The impact of stress on employees performance at commercial bank of Ethiopia (evidence from jimma town branches)

Abstract

Previous to this study, many researches are done by different researchers on the concept of stress and revealed that it has a significant impact on the performance of employees. Moreover, a preliminary investigation undertaken by the researcher indicated that there are various stressful situations in banks. Therefore, this study was conducted to understand the level and relationship between stress and performance and its impact on employees’ performance specifically in CBE Jimma Town branches. For simplicity, in this study, the independent variable i.e. stress was divided in to its dimensions work related stress, organizational related stress, and individual related stress. The research design for this particular study is cross-sectional field survey research design. For this study, stratified simple random sampling method was used and 130 employees were selected as a sample of the study. The standardized measurement scales were adopted and distributed to 130 employees in the form of questionnaires but, 125 of the questionnaires were valid for analysis. Descriptive statistics such as; mean, standard deviation, and inferential statistics such as; correlation, multiple regression analysis were used to analyze the data in SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). The results of the study revealed that all factors of stress have negative impact on the performance employees’. Comparatively, work related and organization related stress factors have the highest mean value compared to the individual related stress factors of the study variables. The inferential analysis results also indicate that stress have negatively medium impact on employees’ performance. Therefore, the findings indicate that stress have a negative impact on the performance of employees’ in Commercial Bank of Ethiopia. Finally, the study recommended that to reduce stress the current work schedule needs to be adjusted and workload should be lifted from employees, assigning reasonable level of responsibility, promote positive organizational culture and improve the organizational climate and prepare a welldocumented organization specific stress management programs.