The
Impact of Job Stress and Empowerment
on Employees Performance. An
Analysis of Private and Public Sector
Universities of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa,
Pakistan
Muhammad Khalil Ur Rahman (1)
Nazia Azim (2)
(1) MS-Scholar, Institute of Business
Studies and Leadership, Abdul Wali
Khan University, Mardan
(2) Lecturer in Department of Computer
Science, Abdul Wali Khan University,
Mardan, Pakistan
Corresponding author:
Muhammad Khalil Ur Rahman
Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan,
Pakistan
Email: Khalilhr04@gmail.com
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to examine
the impact of job stress and empowerment
on employees performance. The
study was conducted in the public
and private sector universities of
Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, Pakistan. A sample
size of 280 employees was selected
using convenient sampling techniques.
The data was collected from Professors,
Associate Professors, Assistant Professors
and Lecturers level of employees.
280 questionnaires were distributed
among these employees out of whom
240 filled questionnaires were received
forming a percentage of 85.71%. In
these filled questionnaires 13 questionnaires
were discarded because they were improperly
filled out while 227 properly filled
questionnaires were used for data
analysis. Data was analyzed through
reliability analysis, demographic
analysis, correlation analysis and
regression analysis. Findings of the
study reveal that there is significant
relationship of job stress and empowerment
on employees performance in
the public and private sector universities
of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa Pakistan.
Key words: Job Stress, empowerment,
employees performance.
Please cite
this article as: Muhammad Khalil Ur
Rahman, Nazia Azim. The Impact of
Job Stress and Empowerment on Employees
Performance. An Analysis of Private
and Public Sector Universities of
Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Middle
East Journal of Business. 2018; 13(1):
8-12. DOI: 10.5742/MEJB.2018.93373
Introduction
Stress
is a unique term which is used in
different forms in the previous theories
and research. Hans Selye was one of
the founding father of stress research.
Selye (1936), first introduced the
idea of stress the life science and
defined stress as the force, tension
or pressure subjected upon an individual
who resists these forces and attempts
to uphold its true state. His view
in 1956 was that stress in not necessarily
something bad but also it depends
on how you take it. Moreover, Robbins
(1996), assumed stress is the active
state of mind in which a human-being
faces both an opportunity and constraints.
In addition, Sauter and Murphy 1999,
assumed stress is the critical reaction
of the human body that results when
job requirements do not match with
the intended capabilities or environment.
Similarly, Mahfood, Pollock and Longmire
(2013), discussed that stress has
many forms but one of the specific
form of stress for humans is job stress.
Summers (1995), suggested that job
stress is mostly referred to the uncomfortable
feeling of an individual caused by
the changes of normal lifestyle. In
addition, Nwadiani (2006), job stress
is the disorganization in personality
and behavior due to the disturbance
of the emotional stability of the
individual.
Similarly, Blanchard (2003), viewed
that empowerment is a process which
help people to increase their self-confidence,
manage their powerlessness and helplessness
and to have the interest and intrinsic
motivation to accomplish tasks. In
addition, Baired and Wang (2010),
indicated that employee empowerment
is more relevant in todays competitive
environment where knowledge workers
are more prevalent. Researchers also
added that organizations are moving
towards decentralized, organic type
organizational structure. Moreover,
Heathfiled (2014), stated empowerment
is the processes that enable and authorize
individuals to think, take action,
make decision and control work independently.
Similarly, Meneze (2005), argued that
job performance is an activity in
which an individual is able to accomplish
the task assigned to him/her successfully,
subject to the normal constraints
of reasonable utilization of the available
resources.
Problem
statement
On
the basis of literature many researchers
are of the view that job stress and
empowerment has impact on employees
performance but at the same time researchers
have shown that some stressful work
and empowerment condition are critical
to maintain employee performance.
Hence the aim of this study was to
find out the impact of job stress
and empowerment on employees
performance. Via an analysis of the
public and private sector universities
of Khyber pukhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
Research questions
1. Is there any relationship
between job stress and empowerment
with employee performance among the
employees of public and private sector
universities of Khyber pukhtunkhwa,
Pakistan?
2. What is the impact of job
stress and empowerment with employee
performance among the employees of
public and private sector universities
of Khyber pukhtunkhwa, Pakistan?
Objective of the study
1. To examine the relationship
of job stress and empowerment on employees
performance in the public and private
sector universities of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa,
Pakistan.
2. To investigate the impact
of job stress and empowerment on employees
performance in public and private
sector universities of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa,
Pakistan.
Scope of the study
This study was conducted on public
and private sector universities of
Khyber pukhtunkhwa, Pakistan in order
to determine the impact of job stress
and empowerment on Professors, Associate
professors, Assistant Professors and
Lecturers.
Literature
review
Stress
According to Harreand Lamb (1983),
stress is the way in which individuals
identify and realize problems faced
by them, the way they react and attempt
to cope with them and the cost of
doing so. In contrast, Greenberg,
Carr, and Summers (2002), stated that
mental stress is caused by professed
or genuine challenge to an organisms
skill to convene its real or professed
requirements. Similarly, to Robbins
(2004), stress is a dynamic condition
in which an individual is confronted
with opportunity, constraint or demand
related to what he desires and for
which the outcome is perceived to
be both uncertain and important. From
this definition one can say that stress
is not necessarily bad, it also has
a positive value when it offers potential
gain. Moreover, Brown and Harvey (2006),
concluded that stress is the interaction
between the individual and environment
which results in his or her mental
or physical conditions. In addition
Topper (2007), identified that stress
is the perception of inconsistencies
of environmental demands and individual
demands. Furthermore, Rue and Byars,
(2007), argued that stress is the
deficit of physical and mental conditions
by perceived danger.
Job stress
Cooper et al., (1996) stated that
job stress is expensive to human being,
associations and humanity at managerial
stage. Klink, Blonk and Schene (2001),
discussed that at the human being
stage it may be patent in the form
of irritation, nervousness and sleep
disorder. Wheeler and Riding (2002),
stated that at managerial stage job
stress may effect on expenses because
of increase in absentisem. Santos
and Cox (2002), also stated that by
product of job stress can be affect
the customer in the shape of defective
goods and unhelpful performance such
as discourtesy. Demerouti et al.,
(2003) argued that there is a buffer
between job stress and creativity.
But other researcher like Hon and
Kim (2003) show that employees have
a positive behavior towards the job
and organization when they do work
under job stress. Furthermore, Hon,
Wilco and Lin (2012), say job stress
is one of the topics which are discussed
generally and approximately in the
world. Because it has an impact on
psychological capability of the employees
through which they have no ability
to perform effectively in their organization.
Moreover, Groen, Wouters and Wilderom
(2012), say Job stress with mental
capabilities or internal state of
mind is not only linked, but it also
effects on creative performance.
Employees empowerment
Accourding to Thorlakson and Murray
(1996), it is assumed that empowerment
relates to getting workers to do what
needs to be done and not to tell them
what to do. In addition, Conger and
Kanungo (1998), demonstrated that
empowerment has two approaches. The
first approach is termed as situational
approach and the second approach is
called psychological approach. The
situational approach is concerned
with transferring the power from higher
management to lower management by
enabling them to make decisions while
the second approach concerned with
low decision making processes. Furthermore,
Savery and Luks (2001), in their survey
proposed that empowerment is to share
management power normally for two
reasons. The first is to develop improved
employees and organizational performance
and the second to help employees attain
personal goals. In addition, Savery
and Luks (2001), proposed that empowerment
in workplace decrease perceived stress
which arises from organizational change
and increased productivity. Stress
less when workers no longer need to
report to someone a daily basis. Empowerment
gives employees themselves responsiblity
over their achievements. Petter et
al., (2002) has assumed seven dimensions
of empowerment such as autonomy, power,
initiative and creativity, responsibility,
knowledge and skills, decision making
and information.
Employees performance
Scott (1966), demonstrated that employees
performance is the total output that
employees give to an organization,
which it recognizes. Researcher also
stated that employees performance
is the sum of total abilities, opportunities
and motivation. Similarly, Meneze
(2005), argued that job performance
is an activity in which an individual
is able to accomplish the task assigned
to him/her successfully, subject to
the normal constraints of reasonable
utilization of the available resources.
Moreover, Brown (2012), asserts that
best employees performance can
be achieved in presence of adequate
balance such as employees who may
have proper authority, control and
empowerment to make effective decisions.
Meyerson and Dewettinck (2012), found
different types of relationship between
job stress and empowerment with employees
performance. First is the inverse
relationship between job stress and
empowerment with employees performance
where a rise in the level of job stress
and empowerment decreases the employees
performance. Second is the direct
relation where rise in the level of
job stress and empowerment increase
job performance. The third is that
job stress and empowerment makes a
U shape with employees performance.
Hypotheses
H1: There is an impact of job stress
on employee performance.
H2: Employees empowerment has
impact on employees performance.
On the basis of literature the following
conceptual framework of job stress
and empowerment with employees
performance has been developed.
Research Methodology
Primary data has been used in this
study and the data was gathered from
different public and private sector
universities of Khyber pukhtunkhwa,
Pakistan. Responses were obtained
from different Professors, Associate
Professors, Assistant Professors and
Lecturers serving in various disciplines
such as management science, computer
science, biological science, textile
and fashion. This research is Quantative
in nature. A survey was conducted
using closed ended questionnaires.
Stratified sampling technique has
been utilized in this study. The total
respondents were 227 and reliability
analysis, demographic analysis, correlation
analysis and regression analysis were
used in this study.
Conceptual Model
Analysis and
Result
Table 1
Table 1 shows the independent variable
(job stress, empowerment) number of
items and dependent variable (employees
performance) number of items. The
job stress number of items are 14
while empowerment number of items
are 15, employees performance
number of items are 7 and 36 are the
total number of items. According to
the below table below the Cronbachs
alpha for job stress and empowerment
are 0.830 and 0.720 while for employees
performance is 0.80 which shows that
there is high level of consistency.
Hence the reliability statistics indicate
that Cronbachs alpha is approximately
0.81 for all variables, which also
shows that high level of consistency.
Table 2 describes demographic analysis
of the study and each category is
explained below.
Designation
Data for this study was collected
from 227 faculty members of these
universities i.e., Lecturers, Assistant
Professors, Associate Professors and
Professors as well, out of which 70%
were Lecturers, 19.8% were Assistant
Professors, 9% were Associate Professors
and 1.8% were full Professors. The
result of designation in demographics
specifies that most of the respondents
in the study were Lecturers.
Gender
The next column is related to the
gender of the respondents. The demographic
characteristic show that the majority
of the respondents are male with 197(86.8%)
and 30(13.2%) female.
Age
On age profile 30 (13.2%) were between
26 to 30 years old. 110 (48.5%) respondents
were of age from 31 to 35 years old,
36 to 40 years old revealed a number
of 59 (26.0%) while 28 (12.3%) were
of age category above 40 years.
Education
In terms of qualification profile,
the findings revealed that Master
degree holder are 69(30.4%), MS/M
Phil degree holders are 113 (49.8%),
PhD degree holders are 44(19.4%) and
1 (0.4%) respondents belonged to other
qualification.
Table 2
Table 3 shows correlation among
dependent and independent variables.
The value of independent and dependent
variable at (p=0.000 < 0.05) shows
that there is positive relationship
among independent variable (job stress,
empowerment) and dependent variable
(employees performance).
Table 3
**p<0.05, *p<0.01
Table 4 shows regression analysis
of independent variable (job stress,
empowerment) and dependent variable
(employees performance). The
value of Hypothesis 1 indicate that
there is a significantly positive
impact of job stress on employee performance
which is proved by the value of R
square (0.298) and T (2.756). Moreover,
F-test static value (47.280) is very
large which shows that the model is
good enough. Similarly, the value
of Hypothesis 2 also indicates that
there is positive impact on employee
performance. Hypothesis is accepted,
R square (.462), T (7.624) with significant
value of 0.00. Along with it, if we
look at the goodness of fit of the
model which is exposed by the F-test
static value (38.23) is also high
and shows that the overall model is
fit.
Table 4
Conclusion
The objective of this study was to
find out the impact of job stress
and empowerment on employees
performance in the public and private
sector universities of Khyber pukhtunkhwa
Pakistan. Analysis shows a close relationship
between independent and dependent
variable. It also concludes that employees
who are working in the public and
private sector universities shows
job stress and empowerment as a real
challenge. It also important to continuously
monitor the working environment for
job stress and empowerment related
purposes. Moreover, this study also
concludes that the majority of employees
like job stress and empowerment and
that will increase their employees
performance.
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