Role of Job Stress on Working of College Teachers in Chandigarh: An Empirical Study

1. INTRODUCTION

Originally, the term ‗stress‘ is derived from the Latin word; stringere means to draw tight, to describe hardship and/or affliction (Cartwright and Cooper, 1997). This term is usually used in physical science. In simple sense, it is a physical and mental condition of a person affecting his productivity, effectiveness, personal health and quality of work. A person affected by this problem experiences lowered quality of work life and job satisfaction. It has two major dimensions- physiological stress and psychological stress. Physiological stress may cause physiological problems in the body i.e. heart palpitation, fatigue, headache, migraine, backache, abdominal pain, chest pain, lethargic pain etc. Psychological stress may cause emotional reactions i.e. depression, frustration, nervousness, hostility, tension, anger, anxiety, irritability etc. The causes of stress are called stressor. This makes jobs stressful and difficult for number of employees in job. This stressor may be due to bad interpersonal relationships at workplace such as conflicts with the boss, conflicts with peers, conflicts with juniors, conflicts with management system etc. All this has a negative effect on the performance of the organisation as well as the employee. Every organisation should try to curb these stressors; otherwise their employees will look somewhere else for better opportunities. The objective of this study is to find out the role of stress on working of college teachers.

Shahu and Gole (2008) conducted a study to examine the relationship between job stress, job satisfaction and performance among 100 managers of private manufacturing firms of different sector. The tools used for research were job satisfaction instrument (developed by Mishra and Tiwari) and occupational stress index. Data was collected through questionnaires and was analyzed by using ANOVA. The researchers concluded that there was inverse relationship between job stress and performance and positive relationship between job satisfaction and performance. Ahsan et al. (2009) conducted a study to examine the relationship between job stress(including management role, relationship with others, workload pressure, homework interface, role ambiguity and performance pressure as determinants) and job satisfaction in university staff from Klang Valley in Malaysia. Data was collected in questionnaire form from 203 academicians from various faculties and races and was analyzed by using cross- sectional analysis, description analysis and regression analysis. The researchers concluded that workload pressure, homework interface, role ambiguity and performance pressure increased the job stress and hence showed a negative relationship between job stress and job satisfaction. Some of the other studies showing negative impact of role ambiguity on job satisfaction were conducted by David et al. (2009), Coverman (1989), Ismail et al. (2009) conducted a study to show the relationship between physiological stress and job satisfaction and psychological stress and job satisfaction in a private institution of higher learning in Malaysia. Questionnaires were given to 200 employees and usable data was collected from 80 employees. Data was analyzed with the help of SPSS 16.0 using Pearson correlation and regression. The researchers found that the physiological stress was significantly correlated

satisfaction and level of psychological stress had not decreased job satisfaction. The research also confirmed that occupational stress acted as a partial determinant of job satisfaction in the stress models of the organisational sector sample. Mansor and Tayib (2010) conducted a study to examine the organisational culture, employee job stress, employee job satisfaction and their correlations of the tax employees of Royal Malaysian Customs Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur (RMC-WPKL). Data was collected by distributing 315 questionnaires by employing a proportionate stratified random sampling method and 248 usable questionnaires were collected. The researcher concluded that Royal Malaysian Customs was dominated by the bureaucratic/ hierarchical culture and the main source of stress came from uncertainty on the evaluation for a raise or promotion. Finally, on relationship, job stress was negatively correlated with job satisfaction; job stress positively correlated with hierarchical culture; and job satisfaction was negatively correlated with hierarchical culture. Some of the other studies showing relationship between culture and job satisfaction were conducted by Robbins (2001), Flamholtz (2001).

3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The present study covers a sample of 102 teachers from different colleges of Chandigarh. Out of 102 respondents, 62 (60.8%) are male and 40 (39.2%) female. The mean age of the respondents are 40.6 years with average experience of 13.3 years. The respondents are taken from different faculties in order to give better mixture result. The data from the employees has been collected with the help of a well designed questionnaire. The collected data has been analyzed with the help of multiple linear regressions. There are four factors taken for this study and they are Management Role, Relationship with Others, Workload Pressure and Role Ambiguity. Four hypotheses have been framed for this study and they are as follows:- H2 = There is a relationship between relationship with others and job stress. H3 = There is a relationship between workload pressure and job stress. H4 = There is a relationship between role ambiguity and job stress.

Table 1: Test of Collinearity The above table shows the calculations of Tolerance Test and Variance Inflation Factor (VIF). As the tolerance level of none of the factors is less than or equal to 0.01 and all VIF values are less than 10, the factors taken as independent variables do not reach the levels of multicollinearity. Table 2: Regression Results The result of this study shows that the association between management role & job stress and relationship with others & job stress are insignificant at 5% level of satisfaction. Whereas the association between workload & job stress and role ambiguity & job stress are significant at 5% level of satisfaction.

Based on the above study, the researcher can conclude that the insignificant role of management may be due to very much supportive role of management in academics. The insignificant role of relationship with others may be due to very much friendly and cooperative relationship among the faculty members. Whereas, the significant association of workload pressure and role ambiguity with job stress shows the possibility of higher job stress on teachers which may affect the working of the teachers.

Alam, S. S. (2009). ―A Study of Job Stress on Job Satisfaction Among University Staff in Malaysia: Empirical Study‖, European Journal of Social Sciences, 8(1), pp. 121-131. 2. Coverman, S. (1989). ―Role Overload, Role Conflict, and Stress: Addressing Consequences of Multiple Role Demands‖, Social Forces, 67, pp. 965-982. 3. David, Y.G.F., Syed, S.A., Zaini, A. and Nilufar, A., (2009). ―A Study of Job Stress on Job Satisfaction among University Staff in Malaysia: Empirical Study‖, European Journal of Social Sciences, 8(1). 4. Flamholtz, E.J., (2001). ―Corporate Culture and the Bottom Line” European Management Journal, 19(3), pp. 268-275. 5. Ismail, A., Yao, A., and Yunus, N. K. Y., (2009). ―Relationship Between Occupation Stress and Job Satisfaction: An Empirical Study in Malaysia‖, The Romanian Economic Journal, Year XII, no.34. 6. Mansoor, M., Fida, S., Nasir, S. and Ahmad, Z., (2011). ―The Impact of Job Stress on Employee Job Satisfaction: A Study on Telecommunication Sector of Pakistan‖, Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 2(3), pp. 50-56. 7. Mansor, M. and Tayib, M. (2010). ―An Empirical Examination of Organisational Culture, Job Stress and Job Satisfaction within the Indirect Tax Administration in Malaysia‖ International Journal of Business and Social Science, 1(1), pp. 81-95. 8. Robbins, S. P. (2001). Organizational Behavior, Prentice Hall, New York. 9. Shahu, R., and Gole, S. V. (2008). ―Effects of Job Stress and Job Satisfaction on Performance: An Empirical Study‖, AIMS International Journal of Management, 2(3), pp. 237-246. 10. Srivastava, A.K. (2008). ―Effect of Perceived Work Environment on Employee‘s Job Behaviour and Organizational Effectiveness‖, Journal of the Indian Academy of Applied Psychology, 34(1), pp. 47-55.

Assistant Professor, Sri Guru Gobind Singh College, Sector – 26, Chandigarh