A STUDY ON EFFECT OF ORGANIZATIONAL ROLE STRESS ON JOB SATISFACTION AMONGST WORKING WOMEN

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1 Effect of Organizational role stress on Job Satisfaction 1 A STUDY ON EFFECT OF ORGANIZATIONAL ROLE STRESS ON JOB SATISFACTION AMONGST WORKING WOMEN Dr. Rekha Singh, Assistant Professor (HR) Rustomjee Business School ABSTRACT The present study explored the relationship between Organizational role stress and Job Satisfaction among working women from public sector. A total of 300 working women from the state of Rajasthan served as sample for the study. To attain the objectives of the study, two psychometric instruments the Organizational Role Stress Scale (Pareek 1983) and Job Satisfaction Inventory by Brayfield and Rothe (1951) was administered to the sample population to obtain data pertaining to the organizational role stress and job satisfaction variables. The data was analyzed in terms of the t ratio and coefficients of correlation. It was found that doctors and administrative officers were significantly higher on Job satisfaction than teachers. The results showed that Job satisfaction was positively and significantly correlated to Role Stagnation and Role Ambiguity among administrative officers. [ Keywords:- Organizational role stress, Job Satisfaction, Administrative officers] INTRODUCTION Due to the urbanization, dual earner families, industrial growth, technology advancement stress has become a very common phenomenon of life. The term stress was first used by Selye (1936). He defined stress as the force, pressure, or strain exerted upon a material object or person which resist these forces and attempt to maintain its original state. Also due to increase in the workload of employees and set professional deadlines by the organization there is increase in occupational stress among employees. Sauter, Lim, and Murphy (1996) define occupational stress as the harmful physical and emotional responses that arise when the demands of a job do not match the worker s abilities, resources, or needs. Stress can be positive as well as negative. If positive, stress can prove one of the most important factors in improving productivity within an organization (Spielberger, 1980). If negative, stress can create a number of physical and 1

2 Effect of Organizational role stress on Job Satisfaction 2 psychological disorders among employees, and can be responsible for frustration, haste, and job dissatisfaction. Stress is, therefore, multidimensional, and its results depend on whether employees perceive it as a problem or a solution. At present, women are in a position to compete with men in all walks of life. The employment of women outside home has added to their duties and functions. The problems of women who combine the different roles of a wife, a mother and a working woman are multiple; which can be categorized under different heads as physiological problems, adjustment problems, social problems and economic problems. Although more and more women are coming out in search of employment and their families also need their income but, the attitude towards women and their role in the family has not undergone much change. Even today, looking after the family and children is generally perceived to be primary responsibility of women. Carrying out all the duties and responsibilities of home almost single handily, over strains a working woman and can be a reason for job dissatisfaction. Organizational Role Stress Organizational role stress is the stress emanating from the organizational role of an individual. Kahn et al. (1964) were the earliest to draw attention to organizational stress in general, and role stress in particular. Pareek (1976) defined role as the position occupied by a person as defined by the expectations of a significant number of persons including the role occupant. This indicates that there are inherent problems in the performance of a role and therefore stress is inevitable. Organizational role stress has been classified into basically following ten role dimensions by Pareek (1983). 1. Inter Role Distance (IRD) is experienced when there is conflict between organizational and non-organizational roles.(2) Role Stagnation (RS) is experienced as a feeling of being stuck in the same role. (3) Role Expectation Conflict (REC) arises out of conflicting demands originating from colleagues and peers in the organization.(4) Role Erosion (RE) arises when a role becomes less important than it used to be or when someone else gets the credit for doing what needs to be done in one s role. (5) Role Overload (RO) is a feeling that one is required to do too much or do thing of considerable importance.(6) Role Isolation (RI) is characterized by the feeling that others do not reach out easily, indicative of the absence of strong linkages of one s role with other roles.(7) Personal Inadequacy (PI) is depicted by the absence of 2

3 Effect of Organizational role stress on Job Satisfaction 3 adequate skill competence and training to meet the demand of one s role.(8) Self role Distance (SRD) arises from a gap experienced between one s concept of self and the demands of the role. (9) Role Ambiguity (RA) is experienced when there is a lack of clarity about the demands of the role. (10) Resource Inadequacy (RIN) arises when the human or material resources allocated are inadequate to meet the demands of the role. Job Satisfaction Job satisfaction refers to the positive and negative feelings and attitudes we hold about our jobs. It depends on many work related factors, ranging from where we have to park to the sense of fulfillment we get from our daily tasks. Personal factors can also influence job satisfaction. These factors include age, health, length of job experience, emotional stability, social status, leisure activities and family and other social relationships. Our motivations and aspirations and how well these are satisfied by our work also affect our attitudes toward our jobs. For some employees, job satisfaction is a stable, enduring characteristic, independent of the features of the job. Changes in job, status pay, working conditions, and goals have little effect on the job satisfaction of these people. Their personal tendency toward happiness (satisfaction) or unhappiness (dissatisfaction) varies little over time and circumstances. Job satisfaction is the total of the sentiments related with the job conducted. If the worker perceives that his/her values are realized within the job, she/he improvises a positive attitude towards his/her job and acquires job satisfaction (Mc Cormic and Tiffin 1974). REVIEW OF LITERATURE Kumari and Sharma (1990) examined a group of medicos, the relationship and the moderating role of social support on four indices of their well-being; organizational role stress, anxiety, job satisfaction, and general well-being. The results show that medicos with higher social support perceive less stress in their organizational roles, are less anxious have more job satisfaction, and enjoy better general well-being than their counterparts with lower social support. Mishra (1989) examined the responsibility of the person s stress as a moderator variable of the job satisfaction-job involvement relationship. It was found that responsibility for person stressors does not have a moderating effect on the job satisfaction-job involvement relationship. 3

4 Effect of Organizational role stress on Job Satisfaction 4 Revicki and May (1989) developed and tested a model of occupational stress in hospital nurses. Results confirmed the hypothesized structural model. Organizational climate, supervisor behavior, and work group relations directly influenced role perception. Increased role ambiguity led to decreased job satisfaction and increased perceived stress. The organizational environment directly influenced job stress. Bacharach, Bamberger and Conley (1991) compared a more traditional, unmediated model of work-based role stress and its consequences on job satisfaction and burnout to two models in which the role stress-affective work outcome relationship is mediated (partially and completely) by work-home conflict across two samples of public sector professionals: engineers and nurses. The findings indicate that a model in which role conflict and overload have both direct and indirect effects-via work-home conflict-on job burnout and satisfaction (`Partial Mediation' model) achieves a better overall `fit' than two alternative models. Furthermore, the findings suggest that while the two groups perceive many aspects of the workhome relationship differently, for both groups, work-based role conflict is an important antecedent of work-home conflict, and increased burnout an important direct consequence of work-home conflict. Finally, on the basis of the findings, the authors conclude that perspectives which view the work and non-work realms as independent must be reconsidered, and that the nature of the work-home relationship may, to a great extent, be contingent upon the way different occupational groups perceive their work situations. AIM The main aim of this study was to see the effect of Organizational role stress on Job satisfaction among women working in public sector. HYPOTHESES 1. There will be a significant difference between working women of all three groups on Job Satisfaction and Organizational Role Stress and its components. 2. Organizational role stresses will be negatively and significantly related to Job satisfaction among working women of all the three groups under study. METHOD SAMPLE: - The total sample of the present study was 300 working women engaged in public sector jobs. The locale of the study was the state of Rajasthan. Further the sample was limited to working women who were married, having children and between the age ranges of years. 4

5 Effect of Organizational role stress on Job Satisfaction 5 MEASUREMENT DEVICES:-In order to meet the aims and objectives and to test the hypothesis of the present study the following tools will be used to measure Organizational role stress and Mental health. The details of the tools are given below. 1. Organizational Role Stress Scale (ORS) developed by Pareek (1981) was used to measure 10 types of role stressors i.e. inter role distance, role stagnation, role expectation conflict, role erosion, role overload, role isolation, personal inadequacy, self-role distance, role ambiguity, resource inadequacy. The ORS scale has 50 items in total with 5 each for 10 above listed dimensions of job. It is a five-point scale indicating how true a particular statement is for the role. Test-Retest reliability for different role stresses and the total stress were significant at.001 level of significance. Validity was found by item total score correlations which were between 0.36 to Index of Job Satisfaction (JSI) constructed by Brayfield and Rothe (1951) was used to measure job satisfaction. The instrument consists of 18 items out of which 9 items are of job satisfaction and 9 items are on job dissatisfaction. It is a five point scale with response choices ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. The scale has a high index of reliability and high coefficient of correlation of.87 and.97 respectively. RESULTS Scores obtained by all the three occupational groups, that is, teachers (A1), doctors (A2) and administrative officers (A3) on organizational role stress and job satisfaction were subjected to statistical analysis i.e. mean, standard error of mean, median, S.D., minimum and maximum scores of all the 12 variables under study. On the line of purpose of the present study teachers, doctors and administrative officers were compared on the scores of organizational role stress and job satisfaction using t statistics. Results of Table 1 showed that doctors (M=60.15) were significantly higher on Job satisfaction than teachers (M=58.30). The t-ratio is (p<.05). It was also showed that administrative officers (M=58.99) were significantly higher on Job satisfaction than teachers (M=58.30). The t-ratio is.872 (p<.05). There was no significant difference found amongst teacher, doctors and administrative officers on Organizational role stress- Total (ORS-T) and its ten sub-components i.e. inter-role distance (IRD), role-stagnation (RS), role expectation conflict (REC), role erosion (RE), role 5

6 Effect of Organizational role stress on Job Satisfaction 6 overload (RO), role isolation(ri), Personal Inadequacy (PI), self-role distance (SRD), role ambiguity (RA) and resource inadequacy (RIN). Table- 1 Mean difference between female teachers, doctors and administrative officers on Job Satisfaction, Organizational Role Stress-Total (ORS-T) and its components Code and Variables Job Satisfaction Groups Teachers M=58.30 SD=6.447 Doctors M= SD=4.867 Administrative Officers M=58.99 SD=4.589 Teacher - t=2.290* t=.872* Doctors t=2.290* - t=1.734 Administrative officers t=.872* t= ORS-T Organizational Role Stress- Total IRD Inter-Role Distance RS Role Stagnation M=34.47, SD=15.59 M= 33.92, SD=15.81 M=34.44, SD=17.36 Teacher - t=-.248 t=-.013 Doctors t= t=.221 Administrative officers t=-.013 t= M=3.28, SD=2.030 M= 3.53, SD=1.817 M=3.44, SD=2.012 Teacher - t=.917 t=.560 Doctors t= t=-.332 Administrative officers t=.560 t= M=3.08, SD=1.978 M= 3.25 SD=1.982 M=3.43, SD=2.071 Teacher - t=.607 t=1.222 Doctors t= t=.628 Administrative officers t=1.222 t= REC Role Expectation Conflict RE Role Erosion M=3.07, SD=1.822 M= 3.36 SD=1.936 M=3.48, SD=2.410 Teacher - t=1.091 t=1.357 Doctors t= t=.388 Administrative officers t=1.357 t= M=3.61, SD=2.117 M= 3.37, SD=2.107 M=3.46, SD=2.076 Teacher - t=-.804 t=-506 6

7 Effect of Organizational role stress on Job Satisfaction 7 Doctors t= t=.304 Administrative officers t=-506 t= RO Role Overload M=3.72, SD=1.934 M= 3.39, SD=2.020 M=3.53, SD=2.032 Teacher - t= t=-.677 Doctors t= t=.489 Administrative officers t=-.677 t= RI Role Isolation M=3.27, SD=1.943 M= 3.42, SD=1.724 M=3.30, SD=1.817 Teacher - t=.577 t=.113 Doctors t= t=-.479 Administrative officers t=.113 t= PI Personal Inadequacy SRD Self-role Distance RA Role Ambiguity RIN Resource Inadequacy M=3.13, SD=1.461 M= 3.50, SD=2.047 M=3.64, SD=2.580 Teacher - t=1.471 t=1.720 Doctors t= t=.425 Administrative officers t=1.720 t= M=3.87, SD=1.900 M= 3.54, SD=2.359 M=3.45, SD=2.280 Teacher - t= t= Doctors t= t=-.274 Administrative officers t= t= M=3.69, SD=2.246 M= 3.32, SD=2.224 M=3.23, SD=1.958 Teacher - t= t= Doctors t= t=-.304 Administrative officers t= t= M=3.62, SD=2.639 M= 3.23, SD=1.595 M=3.44, SD=2.262 Teacher - t= t=-.518 Doctors t= t=.759 Administrative officers t=-.518 t=.759-7

8 Effect of Organizational role stress on Job Satisfaction 8 Pearson s r between variables under study for Teachers, Doctors and Administrative officers: The inter correlation between all the variables under study were calculated using Pearson s method for, teachers (A1), doctors (A2), administrative officers (A3). The obtained results are presented in table 2. For having comparative study of different groups, that is Teachers as compared to doctors and administrative officers compared to each of the other groups, regarding relation of different variables under study with all other variables studied, separate table of pearson s r was prepared, which is shown below in Tables 2. Table-2 Job satisfaction (JSI) and other variables under study: Pearson s r for Teachers, Doctors and Administrative Officers code Groups Variables Teachers (A1) Doctors (A2) Administrative officers (A3) ORS-T ORS-T ORS- 1 IRD ORS- 2 RS * ORS- 3 REC ORS- 4 RE ORS- 5 RO ORS- 6 RI ORS- 7 PI ORS- 8 SRD ORS- 9 RA * ORS- 10 RIN tailed significance *.05, **.01 The results showed that Job satisfaction was positively and significantly correlated to Role Stagnation and Role Ambiguity among administrative officers. 8

9 Effect of Organizational role stress on Job Satisfaction 9 DISCUSSION Results of Table 1 showed that doctors (M=60.15) were significantly higher on Job satisfaction than teachers (M=58.30). The t-ratio is (p<.05). It was also showed that administrative officers (M=58.99) were significantly higher on Job satisfaction than teachers (M=58.30). The t-ratio is.872 (p<.05). These working women must be having a better attitude towards their jobs, and are influenced by the facilities and job security provided in the government job as compared to the private sector jobs. Working women in government organizations get some special facilities like they are not forced to work during the night shifts, they may be provided housing and transport facilities to the place of job and special facilities like crèche for their children and maternity leave. These facilities with a notion of job security in them help them to build self confidence and therefore they can fight back the environmental stress better and cope with the family environment in a better way. The results showed that Job satisfaction was positively and significantly correlated to Role Stagnation and Role Ambiguity among administrative officers. The result can be explained on the basis of interactional theories of stress which focus on the structural characteristics of the person s interaction with his work environment. Out of two particular interactional theories, Person- Environment Fit theory suggested that the goodness of fit between the person and his (work) environment frequently offers a better explanation of behavior than individual or situational differences (Bowers, 1973; Ekehammer, 1974). French et al (1982) gave two basic aspects of fit (a) the degree to which employee s attitudes and abilities meet the demands of the job. (b) the extent to which the job environment meets the work needs, and in particular the extent to which the individual is permitted and encouraged to use their knowledge and skills in the job setting. It has been found that stress is likely to occur, and well-being is likely to be affected, when there is lack of fit in either or both respects (French et al. 1974). It can be said that as regard the role stagnation and role ambiguity the components of organizational role stress is concerned administrative officers are higher on person-environment fit interactions i.e. between objective reality and subjective perceptions, and second, between environmental variables (E) and personal variables (P). 9

10 Effect of Organizational role stress on Job Satisfaction 10 BIBLIOGRAPHY Bacharach, B. S., Bamberger, P. & Conley, S. (1991). Work-Home Conflict among Nurses and Engineers: Mediating the Impact of Role Stress on Burnout and Satisfaction at Work. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 12(1), Brayfield & Rothe (1951). An Index of Job Satisfaction. Journal of Applied Psychology, 35, Kahn, R.L., Wolfe, D.M., Quinn, R.P., Snoeck, J.D. & Rosenthal, R.A.(1964). Organizational stress, New York: Wiley. Kumari, K. & Sharma, S. (1990). Social support, organizational role stress and well-being. A study of Medicos. Psychological Studies, 35(3), McCormic & Tiffin, J. (1974). Industrial Psychology.(6 th ed.) New Jersey: Prentice Hall Inc. Mishra, P.C. (1989). Responsibility for the persons stress or as a moderator variable of the job satisfaction, job involvement relationship. Advances in Psychology, 4(1), Pareek, U. (1976). Interrole exploration. In J.W. Pfeiffer &J.E. Johnes(Eds.). The 1976 Annual handbook for group facilitators lajalla, California: University Association, Pareek, U. (1981). ORS Scale: Measuring Role Stress. Ahmedabad: Indian Institute of Management. Pareek, U. (1983). Role stress. Indian Institute of Ahmedabad. Navin Publications. Revicki, D.A. & May, H.J. (1989). Organizational characteristics, occupational stress, and mental health in nurses. Behavioral Medicine,15(1),30-6. Sauter, S. L., Lim, S.-Y., & Murphy, L. R. (1996). Organizational health: A new paradigm for occupational stress research at NIOSH. Japanese Journal of Occupational Mental Health, 4, Selye, H. (1936). A syndrome produced by diverse noxious agents. Nature, 138, Spielberger, C. (1980). Preliminary manual for the state-trait anger scale. Tampa, FL: University of South Florida. 10

EMPLOYEE MORALE AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH JOB STRESS

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