In this chapter, the author highlighted the contributions and limitations of this study.
The result showed that challenge stress has a positive relation with burnout.
Challenges are work related demands or circumstances that, although potentially stressful, have associated potential gains for individuals. Potential gains include intrinsic rewards (e.g., satisfaction) and gains that promote work achievement (Cavanaugh, 2000), whereas hindrances are unmitigated sources of stress in that they tend to produce the negative consequences of stress without offsetting gains (Cavanaugh & Boswell, 2000). If employees are properly rewarded and encouraged, they may feel beneficial to work for the company. According to the results of H1a and H2a, managers should map out some incentives on challenge stress to help employees relieve their burnout from work for fear that hindrance stress may hinder employees from their career life like work achievement or skill development.
Not only does this study come with practical contribution, but also lead to a theoretical one. The results of H1a and H1b in this study were different from the result of prior study (e.g., Jeffery, 2007) indicating that stress has a positive relation with burnout. This study argued that if stresses were divided into two types (i.e., challenge stress and hindrance stress, the relationships between two types of stresses
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may have different relationships with burnout, and it was verified. In this study, stress doesn’t merely present a positive relation with burnout. Thus, it’s believed that other negative factors like job dissatisfaction or organizational withdrawal may have a different result with stress providing that the dichotomy of stress is used (challenge stress and hindrance stress).
In view of H2a, it’s reported that challenge stress has a negative and significant relation with work-family conflicts which is consistent with the hypotheses. This result might attribute to the reward that challenge stress had offered in that it provided employees intrinsic rewards and gains. Happily, the author has successfully found a result which is different from the result of prior study (i.e., Kacmar & Williams, 2000) indicating that stress has a positive relation with work-family conflicts.
Concerning H2b, we may know the more hindrance stress employees feel the more work-family conflicts they face. Employees from financial industry need to bear a lot of risks in their everyday life because they must deal with financial cases carefully, and they are often seen to work over time (e.g., employee training) and don’t get paid fairly. To make matters worse, financial employees under hindrance stress tend to have work-family conflicts in that they don’t have enough time to spend with their family, or they can’t rid themselves of the task from company when home.
So, it’s natural that work-family conflicts should arise from employees who under hindrance stress.
The findings of this study are in line with the recent research of challenge stress and hindrance stress (i.e., LePine, Podsakoff, & Nathan 2005) that two types of stresses tend to have a contrary directional relation with their dependent variables respectively (LePine, Podsakoff, & Nathan 2005). If employers want to help employees with work-family conflicts, perhaps raising salary is a best bet for most of them (Brenda, 2008) and this is one of the able ways to give it a try in the future.
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As with all studies, limitations in our work exist. In this study, the object of study is only from financial industry and the sample is deficient due to a lack of time. In addition, the author has yet to compare public-owned businesses with private-owned ones; therefore, the author cannot specify the differences between them at length. The author suggests that public firms and private ones can be compared separately so as to know whether stress varies with different organization patterns. That’s because with the passing of time, many a government-run business needs to have a privatization process so as to transform the old bureaucracy management into a new one that puts emphasis on profit lest it should be unable to meet the customer’s requirements.
Therefore, a lot of public-own firms tend to change their management style to cater to the trend nowadays, and public banks are no exception. Thus, the author thinks it worthwhile to have a comparison between public-own private management firms and private firms in that both of them regard profit as top priority.
Besides, stress exists in all walks of life, so the author also recommends exploring the differences among various industries like tour, transportation, and medicine industries so as to have a subjective result which is different from the past.
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Appendix
Questionnaire (Original version)
※ Stress
Ⅰ.Challenge stress (Lee, Robert S. & McGrath, Patricia, 1995) I experienced that…
1. ….I used my time more efficiency because of the time pressure I was under.
2. ….I enjoyed the excitement of working under time pressure.
3. ….the time pressure made me more productive.
4. ….the challenge of meeting the deadline gave me an energy boost.
Ⅱ. Hindrance stress (LePine et al., 2005)
1. Working to fulfill my job jobs thwarts my personal growth and well-being.
2. In general, I feel that my job goals hinder my personal accomplishment.
3. I feel that my job goals constrain my achievement of personal goals and development.
※ Burnout (Maslach & Leiter, 1996) 1. I feel tired.
2. I feel very active.
3. Thinking requires effort.
4. Physically I feel exhausted
5. I feel like doing all kinds of nice things.
6. I feel fit.
7. I do quite a lot within a day.
8. When I am doing something, I can concentrate quite well.
9. I feel weak.
10. I don’t do much during day.
11. I can concentrate well.
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12. I feel rested.
13. I have trouble concentrating.
14. Physically I feel I am in a bad condition.
15. I am full of plans.
16. I get tired very quickly.
17. I have a low output.
18. I feel no desire to do anything.
19. My thoughts easily wander.
20. Physically I feel in a good shape.
※ Work-family conflicts (Carlson & Kacmar, 2000)
Ⅰ.Time-based work interference with family
1. My work keeps me from my family activities more than I would like.
2. The time I must devote to my job keeps me from participating equally in household responsibilities and activities.
3. I have to miss family activities due to the amount of time I must spend on work responsibilities.
Ⅱ. Time-based family interference with work
4. The time I spend on family responsibilities often interfere with my work responsibilities.
5. The time I spend with my family often causes me not to spend time in activities at work that could be helpful to my career.
6. I have to miss work activities due to the amount of time I must spend on family responsibilities.
Ⅲ. Strain-based work interference with family
7. When I get home from work I am often too frazzled to participate in family activities/ responsibilities.
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8. I am often so emotionally drained when I get home from work that it prevents me from contributing to my family.
9. Due to all the pressures at work, sometimes when I come home I am too stressed to do the things I enjoy.
Ⅳ. Strain-based family interference with work
10. Due to stress at home, I am often preoccupied with family matters at work.
11. Because I am often stressed from family responsibilities, I have a hard time concentrating on my work.
12. Tension and anxiety from my family life often weakens my ability to do my job.
Ⅴ. Behavior-based work interference with family
13. The problem-solving behaviors I use in my job are not effective in resolving problems at home.
14. Behavior that is effective and necessary for me at work would be counterproductive at home.
15. The behaviors I perform that make me effective at work do not help me to be a better parent and spouse.
Ⅵ. Behavior-based family interference with work
16. The behaviors that work for me at home do not seem to be effective at work.
17. Behavior that is effective and necessary for me at home would be counterproductive at work.
18. The problem-solving behaviors that work for me at home does not seem to be as useful at work.
Questionnaire (Chinese version)
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35
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【第四部分】
說明:請依下列問題在合乎您條件的項目方框上打勾。所得資料僅供統計分析之用,絕不會對外公 開。
1. 您的年齡? 歲 2. 您的性別? □男性; □女性 3. 您的婚姻狀況 □ 已婚 □ 未婚
4. 您的最高教育程度為? □國中或以下; □高中/職; □大學或專科; □碩士; □博士 5. 您在本組織(單位)服務的年資? 服務年資總計 年 月
~本問卷至此全部結束~
*請確認每一題都已經作答。最後，衷心感謝您的協助！
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