Rjopes Research Journal in Organizational Psychology & Educational Studies 1(5) 289-294 Rjopes

Emerging Academy Resources (2012) (ISSN: 2276-8475)

www.emergingresource.org

OCCUPATIONAL STRESS, PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL BEING

AND WORKERS BEHAVIOUR IN MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES IN
SOUTH- WEST NIGERIA

Akintayo, D. I.
Dept. of Human Resource Development,
College of Management and Social Sciences,
OsunState University, Okuku Campus, Nigeria.
___________________________________________________________________________
ABSTRACT
The study investigated the impact of occupational stress on psychological well-being and workers` behaviour in
manufacturing industries in South-West Nigeria. This was for the purpose of ascertaining the relationship
among occupational stress, psychological well-being and workers` behaviour. The bulk of the recent literature
used in the study will be useful for researcher while the findings of the study will be an eye opener for policy
planners especially in the areas of fulfilling the mission of occupational health and safety of the workers on the
job and virtually propel increased organizational productivity. The study adopted survey research design. A
total number of 435 respondents were selected for the study using proportionate purposive sampling technique.
Three sets of questionnaires titled `Occupational Stress Assessment Scale (OSAS), Psychological Well-Being
Scale` (PWBS) and Workers` Behaviour Scale (WBS) were used for data collection. The four hypotheses
generated for the study were tested using Person Product Moment Correlation and t test statistical methods. The
finding of the study revealed that there was a significant influence of occupational stress on psychological well-
being of the respondents. Also there was a significant influence of occupational stress on workers` behaviour
(job satisfaction, job commitment and compliance to organizational control. A significant difference was not
found in the perception of male and female respondents on the influence of occupational stress on their
psychological well-being. Based on the findings of the study, it is recommended that organizational support
system that could combat the physical, social and psychological effects of occupational stress on workers`
psychological well being and their behaviours should be provided at workplace. Also, industrial counseling
services should be introduced in work organizations in order to provide therapeutic services that tend to foster
reduction in the effects of occupational stress on workers psychological well being.
Emerging Academy Resources

KEYWORDS: Occupational Stress, Psychological well-being, Workers, Behaviour, Manufacturing Industries,

Nigeria
_________________________________________________________________________________________
INTRODUCTION response to an individual to defiling basic needs of
The issues of burnout and occupational stress have life in an environment of competing needs.
attracted the attention of the organizational
behaviourists in the recent times. Various problems, Smith (2011); Coleman (2012), Famojuro (2004),
according to literature, emanate from work place Udoh and Ajala (2003) contend that stress is a very
experiences. These have infact affected workers` imprecise term and that it can be explained in terms
behaviour as submitted by researchers in terms of of its three related concept, which ate anxiety,
organizational commitment, compliance, job conflict and frustration. Adu (2004) asserts that stress
satisfaction, job performance effectiveness and is more meaningfully understood by the condition
achievement of organizational goals. McGratt and symptoms, which manifest in the victim. He
(1998), Bakare (1997) and Abiona (2001) define explains that stress is a response of victim to
stress as conflict or disagreement between ideas, environmental demands. Brandy and Cox (2002) in
which Freudians described as imbalance between ld, the same vein, submit that occupational stress has
Ego and the Duper Ego. It is perceived as a kind of impacted the health and psychological well being of
natural equilibrium of the body and include within its workers with the attendant effects on their attitude to
reference deprivation and all kinds of diseases and work. The authors suggest that occupational stress
emotional disturbances. Olagunju (2010) describes co-relates significantly with life events and daily
stress as a chronic complex emotional state with activities such as financial situation, job performance,
apprehension and is characteristic of various nervous family conflict, schooling, death and other events.
and mental disorders. In essence, stress is a manifest

289
 Research Journal in Organizational Psychology and Educational Studies (ISSN: 2276-8475) 1(5):289-294
Occupational Stress, Psychological Well Being and Workers Behaviour in Manufacturing Industries in
South- West Nigeria
Dunhem (1992) and Parkes (2002) submit that
occupational stress can be anything that threatens to
damage the organism, which could be germ or noise
pollution. The authors concluded that when the
working environment is perceived to be conducive,
there is less stress and job performance is greatly
enhanced. Studies have shown that occupational
stress has significant effect on workers health and
job performance. Buchans (2009); Cole (2010),
Mojoyinola (2001), Zajons (2005) and Bakare (1998)
assert that he who feel observed and evaluated tends
to perform better on simple or previously acquired
task. The authors contend further that stress in the
relationship with individual could result particularly
from anxiety. This has led some researchers to view
stress with boss as the most promising variable that
affect interpersonal relations at workplace with
implication on workers efficiency and productivity
at workplace (Fielder, Porter, Mitchell and Knarton,
2000, Borden 2002 and Davies (2012).
Lester and Brower (2001) and Perdine, Bill and
Clement (1997) found that stressors combine in a
multiplicative way and tend to produce strain for
workers. Also, the combined and interacting
presence of non-work stress and work stress create
strain in workers, which are capable of influencing
their morale and job performance negatively. The
effects are more felt by workers above 45 years than
those below forty year of age.
Furthermore, Stein, Mayer and Roger (1998) found
that sex or social class did not affect black American
womens adjustment to job-induced stress. Johnson
(2011), Dohremwell and Dohremwell (2003)
Welsman and Werman (1997) and Philips and Segal
(1996) also reported that women showed high scores
on psychological symptoms such as neurosis and
depression while men had consistently higher
personality disorder and were more aware of cultural
expectations regarding expressive control.
Lester (2002) explored which of fifteen sources
contributed most to the subjective feeling of stress by
senior police officers (SPO) and found that for
municipal police officers (MPO), the subjective level
of stress was positively associated with the work
environmental factors than stress from home;
especially the problem of favouritism in the police
department and having to intervene in crises. Thus,
for the MPO, the level of stress seems to be related to
normal police work and problem with peer and
family. For the SPO, the subjective level of stress
was positively associated with the officers rating as
more important than the stress from lack of support
from courts and prosecution, interference from local
politicians. Thus, for SPO, the lack of support from
the people seems to be related to their level of stress.
Lester thus concluded that while MPO and SPO did
not differ in their overall levels of stress on the
290
Wechsler test, he however submitted that sources of
stress are very different for the two groups.
Decker and Webb (1994), Felton and Cole (2010),
and Albridge (2005) reported that stressful work life
were related to receiving psychiatric care, and that in
the United Kingdom, the sum of incapacity for men
suffering from psychoneurotic and personality
disorder, nervousness, migraine headaches, and
smoking accounted for 22.8 million work days loss
alone. Kahn and Quinn (1979); Margolis, Kroes and
Quinn (1994) and Smith (2011) pointed out that
occupational stress is a strong factor behind various
diseases experienced by industrial workers, which
tend to manifest during active work life and on
retirement.
The present study differs significantly from above
reviewed studies. The reviewed studies investigated
stress as it impacted workers health, morale, job
satisfaction and performance effectiveness at work
place in isolation. This study investigated the
relationship among occupational stress, psychological
well-being and workers behaviour in manufacturing
industries in Nigeria. This was for the purpose of
ascertaining the relationship among occupational
stress, psychological well-being and workers`
behaviour. Also, the effects of age and gender
differences on workers reaction to occupational
stress were determined in the study. However,
workers` behaviour in this study is limited to job
satisfaction, commitment and compliance among the
workers in selected manufacturing industries in
Nigeria.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The objectives of the study are to:
Determine the influence of occupational
stress on psychological well- being of the
respondents.
Examine the impact of occupational stress
on workers` behaviour {job satisfaction,
commitment and compliance}.
Ascertain the relationship between age and
reaction of the respondents to occupational
stress.
Determine variations in the male and female
response or reaction to occupational stress in
terms of their levels of job satisfaction,
commitment and compliance.
Make plausible recommendations on the
effective ways of ameliorating the
psychological effects of occupational stress
in work organizations in Nigeria.
HYPOTHESES FOR THE STUDY
The following four hypotheses were generated from
the literature and tested for the purpose of the study:
 Research Journal in Organizational Psychology and Educational Studies (ISSN: 2276-8475) 1(5):289-294
Occupational Stress, Psychological Well Being and Workers Behaviour in Manufacturing Industries in
South- West Nigeria

i. There is no significant relationship between manufacturing industries in South-West Nigeria. The

occupational stress and psychological well- Pearson Product Moment Correlation and t-test
being of the respondents. statistical methods were used to test the four research
ii. There is no significant relationship between hypotheses generated for the study at 0.05 alpha
occupational stress and workers` behaviours levels.
{job satisfaction, commitment and
compliance} of the respondents. RESULTS
iii. There is no significant difference between The results of the analyzed data were presented on
male and female respondents perception of the basis of the hypotheses generated for the study.
the impact of occupational stress on their
psychological well-being. Table 1: Pearson Product Moment Correlation
iv. There is no significant difference between Showing the Relationship among Occupational
the perception of the old and young Stress, Psychological Well-Being and Workers`
respondents on impact of occupational stress Behaviour.
on their working behaviour. Variable N Mean SD r P Remark
Occupational 435 26.34 12.21 Significant
stress .381 .000 (P < .05)
METHODOLOGY Psychological 435 21.68 11.56
The survey research design was adopted to well-being
investigate the relationship among occupational Job 435 18.11 9.42 .332 .003 Significant
stress, psychological well being and workers` satisfaction (P < .05)
behaviour. A total of 435 respondents were selected Job 435 26.32 10.23 .344 .000 Significant
commitment (P < .05)
for the purpose of the study using proportionate Compliance 435 23.73 11.12 .217 .002 Significant
purposive sampling techniques based on population (P < .05)
of workers, who had spent at least three years in the
selected manufacturing industries in Nigeria. The results in table one indicated that occupational
stress had a significant negative relationship with
The researcher utilized three sets of questionnaire for psychological well-being of the respondents, r = -
data collection. The Occupational Stress Assessment 381, P < .05 as postulated in hypothesis one. This
Scale`` (OSAS) was developed by Dunhem (1992) implies that the psychological well-being of the
with reliability coefficient of 0.78. However, for the workers has been affected by the stress they
present study, a Cronbach alpha of 0.88 was experienced on the job. Thus hypothesis one was not
obtained. The measures was assessed on a five-point confirmed.
scale (ranging from 1 = very dissatisfied, to 5 = very
satisfied). The ``Job Satisfaction Scale`` (JSS) with The second hypothesis showed that occupational
a 6-items scale was developed and validated by Tsui, stress has had significantly negative influence on
Thomas and Edward (1992) with Cronbachs alpha workers` behaviour (job satisfaction). The hypothesis
value of 0.68. For the present study, the researcher was confirmed, r = -332, P < .05. Also, table 1
reported Cronbach reliability co-efficient of 0.72. showed that a significant relationship exist between
Also, the ``Psychological Well-Being Scale`` occupational stress and job commitment, r = .344, P >
(PWBS) was developed by Welsman and Werman .05. Moreover, table 1 revealed that there is a
(1997) with reliability coefficient of 0.78. However, significant relationship between occupational stress
for the present study, a Cronbach alpha of 0.88 was and workers` compliance to organizational control, r
obtained. The ``Organizational Commitment Scale`` = .217, P > .05. This implies that the level of job
(OCS) was developed and validated by Allen and satisfaction, commitment and compliance of the
Meyer (1990) with Cronbachs alpha value of 0.73. workers had been affected by the stress encountered
For the present study, the researcher reported on the job.
Cronbach reliability co-efficient of 0.76. The five-
point Likert rating scale of Strongly Agree (5 points) Table 2: Relationship between Age, Gender and Self-
to Strongly Disagree (1 point) was adopted for the Reported Workers` Behaviour
study. The measures was assessed on a five-point Variables Groups N X SD Df T Sig.
scale (ranging from 1 = strong disagree, to 5= Age < 40 yrs. 248 38.54 9.65 433 11.65 .000
strongly agree). The ``Workers` Compliance Scale`` > 40 yrs. 187 45.61 9.11
Gender Male 231 37.87 8.34 433 10.11 .034
(WCS) was developed by Akintayo (2008) with Female 204 36.23 8.61
reliability coefficient of 0.86. The five-point Likert * Sig. at .05 Alpha levels.
rating scale of Strongly Agree (5 points) to Strongly
Disagree (1 point) was adopted for the study. The result presented in table 3 revealed that there was
no significant difference between male and female
The questionnaires were administered with respondents in their perception on the effect of
cooperation and assistance of the human resources occupational stress on their psychological well being
Managers at the premises of the selected t (433) = 11.65;P < 0.05). This implies that both male
291
 Research Journal in Organizational Psychology and Educational Studies (ISSN: 2276-8475) 1(5):289-294
Occupational Stress, Psychological Well Being and Workers Behaviour in Manufacturing Industries in
South- West Nigeria
and female respondents perceived occupational stress
as having deleterious effects on their psychological
well- being with corresponding effects on their
working behaviour. In essence the third hypothesis is
upheld.
The result presented in table 2 shows that the fourth
hypothesis is rejected t (433) = 10.11; P > 0.05. The
old respondents perceived the effect of the
occupational stress as deleterious to their working
behaviour (X = 37.87) than the young respondents (X
= 36.23). This implies that the effects of occupational
stress were more pronounced on old respondents than
the young respondents.
DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
The first hypothesis, which postulated that there is no
significant relationship between occupational stress
and workers` behaviour was confirmed. The finding
indicates that the pressure emanated from the job has
considerably influenced the perceived level of job
satisfaction, commitment, and compliance of the
workers. The finding of the study corroborates
Olagunju (2010); Dunhem (1992) and Parkes (2002)
who reported that stress tend to cause damage that
could make working environment to be less
conducive for workers, the result which could
jeopardize the workers performance and productivity
at workplace. Thus the interacting effect of
occupational stress on work-relationship tends to
cause gradual loss in role interaction vis--vis the
output of the workplace (Scully, 2000; Johnson
(2011) and Davies (2012).
The second hypothesis predicted that there is no
significant relationship between occupational stress
and psychological well being of workers. The
hypothesis was confirmed. The findings of the study
revealed that occupational stress has had a deleterious
effect on the psychological well-being of the workers.
The finding of the study supports Smith (2011);
Coleman (2012), Brandy and Cole (2010) Adu
(2004), Udo and Ajala (2003) who submit that work
related stress has impacted the health and
psychological well-being of the workers. Thus the
impact of occupational stress tends to manifest in
various psychopathological symptoms, which causes
headache, dizziness, mental disorder fatigue, and
other related health problems. This assertion
corroborates Cole (2010) and Mojoyinola (2001) who
reported a significant effect of work related stress on
health of the workers.
The third hypothesis also predicted that there is no
significant difference between male and female
respondents perception of the effect of occupational
stress on their psychological well-being. The
hypothesis was confirmed. This implies that both
male and female respondents have been affected by
occupational stress with its corresponding effects on
292
their attitude to work. The finding of the study
disagrees with Dohremwell and Dohremwell (2003)
Welsman and Werman (1997) and Phillips and Segal
(1996) who found out that women showed high
scores on psychological symptoms such as neurosis
and depression while men had consistently higher
personality disorder and were more aware of cultural
expectation regarding drug expressive control. The
finding of the study however tallies with Davies
(2012); Coleman (2012), Smith (2011), and Olagunju
(2010) who assert that stress is a manifest of both
male and female individuals to defiling basic needs of
life in an environment of competing needs. This
implies that work related stress tends to have
deleterious effects on workers attitude to work as
well as their condition of health.
The fourth hypothesis predicted that there is no
significant difference between the perception of the
old and young respondents on the effect of
occupational stress on their attitude to work. The
hypothesis was not confirmed. The finding of the
study revealed that there was a significant difference
in the perception of old and young respondents on the
effect of occupational stress on their level of
satisfaction on the job, commitment and compliance
at workplace. This indicates that the old respondents
were highly affected by occupational stress in terms
of their health and attitude to work, than the young
respondents. This suggests that young respondents
have vigour to accommodate pressures emanating
from the job than the old respondents. The finding of
the study corroborates the findings of Akintayo
(2008); Lester and Brower (2001) and Perdine et al
(1997) who investigated the effects of personality and
age on reaction to stress at workplace. They found
out that workers above forty-five years were mostly
affected by work-induced stress than the workers
below forty years of age in terms of their health
performance and productivity at workplace. The
implication of the finding is that work-induced stress
tends to affect the workers health, attitude to work,
morale, job satisfaction and productivity at work
place. Also, the uncontrolled occupational stress
could have a far-reaching effect on organizational
effectiveness.
CONCLUSION
The problem of occupational stress has become an
important issue upon which organizational goals
achievement rotates. The study therefore established
that there was a significant relationship among
occupational stress, attitude to work and
psychological well being of the workers. It has been
established further that both male and female workers
felt equally the effect of occupational stress on their
psychological well being and perceived job
satisfaction, commitment and compliance at
workplace.
 Research Journal in Organizational Psychology and Educational Studies (ISSN: 2276-8475) 1(5):289-294
Occupational Stress, Psychological Well Being and Workers Behaviour in Manufacturing Industries in
South- West Nigeria
CONTRIBUTION TO KNOWLEDGE
This study submits that occupational stress has
become a psychological phenomenon that tends to
work against enhancement of workers performance
effectiveness and organizational output. Management
of occupational stress therefore require effective
organizational support system which need to be
provided in order to reduce the effect of occupational
stress on well being, job commitment, compliance,
and satisfaction of the workers at workplace.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on the findings of the study, the following
recommendations are made. The organization support
system that tend to combat the physical, social and
psychological effects of work-induced stress on
workers and their attitude to work should be
organized at workplace in order to foster job
commitment satisfaction and compliance mode of
operation on the part of workers. Besides, industrial
counseling services need be introduced in all work
organizations in order to provide therapeutic services
that tend to reduce the effect of work-related stress on
workers health and welfare.
LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
A study of this kind supposes to cover all the
manufacturing industries operating in the six geo-
political zones of Nigeria, but was limited by
financial and time constraints. However, the study
covered the South-West Nigeria, where
manufacturing industries were mostly concentrated.
Besides, most of the respondents felt reluctant to
provide objective information in the course of
collecting data for the study but later cooperate with
the researcher after due persuasion and promise of
confidentiality of information being supplied.
However, the aforementioned limitations did not
have any effect whatsoever on the objectivity of the
findings of the study.
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