Job Stress of the Civil Servants: Its Impact on Hostility and General Health

Employees stress is an increasing problem in today’s organisation. Job Stress means destructive physical and emotional response that arises when the necessity of ajob do not match with the competencies, resources or need of the employee. A certain amount of job stress is necessary to be motivated for doing something remarkable. But excessive stress can interfere with one’s productivity and affect one’s physical and emotional health. Civil Service is the executive branch of the government which is enshrined in Article 311 of the Indian Constitution. The civil servants are entrusted with the significant task of administering public offices which include implementation of different policies framed by the Legislature. They play a vital role in full proof execution of the policies and programmes of the government. The civil servants, upon whom the development of the country or state depends, should be stimulating and enthusiastic in discharging their duties. They must also possess a sound physical and emotional health. Otherwise, their adjustment process to the family and to the rigorous day-to-day affairs of the administration will be disturbed. The goal of the present study is to find out the level of stress among the civil servants ofTripura. This study also aims to examine the relationship betweenjob stress and hostility of the civil servants. Further, this study also explores the impact of job stress on hostility and general health of the civil servants. The study involves 50 civil service officers (IAS-24; TCS-26). Only male respondents are included in this study. Job Stress Test (Paliwal, 1982), Hostility Test (Paliwal, 1982) and General Health Questionnaire (David Goldberg, 1979) are used to measure thej ob stress, hostility and health condition of the respondents. Simple random sampling technique has been used to collect data. The survey is conducted using structured face to face interviews. Results were analysed by using t-test and r-value. Results indicate that there exists high stress among 36% of the civil servants. 32% of the civil servants possess severe hostile attitude. The main stress factors reported by over half of the survey respondents are delayed promotional policy, work overload, low level of remuneration, communication gap among colleagues, low level of autonomy, time pressure and demanding job. Significant relationship is found betweenjob stress andhostility (r=0.803;p<0.01) of the civil servants. Results further reveal that there is significant difference between high stress group and low stress group of civil servants on stress (t=24.36; p<0.01), hostility (t=6.438; p<0.01) and general health (t=4.723; p<0.01). Therefore psychological intervention is urgently required to make them free from distress.