Life Satisfaction with Reference to Occupational Stress

ABSTRACT

The study was designed to investigate the impact of occupational stress on life satisfaction among employee. The sample consisted of 160 participants selected randomly from various Morbi clock industry. Srivastava and Singh's Occupational stress scale, Dhillon's Life Satisfaction scale and Personal Data Sheet were administrated to selected respondents. The were analyzed by using t-test. Result revealed that there is significant difference between low occupational stress group with medium and high occupational stress groups. The study also revealed that there is not any significant difference between medium and high occupational stress group.

INTRODUCTION:

Stress is perhaps the most common problem of every day life. Stress refers to an individual's reaction to a disturbing factor in the environment. It is an adaptive response to an external situation that results in physical, psychological and behavioral deviations for organisational participants. Stress is the result of a mismatch between the challenges experienced and belief in the ability to cope. The challenges may come from external source and may be the result of too much or too little pressure. They may also come from within the individuals and be the product of their own value systems, need and expectations.

Stress implies some from of demand on the individual, it can be perceived as a threat that it may create a psychological imbalance and can certainly affect individual performance. It is particularly concerned with how people cope with changes in their lives at work, at home and in other circumstances. Randall (1998) occupational stress is the interaction of the work conditions with the characteristics of the worker such that the demands of work exceed the ability of the worker to cope with them.

There are two types of stress, namely positive and negative. Positive stress offers potential gain leading to better performance as in the case of an athlete who often uses stress positively and performs better. Negative stress is associated with constraints, when an event or situation is very serious or dangerous , the emotions become negative and create deep dejection, despondency and depression. These negative emotions have a crippling effect on work life styles and quality of life.

It is common belief that workers should leave their emotions at the door when they walk into work. In the last two decades, however , research has revealed that this practice may not be possible or desirable. Depending on the level of stress it can badly affect one's life especially at the work place where they begins to spend several long hours and thus have less time for other things. stressed employees may be unhappy and thus produce nominally. Stress can deteriorate social and family relationship. On the other word we can say stress affect life satisfaction also. Diener et al. (1985) defined Life Satisfaction as "a cognitive, judgmental process. It dependent upon a comparison of one's circumstances with what is thought to be an appropriate standard."

U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (1999) reported that about one – third of worker's felt high level of stress on their work place and it's adversely affect seen physical health and psychological well – being . This evidence and examining impact of occupational stress on life satisfaction among employees.

METHOD

Sample : The sample of present study consisted of randomly selected 160 subjects from clock industries Morbi.
Tools : The following tools were used in the present study:

1. Personal Data Sheet :
   Personal data sheet was prepared to collect some personal information about employees such as name, age, income, cadre, etc.
2. Occupational Stress :
   A well developed and widely used Occupational Stress Index in the Indian context (Srivatva and Singh, 1981) was chosen to assess the occupational stress of the sample. The scale consists of 46 items with 5 alternative responses varying from ' strongly agree' to 'strongly disagree' each to be rated on the five point scale. The maximum and minimum score obtained in the scale are 230 and 46 respectively. The reliability index ascertained by Spilt half ( odd – even ) method and Cronbach's alpha – coefficient for the scale as a whole were found to be .94 and .90 respectively.
3. Life Satisfaction Scale :
   The Life Satisfaction Scale developed by Dhilon (1986) was used, which includes 13 items. It was Likert type scale with 5 alternative responses varying from ' strongly agree' to ' strongly disagree' each to be rated on the five point scale. The maximum and minimum score obtained in the scale are 65 and 13 respectively. The reliability measured by spilt half and test – retest for the scale as a whole were found to be .90 and .94 respectively.