Role stress: a comparative study of public and private sector banks

Abstract

Work plays a critical role in the lives of individuals which has contributed to the phenomenon of stress for both individual employees and the organizations. Stress, at work, is one of the threats in providing a healthy platform of work to employees. The stress induced due to roles performed by individuals as employees at workplace, has been one of the most persuasive organizational stressors, the outcomes of which have been found to be costly to the organization. The previous studies in this area of research indicate that the role stress as a phenomenon has hardly been understood in its entirety and comprehensively in case of commercial banks particularly in the Indian context. The highly competitive banking industry has levied varied role requirements on employees resulting into stress. This study, thus, aims at an exploration of the sources of role stress at commercial banks, identifying the coping strategies used by the employees, assessing whether the employees can be segmented on the basis of their role stress experiences, examining the determinants of role stress based employee segments, proposing a comprehensive model for role stress phenomenon at commercial banks. The objectives have been met by an empirical study of the phenomenon of role stress of a sample of employees of commercial banks. The theoretical and policy implications of the findings of the study have been discussed which can facilitate the understanding and management of role stress at banks.