Impact of Stress on working Environment of Government Employees

Table of Contents

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
1.1.1 Concept of Stress and Its Effect
1.2 Statement of the Problem
1.3 Significance of the Study
1.4 Research Objectives
1.5 Research Hypothesis
1.6 Theoretical Framework
1.6.1 Transactional model of stress
1.6.2 Other Stress Related Theories
1.7 Conceptual Framework of the Study
1.9 Operational Definitions of Key words
1.10 Delimitation of Study
1.11 Limitation of study

LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Organizational stress
2.2 Job stress
2.3 Work-related Stress
2.3.1 Symptoms of stress
2.4 Direct and moderator effects of work locus of control
2.5 Theoretical Approaches of Stress and Stress Management
2.5.1The life change model
2.5.2 Transactional model
2.5.3 Stress- Stressor and Strain model
2.6 Coping with Stress
2.6.1 Strategies for Managing Job Stress
2.7 Mental Health
2.8 Mental Health in Organization

CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Methodological Approach
3.2 Research Design
3.3 Sampling Design
3.3.1 Universe and Sample Size
3.3.2 Study Unit
3.3.3 Sample Selection Criteria
3.4 Data Collection Strategies
3.4.1 Sources of Data
3.4.2 Nature of Data
3.4.3 Data Collection Tools
3.5 Formation of Data Collection Instruments
3.6 Validity and Reliability of Data Collection Tools
3.7 Scales of Measurement of Data
3.8 Data collection procedure
3.9 Data Analysis Plan
3.10 Time plan

FINDING AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Demographic Characteristics of Respondents
4.1.1 Gender Distribution
4.1.2 Educational Status of Respondents
4.1.3 Marital Status of Respondents
4.1.4 Family Structure of Respondents
4.1.5 Occupational Distribution
4.1.6 Position of respondents
4.2 Level of stress on Government Officers Related to Their Job Roles
4.2.1 Crosstab between Organizational Role Stress and Position of Respondents
4.2.2 Correlation between Position and Occupational Role Stresses
4.2.3 Multiple Comparisons between Occupational Role Stress and Position
Table 9: Multiple Comparisons between Occupational Role Stress and Position
4.2.4 Crosstab between the Level of Total Role Stress and Occupation
4.3 Factors Related to Stress Level of the Technical and Non-technical Job Holders
4.3.1 Cross-Tabulation between Organizational Role Stress and Occupation
4.3.3 Individual Stress Causing Factors
4.3.4 Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) for Stress Causing Factors
4.3.5 Multiple Comparisons of Individual Stress Causing Factors
4.3.6 Total Stress Causing Factors
4.3.7 Multiple Comparisons of Total Stress Causing factors
Table 17: Multiple Comparisons of Total Stress Causing factors
4.4 Difference in the Level of Total Role Stress between the Officers Having the Individualistic Values and the Collectivistic Values
4.4.1 Job Holders’ Values
4.4.2 Individualistic Values and Level of Stress
4.4.3 Collective Values and Level of Stress
4.4.4 Total Role Stress between the Officers Having the Individualistic and the Collectivistic Values
4.4.5 Analysis of Variance of Individual and Collective Values with Technical and Non-Technical officers
4.4.6 Multiple Comparisons of Position and Individual and Collective Value
Table 23: Multiple Comparisons of Position and Individual and Collective Value
4.5 Comparison of the Relationship between Job-Stress and Mental Health of Government Officers
4.5.1 Correlation between the Occupational Role Stress and Mental Health Inventory
4.5.2 Impact of Stress on Mental and Physical Health in Total
4.5.4 Regression Analysis between the Role Stress and Mental Health
4.6 Effects of Coping Strategies in Relation to Role Stress and Mental Health
4.6.1 Categories of Coping Strategies
4.6.2 Coping Strategy Scale Total in Between and Within Groups
4.6.3 Multiple Comparisons of Position on the Basis of Coping Strategy
Table 30: Multiple Comparisons of Position on the Basis of Coping Strategy
4.6.4 Dimension of Mental Health
4.6.5 Mental Health Inventory between and within the Group
4.6.6 Multiple Comparisons of Position on the Basis of Mental Health
4.6.7 Association between the coping strategies and role stress
4.6.8 Correlation between the Coping Strategies and Role Stress
4.6.10 Correlation between the Coping Strategies and mental Health Inventory
4.6.11 Regression Analysis between the Coping Mechanism and Total Role Stress
4.6.13Gender-Wise Analysis of Role Stress, Values, Mental Health and Coping Mechanism
Table 40: 4.6.13Gender-Wise Analysis of Role Stress, Values, Mental Health and Coping Mechanism
4.6.14 Relationship between Organizational Role and Mental Health
Table 42: Relationship between Organizational Role and Mental Health

KEY FINDING, SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
5.1 Key Findings of the Study
5.2 Summary of the Study
5.3 Conclusion of the Study
5.3.1 Testing of Research Hypotheses
5.3.2 Testing of Theory, the Transactional Model of Stress
5.4 Recommendations from Study

REFERENCES

APPENDICES
APPENDIX – I
APPENDIX – II
APPENDIX – III

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Gender distribution

Table 2: Education of respondents

Table 3: Marital status of respondents

Table 4: Family structure of respondents

Table 5: Occupational distribution of respondents

Table 6: Position of respondents

Table 7. Level of stress

Table 8: ANOVA of ORS with position

Table 9: Multiple comparisons between occupational role stress and position

Table 10: Level of total role stress and occupation

Table 11. Organizational role stress and occupation

Table 12: Mean score of ORS by occupation type

Table 13: Stress causing factors- descriptive analysis

Table 14: F –test for stress causing factors

Table 15: Multiple comparisons of stress causing factors

Table 16: F-test of total stress causing factors

Table 17: Multiple comparisons of total stress causing factors

Table 18: Stress check list score by job holders value

Table 19: Individual values categories and occupation

Table 20: Collective values categories and Occupation

Table 21: Level of total role stress and CV/IV

Table 22: ANOVA of individual/collective values with technical and non-technical officers

Table 23: Multiple comparisons of position and individual and collective value

Table 24: Correlation between the occupational role stress and mental health inventory

Table 25: Impact of Stress in mental and physical health in total

Table 26: Multiple comparisons of positions and mental health

Table 27: Regression analysis of role stress and mental health

Table 28: Coping strategy scale total

Table 29: Multiple comparisons of position on the basis of coping strategy

Table 30: Mental health inventory between and within group

Table 31: Multiple comparisons of position on the basis of mental health

Table 32: Association between the coping strategies and role stress

Table 33: Correlation between the coping strategies and role stress

Table 34: Association between the coping strategies and mental health inventory

Table 35: Correlation between the coping strategies and mental health inventory

Table 36: Regression analysis between the coping mechanism and Total role stress

Table 37: Regression analysis between the coping mechanism and mental health

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Transactional model of stress

Figure 2: Conceptual framework of organizational role stress based on 'transactional model of stress'

Figure 3: A multidimensional model of consumer coping

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Chapter one explains the basic introduction, covering the background of the study, statement of research problem, significance of the study, research objective and hypothesis, theory, conceptual framework, philosophy, operational definition of key words, delimitation and limitation of the study. It gives the ontology, that meaning the theory of reality in case of research problem therein.

1.1 Background of the Study

Stress is a part of people's daily life. Researches indicate that the psychosocial stress alone is behind the causes to many physical and mental problems and diseases. Despite many physical comforts and luxuries of modern civilization, people are facing more and more problems and experiencing incremental stress resulting into their psychological disturbance. Whatever may be the sources of stress, it has various effects on the behavior of a person, causing adjustment problems in daily life. However, the effect of stress also varies in case of each individual. It is a challenging issue equally in the developing and developed countries across the globe.

Modernization of human society and consequent achievements are continuously increasing which tremendously add pressure on the work force in society. That creates lots of bitter experience and frustration in an individual, which eventually can result in a stressful life. So, stress has become a buzzword all over the world. As is known, it has both positive and negative consequences. However, in the organizational context, researchers are equally concerned with negative consequences because negative stress is closely related to poor health and low performance. Stress has the relationship with human survival. The ever-growing demands of family, complexity of society, ever-changing patterns of human life's demand, privatization and globalization, etc. add mounting pressure in the individual. Obviously, it is quite difficult to a person to adjust with such fast-changing world. This complex situation, in turn, generates more stress.

Organizations are facing high competition to achieve the goal within a given period. Here, the question is not only to achieve the organizational goal but also to provide quality service to the people. In this scenario, organization prefers highly motivated, creative, competent and healthy human resource that can provide the quality services to the people more efficiently and boost the organizational image. This situation certainly demands a lot of hard work and time, which exert much stress on an employee. Organizational variables such as, role conflict, role demands, role ambiguity, negative attitudes towards work, negative work culture, individualism, poor coping strategies etc. increase the level of stress in the employees. In addition to the organizational variables, individual has to fulfill his or her own as well as others’ demands that arise with uncontrolled, unavoidable developing countries' variables such as poverty, high aspirations, transitional nature of society, rapidly changing socio-cultural norms and values, ethical dilemma, family rift etc. These are critical variables, which trigger the stress level of an individual. Thus, such factors contribute to create individual as well as organizational stress in turn and affect the physical as well as mental health and behavior of an employee.

From a different perspective, with the globalization of the world economy, rapid development of society and rapid changes in the value system, economic growth, and demands are increasing both in the individual as well as organizational setting. The most effective way for managing job stress is reducing the causes of stress in the workplace.

A systematic study of work stress and wellbeing of administrators in Nepal would be valuable need for the individual and organization to improve and enhance both mental and physical health and productivity could be an urgent issue.

Workplace stress has recently received attention from managerial executives in Nepal. Nepal is undergoing enormous economic and social changes, with the transformation of its industrial structure from being labor-intensive to technological one. However, organizational and management processes are still conducted in very autocratic ways, such as decision making behind closed doors, top-down communications, and emphasis on policy implementation without employees' consultations. All these features inherent in Nepalese organizations and management processes may lead to huge psychological workload and lower decision latitude. Yet, Nepal is more collectivist than other western countries, so, autocratic management is accepted to a greater extent, or even expected by managers because authoritarian control is a legitimate paternal attribute to that. Therefore, administrators in any post could perceive pressure, even-though the managers in any places might have perceived autocratic management as a source of stress.

Nepalese society and its institutions are under pressure to change. Public confidence in government has been declining gradually. People’s expectations are high and government organizations are expected to be innovative and service-oriented. Globalization, economic pressure, introduction of new technology, increased demand of better quality of life, undue political pressure in the job setting create a lot of stress to the employees in all levels. In addition, downsizing of bureaucracy, ambiguous rule and regulations of the government, autocratic leadership in nature, unplanned human resource management, political pressure for the unethical work, and the Namaste culture are the hindrances to the development of competent and efficient civil service and have created massive stress within an employee. However, Nepalese people are expecting a competent, dynamic and transparent civil servant in their day-to-day job. Hence, it is very essential to develop healthy individual who can ensure effective and efficient delivery to the public.

The above-mentioned factors are equally applicable to the technical as well as non-technical officers. In the study, technical and non-technical mean the conventional approach set by the Public Service Commission of Nepal (PSC). The PSC is only the government institution that has the right to recruit and select civil servants for the government. According to the PSC's conventional approach has divided the job into two categories. First type of job is known as administrative and the second as technical. Here, administrative job means non-technical because in this job, the person can be posted anywhere in government service as per the government need. In another word, this post is transferable or interchangeable within the ministry and departments. As per the rule, it is clearly mentioned that all the promotion and transfer system should be governed by the rule and regulations of the government of Nepal, but, in practice, it is not like that. Common observation and grievances of employee indicate that they are suffering from the malpractices of the organizations or their leaders. This increases immense stress within an individual. They have no place or system developed by the organization to express their feeling and emotions and that type of event eventually leads the individual to more stressful life.

That is why, this study aims to find out how far job role, role ambiguity, job demand, job conflict contribute to stress level between the two types of job (technical and non-technical) holders and its effect on mental health.

1.1.1 Concept of Stress and Its Effect

Hans Selye is frequently claimed to be the father of stress concept. However, in his pioneer paper, a brief note in Nature, the term stress was not used. In his original 1936 paper, Selye simply described general, non-specific adaptation and mal-adaptation phenomena in rats exposed to various nocuous agents like cold, surgical injury, spinal shock, or sub lethal intoxications, as per cited author as the source (Holger Ursin, 2004, p. 569).

Differences in individual characteristics such as personality and coping skills can be very important in predicting whether certain job conditions will result in stress. Stress-related disorders encompass a broad array of conditions, including psychological disorders and other types of emotional strain, maladaptive behaviors, cognitive impairment and various biological reactions that may ultimately lead to a compromised health. Categories of work demands that may cause stress include: task demands, role demands, interpersonal demands, and physical demands.

Friedman and Rosenman coined four general types of reactions to stress. The normal one, follows an action of defense after being alert, the defense can be ineffective due to high anxiety among neurotic states of mind; the psychotic symptoms, in whose onset an alarm may be misperceived or even ignored and psycho-physiological cases in which defense by psyche fails, alert characteristic feat is translated into somatic changes(1974).

The term stress had carried the meaning of pressure or physical strain a few centuries back. By the early 20th century(Dunbar, 1943), Ahsan, Nilufar; Abdullah, Zaini; Fie, David Yong Gun; Alam, Syed Shah concerned with psychosomatic medicine added the dimension of stress to be a cause of ill health or mental disease. In the late 1930s’ Selye proposed a distinction between the cause of bodily disturbances and its effect. He reformed the external cause of stimulus as a stressor and the state of bodily disequilibrium as stress(2009). Selye introduced the concept of General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS). He believed that GAS is superimposed upon all individual diseases and manifestations of the non-specific responses of the body produced by a variety of such physical stressor as toxic substance, for example, heat, cold, immobilization or x-rays. As Selye described it, this syndrome consists of three stages of alarm reactions, a stage of resistance, and a stage of exhaustion, depending on the degree of chronicity of the stressor (1956; 1976).

Associated factors with these stages are increased hormonal secretion from the pituitary and adrenal glands, involution of the thymus, and the development of a certain type of stress are unclear. While concentrating attention to the bodies, physiological response to stressor agents ignores the role of psychological processes. It is now suggested that much of the physiological response is not directly determined by the actual presence of the stressor agents but by its psychological impact on the person.

Job stress results from the interaction of the worker and the conditions of work. Views differ on the importance of worker characteristics versus working conditions as the primary cause of job stress. The differing viewpoints suggest different ways to prevent stress at work. Differences in individual characteristics such as personality and coping skills can be very important in predicting whether certain job conditions will result in stress. In other words, what is stressful to one person may not be a problem to another.

Stress-related disorders encompass a broad array of conditions, including psychological disorders (e.g., depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder) and other types of emotional strain (e.g., dissatisfaction, fatigue, tension), maladaptive behaviors (e.g., aggression, substance abuse), and cognitive impairment (e.g., concentration and memory problems). Job stress is also associated with various biological reactions that may ultimately lead to compromised health, such as cardiovascular disease or in extreme cases a death.

Finally, stress affects the mental health of an individual. Mental health is an integral and essential component of health. The WHO constitution points out that health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity (2014). An important consequence of this definition is that mental health is more than just the absence of mental disorders or disabilities.

WHO report various factors in 2014 as the determinants of mental health. Multiple social, psychological, and biological factors determine the levels of mental health of a person at any point of time. For example, persistent socio-economic pressures are recognized risks to mental health for individuals and communities. The clearest evidence is associated with indicators of poverty including low level of education with, cultural discipline and skill training.

Poor mental health is also associated with rapid social change, stressful work conditions, gender discrimination, social exclusion, unhealthy lifestyle, risk of violence, ill physical health and human right violations.

There are also specific psychological and personality factors that make people vulnerable to mental disorders. Lastly, there are some biological causes of mental disorders including genetic factors and imbalances in a few hormonal and acidic chemicals in the brain.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

This chapter outlines the statement of the problem, specific objectives and the hypothesis formulated for the present study with reference to the background of the present problem of research.

This is an area of growing complexities and pressures for people where human constitution and capabilities are being taxed severally. Anxieties resulting from job stress have become an inevitable part of the present-day life of the majority of people. It has been significant and far-reaching effect on employees’ behavior and adjustment on as well as off the job. In fact, little amount of stress is essential for any toilsome person’s action. Hinkle has accordingly expressed that to be alive is to be under stress. However, it has been well established that excessive stress is aversive for the focal person (1973).

The apparent human and organizational consequences of the job stress found are thus certainly serious enough to warrant immediate scientific investigation of personal and organizational strategies for handling the labor borne exhaustive feats. The job role has been found to be the most common and frequent factor for duty bound satisfaction as well as frustration and stress had at daily works. Role stress is known to pose problems of adjustment for the individual, and its result may adversely affect his or her attitudes and behaviors within some belonged organization. A relationship between the role stress and mental health has been widely studied. Positive relationship was reported between role ambiguity and various symptoms of mental health, i.e. anxiety, depression and sentiment (Caplan & Jones, 1975), tension at work (Rizzo, House, & S.I., 1970). Role conflict was observed to be positively associated with discomfort, threat and anxiety, according to the corresponding source (1970).

Besides the above-mentioned role stressors, some other important potential job stressors also have been studied in connection with employees, psychological wellbeing. Nonparticipation in decision-making act was reported to be associated with low job satisfaction (French & Caplan, 1973).

A substantial number of researches has been done to examine the relationship between stress and individual performance. But the results obtained are not consistent. However, a moderate level of stress has been found to be the most effective in yielding maximum level of performances. This value is unique for an each individual and represents the level of stress at which a person’s performance or effectiveness is maximized in terms of a degree of outcome.

A few attempts have been made to examine the effect of job caused stresses and organizational effectiveness. Allen, Hitt and Greer found in their study in inverse (linear) relationship between occupational stress and organizational effectiveness (1982). Regarding the facts of above-mentioned problems, main focus of this study is to comparatively explore the organizational role stress among technical and non-technical government officers (class 1st – 3rd) of Nepal and its effect on mental health and their adopted coping strategies.

1.3 Significance of the Study

There are various sources of stress, and its effect is also varied. Stress is a body's method of reacting to a challenge. In humans, stress typically describes a negative condition or a positive condition that can have an impact on a person's mental and physical well-being. Chronic stress is seen to affect synaptic nerves of the brain, in which faculty memories are processed and stored along myriads of neurotransmitter cells. When people feel stressed, stress hormones get over-secreted, which affects the smooth function of brain. Brain is the central part of a human organic system, so it should be healthy for healthy and sound life. In this connection, researcher has tried to explore the effect of stress on mental health. When people feel stress then they follow the coping mechanism to reduce the same mental disorder. If stress cannot be managed in initial stage then it will make the people mentally unhealthy or can create mental disorders. So, causes of stress and its effect should be understood well enough.

In case of Nepalese government officers, they are working in the stressful environment. The stress is caused by inadequate training, delayed promotion, lack of exposure visits, insufficient incentives and many more. There are not a lot of motivational things for government officers in their job, so their job roles, office environment, public relation and job itself turn to be a source of stresses. In this regard, degree of stress level between the government officers and its effect on their mental health is important to know and it is equally important to grasp their coping mechanism in order to manage the stress.

In some points, researcher can highlight the importance and implication of this study:

- It supports to understand the level of stress among the technical and non-technical officer level employee of Nepal Government,
- The findings present the effect of stress on mental health and coping mechanism to manage the stress,
- It finds awareness of the people about the factors and status of stress among the government employees,
- It helps to understand the relationship between value effect and stress,
- It supports for the development of the staff’s administrative policy, capacity building program and motivational plan for planners, human resource manager, policy makers and managerial body of government and non-government offices,
- It encourages other researchers to apply the same research design in other sectors or organization to measure the stress of employees.

1.4 Research Objectives

With the above background, the present research was undertaken mainly to study the relation of role of stress to mental health of the employees and organizational effectiveness. The specific objectives of the investigation were as follows:

Main objective

The main objective of this study is to compare the organizational stress in reference to the organizational role, values, coping strategies and conditions of mental health of technical and non-technical government officers working in different ministries and departments of Nepal government.

Specific objectives

1. To identify level of stress in government officers in relation to their job roles.
2. To identify the factors related to stress level of the technical and non-technical job holders.
3. To find out differences between individualistic, collective values and the level of stress among technical and non-technical government employed officers.
4. To find out the relationship between job-stress and mental health of government officers.
5. To identify the mode of coping strategies in the relationship of role stress and mental health of respondents.

1.5 Research Hypothesis

In the light of available theoretical constructs and findings of the earlier researchers on the problem relating to the present study, following major hypothesis were formulated for the present investigation:

1. There is no significant difference among the government officers regarding their role stress.
2. There are not found significant relationships between the technical and non-technical government officers regarding the total organizational role stress.
3. There is no significant relation between the employee’s individualistic values and their level of stress
4. There is no significant relation between the employee’s collective values and their level of stress
5. There is no significant correlation between organizational role stress and mental health of employee.
6. There is no relationship between the coping strategy and job stress on employees.
7. There is no relationship between the coping strategy and mental health of employees.

1.6 Theoretical Framework

There are various theories found like existent in relation to the stress and stress management method. Some theories which explain the causes to stress are:

1.6.1 Transactional model of stress

History and Orientation

Stressors are anomalous temptation occurring due to external factors which are not adjustable by a normal mind of human beings. Lazarus et al describe stressors as the types of demand made by some internal or external environment that upset balance, thus affecting physical and psychological well-being and requiring action to restore balance (Lazarus & Cohen, 1977). Beginning in the 1960s and 1970s, stress was considered to be a transactional phenomenon dependent on the meaning of the stimulus to the perceiver (Lazarus R. , 1966; Antonovsky, Health, Stress, and Coping, 1979).

Core Assumptions and Statements

The Transactional Model of stress and Coping is a framework for evaluating the processes of coping with stressful events. Stressful experiences are construed as person-environment transactions. These transactions depend on the impact of the external stressor. This is mediated by firstly the person’s appraisal of the stressor and secondly on the social and cultural resources at his or her disposal (Lazarus R. , 1966; Antonovsky & Kats, 1967; Lazarus & Cohen, 1977; Cohen F. , 1984).

When faced with a stressor, a person evaluates the potential threat (primary appraisal). Primary appraisal is a person’s judgment about the significance of an event as stressful, positive, controllable, challenging or irrelevant. Facing a stressor, the second appraisal follows, which is an assessment of people’s coping resources and options (Cohen, 1984). Secondary appraisals address what one can do about the situation. Actual coping efforts aimed at regulation of the problem give rise to outcomes of the coping process (1984).

In the table below, the key constructs of the Transaction Model of Stress and Coping Method are summarized.

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Sources: (Glanz, Rimer, & Lewis, 2002)

The transactional model of stress has explained the transaction of stress from the environmental factors to individual through the pictorial chart as shown below:

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Source: (Stranks, 2005, p. 25)

Figure 1: Transactional Model of Stress

The major elements shown in the conceptual relationship of variables in transactional model of stress are explained below:

1. Source of stress at work: These include factors intrinsic to the job, the individual’s role in the organization, career development, relationships at work and the organizational structure and climate.
2. Individual characteristics: All people are different in respect of factors, such as their levels of anxiety and neuroticism and their tolerance for ambiguity. Some people may demonstrate ‘type A’ behavior. The effect of the homework interface is a source of stress, characterized by problems within the family, partners endeavoring to balance careers and occasional life crises.
3. Symptoms of occupational ill health: The sources of stress on the individual, together with his individual’s home-work circumstances and behavior patterns can result in excessive smoking and drinking, job dissatisfaction and reduced aspirations. This can lead to ill health, such as depression and heart trouble in some cases. The organizational symptoms arising from stress in the workplace include high labor turnover, strained industrial relations and high absenteeism.
4. The diseases: The outcome for individuals can be coronary heart disease (CHD) and mental ill health like psychiatric injury (Stranks, 2005).

1.6.2 Other Stress Related Theories

In addition to the theories stated above, another theoretical model, which is in existence for longtime, and to a large extent, has underpinned rest of the approaches to stress and well-being is meant to be a Person–Environment Fit (P–E fit) perspective. Another very popular theoretical model of the stress process is that developed by Hobfoll, which is known as the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory. This perspective bears marked similarity with the P–E fit model, specifically in that both approaches examine the interaction of the person and the environment, and the degree of correspondence between demands in the environment and the individual’s resources to deal with those demands (Philip J. Dewe, 2012).

1.7 Conceptual Framework of the Study

The conceptual idea shows the interrelationship between the sources of stress, status of stress, and its effect on the mental health. This is a pictorial idea designed by the present researcher to show an input, a process and output of the whole thesis.

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Figure 2 : Conceptual Framework of Organizational Role Stress based on Transactional Model of Stress

The above conceptual framework of organizational role stress is based on Transactional Model of Stress. As the concept of transactional model of stress, researcher has tried to show how situation transforms stress in an individual life. The conceptual framework presents the overall process and variable of this study. The study is focused to explore the effect of job stress on mental health and tries to identify the adopted coping mechanism. So, the framework first shows the environment as a situation of organization where eight types of organizational roles are assigned. If employee perceives the job stress then the situation transforms stress in employees' mind. They feel the stress, which finally affects the mental health or creates the problems on mental health. Researcher also tries to show the other determinants of stress. Just like, collective value (socio-cultural values), any individual has also his own individualistic values of life and their phenomena. Here, explanation is already made on the two types of values- collective and individual. From the viewpoint of perception, introvert people believe more in individual value while the extrovert ones believe in collective value. So, these values support to determine the level of stress. Researcher has also identified the stress causing factors. There are various stress-causing factors which are- individual interest, organizational working environment, motivational policy of government and other external factors.

Researcher assumed that when stress is felt by an individual then s/he will adopt some coping mechanism to manage the stress. Coping mechanism may be practiced by self or with direction of medical person or psychologist. Mental health status will be improved when people adopt the coping mechanism. So, researcher has presented the interrelationship between the job roles, stress factors, value system, coping mechanism and improved mental health status. It shows the transformation of stress from one situation to another does not occur haphazardly but in process.

1.8 Philosophical Backing of Study

The study was based on the post-positivist philosophy because the study was based on the deductive approach which tests the existing theories of stress. There-along the research is dependent on some ideal explanation so that belief should get into a new kind of logical derivation to add to the manifest traits of an already dealt system of learning. The whole set of data was collected by using the structured questionnaires survey. Each qualitative data was converted into quantitative data and conclusion was drawn on the basis of statistical analysis. By the nature of data analysis and interpretation, hypotheses were tested statistically and fact-findings will be drawn when researcher will believe in absolute reality as the positivist philosophy.

1.9 Operational Definitions of Key words

Stress: Stress is defined in terms of its physical and physiological effects on a person, and can be a mental, physical, or emotional strain. Stress occurs due to a demand that exceeds the individual's coping ability, disrupting his or her psychological equilibrium. Hence, in the workplace, stress occurs when the employee perceives a situation to be too stressful to handle, and is threatening to his or her well-being.

Stress management: Stress management refers to a wide spectrum of techniques and psychotherapies aimed at managing and controlling a person's level of stress, especially chronic stress, usually for the purpose of improving everyday functioning. Here, management refers to the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively.

Organizational role: An entity, such as an institution or an association that has a collective goal and is linked to an external environment. Organization is a place where formal activities are organized, and role means the expected behaviour and activities of an individual in an assigned organization.

Nature of the job: The nature of an employee's work is best defined as the type of work that she/he does. The complexity of the job performed by employees and the nature of the job are also directly related to one another in a fairly intricate fashion. Organizations are all structured in different ways, but it is clear that in nearly all organizations, the more complex work the employee performs, the more stress he gets. This can refer to the basic daily tasks that he carries out as part of his job. Another word for nature of job is type of job in a broad sense, or how the job is likely to be done, or aspects of the job that are likely to be encountered, what the job is like. As an example, the nature of a particular job may demand interaction with many people. It tends to be more general than specific. In this study, nature of job is studied through the lens of technical and non-technical job. Similarly, position of the respondents such as class 1, class 2 and class 3 also connote their nature of job itself, which has been examined in depth in this study. In this study, nature of job has been taken into considered as a factor as job itself.

Mental health: Mental health is defined as a state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope up with the normal stresses of life, can work productively, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community. The positive dimension of mental health is stressed in WHO's definition of health as contained in its constitution. It is widely said that health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

Coping strategy: Coping strategies refer to the specific efforts, both- behavioural and psychological, social and spiritual that people employ in order to master, to tolerate or to minimize stressful events.

Individual values: Values are one of the important elements that determine who any individuals are and how they behave with others all. If a person is bound by moral values he or she is taught how to behave and interact with others. People who lack these basic values may involve in untoward and unethical behaviour that can hurt both individual and organization.

1.10 Delimitation of Study

The study has some delimitation for proceeding towards a search of fact-findings. It has only included the government’s officer level staff working in the Kathmandu Valley, which may be varied with other strata and location of the government employees. Similarly, the study has only used the questionnaires survey as a data collection tool in a choice of some incomplete option.

1.11 Limitation of study

This study has several limitations. First, the study, a partial fulfilment of a Ph. D. thesis, is carried out in the Kathmandu Valley. Second, data were on a specific environment and group of professionals and belonging to specific work environment. Lastly, the scope of this is also limited in terms time availability and budget for such kind of study. Its inferences are difficult to be generalized because the study has limited control of other variables like multi-ethnic, multicultural ecological diversity, and landlocked characteristics.

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter has covered the previous literatures related to the organizational roles, stress and its effect on mental health and coping mechanism to address the same psychical abnormality in a man. It has also reviewed the theoretical approaches of psychological complaints and stress management. The published and unpublished journal articles, books, reports and international conference proceedings are taken for the need of literature review.

2.1 Organizational stress

Stress is a natural part of life. It occurs whenever significant changes occur in one’s life or in the environment or situation which may be positive or negative. Stress in workplace can be the consequence of conflicts between job demands and employee’s needs, expectations and the limited amount of control an employee has over meeting these demands.

The Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary of Taber defines stress as saying the result produced when a structure, system or organism is acted upon by forces that disrupt equilibrium or produce strain on nerve fibers in brain. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) defines stress as this is the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them. It also added that rather than an illness, stress is a condition but if it gets elongated and enlarged, development of mental and physical illness can occur. Stress in organization is often regarded as a price of success or a necessary evil to be brought out of work according to the corresponding source (Quick, 1984). However, the term evil is difficult to explain in a scientific term. Some amount of stress or tension is often necessary to motivate the individuals. According to J. Singh, excessive, continuous stress is harmful resulting in deterioration in employees’ adequate and satisfactory adjustment with various dimensions of his or her life. Absenteeism, turnover, poor motivation and job dissatisfaction have already been related with stress, the corresponding source claims (1995).

Stress is inevitable, and so, it is increasingly becoming a focus of variety of empirical investigations due to the human, social and economic costs attached to it as an attributive means (Beehr & Newman, 1978; Levi, 1981; Moss, 1981; Bhardwaj & Ahmad, 1985). Job role borne stress has been considered as a phenomenon of person environment misfit in the complex societies of a post-modern civilization. Cooper and Marshall have noted, that the meaning of occupational stress is meant negative environmental factors stressors associated with a particular job, as per a corresponding source (1976). Some researchers have reported occupational stress as disruption in individuals’ psychological or physiological homeostasis that forces them to deviate from normal functioning in interaction with their job and work environment. Caplan found that the effects of divergent job demands become manifest in such forms as job dissatisfaction, anxiety, depression and in some cases even serious mental and physiological problems ranging from all the way to coronary heart diseases (Caplan R. D., 1972). Moreover, stress affects not only mental and physical levels but also hampers the smooth functioning of any given organization in a behavioral perspective in human society. (French, Caplan, & Van Harrison, 1982; House J. , 1974). Different scientific studies on stress had already been conducted to understand how stress affects to performance, workers’ satisfaction level and their health related issues. Nevertheless, work and non-work (e.g. family) stresses probably interact with an each other in a large fashion.

Ivancevich and Matteson found that job stress is directly associated with the role people play or the tasks they have to accomplish in their some belonged organization. They include sources of stress associated with role ambiguity, role conflict, quantitative role overload, career development and responsibility for people. Such conditions may interfere with normal or physiological functioning if they perceived as stressful (1980). Some type of stress is considered normal as it may be considered as challenge or positive stress but when stress surpasses the amounts that individuals cannot cope with, both mental and physical changes may occur, as per the relevant source (Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, 2000).

Job stressors have been correlated to poor job performance and it leads to feelings of being under certain substantial time pressure as well as depression (Parker, 1983).Mounting stress can create stressors in its troubled people, which can lead to the consequence of job burnout situation before their regular style and demeanor as feasible. The American Institute of Stress (2006) reported that stress oriented accidents, absenteeism, employee turnover, reduced productivity, medical and insurance costs and workers’ compensation costs inclusively of U.S. businesses between $200 and $300 billion each year (As cited in Reinardy, 2012). Both stress and its burnout to role outreach are felt by clinicians and staffs in health care organizations also due to their job and unique pressures of the medical field. But, as per an authentic source, the result of stress and burnout does not only affect the health and well-being of employees but for the patients through poor quality care(Hayashi, Selia, & MDonnell, 2009). Further there are multiple effects of stress in individual, family and social life. It is also found that thos e parents who bring stress at home from their job places can introduce the unwanted psychic disorders into children’s lives (Heinrich, 2014).

In the just whatever similar manner, according to Naqvi, Khan, Kant and Khan, insufficient monetary rewards, rigidness in working hours, personal issues, low control over the work environment and bureaucratic management system are known to play a negative role on employees’ productivity. Stress is considered to be the cause behind an inclining rate of absence of employers and employees. It was found that absence of financial rewards created more job stress among the public health sector employees than other serious matters, as per the relevant source (2013).

Sax (1996) revealed that 61% of faculty mentioned that the negative activities of students become a major source of stress (As cited in Gates, 2000). According to Iqbal, Adnan & Kokash, Husam, in case of university, the department of management and administration should also concentrate on stress in faculty of Humanity basically on two sectors. These are students’ interaction and professional identity in order to reduce the stress among faculty members. Every single member of the faculty should be provided such an environment that he or she should cordially feel themselves being a part of the educational institution as per the relevant source (2011). Coping strategies like avoidance, transference, problem solving and optimism were found to be used by nursing students to deal with primary stress on one side as per the relevant source (Singh, Sharma, & Sharma, 2011). Secondary traumatic stress (STS), on the other, has been observed as an occupational hazard of providing direct services to traumatized populations. Hence, social workers involved in direct practice are prone to experience at least some symptoms of STS. Thus, independent of any other traumas that social workers may directly experience, the rate of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in social workers is twice that of the general population as per the relevant source (Bride, 2007).

Stress, in its characteristic sense, plays a negative role on individuals' personal and professional lives(McNeill & Jordan, 1993).Workplace stress has been proved to have awful impact on the health and well­being of employees as well as on the productivity and prosperity of the workplace(Melanie Bickford , 2005). According to the report, the illnesses linked to the prolonged exposure to a mental stress encompasses coronary heart disease, hypertension, some types of cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes mellitus, irritable bowel syndrome, depression, anxiety, ulcerative colitis, strokes, stomach and duodenal ulcers, the infection by bacterium helicobacterpylori, indigestion, heartburn with chronic fatigue syndrome.

Though the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV) does not consider stress of mind as a medical diagnosis but it contains a number of recognized psychiatric stress-related conditions such as acute stress disorder, adjustment disorder, major depressive disorder, bipolar disorders, general anxiety disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, as per a relevant source (Ratelband & Flanagan, 2003).

Stigma may be especially stressful compared to other types of stressors due to its nature of creating unique demands on individuals. For instance, prejudice and discrimination are the common source of stress for stigmatized population whereas for non-stigmatized population, it may occur in rare situations only.

The workplace which is extremely stressed leads to absenteeism, lack of involvement, lack of participation in decision making, apathy and indifference, lack of creativity or motivation as per a relevant source (Workplace Stress - General, 2008).

Stress can have both positive and negative effects on human being’s psychological and behavioral parts. In the most type examples, positive effect can be motivating whereas negative effect can lead to different physical and psychological problems through distress, rejection and depressive modes in the mental faculty of victim. It was revealed that 36 % Nepalese nurses cited lack of opportunity to discuss problems with peers as a low source of stress whereas 30% cited inadequate emotional preparation, 24% cited sexual harassment,20% cited discrimination because of race or ethnicity and 10% cited gender based discrimination. Similarly, a study revealed negative relationship between job stress and job satisfaction among academic staff in Malaysia. Role conflict, Relationship with others, Workload pressure, Home-work interface, Role ambiguity and Performance pressure were taken as job stressors. Motivation was found to be important factor affecting job stress among employees. It was claimed that negative job stress among the people responsible for assisting the future generation’s education will ultimately affect their intellectual and social abilities as per a relevant source (Ahsan, Abdullah, Fie, & Alam, 2009).

A study was conducted to assess the impact of an official stress on an employee’s job satisfaction. There 134 employees from telecom sector of Pakistan were taken for the study. It had revealed that stress caused due to several duty bound responsibilities played a negative role on an employee’s satisfaction about the already continued job. For this study, job stress was measured by using stressors such as workload, conflict at work and physical environment as per a relevant source (Mansoor, Fida, Nasir, & Ahmad, 2011).

Work stress paves a way for psychological burnout because of a overwhelming pressure over several initiative components busy in the right hemisphere of brain. According to Maslach, Schaufeli, & Leiter (2001), three basic features define burnout which is exhaustion, cynicism and inefficacy which are the consequences of chronic emotional and interpersonal work stressors. It was also mentioned that people can bear hefty workload if they appreciate their work and consider it as imperative task or if they feel their efforts is worth doing. Hence, these areas can be used for interventions to deal with burnout as per a relevant source (2001).

Kulkarni, Bell, Hartman, & Herman-Smith, explained, on one hand, working with domestic violence survivors can be highly stressful as it keeps the workers at high risk for burnout and secondary traumatic stress. On the other hand too, such work can be meaningful for service providers who take their work as source of satisfaction. From this it can be said that with space of time and experience, workers in this field have been able to cope such a stressful job by the use of different strategies.

A study was done to assess the relationship between job satisfaction and job stress along-with work outcomes, such as an intention to leave the employer and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Stressful work and OCB were found to have no relationship at all but stressful work was found to increase the desire to leave the current job. Satisfaction on job had a positive negative relationship with OCB but it played a strong negative role on employees’ intention to leave. It was revealed that employee who is satisfied with his/her job can easily cope with his or her stressful work due to the environment provided at his/her working environment(Paillé, 2011).

A study was conducted to assess the relationship between job stress and job performance on finance department contained employees of banking sector in Pakistan. Stressors such as overload, role ambiguity, role conflict, responsibility for people, participation, lack of feedback, keeping the pace with advancement of technology etc. were found to keep bankers in much stress. Negative correlation between job stress and job performances was found which should mean that job stress has an important role to decline the performance of an individual. The authors recommended that organization should have supportive environment in order to enhance the productivity of employees, as per a given authentic source (Bashir & Ramay, 2010).

Role stress can also be a significant source of problem in a some unique workplace. Role, conflict and role ambiguity have been studied extensively. Parasuraman and Alutto (1984) have shown how contextual task and role related variables interact with work stressors, e.g., inter unit conflict, technical problems, efficiency problems, role frustration, staff shortages, short lead times, and too many meetings, to produce negative outcomes. Similarly, Srivastava found that role stress (role conflict and role ambiguity) correlate positively by a significant statistical result with job provided anxiety and also negatively been so significant with need for an achievement as per a given authentic source (1985).

The main constructs of stressors which are role ambiguity and role conflict were found to be significant mediators of the relationship between employee socialization and organization commitment (Judeh, 2011).A positive relationship was found between job satisfaction and organizational commitment whereas a negative relationship was found between job satisfaction and role conflict thus characterized together by an additional dealing with ambiguity as per a given authentic source (Wu & Norman, 2006).

Several studies have shown that gender plays an important role in the level of work stress as women were found to be experiencing higher levels of toughness in an undertaking of duty as compared to men. At the same time, various studies and reviews showed no relationship between gender and level of stress at workplace. Hence, no solid conclusion can be drawn in terms of the role of gender in the level of workplace stress. But different studies revealed that multiple roles, lack of career progress and discrimination and stereotyping were found to be more common for women than for men, which had a negative impact upon especially for women as per a given authentic source (Gyllensten & Palmer, 2005).

Saeed and his associates revealed that when employees possess stressful burden of job feeling they lack the ability to perform well since where if they are emotionally attached with their subordinates and boss, they can perform that well as per a given authentic source (2013).

A study was conducted to assess relationships among personal coping resources, social support, external coping resources, job stressors and job strains in 110 employees undergoing a major organizational restructuring which revealed that personal coping resources, social support and external coping resources had a direct effect upon job stressor and strain levels as per a given authentic source (Shawa, Fieldsb, Thackerc, & Fisherd, 1993).

Occupational stress is a renowned problem among health care workers. The nurses working in accident and emergency department were found to have the stressors such as problem related to physical environment, work load, dealing with patients or their relatives and handling their anger, being exposed to health and safety hazards, lack of support by nursing administrators, a physician not being present in a medical emergency and lack of equipment. Self-control and positive reappraisal were found to be widely used strategy thereby. Emotion focused strategy was found to be more common a case as compared to problem focused approaches in the data based research on a psychological state, as per a given authentic source (Gholamzadeh, Sharif, & Rad, 2011).

Khan and his associates found that stress arising from role conflict and role ambiguity leads to anxiety, low self-confidence, greater futility and high job related tension. In another study, it was noted that stress caused from promotional lag was significant as per a given authentic source (1992).

In case of an organizational performance, stress and violence lead to rise in sickness, absenteeism, increased turnover rates and reduced productivity. The factors contribute to the costs to the organizations along with replacement costs and additional retirement costs as per a given authentic source (Hoel, Sparks, & Cooper, 2001).

Women managers from different racial backgrounds had been seen to face different types of tense situations through stressors such of work, family, personality and individual along-with extra-organizational sources as per a given authentic source (Suraj-Narayan, 2005). Ecological approach was found to be effective for them to manage stress by the use of a multidimensional approach.

In case of salespersons, job stress embarks as soon as they realize the difference between their job expectations and their real working environment. Lack of predictability of job, productivity pressure, the evergreen rising competition, changes in sales strategies etc. can aggravate the condition as per a given authentic source (Moncrief, Babakus, Cravens, & Johnston, 1997). It was found that decrease in role ambiguity and role conflict by managers would help to create a higher organizational commitment and lessen the chance of employees to resign their job.

In numbers considerable of other studies, it was a method of positive relationship between job and role stress showing symptoms of mental illness because of there onset various psychiatric disorders. Similarly, one of the studies denoted that role ambiguity also creates stress and strain situation on an only main cerebral region. Role overload is also a main factor, which produces high level of occupational stress. It is observed that the workers who are required to work for long with unnecessary hardship or too many tasks felt more stress and sustained more health risks than those many workers who are not required to work so as therei.

Thus, the impact of work and the work environment on individual is widely documented in a psychology concerned literature. Major reviews have highlighted the relationships organizational characteristics and job dissatisfaction, job let stress, physical and mental illness as per a given authentic source (Cooper C. , 1981; Cooper & Davidson, 1987).

Realizing the importance of the effect of the role provided stress on the mental health of individuals, many researchers have taken up an already considered issue for a purposive study. Over the years, a large body of research has accumulated on the topic of job stress as per a given authentic source (Quick, 1984; Cooper & Smith, 1985). Yet only a handful of studies have examined the stress coping processes of people in different working cultural setting as per a given authentic source (Newton & Keenan, 1985).

Occupational stress has its relationship with health and psychological problems in a number of major professions. A cross-cultural study on the effect of stress on value and mental health observed that personal/micro-social and macro-social stresses are more or less closely related to different values preferences.

In recent years, interest has been shifting from investigating the impact of stressors on individual stress responses to factors that intervene in the stress-illness relationship. Coping up strategies are attributed to a crucial role on intervention processes because average individuals of one community cannot remain in a continuous state of stress and tension had case. Even if some deliberate and conscious strategy is not adopted to deal with stress, some strategy is adopted. Various coping strategies have been explained and adopted by the experts in organizational setting. The most widely used coping classification system is said as if the way of coping checklist as per a given authentic source (Folkmal & Lazarus, 1980). They suggested that coping varies with a function of the situation being faced. They conceptualize coping as a dynamic process, which will be specific not only to the situation but also to the style of the encounter.

A number of researchers have made distinction between problem focused approach and emotion-focused avoidance in order for making coping strategies as per a given authentic source (Billings & Moos, 1981; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Problem focused coping strategies are directed towards the management of the problem, whereas emotion focused coping strategies deal with the associated level of emotional distress. Thus, the effectiveness of the mode of coping depends upon the nature of stress and outcome measures. However, there is sufficient evidence to suggest that the two types of coping strategies have different effects on the well-being state. One of the recent study noted that employees who adopted approach on mode of coping strategies suffer the relationship between job stress and manifested symptoms of poor mental health, whereas avoidance coping strategy intensified the positive relationship of the two. Similarly, another study reported that how people cope with stress is more important to somatic health than the frequency and severity of the stress episodes.

Job produced stress has been noted as an increasing problem for employees in western industrialized societies, particularly in the US, as per a given authentic source (Sauter & Murphy, 1995). It has been argued that researches and relevant theories were developed on almost all job caused stresses and were, therefore, empirically tested in Western industrialized countries, as per an authentic source (Xie, 1996; Jamal, 1999). However, the problem of organizational stress should also be particularly relevant for countries undergoing enormous economic, political, organizational and social changes.

In the view of Sparks et.al., study of 22 diverse nations at different stages of economic development, was found such that developing nations scored the highest rank on sources of pressure, reported the worst mental and physical health, but the greatest job satisfaction of the three economic groups like of developed, developing, and under-developed nations were categorized according to their Gross National Product (GNP) per capita income of peoples. The poor health of the developing group was attributed to the high stress the managers experienced at work, and the high job satisfaction, to the greater expectations and excitement about the future, and greater autonomy at work that these individuals may experience as a result of rapid changes taking place in their workplace.

Cooper, C.L. & Payne, R have jointly explained that stressful transactions are seen as a product of two intervening systems so as people both exert impact on outside agents and respond to their nearabout environments. In other words, the process of stress depends on the person’s appraisal of the situation that is what determines whether the situation is stressful or not. Stress occurs when the magnitude of the stressor exceeds the individual’s capacity to cope. For instance, workload is something that causes a person to feel stressed when he/she thinks that he/she is unable to cope with the large workload.

Cooper, Sloan & Williams, have harmoniously argued that well-being and job satisfaction are just feat of perception of stress outcomes as they are related to the individual’s turnover, absenteeism and job performance.

Many studies based on the Occupational Stress Indicator (OSI) conducted in Western societies have demonstrated that sources of stress at work are negatively related to workers’ job satisfaction and well-being, according to a some authentic source citation (Cooper & Payne, 1988; Robertson, Cooper, & Williams, 1990).

Lazarus and Folkman emphasized that stress is in part the result of lack of fit between individuals and their environment, and coping strategies can help to reduce strain caused by stress. In general meaning, there are two types of coping method such as problem-focused manner, in other words, taking constructive and direct approaches to solving problems, and emotion focused coping manner which is done through taking steps to mitigate the emotional response to problems, according to a some authentic source citation (1984).

As there criticized by Phillips and Pearson, one major limitation of this theory is its use of urban samples from Western countries. They argued that the Western emphasis on action-oriented coping only applies to relatively affluent communities that value individualism, and strategies that lead to social harmony such as social resources may be more appropriate in more collectively oriented cultures according to a some authentic source citation (1996). Some studies demonstrated that the most common coping strategies employed by Chinese subjects in the PRC, Hong Kong, and Taiwan are different from Western subjects(Hwang, 1977; Shek & Mak, 1987; Chen, 1988). Yet, these studies were conducted some time ago and they mainly used students as subjects. As Yang argued, social changes in Taiwanese society have brought about a shift in values, such as from collectivism to individualism. We expect this shift in value may have also taken place in China and Hong Kong as well as Taiwan in recent years. This might have led to changes in the coping process in Greater China, according to a some authentic source citation (1986 ).

It has been found that the use of coping can improve work satisfaction, reduce tension, lower turnover and absenteeism, and even lead to positive outcomes for both individuals and employers (Parkes, 1990; Nelson & Sutton, 1990). In a review provided by Semmer, people who have the tendency to employ problem-focused coping tend to have better mental and physical health(1996). Similar findings are obtained in Chinese societies. Siu found that control coping (e.g. plan ahead) was a predictor of job satisfaction, mental and physical well-being among blue-collar workers in China(1999).In a study conducted in the PRC, Yu et al. reported that the ‘logic’, a kind of problem-focused coping, was a predictor of job satisfaction and mental well-being(Yu, Sparks, & Cooper, 1998). In Taiwan, Lu et al. demonstrated that the use of coping (control and seeking support) was positively related to job satisfaction and well-being according to a some authentic source citation (1999).

Recently, it has been found that a system of support coping e.g. resorting to hobbies and pastimes, also called life-work balance by an emotional attitude and a mode of taking leisure respite, according to a some authentic source citation (Williams & Cooper, 1998), is also a kind of coping strategy to tackle stress according to a some authentic source citation (Siu O. , 1999). As the so-called Greater China is a country of more collectivist societies, it is expected that support coping would be a comparatively better beneficial plan there to other places. Therefore, people are to expect both control and support coping to have direct effects in the stress processes among managers in the only Greater China. That is, greater use of control and support coping will improve job satisfaction and well-being. Coping has been found to be a stress moderator variable in Western societies. For instance, Cohen et al. indicated that support buffers the impact of stressors on well-being (Cohen & Wills, 1985). However, research on the role of coping procedure as a stress moderator variable is found relatively rare in Chinese societies.

Lu et al. did not find any moderating effect of coping processes in case of a stress problem. There it will investigated about the moderating roles of control and support coping in the stress processes in Greater China, according to a some authentic source citation (1999).

Employees from bank branch and customers from 23 branches of a large commercial bank responded to questionnaires designed to assess issues regarding employees' perception of management's orientation to service and employees' own orientation to service. A casual relationship was evidenced between service orientation discrepancy, role stress, and employee outcomes. Positive outcomes were found significantly related to customers' perception of service quality.

Employees of community service oriented organizations often occupy boundary roles according to a some authentic source citation (Adams, 1976). That is, these employees often are as close psychologically, organizationally (hierarchically and geographically), and physically to the organization's clients as they are to other employees of the organization, or perhaps even closer. Because of this boundary position, service employee's function as information processors and filters according to a some authentic source citation (Aldrich & Herker, 1977), as representatives of the organization, and as formal or informal agents of the organization who influence the organization's clients according to a some authentic source citation (Thompson, 1967).

The relationships of service employees with clients have conceptualized to be a function of management's orientation to service according to a some authentic source citation (Crozier, 1964). Service orientation means the philosophy implied by (or attributed by others to) the policies, procedures, and goals of management according to a some authentic source citation (Adams, 1976; Schneider, 1973).

The Computer Science Center of the University of Maryland provided computer facilities for the data analyses reported a degree of organizational control, and trust in incumbents of boundary positions, as well as incumbents' satisfaction with membership in the organization, are related to the nature of employee-client relationships and the outcomes of those relationships. The service employee's boundary-spanning role has many potentially negative outcomes associated with it. Miles demonstrated that the nature of boundary roles exemplified with the terms intra-organization and inter-organization is such that role incumbents experience relatively high levels of role conflict according to a some authentic source citation (1976). More specifically, service employees in bureaucratic organizations who are required to serve both the system and clients or customers tend to experience role ambiguity and role conflict according to a some authentic source citation (Blau & Scott, 1962; Crozier, 1964; Kahn, Wolfe, Quinn, Snoek, & Rosenthal, 1964). In turn, role ambiguity and role conflict have been shown to be related to negative employee outcomes including mental and physical well-being and sources of stress have been demonstrated in previous studies by big scholars in Western countries and Chinese societies, according to a some authentic source citation (Siu & Cooper, 1998).

The direct and moderating effects of work locus of control have also been demonstrated in Chinese societies. In Hong Kong, it has been found that externals had lower job satisfaction and greater quitting intention among employees; and work locus of control moderated the stressor-strain relationships, in which a negative relationship between stressors and job satisfaction was found significant among externals according to a some authentic source citation (Siu &Cooper, 1998). In Taiwan, internal locus of control was found to be related to higher job satisfaction and better psychological well-being among industrial workers as well as clinical nurses according to a some authentic source citation (Lu, Shiau, & Cooper, Occupational stress in clinical nurses, 1997). However, no stress moderating effect of internal control has been reported.

Of the many job associated conditional factors proposed as sources of stress at work, role stress have been widely recognized as an antecedent of occupational stress according to a some authentic source citation (Cooper & Marshall, 1976; Rizzo R. J., 1972; Miles, 1976). Kahn et al. comprised three kinds in the process such as role conflict, role ambiguity, and role overload (Kahn, Wolfe, Quinn, Snoek, & Rosenthal, 1964). Role conflict is defined as the simultaneous occurrence of two or more sets of pressures in the way that compliance with the one makes it a difficult matter to comply with the other according to a some authentic source citation (Orpen, 1982). Role ambiguity is defined in terms of the lack of clarity of role expectations and demands and lack of predictability of behavioral outcomes according to a some authentic source citation (Martin, 1984). Role overload is defined as a condition in which an individual is assigned more work than he or she can effectively handle according to a some authentic source citation (R.H. & Perreault, 1976). Stress can lead to so-called strains. However, while some people are severely damaged under situations of heavy stress, others are not; i.e. the stressful situation does not always have absolute or unconditional association with adverse outcomes.

The stress-strain model, therefore, hypothesizes the existence of moderators that can moderate the impact of the system of the stress onto strain factor according to a some authentic source citation (Schaefer, 1981; Cleary & Kessler, 1982; Mitchell, 1983). These moderators include internal characteristics (i.e. personal resources) and situational characteristics or external conditions. Social support has been considered as the clearest model because of it being the best-established moderating construct and is the most widely recognized external stress-coping resource according to a some authentic source citation (Seers, 1983; Kessler., Price., & Wortman, 1985; F.H., Winnubst, Buunk, & de Wolff, 1988).

Although previous studies from western countries have yielded relatively consistent findings that certain job conditions lead to adverse outcomes and that stress and stress-coping resources directly influence strain mechanism in brain, the moderating effects of stress-coping resources appear to be a conflicting means according to a some authentic source citation (Blau G. , 1981; Menaghan & E.S., 1984; Tetrick & LaRocco, 1987).

The sources of social support seem to be an evidently important part as to whether the only same phenomenon is effective or not, e.g. some studies have reported that supervisor support has the largest moderating effect on strain manifestation, and that a conditional outreach from extra organizational persons had left little moderating effect as per the relevant source (House & Wells, 1978; G. & T.A., 1986).

Ganster, Fusilier, and Mayes who examined the interaction in terms of job stressors and social support according to sex, reported two moderating effects of obtained community level subsidiary to needy sections of whole web pattern of peoples’ relationship on somatic complaints. The study reported that the effects of social support might differ according to the types of role stress support provider and demographic and occupational status (e.g. sex and job status). The direct association of social support with mental health status was observed only for female clerks, and only for the support from supervisor and family members but neither for males as per the relevant source (1986).

In a workplace such as a bank, a male worker is almost always judged in terms of ability to perform his duty by himself and the fact that such performance largely influences promotion and thus he is less likely to seek any support at work. On the other hand, most female workers in Japan are often excluded from promotion opportunities, and thus they are more likely to seek supervisor support at work and their attitudes towards the work may be somewhat different from those of male workers.

As the interaction of social support and certain role stress with mental and psychological aspects as regards an individual status, they observed one moderating relationship, one enhancing instinct to behavioral changes and three convergent relationships. It seems worth discussing that the interactions of role overload and co-worker support was found in male and female clerks. That finding in male clerks about convergent relationship may indicate that under the situation of low to medium levels of role overload, co-worker support is effective to keep good mental health, but it becomes less effective at a higher level of role overload Lazarus and Folkman emphasized that stress is in part the result of lack of fit between individuals and their environment, and coping up strategies can help to reduce strain caused by stress on sensible organs as per the relevant source (1984).

As criticized by Phillips and Pearson, one major limitation of this theory is its use of urban samples from Western countries. They argued that the Western emphasis on action-oriented coping only applies to relatively affluent communities that value individualism, and strategies that lead to social harmony such as social resources may be more appropriate in more collectively oriented cultures as per the relevant source (1996). Some studies demonstrated that the most common coping strategies employed by Chinese subjects in the PRC, HongKong, and Taiwan are different from Western subjects as per the relevant source (Hwang, 1977; Shek & Mak, 1987; Chen, 1988).

As Yang argued, social changes in Taiwanese society have brought about a shift in taken place in China and Hong Kong as well as Taiwan in recent years. This might have led to changes in the coping process in Greater China(1986 ). It has been found that the use of coping can improve work satisfaction, reduce tension, lower turnover and absenteeism, and even lead to positive outcomes for both individuals and employers (Nelson & Sutton, 1990; Parkes, 1990). In a review provided by Semmer, people who have the tendency to employ problem-focused coping tend to have better mental and physical health. Similar findings are obtained in Chinese societies (Semmer, 1996). Siu found that control coping (e.g. plan ahead) was a predictor of job satisfaction, mental and physical well-being among blue-collar workers in China as per the relevant source (1999).

Yu et al. reported that so particular logic, a kind of problem-focused coping, was a predictor of job satisfaction and mental well-being (Yu, Sparks, & Cooper, 1998). In Taiwan, Lu et al. demonstrated that the use of coping (control and seekingsupport) was positively related to job satisfaction and well-being as per the relevant source (1999).

Recently, it has been found that the support coping e.g. resort to hobbies and pastimes, also called life–work balance by (Williams & Cooper, 1998), is also said the kind of deal with strategy to tackle stress as per the relevant source (Siu O. , 1999). As Greater China is a more collectivist society, it is expected that support coping would be more beneficial there. Therefore, we expect both control and support coping to have direct effects in the stress processes among managers in Greater China. That is, greater use of control and support coping will improve job satisfaction and well-being. Coping has been found to be a stress moderator variable in Western societies. For instance, Cohen and Wills (1985) indicated that support buffers the impact of stressors on well-being. However, research on the role of coping, as a stress moderator variable is relatively rare in Chinese societies(Cohen & Wills, 1985). Lu et al. did not find any moderating effect of coping in the stress processes as per the relevant source (Lu, Tseng, & Cooper, Managerial stress, job satisfaction and health in Taiwan, 1999).

2.2 Job stress

The very usual term stress is derived from Latin word stringer, where it denotes hardship of strain carried on simultaneously along adversity or affliction. It is a concept borrowed from the natural sciences. During the eighteenth or nineteenth century stress was equated with force, pressure, or strain exerted upon a material object or person, which resists these forces and attempts to maintain its original state by certain quite systematic law. The use of the concept in this fashion encourages physicists and engineers into adopting it to suit their ends. Thus, stress in engineering is known as: the ration of the internal force brought into play, when a substance is distorted to the area over which the force acts as per the relevant source (Hinkle L. E., 1973). In common parlance, however, the term stress and strain are used synonymously in a non-scientific fashion.

With the advancement of science and technology, the organizational structure is changing rapidly. As a result the individuals operating in various job settings are facing stress stemming from job dimensions. This is the reason why systematic studies of stress in organizational setting have increased dramatically over the past one-decade. Recently job stress has come into a prominent work related research topic as per the relevant source (Cooper & Payne, 1988). Job stress is generally defined in terms of the relationship between the person and environment. It has been considered as person-environment misfit. French, Rodgers and Cobb, 1974 presented the theory of person-environment fit. They reported two kinds of fits are the extent to which the person’s skills and abilities match the demands and requirements of the job. The second kind of fit is the extent to which the needs of the person are supplied in the job environment. The central theme of the theory is that when attempted to test the theory of person-environment fit misfit of either kind threatens an individual’s wellbeing, strain will occur as per the relevant source (Harrision, Sept. 1976). The findings of the study support the assumption that the primary link between job stress and health strain is person-environment misfit. He presented two hypotheses that suggested that increasing environmental demands beyond the person’s abilities will produce increasing strain. Other hypothesis assumed that a deficiency would also produce strain when environmental situation is perceived as presenting a demand that threatens to exceed the person’s capabilities and resources for meeting it. Reviewing extensively the major research on job stress, Beeher and Newman defined it as a condition wherein job related factors interact with the worker to charge, by virtue of disruption or enhancement, to her or his psychological condition such that same one involved of mind and body is forced to be deviated from normal functioning as per the relevant source (1978).

According to Gersten, Keating, Yovanoff and Harniss (2001), several factors like stress due to job design, learning on the job and support by principals or other teachers played a vital role to increase retention and commitment in case of special education teachers as per the relevant source (Fore, Martin, & Bender, 2002). Similarly, in other field also, high unpredictability in job pattern in job and departmental variation in administrator support were found to be other factors causing stress in medical officers and house officers (Imtiaz & Ahmad, 2009). Stress in work and support thereby plays a vital role onprisoner officers’ performance and their attitudes toward prisoners all as per the corresponding sources (Shannon & Page, 2014).

A study done by Aftab & Javeed (2012) revealed that the job stress among employees paves a way towards counter-productive work behavior (CWB) which was justified through positive correlation between job stress and employee CWB. It was also mentioned that lack of support from mentors and boss relates to work behavior of employees which ultimately affects the organizational behavior. Exercising job authority can be a chronic stressor for women in the social context of gender based inequality. This stress may heighten women’s risk of breast cancer via deregulations of the glucocorticosteroid + system and exposure of breast tissue to the anti-apoptotic and proliferative effects of chronically elevated cortisol all as per the corresponding sources all as per the corresponding sources (Pudrovska, 2013).

A study conducted by Bruck, C. S., Allen, T.D, Spector, P.E found out along-with the result that the more time a person spends on the job, the more conflict is seen between work and family (2002). It has, thereby, been found that work as well as family issues are at least to be an important to organizational functioning like family functioning (Barnett R. , 1998).

Stress has been used at times as a stimulus, an external negative force impinging on an individual; as a general response, individual emotional and then physiological responses to interact between him and his surroundings; as person-environment problem resulting from perceptions and appraisal of one’s internal and also external environments. The later view of this is dependent on work done by them all as per the corresponding sources (Lazarus R. , 1966; Lazarus, Averill, & Opton, Felling and emotion (Ed), 1970). It perhaps best fits stress research at management and professional levels of organizations where individual perceptions are seen as having a significant role in the experience of stress all as per the corresponding sources (French & Caplan, 1973; Caplan & Jones, 1975).

The key aspect of this approach lies in Lazarus’s(1991) concept of cognitive appraisal. In brief, he suggested that events must be perceived by the person, and evaluated as a threat to his or her wellbeing before the term stress can be applied. McGrath has suggested sources of job stress as task-based stress in case with the difficulty, ambiguity, load etc., role-based stress of conflict, ambiguity, load etc., stress intrinsic to the behavior setting e.g., effects of crowding, of under meaning etc. and stress arising from the physical environment itself e.g. extreme cold, hostile forcedness, etc.. Similarly, stress arising from the social environment in the sense of interpersonal relations e.g. Interpersonal disagreement, privacy, isolation etc. and stress within the person system, which the focal person, brings with him to the situation e.g., anxiety perceptual styles etc., are also related to job had pressures all as per the corresponding sources (1976).

Cooper and Marshall proposed the following successive sources of managerial stress drawn out mainly from wider body or theory of research in a variety of field being medicine, psychology, management sciences, etc. all as per the corresponding sources (1976). Linday and Trumbo have reported that job insecurity, excessive competition, hazardous working conditions, task demands, and large or unusual working hours as major sources of stress all as per the corresponding sources (1976).

A review of the above-mentioned sources of stress enables other researchers to reveal that there is diversity in sources of stress. Job role, particularly role ambiguity and role conflict have been widely studied as major source of stress. Role stress, as name indicates, is such types of stress as stemmed from the perception of one’s role.

In modern society, a person has to perform many roles that both inside and outside the work situation, with an increased complicated role structure. The problem a role occupant faces today is that of managing the complex structure of roles by achieving an integration of one’s self with the system of other roles as well as integration among the various roles a person may be occupying.

Kahn, Wolfe, Quinn, Sonem and Rosenthal were the earliest scholars to draw in the attention to organizational pressure and role stress in general and the role stress in particular. They have analyzed the nature, the causes and consequences of two types of organizational stress: role conflict and role ambiguity. They have explained that actual degree of objective role conflict depends on the configuration of roll pressures actually exerted by role standards on the role occupant. His experience of this conflict will in turn depend its objective magnitude and on certain characteristics of the role occupant himself. Similarly, investigating the availability of relevant information within the role set can assess the potential degree of clarity or ambiguity in a role. The experience and ambiguity of the occupant of that position reflects the objective situation, as it interacts with relevant properties of the person. They have suggested three general organizational conditions, which significantly contribute to ambiguity: organizational complexity, rapid organizational change and managerial philosophies about communication.

Kahn, et.al. have suggested several types of role conflicts. They are intra-sender-conflict known as different prescriptions and proscriptions from a single member of the role set , perhaps, may be incompatible, as for example, when a supervisor requests a man to acquire materials which is unavailable through normal channels and at the same time prohibits violations of normal channels and inter-sender conflict, that is, a pressure from one role sender oppose the same complaint from one or more other senders. The pressures on a foreman for close supervision from his or her supervisors and for loser supervision from his subordinates provide an outstanding example of inter-sender conflict. Similarly, other role conflicts are intra-role type where the pressure associated with membership in one organization is in conflict with that stemming from memberships in other groups and person role conflict since this can occur when role requirement violates moral values, for example, when pressures on an executive to enter price fixing conspiracies are opposed by personal code of ethics. In other cases of person-role-conflict, the person's needs and aspirations may lead to behaviors, which are unacceptable to the members of his role set as per an authentic source citation (1964).

Kahn and Quinn have classified role stress under three main headings: expectations generated stress, in which they include role ambiguity and role conflict, expectation resource discrepancies, in which they include role overload, responsibility, authority dilemma, inadequate technical information, role and personality.

Structural factors such as formalization etc. have been observed to be related to perceived role stress as per an authentic source citation (House & Rizzo, 1972; Rogers, 1976). As per an authentic source citation again time constraint (Hall & Lawler, 1970), heavy workload(Buck, 1972), excessive and inconvenient hours including shift work (Kornhouser, 1965; Mott, 1965) in congruencies befit between task technology and structure(Schuler R. , 1980) such cases have been reported as an attributive factor to all kinds of stress.

French and Caplan have indicated role ambiguity, role conflict and role overload and general types of role stress (1973). Role ambiguity has been interpreted as a direct function of the discrepancy between the information available to the person and that, which is required for adequate performance of his role as per an authentic source citation (Kahn, Wolfe, Quinn, Snoek, & Rosenthal, 1964).

The role stress is classified under two main categories namely; role space conflict and role set conflict. In the role space conflict, he has included such stressors as self-role distance, intra-role distance, self-stagnation, inter-role distance, and role boundless and under role set conflict; he included such stressors as role ambiguity, role overload, role isolation, role erosion, and role inadequacy as per an authentic source citation (Pareek U. , 1976).

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