CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Employee performance has
always being paramount in the life of any organization which has led
many business organization to put in place many factors that can boast
the performance of employees' welfare career development, e.t.c.
Despite all the effort of
management to improve employees performance, stress has being found to
be one of the major hindrances to employees' performance. Hence, various
definitions have been giving to stress, which can be described as'
follows:
Stress can be defined as any action or situation that places physical and psychological demands upon a person.
It can also be described
as the demand on an individual that tax or exceeded his adjective
capacity body's responses to pressure.
Lazarus 1966, defined
stress as a largely perceived Phenomenon which only the individual
experiencing the stress can identify the specific set of factors which
are causing the stress. From this definition, it is only the person
experiencing the stress that knows the factors stressing him. Since it
is the person involve in stress that can say that what causes stress or
what stresses Mr. A may not cause stress for Mr. B. stress a medical
term was coined by an Austrian born, Hans Selye; Selye was a professor
at the University of Montreal, in 1974, Selye studied body reactions to
almost all conceivable type of- severe, injuries, diseases, poisons, or
unusual work demands from his work/study, he observed that there were
common features to those reaction. In addition common specific changes,
he also noted that there were some other "non-specific" reaction which
he gave the name “STRESS". Stress is any force that put a psychological
or physical function beyond its range of stability producing a strain
within the individual. Stress has been recognized as one of the
commonest problems facing people all over the world irrespective of age,
sex, race, status and religion. Truly everyday life need a level of
arousal to be worthwhile and when the arousal is optimal "stress" is at
its best. Beyond this point, it becomes a problem to the individual who
would become over arousal. (The Psychologist 1999).
Researchers also define
stress as a physical, mental, or emotional response to events that
causes bodily or mental tension. Simply put, stress is any outside force
or event that has an effect on our body or mind.
Akeredolu (1999) explained
stress as the normal difficulties one encounter in getting to school or
work, the difficulties encountered in buying fuel at the station and
the difficulties faced over the loss of loved one. The effect of stress.
The Uncertainty brought about by job insecurity constitute a basic source of stress in the work place.
Poor financial and social
motivation tends to generate difficulty in work place. The normal
difficulty of role over load and role under load remain a factor
imbalanced in work place job assignment.
The problem of unhealthy and unfriendly work environment is a stress factor to be considered.
Poor promotional and earner advancement structure 111 work organization consist a strong stress basis.
Poor leadership style and
it attendant problem of job uncertainly constitute work place
difficulty. The impacts of stress on job performance remain.
1.2 OBJECTIVES OR PURPOSE OF STUDY
The objective of this study is as follows:
- To identify the sources of stress in an employee
- To also identify the symptoms of stress in an employee
- To determine the effect of stress on the performance of an employee
- To make appropriate recommendations to how stress can be managed.
1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
- Does stress brought about by job insecurity affect job performance?
- Poor motivation factors in work place influence workers performance?
- Does workers productivity be influenced by stress of poor motivation factors?
- Is the problem of role over load and role under load a factor imbalance in work organization?
- Can the difficulty of unhealthy and unfriendly work environment influence job performance?
- Can poor leadership style brings about stress in work place?
STATEMENT OF HYPOTHESIS
- Ho:- Stress brought about by job insecurity do not affect job
performance
H1: - Stress brought about by job insecurity do affect job
performance
- Ho:- Poor motivational factors in work place do not influence
workers performance
H1:- Poor motivational factors in work place do influence workers
performance
- Ho:- The stress of role overload and role under load do not affect
job performance
H1:- The stress of role overload and role under load do affect job
performance,
- Ho:- The difficulty of unhealthy and unfriendly work environment
do not influence workers productivity.
H1:- The difficulty of unhealthy and unfriendly work environment
do influence workers productivity.
1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
Under normal
circumstances, a research is supposed to cover a particular area of
study and as a result of that this research is not exception to that
effect. This research is devoid of certain constraints and circumstances
and so financial inadequacies was one major area that brought about
setbacks to the smooth running of the research work. The second
constraint of this research was the lack of getting the correct
information because the responses of most respondents were hostile and
in some cases negative even some are not even ready to interact with you
while some of the respondent deliberately gave wrong information. Time
was another major constraint as the researcher had to combine both
research that required moving around, lectures and examination at the
same time.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This study will be of
great importance to all organizations and there employees. This study
intends to bring to the notice of the organization that reaction to
stress varies from individual and thus, afford the organization an
insight into how much stress they can effectively handle and to also
recommend stress coping strategies for the organization and her
employees.