UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business -------------------------------- VO XUAN MINH OCCUPATIONAL STRESS AND ITS EFFECTS ON EMPOLYEES’ PERFORMANCE ID: 22120094 MASTER OF BUSINESS (Honours) SUPERVISOR: DR. TRAN HA MINH QUAN Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis could not be accomplished without the help, advise, support, guidance and encouragement of many people. I wish to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Tran Ha Minh Quan, for his clear and careful direction, guidance and correction to my thesis, especially for his enthusiasm in answering reminding, help and support.
Secondly, I would like to thank my dear colleagues, friend and classmates for their invaluable advice, help, encouragement and support during the time I was doing this thesis. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT Vietnam is a developing country and has the emerging market, so the employees' performance in Vietnamese companies plays a significant role to increase the competitive advantages. However, so far the study for employees' performance in Vietnamese companies has not yet been thoroughly conducted. This research is carried out with the objectives to identify the measurement scale of employees‟ performance, identify the occupational stress factors that impact on employees‟ performance and measure the strength of relationship between occupational stress and employees‟ performance in the Vietnamese companies.
Survey and data analysis used to collect the answer for the survey on various employees in the South organizational factors Vietnam with the sample size of 250 for data analysis. Number of statistical analysis techniques are used to analyze the data collected via SPSS program. Factor analysis results in the identification of factors having significant impact to employees' performance, and the extraction of five factor groups named as Time Pressure, Work Colleges , Job Clarity, Support at Work and Job Security. Analysis proved that three groups have statistically significant influence to the employees' performance in Vietnamese companies, which Job Clarity has the highest impact.
The research results can be used as a reference for the team leaders, managers, supervisors in Vietnamese companies to enhance and better the employees' performance in the future. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………………………………………………….ii TABLE OF CONTENTS……………………………………………………………….…iii LIST OF TABLE…………………………………………………………………………….v LIST OF FIGURES…………………………………………………………………….vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION.1 Background to the study .2 Statement of the problem.3 Purpose of the study.4 Scope of the study .5 Operational definition of terms .6 Structure of the research………………………………………………………….……3 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .1 The concept and phenomenon …………………………………………………….2 Definitions of stress……………………………………………………………….4 Theories of Occupational stress…………………………………………………….5 Signs and symptoms of occupational stress……………………………………….6 Cause of occupational stress……………………………………………………….1 Performance in organizational………………………………………………….3 Measuring job performance……………………………………………………….4 Options for measureing job performance objectively……………………….5 Relationship between occupational stress and employee‟s performance……….19 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.4 Data Analysis Method………….2 Validity measure by EFA (Exploratory Factor Analysis).3 Multiple regression analysis ……….5 Summary…………………………………………………………………………28 CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS OF DATA.1 Brief description of subjects.3 Patterns of data for each research question…………….1 Preliminary evaluation scale with Cronbach‟s Alpha…….2 Scale testing by using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA)……………………. IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS.4 Limitations and recommend for further research.52 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES Table 3.2: Reliability Statistic of Time Pressure.3: Reliability Statistics of Relationship with Colleges.4: Reliability Statistics of Job Clarity.5: Reliability Statistics of Support at work.6: Reliability Statistics of Job Security………….7: Reliability Statistics of Employee Performance.8: Exploratory Factor Analysis for Independent variables.9: Exploratory Factor Analysis for Dependent variables.42 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1: Hunter‟s job performance scheme .1: Result of refined research model .43 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION This chapter presents the background to the study, statement of the problem, purpose of the study, objectives of the study, scope of the study and operational definition of the terms.1 Background to the study Nowadays, stress has become a major problem for employers particularly in developing nations where the employer doesn‟t realize the impact of stress on employee performance which ultimately results in critical managerial dilemmas (Subha and Shakil, 2010). Giga & Hoel (2003) explain that high rates of mergers, acquisitions, increasing economic interdependence among countries due to globalization, technological development, and restructuring have changed the organizational work over the last few decades resulting in time pressure, excessive work demand, relationship with colleges, job clarity and job security which are causing stress.
According to Malta (2004), occupational stress is defined as any discomfort which is felt and perceived at a personal level and triggered by instances, events or situations that are too intense and frequent in nature so as to exceed a person's coping capabilities and resources to handle them adequately. Occupational stress presents with various signs and symptoms which according to (HFRS, 2011) are categorized as physical, emotional, and behavioral symptoms. Physical symptoms include; skin irritation, pain and tightness, indigestion, frequen colds, flu or other infections, nausea, headaches, tiredness, and fainting. Emotional symptoms include; swings in mood, feeling nervous, increased worrying, feelings of helplessness, loss of confidence, feeling tense, lack of self- esteem, lack of concentration while behavioural symptoms may include; being more accident prone, change in sleep pattern or difficulty in getting to sleep and waking 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com tired, poor work, increased dependence on drugs, not looking after yourself, overeating or loss of appetite, poor time management, and impaired speech.
Each individual is exposed to a range of stressors at work which ultimately affect his or her performance. On the other hand, employee performance is defined as the outcomes and accomplishments expected of the employee which are valued by the organization or system that he or she works in. There are a variety of factors, be personal, company-based or external that affect employee performance in an organization among which is stress or work pressure (Rebecca, 2010). Stress sometimes known as pressure at work can be positive leading to increased productivity.
However, when this pressure becomes excessive it has a negative impact. The individuals perceive themselves as being unable to cope and not to possess the necessary skills to combat their stress (Mead, 2000). Occupational stress has consequences leading to low organizational performance (Elovainio et al, 2002), and has belittling impact on any organization and individual‟s performance even leading to health care problems. Stress is acknowledged to be one of the main causes of absence from work (Mimura et al, 2003).
Employees in high numbers report that their job is a source of large amount of stress they experience throughout the year, which has a very bad and negative effect on their performance due to the symptoms and problems associated with occupational stress (Meneze, 2005). Therefore, occupational stress is considered a challenge for the employers and because high level stress results in low productivity, and other employee problems it is necessary that managers find a way of addressing the issue of occupational stress (Elovainio et al, 2002).2 Statement of the problem Today, stress has become an integral part of jobs in every sector. Competition is growing day by day thus increasing the levels of stress among employees. Stress in organizations is a wide-spread phenomenon with far-reaching practical and 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com economic consequences.
The financial crisis and recession of 2008 around the world further contributed in mounting higher levels of stress among employees. The organizations, to make themselves efficient in utilization of resources, have gone through entire restructuring, layoffs, downsizing, and mergers. This has resulted in unstable employee-employer relationship which has caused a great deal of stress among employees and it affects employee‟s job performance.3 Objectives of the study + To examine the factors of occupational stress that affect employee performance.4 Scope of the study Vietnamese companies are numerous and of different types. However due to the limitations of data availability, research funds and time, the scope of this research is therefore limited to all kinds of Vietnamese companies in the Southern Area of Vietnam.5 Operational definition of terms Occupational stress: can be defined as the "harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources or need of the worker".
Performance is defined as the outcomes and accomplishments valued by the organization or system that one works in.6 Structure of the research The structure of the study consists five chapters: Chapter 1: Introduction This chapter presents research background of the study, as well as, research problems, research objectives, research methodology and scopes. Chapter 2: Literature Review and Conceptual Model 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com To summarize concepts and theories relating to occupational stress and employees‟ performance in previous studies which are linked to this research. From such review, basic theories for studying will be synthesized to develop an initial research model and hypotheses used for the research. Chapter 3: Methodology Based on the research objectives and scopes, research methodology concerning in chapter 1, and literature review and empirical model presented in chapter 2, this chapter particularly presents the research design, research methodology and reports the processes of doing the research.
Chapter 4: Data Analysis and Results Chapter 4 presents the characteristics of research samples and presents the result of the research after analyzing data. Based on the results, the author will make deep analysis about each factor that impact on job performance. Chapter 5: Implications and Conclusions Chapter 5 presents main conclusions and implications based on the results of the previous chapters, as well as the limitations of this study. 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW This section presents what other scholars, authors, and researchers have talked about occupational stress and employee performance presented according to the study objectives.1 The Concept and Phenomenon In the past two decades, interest in the concept of stress and research on stress has reached an all-time high (Goldberger & Breznitz, 1993).
Originally, stress was seen primarily as a physical ordeal to which humans take action. More lately, it has been linked to physical measures, as well as the assessment of actions, which is a cognitive occurrence (Jones et al. HansSelye, a biologist, had been lively in the popularization of the stress idea. One of his most significant modern theories of psychological stress was in print in 1956, in his book.
The Stress of Life. The literature pursued on stress indicates that Selye was the first researcher to make use of the term“stress”to explain physical and psychological answer to respond to difficult conditions. Selye explained the concept of stress using the conditions distress (bad stress) and eustress (good stress). The degree of insist is basic in Seyle‟s clarification of distress.
(Le Fevre, et al. Distress is stand for by either too much or too little insist. A moderate level of demand is eustress. Selye investigated the physiological reactions to stress, as a distracted response of the body to any insist made upon it.
He defined stressor as any incentive that reason a stress response. If the stimulus does not decrease, a stress-response the supposed general-adaptation-syndrome results, which has three distinct, stages (Selye, 1956): 5 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Alarm-reaction - an living being is exposed to a stimulus that it has not modified to. It act in response by going into a stage dominated by a upset response that finally leads to another rejoinder in which the organism begins to offset the initial alarm reaction.
Stage-of-resistance – the organism has made to order to the stressoror stimulus and any indication improve. Stage-of-tiredness – if the stressor has been particularly harsh and long- drawn-out the symptoms come back and the organism becomes tired.2 Definitions of stress Stress is defined as “a state of worry that arises from an actual or apparent demand that calls for an change behavior” (Lazarus, 1999).