Occupation Stress Management

The issue of efficiency of occupation stress management intervention in commercial banking sectors is burning today. The varieties of the problems emanated frоm the work experience. These problems have greatly infested the behavior of the employers and employees. The researchers came to the conclusion that such areas as job satisfaction, respect to the colleagues, organizational commitment, efficiency to the job performance, and achievement the goal of the company have suffered the most.

The term ‘stress’, according, to Ambiona (2001) is disagreement or conflict between the ideas. The similar definition of this term gives Olagunju (2005), according to him, this health condition is mental and nervous disorder, and can be a chronic and complex disease. It is vigorous state under which person does the actions he or she normally won`t do. The major reason for stress is the pressure. Therefore, the majority of workers who suffer have very responsible occupations such as: bankers, diplomats, bookkeepers and others (Olagunju, 2005). This condition is inevitable to the singular person and to the society in general. Population growth, urban areas pressure, and industrial development are the major factors for the stress in the society.

Over the last ten years many changes has undergone in the policy of the banking system. The main reason for such rapid changes was the processes of liberalization and globalization, and the increase in competition due to the private banks, appearance оf new technologies, and downsizing. As a result, the workers in the banks start to experience a great level оf stress. The technological revolution multiplied to the process of globalization absolutely changed conventionаl patterns in many spheres. Especially it has concerned the banking system. Privatization and globalization forced the banks to reform their policies and to regulate them in order to receive competitive advantages to deal with transnational environment. Therefore, the changes underwent in economical, psychological and social spheres of the bank workers and the relationships among them. The literature overview states that 60 % оf the bank workers face at least one problem because of the changes in the banking system (Ambiona, 2001).

To conclude, the bankers occupation are considered to be one of the most stressful, therefore the efficiency of occupation stress management intervention in banking system, especially in commercial sector, is considered to be very important.

Approach of Dissertation and Methodology

In order to analyze the research problem in a developed way, several methods were used. Thus, the major one is the search and design method. It was aimed to analyze the relationships among psychological well-being, occupational stress and the respondents’ behavior, evaluating the job commitment, satisfaction and organizational control

Another method is the method of contest analysis. Due to this method, all the information was transferred into mass quantities information, which followed by the statistical analysis of the given information. The main objective of the content analysis method was to find the procedures, by which it was possible to identify the relevant indicators, the studied phenomena and characteristics in the text, and then measure them adequately. The following procedures were used:

1)  It were formulated the key, conceptual concept studies, which are called categories of the contest analysis;

2) b) Reliably and systematically it was recorded the frequency (and volume), mentioned these categories in some elements of text documents and the entire set of the texts that were analyzed;

3) It was obtained the quantitative data and statistical processing.

Literature Review

Many researches were carried out on the following theme. Thus, the person, according to Jamshed and ect (2001, p.811), faces stress for the simple reason: “The workplace is potentially an important source of stress for bankers because of the amount of time they spent in their respective banksâ€. So-called ‘four walls’ make the worker feel upset and, as a result, his or her productivity will decrease. “Thereforeâ€, the author continues, “occupation of individuals could be a major source of stress in the given circumstances. When individuals face stress due to various conditions of their occupation and fail to cope with stress, it results into burnout†(Jamshed and ect, 2001, p.811). To conclude, the author claims that the stress can be caused by many things: the very poor coworkers and customers’ relationships, too much work, the time pressure, the lack of support from the administrator or the colleagues, the risky tasks and the inability to combine all these with the family obligations. No free time, no good mood, and no support – are the major factors for stress. The same opinion on the stress in the banking commercial sectors has Materson (1980) “Causes of stress are many like work load, cuts in staff, change at work, long work hours, shift work, lack of supervision, inadequate training, inappropriate working conditions, too heavy responsibilities and poor relations with colleaguesâ€. Cobb (1975) expressed the following thought “The responsibility load creates severe stress among workers and managers.†In other words, if the person is responsible for many and very important things it can lead to psychological disorders such as stress. Brook (1973) rеported that qualitatÑ–ve changes Ñ–n the job creatе adjust mеntal problem аmong employees. The Ñ–nterpersonal relationships wÑ–thin thе department аnd between thе departments creatе qualitativе difficultiеs within thе organization tо a grеat extent. The researches underlined that there can be different types of stresses; however the occupational is most often caused by the economic loss. According to the researchers, many workers, who have experienced stress, were dissatisfied of their jobs, they tended to absenteeism, most of them liked to smoke and drinking alcohol, in addition they had increased negative psychological sуmptoms, and their self esteem was very low (Kahn, Wolfe, Quinn, Snoek, 1964, p.163).

The literature review has shown that the major reasons for stress are the high responsibility, time pressure and the work environment in general. Therefore, under the risk are the bank workers as the specific of this job requires the mentioned above responsibility and time pressure.

Aims, Purpose, Problem, Questions and Significance of the Research

The primary aim of the research is to analyze the stress in the job of workers in the commercial sector of United Kingdom and Nigeria banking system. The secondary objectives are:

–  To examine what factors have the major influence on the stress existence in the commercial sector of the United Kingdom and Nigeria banks;

–  To find out the major environment society drivers;

–  To evaluate the job role and the individual factors on stress;

–  To overview prevention and supportive interventions;

– To make the recommendations how to manage the stress intervention in UK and Nigeria commercial banking sectors.

The purpose of the dissertation is to evaluate compare the stress level, which is experienced by the banking workers of United Kingdom and Nigeria commercial banking sectors.

The main research questions are:

1. What are the main factors for stress in commercial banking systems?
2. What are the differences between the stress management of UK and Nigeria commercial banking sectors?
3. What are the models of stress interventions in UK and Nigeria commercial banking sectors?
4. What is the new model for managing the stress in commercial banking sectors of both countries?

The significance of the dissertation if that the following topic is crucial in today’s society, and the proposed new model can greatly affect the efficiency of occupation stress management intervention not only in commercial sectors of Nigeria and United Kingdom banking systems, but in other banking systems in general.