A BS TR AC T

AN ANAL YS IS OF J OB S TRE SS AMON G EX EC UT IV ES IN NON- NATIONA LIZED B ANK ING SEC TO R

M ON DAY , S EPTEMB ER 24 , 2 008 .

I NTROD UC TION

Pressure is part and parcel of all work and helps to keep one motivated. But
excessive pressure can lead to stress, which undermines performance, is costly to
employers and can make people ill.

Stress is ubiquitous and has become an integral part of everyday living, an

unavoidable consequence of modern living. Stress is a condition of strain that has a
direct bearing on emotions, thought process and physical conditions of a person.

Executives admit that stress is affecting their jobs, family life and health.
Unpredictable economy, pressure to maintain profitability and increased
responsibilities are main causes of stress.

Steers (1981) indicate that, "Occupational stress has become an important topic
for study of organizational behavior for several reasons" that stress has harmful
psychological and physiological effects on employees, stress is a major cause of
employee turn over and absenteeism, stress experienced by one employee can affect
the safety of other employees, by controlling dysfunctional stress, individual and
organization can be managed more effectively, stress management is the ability to
maintain control over oneself when situations make excessive demands etc.

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 G ENESI S OF TH E PROBLEM

The advent of technological revolution in all walks of life coupled with the
globalization and privatization policies have drastically changed conventional patterns
in all sectors. The banking sector has under gone rapid and striking changes due to
globalization and liberalization, increased competition due to the entrance of more
private (corporate) sector banks, downsizing, introduction of new technologies, etc.
Due to these changes, the employees in the banking sector are experiencing a high
level of stress. It affected the social, economical and psychological domains of the
bank employees and their relations.

The present study proposes to address specific problems related to occupational

stress of executives among South Indian bank employees- a leading non-nationalized
bank in the state of Kerala.

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 O BJECTIVES

• To analyze the level of occupational stress among Non-nationalized bank

employees.
• To analyze the contribution of over load, authority, conflict and Lack of Senior
level Support to the occupational stress among Non-Nationalized employees.
• To analyze the importance of interventional strategies at organizational level to
manage stress among employees.
• To analyze the role of stress in interpersonal relationship and spirituality of
employees
• To analyze the frequency of stress related diseases including psychological
problems among employees.
• To evaluate the progress, goals and success of stress management programme
organized by the authority.
• To evaluate the impact of stress on the organizational performance.
• To develop a model to detail different categories of potential stressors

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 M ET HODOLOG Y

Executives and customers of M/s South Indian Bank Ltd. – a non-nationalized

bank in Kerala form the sample for the study. The data will be collected through pre-
structured questionnaire, personal interviews, etc. Published reports will be relied for
the secondary sources of data. The researcher will seek opinions from human resource
consultants and counselors and related persons who are actively involved in stress
management programmes for effective interpretation and to enhance the reliability of
findings. The data will be analyzed using suitable statistical tools for theory testing.

S CO PE OF TH E ST UDY

Stress becomes a strategic threat to any business. Executives are expected to

give significant support to the changing process of the organization, but not for
developing stress. Especially in the financial sector executives are highly intelligent
and have been recruited for their leadership abilities and are having to learn to cope
with a new organizational identity. Stress is additive and hence they require support.
The scope of the study includes the identification of genesis of stress and
suggestions to alleviate the cause. Being a case study it also analyze the
organizational power to solve the problem on their own and the future viability of the
adopted methods. Thus it ultimately ensures profitability and survival of the
organization. And it also forms a model, which can be adopted by other organizations
of its kind.

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