The effects of organizational stress on employee performance in commercial banks of Uganda. Case study: Stanbic bank lira branch

Abstract

The study focused on the effects of organizational stress on employee performance of commercial banks of Uganda with the specific reference to Stanbic Bank (U) Ltd. The main objective of the study was to examine the impact of stress on performance of employees and how stress can be minimized among the employees in a financial institution. The study used a case study approach taking Stanbic bank Lira branch as its study area. The statement problem of the study was that quite a number of employees in the financial institution experience a lot of stress at the work place yet at the same time the performance of employees seem to be improving. The specific objectives included: To find extra organizational factors that affects the employee’s performance, the individual factors that affects the performance of employees and to assess the organizational factors that affects the performance of employees. The findings of the study show that stress affects the performance of employees in several ways, which force them to perform much below their expectations and has consequently led to high rate of employee turnover. Among the stressors are extra organizational factors like proper skill required for the job and changes in technology and within-organization factors like death of spouse, accidents and low salaries. From the study findings, it can be concluded that stress factors negatively affect the performance of employees in the bank thus lowering their productivity and consequently leading to a less than expected performance by the bank. It’s therefore recommended that the management of Stanbic Bank should develop a strategy that would help to reduce the effects of stress among the employees in a bid to improve employee performance.