Effect Of Stress Management Strategies On Employees’ Commitment: Case Of Family Bank Branches In Nairobi County

ABSTRACT

Stress is considered to be one of the main factors affecting employees‟ performance and commitment negatively. Work-related stress is considered to be the product of an imbalance between environmental demands and individual capabilities. Recently, there is a problematic increase in cases of occupational stress related problems among employees, which have led to declining interest in their jobs, less commitment and growing impatience among the top managers. Some stress is essential and promotes personal growth but excessive stress or an inappropriate way of coping with stress brings about negative results hence burnout. Stress costs business a lot of money, this sum includes sick-pays, missed deadlines and poor performance. Work stress and other psychosocial factors are recognized worldwide as a major challenge to workers‟ health and the health of organizations. Work stress has been proved to adversely impact on individuals‟ psychological and physical health, as well as organizations‟ effectiveness. Workers who are stressed are more likely to be unhealthy, poorly motivated, less productive and less safe to work with at work. Organizations whose workers are stressed are also less likely to be successful in a competitive market. Organizations have adopted various strategies to curb stress in the workforce. Common strategies used to alleviate stress include exercise, social resources, avoidance, reading, hobbies, movement, and meditation. These strategies used by employees affect their outlook on the situation, thereby altering the perception of stress. Stress reduces to the degree to which an individual is psychologically attached to an employing organization through feeling such as loyalty, affection, worth, belongingness, pleasure and so on. This study seeks to establish the effect of stress management strategies on employees‟ commitment in Family Bank. Specifically, the study will seek to establish the effect of psychological support, job redesign, training and development and employee welfare programs on employees‟ commitment. This study will employ descriptive research design. The target population will be the employees in the three levels of management; top level management, middle level management and low-level management in the bank. The study will take a sample of 20% of the population using stratified random sampling. This study will collect primary data using self-administered questionnaires. The researcher will personally administer the questionnaires to the respondents. Before the actual data collection, the researcher will conduct a pilot study do determine the reliability of research instruments. Experts‟ opinion also will be sought to enhance the validity of the research instrument. The data will then be analyzed using descriptive statistics with the help of SPSS version 20 and Excel. The researcher will further employ a multivariate regression model to study the relationship between stress management strategies and employees‟ commitment