OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY Individuals are well adapted to cope with short-term exposure to pressure - in fact this can

often be positive - but there will be greater difficulty in coping with prolonged intensive pressure. A key point to recognise is that individuals will react differently to pressure in different situations and at different stages in their working lives. Based on the foregoing, it is worthwhile to conduct a research of this nature to reveal specific facts about job stress in Nigerian working environment. The specific objectives of the study can be stated as follows: 1. To examine the nature of job stress in Nigerian Banking Sector. 2. To investigate the effect of job stress on employees performance in Nigerian Banking Sector. 3. To identify the factors that are responsible for job stress in Nigerian Banking Sector. 4. To ascertain the strategies for dealing with job stress among Nigerian workers. RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND HYPOTHESES The research questions that would guide this study are stated below: 1. What is the nature of job stress in Nigerian Banking Sector? 2. How does job stress impact on employees productivity in Nigerian Banking Sector? 3. What are the factors that cause job stress in Nigerian Banking Sector? 4. What strategies could be adopted by banks management to deal with job stress among their workers? STATEMENT OF HYPOTHESES Three hypotheses are proposed to explain the relationship between job stress and employees performance. The first hypothesis suggests that job stress and employees performance have a negative relationship. Stress is viewed as dysfunctional to both individuals and organizations. Individuals faced with job stress spend time coping or engaging in undesirable activities such as sabotage or wasting time. Hypothesis I That job stress adversely affects the performance of employees. The second hypothesis suggests that job stress and employees productivity have a positive relationship. At low levels of stress, individuals do not face any challenge and thus, are unlikely to improve performance. At moderate levels of stress, individuals experience some amount of challenge and average performance is likely to occur. In contrast, high levels of stress result in both optimal challenge and performance. Hypothesis II That job stress positively affects the productivity of employees. The third hypothesis suggests an inverted U-shaped relationship between job stress and employees performance. At low levels of stress, individuals are not activated or aroused enough for high performance. Similarly, at high levels of stress, individuals expend their energy coping with stresses rather than directing efforts towards enhancement of performance. Thus, performance is high when a moderate amount of stress is present. Under conditions of moderate stress, individuals are not only

activated to perform, but devote substantial energy towards performance enhancement rather than coping with stresses. Hypothesis III That there is trade-off between job stress and employees performance. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Both descriptive and explanatory research methodologies shall be adopted in this project. This is because job stress, which is the main concept in the project, cannot be quantified nor captured by a single research method. A project of this nature requires a wide collection of opinions on the subject matter and one of the ways of achieving this is through administration of questionnaires. As such, selfadministered standardised questionnaire shall be used to gather all relevant information on the subject matter. The questionnaire to be administered for this study shall be the abbreviated version of Karaseks Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ). Twelve items in the JCQ shall be used to measure job control, psychological demands, job insecurity, physical exertion and workplace social support. Each item on the standardized questionnaire shall be scored using a five-point Likert scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree. The respondents shall cut across different departments of Zenith Bank Plc. It also cuts across all the levels of organizational hierarchy to include senior and junior staffs. All these people shall be included in order to have a representation of all shades of opinions. The data that would be gathered through the questionnaire would be analysed using both the direct and reverse scoring techniques. In addition to the administration of questionnaires, a semi-interview shall be conducted among selected staff of Zenith Bank Plc. This will allow for an in-depth inquiry thereby providing the opportunity to gather more information which can not be collected through the questionnaire. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY The desire of every employer is optimum productivity. This can only be achieved when the employees work at their best. But one major factor that has been identified in the literature to affect the performance of employees is job stress. Therefore, the employers and/or management cannot ignore the influence of job stress in attaining the organizational set goals. The focus of this study is to understand how job stress affects workers productivity and also to identify the factors that are responsible for job stress. With that knowledge it may be possible to adjust these factors in order to improve the performance of the employees as well as that of the organization. The application of the findings of this study is mainly for the design and implementation of the most effective strategies for dealing with job stress in Nigerian Banking Sector. However, it is hoped that the key ideas can be transported to any workplace wishing to increase or enhance workers productivity.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY This study is an attempt to provide employers and employees with a framework of measures which will identify and prevent problems of job stress and help to manage them when they do arise. Although stress is associated with a number of factors, the scope of this study will be limited to only work-related stress. Furthermore, the impact of job stress on the productivity of employees would be investigated empirically. This will help to put to rest the controversy surrounding the likely effect of job stress on workers performance. Job stress is a common phenomenon in every occupation, the focus of this research shall be on the Nigerian Banking Sector with special interest on Zenith Bank Plc. The selection of this sector was purposeful because of the work challenges that workers in the sector face on a daily basis especially in recent times with workforce cutbacks which could have resulted in greater pressures on remaining workforces with increased work overloads or stress The research is intended to be elaborate in order to gather diversified opinions on the subject matter and to allow for precision in the identification job related stressors for every individual respondent. PLAN OF THE STUDY This project shall be divided into five chapters. The first chapter provides the background of the subject matter justifying the need for the study. Chapter two shall present related literature concerning job stress and its impact on workers performance. The research methodology shall then be stated in chapter three while data presentation and analysis shall be made in chapter four. Concluding comments in chapter five shall reflect on the summary, conclusion and recommendations based on the findings of the study. REFERENCES Akinnusi M. (1995), Stress among a sample of Bank Executives in Nigeria, Management in Nigeria, April-June, pp.5-15. Asika N. and Ade-Serrano A. (1985), Executive Stress, Nigerian Journal of Management Studies, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 558-565. Cox T., Griffiths A. and Cox S. (1996), Work-related stress in nursing: Controlling the risk to health, International Labour Office Working paper CONDI/T/WP.4/1996. Irene L. D. (2005), Work-related Stress, European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. Jungwee P. (2007), Work stress and job performance, Perspectives, December. Kazmi R., Amjad S. and Khan D. (2008), Occupational Stress and its effect on Job Performance: A case study of Medical House Officers of District Abbottabad, Journal of Ayub Medical College Abbottabad, vol. 20(3).

Luthans F. (1989), Organisational Behaviour 5th edition, New York: McGraw Hill Publishing Company. Narayanan L., Menon S., and Spector, P. E. (1999), Stress in the Workplace: A comparison of Gender and Occupation, Journal of Organisational Behaviour, Vol. 20, No. 1, January, pp.63-73. Nilufar A., Zaini A., David Y. G. F. and Syed S. A. (2009), A Study of Job Stress on Job Satisfaction among University Staff in Malaysia: Empirical Study, European Journal of Social Sciences, Vol. 8, No. 1. Nwaroh J. U. (1991), Managing for Enhanced Quality Improvement, Management in Nigeria, July/August, Vol. 27, No. 4, pp.13-18. Olugbile A. O. B. (1982), The Executive and His Health, Management in Nigeria, July, pp. 10-15. Sabir I. G. and Helge H. (2003), Violence and stress at work in financial services International Labour Office Working Paper WP210, October. Santiago D. (2003), Cynicism and Job Dissatisfaction Negative Effects of Internal Stress on Police Performance, School of Police Staff and Command, September. Shahu R. and Gole S.V. (2008), Effect of Job Stress and Job Satisfaction on Performance: An Empirical Study, AIMS International Journal of Management, Vol. 2, No. 3, September, pp. 237-246.