THE PERCEPTION OF JOB STRESS

BY EMPLOYEES AND ITS EFFECT ON

EMPLOYEES PRODUCTIVITY
A Comparative qualitative study of Ecobank in
Cameroon and Nigeria

LENA CHUFOR GRACE OBIAGAZIE

Department of Business Administration

Master’s Program in Management & in Finance
Master's Thesis in Business Administration I, 15 Credits, Spring 2021
Supervisor: JAN BODIN
Blank page was left intentionally
 ABSTRACT

Stress is considered as one of those factors that has an influence on the performance of
employees negatively or positively which also affects the organization as a whole. Many
employees have started to consider stress as an important issue to look at. This study
investigated the employees' perceptions of stress and its effect on their productivity. We
mainly compared branches in different countries (Cameroon and Nigeria) using employees
from a mutual bank “Ecobank” to find out their different perceptions in relation to stress.
The study was conducted with six (6) interviewees, three (3) from Nigeria and three (3)
from Cameroon. From other similar studies, we have not been able to see a comparison of
employees' perception between two countries and this helped us to be able to recognize a
research gap. The study was done using a qualitative method which helps us to know the
perceptions of employees regarding stress and its effect on productivity from both
Cameroon and Nigeria. The interview was conducted with employees from different
departments and different roles. The interview was a big help for us getting a broader
understanding of how employees perceive stress. A thematic network and discussion was
developed in order for us to interpret the results of our findings. We were able to develop 5
themes which are performance, role conflict, role ambiguity, work demand and resource
constraints and with this we were able to do a comparison to find out what the employees
from different countries perceive in regards to stress. We were also able to give some
suggestions for further studies which one of them is based on gender differences.

The results from our findings showed that workload, pressure to meet deadlines, lack of
knowledge, multiple tasks, unclear responsibilities, lack of resources were the perceptions
contributing to stress.

Key words: Stress, Job stress on employees, Productivity, Financial institution,

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We would like to begin by thanking our supervisor Jan Bodin, for providing us with help
and constructive criticism needed during the writing process. We would also like to
appreciate our interviewee for accepting to conduct an interviewee with us within short
notice, their help was really valuable for this research and it would not have been possible
without them. Thank you very much! Lastly, we would like to thank our family and friends
for their immense support during our academic studies and also towards this degree project.

UMEÅ 25-05-2021

……………………… ………………………

LENA CHUFOR GRACE CHIBUZOR

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1...................................................................................................................................... 1
1. INTRODUCTION. ................................................................................................................ 1
1.1 BACKGROUND ................................................................................................................... 1
1.2 SUBJECT CHOICE .............................................................................................................. 2
1.3 THE PROBLEMATIZATION. ............................................................................................. 3
1.4 RESEARCH GAP ................................................................................................................. 4
1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS .................................................................................................. 5
1.6 RESEARCH PURPOSE ...................................................................................................... 5
1.7 STRUCTURE........................................................................................................................ 5
CHAPTER 2...................................................................................................................................... 7
2. SCIENTIFIC METHOD: ....................................................................................................... 7
2.1 ONTOLOGY.......................................................................................................................... 7
2.2 EPISTEMOLOGY ................................................................................................................. 7
2.3 RESEARCH DESIGN ........................................................................................................... 8
2.4 RESEARCH APPROACH ..................................................................................................... 9
Chapter 3 ......................................................................................................................................... 10
3 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ........................................................................................ 10
3.1 STRESS............................................................................................................................... 10
3.2 JOB STRESS ON EMPLOYEES ....................................................................................... 11
3.3 PRODUCTIVITY ............................................................................................................... 13
3.4 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN JOB STRESS AND EMPLOYEE PRODUCTIVITY ....... 14
3.5 RESEARCH CONNECTING JOB STRESS AND ITS EFFECT ON EMPLOYEES
PRODUCTIVITY ....................................................................................................................... 15
Chapter 4 ......................................................................................................................................... 17
4. PRACTICAL METHOD..................................................................................................... 17
4.1 PRECONCEPTION ............................................................................................................ 17
4.2 DATA COLLECTION ........................................................................................................ 17
4.3 QUALITATIVE DATA COLLECTION AND INTERVIEW GUIDE .............................. 18
4.4 QUALITATIVE SAMPLING AND TECHNIQUE AND ACCESS ................................. 19
4.5 CONDUCTING THE INTERVIEW................................................................................... 19
4.6 TRANSCRIBING ............................................................................................................... 20
4.7 QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS ............................................................................................. 21
4.8 QUALITY CRITERIA ......................................................................................................... 21
4.9 ETHICAL CONSIDERATION ........................................................................................... 23
Chapter 5 ......................................................................................................................................... 24
5. EMPIRICAL FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS ........................................................................ 24
5.1 ECOBANK......................................................................................................................... 24
5.2 BIO-INFORMATION AND THE EMPIRICAL FINDINGS OF INTERVIEWEES ........ 24
5.2.1 Interviewee 1 ................................................................................................................. 24
5.2.1.1 Empirical findings from Interviewee 1 ...................................................................... 25
5.2.2 Interviewee 2: ................................................................................................................ 26
5.2.2.1 Empirical findings from Interviewee 2 ...................................................................... 26
5.2.3 Interviewee 3: ................................................................................................................ 27
5.2.3.1 Empirical findings from Interviewee 3 ...................................................................... 27
5.2.4 Interviewee 4 ................................................................................................................. 28
5.2.4.1 Empirical findings from interviewee 4. ...................................................................... 29
5.2.5 Interviewee 5: ................................................................................................................ 30
5.2.5.1 Empirical findings from interviewee 5 ....................................................................... 30
5.2.6 Interviewee 6: ................................................................................................................ 31
5.2.6.1 Empirical findings from interviewee 6 ....................................................................... 31
Chapter 6 ......................................................................................................................................... 34
6. THEMATIC NETWORK AND DISCUSSION ................................................................... 34
6.1 THEME: PERFORMANCE................................................................................................. 34
6.2 THEME: ROLE CONFLICT ............................................................................................... 35
6.3 THEME: WORK DEMAND ............................................................................................... 35
6.4 THEME: ROLE AMBIGUITY ............................................................................................ 36
6.5 THEME: RESOURCE CONSTRAINT ............................................................................... 36
6.6 SUMMARY OF QUALITATIVE FINDINGS .................................................................... 39
Chapter 7 ......................................................................................................................................... 40
7. CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................... 40
7.1 GENERAL CONCLUSION ................................................................................................. 40
7.2 CONTRIBUTIONS AND IMPLICATIONS OF THE STUDY ......................................... 41
7.2.1 Theoretical Contribution ................................................................................................... 41
7.2.2 Practical Implications and Suggestion ............................................................................. 41
7.2.3 Societal Implications and Suggestion ................................................................................ 42
7.3 LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH ............................ 43
LIST OF REFERENCES. ............................................................................................................... 44
APPENDIX I. EMAIL SENT TO OUR PROPOSED INTERVIEWEE ........................................ 49
APPENDIX II: INTERVIEW GUIDE ............................................................................................ 50
APPENDIX III: THEMATIC NETWORK ANALYSIS ................................................................ 52
 CHAPTER 1

1. INTRODUCTION.

The purpose of this chapter is that we are going to introduce to the reader our research topic,
giving a clear view of our subject choice, and identifying the research gaps in our study, and
generating research questions. Finally, we’ll talk about the purpose of our research project.

1.1 BACKGROUND

Stress can be considered as something ordinary, unavoidable in anyone’s life, which can be
caused by many factors, be it at work, with the family, or the external environment, (AL-
khasawneh & Futa 2013, p 268). Stress can be defined as pressure work, stress can be
elaborated as resistance to come to work and a feeling of continuous pressure, hence work
stress is physical and emotional activities that take place when there is a gap between job
requirements, capabilities, and resources (Muhammad & Kishwar, 2019, p.32). Stress can
also be seen as the interaction between the individual and the environment, which may affect
an employee’s mental and physical condition (AL-khasawneh & Futa 2013, p 268).
According to Rue and Byars (2007), who goes ahead to support the idea that stress can be
defined as the physical and mental danger deficit which was caused by perceived danger.
Brown and Harvey (2006) added that stress is the interaction between the individual and the
environment, which may affect his mental and physical condition.

According to Shahsavarani et al (2015, p. 232) stress is an ambiguous and wide concept that
is attributed to varied phenomena and definitions, in the research, he came up with a list of
11 dominant authors and their definitions of stress and concluded with a simple but
comprehensive definition of stress saying “stress is any influence of internal and/or
surrounding environment on living being which disrupt its homeostasis”. Any effect of
change in the surrounding environment on living beings that results in disruption of
homeostasis that is the internal balance of that living being is called stress. There have been
a lot of research studies of job stress on employees’ productivity in the previous years but
our interest is the job stress on employees’ productivity in the financial institution. Ehsan et
al (2019, p. 33) conducted a study where they talked about stress resulting from a mismatch
between the demands and pressures on the person, on the one hand, and their knowledge
and abilities, on the other, which challenges their ability to cope and perform smoothly with
work.

In this study, the interest is on the effect of job stress on the employee’s productivity. Stress
can directly have an impact or an effect on the person suffering from it. Jamal (1984) studied
an association between job stress and job performance between managers and blue-collar
employees where he argued that stress on a job can be stated as the outcome of an individual
due to the working environment from which he feels insecure and different relationships are
projected between job stress and performance which are the U-shaped and curvilinear, the
positive linear, the negative linear and the no relationship between the stress and
performance. Also, (Lavuri 2019, p. 45) conducted research and said there are two types of
stress that could affect an employee's job performance either positively or negatively
depending on the employee's perception. This is just a basic knowledge of stress for over
two decades and more are still to be made in the nearest future because this stress we are
talking about, be it in our daily lives, and works, we will always have a tendency of
encountering them which might have an impact on us thereby affecting us either in a
positive manner or negatively.

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1.2 SUBJECT CHOICE

We are two Umeå University students studying business administration (management and
finance, respectively), as well as Africans from Cameroon and Nigeria. A lot of research
has been done either on this topic “The Perception of job stress by employees and its effect
on employees productivity in financial Institutions” or something almost similar to it. In the
previous years, most of these studies have been conducted in countries seeking to develop
and become advanced both economically, politically, and socially (Sharmilee et al. 2017,
p.14). According to Dar et al (2011, p.1), Hans Selye was one of the founding fathers of
stress research. Selye, 1936 first introduced the idea of stress in to the life science, he defined
stress as the force, pressure, or tension subjected upon an individual who resists these forces
and attempt to uphold its true state (Dar et al 2011, p.1). We each came up with a topic that
best encapsulates our understanding of our individual courses. During the course of this
project, we had an interest in a financial institution and the stress that comes with the job,
how it affects their employee’s productivity in these two different countries (Cameroon and
Nigeria). Since the study on job stress has had previous research done on it and it seems
there is no new knowledge of stress nowadays due to its constant appearance in our day
today, we now took an interest in knowing, (or rather should we say) to compare the stress
of both countries (Nigeria and Cameroon) to understand and know the common stress
experienced by the employees. To know whether this stress is culturally related, or is the
stress based on gender, or is the stress more intensified based on the geographic location.
This study is more of a comparison between these two developing countries, studying the
stress, particularly among their employees using one context that is a financial institution
located in both countries. More of a comparison of exactly what stress is faced by employees
in the financial institution, to get first-hand knowledge from these employees. The last
comprehensive summary of this literature was conducted by Jex (1998) over a decade ago,
since that time, over 100 papers have been published on this topic (Christopher et al, 2010,
p. 2).

Over the past years, close to 3 billion employees are undergoing massive job stress at their
workplace and it is affecting their overall job performances on a daily basis (Sharmilee et
al. 2017, p.14). There are studies that have shown that, if there is a reasonable amount of
stress that the employees can handle at work, it can help indicate a beneficial influences on
their performance as well as increase the negative side of the rising stress. This is therefore
a positive side of the stress. As a result, they must play a critical role in ensuring that they
build a healthy working environment, practice a constructive, friendly, and conducive
working environment in the organization, and increase productivity, which will eventually
respond to increased economic growth and improved overall employee performance.
Presently in this study, we tried to provide an updated review of research examining the job
stress and productivity relationship but not just that alone, also adding to it is the comparison
of employees’ perception from a financial institution in two developing countries. It
occurred to us that we are from a developing country and it would be nice to go back and
study the problem affecting our banks back home. We are interested in a financial institution
situated in Cameroon which is also located in Nigeria, and one of us has an account with
them and is currently operating with them. We also both have done internships in the same
bank in our respective countries and know for sure there is actually job stress affecting
employees’ productivity. That’s why we think it’s a suitable choice for us because we have
some background knowledge as to how things are done. To think of it, what other bank with
a lot of job stress would have been better, if not this bank that is in both countries. Much
empirical research has found mixed outcomes when it comes to how job stress affects

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employee performance, workload, time pressure, role conflict, lack of motivation, role
ambiguity, resource constraints, harassment, and a variety of other factors all have an impact
on employee performance, according to recent research. Our argument will be built like a
case of comparison of the financial institutions in both countries.

1.3 THE PROBLEMATIZATION.

Life in modern societies is generally stressful. It is an unavoidable aspect of the challenges

that lead to the acquisition of new abilities and patterns of behavior. However, when stress
levels get too high, problems arise. Nowadays, people spend almost half of their life
working because they want to provide for themselves goods structures, goods, and services.
They also obtain satisfaction from doing this job but these jobs add up worries and stress in
their lives. The experience of stress is different for everybody, in the sense that some are
affected more than others based on the nature of their jobs. Working in a financial institution
can be very stressful based on the quest for beating the market competition, difficult
customers, poor deplorable working conditions, work overload, lack of compensation and
benefits, lack of managerial support, job insecurity, etc. All this can lead to job stress and
affect the performance of employees in different financial institutions. Due to the different
types of stress which can affect performance or productivity, it can also lead to an
employee’s turnover, absenteeism, and even poor customer service in the different financial
institutions (Zeb et al 2015, p.120). This gives the need for us researchers to find out the
causes of this job stress in different financial institutions and to find solutions for the
problem.

Individual and organizational challenges, such as behavioral, mental, and physical results,
performance, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment, are frequently influenced by
work-related stress. Job stress has harmful physiological and psychological impacts on
employees (Zeb et al, 2015, p.120). Job stress and employee performance should be
regarded as a collective issue with far-reaching consequences for an employee's general
well-being, the organization's society, and the country's economy. There are considerable
links between workplace characteristics, stress, and productivity, according to some
empirical research. Low productivity is linked to high levels of work stress, this can be seen
in one of the relationships proposed by Dar et al (2011, p.1). Relationship between the
measures of job stress and job performance, one is a negative linear relationship, where
productivity decreases with stress (distress) (Dar et al 2011, p.1). There are a number of
consequences individuals and organizations face due to job stress and these consequences
affect individuals by reducing job satisfaction, decrease motivation, boost absenteeism,
there is an increased job turnover, poor quality of work, and most especially, their
productivity (Zeb et al, 2015, p.120). This is one of the problems faced when working in a
financial institution: low staff morale, bad connections, productivity and quality of work,
high turnover, early retirements, conflicts, and high organizational costs, such as turnover
replacement costs, health care costs, etc., all reduce organizational outcomes. Stress is
becoming a major issue not only for employees but also for businesses and the general
public. The stress caused by employees' jobs at work has been a major source of
organizational stress and most of these firms have discovered that the effects of this stress
are costly. Job stress is a psychological construct that people may encounter on a daily basis.
It's a difficult concept to avoid. The term stress has evolved over time and is now widely
accepted as an unavoidable part of life.

There is also the problem of cultural differences. Shahsavarani et al (2015) in their study,
said “The most important elements of any culture are its norms and values”, they also went
ahead to list the concepts of culture, which are language, religion, business practices,

3
values, codes of conduct, normative rules of action, and morals (Shahsavarani et al 2015, p.
237). With all these elements of culture, they can indirectly have an influence on individual
and social stress. In different countries, they have branches located in different areas and
parts of their cities which have different sets of customers with different cultures, mindsets,
and attitudes. There might be cultural differences, clashes of policies put in place, for
example, the standards and policies operating in a bank branch in an urban area might be
sometimes difficult to incorporate and be functional in a rural area because of the
environment, the people, and perhaps the culture involved. This could be some of the
problems faced by bank employees when dealing with the customers and also could end up
being a stress factor for some of them.

1.4 RESEARCH GAP

Although the modern world has provided benefits such as sophisticated technologies, a
modern lifestyle, and numerous amenities, it has also raised competitiveness, and there is
growing anxiety among subordinates about gaining a competitive advantage in their
organizations. This has increased employee pressure to work harder and produce more
outputs in order to gain a competitive advantage, this has resulted in improvements in
infrastructure and modern development. On the other hand, it has resulted in an environment
of job stress (Zeb et al, 2015). As a result of the bank policies which are common to every
other branch, we were able to see this as a source of stress to both employees and customers.
“The bank operates as one with common branding, standards, policies and processes”
(Ecobank group annual report 2019).

After reviewing the theories on job stress especially in financial institutions, like the case
of Ali et al (2019) which they conducted research on the impact of work stress on
employee’s productivity based in the banking sector Faisalabad, Pakistan was able to
conclude that job-related stress has an effect on employee’s performance in the banking
sector. Also in the case of Lavuri (2019, pp 44) who investigated job stress as its impact on
employees’ performance in the banking sector in the area Hyderabad city was able to
conclude that there is a significant impact of job stress on banking employees performance.
Many types of research on job stress in association with job performance and satisfaction
(though it is not our major concern in this study) were carried out in the past, for example,
Sharmilee B. M., Abdul B., and Zubair H. (2017) conducted a study on the impact of job
stress on employee performance, there is also Ashfaq A. and Muhammad R. (2013) who
also conducted a study on the effects of job stress on employees' job performance, a study
on the banking sector of Pakistan. We also have a study in Nigeria, a study was done on job
stress by Ekienabor (2016) about employee productivity and commitment. In India, there is
also a study conducted by Rani (2014) that explored the effects of job stress on employee
retention in India. In the same year, Ratnawat and Jha (2014) performed research on job
stress and its effects on employee performance in India and so much other research that has
been conducted based on this topic. But what has not been done within this area of research
is what we are about to find out.

There is also a study that talks about the possibility of cultural stress by Shahsavarani et al
(2015) where they said: “most of the researches of the social domain believe that culture is
a fundamental context to form individual and environment, and thus, influential on stress
increasing/decreasing interaction” (Shahsavarani et al, 2015, p. 237). They also said,
“Moreover, it appears that culture as a broad infrastructure of any given society, shall be
considered in stress analyses and religious/spiritual issues and practices form many aspects
of it, especially in social activities such as codes of conduct, morals, commercial practices,

4
and cuisines, therefore, the future studies seem to have the aim of incorporation of various
aspects of culture into their stress analyses.” (Shahsavarani, 2015, p. 238). The reason why
we decided to use two different countries considering the cultural differences is because
most researchers of the social domain (business world especially) believe that culture may
be a fundamental context both in our individual lives and environment, and thus, this has an
influential on stress increasing/decreasing interactions (Shahsavarani, 2015, p. 237). This
topic, Job stress and its effects on employees productivity in financial institutions have been
researched before by other authors but we have not come across any article in comparison
with two countries, to find out if employees of a particular country have the same
perceptions as to the employees of another country taking into consideration their cultural
differences.

1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. What are the employees' perceptions of job stress and how does it affect their productivity
in the financial institution?

2. In comparison, do the employees of Cameroon and Nigeria have common perceptions or

different perceptions?

1.6 RESEARCH PURPOSE

The goal of this study is to examine, analyze, and know the perceptions of employees in
regard to job stress and how it affects their productivity in the banking sector. Secondly, our
thesis aims at comparing the job stress in the banking sector in Nigeria and Cameroon for
some possible traces of cultural differences. Another purpose for this research would be, at
the end of the research, after the empirical findings have been made and analyzed, will be
able to come up with some practical recommendations, in relation to the findings.

1.7 STRUCTURE

The aim of this structure is to give a simple explanation of what we are going to be doing
in this study. This thesis will be structured in the following orderly ways. The first chapter
of the thesis is the introduction which consists of the background, problem statements, the
research question, research purpose, and motivation. The second chapter is a scientific
method consisting of ontology, epistemology, research design, research approach, and
preconception. The third chapter is the theoretical framework of the major themes in the
study, this chapter also contains a previously conducted literature review on the topic that
is important in answering the research questions. We will end the chapter with a brief
conceptual model showing how all the themes in the study connect to each other. The fourth
one is a practical method which consists of data collection, interview guide, transcribing,
data analysis, quality criteria, and ethical considerations. Included in this chapter is a table
of our employees and from the different countries, they come from. The fifth is empirical
findings. In this part, we will briefly talk about Ecobank, how it came to be and exactly what
you need to know about the financial institution we will be using in the study. We will also
briefly talk about each interviewee, their background and family relations, and everything
you need to know about them. The qualitative analysis and discussion, with thematic
analysis along with a comparison table with a detailed comment about the findings and
finally the summary of the thematic analysis. Finally, the last part of the study is the
conclusion. This is done according to the school’s ELO’s to the best of our knowledge,

5
consisting of the general conclusion, theoretical contribution, and implications of the study,
limitations of the study, and suggestions for future study.

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 CHAPTER 2

2. SCIENTIFIC METHOD:

In this chapter we will be discussing our philosophical point of view, we will present our
ontological and epistemological views. Then, we will talk about our research approach and
our research design in order to see how the research was conducted from a philosophical
point of view. Finally, we will talk about why we chose our theories and how we found the
information about our theories in the literature search.

2.1 ONTOLOGY

Ontology could be referred to as the nature of reality. There are two approaches to ontology,
and they are objectivism and subjectivism. The objective view suggests that the social
phenomenon's existence and influence are beyond the influence of the social actors,
therefore saying that the social entities are independent of the social actors (Saunders et al.
2009, p. 110). Whereas the subjective view suggests that the ontological position implies
that social phenomena not only occur as a result of social interaction but are constantly
being revised (Bryman et al, 2011, p. 37). Every researcher must follow a particular
philosophical assumption that will determine their study approach. In this thesis, we decided
to adopt subjectivism as our philosophical standpoint. This simply means Subjectivism
philosophical standpoint views that reality is influenced by social actors. Our subjectivism
standpoints see researchers and the research participants as social actors in our philosophical
viewpoint, as they perceive ideas differently and also, they have different experiences and
background information, beliefs, and social values. Since the aim of this study is to
understand the perception of employees on job stress from the same financial institution in
two different developing countries and how it affects their productivity, in order to achieve
this purpose in a satisfying manner, we need to understand what employees in the two
different countries perceive as job stress and how it affects their productivity.

From our ontological perspective, we view stress in general as a continuous change where
employees' productivity can be created, lost, re-created, or even changed completely by
different social actors. Observing the topic and the research question of this thesis, the
authors deem it necessary to adopt subjectivism. All contributors of this research have
knowledge and experience of varying degrees, therefore, they all have their different views
and perceptions of social issues. Whereas, if the authors adopt an objective view, this might
compromise the findings of the research and the primary data collection is through
conducting an interview, answers to interview questions are subject to the understanding of
the interviewees and the interpretation of the response by the researchers as they set out to
explore what are the employees’ perception of job stress, maintaining an open mind that
allows the processing of different viewpoints from the respondents of the interview process.

2.2 EPISTEMOLOGY

Epistemology is a branch of philosophy concerned with the creation of knowledge. It

discusses what constitutes acceptable knowledge, how such knowledge can be augmented,
and how such knowledge can be transferred (Saunders et al., 2017, p. 102-107).
Epistemology refers to what knowledge is considered acceptable knowledge and how new
knowledge is created. Two main approaches are positivism and interpretivism. Positivism
views that only knowledge built by real facts or resources is to be considered real

7
knowledge. This thereby makes knowledge harder and unbiased that is why this type of
facts are referred to as objective knowledge. Whereas interpretivism views that knowledge
is built on feelings and attitudes that could not be seen.

This approach suggests that it is necessary for the researcher to understand social actors and
how reality depends on the people that interpret it (Saunders et al, 2007, p. 102-107). The
positivist view is mainly used when facts used in the research are observable in reality, that
is, it can be used for research purposes when the data collected are of a large amount. In
contrast to positivism, interpretivism considers social actors as a key player in the creation
of knowledge, and to understand social reality an approach different from the natural science
approach is required (Saunders et al., 2007, p. 102-107; Bryman & Bell, 2011, p. 17). But
the researchers choose an interpretivist approach to epistemology because the authors are
not independent of the study and secondly the participants are not the same and have
different views on the topic. And social realities are influenced by the emotion and attitudes
of researchers and other social actors and also it can be argued that it is more suitable in
management and business science (Saunders et al. 2007, p. 102-107).

2.3 RESEARCH DESIGN

Research design is defined as plans and procedures for research that span the decisions from
broad assumptions to detailed planning regarding methods of data collection and analysis
(Creswell, 2009 p, 3). There are two main types of research design commonly used in
business administration, quantitative and qualitative research design. A qualitative case
study can be defined as a detailed examination of an aspect of a historical episode to develop
or test historical explanations that may be generalizable to other events (Runfola et al 2017,
p.116). Quantitative research on the other hand is for testing theories by examining the
relationship between variables and these variables are measured in numbers and also
analyzed with statistical measures, (Creswell, 2009, p. 4). In this study, we are working with
qualitative data and qualitative analysis. Qualitative analysis is commonly associated with
interpretivism and subjectivism (Bryman & Bell, 2011, p. 17). Before one gathers
qualitative data, it is important to collect background information to fully understand the
context. This is important to sensibly and thoroughly be able to interpret the qualitative data
in a correct way (Collis and Hussey, 2014, p. 130).

The aim of this study is to be able to gain a deeper understanding of how employees perceive
job stress in their organizations and how it affects their productivity. By doing a comparison
of two countries, we are able to get a greater knowledge of how employees perceive job
stress. Since our ontological stance is constructionism, we think subjectively of the social
actors, especially the employees, and our epistemological assumptions from interpretivism
and an inductive research approach. We find it more appropriate to use a qualitative design
for this study. Two commonly used methods used to gather data within qualitative research
are interviews and qualitative analysis of text and documents (Bryman & Bell, 2011) and
as we already stated, we will be using both methods in this research. Furthermore, even as
the inductive approach is generally used within qualitative research (Bryman & Bell, 2011)
the approach in this study is mainly explained as an inductive approach as we will discuss
them in the research approach.

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2.4 RESEARCH APPROACH

There are basically two research approaches commonly referred to as fundamental

approaches, inductive and deductive approaches (Fejes & Thornberg, 2009 p.24; Bryman
& Bell, 2005 p.297). Depending on the research question and what is to study, one or the
other might be best suitable for the study. In the inductive approach, the author draws
conclusions from empirical evidence and the researcher moves from observation to building
theories. While the deductive approach is contrary and the author draws conclusions from
findings and tries to confirm whether it can be applied in reality or disproved (Ghauri &
Grönhaug, 2002 p.13-15). The Deductive tactic consists of setting a research design that
generates a theory as well as developing a hypothesis to test the theory to either accept or
reject the theory (Bryman & Bell, 2005, p.297). According to Bryman & Bell, (2005, p.297),
the deductive approach is widely used in the natural science field, i.e more ontological
objectivist and epistemological positivist. Alternatively, the Inductive approach is the direct
opposite of the deductive approach. The process of a deductive approach involves using this
alternative, to start, we do qualitative data collection such as conducting an interview with
research respondents, the collected data is then analyzed to identify patterns and themes,
this can be seen in the case of Bryman & Bell (2011, pp. 13- 14).

This study is primarily based on the deductive approach where we used theories as a starting
point and then built the theoretical framework. However, there is also an inductive
perspective, considering there are no specific theories we could apply due to the fact that it
is a new area of research, the comparison of two different countries with one specific
financial institution existing in the two countries. Since we have to present a theoretical
chapter and an interview guide for the study, also the fact that existing practices guided us
to some theories applicable too for the study, this has influenced the study towards a
deductive approach. Fejes and Thornberg (2009, p.24) argued that there is a risk in a
deductive approach if focused more on proving the theory than being less sensitive toward
empirical findings. In our study, we have an inductive influence because it is a qualitative
research. We think this will not be a problem. Nevertheless, we feel that the deductive
approach is the main approach because the theories have helped explain some of the
findings.

9
 Chapter 3

3 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

In this chapter, we review previous literature on the topics of stress, job stress on employees,
productivity, and the effect of job stress on employees’ productivity. As we talk about each
selection, we get more in-depth about each theory or concept and get more particulars about
how each theory and concept relates to our project.

3.1 STRESS

When we talk of stress, it is basically the uncontrollable adverse work experience when
there is no conformance in the state desired and the state actually perceived, employees
realize the work pressure to be beyond their capabilities, it affects the emotional and
physiological state of individuals aversively due to undesirable circumstances in their
instant workplace ambiance (Shaikh et al. 2013, p. 297). We can't talk about stress without
talking about Hans Selye, the founder of the topic stress, Hans Selye was the first to conduct
a study on stress, and in business management, stress is defined as the physical and mental
reaction to a stressful situation that occurs as a result of a misalignment of an individual's
talents with the needs of the company (Ali et al, 2014, p.14). Stress is one of the most serious
workplace elements experienced by employees around the world which has become a major
danger for employers especially in developing nations where employers take very little
notice of the impact of stress on employee performance resulting in critical managerial
dilemmas (Yeboah-Kordee et al, 2018). According to Shahsavarani et al (2015), today,
“most researchers of the social domain believe that culture is a fundamental context to form
an individual and environment, and thus, influential on stress increasing/decreasing
interactions”. It has been found that one of the newly emerging domains of stress studies
is to investigate inter-cultural differences, Shahsavarani et al (2015).

With all of the talk about stress, it's important to remember that some stress isn't entirely
destructive or harmful and can be beneficial in a variety of ways. Even in terms of
productivity, some stress helps people stay focused and get the most out of situations. This
is referred to as good stress and it is called ‘Eustress’, a term coined by Hans Selye, the
father of stress theory (Frontline employee, 2019). This could simply develop when the
level of stress is moderate to low. But as there is good stress, there is also bad stress and it
is referred to as ‘Distress’. Distress arises when the intensity of stress arises and provokes
an individual's self-regulatory body, physically and physiologically, in fact, distress occurs
when the employees do not possess the required attitude, knowledge skills, and abilities to
cope up with the overwhelming work pressures and demands which result in negative
outcomes like absenteeism, low organizational commitment, turnover, emotional
frustration, deteriorating health and the career change eventually (Shaikh et al. 2013, p.
297). We would talk more about the effects of both the eustress and distress as we go along
the study.

According to Aduaka (2016, p. 147), citing Hans Selye (1975), stress is the rate of all wear
and tear caused by life. There are stress agents whom he referred to as stressors and could
be physical, physiological, psychological, or social-cultural. Muhammad and Kishwar
(2019) stated in an article that, Robbins (2001) defines stress as a dynamic condition in
which the 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

10
essential (Muhammad & Kishwar, 2019, p.32). Muhammad and Kishwar (2019) also added
that stress is one of the burning issues that the banking sector must deal with so that
employees can comfortably produce quality work (Muhammad & Kishwar, 2019, p.33).
American Psychiatric Association (2014), defined Stress as “a sense of being overwhelmed,
worry, destruction, press, exhaustion, and lethargy. Therefore, stress can influence people
in every age, sex, race, and situation and can result in both physical and psychological
health.” We find this definition useful and we have adopted it to be our definition for our
study. This is because it fits perfectly with our study since we are looking at stress based on
cultural differences of employees of the same bank in different countries.

Stress is a reaction to an imbalance between a person's capabilities and the demands of the
environment, and it occurs when an individual perceives requirements that threaten to
exceed his or her capabilities and resources. Low productivity, discontent at work, lack of
workplace involvement, and poor job performance are all outcomes of stress. Stress can be
positive (Eustress) or negative (Distress), eustress results can be stimulating, thus enhancing
work performance and positively encouraging workers to make efforts while distressing
results in negative effects on workers’ health and performance (Okeke et al, 2016, p. 39).
Thoughts could be a source of stress because the brain interprets and perceives situations as
stressful, difficult, painful, or pleasant, some situations in life are stress-provoking, but it is
our thought that determines whether they are a problem (Muhammad & Kishwar, 2019,
p.35). Employee performance is adversely affected by workplace stress. This in turn
reduces the effectiveness of the employees and organization (Okeke et al, 2016,p. 39). Stress
exists in every organization either big or small workplaces and organizations have become
so complex due to the stress which exists in them and in addition, job stress has significant
effects on the employee’s job performance, (Ashfaq et al, 2013, p.62).

Stress can be considered as an unpleasant emotional situation that we experience when

requirements (work-related or not) cannot be counterbalanced with our ability to resolve
them, (Okeke et al, 2016, p. 39). This results in emotional changes as a reaction to this
danger. It stems from the relationship between a person and his environment, and it appears
as pressure that is subjective because the same stress can affect one person but not another.
When an employee can manage the pressures of the job and the possibility to complete a
task is substantial, then stress can work as a motivating factor (Okeke et al, 2016, p. 39).
According to Ali et al (2019), stress influences people both in a positive and negative way,
at the initial stage, it influences positively by motivating employees but when stress
becomes consistent for a long time, it influences the people in a negative way through
increasing frustration, anxiety and tardiness.

3.2 JOB STRESS ON EMPLOYEES

Job stress is not a new concept and employees are an integral part of an organization. The
issue of job stress has been a frequent problem across numerous occupations and its impacts
on the employees. Generally, life in modern societies is not without stress, it is an inevitable
part of challenges that prompt mastery of new skills and behavior patterns, however,
difficulties occur when stress becomes excessive (Chukwuemeka S. O et al, 2019). Ajayi
(2018) stated that job stress is considered rising and has become a challenge for the
employer because high-level stress results in low productivity, increased absenteeism, and
collection to other employee problems like alcoholism, drug abuse, hypertension, and a host
of cardiovascular problems (Uchechukwu 2020, p.27). Some potential causes of work-
related or job stress are; overwork, lack of clear instructions, unrealistic deadlines, lack of
decision-making, job insecurity, isolated working conditions, surveillance, and inadequate

11
child-care arrangements (Chukwuemeka S. O et al, 2019, P. 147). The majority of studies
agree that work-related stress can be caused by a variety of reasons. According to Ashfaq,
eleven forces are used as an antecedent of work-related stress by some researchers, namely;
Overload, Role vagueness, Role conflict, Responsibility for people, Participation, Lack of
feedback, Keeping up with quick technological change, Being in an innovative role, Career
growth, Organizational structure and environment, and Recent episodic events (Ashfaq et
al, 2013, p.62).

Prior research has shown that job stress may be caused by several factors which are called
stressors, (Thonga, & Yap, 2000, p. 683). Some of these stressors can be seen below in the
conceptual model diagram 1. Five categories of occupational stressors; physical
environment, individual level (a mixture of role and career development variables), group
level (primarily relationship-based), organizational level (a mixture of climate, structure,
job design, and task characteristics), and extra-organizational factors, are described by
(Thonga, & Yap, 2000, p. 683). Based on a mixture of role and career development
variables, according to Ali et al (2019) role conflict refers to incompatible requirements and
expectations that the employees receive from their supervisor or coworker. Role conflict
stress could be described as the incompatibility between two or more job roles or
responsibilities (Jackson & Schuler, 2017). They went further to say that stress occurs when
employees receive two or more job roles or responsibilities at the same time from different
or the same supervisors that are incongruent in nature, (Jackson & Schuler, 2017). Research
has found that occupational or job stress outcomes can be divided into two categories:
individual outcomes and organizational outcomes, (Thonga, & Yap, 2000, p. 683). Looking
at stress from the organizational perspective, there is always a fixed work time put in place
by the employer at the organization, but sometimes the employee spends extra time in the
organization to accomplish the tasks, (Bharathi & Gupta, 2017). Stress is much more
common in employees at lower levels of workplace hierarchies, where they have less control
over their work situation (Beheshtifar & Nazarian, 2013). Jex (2017) went ahead to say that
job stress comes as a result of work demand which threatens the well-being of employees.
Some of the factors responsible for creating stress among employees in the organization are;
workload, and is workload, workload refers to the concentration of assignments at work,
which is one of the main causes of stress in employees and the attitude of various employees
towards workload is usually different, some comfortably manage it at the workplace while
for some it becomes difficult to manage (Ali et al, 2014, p.15). According to Lavuri (2019,
p 45), an individual faces stress due to the workplace of the bank. Those facing role
ambiguity, undergo challenges in meeting their performance targets. Previous works done
by (Fried, Ben-David, Tiegs, Avital, & Yeverechyahu, 1998) discovered that those
employees with a high level of role ambiguity were linked with poor performance
effectiveness, role ambiguity is damaging to employee performance and has been strongly
indicated by Bauer and Green, 1994; Szilagyi, 1977 Williams, Podsakoff & Huber, 1992
Sluss, van Dick, and Thompson, 2011 (Sharmilee et al. 2017, p.15).

According to Mimura, stress is something or a condition where the person is faced with
constant pressure that normally arises in the workplace known as work pressures like short
notices and deadlines, undesirable health conditions, family pressures, and others. When
people at their job sites are faced with situations where requirements are so huge, they have
difficulty managing, this, in turn, affects their mental being and will also contribute to
physical and behavioral problems (Mimura et al., 2003). When requirements for employees
to perform become huge they become demanding. Work demand can be seen as the situation
in which the organizational aspects of a job require a sustained effort on the part of
employees for it to be achieved (Bakker, 2016). When employers expect too much from
employees, employees would definitely be faced with job stress especially in situations

12
where they are unable to manage the demands of the job. Shahsavarani et al. (2015, p. 233)
went ahead to say stress can be seen as an individual's response whenever he or she is
confronted with job demands that are not fit with their knowledge and capability and
therefore challenges their ability to changes in knowledge which and can result in alterations
of company's goal.

Bharathi & Gupta, (2017), were also to see resource constraints as one of the factors that
can contribute to stress by saying resource constraints occur when the role occupant
encounters inadequacy of the available resources, equipment, and tools for performing
his/her role. Stress is also linked with demands and resources, where demands are the
expectations, situations, and circumstances in the organization whereas resources refer to
the stuff used in meeting demands, the level of stress minimizes when resources are
adequate to meet demand (Ali et al, 2014, p. 14-15).

According to Ali et al (2019) in their article stated that an individual in his or her job in a
bank faces stress, “The workplace is potentially an important source of stress for bankers
because of the amount of time they spent in their respective banks”, moreover, stress often
decreases their performance, therefore, occupation of individuals could be a major source
of stress in the given circumstances and when an individual faces stress due to various
conditions of their occupation and fail to cope with stress, it results in burnout (Ali et al,
2019, p.33). Employers of labor in Nigeria do not protect their workers from stress arising
outside and within the workplace (Adetayo et al, 2014). Many organizations, as well as their
workers, have been facing hardship considering that employers of labor are not adhering to
the international labor organizations protocol which posits that employers of labor should
initiate a stress management policy that will not only enhance the effectiveness and
productivity of their organizations but will boost their morale at work and make them
healthier (Bewell et al, 2014).

3.3 PRODUCTIVITY

Mathis and Jackson (2000) defined productivity as a measure of the quantity and quality of
work done considering the cost of the resource it took to do the work. Job performance or
productivity can be viewed as an activity in which an individual can accomplish the task
assigned to them successfully, subject to the normal constraints of reasonable utilization of
the available resources (Laiba D. et al, 2011). According to Singh (2001), when there is no
job stress, job challenges are absent and the productivity tends to be low but as stress
increases, the productivity tends to increase, because stress helps an employee call up
resources to meet the job requirements.

According to Hanaysha (2016), employee productivity is the assessment of the efficiency

of a worker or group of workers. It is also that component that affects the company’s profit,
so it might be evaluated in terms of the outcome of an employee in a specific period.
Basically, in the banking sector lack of administrative support from a manager, work
overload & time pressure, riskiness of a job, poor relationship with customers and
coworkers, and work-family balance causes stress which in turn decreases employee
performance (Ali et al 2019, p.33)

Employee productivity refers to an assessment of the efficiency of a worker or group of

workers (Rouse, 2014), who then adds that productivity may be evaluated in terms of the
output of an employee in a specific period. According to Jalagat (2017, p. 3), one of the

13
negative linear relationships is that productivity decreases with stress. Productivity may also
increase due to stress, thereby implying a positive linear relationship between the two. It is
a fundamental corollary of theories of stress that there should be a relationship between
stress and productivity (Donald et al. 2005, p.410). Data from blue-collar, managerial, and
nursing employees overwhelmingly showed a direct, linear, negative relationship; the
greater the stress was, the less productive the workforce (Donald et al. 2005, p.411).
Employee job performance refers to the output that a person has contributed to the
organization concerning his behavior to engage in, and which the organization may perceive
as productive or counterproductive (Meyer & Peng 2006).

Performance can be seen as the employee's ability to produce work or goods and services
according to the expected standards set by the employers, or beyond the expected standards
(Ali et al 2019). There is also a case of role ambiguity which is defined by French and
Caplan (1972) as insufficient information concerning powers, authority, and duties to
perform one's role. (Ashfaq et al, 2013, p.62) Role Ambiguity operates when the employee
is in the stage of confusion on how he will perform the tasks or when an employee is asked
to do the task without clear instructions and no clear responsibilities assigned to him
resulting in role confusion. (Jalagat, 2017, p.3) This also has an effect on the productivity
of the employee but in a negative linear relationship, productivity decreases with the stress
of role ambiguity. A similar study was conducted and it was found that factors such as
workload, role conflict, and inadequate monetary rewards are the prime reasons for job
stress that causes a decrease in productivity of employees (Ali et al, 2014, p.14).

3.4 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN JOB STRESS AND EMPLOYEE PRODUCTIVITY

Job stress is a healthy stimulus that encourages employees to respond to challenges,

eventually, the job stress reaches a plateau that corresponds approximately with an
employee's top day-to-day performance capability, and then at that point, any additional
stress tends to produce no more improvement (Chathuni J. et al. 2017). Most studies have
been able to confirm that job stress significantly decreases the performance of employees
especially in the banking sector (Ahmed & Ramzan, 2013). They added that there is a
negative correlation between job stress and employee performance. Donald et al (2005)
found that the impact of underutilization of skills, low wages, and dissatisfied aspiration on
an employee's profession sequences the entire sources of stress. Meneze (2005), added that
work stress can have a higher impact on an individual's health that also directly affects his
performance, and also the incidence of job stress is on an upward trend that has become a
major problem of the employers as it reduces performance level in the job, increasing cases
of employee absences. Mead (2000) concluded in his study the impact of stress on job
performance, he pointed out that there is a negative impact of job stress on employee
performance if the stress is not managed efficiently. Too much stress negatively impacts
the work performance of both the employees and the organization. Imtiaz & Ahmad, (2009)
described “Higher level of stress existed with no managerial concern for solution
consequently lowering the employee performance, staking organizational reputation and
loss of skilled employees”.

It has long been acknowledged that job stress plays a role in employee productivity, this
notion is on what is called attention theory, simply, attention theory explains that the
experience of stress has the effect of reducing an individual’s ability to concentrate on
multiple tasks, Attention is thus focused on a few critical tasks and all of an individual’s
energies into the completion of those tasks (Hunter & Thatcher, 2007). Babak et al (2010)
studied “With excessive pressures, the job demands cannot be met, relaxation turns to
exhaustion and a sense of satisfaction replaces with the feelings of stress, motivation sheds

14
away and the workers start losing interest in the work and hence the performance chart
shows a negative trend.” Many people believe that stress leads to negative performance and
as shown by Ali et al (2019) they stated that “most of the employees in organizations feel
that their job is stressful and that in return decreases their performance”. They went ahead
to say that stress increases the turnover of employees and which can as well influence
organizational performance (Ali et al, 2019). Individuals get to experience stress differently
due to the different conditions of their occupation and when faced with this stress and fail
to handle it, it has an effect on their performance (Lavuri 2019, p 45). General in the banking
sector, lack of administrative support from the manager, over workload, the riskiness of a
job, poor relationship with customers and colleagues and unbalance between work and
family results in stress which decreases the employee's performance (Lavuri, 2019, p 45).
Jalagat (2017, pp 4) “proved in his study that there is a link between job stress and employee
performance between managers and staff”, the variables job stress, performance, and
organizational commitment are used and he found out that there is the negative impact
between job stress and job performance.

3.5 RESEARCH CONNECTING JOB STRESS AND ITS EFFECT ON EMPLOYEES

PRODUCTIVITY

We have been able to come across articles that have looked into the link between job stress
and job performance. Employee stressors include workload or work demand, job security,
role conflicts, role ambiguity, resource constraint, poor income, and technology advances,
among others. There is a pressing need to investigate the key and most common aspects
associated with job stress, such as workload stress, role conflict and role ambiguity stress,
and other kinds of job stress, and how these affect employee productivity. As a result of the
delayed control of these stressors, organizations have turned to experience staff turnover,
which has had a significant impact on organizational productivity. Research by Dini (2014,
p. 596) states that stress should not be very high or too low, it must be within the range and
limits of an employee's capacity to tolerate and his performance level and controlled stress
which is within limits is always beneficial and productive than an uncontrolled one. Every
organization's management must always view its employees as assets, and not as slaves to
the company. Monitoring and studying the stress level of the employees should be done on
a regular basis. To control stress and its causes, certain modifications and arrangements
must be implemented.

Job stress is a significant contributor to employee productivity. Job stress, when used as a
motivator, that is, the positive aspect of stress leads to increased creativity, contentment,
and productivity, as well as the removal of boredom and repetition. A recent study by Rani
A. et al (2021, p. 21) states that a business that understands the importance of productivity
in the workplace is very successful, productive workers are the assets of order, where they
increase the use of human resources. We could apply this concept to the financial
institutions too since the financial institution is faced with the challenge of monitoring the
stress levels of its employees which could also affect their productivity. The positive and
negative effects of stress are apparent in the relationship between stress and performance
(Jehangir 2011, p. 457). Employees may not be adequately awake, challenged, or involved
to work at their best when stress levels are low. An increase in a low level of stress can lead
to better productivity, but only up to a point where there is an optimal level of stress, which
is unlikely for most tasks. However, after that, productivity starts to decrease. It could also
cause employees to be too upset, stimulated, or threatened to function well while they are
under a lot of stress. We can connect this together with the help of the other literature
reviews we had.

15
 Overload.

Lack of clear
instructions.

Unrealistic
deadline.

Work overtime. Job stress Productivity

Work pressure.

Resource
constraint.

Poor relation
with customers.

Inadequate
monetary
rewards.

Diagram I. Conceptual model.

16
 Chapter 4

4. PRACTICAL METHOD

In this chapter, we will describe how we collected data for our qualitative studies. Next, we
give an explanation of how data for the qualitative studies are analyzed. The chapter ends
with a detailed description of our ethical considerations

4.1 PRECONCEPTION

It is very important to be aware of your preconceptions or pre-understandings whenever you

conduct research because preunderstanding is a prerequisite in the process of embarking on
research activity (Saunders et al., 2009, p 151). We chose this topic because we have both
done internships in this bank (Ecobank) from different countries and we also experienced
stress just as being an intern, meaning we both have a lot of preconceptions about the bank.
This made us understand the amount of job stress involved, and know for sure that it can
affect one's productivity sometimes and also gave us access to the bank in a way. And as an
employee, one is bound to experience job stress. We have been able to research more on
this topic to be able to have a deeper knowledge of what we want to contribute and we were
able to find that many authors have been able to point out the different types of job stress
that employees face in their different jobs today. But our main focus is trying to compare
the employees of the same bank from different countries to find out the similarities and
differences in the level of job stress experienced.

We also have pre- pre-understanding of some of the theories and concepts we are going to
use based on our studies from the undergraduate studies till the master’s level. This means
we have good knowledge and information which can help us accomplish this project. To
conduct good research, a researcher should approach the project with good preconception
and an open mind, qualitative research is geared toward gaining more insights into a
particular subject (Bryman & Bell, 2011, p. 410). As a researcher, we should be aware of
prejudices that are associated with pre-understanding when conducting a study. As much as
pre-understanding is essential in accomplishing the research, its negative impact could
jeopardize the research results and conclusions (Bryman & Bell, 2011, p. 30). So, as a
researcher, one should approach research work by combining pre-understanding with an
open mind and objectivity, especially in the data collection, interpretation, and analysis.
According to Gilje and Grimen (2007, p. 182), personal experiences are included in
preconception which can affect the actions of the researchers and also the outcome of the
research. This makes it important to be aware of our preconceptions as they will have an
effect on our study.

4.2 DATA COLLECTION

Bickman and Rog (1998, p. 23) make a distinction between two types of data which they
call primary data and secondary data. The term “primary data” refers to the data that is new
and collected for a specific purpose, such as a specific study, on the contrary, one could use
and reanalyze data that already has been gathered for another purpose, and that could be
referred to as secondary data (Blaikie, 2009, p. 161).

When we started this study, we evaluated the options regarding our data collection. In the
process, we considered the advantages and disadvantages of the methods of data collection.
However, the decision was based on our problem background, our research question. Our

17
reasoning is based on the nature of our study, where we want to present the results of our
data collection and draw a comparison between employees of the same bank but from two
different countries. There is, to the best of our knowledge, no previous study that collected
this type of data with a focus on the employees’ perspective. Thereby, our study will be
conducted by gathering primary data.

We then decided to use interviews for the qualitative data collection where we investigate
the employees’ perspectives on job stress and how it affects their productivity in the bank.
To be able to get an insight into how employees perceive job stress, we would conduct an
interview with the employees from different Ecobank branches both in Cameroon and
Nigeria. The employees are to be considered most stressed because they are the ones who
do the most work and have direct contact with clients. For our qualitative study, we used a
semi-structured interview form which can be found in Appendix I of the study. This form
of the interview starts from great themes, but the interviewee may be free to structure their
answers in their own way (Bryman, 2008, p. 415). The choice of this interview form is based
on what we think is important, that the interviewee may explain perception and then
interpret certain events within the greater themes that we bring up during the interview.

4.3 QUALITATIVE DATA COLLECTION AND INTERVIEW GUIDE

As we mentioned before, we have chosen to use a qualitative research approach by

interviewing the employees of Ecobank both in Nigeria and Cameroon branches. Interviews
aid in data collection (Saunders et al., 2012, p. 372) which in our case can be relevant to our
research questions and purpose. We used the general interview guide approach as we plan
to bring up general themes and specific questions but still allow our interviewees to feel free
to bring up and discuss what they want to talk about that is within our themes. Saunders et
al. (2012, p. 347), referred to the different types of interviews, that is, structured interviews,
semi-structured interviews, and unstructured interviews. But in our study, a semi-structured
interview was most beneficial for us, as it helped us get the perspective of the different
employees we interviewed.

We thought it was important to capture the context of the interview without limiting the
interviewees to a set of questions since our first research question is about the perceptions
of the employees on job stress. Instead, we argue that it is preferable in our case to rather
bring up themes and questions in order to make sure that the interviews capture the
perceptions of the Ecobank employees. That is why we choose to use a semi-structured
interview.

Furthermore, we came up with an interview guide that we followed during the interview
process which was helpful when used in conducting the semi-structured interview. An
interview guide provides the interviewer with a list of predetermined questions to ask during
the interview (Patton, 1980, p. 200). Our questions were based on the different concepts we
came up with and those are stress, job stress on employees, productivity, and lastly, the
relationship between job stress and employee productivity. We started by asking general
questions about the employees who are our interviewees, and then we went into asking
questions about our different theories and concepts, respectively, and finished by asking
questions in which we combined the concepts into one question. We chose to use certain
questions for everyone and then depending on how the interviewees answered our questions,
we asked follow-up questions to get further in-depth information about the subject. We
came up with a list of around twenty questions, this can be found in Appendix I of our study.
For our interview process, we contacted some of our friends that work in the bank. This was
easy access for us because they were willing to help provide us with the interviewees and

18
they gave us contacts of their colleagues that work in Ecobanks. They were willing and
honest and we conducted six telephone interviews with the interviewees who are
respectively in Nigeria and Cameroon.

4.4 QUALITATIVE SAMPLING AND TECHNIQUE AND ACCESS

From our first research question; “what are the employees’ perceptions of job stress and the
way it affects their productivity?” We were ready to choose what sample would be most
appropriate for our study. According to Patton Michael Q., a researcher's research question
should determine what kind of sample is most appropriate for their study (Patton, 1980, p.
100). When choosing a sample to interview, it is not always appropriate to use a random
sample, thus a non-random sampling technique can be used, sometimes, it is necessary to
interview specific people who can help answer a research question (Saunders et al., 2012,
p. 281-283). A friend of ours who works in the bank helped us to mobilize his other
colleagues working in Ecobank who we could interview. A critical sampling design is used
when a sample is essential for the assessment of our research question (Bickman & Rog,
1998, p. 105). Let’s explain why we chose to use critical sampling, the reason is that we
have to interview employees from Ecobank in order to answer our research question. And
by interviewing the employees in Ecobank we could gain first-class insights into how they
perceive the effect of job stress on employees and how it affects their productivity.

According to Bryman and Bell, one needs an appropriate strategy in order to gain access to
the information needed in order to collect data (Bryman & Bell, 2001, p. 277). We were
able to gain access to both Ecobank in Nigeria and Cameroon because we both had previous
work experience at the bank as an internship program during our stay in the country at a
particular time respectively. So we could say we were familiar with the bank and with this
familiarity with the bank with the help of a friend who still works there, helped us gain entry
into the organization. In Saunders, Lewis, and Thornhill’s book, they talked about
familiarity as a way one can gain access to an organization (Saunders et al., 2012, p. 219).

4.5 CONDUCTING THE INTERVIEW

The interviewees were informed about the study details and given assurances about ethical
principles such as anonymity and confidentiality before the interview took place. This gave
respondents a sense of what to expect from the interview. The authors interviewed six (6)
interviewees in total and we both conducted three interviews from each country. One person
was responsible for conducting the interview in Nigeria and the other person was
responsible for that of Cameroon, (see table 1, Interviewees). Due to the distance and time
consideration, the interviews were conducted online via telephones, the schedule for the
interviews was decided by the interviewees. The interviewees were given the opportunity
to schedule the interview time best convenient for them. Due to the schedule of interviewees
and time differences, some interviews were conducted during working hours, after working
hours, and on weekends. Table 1 below is made up of our different interviews, including
how long the interview was, and where the interview took place. Each author had three
interviewees from our respective countries. We were careful when choosing our
interviewees and we made sure that all of our interviewees were staff and employees,
especially of the Ecobank, which made them suitable to answer our research question. So,
all interviewees fulfilled our criteria of being employees. The second way in which we chose
who to interview was to ensure that we interviewed a variety of different employees within
the Ecobank. Our interviewees were from the operating department, customer care unit, IT
unit. We got a variety of different employees to interview in order to understand more about
how the bank as a whole work. At the beginning of the interview process, we gave them a

19
little background information about the purpose of our study and let them know that we
would not seek any confidential information and that they would remain anonymous if they
would like which most of them preferred to be anonymous which we granted and they
became more relaxed when answering our questions.

The authors came across some challenges while conducting the interviewees. There were
some interruptions during the interviews, some of them were easy to talk to and expressed
themselves as much as they could, some hesitations in answering particular questions, some
of the interviewees found the interview questions funny and inexplicable, some of them
found the interview questions disturbing, but because of the terms and conditions given
before the interview was conducted, the authors respected the choice of the interviewees
and still carry on with the interview successfully.

TABLE 1. INTERVIEWEES

Number of Length of Place of Employees’ Country of

interviewees interview interview position workplace

Interviewee 1 35 minutes telephone Service teller Nigeria

interview

Interviewee 2 30 minutes telephone Customer Nigeria

interview service

40 minutes telephone Personal Nigeria

Interviewee 3 interview assistant

Interviewee 4 40 minutes telephone Accountant Cameroon

interview

Interviewee 5 38 minutes telephone Investment Cameroon

interview Analysts

Interviewee 6 30 minutes telephone Customer Cameroon

interview service.

Data saturation is something that occurs when one gets to a point where no new information
is being obtained (Saunders et al., 2012, p. 283). The authors came up with six interviews,
three from both countries respectively. After four interviews, data saturation occurred, then
we were not getting any new information from the two interviews left. But we still compiled
them.

4.6 TRANSCRIBING

In this section, we are going to talk about transcribing our information. Collection of data
is a very important activity when doing any research project (Blaikie, 2009, p. 24), therefore
the data we receive from conducting our interviews is useful and is important information.
So it is very useful that we transcribe the interviews. And what is transcribing, transcribing
is another way of saying that one writes down everything that was said in the interviews
(Saunders et al., 2012, p. 550). The transcriptions are the written words from the interviews

20
which we recorded from the telephone interview. We only asked them questions and
listened for the answers during the interview, so we transcribed everything after the
interview so that we could pay more attention to what the interviewees were saying during
the interview.

4.7 QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS

As we discussed in the scientific methodology chapter of this study, we used a deductive

research approach in this degree project where we had a clear theoretical position developed
prior to the collection of data. But before we started our qualitative analysis we studied
findings from prior research which can be found in chapter 3. The first thing one should do
when analyzing information is to put the information into different categories (Blaikie,
2009, p. 211) and by putting these pieces of information into different categories, we
conduct a thematic analysis. Thematic analysis is the process of identifying classifying and
reporting patterns to contain within qualitative data (Braun & Clarke, 2006, p. 78). This
process involves the researcher coding the data set to identify patterns or themes for further
examination and explanation (Saunders et al., 2012, p. 579).

There is a consensus that conducting a thematic analysis should be done in phases, Braun
& Clarke (2006) and Saunders, et al. (2012) identify six steps in a thematic analysis
approach that systematically follow each other (Braun & Clarke, 2006, p. 86). In the order
of; familiarizing with the data, generating initial codes, reviewing themes, defining and
naming themes, and lastly, producing the report, these are the phases of the Thematic
Analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006, p. 87). It is important to note that these steps are followed
chronologically, but research will be moving back and forth during the process (Braun &
Clarke, 2006, p. 86).

The first phase is that a thematic analysis involves familiarizing oneself with the data, while
the second phase involves coding the data (Braun & Clarke, 2006, p. 86). We tried doing
this by reading through the interview transcripts and grouping the responses into fewer
words which tried to describe what each statement represented. Next, we coded the
transcripts and derived some themes we had in mind doing chapter 3. Then the next phase
involves organizing the themes created earlier; this involves refining the themes and
discarding some themes which prove to be irrelevant (Braun & Clarke, 2006, p. 91). We
move on to the next step where we would see what themes we were going to use, which
best represents our data. The next phase requires the researcher to define and name the
different themes, while the last phase involves the researcher comparing the results to what
previous literature has said about the topic (Braun & Clarke, 2006, p. 92-93). In appendix 2
we have provided a summary of our themes. In the qualitative analysis and discussion
section, we will go into more depth with the breakdown and explanation of the themes.

4.8 QUALITY CRITERIA

There are two concepts in research projects to be considered when evaluating research
studies: we take note of the validity and reliability be it in qualitative or quantitative research
(Bryman & Bell, 2011, p. 394). Let's try to define them according to some authors.
Reliability is defined by Saunders et al. (2009, p. 156) as the extent to which data collection
techniques or analysis procedures will yield consistent findings while Validity refers to the
accuracy of the research, that is, the study measures what it is supposed to measure. So we
can say that research seems to be reliable if the researcher can repeat some former research
patterns and get the same results, but there are two types of reliability, and they are; internal
and external reliability (Bryman & Bell, 2011, p. 395). Guba and Lincoln (1994 cited in

21
Bryman & Bell, 2005, p.306) suggested that a whole new set of criteria are needed when
evaluating qualitative research. These new criteria should be based on factors such as
authenticity, credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability. But still,
LeCompte and Goetz (1982 cited in Bryman & Bell, 2005) argue that the old concepts of
validity and reliability could be used within qualitative research as well, but they need to be
modified from how they have been used in quantitative research in order to fit the qualitative
research, which is what we will be following in this research.

Internal reliability is the degree to which other researchers, given a set of previously
generated constructs, would match them with data in the same way as did the original
researcher (LeCompte & Goetz, 1982, p. 32), while external reliability is how easily a study
can be replicated within quality research (Bryman & Bell, 2011, p. 395). Validity and
reliability are related to each other for instance, the measure of concept should be stable,
which means reliable in order to be a valid measure, also there are two types of validity
which are; internal and external validity (Bryman & Bell, 2011, p. 395). Internal validity is
concerned with whether or not the results match theory while external validity is concerned
with the degree to which results can be generalized (Bryman & Bell, 2011, p. 395).

Internal Reliability and Internal Validity. These two factors will be discussed here and they
are defined by LeCompte and Goetz (1982). To fulfill these criteria there must be an
agreement between the research team on how the research data should be analyzed and
interpreted as well as confirmability of the observations made and the theories that are being
developed. We worked with these criteria by transcribing all our interviews carefully not to
omit or misinterpret the result. The research question and other important concepts and
aspects of the qualitative research were properly explained to the interviewees in advance
before the interview was conducted. To fulfill these criteria, we discussed and had an open
communication between us via telephone interview, which we found important in order not
to follow the same approach and can draw the same conclusions as previous researchers.

The first issue concerns the ability to replicate within quality research which LeCompte and
Goetz (1982) refer to as external reliability. As society is constantly changing it is hard to
create a similar or rather identical situation in the future, LeCompte and Goetz (1982)
suggest that if a researcher wants to replicate a qualitative study, they have to enter the same
social role as the previous researchers. The procedure on how we have conducted the study
has been carefully described and stated, from how we constructed the interview guide to
how we followed a semi-structured approach and later transcribed and analyzed the
interviews, this will make it easier for the other researchers while processing a replicate of
this study.

The next issue concerns the transferability of a qualitative study (LeCompte and Goetz,
1982). A more common term is generalizability (Saunders et al., 2007 p.149). This problem
is important within qualitative research due to the uniqueness of the targets (Bryman & Bell,
2005 p.307). The problem of transferability is also discussed by Guba and Lincoln (1994)
who stress the importance of explaining every step in the research process in a detailed
manner to enhance transferability. It should be noted that the study concerns job stress on
employees and its effect on productivity which is constantly changing. This study focuses
on employees in financial institutions which has a possibility for a larger sampling size. The
finding in this research is based on one bank from two different developing countries.

22
4.9 ETHICAL CONSIDERATION

Ethical consideration is simply the ethics considered while writing this degree project.
Another unethical activity that sometimes is conducted by researchers is data falsification,
for example by asking friends or relatives to fill in as their interviewee or manipulating the
interviewees, falsifying data, duplicating response data, or even manipulating the data
structures inappropriately (Saunders et al., 2009, p. 29). But in our case, that is, in our study,
we tried to avoid such unethical practices, we only asked people who truly are bank
employees to help us with our interview questions. Moreover, we consider that the data that
we presented has not been in any way manipulated or falsified in any inappropriate manner.
We would say that we tried to be as honest as possible, as transparent, and as objective as
possible in the manner in which we conducted our study. According to the AoM code of
ethical conduct, researchers have a duty to protect and maintain the dignity, freedom, well-
being, and privacy of participants, and also the participants also have a right to refuse or
terminate their participation at any time (Bryman & Bell, 2011, p. 133).

Furthermore, the information contained in this thesis does not have any personal data that
can be linked to the participants or about the financial institution involved. As for honesty
and transparency, the researcher gave out the complete empirical results to the respondents
making sure that the information is appropriately utilized in this research. Feedback
received from respondents was carefully adjusted in the final report of the thesis. So it is
safe to say this research was ethically conducted in accordance with the USBE thesis manual
requirement.

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 Chapter 5

5. EMPIRICAL FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

We shall discuss the empirical findings from the interview we conducted, starting with a
short introduction of the bank we chose for the study, and also that of each of the
interviewees we interviewed. We shall state what different interviewees said within the
different themes, starting with the stress, then job stress on employees, and lastly the
productivity.

5.1 ECOBANK

Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) is a public limited company that was first
established as a bank holding company in I985 under a private sector initiative spearheaded
by the Federation of West African Chambers of Commerce and Industry with the support
of the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS), (Ecobank group annual
report 2019). Today, Ecobank is the leading Pan-African bank with Operations in 35
African countries across the continent, it has a larger African footprint than any other bank
in the world (Ecobank group annual report 2019). It operates in countries in West, Central,
East, and Southern Africa and the 14,878 employees make the group the largest employer
of labor in the financial sector in Middle Africa. The bank operates as one with common
branding, standards, policies, and processes, this makes for consistent and reliable service
to over 23 million customers across the network of 847 branches (Ecobank group annual
report 2019). Sustainability lies at the core of the bank’s mission to build a world-class pan
African bank that contributes to the integration and sociology-economic development of the
continent. The long-term success of Ecobank is intertwined with the sustainable
development of the economies, societies, and environment in which it operates.

5.2 BIO-INFORMATION AND THE EMPIRICAL FINDINGS OF INTERVIEWEES

5.2.1 Interviewee 1

This is a young man of 28 years who has been working at the Ecobank Nigeria branch for
almost six years in a remote city called Awka, where he is in the operation unit department.
He is single without kids but has a lot of family commitment because he is the first son and
the breadwinner of his family, so we can understand that there is a certain level of stress
from the family for him which he admitted to. Holding the position of a service teller. His
day-to-day activity is to cash in money for those depositing it and also dispensing cash for
those that want to withdraw, he attends to ATM, and handles cash, even though sometimes
his work exceeds just being a service teller. He tries to create time to hang out with friends
and colleagues, and some customers and days he does some relaxing stuff and others do
some productive stuff before he sleeps. He hardly goes on vacations because of the
workload that will occur if he goes on a vacation. He describes his working environment as
being conducive sometimes because of the area the bank is located, it’s a remote area where
sometimes electricity was a problem. He is satisfied with the fact that people can trust him
with their money, they can come to him for financial advice even though he is not a financial
adviser and he is not satisfied with the fact that the job takes up most of his time.

24
5.2.1.1 Empirical findings from Interviewee 1

Stress

When asked what stress means to this interviewee who has been an employee of the
Ecobank for over six years, what he understand by stress, he answered thus, “I don’t really
know the definition of stress but to me, I think that stress is when you are in a state of fatigue,
overworked, and tiredness.”

When asked how stress affects their daily activities, he answered thus “I don't think stress
can affect my daily life, in fact, stress does not affect my activities at work, especially, but
somewhere else maybe, but not work.”

When asked the employee how he handles, or deals with, or react to stress at work, this is
what the interviewee had to say, “depending on the situation, it depends on the scenario,
but if it pertains to my work, I will just take a quick break to calm down, I also decided to
play music, it really helps me a lot, sometimes I even take a nap and sleep too”

When asked if he was able to cope with the stress, the interviewee said “yes, I am able to
cope with the stress, because, no matter how stressful the job can be I always try to be at
peace with myself, be on time at work and always have a positive mind, that is how I cope
with the stress of my job.”

Job stress on employees

When asking the employee what kind of stress he perceive in his workplace, he came up
with a lot of similar answers with the other interviewees. But here is what he had to say
about it, “there is a lot of pressure on us especially from customers, multitasking and
brainstorming on how to satisfy the customers, and not having enough time for themselves,
the work consumes most of their other time.”

When asked what he perceive to be the most stressful part of his job. He said, “the most
stressful part of my job is when I have to use a particular program and application that is
very complicated and confusing at times and working with software that is not familiar to
us and having to work with a poor network server.”

When asked if the bank policy and management also contribute to his stress, he answered
saying “definitely, there are some bank policies that are too rigid on us and that can be very
stressful for us to deal with” though he didn't mention them.

When asked if the bank management provide some kind of amenities for the stress he
encounters at work, he answered that “maybe other regional branches have their
management providing them some sort of amenities but not in this my own branch but then
we can go on a quick break in case we are so stressed and tired.”

Productivity

When asked if the stress affects his productivity either in a positive or negative way and
how exactly he handle the stress. He answered saying that “it depends on the kind of stress
and the situation, sometimes when I get so tired and don't feel productive, I won't be able
to do anything and will just shut down but with positive stress, I get more productive, I aim
to finish and do a good job at it.”

25
When asked if he would have done anything different concerning the stress faced at work.
“It is hard to say, stress cannot be totally dealt with because it's a part of the job but we
can only learn to manage the stress, nothing much could actually be done about the stress
but allowing people to go on random breaks would really be nice.”

5.2.2 Interviewee 2:

This is a young lady of 23 years who works in the Ecobank Nigeria branch for almost two
years in an urban city called Abuja, she works as an executive assistant to the divisional
health and education. She is married without kids and does not have any family
responsibilities at home that generates stress. Her activities are basically to keep her boss in
check, anything that concerns her boss concerns her too, booking schedules and taking notes
for her boss during meetings. Most times she works from home, so she doesn't really go to
the office. She really doesn’t have any particular activity because she literally works from
home, she does relaxing activities before going to bed. She always goes on her vacation and
that could be one month or two. She is satisfied with her job because her job is easy and
she's on welfare, no bullying by other staff and high chances for someone to grow in their
career, and she has no reason to be dissatisfied with her job.

5.2.2.1 Empirical findings from Interviewee 2

Stress

When asked what stress means to this interviewee who has been an employee of the
Ecobank for over two years, what she understand by stress, she answered saying “stress is
like pressure, probably when you are tired and suffering from fatigue and also need to
rest.”

When asked how stress affects her daily activities, she answered saying “I will just shut
down as in, I'll just be unable to do any further work”.

When asked the employee how she handles, or deals with, or react to stress at work, she
didn't say much about handling stress, she was hesitant “I really don't know if I’m faced with
the stress and if it's something I must do I will try as much as possible to do it but then if I
can't I will just tell my boss that I can't do the job.”

When asked if she was able to cope with the stress, she said, “I can't say for sure because
to me both the positive and negative stress seems like a scam to me, at the end of the day it
all points down to the negative stress which I can’t be able to cope with.”

Job stress on employees

When asked what kind of stress she perceives in her workplace, “most time I work from
home so basically, the stress I perceive is the pressure of trying to meet up with deadlines
from my boss especially and also meeting up with the bank’s target on time.”

When asked what she perceive to be the most stressful part of their job. She said, “The most
stressful part of my job is going to the office due to a lot of traffic since I stay very far from
my office, I have to be up very early to avoid staying in the traffic.”

26
When asked if the bank policy and management also contribute to her stress, the she said
“the management, especially my boss will always tell me, if I’m tired and I need a break or
vacation, I should take it because is better for me to be working in my full state of mind than
tired and frail. The management always advises us to take a break if we ever need one, so
the bank policy and management do not contribute to the stress.”

When asked if the bank management provides some kind of amenities for the stress she
encounter at work, she answered that “the bank will always tell you, whenever you feel
stressed or tired, always try to take a time off and rest, the bank would not want you breaking
down at work because of stress.”

Productivity

When asked if the stress affects her productivity either in a positive or negative way and
how exactly does she handle stress? She answered, “I mostly work from home so stress does
not affect my productivity at work, even when I go to the office, and the productivity level is
still not affected by stress.”

When asked if she would have done anything different concerning the stress faced at work.
She said, “I would like to encourage the use of online banking and a cashless economy to
reduce the number of workers coming to work and increase working from home.”

5.2.3 Interviewee 3:

This is a lady of 30 years who works in the Eco-bank Nigeria branch for almost three years
in an urban city called Lagos. She worked as a customer service officer, she is single without
kids and has no family obligations to stress her in any way. She had a lot of activity at work
such as providing customer service, opening, and closing of accounts, activating accounts,
ordering checkbooks for customers. After work, she usually hangs out with her friends even
though she closes really late and her activities after work are mainly relaxing ones. She
hardly goes on vacations because she overworks even during the weekend but then she goes
on an annual leave which is just one month. She described her working environment as a
friendly and conducive one because she had nice colleagues and also worked in a team as a
synergy. She had a passion for what she had and overlooked all things else so she is satisfied
with her job and she didn't see her job as much stress because she expected them, but then
she was dissatisfied with the fact that they always called her up during the weekend for
MPR (Monthly Profit Review) meetings and that took up a lot of her resting time and that
was stressful.

5.2.3.1 Empirical findings from Interviewee 3

Stress

When asked what stress means to this interviewee who has been an employee of the
Ecobank for over three years, what she understood by stress, she had a whole different
definition of stress, and intended it to be something positive, “stress is something that
stretches your ability and wants to know how much your strength can carry you while
carrying out your activities.”

When asked how stress affects her daily activities, she answered saying “I have a passion
for my job, so I am not stressed at all by doing what I love.”

27
When asked the employee how she handles, or deals with, or reacts to stress at work, she
answered saying “the way I handle stress is by facing it because I love a little challenge and
that's how I handle it, it brings out the best in me and wants to make me do more.”

When asked if she was able to cope with the stress, the interviewee said, answering in a
positive manner saying “as I said before, I love my job, so when it becomes stressful, I see
it as an opportunity to learn and to improve at the job.”

Job stress on employees

When asked this employee what kind of stress she perceive in her workplace, she answered
saying “the pressure to meet up with the deadline, dealing with stubborn customers, a lot of
workloads, especially by the end of the day, causing overtime at work.”

When asked what she perceive to be the most stressful part of her job. She said, “The hardest
part of my job is dealing with troublesome customers that are very hard to please and also
impatient customers, they make my job very stressful and unbearable.”

When asked if the bank policy and management also contribute to her stress, the interviewee
said “the bank policy does not add to the stress at work but instead they always advise us
against over-stressing ourselves.”

When asked if the bank management provides some kind of amenities for the stress she
encounters at work, she answered that “in case I'm so stressed and tired, the bank manager
may send another colleague who is experienced in the field to assist me or something like
that.”

Productivity

When asked if the stress affects her productivity either in a positive or negative way and
how exactly she handle the stress. She said, “I do my best at work, I love my job, stress does
not affect my productivity at work if anything, stress boosts my productivity, I am more
productive under stress.”

When asked if she would have done anything different concerning the stress faced at work.
She simply said “but it would be easier if they employ enough people to do the job.” she
also added “it’s not like there is something in particular that can be done about the stress,
it comes with the job, you just learn to deal with it or not”

5.2.4 Interviewee 4

Interviewee 4 is 34 years old, married with three kids and she said helps support the family
as well. She has been working for 6 years in one of the Ecobank branches in Cameroon,
Douala in the financial department. She is Mainly an Accountant and a part-time cashier.
The daily activities carried out are bookkeeping for customers, customers’ invoices
receiving payments, bank reconciliations with cashiers, and loan repayment schemes. She
works 40 hours a week and most often works overtime. When asked to briefly explain her
working environment, she said it is comfortable but she gets to experience a high level of
customers every day. She was also able to testify that great teamwork makes work go faster
and smoother. The interviewee was able to tell us what aspects of her job she’s satisfied
with and dissatisfied with and she said she’s very satisfied solving customers' problems and

28
also with the good team and dissatisfied with the fact that she works more and sometimes
overtime but she is underpaid and the high volume of work to do

5.2.4.1 Empirical findings from interviewee 4.

Stress

When asked what the interviewee understood by stress, she replied saying “according to
me, it is the mental state of worry due to work overload and other things that bring you
down physically, and emotionally.''

When asked how stress influences her day-to-day activities, she said stress “socks out the
energy in her and especially if it affects her emotions, it makes her not fully focused on what
she’s doing.”

When asked how she handles stress, she said “when am stressed in a situation, I try not to
work because I will just add my stress by doing the wrong thing, so I always try to take a
break if possible to relax and continue later on or rather still I call in a colleague to assist
if it’s an urgent work to do.”

When asked if she was able to cope with stress in this way, she replied saying “in most
cases, I cope in this way by being able to take a break because I come up with other
perspectives and better ideas and solutions.”

When asked what changes could be made in her daily life to reduce stress or what she thinks
if she did differently would reduce her stress. She said, “like in dying minutes of work, it
stresses her a lot so if more time is allocated to work it will help reduce. Also if extra workers
are employed it will help reduce the workload and practically stress. Lastly, if meetings are
held to talk about situations that could help reduce stress for employees.”

Job stress on employees

When asked what she perceived to be stress in her work?, she replied listing work overload,
the environment, customer worker interaction, liquidity crisis (huge withdrawal and no
resources at hand), pressure to get work done within the required time set in place.

We went ahead to ask what she perceived to be the most stressful part of her job, but she
replied saying “I can’t really say what stresses me most but it all depends on the situation
I found myself in. For example, in a workload situation, sometimes I get help, and sometimes
it’s all on me because everyone is busy with their own work. So whether I get help or not I
still feel stressed and same with other situations.”

When asked if the company’s policies contribute to her job stress, she said “ yes, certain
policies are rigid and limiting, and this contributes to my stress, limiting policies make
things very difficult, for example, some policies favor some category of people and disfavor
others, and working with those people that the policies disfavor is very stressful, also it
stressful when my supervisors, especially the newly appointed supervisors, they don’t
understand the roles to play and expect the employees to do their work for them.”

When asked if the bank management provides some amenities to help reduce the stress, she
replied saying “yes, there is a room where someone can relax during his or her break

29
but most often the manager will say stress is normal to experience since it comes as a result
of the job.”

Productivity

When asked if stress affects her productivity in a positive or negative way, she replied
saying “I will say stress affects me positively because it makes me mentally, prepared for
the task.

5.2.5 Interviewee 5:

Interviewee (5) works in a different branch in Yaoundé Cameroon. She is 38 years of age
and married with 2 kids. She has been working for 5 years in the bank as an investment
analyst. She has had previous jobs which makes her well fit for the position. Her role as an
investment analyst is talking to most clients like traders, to make good decisions about
investment by providing reliable information. She works 40 hours a week. Interviewee 5
was able to mention that the working environment is sometimes calm and sometimes tense
and tense in cases of arrogant clients and supervisors making work over-bearing by
allocating too many tasks within short periods and calm in the sense that sometimes there
is smooth and good collaboration and no pressure from top management. She gets satisfied
with her job whenever she gets the opportunity to work with high-priority projects and is
dissatisfied with the aspects of the high level of responsibilities.

5.2.5.1 Empirical findings from interviewee 5

Stress

When asked what she understood by stress?, she replied saying “ stress can be seen as a
situation where one feels pressured to get something done with just a little or no resources
allocated and time to get the work done.”

When asked how stress influences her day-to-day activities? She replied saying “stress
sometimes influences me to make wrong and hasty decisions which affect me personally and
affects the organization as well.”

When asked how she handles stress, she answered by saying, “I take a pause and allow my
brain to think properly so I avoid making wrong decisions.”

When asked if she was able to cope with stress in this way? She said “yes because I am able
to be more creative in my thinking and solve issues or problems in a better way.”

When asked what changes could be done in her daily life to reduce the stress, she replied
saying, “have shorter breaks than having one long break. Also having more strict
supervision from management due to the fact that colleagues can sometimes increase my
stress by having their work not done on time which can affect mine.”

Job stress on employees.

When asked what she perceived as stress in her job, she listed a number of factors which
are customer stress, stress from top management, and work overload, she added saying that
there are more but these are the most common in her job.

30
When asked what she perceives to be the most stressful part of her job, she said “work
overload, this happens often and the time given is always short which makes me work
overtime.”

When asked if the bank policy and management also contribute to her stress, she said “yes,
pressure from the bosses to get work done within a specific period of time is stressful”.

When asked if the bank management provides some kind of amenities for the stress she
encounters at work, she answered by saying “the bank helps by providing a private room
for staff to relax.”

Productivity

When asked if the stress affects their productivity either in a positive or negative way, she
said, “Stress affects my productivity in a negative way because when I am stressed, I don’t
work as fast as I should and sometimes I push forward the work to some other time which
leads to procrastination”.

5.2.6 Interviewee 6:

Interviewee (6) happens to work in the same bank branch as an interviewee (4). She works
in the customer service department as a customer service agent and she has worked for two
(2) years. She is 27 years of age and is single with no kids. Her daily activities are as
follows, she tries to find out what exactly customers want and be able to channel them to
the right quarters, she explains to customers the procedures of creating an account and helps
them in creating one if it’s needed, sometimes as a team, they go out trying to convince
people on opening accounts thereby creating more customers for the bank. She works
approximately 40 hours a week. The working environment is sometimes calm and
sometimes tense and tense when dealing with troublesome customers and communication
barriers sometimes make the environment tense. Calm when dealing with reasonable and
understanding customers. She gets to be satisfied whenever customers are satisfied and gets
to give tips for a job well done, also satisfied when she receives good comments from her
manager concerning her job. She gets dissatisfied with the aspects of having too much to do
alone with little or no help. And with the presence of many customers, it becomes difficult
to manage.

5.2.6.1 Empirical findings from interviewee 6

Stress

When asked what stress means to the interviewee what she understands by stress, she
said “stress occurs when one has little or no control over his or her situation and also when
the body responds to pressure.”

When asked how stress affects their daily activities, she responded by saying, “when
stressed it makes me very tired and sometimes I am unable to complete my task”.

When asking the employees how they handle or deal with or react to stress, she said, “it
depends, sometimes I just keep working even if I am stressed and sometimes I might take a
break.”

31
When asked if she is able to cope with the stress, her response was, “I am able to cope when
it is a positive stress but when it is a negative stress it kills my spirit and makes me less
motivated”.

When asked what changes could be made in her daily life to reduce the stress, she answered
saying, “stress is a daily occurrence that can hardly be changed but just managed.”

Job stress on employees

When asking the employee what kind of stress she perceive in her workplace, she said
“stress from customers, the environmental condition can also be stressful, stress from some
of my colleagues who do not understand their job responsibility and have inadequate
knowledge about the task, they keep asking for my help and what to do almost all the time”,
overtime, targets are set and when customers don’t meet the requirements they turn to bring
trouble making my job stressful.

When asked what she perceives to be the most stressful part of her job, she said “the hardest
part of my job is dealing with difficult customers that are very hard to please and also
impatient customers, they make my job very stressful.”

When asked if the bank policy and management also contribute to her stress, her response
was “yes, some top management like the senior staff contributes to my stress by giving me
different work to do at the same time, and sometimes it could be two different senior staff
giving different work to do at the same time. Also, limiting policies make things very
difficult for me. For example, some policies favor some set of people and disfavor others,
and to work with such a group of people that the policies of the company don’t work in
their favor you need permission from upper management and at this point, it can be very
stressful.”

When asked if the bank management provides some kind of amenities for the stress, she
said “the bank helps by providing resting rooms where you can relax when you feel
stressed”.

Productivity

When asked if the stress affects her productivity either in a positive or negative way, she
replied saying “stress doesn’t affect my productivity in any way.”

In the table below, the authors present a summary of bio-information details, and the coding
used ‘‘INT.’’ simply means Interviewee.

Table II: Brief description of the interviewees.

Code Country Working Designation and functions

Experience

INT. Nigeria 6 years Service Teller in the operation unit department also
1 makes cash deposits and withdrawals for customers
then attends to ATMs, and even more.

32
INT. Nigeria 2 years Executive Assistant to the Divisional health and
2 education officer.

INT. Nigeria 3 years Customer Service provides customer services,

3 creating and closing of accounts, ordering
checkbooks for customers.

INT. Cameroon 6years Accountant mainly and partly cashier.

4 Responsibilities are bookkeeping for customers,
invoices, receiving payment, bank reconciliations
with cashiers, and loan repayments schemes.

INT. Cameroon 5years Talks to most clients like traders, managers

5 stockbrokers to make good decisions about
investment by providing reliable information.

INT. Cameroon 2years Her daily activities are as follows, she tries to find out
6 what exactly customers want and be able to channel
them to the right quarters, she explains to customers
the procedures of creating an account and helps them
in creating one if it’s needed, sometimes as a team,
they go out trying to convince people on opening
accounts thereby creating more customers for the
bank.

33
 Chapter 6

6. THEMATIC NETWORK AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, we are going to discuss and interpret data from the empirical findings in
detail and link the findings to the theoretical frame or, reference towards responding to the
research questions. Afterward, we will analyze the data in a table showing the comparison
of Nigeria and Cameroon, with the theories that we described in the theoretical framework
chapter. Which we will conclude by summarizing the qualitative findings.

6.1 THEME: PERFORMANCE

To begin with, one of the themes we discovered from our qualitative data collection is
performance. This theme was derived based on the question “if stress affects their
productivity in a positive or negative way?” According to Ilgen & Schneider (2011), job
performance can be seen as the extent to which employees are able to carry out their job
responsibilities, obligations, and expectations effectively and efficiently. Also, Performance
can be seen as the employee's ability to produce work or goods and services according to
the expected standards set by the employers, or beyond the expected standards (Ali et al,
2019). Ashfaq also added that job stress has a significant effect on the employee’s job
performance (Ashfaq et al, 2013, p.62).

Based on the responses gotten from the interviewees, we were able to see that stress affects
some employees in a positive way, it affects some in a negative way and doesn’t affect some
at all. When doing the comparison on both countries, we are able to find some similarities
in them, the employees in both countries express the same attitudes towards the same job
stress. Interviewees (2), (3), and (6) gave similar answers saying stress doesn’t affect their
productivity. This can only mean that their performance at their work is as expected. The
employees in both countries get the job done within the stipulated time and also the stress
of working with deadlines and pressure can promote their products.

Also, we see a similarity between interviewees (1), (4), and (5) whose productivity is
affected both in a negative and positive manner, which is where our question focuses. The
employees in both countries admit to being affected by stress in both positive and negative
manner which in turn affects their productivity at work. Two individuals may be exposed
to the same levels of stressors but may cope differently. Thus, one worker may experience
stress, whereas another does not, even though they have the same work environment, the
argument states that burnout is a reflection of the individual’s ability to cope (Donald et al,
2005, p.413). Also, it could all depend on their thoughts, how they think about the stress
because the brain interprets and perceives situations as stressful, difficult, painful, or
pleasant, positive or negative (Muhammad & Kishwar, 2019, p.35). Considering the cultural
differences of the employees, we were able to get different responses of if stress affects
them in a positive or negative way and we believe these responses are based on their cultural
background. We can draw conclusions by saying no matter the situation of stress, be it
positive or negative, the work has to be done. That is, employees are supposed to meet their
goals as well as the organizational goals.

34
6.2 THEME: ROLE CONFLICT

Another theme we were able to develop was role conflict. Based on the responses from all
six interviewees (especially interviewee 6), we were able to come up with such a theme
explaining how role conflicts can contribute to employee stress. As stated by Ali et al (2019)
role conflict refers to incompatible requirements and expectations that the employees
receive from their supervisor or coworker. Jackson & Schuler, (2017) went further to say
that stress occurs when employees receive two or more job roles or responsibilities at the
same time from different or the same supervisors that are incongruent in nature. This stress
is commonly known in the financial sector because one of the employees mentioned
such. Role conflict is also one of the eleven forces used as an antecedent of work-related
stress by some researchers (Ashfaq et al, 2013, p.62). Role conflict is one of the distress
factors pointed out by an interviewee which arises when an employee faces a conflict
between their work demands and to accomplish the work given.

In comparing Cameroon and Nigeria, in relation to the theme of role conflict we were able
to discover that management contributes to the stress of employees in Cameroon unlike the
case of Nigeria. Employee (6) was able to testify that top management contributes to the
stress when they appoint different conflicting roles to be performed at the same time and
sometimes it could be two different top management leaders giving two different roles to
perform at the same time. Even though interviewees 6 and 4 work in the same bank, they
were able to give different responses in regard to the question of the bank policies and
management contributing to stress. From the different responses, only one interviewee
could relate to this theme which pushes us to say that this could be as a result of the
environmental condition and position of the employee and why not the geographical
landscape. As a result of this, we say culture has an influence on stress because the
interviewees see things differently and experience stress differently.

6.3 THEME: WORK DEMAND

Another theme derived from our qualitative research is work demand. After conducting the
interview with the employees from Nigeria and Cameroon, we were able to identify the
theme work demand. As defined by Bakker (2016), Work demand can be seen as the
situation in which the organizational aspects of a job require a sustained effort on the part
of employees for it to be achieved. When there is an increase in the expectations of
employees it results in stress. Jex (2017) went ahead to say that job stress comes as a result
of work demand which threatens the well-being of employees. Mimura et al. (2003), stated
that where requirements are so huge, they have difficulty managing, this, in turn, affects
their mental being and will also contribute to physical and behavioral problems. A major
resultant of work demand could be workload, workload refers to the concentration of
assignments at work, which is one of the main causes of stress in employees and the attitude
of various employees towards workload is usually different, some comfortably manage it at
the workplace while for some it becomes difficult to manage (Ali et al, 2014, p.15).

Looking back into the answers we got from the interviewees from both countries, we were
able to find a similarity in this area of work demand. When expectations are high, employees
turn to experience work overload, pressure from bosses, and spending more time at work
than expected. The interviewees from both countries were able to mention work overload,
pressure, and overtime as some of the stress they perceive. Most of the employees from
both countries could relate to this theme. We could see that 6 employees were able to talk
about pressure from bosses, overload and overtime, despite the difference in their cultural
backgrounds, they were still able to come up with similar stressors. This leaves us with the

35
conclusion that there are some stressors that are more popular and common and can easily
be perceived by everyone no matter the difference in cultural backgrounds.

6.4 THEME: ROLE AMBIGUITY

The theme of role ambiguity regards how the employees from the Ecobank in Nigeria and
Cameroon react towards the job/task they are faced with. Some interviewees answered the
question of what they perceive to be the most stressful thing in their job and role ambiguity
seemed to be one of them. This is one of our themes and as explained in the theoretical
framework, role ambiguity operates when the employee is in the stage of confusion on how
he will perform the tasks or when an employee is asked to do the task without clear
instructions and no clear responsibilities assigned to him resulting in role confusion
(Revenio J., 2017, p.3). Beehr and Bhagat (1985) stated that role ambiguity is another factor
that leads to job stress, thus it occurs when the expectations, objectives, responsibilities have
not been clearly designed for employees (Muhammad E. et al 2019, p.36). Also, lack of job
clarity and predictability is the reason for role ambiguity; it is the most common factor in
any working environment that affects job performance. Role ambiguity is higher in the
financial industry due to the job requirements which means that employees ought to perform
different sets of tasks daily. Those with role ambiguity face difficulties in attaining their
performance goals. Previous work done by some researchers discovered that those
employees with high levels of role ambiguity were linked with poor performance
effectiveness. Role ambiguity can also be considered damaging to employee performance

In Nigeria, it appears that role ambiguity is one of the most stressful aspects of working in
Ecobank similar to the Cameroon Ecobank branch, where it seems that the employees
sometimes don’t clearly understand their job roles and responsibility which thereby would
affect their productivity. Nigeria and Cameroon Ecobank branch, where interviewee (1)
mentioned that using some applications and software that are complicated and confusing,
which implies that there is no understanding of the job role at hand, causing the job stress
and this affecting productivity. Also, interviewee (6) mentioned during the interview that
some colleagues who do not understand their job responsibility and have inadequate
knowledge about the task always ask for help and what to do almost all the time. This is
considered a role ambiguity stress which could affect the productivity of the employees.
Based on the interviews, only two employees could match this theme, one from Nigeria and
another from Cameroon. Both of them were able to experience this stress despite their
differences in their cultural backgrounds. This pushes us to draw the conclusion that
employees of both countries can face this type of stress no matter the circumstances
surrounding their background.

6.5 THEME: RESOURCE CONSTRAINT

The last theme we were able to formulate from our interview is resource constraints which
could also be described as resource inadequacy. It is one of the major most researched
stressors and also one of the themes derived from our qualitative analysis. It is described as
not having the adequate resources and tools to complete given tasks or projects and usually
being incapable to handle all of the work (Ashfaq et al, 2013, p.65). As seen in one of the
interview questions where we asked employees “What do you perceive as stress in your
workplace?”, the interviewees in Cameroon were able to perceive resource constraints as
stress as they replied saying the liquidity crisis was stress. This is interesting since Bharathi
and Gupta were able to see resource constraints as one of the factors that can contribute to
stress by stating that, resource constraints occur when the role occupant encounters

36
inadequacy of the available resources, equipment, and tools for performing their role
responsibility (Bharathi & Gupta, 2017). It is also seen by Ali in his article that the level of
stress minimizes when resources are adequate to meet demand (Ali et al, 2014, p. 15). It is
understandable to not be able to perform effectively with limited resources, not being able
to be productive at its maximum level due to limited resources also constitute a stress to the
employees.

In comparison to Cameroon and Nigeria, it can be seen that employees in Cameroon are
likely to experience stress as a result of resource constraints unlike the case in Nigeria where
no interviewee mentioned stress based on this theme. Employees from Nigeria seem to be
provided with all they need to work effectively and be productive at all times. Based on the
background differences and also taking into consideration the circumstances surrounding
the work environment, stress is likely to occur in Cameroon more based on the theme
provided. We can then go ahead to say that, this type of stress can be a result of the
environmental situation.

TABLE III: COMPARISON BETWEEN CAMEROON AND NIGERIA EMPLOYEES

Cameroon Nigeria Comments

Performance The employees in The employees in In the case of

Cameroon seem to Nigeria seem to performance at work,
perceive stress in both perceive stress also in we see similarities in
negative and positive a negative and how the employees
manners. Some don't positive manner. This perceive stress. Some
perceive stress at all. means that stress also of them perceive stress
So there is an effect affect their in a negative way, some
of stress on their performance at work perceive it in a positive
performance level either in a positive or way and others don't
either in a positive or negative manner too perceive stress at all at
negative manner their places of work in
both countries.

Role Conflict The employees in The employees in In the case of role

Cameroon seem to Nigeria do not conflict at work, there
perceive stress at perceive role conflict is a difference between
work when it comes as stress at work. The the two countries.
to role conflict. Too Nigerian employees Employees in
many responsibilities seem to know exactly Cameroon seem to be
and different roles to what to do at any conflicted at work and
be played by one given time amidst too it contributes to their
employee at work many responsibilities job stress and this
seem to be stressful and different roles to reduces their
for the Cameroon be played at work productivity at work.
employees Unlike the employees
in Nigeria, who do not
perceive role conflict as
stress, since their
supervisors do not
stress them with it

37
Work The employees in The employees in Work demand is one of
Demand Cameroon seem to Nigeria seem to the most recurrent
perceive work perceive work stressors at work and
demand as stress demand as stress there is a similarity of
such perceptions in
both countries.
Employees from
Cameroon and Nigeria
perceive workload,
work pressure, work
overtime, and other
work demands as job
stress which also affects
their productivity at
work

Role The employees from The employees from The case of role
Ambiguity Cameroon seem to Nigeria seem to ambiguity is in both
perceive role perceive role countries, the
ambiguity as a stress ambiguity as stress employees perceive it
factor too as a stress factor. Not
having full knowledge
of their work
responsibility poses a
problem to them and
this, in turn, affects
their productivity at
work.

Resource The employees from The employees from From the resource
Constraint Cameroon seem to Nigeria don’t constraint factor, it
perceive stress from perceive stress from seems that the
the resource the resource employees in
constraint factor constraint factor Cameroon are suffering
from the stress of not
having all the resources
necessary to work
efficiently, and this
affects their
productivity at work.
Unlike the employees
in Nigeria. They did not
mention anything about
resource constraints,
stating that all they
needed was provided by
the bank management
to work efficiently and
be productive at work
at all times.

38
6.6 SUMMARY OF QUALITATIVE FINDINGS

From our thematic analysis, we will summarize how we interpreted the themes based on the
findings we derived from our interviewees from a common institution from both Nigeria
and Cameroon. To begin with performance (level of productivity), we described
performance based on how the employees are still able to carry on their job and reach
expected standards regardless of how much the stress affects them. Because from the
responses we gathered, we were able to find that stress affects some employees positively,
affects some negatively, and does not affect others. But with this stress, employees are still
able to perform tasks effectively and efficiently. We also derived the theme of role conflict
based on the responses of some of the interviewees regarding how stress comes to them as
a result of multiple tasks and this was attributed to the case of Cameroon. With the theme
work demand, we derived this theme by looking at the aspect of the huge expectations on
the side of the employees. Huge expectations can lead to the employees experiencing
workloads, pressure from the bosses and possibly working overtime. Last but not the last
theme we were able to formulate was role ambiguity. This theme was formulated due to
some of the interviewees having inadequate knowledge and unclear role responsibilities,
which affects their productivity. Lastly, the theme resource constraints were developed. The
inadequacy of resources to work with as mentioned by some of the interviewees made us
develop the theme which best explains how it can contribute to stress.

39
 Chapter 7

7. CONCLUSION

This chapter contains the final report of our research and will start by stating our general
conclusions which are related to our research questions and purpose. Still in this chapter,
we aim to answer our research questions. Next, we state our practical contributions along
with our theoretical contributions. Finally, we give our limitations and suggestions for
future research in this area.

7.1 GENERAL CONCLUSION

The aim of this paper is to examine and analyze the perceptions of the employee in regard
to the job stress, and also how it affects their productivity at work. In addition to this, the
authors also want to compare the job stress of the bank employees in Cameroon and Nigeria,
in order to know if they have the same perception in regards to the job stress. We can now
draw our conclusion based on the two research questions in chapter 1.

Our research findings show that the employees actually perceive stress at their workplace.
In everyday life, stress is fairly frequent. It has now become a part of our everyday lives.
We can only deal with stress, but we can't prevent it. Stress isn't always a terrible thing.
However, if it occurs at work, it will have an impact on our work performance. Moreover,
evidence from the finding shows that employees of the banking sector in both countries are
highly confronted with job stress. According to the findings of the study, employees of the
bank (Ecobank) which is found in both countries are suffering from stress at work such as
overload, lack of clear instructions, unrealistic deadlines, work overtime, work pressure,
resource constraints, poor relations with customers and inadequate monetary reward.
However, the findings related to how job stress affects employees’ productivity at work,
have shown that the employees are faced with different challenges of stress and have
different approaches to how they handle them. 3 out of 6 employees were able to testify that
stress affects them positively, 2 others said it affects them negatively while just one
employee seems not to be affected by stress at all. Moreover, the findings show that job
stress on employees is an inevitable situation in our society, not only in the financial
institutions but also in all sorts of careers in which the solutions could appear in many
different ways.

From our research findings, in order to answer the second research questions, we came up
with a comparison table (table III) comprising five themes coded from the empirical
findings of our qualitative research. Which are; performance, role conflict, work demand,
role ambiguity and resource constraints. We were able to find that the employees of the
bank found in both countries have some common perceptions. This is because in listing out
what they perceive as stress in their job, they listed common perceptions like work overload,
overtime and pressure to meet up deadlines. We were also able to find that some employees
from the Ecobank in Cameroon saw resource constraint and environmental stress as a stress
factor while this wasn't the same case as that of the employees from Ecobank of Nigeria
who did not perceive this as a stress.

However, our findings show that the employees were able to give some suggestions as to
what could be done differently for stress to be reduced. We can conclude by saying one
solution cannot fit all because the employees of different cultures have different stress
responses as they are open to different types of stressors, perceive stress differently, and
have different ways of how to cope with it.

40
7.2 CONTRIBUTIONS AND IMPLICATIONS OF THE STUDY

7.2.1 Theoretical Contribution

Stress in our present-day and even in workplaces is a trending and important topic and has
produced a great deal of interest in all kinds of careers mostly in developing countries. This
research contributes to the extant literature in this era of digitization and fast-paced
innovation, which is the case for developing countries. This is done by complementing some
of the prior studies on the topic, also by providing new insights into how job stress affects
employee productivity, especially from the employee's perspective since that is what our
study is about. This study also contributes to the existing literature by comparing the
perceptions of employees from two different developing countries regarding job stress and
how it affects their productivity. The empirical findings provide an understanding of how
job stress affects the employee’s productivity from two different countries. Prior to this
study, it was believed that job stress affects employees in just some particular manner which
is what we discovered too in the empirical findings. However, comparing the employees
from two different countries has shed more light on the previous studies. Furthermore, the
study identifies possibilities for future research, as well as reference points worth examining
in the academic evolution of the field.

Previous research relating to this topic has been able to provide some recommendations for
stress to be reduced and has little or no effect on productivity. If these recommendations are
considered to be helpful and implemented, it will make employees perceive stress no more
in a negative way but rather in a positive way and will definitely increase performance.

7.2.2 Practical Implications and Suggestion

In general, we think our research findings indicate that job stress could be a useful tool for
increasing employee productivity, which could be argued by other researchers. The findings
of our research could be used by the stakeholders, bank managers, and policymakers in the
financial institutions in the developing countries, to understand and have a better knowledge
of the challenges and stress their employees are perceiving at work. Since the employees’
perception of job stress influences their productivity at work which means, invariably, that
the employees’ perception is critical to the organization’s productivity and turnover, it is
considered important to know this as a manager. In general, we think our research findings
indicate that job stress is quite general but perceived differently by different employees in
different regions and this will enable them to have a better understanding of how to tackle
them accordingly. For the bank management to minimize the problems associated with the
employee’s turnover and productivity, the need to prioritize equitable job designs to help
the employees overcome their stress and the stressors. Though Muhammad (2019) stated
that stress is one of the burning issues that the banking sector must deal with so that
employees can comfortably produce quality work (Muhammad & Kishwar, 2019, p.33).

Our study provides several practical contributions in general, for the service industry, and
for financial institutions. Employee job positions should also be aligned with their
competencies and capabilities, according to organizational stakeholders. This will increase
the likelihood that employees will be interested in their jobs, making them more likely to
feel fulfilled in their work and less likely to experience job stress.

Policymakers can use our findings to have prepared regulations in the financial institutions
that can mitigate job stress among employees. In the particular case of Ecobank branches

41
both in Cameroon and Nigeria, the findings can be useful to them. Certain stress factors that
affect employees' ability to execute their jobs can be controlled by the company. Employees
might also try to relieve stress by doing physical exercises, yoga, or meditation. Employers
can assist employees in overcoming job stress by providing support.

Based on the findings, we recommend that the organization put the following measures in
place which could help reduce stress on the work of banked employees of Cameroon and
Nigeria.

 Management should be able to call up meetings so employees can express their

feelings about how stress affects them and management should be able to introduce
management at the bank to help employees feel better when stressed.
 Management should be able to employ people with the necessary skills and required
knowledge for the job and also be able to clarify the roles of each job so people get
to know exactly what they are to do.
 As a result of workload. In order for management to reduce this stress, it is possible
to employ more people so as to share the workload and avoid pressure on employees
and possibly finish the work before deadlines.
 Lastly, management can create shorter breaks about two or three instead of one.
Having more break intervals helps the mind relax and reduces stress.

The suggestions provided above are just some of the things we think if implemented can
reduce stress as most of the interviewees said. Also, these solutions cannot be possible in
both countries looking at the cultural differences of both countries and the geographical
location of each bank.

7.2.3 Societal Implications and Suggestion

A vast number of stakeholders, policymakers, and even the society at large are affected by
the issues of stress and job stress. We think that in our study, we have not produced any
kind of recommendations that negatively impacts any of those potential stakeholders,
policymakers, and society at large, that our thesis is in an unfair manner. The findings of
our research could also be useful and valuable to the society at large since they perform
their services to the public which means they have contact with almost all the population.
A study like ours might have a significant impact on the local community since stress is
directly related to the community and society, so it is also important to keep the local
community in mind when producing a study like this. We believe that our recommendations
might also be useful and helpful for other companies, not only the financial institutions and
also small and medium enterprises.

The societal implications considered for this study is that management not only in financial
institutions but in other organizations should be able to look into the aspect of the stress
various employees face. Though it is very difficult to solve the issue of stress employees
face because they get to experience stress differently. For example, the type of stress
employee A will perceive might not be the same type of stress employee B will face. This
study can be used as a perfect example because we realized from the interviews conducted
that employees perceive stress differently. If management is able to look at the issue of
stress more seriously, it will help increase productivity in the organization and this will also
be beneficial to the society at large.

42
It therefore can be concluded that sustainable practices can help reduce stress and result in
a harmonious society. There is a higher pace in society in general, the wheels are turning
faster and faster. At the same time, things are speeding up with organizations world wide.
We also see a society where people retire early, this means that both from the company and
society perspective, the company need to take care of their employees so they can hold up
till they retire later in life, and also, the society needs the company to take care of their
employees so they can be productive until they retire latter on. This simply means the
retirement of healthy employees.

7.3 LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

The period in which the study is conducted is during the busy season for the employees.
Most of them had to squeeze out time for us to conduct the interview over the phone. It was
challenging to obtain participants to participate in the research. This led to the fact that the
authors could not bring in more participants so we were limited to just six respondents. This
study was limited to two countries, Cameroon and Nigeria with not quite a number of
employees from one mutual financial institution. Further research needs to be conducted in
other regions and in other countries with an added number of interviewees. This study was
to the best of our knowledge the first one to know what the employees perceive as stress at
work. In order to ascertain the generality, we would suggest that this should be repeated in
other developing countries and other financial institutions. The interviews we conducted
were all done so by telephone, which if those interviews were conducted in person the
interviewees may have felt more comfortable and secure which would have led to them
giving us more information. Therefore, our suggestion for further research is to conduct a
quantitative study throughout different developing countries, by conducting a survey on
employees of several financial institutions in order to measure the differences and map
progress over time. The authors of this research thought it would be more interesting if a
similar study were conducted with a focus on more employees from different institutions
from different developing countries.

The mix of the interviewed participants does not include participants from top management.
It is thought that respondents from the top management would have provided more valuable
information, particularly on the aspect of professional judgment. This opinion is based on
the perspective of the employees. It can be argued that the top management and other users
of financial institutions may have a similar or different opinion. Therefore, the authors of
this research thought it would be interesting for a similar study to be conducted with a focus
on this point in mind. The findings of such studies can be compared with the findings of
this study too. Moreover, the timing for this study may not have been convenient for some
of the employees, some of them were not in the mood for the interview, some of them were
still busy and had limited time for the telephone interview, this might have influenced the
various answers we had from our respondents. In order to assess the generality of the
findings, we suggest that the study should be repeated during a different context under a
more normal circumstance. We also suggest that further research should involve gender
base, whether the stress affects more males than females or vice versa.

43
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 APPENDIX I. EMAIL SENT TO OUR PROPOSED INTERVIEWEE

MASTERS THESIS

We, (Lena Chufor and Chibuzor Grace) are graduate students in Management and Finance
at Umeå University in Sweden. Currently, we are conducting research on "The perception
of job stress by employees and its effect on employees’ productivity in financial institutions"
with research delimitation in Cameroon and Nigeria.
The interview will be a semi-structured interview, this means, we would like to interview
you as an employee in the financial sector in Gambia and Rwanda, to provide us some
information in relation to research questions. Due to the distance and time for us to meet
you in person, we would like to conduct the interview via telephone (Whatsapp calls) if
possible. As our master’s program is in English, the interview process will be undertaken
in English and taken for roughly 60 minutes in duration.
This interview will follow the ethical guidelines as stipulated in the Umea School Business
Economic (USBE) academic writing. Research participants will be informed about their
rights as an interviewee. The following principle will be fully observed: participants’
privacy and personal data protection will be highly taken into consideration, and the
anonymity of the participants will be confidential, the researchers will maintain honesty in
all aspects and stages of the research process, during the interview, the processes will
include recording for analysis and transcription purposes. Also, you are entitled not to
answer any question you feel uncomfortable with. We will be glad to have an interview with
you as soon as possible after reading this mail, at any time convenient for you.
During the interview process, you will be in control of how to respond to the interview
questions. The data collected will be handled confidentially, which means the researchers
will not disclose or use the interview data without your permission. Please also find attached
to this email the interview guide that will be utilized during interview processes
We will highly appreciate your contribution toward completing our master’s thesis.

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 APPENDIX II: INTERVIEW GUIDE

General Questions:
1. How old are you
2. What about your family situation? (tell me about your marital life, how many kids
and how that contributes to your stress, tell us if you are the breadwinner of your
family or not)
3. How long have you been working in the Ecobank
4. What department do you work in at the Ecobank
5. What position do you hold at your job place and what kind of activities do you do
on a daily basis? (talk about the nature of your job and tell us what you do after work
)
6. How many hours do you work in a week? And tell me if you do overtime sometimes
7. How many vacation days do you have in a year?
8. How do you experience the working environment at your workplace? (how
comfortable is your working environment, is it too tense or calm, is it comfortable,
9. is the toilet clean enough, just talk about your working environment)
10. What aspect of your job are you satisfied and dissatisfied with

Theme: Stress
1. What do you understand about stress? (in your own words, what do you think stress
could be)
2. How does stress influence your day to day activities
3. How do you handle/deal/ react to stress? (What are your thoughts?, your feelings?,
what happens to your body)
4. Are you able to cope with the stress in this way? (give reasons for your answer
assuming the stress is a positive or negative one)
5. In your own opinion, what changes could be made in your daily life to reduce the
stress? (what do you think if you did differently would change the stress you
experience every day, it could be saving your money for yourself, no family
problem, could be getting a car or a bicycle, anything you think)

Theme: job stress on employees

1. What do you perceive as stress in your workplace? (just state the kind of stress found
in your workplace, it could be anybody's point of view as stress)
2. What do you perceive to be the most stressful part of your job? (to you as an
individual, what do you think is your point of view or stressing you the most in your
job)
3. Does the company policies and management contribute to the job stress
4. Does the bank management provide some sort of amenities to help ease the stress?
(for example, is there like a room where you can go and lay down for a bit, or a
massage chair in the office to relief you or a gym in the office where you can stretch,
what kind of relief does the bank provide for you to help with the stress)

Theme: Productivity
1. Does stress, in general, affect your productivity in a positive or negative way, and if
so how does it affect your productivity at work? (When it comes to work there is a
positive and negative stress, the positive stress is the one that makes your work faster
to meet up deadlines then the negative one is the one that breaks you down and
makes you unable to do anything. So which one is affecting you, if both, please still
say it. )

50
Conclusion:
1. What would you do or change about the stress at your workplace? (if you were to
decide what to do differently at work what would it be)

51
 APPENDIX III: THEMATIC NETWORK ANALYSIS

Performance
 Ability to get the work done within the stipulated time
 Working with deadlines and pressure can promote productivity
 the employee being able to provide the services according to the expectation of the
employer
Role conflict
 The struggle of accomplishing different tasks affects productivity
 Conflicted with too many roles from different employees at work
 Performing different tasks at the same time.

Work demand
 How much workload enhances productivity.
 Sees learning opportunity amidst the stressing

Role ambiguity
 Ability of not being able to understand your job description
 Confusion of the job description
 Working two different jobs at a time

Resource constraint
 Insufficient bank funds to operate

52