International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET)

Volume 9, Issue 2, February 2018, pp. 690–697, Article ID: IJMET_09_02_072

Available online at http://www.iaeme.com/IJMET/issues.asp?JType=IJMET&VType=9&IType=2
ISSN Print: 0976-6340 and ISSN Online: 0976-6359

© IAEME Publication Scopus Indexed

OCCUPATIONAL STRESS AND JOB

SATISFACTION: A STUDY OF AUTOMOTIVE
INDUSTRY IN INDIA
Dr. G. Sureshkrishna
Assistant Professor, K L E F Business School,
K L E F (Deemed to be University), Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, India

Dr. Simanchala Das

Associate Professor, K L E F Business School,
K L E F (Deemed to be University), Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, India

ABSTRACT
Work stress plays a key role in determining the level of job satisfaction of
employees across the industries. Previous research shows that stress is an outcome of
various factors like pressure from seniors, gender and age differences, continuous
working with machines, working conditions, unfavorable environment, nature of work
and salary. In recent years, employees in most of the industries experience tremendous
stress and do not feel comfortable with their nature of job. Many a studies have been
undertaken to investigate the role of stress in job satisfaction of the employees. This
paper examines the relationship between work stress and job satisfaction amongst the
engineers in automotive industry in India. A structured questionnaire was used on a
sample of 190 engineers. The results revealed that some of the demographic variables
were responsible for stress which showed a decline in the level of job satisfaction. The
results also showed that the engineers who reported greater stress were less satisfied
with their job and found to have low level of job commitment and more likely to leave
their jobs and less likely to adjust to the work environment.
Key words: Stress, Job satisfaction, commitment, performance, Engineers
Cite this Article: Dr. G. Sureshkrishna and Dr. Simanchala Das, Occupational Stress
and Job Satisfaction: A Study of Automotive Industry in India, International Journal
of Mechanical Engineering and Technology 9(2), 2018, pp. 690–697.
http://www.iaeme.com/IJMET/issues.asp?JType=IJMET&VType=9&IType=2

1. INTRODUCTION
Automotive Industry is one of the most important service sectors which contributes to growth
and prosperity of the country. It is the most valuable sector where a person can learn new
technologies which they can implement on their own job. But it is found that due to lack of
job satisfaction and organizational commitment, they tend to leave their job either to work
elsewhere or to start their own business. This pertinent issue had motivated to undertake this

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 Occupational Stress and Job Satisfaction: A Study of Automotive Industry in India

study. As most of the previous studies have already examined the consequences of work
stress, this study would help to further substantiate the findings by focusing on the working
engineers engaged in automotive sector. Some people manage stress and perform very well in
any kind of situation affecting environmental or personal, but others are not able to perform
well except when subject to a level of stress that activates and energizes them to put forth
their best efforts (Sekaran, 2004).
Stress is an ambiguous concept. It has become significant due to dynamic social factors
and changing needs of life styles. Stress is one’s adaptive reaction to an outward situation
which would lead to physical, mental and behavioral changes. There are various definitions
and meanings of stress which clearly states about the relationship between the nature of a
person’s mental state and the behavior which makes him diverted from his job. Stress can be
viewed as an agent, circumstance, situation or variable that disturbs the normal functioning of
the individual. It is commonly connected to the following concepts: adaption, anxiety,
arousal, burnout, coping, exertion, exhaustion, exposure, fatigue, hardiness, mental load,
repetitiveness, strain, stressor and tension (Tepas and Price 2001). Stress is defined as a
person’s psychological response to the perception of demand and challenge. In an automotive
industry stress can be caused by a number of factors, both external and internal. External
causes may include institutional conditions such as lack of motivation, lack of resources, and
uneven distribution of workload, poor communication and unclear expectations, inadequate
rewards and recognition. Stress creates a direct effect on the employee’s health and their
performance. Due to high competition among organizations, employees perform their duties
beyond the routine working hours. Problematic relationship with colleagues can generate
other stressors, such as personality conflicts, lack of community spirit, feelings of isolation,
lack of support and social interaction with peers. Internal causes may include an aggressive,
impatient, negative attitude towards workers.
Job satisfaction and stress are interrelated. If a person is stressed on his job and is not
satisfied, he will not be able to deliver effectively. Job satisfaction is one of the central
variables in work organizational psychology and is seen as an important indicator of
balancing the life and profession successfully. Satisfied employees tend to be more productive
and creative. Job satisfaction is becoming an important aspect for the employees of
automotive industries as dissatisfaction affects the working process and influences the other
roles played by other employees. Job satisfaction is the emotional reaction a worker has
towards his job after a comparison of the outputs he expects or desires with real outputs. Job
satisfaction is the sense of inner fulfillment and joy achieved when performing a particular
job. Thus, job satisfaction has been defined as a multidimensional psychological response to
one’s job having three components i.e. cognitive, affective and behavioral

2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Research studies show that job stress is an outcome of many psychological factors which
affect the workforce in irregular ways. Kayastha & Kayastha (2012) found a significant
relationship between relationship between job stressors, job stress and job satisfaction with a
particular reference to corporate, higher secondary school teachers from Kathmandu and
latitpur districts of Nepal.. With increased competition, engineers are showing symptoms of
burnout which directly or indirectly affect their performance (Shukla & Trivedi, 2008).
Gillespie et al (2001) examined staff perceptions of occupational stress in layouts and
highlighted the fact that working in layout has been regarded as a low-stress occupation;
however with the increased workloads, reduced resources and pressure of producing good
results due to tough competition this is no longer the case.

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 Dr. G. Sureshkrishna and Dr. Simanchala Das

The study of employee satisfaction is important because the dissatisfaction with any
aspect of a position can result in decreased productivity and quality of work (Tack & Paitu,
1992). Job satisfaction is “an overall affective orientation on the part of individuals toward
work roles which they are presently occupying” (Seifert & Umbach, 2008). A job may need
an employee with certain personality features which are totally different from features which
another job needs (Kamare, 2007). So an attempt to achieve employee job satisfaction leads to
an improvement in the quality of performance, output and deliverance (Gupta 2011). Job
satisfaction has been studied for its possible usefulness to predict job performance and output.
Employee job satisfaction is critical to the success of the organization since low job
satisfaction leads to high attrition rate, low productivity and high labor costs. On the other
hand high job satisfaction leads to improve work performance in terms of quality and quantity
because the characteristics of the job match the expectations of the employee.
Hoole and Vermeulen (2003) maintain that the popularity of this field of study is also due
to its relevance to the physical and mental well-being of employees. Job satisfaction in the
workplace also affects individuals’ private lives which in turn has an effect on absenteeism
and other important work-related attitudes and behavior. Due to rapid changes in the
organisation structure, the employees also supposed to perceive a considerable increase in the
executable responsibilities which cause psychological problems (Azeem & Nazir, 2008). Job
satisfaction is observed as the feelings experienced by an individual after the completion of a
task or job. This mental or physical state could be positive or negative and primarily
conditioned with the outcome of that completed job (saiyadain, 2007). The high amount of
stress leads to dissatisfaction with the job and low job performance. This situation provides an
environment for turnover intention among the employees. Finally they leave the job and find a
better opportunity.
To increase organizational commitment and overall performance, changes in
organizational variables such as pay scales, employee development in policy development and
work environment has to be made. Engineers with a strong feeling of self-worth tend to be
more adaptable in work environments, and being able to adapt to one’s work environment has
a negative correlation to burnout (Evers et al, 2002). Mechanical engineers with low self-
worth might not be able to achieve satisfaction from their career, thereby inducing work stress
and leading gradually to burnout. Job stress has been linked to decreased job satisfaction
(Disch et al 2004), decreased retention (Baker, 2010; Kaufman, 2007a) and even burnout..
This generates an urgency to determine effective strategies for facilitating employee job
satisfaction and, in turn, retention.
Organization actively seeks to improve job satisfaction and organizational commitment as
well as to reduce stress through work life balance policies. Employees are happy to work in an
organization that helps them to balance between the needs of the personal and the needs of
work life. Proper motivation from the top management will take the level of employees to
become more committed in their jobs and it eventually increases the organizational
performance. The proper human resource practices like recruitment and training, training and
development, compensation and benefits and evaluation and supervision will increase the
commitment of employees towards their jobs because of the benefits provided by the
organization. It is essential for the employee to utilize the resources available in the
organization and to focus on effectiveness of the organization through employee wellbeing
programmes.
Thus, there is no sufficient research on examining the relationship between occupational
stress and job satisfaction of the employees with reference to automotive sector as this sector

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 Occupational Stress and Job Satisfaction: A Study of Automotive Industry in India

is vulnerable to excessive occupational stress and lack of job commitment due to which the
employees tend to leave their jobs. The review of literature also provides impetus for the
development of the following objectives.
The present study has the following objectives.
 To explore the factors of occupational stress.
 To examine the relationship between occupational stress and job satisfaction of the
employees.

Relationship
Satisfaction with the with peers
management

Job Job
Satisfac Pressure from
stress comparison
Satisfaction with tion
with colleagues
work environment
performance

Motivation
Poor salary

Figure 1 Conceptual Framework

3. METHODS
The population of the study is composed of mechanical engineers in automotive industry in
the state of Tamilnadu. A structured questionnaire was administered on 190 mechanical
engineers working in different mechanical workshops situated in the state. The instrument
used in the study composed of two parts. The first part deals with the stress and the second
part deals with the job satisfaction. The scale which has been used for the measurement of job
satisfaction include 1 “strongly agree “, 2 “agree”, 3 “somewhat agree “ 4 “ somewhat
disagree” 5 “ disagree” and for the measurement of job stress 1 “ no stress “, 2 “ slight stress
“, 3 “ moderate stress “, 4 “ high stress “, 5 “ excessive stress “. Factor analysis and Chi-
square were used for the analysis of data.

4. RESULTS
The table 1 reveals various stress factors and the level of stress associated with each factor. It
shows that the employees experience high stress when employers evaluate the performance.
They experience excessive stress (38.5 %) and inadequate time to complete the task (38.1%)
experience excessive stress.

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 Dr. G. Sureshkrishna and Dr. Simanchala Das

Table 1 Factors of stress related to workload

Stress factors No Slight Moderate High Excessive
stress stress stress stress stress
Responsibility on employees care 13.7 12.2 12.4 24.3% 37.4
Shortage of employees 3.2 15.9 22.6 20.2 38.1
Inadequate time to complete task 8.3 9.4 32.5 11.3 38.5
Performance evaluation by employer 21.4 5.7 10.9 43.5 18.5
Relationship with employees 34.2 24.8 14.5 6.5 20
Job assignments 10.1 24.5 7.2 36.6 21.6

Table 2 depicts that the feelings of isolation (46.3) was the major factor to produce stress
followed by lack of support from colleagues (40.5) whereas very less number of employees
experience (3.2%) no stress from the feelings of isolation.

Table 2 Factors of stress related to lack of support and involvement

Stress factors No stress Slight Moderate High Excessive
stress stress stress stress
Lack of friendly working condition 6.3 21.7 3.8 30.5 37.7
Lack of support from colleagues 17.2 20.3 5.6 16.4 40.5
Poorly motivated engineers 27.3 11.8 24.3 18.8 17.8
Lack of recognition for one’s effort 20.2 24.5 20.2 10.6 24.5
Feelings of isolation 3.2 10.6 25.4 14.5 46.3

Table 3 depicts that domination by senior employees (39.6) was the major factor to
produce stress and employees experienced high stress due to lack of communication (32.5).
The factors related to lack of support and communication play a key role for creating stress
amongst juniors with higher qualification and relatively younger age which force them to
think of leaving their job.

Table 4 Job satisfaction

Satisfaction Satisfaction with Satisfaction with work Motivation
management environment
Strongly agree 4.2 10.5 7.2
Agree 16.3 15.6 30.2
Somewhat agree 28.3 40.2 13.6
Somewhat disagree 40.3 30.2 14.3
Disagree 10.9 3.5 34.7

Table 5 depicts that the job stress existed among the employees in automotive industry
and majority of the employees felt stressful because of comparing the performance with
colleagues.

Table 5 Job Stress

Stress Relationship with Pressure from poor salary
colleagues comparison with
colleague’s
performance
No stress 20.1 5 13.2
Slight stress 11.9 10.4 38.4
Moderate stress 15.4 28.7 32.5
High stress 29.6 22.5 12.4
Excessive stress 33 33.4 3.5

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 Occupational Stress and Job Satisfaction: A Study of Automotive Industry in India

Table 6 Chi-Square Analysis

S.No. Variables Chi-values P-values
1 Satisfaction with organization management 17.251 .001*
2 Satisfaction with work environment 4.294 .152
3 Motivation 65.205 .138
4 Relationship with peers 30.274 .208
5 Pressure from comparison with colleague’s 3.201 .714
performance
6 Poor salary 4.109 ,201

Table 7 shows the mean value of the job satisfaction and job stress and the level of job
satisfaction is high. The values are compared using a paired t-test. The difference 0.42, was
significant t(95) = 8.76, p < 0.001. The implementation of two separate hierarchical multiple
regression analysis are examined to find out the extent to which employee job satisfaction
variables are associated with job stress. The control variables relevant for the pressure from
comparison with colleague’s performance were introduced in step 1, and the variables related
to personal resources were introduced in step 2. The correlations of motivation factors with
employee job satisfaction were weak (-0.09, -0.15, respectively).

5. DISCUSSION
Table 1-3 reveal that the factors of stress related to workload, involvement and age which in
which the overall results showed that employees experience stress in all these areas. The
majority of the employees felt excessive stress because of comparison of performance with
the colleagues and the employees are facing a dejected life in the automotive plants because
of pressure from the management to fulfill the objectives of the organization It was found
that most of the employees were not satisfied with their jobs and they are not committed to
their jobs because of occupational stress. The overall results showed that the employers need
to take major steps to look into the issues of the engineers and make them feel satisfied on
their job and enable them to lead a stress free life.

6. CONCLUSIONS
Work life balance is the key factor to enhance the organizational performance and
commitment. Positive work environment creates a sense of satisfaction among the employees
which would make them committed to their job. The top management should play a role in
meeting the needs of the employees and focus on the employee welfare to make them work
for achieving the objective of the organization. In the present competitive environment,
proper balance between work and life should be maintained for ensuring effectiveness. Work
life balance can only enhance employee morale and make him feel satisfied. Future research
may focus on comparative study for generalization of the finding.

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