2526-Article Text-6813-1-10-20170126

Archives of Business Research – Vol.5, No.
1
Publication Date: January. 25, 2017
DOI: 10.14738/abr.51.2526.
Sev, J.T. (2017). Stress Management Strategies: An Approach for Productive Employee Performance in the Nigerian Banking
Organizations a Surveyof Commercial Banking Firms in Nigeria. Archives of Business Research, 5(1), 112-134.
Stress Management Strategies: An Approach for Productive

Employee Performance in the Nigerian Banking Organizations a
Survey of Commercial Banking Firms in Nigeriaa
Joseph Teryima Sev
Department Of Business Management
Faculty of Management Sciences, Benue State University
Makurdi, P.M.B. 102119, Makurdi, Nigeria, West Africa.
Abstract
The objective of the study is to determine the impact of stress management
strategies on the performance output in the commercial banking organization
in Nigeria. The population of the study comprises of all the operational twenty
one (21) commercial banking firms in Nigeria as at December, 2016, totaled at
64,846 employees. The sample size for the study is 398 and is determined using
Taro Yamane’s formula. Bowley’s allocation formula is used in determining
respective commercial banks sample size. Both primary and secondary sources
of data collection are employed in this research, confirmatory factor analysis
with Varimax rotation has been performed to examine whether the
classification of the variable into the specific factors is valid or not. In this case
individual approaches, organizational approaches for managing stress and
consequence of stress on performance output. Kaiser-Meyer-Oikin (KMO) test
is used to measure sampling adequacy accepting a weak threshold of 0.5 and
Bartlett’s test of Sphericity is also adopted and Total Variance Explained (TVE)
score is used to measure how data is distributed within a range and also how
much response differs (accepted threshold is 0.6). Cronbach Alpha (α)
reliability test is performed to assess internal consistency of measurement
adopting a weak threshold of 0.6. Multiple regression test is used in the test of
two (2) formulated hypotheses. The findings of the study revealed that
strategies/approaches adopted for the management of stress in the banking
organizations such as realistic goal setting, placement of employees in
appropriate jobs, time management, prioritizing activities and schedules
amongst others will have a positive impact on performance of employee in
banking organizations. Another finding reveals that consequences of stress
symptoms have a significant effect on performance output of employees in the
commercial banking firms in Nigeria (i.e, increase height blood pressure,
anxiety, irritability, job turnover, sleep disorder, insomnia, and heart attacks
amongst others). The study recommendation are that employee that are
assigned responsibilities and task for performance be experienced and skillful
enough to live up to expected standards of job performance so that stress will
not catch up with them. Again, proper delegation of authority and
responsibilities, proper job descriptions, determination of objectives of the
organization, proper job designs to suit the skills and needs of the employee,
establishment of employee wellness programs, proper communications
amongst others, are good strategies to adopt in managing stress in banking
organizations for optimal growth and performance.
Keywords: Stress, Stress Management, Strategies, Employee Performance, Stressors,

Stress Consequences.
Copyright © Society for Science and Education, United Kingdom 112

Archives of Business Research (ABR) Vol.5, Issue 1, January-2017
INTRODUCTION
There appears little doubt that one of the major adverse influences of job satisfaction, work
performance and productivity, and absenteeism and turnover is the incidence of stress at
work. Stress is a complex and dynamic concept. It is a source of tension and frustration, and
can arise through a number of interrelated influences on behaviours, including the individual,
group, organizational and environmental factors [21]
According to [19] for example; in human terms any situation that is seen as burdensome,
threatening, ambiguous or boring is likely to induce stress. This is the type of situation that
would normally strike the individual as deserving immediate attentive or concern and is
viewed unfortunate or annoying. There tends to be the feeling that the situation should not
exist, but because of it, the person feels disappointed or annoyed and eventually is prone to
anxiety, depression, anger, hostility, inadequacy and low frustration tolerance.
One potential major source of work stress arises from role incongruence and role conflict.
Empirical surveys suggested that although a certain amount of stress may arguably be seen as
a good thing and helps to promote a high level of performance, it is also potentially very
harmful. Role stress can lead to difficulties in communication and interpersonal relationships
and can have an adverse effect on morale, performance and effectiveness at work, and health.
Demands for improved business competitiveness and lower operating costs have frequently
led to restructuring of banking, manufacturing, organization and reduction of staffing levels.
This has placed greater pressures or remaining staff and resulted in a growing number of
work-related health problems, work stress and a less efficient work force.
Suggests five organizational situation that are likely to create role problems and therefore
resulting to stress for the individual employee in an organization. They include;
a) Responsibility for the work of others – Reconciling overlapping or conflicting objective
of groups and organizations of groups and individuals, of self and superiors.
b) Innovative functions – Conflicting priorities and different psychological demands
between the routine and administrative aspects of the job and the creative side.
c) Integrative or boundary functions – The particularly stressful role to the coordinator,
link persons or outside contact, perhaps due to the lack of control over their demands
or resources.
d) Relationship problems – Difficulties with a boss, subordinates or colleagues. For some
people, particularly those with a technical orientation, the need to work with other
people is a worrying complication.
e) Career uncertainty – If future career prospects become doubtful the uncertainty can
quickly become stressful and spread to affect the whole of a person’s work.
It is important to emphasis that, employees and managers of banking and manufacturing firms
viewed the major source of stress as the incompetence of their superiors, poor internal
communication, office politics, time pressures and deadlines, unrealistic business objectives,
constant interruptions and securing access to the right information. This is a view from an
empirical research findings conducted by the institute of management and personal
performance consultants, UK limited (1993, December).
Stress is viewed as state of tension experienced by individuals facing extraordinary demands,

constraints, or opportunities in a work environment. [24] Observed that stress has both
negative and positive influence on the lives of employees. The two faces of stress can be
termed as constructive stress and destructive stress.
Sev, J.T. (2017). Stress Management Strategies: An Approach for Productive Employee Performance in the Nigerian Banking Organizations a
Surveyof Commercial Banking Firms in Nigeria. Archives of Business Research, 5(1), 112-134.
Defined constructive stress or eustress as acts in a positive way. It occurs at moderate stress
levels by prompting increased work effort, stimulating creativity, and encouraging greater
diligence. This stress may be known as the tension that causes you to study hard before
examinations, pay attention, and complete assignments on time in a difficult class. Destructive
stress or distress is a dysfunctional for both the individual and the organization. One form of it
is “Job burnout” that shows itself as loss of interest in and satisfaction with a job due to
stressful working conditions. [2] Noted that, when a person is “burned out” he or she feels
exhausted, emotionally and physically, and thus unable to deal positively with work
responsibilities and opportunities. Too much stress can overload and breakdown a person’s
physical and mental systems resulting in absenteeism, turnover, errors, accidents,
dissatisfaction, reduced performance, unethical behavior and even illness. [2, 25] maintains
that, the common typical symptoms of stress include;
- Excessive alcohol intake - Temper tantrums

- Tiredness - Loss of concentration
- Headaches - Excess worrying
- High blood pressure - Heavy cigarette smoking
- Pounding heart - Stomach upset and ulcers
- Low energy -Irritability
- Sleeping problems - Anxiety
- Aggression - Dizziness
- Feelings of inadequacy - Bad breath
- Hyperventilation - Over eating
- Moodiness - Memory loss
- Inability to relax
Noted the importance of demonstrating a relationship between personality and health.

Negative emotional states such as depression, hostility and anxiety appear to be linked to heart
diseases, respiratory disorders such as asthma and headaches and ulcers. Health risks are
greater where negative states are chronic, particularly where they are one an aspect of
personality.
Maintains that, there are a number of other causes of stress that arise from individual factors:
difficulty in coping with change, lack of confidence and assertiveness in relationships, poor
time management, and poor stress management skills.
In an organizational context, typical stressors that are likely to emerge include;

i. Inadequate physical working environment - Noise, bad lighting, inadequate ventilation,
lack of privacy, extremes of heat and cold, old and unsuitable and unreliable equipment.
ii. Inappropriate job design – Poor coordination, inadequate training, inadequate
information, rigid procedures, inadequate staffing, excessive workloads, no challenge
little use of skills, no responsibility or participation in decision making, role ambiguity.
iii. Poor management style – Inconsistent, competitive, crisis management, autocratic
management, and excessive time pressures placed on employees.
iv. Poor relationships – With superiors, with colleagues, with particular individuals, lack of
feedback, little social contact, racial and sexual harassment.
v. Uncertain future – Job insecurity, fear of unemployment or redeployment, few
promotions, opportunities, low statue job.
vi. Divided loyalties - Conflicts between personal aspirations and organizational
requirements, conflict between job and family and social responsibilities.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/abr.51.2526. 114

It will be important to emphasis that stress can be exciting and arousing and can enhance our
sense of satisfaction and accomplishment and lead to improve our performance. In this sense is
“Eustress”, used to describe positive aspect of stress. In contrasts, it will be distress, which
means the unpleasant, debilitating and unhealthy side of stress. [23] Stress can be episodic.
When dealing with life’s problems, we get anxious, cope with the problem, and then relax
again. Some events can be extremely stressful, such as the death of a close relative or a term in
prison. Other experiences can also be stressful, such as getting a poor examination grades,
being fired for speeding, or arguing with a parent, but trigger a less extreme response. Each of
these episodes on its own is unlikely to cause lasting damage. However, when several of these
episodes occur around the same time, the health risk is increased.
Stress can be chronic. This happens when employee face constant stress, with no escape and
can lead to exhaustion and burnout. This may be due to the unfortunate coincidence of several
unrelated episodes. However, chronic stress also arises from the enduring features of our
personal, social and organizational circumstances. In situation where we are faced with been
under pressure, always facing multiple and unrealistic demands, always having difficulties
with our work, our colleagues and our relationships, then the health risk from stress is likely to
increase.
The working environment, the crowded responsibilities, schedules and demanding

expectations from bank customers have always placed strenuous demands on bank workers in
a bid to carry out their work task inorder to attain goals of the banking firms. This has caused
exhaustion, tiredness, anxiety, aggression, feeling of inadequacy, headaches, and moodiness to
employee, causing havoc and devastation situation to banking firm. Devising effective
management strategies to curb the devastating effect of stress in bank has been a problem to
contend with by bank management. Infact if not properly managed, it will affect profit
attainment and high performance trends of the banks. The researcher is therefore interested to
empirically search for viable strategies manager will use to address this epidemic.
RESEARCH PROBLEM
There exist instances of job dissatisfaction, job burnout, high blood pressures, tensions,
anxiety, irritability, boredom, procrastination among employees leading to low performance
output and trends in banking firms in Nigeria. In most cases these have resulted to
absenteeism to work by employees and high job turnover. The demanding nature of the
banking tasks have called for a critical diagnosis to establish whether responsibilities and tasks
assigned to bank officers is over demanding leading to role incompatibility, role ambiguity, role
overload and role under-load, creating anxiety, frustration, anger, depression, hostility
amongst staff, hence the epidemic symptoms are usually stressful to employee. The concern is
therefore to establish how chief executive officers of bank have put in place management
strategies to tackle the mess of stress which if not effectively addressed will affect performance
of the organization.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

i. To determine the extent to which the strategies for management of stress will impact on
the performance of the commercial banking firms in Nigeria.
ii. To evaluate the extent to which the consequences of stress will affect the performance
output of employees of the commercial banking firms in Nigeria.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
i. To what extent have the strategies for management of stress impacted on the
performance of the commercial banking firms in Nigeria?
ii. To what extent have the consequences of stress affected the performance output of
employees of the commercial banking firms in Nigeria?
RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
HO1: Strategies for management of stress have not significantly impacted on the
performance of the commercial banking firms in Nigeria.
HO2: The consequences of stress have no effect on the performance output of employees of
the commercial banking firms in Nigeria.
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

View stress as a dynamic condition in which an individual is confronted with an opportunity,
constraint, or demand related to what he or she desires and for which the outcome is perceived
to be both uncertain and important. Constraint is viewed as the forces that prevent individuals
from doing what they desire while demand is the loss of something desired.
Noted that one potential major source of work stress arises from role incongruence and role
conflict. Role incongruence arises when a member of staff is perceived as having a high and
responsible position in one respect but a low standing in another respect. Difficulties with role
incongruence can arise from the nature of grouping and formal relationships within the
structure of the organization. For example, there are a number of work related relationships,
such as doctor and nurse or senior manager and personal assistant, which can give rise to a
potential imbalance of authority and responsibility.
See role conflict as arising from inadequate or inappropriate role definition and needs to be
distinguished from personality clashes. These arise from incompatibility between two or more
people as individuals even through their roles may be defined clearly and understood fully.
[21] Observed that, in practice, the manner in which a person actually behaves may not be
consistent with their expected pattern of behaviours. This inconsistency may be a result of role
conflict. He further stressed that, role conflict can include;
i. Role incompatibility
ii. Role ambiguity
iii. Role overload
iv. Role under-load
Role incompatibility – arises when a person faces a situation in which simultaneous different
or contradictory expectations creates inconsistency. Compliance with one set of expectations
makes it difficult or impossible to comply with other expectations. The two role expectations
are in conflict. A typical example concerns the person “in the middle”, such as the supervisor or
section head, who faces opposing expectations from workers and from management. Another
example, might be the situation of a manager who believes in a relaxed participative style of
behavior more in keeping with a theory Y approach, but who’s superior believes in a theory X
approach and expects the manager to adopt a more formal and directive style of behavior. This
can cause stress.
Role ambiguity – This occurs when there is lack of clarity as to the precise requirements of the
role and the person is unsure what to do. The person’s own perception of their role may be
differ from the expectation of others. This implies that insufficient information is available for
the adequate performance of the role. Role ambiguity may result from a lack of formally
prescribed expectations. It is likely to arise in large, diverse groups or at times of constant
change. Uncertainty often relates to such matters as the method of performing tasks, the extent

of the person’s authority and responsibility, standards of works, and the evaluation and
appraisal of performance.
Role overload – This occurs when a person faces too many separate roles or too great a variety
of expectations. The person is unable to meet satisfactorily all expectation and some must be
neglected in order to satisfy others. This leads to conflict of priority. Role overload can be seen
in terms of the total role set and implies that the person has too many separate roles to handle.
This may cause stress to the employee.
Role under-load – This can arise when the prescribed role expectations fall short of the
persons own perception of their role. The person may feel their role is not demanding enough
and that they have capacity to undertake a larger or more varied role, or an increased number
of roles. Role under-load may arise, for example, when a new member of staff is first appointed
or from the initial effects of delegation.
Defined stress as an adaptive response mediated by individual characteristics and/or

psychological processes. In other words, it is a consequence of any external action, situation or
event that places special, physical and or psychological demand on the person. Stressors are
the wide variety of things that cause stress for individuals. Some of the stressors can be traced
directly to what people experience in the workplace; where as other derives from non-work
place and personal factors. In another way, stressors can be grouped as individual level
stressor, group level stressors, organizational stressor, and extra organizational stressors [25].
Work Stressors – These can arise from many sources, from excessively high or low task
demands, role conflict s or ambiguities, poor interpersonal relations or carrier progress that is
either too slow or too fast. A list of common stressors include the following;
i. Task demands – When an employee is asked to do too much or being asked to too little.
ii. Role ambiguities – Not knowing what one is expected to do or how work performance is
evaluated.
iii. Role conflicts – Feeling unable to satisfy multiple, possibly conflicting, performance
expectations.
iv. Ethical dilemmas – Being asked to do things that violate the law or personal values.
v. Interpersonal problems – Experiencing bad relationships or working with others with
whom one does not get along.
vi. Career developments – Moving too fast and feeling stretched, moving too slowly and
feeling stock in a plateau.
vii. Physical setting – Being bothered by noise, lack of privacy, pollution, or other
unpleasant working conditions.
Life Stressors – A less obvious, though important source of stress for people at work is the
“spillover effect” that results when forces in their personal lives “spill-over” to affect them at
work such life stressors as family events (e.g the birth of a new child, economic difficulties, the
sudden loss of a big investment) and personal affairs (e.g a separation or divorce) can all be
extremely stressful. Since is often difficult to completely separate work and non-work lives, life
stressors can affect the way people feel and behave on their job as well as in their personal
lives.
Another set of stressors include personal factors such as individual needs, capabilities and
person ability. Stress can reach a destructive state more quickly for example when experienced
by highly emotional people or by those with low self-esteem. People who perceived a good fit
between job requirements and personal skills secures to have a higher tolerance for stress
than do those who feel less incompetent as a result of a person-job mismatch. Additionally,
aspect of personality such as achievement orientation, impatience, and perfectionism of
individual with type a personalities for example, often create stress for them in work setting
that others find relatively stress free. Another classification of stressor proffered by [23] is as
follows;
i. Individual level stressors: - There are directly associated with a person’s job duties e.g
work overload, role ambiguity, role conflict, personal economic problems, and inherent
personality characteristics.
ii. The Group-level stressors: - There are caused by group dynamics and managerial
behavior, conflict power tussle and politics in organization. Managers create stress for
employee by exhibiting inconsistent behavior by refusal to provide support, lack of
concern for the employee, laying too much emphasis on high productivity, focusing on
negatives while ignoring good performance.
iii. Organizational stressor: - These can affect large number of employees. These include
the overriding management style, organizational leadership, task demands, role
demands, interpersonal demand climate of the organization. The office designs and
general office can induce stressful working condition if not adequately catered for.
Empirical research has demonstrated that poor lighting, loud noise, improper
placement of furniture, inadequate space and dirty or smelling environment can create
stressful situation.
iv. Extra organizational stressor: - These types are caused by factors outside the
organization. It range from factors such as balancing one’s career and family life to one’s
socio economics status to political and economic instability, lack of mobility. Stress is
quite higher for people with lower socio economics status. Status represents a
combination of economic factors measured by income, social factor as measured by
educational level, work status as indexed by one’s type of occupation, [25].
CONSEQUENCES OF STRESS
[12, 23, 25] in their different empirical research effort revealed that stress manifest in a
number of ways in different individuals. An individual may develop high blood pressure, ulcer,
irritability, conjunctivitis, exhaustion, and loss of appetite and eventually it may lead to
accident as well. These manifest symptoms or consequences can be grouped into three (3)
categories. These are:-
i. Physiological symptoms:- Here stress quite often creates change in metabolism,
increase heart and breathing rates, increase blood pressure, bring on headaches, induce
heart attacks and create aguish in employee.
ii. Psychological symptoms: - Stress can cause dissatisfaction. Job related stress can cause
job related dissatisfactions. Infact job dissatisfaction is the simplest and most obvious
psychological effect of stress. The simplest symptom revealing in this case include
tension, anxiety, irritability, boredom and procrastination.
iii. Behavioural symptoms:- The behavioral related stress symptoms include changes in
productivity, absence and turnover, as well as change in eating habits, increased
smoking or consumption of alcohol, rapid speech, fidgeting and sleep disorders,
insomnia. The major significant research study in stress performance relationship is the
inverted U relationship.
The logic underlying the inverted U is that low to moderate levels of stress stimulate the body
and increase its ability to react. Individuals then often perform their task better, more
intensely or more rapidly. But too much stress places unattainable demands or constraints on a
person, which result in lower performance. This inverted U pattern may also describe the

reaction to stress over time, as well as to changes in stress intensity. That is, even moderate
levels of stress can have a negative influence on performance over the long term as the
continued intensity of the stress wears down the individual and saps his or her energy
resources. In a nutshell, the longer time a stressful situation last, the poorer the performance
as the continued intensity of the stress wears down the individual.
Inverted –U relationship between stress and job performance
Another consequence of stress is burnout a feeling of exhaustion that can develop when
someone experience too much stress for an extended period of time. Burnout results in
constant fatigue, frustration, and helplessness increased rigidity follows, as does a loss of self-
confidence and psychological withdrawal. The individual dreads going to work, often puts in
longer hours but get less accomplished than before, and exhibits mental and physical
exhaustion. Because of the damaging effects of burnout, some firms are taking steps to help
avoid it. For example, British Airways provides all of its employee with training designed to
help them recognized the symptoms of burnout and develop strategies to avoid them [12].
Nigerian banking firms have also adopted this style of managing the stress syndrome for a
productive result.
STRATEGIES FOR MANAGING STRESS BY ORGANIZATIONS

Given the devastating nature of stress and accompany consequences associated with it,
managers of organization needs to device ways and strategies for its effective management in
order to derive quality performance of the organization. [12, 2, 23, 25, 7] suggested various
ways of managing stress in organizations. These are;
Emotional – focused strategies which improve individual resilience and coping skills. These
include;
i. Consciousness – Rising to improve self-awareness.
ii. Exercise and fitness programmes.
iii. Self-help training, in bio feedback, meditation, relaxation, coping strategies.
iv. Time management training
v. Development of other social and job interests.
Problem – focused strategies deal directly with the stressors and include;
i. Improved selection and training mechanisms.
ii. Staff counseling programmes.
iii. Improved organizational communication.
iv. Job redesigned and enrichment strategies.

v. Development of team working systems.
Identified the most and least stressful jobs as follows;

Ten most stressful Jobs Ten Least-stressful Jobs
1. Inner-city high school teacher 1. Forester
2. Police officer 2. Book binder
3. Miner 3. Telephone line worker
4. Air traffic controller 4. Tool maker
5. Medical intern 5. Millwright
6. Stockbroker 6. Repair person
7. Journalist 7. Civil engineer
8. Customer-service/compliant worker 8. Therapist
9. Secretary 9. Natural scientist
10. Waiter 10. Sales representation
o
They emphasized that; an employee can take personal responsibility for reducing his or her
stress level. Individual strategies that have proven effective include time management
techniques, physical exercise, relaxation techniques and a close social support network. [15].
Time Management – Many people manage their time poorly. The thing we have to accomplish
in any given day or week are not necessarily beyond completion if we manage our time
properly. The well-organized employee, like the well-organized student, can often accomplish
twice as much as the person who is poorly organized. So understanding and using basic time
management principles can help individuals cope better with tensions created by job demands.
A few of the well-known time management principles are:-
a) Making daily lists of activities to be accomplished.
b) Prioritizing activities by importance and urgency
c) Scheduling activities according to the priorities set and
d) Knowing you daily cycle and handling the most demanding parts of your job during the
high part of your cycle, when you are most alert and productive.
Physical Activity – Non-competitive physical exercise, such as aerobics, walking, jogging,

swimming, and riding a bicycle, has long been recommended by physicians as a way to deal
with excessive stress levels. These forms of physical exercise, increase heart capacity, lower at-
rest heart rate, provide a mental diversion form work pressures, and offer a means to “let off
steam”.
Relaxation Techniques – Here individuals can teach themselves to reduce tension through
relaxation techniques such as mediation, hypnosis, and biofeedback. The objective is to reach a
state of deep relaxation, where you feel physically relaxed, since what detached from the
immediate environment and detached from body sensation. Empirical evidence revealed that,
15 to 20 minutes a day of deep relaxation release tension and provides a person with a
pronounced sense of peacefulness. Importantly, significant changes in heart rate, blood
pressure, and other physiological factor result from achieving the deep relaxation condition.

Building social support: – Having friends, family, or colleague to talk to provide an outlet when
a stress level becomes excessive. Expanding your social support network, therefore, can be a
means for tension reduction. It provides you with someone to listen to your problems and too
often a more objective perspective on the situation. Other organizational approaches or
strategies may include; improved processes for choosing employees, placement of employee in
appropriate jobs, realistic goal setting, designing jobs with employee needs and skills in mind,
increased employee involvement, improved organizational communication, offering employee
sabbaticals and establishing of corporate wellness programs, creating jobs that give employees
more responsibility, more meaningful work, more autonomy and increased feedback can
reduce stress because these factors give the employee greater control over work activities and
lessen dependence on others. All these strategies can help curb menace of stress in
organization.
METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK
A total of 398 questionnaires were distributed to employees of 21 commercial banking firms in
Nigeria. The research design technique adopted was quasi-experimental which place premium
on survey sample. The population for this study comprises of 21 licensed commercial banks
employee in Nigeria operational as at December, 2016. All the categories of staff are
considered in the research. The employee population in details in the 21 commercial banks is
stated as follows:- Access Bank Plc, 800, Diamond Bank Plc, 4568, Eco Bank Nigeria Plc, 2410,
Enterprise Bank Ltd, 1120, Fidelity Bank Plc, 2120, First Bank of Nigeria Plc, 6610, Firstcity
Monumental Bank Plc (FCMB), 2000, Guarantee Trust Bank plc (GTB), 10000, Heritage
Banking Company Ltd (HBCL), 657, Keystone Bank Ltd, 2233, Mainstream Bank Ltd, 2250, Sky
Bank Plc, 821, Stanbic IBTC Holding Plc, 2077, Standard Chartered Plc, 1220, Sterling Bank Plc,
3034, Union Bank Nigeria, 6210, Wema Bank Plc, 1317, Zenith Bank Plc 6616, Jaiz Bank Plc
525. These all together make a total employee population size of 64,846. (Annual statement
and Account reports of various commercial banks, 2010).
This selection will enable us study the commercial banking firm base on size (i.e bigger,
moderate and smaller in size), age and asset base, quality and scope of operations. The choice
of these banks employed the use of disproportionate stratified sampling technique in which
the banks are classed into three (3) strata.
The first category of commercial banking firms is bigger in size in terms of employees, scope of
operations and asset base. They have population of staff above 3500.
The second category of banking organization is moderately bigger in size in terms of employee,
scope of operations and assets base. They have (staff/employee) population of between 2000-
3449.
The third category banking of firms is smaller in size in terms of employee, scope of operation
and asset base. They have (staff/employee) population below 2000.
Both primary and secondary sources of data are used. The primary sources of data collection
employed the use of questionnaire using 5-point likert rating scale questionnaire of strongly
Agree (SA), Agree (A), Undecided (U), Disagree (D) and strongly Disagree (SD) is administered
to obtain viable information on the subject matter of stress management strategies by
commercial banking firms in enhancing employee performance in the Nigerian commercial
banking firms.

To scientifically generate a sample size, the [26] formula was applied. According to [1] this
formula can be used for a homogeneous population like the one in this research.
The formula is stated below;

!
!= !
1+! !
Where ! = Sample size
1 = Constant value
N = Population size
e = Porportion of sampling error in a given situation. The researcher assumed 95%
confidence level having 5% to error.
In this case, the total population size of 64,846 was used to obtain the sample size of twenty
one (21) commercial banking firms in the study at 0.05 level of significance or 5% margin of
error as shown below;
64,846
!=
1 + 64,846(0.05)!
64,846
!=
1 + 64,846(0.0025)
! = 398 This is the total sample size for the research.
From the total sample size, the individual commercial banking organization sample size is
obtained. The formula adopted in this case is Bowley’s allocation formula (1964) in [] as shown
below;
!"ℎ
!ℎ =
!
Where !ℎ = the number of units allocated to each banking firm.
n = total sample size
NH = the number of employees in each banking firm.
N = the population size
Following the Bowley’s allocation formula, the respective commercial banking sample size is
determined as shown below;
!"# ! !",!!!
For Guarantee Trust Bank plc !ℎ = !",!"#
!ℎ = 61
!"# ! !!"!
For Zenith Bank plc !ℎ = !",!"#
!ℎ = 41
The procedure is applicable for the rest of the banks.

Table 1.0 Number of Commercial banks based on classification and allocation of sample size to
each commercial bank
S/NO Name of Commercial Bank Population of Selected sample size
staff/employee
The first category of commercial banking firms (employee/staff size above 3000, bigger in size in terms of
employees, scope of operations and Assets base).
1. Guarantee Trust Bank plc (GTB) 10000 61

2. Zenith Bank Plc 6616 41
3. First Bank Plc 6610 41
4. Union Bank (Nigeria) 6210 38
5. United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc 5561 35
6. Diamond Bank Plc 4568 28
Second category of commercial banking firms (employee/staff size between 2000- 3499, moderately bigger in
size in terms of employees, scope of operations and Assets base).
7. Sterling Bank plc 3034 19
8. Eco Bank Nigeria 2410 15
9. Mainstream Bank Ltd 2250 14
10. Keystone Bank Ltd 2233 14
11. Fidelity Bank Plc 2120 13
12. Stanbic IBTC Holding Plc 2077 13
13. First City Monumental Bank Ltd 2000 13
14. Unity Bank Plc 2072 13
Third category of commercial banking firms (employee/staff size below 2000 smaller in size in terms of
employees, scope of operations and Assets base).
15. Standard Chartered Bank plc 1220 7
16. Wema Bank Plc 1317 8
17. Enterprise Bank Limited 1120 7
18. Access Bank Plc 900 6
19. Sky Bank Plc 821 5
20. Heritage Banking Company Ltd. 657 4
21. Jaiz Bank Plc 525 3
Source: Commercial banking firms record and field survey, 2016.
FACTOR AND RELIABILITY ANALYSIS

Confirmatory factor analysis with Varimax rotation has been performed to examine whether
the classification of the variables into the specific factors is valid or not. In this case the
individual approaches, organizational approaches/strategies for managing stress and
consequences of stress as affecting performance output of employee is subjected to analysis.
KMO (Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin) is used to measure the sampling adequacy, accepting a weak
threshold (0.5) (Malhotra, 1999) and Bartlett test of sphericity is also adopted. The total
variance explained (TVE) score is also used to measure how data is distributed within a range
and also how much the response differs (accepted threshold, 0.6). Further, Cronbach Alpha (α)
reliability test has been performed to assess internal consistency of measurement adopting the
weak threshold 0.6 [22, 8, and 3].

Table 3: Factor Analysis

Factors Statistics Strategies for managing stress Loading No
(Items) of
item
s
Individual K.M.O. = 0.509 1) Adoption of Time management principles is essential 0.905 8
Approaches/Strat Sig = 0.00 for stress management.
egies (TVE) = 0.455 2) Making daily lists of activities to be accomplished is 0.819
Cronbach Alpha()
essential principle.
= 0.929 0.888
Bertlett’s test of 3) Prioritizing activities by importance and urgency is 0.788
Sphereity necessary. 0.830
Approx. Chi 4) Scheduling activities according to priorities set is
square = 26.82 important. 0.760
Df = 28 5) Knowing your daily cycle and handling most
Sig. = 0.00 demanding part is important.
0.867
6) Physical activity i, e Noncompetitive physical
0.836
exercise such as aerobics, walking, jogging,
swimming and riding bicycle is necessary.
7) Relaxation techniques are essential for stress
management.
8) Building social support i.e. having friends, family or
colleague to talk to is necessary.
Factors Statistics Strategies for managing stress Loading No
(Items) of
item
s
Organizational K.M.O. = 0.533 1) Redesigning jobs to give employees more 0.865 7
Approaches/Strat Sig = 0.00 responsibility, more meaningful work, more
egies (TVE) = 0.472 autonomy and increased feedback reduces stress.
Cronbach Alpha() 0.784
2) Increases formal organizational communications with
= 0.907
Bertlett’s test of employees reduce uncertainty. 0.863
Sphereity 3) Placement of employees in appropriate Jobs reduces
Approx. Chi stress. 0.804
square = 22.76 4) Setting realistic organizational goal is a strategy for
Df = 21 stress management. 0.777
Sig. = 0.00 5) Increased employee involvement helps to reduce
0.709
stress.
6) Offering employee sabbaticals and establishment of 0.802
corporate wellness programs reduce stress.
7) Flexible work time is a strategy for stress
management.
Consequences of K.M.O. = 0.495 0.870 9
o 1). Unrealistic business objectives lead to anxiety.
Stress Sig = 0.00 0.776
2). Poor internal communication result to frustration.
(TVE) = 0.461
Cronbach Alpha() o 3). Office politics can cause stress. 0.849
= 0.935 o 4). Time pressures and deadlines result to stress. 0.776
Bertlett’s test of o 5). Attending too many meetings is stressful. 0.834
Sphereity o 6). In competent senior management leads to 0.797
Approx. Chi depression.
square = 31.51 o 7). Poor relationship between colleagues can result to 0.890
Df = 36 hostilities and stress.
Sig. = 0.00 o 8). Constant interruptions can lead to stress. 0.700
o 9). Managing staff problems can be burdensome and 0.850
threatening.

Table 4.0 KMO and Bartlett's Test
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy. 0.512
Approx. Chi-Square
27.03
Bartlett's Test of Sphericity
Df 28
Sig. 0.001
Overall Reliability Statistics : Cronbach’s Alpha 0.924
KMO & Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity is a measure of sampling adequacy that is recommended to
check the case to variable ratio for the analysis being conducted. Also, the Bartlett’s Test of
Sphericity relates to the significance of the study and thereby shows the validity and suitability
of the responses collected to the problem being addressed through the study. We can see that
we have good values for all variables for the MSA but the overall value is a bit low at 0.512,
however Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity has an associated P value (sig in the table) of < 0.05 as by
default SPSS reports p values of less than 0.05 as 0.001, So from the above results we know
that we can now continue and perform a valid factor analysis. It can also be seen that
individual approaches/strategies, organizational approaches and consequences of stress
amongst others were subjected to reliability test using Cronbach’s Alpha but in all cases it was
high.
The SPSS analysis gives us Cronbach’s Alpha values for individual approaches/strategies,
organizational approaches and consequences of stress amongst others as shown in the above
table. This is an indication that our instruments are reliable. According to Everitte (2006), an
alpha value of less than 0.60 is unacceptable; 0.60-0.65 is undesirable, 0.65-0.70 is minimally
acceptable; 0.70-0.80 is respectable; 0.80-0.90 is very good and more than 0.90 means
consider shortening the scale by reducing the number of items. As it is for all the banking firms
under survey it shows that, the instrument is very reliable, hence our overall reliability
statistics: Cronbach Alpha is 0.924. Multiple regression test is adopted for the testing
formulated hypotheses.

DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS:

Table 1.0 Respondent views concerning strategies adopted by commercial banking firms for
managing stress such as Individual Approaches and Organizational Approaches in Nigeria
Statement Respondent Degree of Response
category
SA A U D SD Total
The strategies adopted by commercial banking Top level 43 19 2 4 2 70

firms for managing stress of employee include Management
individual approaches (i.e time management, Middle level 74 40 4 5 5 128
e.g. Prioritizing activities, making daily list of Management
activities, scheduling activities according to Lower level 120 60 5 6 8 199
importance and urgency, knowing your daily Management
cycle, physical exercise i.e. walking, jogging,
Total 237 119 11 16 15 398
swimming, relaxation techniques, building
social support, placement of employee in
appropriate jobs, realistic goal settings,
designing jobs with employee needs and skills
in mind, improvement in organizational
communication and establishment of corporate
wellness programs).
Source: Field survey (2016).
The data shown in Table 1.0 above, clearly revealed that strategies adopted by commercial
banking firms for managing stress for employees include individual approaches such as time
management by prioritizing activities, scheduling activities according to importance and
urgency, making daily list of activities, knowing your daily cycle, physical exercise by employee
by way of swimming, jogging, walking, relaxation techniques, building social support,
placement of employee in appropriate jobs, realistic goal settings, designing jobs with
employee needs and skills in mind, improvement in organizational communication amongst
others.
In fact 237 of 398 representing 59.54% of the respondent strongly agree on the notion. About
119 out of 398 (29.89%) agree on this position, 11 out of 398 (2.76%) were undecided on the
issue of managing stress.16 out of 398 representing (4.02%) disagree and finally 15 out of
398(or 3.76%) strongly disagree on this notion. On the whole one can derive that, there is
overwhelming response that Nigerian commercial banking firm adopt several strategies to
manage the menace of stress in order to have a productive organization.

Table 2.0 Respondent opinion pertaining how strategies for managing stress have enhanced
performance goal attainment in commercial banking firms Nigeria
category
SA A U D SD Total
Effective application of strategies for managing Top level 47 19 2 2 3 73

stress such as time management strategies, Management
relaxation strategies, jogging, swimming, Middle level 75 44 2 3 2 126
designing jobs with employee needs and skills, Management
placement of employee in appropriate jobs, Lower level 127 64 2 4 2 199
realistic goal settings, increase organizational Management
communication, corporate wellness programs
Total 249 127 6 9 7 398
amongst others have enhanced performance
goal attainments of banking firms in Nigeria.
The table above 2.0 revealed the respondent opinion pertaining how strategies for managing
stress such as time management strategies, relaxation strategies, jogging, swimming, designing
of employee jobs to meet skills and needs, placement of employee on appropriate jobs, realistic
goal settings, increase organizational communication, corporate wellness programs amongst
others can facilitate and enhanced performance goal attainments of commercial banking firms
in Nigeria.
Overwhelmingly, 249 out of 398 (or 62.56%) strongly agree that these strategies mentioned
above were effectively applied and have led to productive goal attainment of profit, growth,
survival etc. 127 out of 398 (31. 90%) also agree on the subject matter. 6 out of 398 (1.50%)
were undecided on the issue. 9 out of 398 representing (2. 26%) disagree and finally 7 out of
398 representing 1.75% strongly disagree on the fact that, they are not aware of the
application of stress management strategies in enhancing performance outcome of the
banking firms in Nigeria.
Hypothesis 1
H01: Strategies for Management of stress have not significantly impacted on the performance
of the commercial banking firms in Nigeria
Model Summary
Model R R Square Adjusted R Std. Error of the
Square Estimate
a
1 .839 .704 .650 .333
The value of 0.839 indicates Strategies for Management of stress have significantly impacted
on the performance of the commercial banking firms in Nigeria. The R square is the coefficient
of determination which is 0.704 with 70.4% proportion of variance in the dependent variable.

ANOVAa
Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
Regression 8.733 6 1.455 13.098 .000b
1 Residual 3.667 33 .111
Total 12.400 39
The table shows that the independent variables are statistically significantly, F (6, 33) =
13.098, P < 0.05. We reject the hypothesis which states that Strategies for Management of
stress have not significantly impacted on the performance of the commercial banking firms in
Nigeria.
Coefficientsa
Model Unstandardized Standardized t Sig.
Coefficients Coefficients
B Std. Error Beta
(Constant) 1.188 .464 2.561 .015
Time Management .233 .068 .408 3.416 .002
Relaxation Strategy .136 .047 .292 2.917 .006
1 Employment Needs .285 .074 .425 3.879 .000
Realistic Goal Setting .049 .066 .075 .748 .010
Placement of Employee .021 .088 .042 .236 .045
Increase Communication .083 .110 .150 .753 .047
a. Dependent Variable: Performance of Commercial Bank
Interpretation.
y = X1 +X2 + X3 + X4 +X5 +X6 where C is the constant.
Predicted y = 0.233X1 + 0.136X2 + 0.285X3 + 0.049X4 + 0.021X5 + 0.083X6 +1.188
Strategies for Management of stress have a positive relationship on the performance of the commercial
Table 3.0 Respondent opinion concerning the consequence of stress as having negative effect on
the performance output of employees in commercial banking firms in Nigeria
category
SA A U D SD Total
Employees of commercial banking firms suffer Top level 47 19 2 2 3 73

the consequences of stress affecting the Management
performance output of employees in Middle level 75 44 2 3 2 126
commercial banking firms in Nigeria. (E.g. the Management
suffers from tension, heart attacks, increase Lower level 127 64 2 4 2 199
high blood pressure, anxiety, irritability, Management
absence from duty, job turnover, sleep
Total 249 127 6 9 7 398
disorders, insomnia amongst others)

There has been overwhelming view among the respondents as indicated in table 3.0 above
pertaining the consequences of stress as having a devastating effect on the performance output
of employees in commercial banking firms in Nigeria. These consequence range from
heartbeat, tension, anxiety, insomnia, employee turnover, absenteeism, sleep disorders, heart
attacks, irritability, high blood pressure amongst others.
Thus, out of 398 respondents, 249 representing 63.31% strongly agree on the subject matter
that these stress symptoms and consequences have a devastating effect on the performance of
employee. 127 subjects out of 398 representing 31. 90% agree on the issue. 6 subjects out of
398 representing 1.50% were undecided on the issue. 9 out of 398 (or 2. 26%) disagree on the
information. About 7 out of 398 (1.75%) strongly disagree on the subject matter of
consequence of stress as not affecting employees performance in the commercial banking
firms in Nigeria.
Hypothesis 2
H02: The consequences of stress have no effect on the performance output of employees in
commercial banking firms in Nigeria.
Model Summary
Model R R Square Adjusted R Std. Error of the
Square Estimate
a
1 .834 .696 .641 .338
The value of 0.834 indicates the consequences of stress have no effect on the performance
output of employees in commercial banking firms in Nigeria. The R square is the coefficient of
determination which is 0.696 with 69.6% proportion of variance in the dependent variable
ANOVAa
Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
Regression 8.632 6 1.439 12.600 .000b
1 Residual 3.768 33 .114
Total 12.400 39
The table shows that the independent variables are statistically significantly, F (6, 33) =
12.600, P < 0.05. We reject the hypothesis which states that the consequences of stress have no
significant effect on the performance output of employees in commercial banking firms in
Nigeria.

Coefficientsa
Model Unstandardized Standardized t Sig.
Coefficients Coefficients
B Std. Error Beta
(Constant) 1.800 .452 3.979 .000
Suffer from tension .271 .064 .474 4.220 .000
Heart attack .137 .046 .298 2.999 .005
1 High blood pressure .300 .076 .447 3.954 .000
Anxiety .075 .056 .132 1.336 .019
Irritability .007 .045 .015 .150 .028
Sleep disorder .031 .049 .072 .640 .027
a. Dependent Variable: Performance of Commercial Bank
Interpretation.
y = X1 +X2 + X3 + X4 +X5 +X6 where C is the constant.
Predicted y = 0.271X1 + 0.137X2 + 0.300X3 + 0.075X4 + 0.007X5 + 0.031X6 +1.800
The consequences of stress have a positive relationship on the performance of the commercial
DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
The findings from the test of formulated hypotheses revealed interesting results as follows;
For Hypotheses one (1), it was found that strategies for the management of stress adopted by
commercial banking firms in Nigeria have impacted positive on the performance of the banks.
These strategies include time management, relaxation strategies, placement of employee in
appropriate jobs, realistic goal settings, designing jobs with employee needs and skills in mind,
improvement in organizational communication, establishment of corporate wellness
programs, delegation of authority, seeking for counseling and guidance, being happy and
humorous, employment of workers that are suitable for the job.
This is also manifest in the value of 0.839 obtained in the regression analysis which indicates
that strategies for management of stress here significantly impacted on the performance of the
commercial banking organizations in Nigeria. The R square is the coefficient of determination
which is 0.704 with 70.4% proportion of variance in the dependent variable.
Previous empirical researches from [4, 16, 6, 23] confirms that the key factors which
represents potential sources of stress include external environment (i.e economic situation,
technological development), organizational structure and culture (i.e nature of Job structure,
management style etc), work relationships (i.e quality of relationship with colleagues, boss,
own staff etc), Job characteristics (i.e challenge, power etc), personal factors (i.e personality,
motivation, intellect, skills etc), domestic/social situations (i.e illness, bereavement, debt). All
these factors can cause individual stress in organization. Steps that management can take to
reduce the experience of stress among their work force can be considered as stress avoidance
measures and stress reduction measures.

Enumerated stress avoidance countermeasures as follows;
a) Design jobs to permit maximum use of skills and discretion by job-holders and
incorporate sufficient task variety and challenge to maintain employee interest.
b) Design work so as to permit exercise of responsibility by job holders, giving sufficient
authority, and allowing job-holders to share in decision making process that affect his
or her work and ensuring work goals that do not conflict with those of others.
c) Encourage superiors to develop participative management style, paying attention to
individual needs as well as those of the task and the group.
d) Encourage team-spirit; where team-members support each other and individuals are
valued for their role.
e) Encourage communication between departments/sections as well as vertically through
the management chain and provide constructive feedback to individuals (by job results,
staff appraisal, etc).
f) Ensure that decision-making is delegated so that people at every level are able to share
in decision affecting their work and future prospects.
g) Develop an organization culture in which attitudes towards employees are positive and
where attention to product/service quality is reflected in respect for employee’s
knowledge, skills and contribution, and where mistakes are seen as learning
opportunities rather than grounds for criticism.
The stress reduction measure advanced by him includes;

a) Reduce the number of changes expected of any one individual or team.
b) Limit the procedural and other complexities associated with the execution of tasks.
c) Permit individuals to express their feelings and anxieties to someone else-boss,
colleagues and trained counselors.
d) Provide sports and social facilities.
e) Provide adequate canteen and rest-room facilities.
The implication of the above scenario is that executive management of the commercial banks
in Nigeria should endeavor to provide adequate training awareness and sensitization
campaigns and workshop forums to properly educated employees of the enormous associated
benefits that accompany stress management. Professional counseling in the workplace using
techniques that can help individual employees take responsibility for and to manage their own
decision making whether work related or personal is necessary. [9] maintains that skilled
helpers through interactions are in a better position to manage problems situations that
confronts employees and keep them develop mindset and opportunities of their lives more
meaningfully that will make them to be productively oriented.
For Hypotheses two (2), it was revealed that the consequences of stress have a significant
effect on the performance output of employees in commercial banking firms in Nigeria. Stress
can cause high blood pressure, ulcer, irritability, difficulties in taking simple decision relate to
work, loss of one’s appetite, easy susceptibility to mistakes and accidents, anger and
aggressiveness, headache, vomiting symptoms.
Maintains that, these symptoms have physiological effect, psychological effect and behavior
effect. The physiological effect, includes increase heartbeat, obsession, constant headache and
migraine, heart disease/cardiac arrest, changes in one metabolism etc. The psychological effect
includes job dissatisfaction, tension, anxiety, boredom, procrastination, laziness, anger,
emotional instability and lack of contraction etc. The behavior effect includes low productivity
and profitability, absenteeism, low turnover rate, change in eating habit, stammering, disorder
in one’s sleep, aggression, hot tempered, quarreling etc.
The policy implication in this regard demands that the executive management should engage
medical personnel/Doctors to give constant medical check-ups to employees to ensure that
they are all right as they perform their task on the day to day basis to guarantee goal
attainment of profit, growth, productivity, survival, continuity amongst others.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

It is important for organizations employees to know the potential sources of stress, their
accompanying symptoms and consequences. This will facilitate its proper management in the
organization either through stress-avoidance counter measures and stress-reduction
measures. Proper understanding and identification of the individual stressors, group stressors
causing stress and the personality traits possessed by employees either type A personality
traits or type B personality traits will help executive management of commercial banking firms
in Nigeria to deal with this ugly phenomenon in a better manner to yield productivity. This is
pertinent because, type A personality employees experienced considerable stress than type B
personality employees. Applying the right management strategies by organizations
management with the understanding of the stress symptoms and consequences will help in
addressing this ugly devastating occurrence.
Based on the above, the paper recommendations are as follows;

1. Assigning of responsibilities and tasks to employees for performance that are
inexperienced and unskillful and those who will not live up to expectations of the job
assignment leading to role conflict should be checkmated and avoided by organization
management. Human resource department should endeavor to employ and assigned
task to competent employees with requisite skills for a viable results.
2. Role ambiguity and lack of clarity to assigned tasks and responsibilities by the human
resources departments of banking organization be avoided and discouraged to ensure
organizational effectiveness.
3. Proper delegation of authority for specific tasks and responsibilities to employees of
banking firms is important. This will enable them know their boundary of effective
operation leading to avoidance of stress in organizations.
4. Proper job descriptions to employees is pertinent hence this will ensure effective
commitment, loyalty, dedication to quality service delivery thus eliminating alienating
stressful aspects of the job.
5. Strategies for effective management of stress such as proper time management,
improvement of organizational communications, exercise and fitness programme, staff
counseling, job design and enrichment strategies, improved selection and training
mechanism, development of team working systems, relaxation technique, prioritizing
activities by importance and urgency, expanding your social support network to reduce
tension amongst others be adopted by employees of banking firms and awareness and
sensitization campaigns by executive management of banks to guarantee direction on
how best to manage stress in workshop forums will curb the menace of stress and
facilitates attainment of organizational goals .
6. Determination of job objectives is a viable strategy for stress management and
assignment of responsibility. Through this what is required to be achieved is
established to be followed and pursued, making life easy for employees by avoiding and
eliminating the stressful element that would have associated with the job.
7. Qualified medical personnel be employed by the commercial banking firms specifically
to manage and treat stress related symptoms of the headache, increase blood pressure,
increase breathing rates, induced heart attacks, tensions, anxiety, sleep disorders,

insomnia amongst others. Proper treatment will help reposition performance status of
the organization.
8. Organization management should endeavor to determine the personality traits
possessed by employees and ensure that they are appropriately advised, counseled to
adopt the right posture to life as they go about on their work assignment and
responsibilities. They have to realize that been patient and planning their
responsibilities on daily basis will help reduce stress element associated with jobs.
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APPENDIX I
Department of Business Management
Faculty of Management Sciences
Benue State University,
Makurdi, Nigeria.
1st December, 2016.
Dear Sir/Madam,
You have been chosen as one of the respondent in this study. You are therefore humbly
requested to supply honesty and sincere answers/responses to the questions by ticks (√) there
is no right or wrong answers.
Questionnaire
Strategies adopted for managing stress by banking organization in Nigeria include individual
approaches (i.e time management, relaxation techniques, building social support and
organizational approaches (e.g placement of staff on appropriate jobs, realistic goal settings,
designing jobs with employee needs and skills) amongst others.
a) Strongly Agree (SA)
b) Agree (A)
c) Undecided (U)
d) Disagree (D)
e) Strongly Disagree (SD)
These strategies for managing stress have enhanced performance goals attainment in banking
firm in Nigeria.
b) Agree (A)
c) Undecided (U)
d) Disagree (D)
The consequences of stress have negative effect on the performance output of employees in
commercial banking firms in Nigeria. (E.g. Heart attacks increase blood pressure, tension,
anxiety, irritability amongst others).
b) Agree (A)
c) Undecided (U)
d) Disagree (D)

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Archives of Business Research – Vol.5, No.

Stress Management Strategies: An Approach for Productive

Keywords: Stress, Stress Management, Strategies, Employee Performance, Stressors,

Copyright © Society for Science and Education, United Kingdom 112

Stress is viewed as state of tension experienced by individuals facing extraordinary demands,

- Excessive alcohol intake - Temper tantrums

Noted the importance of demonstrating a relationship between personality and health.

In an organizational context, typical stressors that are likely to emerge include;

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/abr.51.2526. 114

The working environment, the crowded responsibilities, schedules and demanding

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/abr.51.2526. 116

Defined stress as an adaptive response mediated by individual characteristics and/or

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/abr.51.2526. 118

Inverted –U relationship between stress and job performance

STRATEGIES FOR MANAGING STRESS BY ORGANIZATIONS

iv. Job redesigned and enrichment strategies.

Identified the most and least stressful jobs as follows;

Physical Activity – Non-competitive physical exercise, such as aerobics, walking, jogging,

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/abr.51.2526. 120

Copyright © Society for Science and Education, United Kingdom 121

The formula is stated below;

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/abr.51.2526. 122

1. Guarantee Trust Bank plc (GTB) 10000 61

Source: Commercial banking firms record and field survey, 2016.

FACTOR AND RELIABILITY ANALYSIS

Copyright © Society for Science and Education, United Kingdom 123

Table 3: Factor Analysis

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/abr.51.2526. 124

Copyright © Society for Science and Education, United Kingdom 125

DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS:

The strategies adopted by commercial banking Top level 43 19 2 4 2 70

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/abr.51.2526. 126

Effective application of strategies for managing Top level 47 19 2 2 3 73

Copyright © Society for Science and Education, United Kingdom 127

Employees of commercial banking firms suffer Top level 47 19 2 2 3 73

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/abr.51.2526. 128

Copyright © Society for Science and Education, United Kingdom 129

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/abr.51.2526. 130

The stress reduction measure advanced by him includes;

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the above, the paper recommendations are as follows;

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/abr.51.2526. 132

5. Clark, D. Stress Management; Cambridge: National Extension College publishing, 1989.

8. De Vellis, RF. “Scale development”, Newbury Park: Sage publication, 1991.

Copyright © Society for Science and Education, United Kingdom 133

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/abr.51.2526. 134

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