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Scholarly Research Journal for Humanity Science & English Language , Online ISSN 2348-3083, SJIF 2016 = 4.44, www.srjis.com UGC Approved Sr. No.48612, AUG-SEPT 2017, VOL- 4/23 https://doi.org/10.21922/srjhsel.v4i23.9645

JOB STRESS: AN OUTCOME OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE Neelu Verma, Ph. D. Assistant Professor, Bombay Teachers’ Training College, Mumbai Abstract Organizations are becoming more complex and competitive in today’s era of globalization and technological advancements. There is tremendous pressure on the employees that manifests itself in job insecurity, less commitment, job dissatisfaction and job stress. There is a realization that the culture of the organization, to a great extent, addresses these issues. Employers recognize that the ‘happier’ their employees are, the better will be their attitude towards the work, the higher their motivation and the better will be their performance. The same goes in the field of education. The present study focuses on job stress as an outcome of organizational culture of teacher educators in B.Ed. colleges affiliated to the University of Mumbai. The study was conducted on a sample of 214 teacher educators. The study adopted the descriptive method of the correlational type. The results of data analysis exhibit that there is a moderate negative relationship between total job stress of teacher educators with their total organizational culture. Thus, more conducive the organizational culture, lower is likely to be the job stress of teacher educators. It was also found that among the dimensions of organizational culture, involvement, consistency and mission are the antecedents with the biggest negative effect on job stress. However, another culture dimension, adaptability has positive influence on the stress level of teacher educators. Keywords: Organizational culture, job stress, teacher educators.

Scholarly Research Journal's is licensed Based on a work at www.srjis.com Introduction Education has undergone a lot of reforms and drastic changes over the last few years. Teachers and teacher educators have been at the core of these reforms. The reengineered classroom has created an air of anxiety, leading to overwhelming stress among them. The teacher educators not only have the task of training the new-age teachers but also motivating them for the uphill task they will perform as facilitators. The overall altered scenario has led to an unexpected rise in the stress experienced by the teacher educators and the demands from the employers have become like never before. Moreover, the culture of the organization they are employed with, leads to pressure and magnifies their stress levels. Thompson et al. (1996) and Joiner (2001) studied the relationship between organizational culture and stress among social service staff in three local authority social services departments. They looked into the organizational culture at the centers and found them correlated. Copyright © 2017, Scholarly Research Journal for Interdisciplinary Studies

Dr. Neelu Verma (Pg. 6015-6021) 6016 Seago (1996) looked into the dimensions of organizational culture as work group culture, work place stress, and hostility in hospital settings at nursing unit levels. They correlated other factors of performance such as absenteeism and turnover with these dimensions and found that if decisions are more democratically taken, absenteeism can be reduced. The findings helped in understanding that good organizational culture helps to produce better results. Pool (2000) conducted a study on organizational culture and its relationship between job tensions in measuring outcomes among business executives. The results indicated that a constructive culture significantly reduces role stressors, thereby decreasing job tension and increasing job satisfaction, job performance, and job commitment. Boyle et al (1995) worked on the results by Borg, Riding and Falzon (1991) in their study, that stress occurs due to four reasons namely â€žprofessional recognition needs, poor relationships, workload and student misbehavior. They too found that teacher stress is due to above factors. Day and Gu (2007) reported that effectiveness of an employee decreases when faced with stress, burnout and dissatisfaction. Ganster and Schaubroeck (1991) reviewed the past studies, related to job stress. They argued that there was no clear evidence that job stress caused health problems, rather work experience and other factors had an effect on physiological and emotional responses. Another important study by Chaplain (2008) focused on teacher educatorsâ€&#x; behavior and established a relationship between stress and psychological distress. The results found that management behavior, workload and lack of support, were factors which cause stress. Further, stressor between men and women were found to be different. Also stressors could be understood in the context of occupational factors and student behavior. Stress formed the reasons for psychological distress. The researcher conducted this study so as to ascertain the facts mentioned in the studies reviewed and confirm if the same was the case with B.Ed. colleges and teacher educators working in them. The researcher also wanted to find if job stress, being the most common reason for high turnover and low commitment towards any institution, was affected by the culture of the teacher education institutions.

Dr. Neelu Verma (Pg. 6015-6021) 6017 Definition of the Terms Organizational Culture: Denison (1990) has defined organizational culture as, “a code, a logic and a system of structured behaviors and meaning, that have stood the test of time and serve as a collective guide to future adaptation and survival.” Involvement: It is the characteristic that helps in building human capability, ownership and responsibility and is measured in terms of empowerment, team orientation and capability development. Consistency: It is the characteristic that provides a central source of integration, coordination and control. It defines the values and systems that are the basis of a strong culture and is measured in terms of coordination and integration, agreement and core values. Adaptability: It refers to a system of norms and beliefs that support the organization‟s capacity to receive, interpret and translate signals from its environment into internal behavioural changes that increase its chances of survival, growth and development and is measured in terms of creating change, customer focus and organizational learning. Mission: It is the characteristic that defines a meaningful long-term direction for the organization providing a clear purpose and goals that serve to define an appropriate course of action for the organization and its members and is measured in terms of strategic direction and intent, goals and objectives and vision. Job Stress: Job stress can be defined as the harmful physical and emotional response that occurs when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources, or needs of the worker and is the score obtained by a teacher educator on Job Stress Inventory (Arbor Employee Assistance, 1993). Aim of the Study To study job stress of teacher educators as an outcome of organizational culture in B.Ed. colleges. Objectives of the Study 1. To ascertain the relationship of job stress of teacher educators with their total organizational culture. 2. To study the combined relationship of job stress of teacher educators with the following dimensions of organizational culture : (a) Involvement (In) (b) Consistency (Cn) Copyright © 2017, Scholarly Research Journal for Interdisciplinary Studies

Dr. Neelu Verma (Pg. 6015-6021) 6018 (c) Adaptability (Ad) (d) Mission (Mn) Null Hypotheses of the Study In order to analyze the data statistically, the following null hypotheses have been formulated: 1. There is no significant relationship of total job stress (TJST) of teacher educators with their total organizational culture. 2. There is no significant combined relationship of total job stress of teacher educators with the following dimensions of organizational culture (OC): (a) Involvement (In) (b) Consistency (Cn) (c) Adaptability (Ad) (d) Mission (Mn) Methodology of the Study The descriptive survey method of the correlational type has been adopted in the present research. The main goal of this type of research is to ascertain the relationship between organizational culture and job stress. Sample Size and Sampling Techniques The statistical population in this research included teacher educators working in B.Ed. colleges affiliated to University of Mumbai. The sample size selected from the population based on a formula of limited population was 214 and sampling method was random. In this method, all samples have equal probability of selection. The study has adopted a three-stage sampling technique for selecting the sample. At the first stage, B.Ed. colleges situated in South, North and central Mumbai were selected using stratified sampling technique. At the second stage, B.Ed. colleges were selected as per their type of management, namely, private-aided and private-unaided colleges using stratified sampling technique. At the third stage, teacher educators were selected from these colleges using simple random sampling technique. Data Collection Tools The following tools were used by the researcher: 1. Organizational Culture Survey (Denison, 1990): It comprised of a total of 60 items. It has 4 dimensions and 3 sub-dimensions in each category which makes it a total of 12 areas. Copyright ÂŠ 2017, Scholarly Research Journal for Interdisciplinary Studies

Dr. Neelu Verma (Pg. 6015-6021) 6019 The tool had to be responded on a 5-point Likert scale from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree". Its dimensions include (a) Involvement (Empowerment, Team Orientation and Capability Development), (b) Adaptability (Creating Change, Customer Focus and Organizational Learning), (c) Consistency (Core Values, Agreement, Coordination/Integration) and (d) Mission (Strategic Direction and Intent, Goals and Objectives and Vision). 2. Job Stress Inventory (Arbor Employee Assistance): The job stress inventory has a total of 20 items taken from “The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook” prepared by Arbor Employee Assistance. The items had to be responded on a five- point scale ranging from “never” to “always”. The highest possible score of a respondent on this tool is 100 and lowest is 20. Findings of the Study 1. The first null hypothesis was tested using Pearson‟s r. The obtained r was -0.3174 which is significant (P = < 0.0001) for df = 212 rendering the null hypothesis untenable. It may be concluded that there is a moderate negative relationship between total job stress of teacher educators with their total organizational culture. Thus, more conducive the organizational culture, lower is likely to be the job stress of teacher educators. 2. The second null hypothesis was tested using multiple correlation. The following table shows the correlation coefficients of TJST with the In, Cn, Ad and Mn dimensions of OC. Table 1 Correlation Coefficients Of Tjst With The Dimensions Of Oc In

TJST

0.774

0.775

0.756

-0.329

0.774

0.805

0.771

-0.336

0.775

0.805

0.816

-0.218

0.756

0.771

0.816

-0.284

TJST

-0.329

-0.336

-0.218

0-0.284

Table shows the correlation coefficients of total job stress with that of dimensions of organizational culture. There is negative correlation between the dimensions of organizational culture and job stress. The correlation coefficient of job stress with involvement dimension of organizational culture is 0.329, with consistency is 0.336, with Copyright © 2017, Scholarly Research Journal for Interdisciplinary Studies

Dr. Neelu Verma (Pg. 6015-6021) 6020 adaptability is 0.218 and with mission dimension is 0.284. The following table shows the regression coefficients of the TJST and dimensions of OC. Table 2 Regression Coefficients Of Tjst And The Dimensions Of Oc b

Î˛

Î˛ x rxy

Variance

-0.5784

-0.2454

0.329

0.0806

8.06

-0.7447

-0.3116

0.336

0.1047

10.47

0.7271

0.3223

0.218

-0.0701

7.01

-0.2591

-0.1214

0.284

0.0345

3.45

Multiple R2 = 0.1497 (p<0.0001) Total Variance Explained = 14.97%

From the preceding table, it is seen that the multiple R of total job stress with the In, Cn, Ad and Mn dimensions of organizational culture is 0.387 which is significant at 0.0001 level. Hence the null hypothesis is rejected. This correlation is moderate in magnitude. This implies that 14.97% of the variance in job stress is associated with In (8.06%), Cn (10.47%), Ad (7.01%) and Mn (3.45%). Conclusion Thus, it can be concluded that nearly one-seventh, i.e., 14.97% of the variance in job stress is associated with the various dimensions of organizational culture. The remaining 85.03% variance in job stress can be attributed to other factors not included in the present study such as, health, job performance, burnout, self concept, etc. Discussion An analysis of the results pertaining to hypothesis 1 suggests that job stress of teacher educators is an outcome of organizational culture. It indicates that if organizational culture is favorable and constructive, it will lead to lower job stress among teacher educators. The results of hypothesis 2 indicate that there is a significant combined relationship of total job stress of teacher educators with the dimensions of organizational culture. Involvement, consistency and mission dimensions have a significant negative contribution to the variance in job stress and have the biggest negative effect on job stress. However, another culture dimension, adaptability has positive influence on the stress level of teacher educators. The study reveals that creating change, customer focus and organizational learning (adaptability) leads to higher job stress of teacher educators. What matters more to reduce Copyright ÂŠ 2017, Scholarly Research Journal for Interdisciplinary Studies

Dr. Neelu Verma (Pg. 6015-6021) 6021 their levels of stress are the characteristics related to the other three dimensions, viz., involvement, consistency and mission. These characteristics include empowerment, team orientation and capability development (involvement), core values, agreement, coordination and integration with the colleagues (consistency) and strategic direction and intent, goals and objectives and vision (mission). These characteristics generally induce a sense of happiness and satisfaction in the teacher educators which leads to decreased level of stress among them. To put it more clearly, organized work along with cooperation between teacher educators and other parts of the institution definitely reduces job stress of teacher educators. If the principal delegates authority and invests in development of skills in teacher educators, it will lead to no or very little stress. A shared enduring vision, long term purpose and direction, clear mission and focus on objectives of the institution help in warding off stress from the teacher educators. Stress may increase if they are unable to meet short term demands and compromise on long term vision. Apart from all this, stress increases when the way things are done in college are not flexible. New ways of doing work also leads to increase in stress. Resistance to creating change and lack of learning objectives leads to stress among teacher educators. The current research confirms the idea of making organizational culture of any B.Ed. college favorable for teacher educators in order to deal with their job stress levels. References Thompson, N., Stradling, S., Murphy, M., & O'neill, P. (1996). Stress and Organizational Culture. British Journal of Social Work, 26(5), 647-665. Joiner, T. A. (2001). The Influence of National Culture and Organizational Culture Alignment on Job Stress and Performance: Evidence from Greece. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 16(3), 229-242. Seago, J. A. (1996). Work group culture, stress, and hostility: correlations with organizational outcomes. Journal of Nursing Administration, 26(6), 39-47. Pool, S. W. (2000). The learning organization: motivating employees by integrating TQM philosophy in a supportive organizational culture. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 21(8), 373-378. Boyle, G. J., Borg, M. G., Falzon, J. M., & Baglioni, A. J., Jr. (1995). A structural model of the dimensions of teacher stress. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 65, 49–67. Borg, M.G., Riding, R.J., Falzon, J.M. (1991). Towards a model for the determinants of occupational stress school teachers. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 6, 355-373. Day, C. and Gu, Q. (2007), Teachers resilience: A necessary condition for effectiveness, 23(8), Teaching and Teacher Education. 1302-1316. Ganster, D., & Schaubroeck, J. (1991). Work stress and employee health. Journal of Management, 17, 235-272. Chaplain, R. P. (2008). Stress and psychological distress among trainee secondary teachers in England. Educational Psychology, 28 (2), 195–209.