Occupational stress and burnout in selected banking institutions in Kumasi

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Date
2014-07-25
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Abstract
In this new era, so many changes are going on in the work setting and thus many jobs have been affected. The last few years have witnessed many changes in the banking industry, for instance globalization, downsizing and new technologies being introduced. In addition to this, in Ghana several banks have entered the economy which have made this sector a very competitive one. Employees may be expected to work for long hours because they must see to a lot of customers every working day. These issues could cause stress among bank workers in Ghana. The main objective of this study was to assess occupational stress and burnout, and their effects on performance of employees in selected banking institutions in Kumasi. One hundred and ten bank workers participated in the survey. Convenience sampling was used to select the subjects. In collecting data on occupational stress, burnout and work performance, questionnaires were administered to the bank workers. Descriptive statistics including means, standard deviations, pie charts and graphs were used to analyze the data collected. Correlations and regressions were used to find relationships between the variables. The major causes of occupational stress among the bank workers were the workers not getting ample time to deal with family issues and working longer than scheduled times. The significant burnouts the workers experienced were back pain due to sitting continuously for a long time and employees feeling tired to work for the next day because of the entire day‟s work. The level of occupational stress and burnout were both moderate. Again, the study found a significant positive relationship between occupational stress and burnout among the workers. Both occupational stress and burnout had significant negative relationships with work performance. The management of the banking institutions studied should organise v workshops or seminars on stress management. This could focus on how to effectively balance work and family life. Workers who are stressed should seek counseling. They should find out counseling sections at their various workplaces and explore them. If there are no such sections in their workplaces, then they should seek counseling elsewhere. Workers should take advantage of breaks during work days. This can be by taking a break and stepping away from the demanding event, taking a walk outside the workplace, spending a few minutes relaxing and going for lunch breaks. Employees could also take time off if possible either by taking a long weekend or a vacation during annual leave periods.
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A thesis submitted to the Department of Human Resources and Organizational Development, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT OPTION).
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