OCCUPATIONAL STRESS AMONG PUBLIC SECTOR DEVELOPMENT OFFICERS IN SRI LANKA

Abstract

Stress is difficult to define and it is a normal part of day today human life in the modern world. work content, work environment, do not match according to the need of the officer. When involving the stress to work, people may response occupational related stress. This study is an effort to understand the impact of stress sources on Public Sector Development Officers in Sri Lanka. There are many stress factors and selected few prominent factors with the support of literature, researcher identified. These factors are Leadership, Environment, Career development, Workload and Commitment. Therefore the independent variables of this study were Leadership , Environment, Career development, Workload and Commitment. The dependent variable of this study was Occupational stress. The study has established four specific Research objectives. Firstly, to examine the level of occupational stress on public sector Development Officers, secondly, to determine the factors affecting the occupational stress among public sector Development Officers, thirdly, to identify the demographic characteristics on the study population and finally, to identify the correlation between occupational stress on public sector Development Officers and stress factors. Data were collected through a self- administred questionnaire consisting of questions with five point Likret Scale ranging from “Strongly agree to Strongly disagree” under the simple random sampling method. The sample size was 125 Development Officers in sethsiripaya public office building at Baththaramulla. This is a quantitative study and Primary data were collected on perception of Development Officers. Data were analyzed using SPPS computer package. Cronbach alpha, Spearman’s correlation , descriptive statistics and regression analysis were used for various analysis of this study. The findings of this study revealed that, Leadership, Environment, Career development, Workload variables depict Statistically Significant and negative relationship and supported on occupational stress of public sector Development Officers. While only the Commitment not supported on occupational stress of public sector Development Officers. According to the findings of this study that policy makers should prepare a proper job analysis, job description and duty list before the recruitment of graduate to public sector.