Secretaries’ Perceived Strategies for Coping with Occupational Stress in Banks in Anambra State

Abstract

The study investigated bank secretaries’ perceived strategies for coping with stress. Survey design was adopted. Population of study comprised of 113 bank secretaries in all the branches of registered commercial banks in Anambra State. Three research questions and three hypotheses guided the study. A-point rating scale questions with 30-items covering the causes of stress, effects of these stressors on performance and strategies for coping with stress. Reliability co-efficient of 0.73 was obtained for the instrument using Cronbach alpha. Mean and standard deviation were used to analyze data in order to answer the research questions and determine the homogeneous or otherwise of the respondents mean, while t-test was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Results revealed that bank secretaries perceived work functions as cause of stress; these stressors had great effect on their performance, and the coping strategies as effective. Also respondents did not differ significantly in their mean response based on gender, work experience and marital status. Consequently, it was recommended among others, that bank secretaries should be engaged in stress management programmes as stress is inescapable in order to get work done.