Stress and Job Performance of Secretaries in an Organization

Abstract

Stress can be said to be non-specific reaction of the body to the demand made on it by external or internal stimulus events called stressor. Stress as emotional process has psychological and physiological implications. Many professional secretaries experience conflicts because of office demands which is consuming most of their time, thereby neglecting their home duties to the background. Conflicts occur because the person wants to devote adequate attention to both family and office works. This research examines impact of stress on job performance of  secretaries in an organization. The population of the study was 50 graduate secretaries in the employment of the Federal Polytechnic, Ede and Adeleke University, Ede both in Osun State.  The instrument for data collection was questionnaire, which consisted of 4 research questions. Data collected to answer the research questions were analyze with frequency and percentages.  From the data collected and analyzed, it was discovered that secretaries face a lot of stressful situations in the course of doing their jobs but that some were more stressful in their effect than others. The three most significant stressors identified were working Role ambiguity, work overload and unfair treatment.  Recommendations were made that secretaries should clearly outline their numerous official and domestic functions daily and attend to them adequately. They should learn to put their emotions under control and manage their stress by practicing time and role management. Keywords: Stress, Job performance, Secretaries, Organization DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/12-32-04 Publication date: November 30th 202