turnover rate management has been a tremendous economic burden for many companies and this estimation is regarded in kind by numerous parallel studies, such as Owens (2006) and Fahey and Lack (2006).

In alignment with the findings of this study that in addition to steps taken to help employees to deal with stress, it is ascertained that the MOI could benefit from ensuring that each role does not entail too many different duties for the employees to be able to handle without becoming overly stressed. Literature has also been explored in these contexts and was found to be supportive of this notion, as does the researcher’s own experience at the MOI. Some roles involved a vast range of different activities, which arguably over-stretch the capabilities of the people who have been assigned them. The Transactional Model of Stress (Folkman & Lazarus, 1984) and Robert’s (2002) research both support the notion that ensuring that workers do not have too wide a range of responsibilities can help to minimize the degree of stress that they suffer from.

Other findings that have been uncovered throughout the course of the study in relation to the results obtained indicate that emphasis on training has important and pertinent association with the levels of stress, absenteeism, and satisfaction. Therefore, researches assert that training could be utilized in order to ensure that the levels of stress are kept as low as possible within the MOI. Kyoung-Og’s theory supports this notion (2002) and it is logical to assume that the better equipped people are to carry out the responsibilities that are associated with their positions, the less chance there is that they will become so stressed that it is difficult for them to carry out their roles. Kyoung-Og’s theory also indicates that it is wise to implement a rigid hiring policy that is aimed at weeding out employees who do not have the required degree of expertise that is necessary in order for them to adequately do the work that they have been hired to do (2002). Therefore it is clear that effective recruiting and training procedures are importantly associated with the reduced stress levels.

Numerous different pieces of literature that were examined indicated that careful monitoring of the workloads is also related to the reduction of stress (Lambert, Hogan and Griffin, 2007). It is importantly ascertained that people mostly face stressors and their related strain on their mind and situations because of the dilemma of managing their personal and professional lives (Greco, Laschinger & Wong, 2006). When employees are less laden with the amounts of work they are assigned, they clearly depicted to have considerably significant probabilities of having their personal or professional lives balanced with due effectiveness and efficiency. This balance in employees’ life is predominantly a major precursor of higher rates of satisfaction.

Moreover, it was considerably found out in the research for building up discussions for the study results, that the stress levels of the employees is also imperatively associated with the working environment provided to them and the ways in which organizational environment casts an impact on the employees’ perception about strenuous situations (Nissly, Barak & Levin, 2005; Greco, Laschinger & Wong, 2006). Researches in this aspect of organizational circumstance was found to be indicative of the fact that the stress levels could be reduced by focusing more upon improving the work environment and enhancing employee relationships. This was supported by literature by Kerry and James (2003) and Linda (2004).

This notion which relates the working environment, conditions or situations employees have to face at work and the lower levels of stress were also found to be supported by the analysis of case of the Abbey National. From the analysis of the scenario of this company, the association between stress and working conditions became more evident and indicated towards a number of avenues which have to be studied in this aspect (Nissly, Barak and Levin, 2005). It was analyzed in the scenario of this organization that the employees’ stress was imperatively reduced in Abbey National by taking steps to enhance the work environment. There was also evidence to suggest that improving job security and creating greater access to resources would aid in the minimization of stress; thus, in turn relating to higher levels of job satisfaction and lower absenteeism rates (LePine, Podsakoff and LePine, 2005). In addition to these aspects of stress experienced by the employees, it was also evident from the researches and organizational investigations that management of stress or conflict resolution in companies is importantly related to promotion of fairness (Staufenbiel & König, 2010). From the procedural justice or the various other perspectives of perception of just policies among the employees, promotion of equality is unmistakably associated with lower stress. This notion is also supported by the research findings of a number of industrial and organizational studies that perceived fairness or equality among the employees leads to heightened levels of stress.

Moreover, it was also imperatively found that in alignment with the results obtained from the study, that a lack of clear delegation and strong leadership is also imperatively related with how employees perceive their organizational stressors and challenges (Tsigilis, Zachopoulou & Grammatikopoulos, 2006). For the important management and administrative purposes, it was found to be evidently obvious that leadership stands as the strongest contender of tackling with the employees with reduced levels of stress. It is importantly established by the researches that the ways in which people are led are effective predictors of how they take up their challenges and deal with them. Thus, the more effectively leaders take their subordinates towards the achievement of the objective, the more positive perception employees will hold about the hurdles or challenges they face.

The notion that gender equality can be enhanced in order to reduce the levels of stress that are experienced at the MOI was backed up by the finding that British company London Electricity took steps to make things easier for women with children. IBM also allowed for a flexible work routine, which could be argued to ease the difficulty with which mothers can work for the company. These factors indicate that the perception of gender equality is integrally and most evidently associated with the reduction of stress levels and increase in satisfaction (Imtiaz & Ahmad, 2009). Greco, Laschinger and Wong (2006) assert the interdependent notion of perception of equality and the satisfaction of the employees.

 

All of the findings from the primary research are in line with the existing research on the topic of the best ways to minimize stress in the workplace. No anomalies or extenuating circumstances are present, which indicates that the result of the surveys and my own personal experience corroborates the writings within pre-established literature about this area. That means that there is a strong likelihood that the findings can be applied to real-life scenarios and that it is unlikely that they are purely theoretical in their nature. It supports the notion that they can be utilized in order to formulate practical recommendations for stress reduction within the MOI.

5.3 Conclusion

 

 

This study merged the results from the pilot study, the qualitative survey, and the literature review that provide credible conclusion that workplace stress negatively affects the productivity of employees. More importantly, the study also pertinently combined the immersive pattern of analysis of the findings related to the construct, which are characterized by the input of the researcher’s own experiences and accounts of knowledge about the subject area and matter. As such, this study provided sufficient evidence regarding the impact of stress on employees, while focusing on various variables of interests that ensure conclusive coverage of the subject matter. These research findings indicated towards the conclusion that workplaces experience diverse stress-related challenges from both within their structures and from other quotas outside their internal structures that is attributed to poor interpersonal relations.

Findings of the hypotheses of study were that the workplace stressors such as workload or work responsibility chiefly impact the rates of absenteeism of the police officers and their job satisfaction, which are regarded as strong precursors of the performance of officers in their police duties. Moreover, the study also revealed that stress among the police officers working in MOI organization of UAE, is related to how dissatisfied they are with their jobs and also their lack of interest in eradicating the stressful environment. Also, the findings of the study also implied strong impacts of workload on stress which further pay off in the coping techniques utilized by the police officers in Abu Dhabi. These, and the findings from interviews conducted in the study, are presented as follows in a detailed way which explains all the findings from the interviews and the themes.

In addition, these challenges, which are identified in concluding the study findings importantly relegate that both, internal and external challenges, have significant implications in the general performances of the organizations. The respondents in this study mainly cited poor managerial skills and poor leadership roles as the main causes of stress, and lack of harmony which is passed on poor workplace relations among employees. For example, according to the responses obtained, some employees in the MOI think that some of the managers and leaders are very rigid and non-flexible to the various needs that employees develop especially impromptu needs, yet some of them are usually basic that need immediate attention. Thus, the conclusions drawn from this aspect of the findings importantly indicated that most of the managers fail in giving their employees permission to address such issues and relegate their problems to the authorities. Such situations generally result in miscommunication which thus demoralizes employees and reduces their morale to work. As a result, it is concluded that there were decreased levels of employee satisfaction and hence poor organizational performance in the organizations where such situations are being faced.

Moreover, from the results and findings drawn from most of the responses of people in the Ministry of Interior (MOI), it was concluded that the adversities were mainly caused by the requirements by managers for the employees to work for longer hours than the stipulated time frames for working. The findings of this research further led to the conclusions that when some of the situations that required employees to work for extra hours arose, the managers failed to later on compensate the employees either in cash, in kind, or in a way that indicated motivation and satisfaction for longer hours spent. Such actions significantly led to increased rates of employee absenteeism with no proper reasons except for light excuses.

Therefore, majority of the responses obtained indicated that such challenges developed negative attributes amongst the employees that led to a downward scale of both employee and organizational performance. However, some of the respondents perceived these attributes positively and thought that they served to improve the resilience of employees in being able to withstand the many challenges that they encountered in their various lines of duty.

In drawing out important conclusions for the current study, this research further showed that the major source of employee dissatisfaction was caused by negative perceptions that some of the employees in the MOI developed towards the diverse challenges that they were constantly encountering. Most of the respondents thought that these negative perceptions were deeply rooted in the methods of operations that were being used by various managers. In addition, according to the responses obtained, stiff competition amongst similar competitors was that main fuelling factor for the conception of negative perceptions towards challenges because competitors advocated negative attributes to customers with the aim of edging them out of the competition. However, despite the many negative implications that negative perceptions caused such as considerably decreased performances, this research indicates that it has become considerably difficult for managers to dispel these perceptions especially from clients who already have developed particular negative notions towards the products and services that are offered by these organizations.

However, on the other hand, it is concluded that the findings in this research indicated about recent times that the managers in the UAE have learnt how to deal with the various stressors that cause adversities in the working place. Moreover, from the responses that were obtained from the managers and leaders in the MOI led to the conclusions which showed an increased trend in the adoption of effective and proper managerial skills and styles that base themselves on the principles of proper communication, flexibility in the workplace, and employee involvement in the making of some decisions that regard the performance of organizations. These managerial skills are mainly gaining popularity in the UAE because of the increased desires by managers to create friendly working environments for their employees that advance their job satisfaction levels and hence boosting their morale to devote themselves and work better to effectively realize the set objectives of the organizations they work for.

In addition, it is also concluded from findings of this research that there has been an increased trend from corporate organizations to motivate their employees with the main intention of encouraging them to not only work hard but also work smart in ensuring that these organizations realize their set goals. Moreover, this included the ability of employees to set up realistic and achievable targets that are in line with the set objectives of these organizations. This improved the levels of employee satisfaction which simultaneously boosted their morale and resulted in better performance in the realization of the set goals of these organizations.

The managers in the MOI moreover emphasized that they employed distributive leadership skills in the way they handled issues that led to the realization of the set objectives of these organizations. Most respondents affirmed that managers delegated some of their responsibilities to other junior employees with the intention of empowering these employees and enhancing their levels of responsibilities in conducting their roles. In addition, the responses obtained showed that distributive leadership allowed managers to focus on a few areas of operations hence reducing the bulk of the work they oversee. As a result, this led to better job satisfaction and improved impacts in the roles they conduct in realization of the set organizational goals and targets. As a result of distributive leadership, there has been a significant reduction in the number of employees who quit jobs because of strenuous and unfulfilling tasks that are several in number and hard to effectively deal with simultaneously.

This research indicated that the employees in MOI have in recent times improved their levels of focus in their lines of duty because of increased levels of job satisfaction due to improved working conditions in recent times. Despite the numerous challenges that employees still encounter, the responses obtained indicated that they has been a significant increase in the levels of diligence that most employees had developed in recent times. Increased levels of diligence enhanced the capabilities of employees to properly deal with the numerous challenges that they encounter in the operations they conduct to realize the set objectives of the organizations they work for.

Besides, this research also indicates towards this conclusion that most administrators in the MOI retain high levels of focus and determinations to achieve the set goals of this organization despite the fact that they face numerous challenges in their quest to produce affirmative results in their various duties. Therefore, this research shows that it has generally become very crucial for managers in organizations to not only be goal driven but also remain focused so that they can be able to properly counter the inevitable organizational challenges that may hinder or decrease the realization of the organizations’ set goals and operational objectives.

Moreover, this research further indicated that the MOI in the UAE heavily relies in the application of its past experiences to deal with future stressor factors and challenges with the intention of ensuring that they achieve their set goals. Most of the respondents outlined that there were constant encouragements from the managers towards individual employees to rely on past operational experiences to counter similar problems that they encounter in future operations owing to the fact that these challenges and stressor factors are usually recurrent since they keep occurring severally.

According to some respondents, life experiences instill crucial courage and skills in employees that enhances their capabilities to handle similar challenges in the case where they reoccur. Therefore, the responses obtained in this study show that life experiences are important in improving the performances of organizational operations since life experiences build the capability and the capacity of both the individuals and the organizations at large to handle future challenges in more organized and strategically approached manners.

Furthermore, this research puts a lot of emphasis on the capability of managers to build appropriate supportive structures that aim to support the operations of employees in their quest to deliver effective services in the desire to achieve the set objectives of organizations. According to most of the respondents, family support is deemed as a significant tool in the capability of individual employees to be able to handle stressor factors in their workplaces. The responses obtained indicate that families offer moral support to individuals which empower them to counter the many challenges that they encounter in their workplaces. Moreover, this research shows that it is crucial for managers to develop and encourage supportive cultures in organizations that improve their ability to access the necessary resources required in their operations that include the ability to share knowledge amongst themselves.

Therefore, according to the findings of this research, it is importantly concluded that organizations are regarded as liable to create supportive working environments which boosts the morale of employees, enhances the acquisition of shared operational knowledge between employees, seeks to understand the problems encountered by these employees, and provides appropriate platforms for both employees and managers to not only express the challenges they face but also to be able to come up with innovative ideas that counter or minimize stressor factors in these organizations. Therefore, it is evidently concluded from the findings of this research that stressor factors reduce the morale of employees and reduce their job satisfaction levels hence decreased operational performances. It is hence crucial that these stressor factors are dealt with appropriately to counter these recurrent problems encountered in organizations. Moreover, it is important for organizations’ managers to employ effective managerial techniques in the way they govern the operations that are aimed at realizing the set objectives of organizations.

5.5 Implications of the Findings for Stress Management in Public Service in the United Arab Emirates

From the extensive amount of consideration placed on the various aspects of stress among employees, its impacts or influence on the organizational behavior or performance of the employees, it is evidently held important for the Public Service Sector of the UAE that they should pay attention to a number of aspects of managing human resource. It is noted that attention should be paid to putting measures in place in the United Arab Emirates public service sector in order to minimize the amount of stress that employees incur in the first place.

Employees in the current working scenario of UAE are considerably the ones who are migrants from a large number of various nations. For the workers in the UAE, earning their jobs one of the most important factor is the separation they might be bearing from the family and close people. Although, there is a huge segment of population which has shifted their whole families to the UAE; however, there still are large numbers of workers who face separation from their families and bear the distances. Therefore, one implication which is importantly deduced for the public sector of UAE is concerned with the ease of contacts or long vacations or relaxation time. The immigrant workers in the UAE organizations might effectively set out to spend their vacations with their families in the native countries, which is one of major advantages employees might be expecting their organizations to provide fulfilling which the organizations might effectively uplift some of the stress from the environment.

Moreover, it is also implied for the organizations operating in the region of UAE that the satisfaction of the employees should importantly be assessed and monitored. It was deduced from the study that the employees suffer from low rates of satisfaction with regards to their jobs in various aspects of organizational levels. As such, there are a number of aspects of satisfaction of the employees which are related importantly to the management, colleagues or the job descriptions the employees have assigned to them. Hence, what is important for the public sector organizations of the UAE is that periodic assessments and evaluations are conducted for appraising levels of satisfaction of the employees. Along with the periodic assessments and evaluations, the management of the organizations would importantly be able to keep a pertinent check on the factors or aspects due to which satisfaction levels of the employees go down. In this currently changing and dynamic nature of the modern times, it is essentially important that the organizations keep up with their employees and their satisfaction levels.

As the study also concluded that job stress and satisfaction levels of the employees are integrally tied with the impacts on trends or patterns of absenteeism among the employees, there is another implication which is drawn from this aspect of the study findings. The organizations having to do influentially well for the wellbeing and betterment of their employees; have significantly important implications which can be drawn from findings of the current study. The police department of the UAE should not be incensed with the lower levels of their employees’ satisfaction levels. Rather, the organizations working under the Ministry of Interior of the UAE should importantly be considerate towards the factors or causes which cause dissatisfaction of the employees. There are wide ranges of causes which have their contributions in increasing or decreasing the satisfaction levels of the employees, one of which concerns deeply and effectively with the correspondence between management and the employees. Thus, organizational communication is implied as the major source of satisfaction of the employees, which should importantly be considered by the management of the public service organizations operating in the United Arab Emirates.

For the important and pertinent aspects of occupational stress studied in the current mixed method study, there are numerous implications drawn through which the organizations operating in the public sector of the UAE can make important changes in their management for the introduction of imperative strategies of stress alleviation. For the sake of reducing stress among the employees working in the public sector of UAE, it is essentially implied that the organizations move towards a more integrated approach of reducing stress. It is inherently linked with successful implementation and practice of the stress reducing techniques that these entail participation from the employees, as well as, the managers. Hence, the organizations working towards employment of the stress alleviating techniques or procedures should put into consideration that their participation in planning out such procedures is as important as the employees’ contribution.

Another important implication for the public sector organizations of UAE is deduced from the conclusions of the study which pertinently relate to the workload and job responsibilities placed on the employees. The amount of work that employees are given should be carefully managed, there should not be too wide a range of responsibilities associated with each role, there should be effective training programs in place and recruiting should be done in a manner that cherry-picks the individuals who are best suited to the specified role. Steps should be taken to enhance the work environment, enhance equality and improve the ease with which delegation can take place. A degree of flexibility should also be given with regards to working hours. Public service organizations within the United Arab Emirates would also benefit from providing counseling or outsourced stress reduction initiatives, as there is bound to be a certain level of stress present even if all of the relevant steps for stress reduction are taken.

5.6 Future Areas of Research: Recommendations and Suggestions

Interviews should be conducted with employees at a range of different organizations within the United Arab Emirates in order to ascertain the differences that exist with regards to employee stressors in different sectors. This would enable comparisons to be made in this area and expand the base of knowledge that exists about this issue.

Research could also be carried out in order to see the optimum degree of flexibility that employees should be given with regards to their working hours in order to maximize productivity. The results of this study indicate that allowing workers a certain amount of flexibility reduces stress and improves the way in which they work. However there is a chance that too much flexibility will impact upon their performances. Therefore a study to determine the correct balance would be extremely useful.

Another worthwhile avenue of research would be the development of a metrics system for scoring factors likely to result in stressed employees. This would facilitate the management of stressors within the workplace and help the MOI to manage the level of stress that its workers were placed under. It would help it to put measures in place to make sure that the degree of stress that the people who are employed at the organization suffer from does not exceed a productive level.

Also more research could be conducted into best practices regarding gender equality initiatives. Given the fact that ensuring that the two genders are given equal status within an organization can result in a reduction in stress which in turn reduces absenteeism and increases productiveness, it stands to reason that this area should be further investigated in order to arrive at the optimum means of making sure that there is no discrimination within the workplace. This would guarantee that ill feeling stemming from men being treated better than women or vice versa did not upset the harmony of organizations and result in the employees suffering from excessive degrees of stress.

 

The fact that the MOI’s focus on welfare is a positive measure with regards to keeping the degree to which its employees suffer from stress indicates that further research could be carried out in order to find out how more improvements could be made to welfare provision within the company. Also, just because the organization focuses upon welfare, it does not mean that they do so in an effective manner. A metrics system could be developed to measure the level of success that the MOI has achieved in this area and lays the foundation for improvements to be made.

5.7 Recommendations

Regular reviews of the systems for delegation within public service organizations should be conducted in an attempt to reduce the extent to which stress is incurred on account of it being difficult to delegate work. This will help to minimize the possibility of people being over-worked, which places a great deal of pressure upon employees. It will therefore increase their productivity. Each organization should either have an onsite counselor, who talks employees through their problems and attempts to de-stress them to the highest possible degree, or provide access to an external stress management service.

 

 

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7.0 APPENDICES

Page Summary.

The dissertation seeks to establish a synopsis on the effect that comes with managing stress hence correlating the same with productivity within public service organizations. This is to be quantified by exploring qualitative and quantitative data survey designs with variations in absenteeism, job satisfaction, remuneration, competence as well as workload and responsibility. The target sample was realized from UAE police department where such participants were informed in a consent oriented on the research workings hence necessarily enlightening on data collection procedures such as in-depth interviews.

It was the revelation of this work that workplace stressors in context of dependent variables had significant impact on rates of absenteeism and the level of job satisfaction. This would therefore correlate with either a positive or negative inclination to productivity of such police officers.

Conclusively, it was mandated for the top management to have a changed mindset on expectations of their juniors so as to neutralize the stressing environment even as they seek to realize better productivity. This would be further enhanced by proper communication and resilience from such leaders.

Appendix A: Research Information and Consent Form

You are being asked to participate in a research project. Researchers are required to provide a consent form to inform you about the study, to convey that participation is voluntary, to explain risks and benefits of participation, and to empower you to make an informed decision. You should feel free to ask the researchers any questions you may have.

 

Study Title: The Impact of Stress Management on Productivity in Public Service Organizations: Insights from Employees in Ministry of Interior – UAE

Degree Pursued: Doctorate of Business Administration – Strategic Development and Performance

 

• You are being asked to participate in the research concerning the topic of stress faced by employees in workplace. The research’s purpose is to explore the impact of stress and its management on the productivity in public service organizations. The research focuses upon the employees in the interior ministry of the UAE.
• Your participation in the study is requested for completion of the questionnaires with as much accuracy and honesty as possible. You have been selected as a prospect participant in the study as you are an employee in an organization working under the MOI in UAE.
• From this research, the researcher would be gaining essential information/data regarding the PhD studies.
• The information provided by you through these questions will only be used for academic purposes. Anonymity, confidentiality and privacy of your personal information, as well as, you responses are guaranteed to have no adverse impacts on your job.
• Your participation in the study will take about 15 minutes of your time.
• Responses of the questionnaire will be recorded anonymously and then analyzed with the same level of anonymity. Strictly academic, objective and research related analyses will be drawn from your responses.
• Participation in the study is entirely subjected to your voluntary will, and you have the right to withdraw any time in between. However, if you answer all the questions consistently and complete the survey, it will add to the data collected for the study and surely benefit in compilation of the results of study.

Your signature below means that you voluntarily agree to participate in this research study.

________________________________________    _____________________________

Signature                                                                     Date

 

Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey. All of your answers will be treated as strictly confidential information. Questions can be answered by ticking a box or circling the appropriate number.

 

 

Appendix B: Questionnaire Survey

I would like to request your collaboration in completing this questionnaire as accurately as possible. The information you provide is essential for successful completion of my PhD studies. The anonymity of your responses is guaranteed to protect your jobs. Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey. All of your answers will be treated as strictly confidential information. Questions can be answered by ticking a box or circling the appropriate number.

Table 11: Questionnaire Survey

 

SECTION ONE: GENERAL BACKGROUND

 

 

 

1. Gender:             Female             ¨                     Male                ¨
2. Age: Less than 30 years old                                                            ¨

30-40 Years old                                                          ¨

40-50 Years old                                                          ¨

More than 40 Years old                                              ¨

3. Nationality: Other                                                                           ¨

UAE                                                                            ¨

4. Years of experience in the organization:

Less than 5 years                                             ¨

Between 6-10  years                                        ¨

Between 11-15 years                                      ¨

Above 16 years                                               ¨

5. Qualifications: High School                                                            ¨

Diploma                                                          ¨

Bachelor                                                          ¨

Higher Education                                            ¨

6. How many years in your current role: __________________
7. Number of employees under your management:

Less than 3                                                                  ¨                     Between 4-10                                                        ¨

Between 11-20                                                            ¨

Above 21                                                                    ¨

 

 

1. Stress Management Conflict Resolution

There are five subsections of the survey questionnaire.

Please Indicate your degree of agreement to the following statements according to the scale provided below in the box.

Table 12: Stress Management, Conflict Resolution

1	2	3	4	5
Strongly Agree	Agree	neutral	disagree	Strongly disagree

 

1. The workers should not quarrel among themselves [           ]
2. The manager should speak to the workers and try to solve their problems [           ]
3. Workers should be encouraged to report conflicts with each other [           ]
4. Worker communication is suffering due to workload and stress level [           ]
5. Worker productivity is suffering due to stressed work climate                   [           ]
6. Managers must monitor stress levels in the workplace                               [          ]
7. Suitable stress management policies are needed at work [           ]

 

 

1. Workplace Stress Survey AIS (American Institute of Stress, 2013)

Table 13: Workplace Stress Survey AIS

1	2	3	4	5
Strongly Agree	Agree	neutral	disagree	Strongly disagree

 

1. I can’t honestly say what I really think or get things off my chest at work. ______
2. My job has a lot of responsibility, but I don’t have very much authority. ______
3. I could usually do a much better job if I were given more time. ______
4. I seldom receive adequate acknowledgement or appreciation when my
5. work is really good. ______
6. In general, I am not particularly proud or satisfied with my job. ______
7. I have the impression that I am repeatedly picked on or discriminated against at work. ______
8. My workplace environment is not very pleasant or safe. ______
9. My job often interferes with my family and social obligations, or personal needs. ______
10. I tend to have frequent arguments with superiors, coworkers or customers. ______
11. Most of the time I feel I have very little control over my life at work. ______
12. Add up the replies to each question for your TOTAL JOB STRESS SCORE ______

 

1. Absenteeism

Table 14: Absenteeism

1	2	3	4	5
Strongly Agree	Agree	neutral	disagree	Strongly disagree
Impact of stress on productivity
Measuring Absenteeism & turnover
1) Do not feel like going to work
2) Lack of confidence in my organization, thinking to leave my job
3) Looking for alternative job
4) I want to leave my job as soon as possible
5) There is high level of tardiness among employees with a lot of sick excuses.

 

1. Job satisfaction – EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION SURVEY, 2009 by REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA STATE STATISTICAL OFFICE

Table 15: Job Satisfaction

1	2	3	4	5
Strongly Agree	Agree	neutral	disagree	Strongly disagree

 

MANAGEMENT

1. I am satisfied with my immediate supervisor
2. I am satisfied with the skills of my immediate supervisor
3. My immediate supervisor has good management and professional skills
4. My immediate supervisor has effective conflict resolution skills
5. There is satisfactory communication between me and my supervisor
6. I trust the relationship I have with my supervisor
7. I trust the relationship I have with my fellow workers
8. I am satisfied with the leadership skills of my authority
9. I am satisfied with the management and professional skills   of members of the Expert Body in my organization
10. I have trust in the transparency in the work of the Expert Body

EMPLOYEE COMPETENCE

1. I am satisfied with the available opportunities for improving skills and knowledge   in the course of my work
2. I am satisfied with the work activities compared to my skills   and the opportunities for improving   my competence level
3. I am satisfied with the respect of co-workers for my   competence
4. I am satisfied with the of my employees
5. I am satisfied with the career advancement opportunities in my organization

 

REMUNERATION

1. I am satisfied with the package offered to me
2. I am satisfied with my salary package in accordance with the work I perform
3. I am satisfied with the current model for rewarding   overtime work
4. I am satisfied with my salary compared to other   external comparable groups

 

RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN EMPLOYEES

1. I am satisfied with the involvement of people with my competencies   in work
2. I am satisfied with the respect I receive from the authorities
3. I am satisfied with the possibilities I receive as assistance   from co-workers when necessary
4. I am satisfied with the stance of teamwork in my organization

 

WORKLOAD

1. I am satisfied with how my organization has fixed working hours currently
2. I am satisfied with the number of employees available   for performing work tasks in my organization
3. I am satisfied with the processes with outline sanctions for errors committed by the employees
4. I am satisfied with the workload pressure
5. I am satisfied with the balance between personal and professional life

 

1. Workload and Responsibility – NIOSH Generic Job Stress Questionnaire 2009

Table 16: Workload and Responsibility

1	2	3	4	5
Strongly Agree	Agree	neutral	disagree	Strongly disagree

 

The next few items are concerned with various aspects of your work activities. Please indicate how much of each aspect you have on your job by writing a number in the box provided.

 

1. I experience slowdown in my performance when there is a lot of workload
2. During workload, I seem to take more time in making work related decisions or contemplating them
3. I have a lot of workload in my position
4. I expect others to share as much workload as me in the working conditions
5. I require a considerably more amount of time when I am working under a lot pressure
6. Currently, I have a lot of projects and assignments on my plate
7. I don’t even get time to take small time for rest or lull during work
8. I have a lot of responsibility for the future of others
9. I have a lot of responsibility for the job security of others
10. I have a lot of responsibility for dividing my time accurately among different job tasks
11. I have a lot of responsibility for the morale of others
12. I have a lot of responsibility for the welfare and lives of others

Appendix C: Qualitative Interview Survey

I would like to request your collaboration in completing this questionnaire as accurately as possible. The information you provide is essential for successful completion of my PhD studies. The anonymity of your responses is guaranteed to protect your jobs. Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey. All of your answers will be treated as strictly confidential information. Questions can be answered by ticking a box or circling the appropriate number.

Table 17: Qualitative Interview Survey

SECTION ONE: GENERAL BACKGROUND

1. Gender: Male                ¨                                 Female             ¨
2. Age: Less than 30 years old                                                            ¨

30-40 Years old                                                          ¨

40-50 Years old                                                          ¨

More than 40 Years old                                              ¨

3. Nationality: —————————————————————–
4. Years of experience in the organization:

Less than 5 years                                                         ¨

Between 5-10  years                                                    ¨

Between 10-15 years                                                  ¨

Above 15 years                                                           ¨

5. Profession: High School                                                                ¨

Diploma                                                                      ¨

Bachelor                                                                      ¨

Higher Education                                                        ¨

6. Working for how many years as a manager: __________________
7. Job Title: ______________________________________________
8. Number of employees under your management:

Less than 3                                                                  ¨                     Between 4-10                                                        ¨

Between 11-20                                                            ¨

Above 21                                                                    ¨

 

 

Qualitative Interview Questions

1. In your opinion what form of situations causes challenges for leaders in the workplace?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. Dou you think the management practices in your organization encourages participation and distributes responsibility to employees?

Yes

No

Please explain your answer

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. Do supervisors in your organization stay focused and motivated to meet organizational goals whether they are undergoing challenges or not?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4. How would you describe your own practice?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5. What does the people within and outside the organization view the organizational leader in terms of his capabilities and skills?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6. How does a principle in your organization react to challenges?
7. Does the leader sees the hope and opportunities in challenges

Yes      []

No       []

Describe how leaders speak in case of challenges whether with hope and opportunity or not

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8. Did the employees experience any situation that helped in building resilience?

No       []

Yes      []

If yes, please describe the situation

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

9. Are there any leadership or community-based support system for employees?

No       []

Yes      []

If yes, please describe the situation____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

10. Do the employees describe their relationship with their family or significant others as supportive?

No       []

Yes      []

Please describe the nature of your relationship with your family and significant others

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

11. How do you take a challenge in the workplace in terms of your attitude and opinion towards bouncing back and pushing forward towards your goals?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR TIME. J

 

 

Figures

Figure 6: Workplace Stress Model

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 7: Relational Stress Model

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 8: Elaboration of Workplace Stress model

 

Source: Bossche, 2004

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 9: Model of Stress Factor Framework

Source: Williams (2002)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 10: Cooper’s Model of the Dynamics of Work Stress

 

Source: Cooper and Marshall (1976)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 11: Framework for Transactional Model of Stress

Source: Lazarus and Folkman (1984)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 12: Transactional Model of Stress Breakdown

Source: Lazarus and Folkman (1984)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 13: Conceptual Model of Stress

Source: Bossche (2004)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 14: The planning process

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 15: Stress Productivity Curve

Source: Chapman (2010)

Figure 16: Research Process Model

 

Source: Experiment Resources, 2009.

 

Figure 17: Kolb’s learning styles