Coping Strategies Mediating Interaction Effect Between Stress And Position On Decision Making Styles

Background

Stress has become a significant factor that is affecting the health of individuals due to changing needs in their needs and lifestyles (Trivellas,  Reklitis & Platis, 2013). Stress is often known as human being’s adaptive reactions that are directed towards situations that eventually lead to the physical, mental and the changes in the behavioral changes (Ritov, Boltyansky & Richter-Levin, 2016). It has been observed that large amount of stress upon an individual can damage and destroy brain cells. Destructive stress is usually generated from the negative stressors, not all the stressors are harmful for the individuals. Work related stresses are the most common form of stress that is seen in our society. Professionals in the Information Technology are observed to be the most stressed professionals because their work is oriented to meet the targets and deadlines, which in turn generated tremendous pressure, which eventually lead to large amount of stress (Cooper & Marshall, 2013). The IT industry are prone to various stress level due to the irregular and long working hours and rush to meet deadline and pressure to achieve targets, which collectively not only disrupt the biological system of the professionals but also affects them in three different levels namely the individual, interpersonal and the organizational level. Besides providing monetary remuneration, it has become equally vital management to take note and care of the professionals’ physical and mental health (Hong et al., 2013).

The work stress is day-by-day increasing with time. The main concern about the various manner in which the stress is already affecting the lives of the employees of the IT companies.

Nobody can deny the fact that there are several form of lifestyle, growing form of individualization, the growing problems of the working cultures and the race of being the best among the lot in all the situations are causing the huge amount of stress in the individuals and it affects the environment of the organization as a whole.

From the point of view of the organization, the low or the reasonable level of the stress is always necessary for the improvement of the performance level of the employees in the organization. The growing levels of stress or the constant decreasing level of production can also influence the performance of the employee and therefore it requires the attention of the management (Oner,  Altiok & Ustun, 2013). However, from the standpoint of the employees, even a very low-level of stress is very much undesirable for the employees and their organization. There are two kinds of stress the eustress and the distress. The eustress is the positive form of the test and it is needed for the individuals to get the motivation to do their work and take their work seriously. A little amount of stress makes the individual concentrated towards their work.

However, in some of the cases there are problems that are created between the management and the employees.  Where management has the thinking that a moderate amount of stress can act as the positive form of boost for the employees for working even harder, the employees are under the impression that an excessive amount of pressure can eventually ruin their productivity in work (Arredondo et al., 2015). The difference in the opinion regarding the various conditions of the existence and quantum or the degree of stress that does not effectively reduce the main importance of the stress handling strategies. They are always required at all the levels of an organization-individual, group, and organization. These people do need to burst out the stress by adapting to a suitable amalgamation of the coping strategies (Oner,  Altiok & Ustun, 2013). While there are a several literatures that are there in the industrial and the business organizations that are related to the various form of the relationship between the job stress, decision making styles and the coping strategies of the individuals. There is a remarkable dearth of these studies for these domains of the private companies of IT in Malaysia.

Scope and Purpose of the research

Therefore, while concluding the study we can always say that whether the stress can spoil the performance of the individuals or it can increase the level of the performance of the employees. The higher productivity level of the employees are totally dependent on the several factors that are based on the complication in work, the expertise and the skills that are used by the employee for performing the task, the personality traits of individuals/employees that involved, etc. The organization that encourages the open and honest form of communication, can develop an environment that are less stressful for the employees and enabling the employees to utilize their abilities at the best level they can, help to stimulate the employees to increase in performance at work.

The majority of the IT workers in Malaysia are suffering from the stress related issues in their workplace due to the problem in the work scenario of the professionals. A very recent survey has found out that seventy percent of the employees of Malaysia are affected with the disease of stress at the workplace. In addition to that, it has been found that there are thirty-three respondents who were worried about losing their jobs and fifty-three of the respondents are reported to their family and friends to have been noticed that they are stressed at their workplace.

However, the stress in the workplace scenario has become the most common problem for the employees in Malaysia. The stress are giving rise to several diseases that are been observed majorly in the employees of the IT sectors. Therefore, to find out the key reason for the growing amount of the level of stress in the employees of the IT professionals are the main objective of this research.

The main aim of the study is how stress, decision making style, coping strategies and position among employees in IT companies.

Research Questions

Is there any relationship between IT employees’ decision-making styles and stress?

Does the amount of stress taken by the employees affect their styles of decision-making?

Does the coping mechanism help the employees to make better decisions? 

Hypothesis

Hypothesis 1

Ha. Job stress will be correlated to decision making style

H0. Job stress will not be correlated to decision making style

Hypothesis 2

Ha. Job stress will be correlated to coping strategy

H0. Job stress will not be correlated to coping strategy

Hypothesis 3

Ha. Coping strategy will be correlated to decision making styles

H0. Coping strategy will not be correlated to decision making styles

Hypothesis 4

Ha. Coping strategies mediates the interaction effect between stress on decision making style

H0. Coping strategies does not mediate the interaction effect between stress on decision making style

Hypothesis 5

Ha. Position moderates the interaction effect between stress and decision making

H0. Position does not moderate the interaction effect between stress and decision making

The stress is the process in which the human being reacts in both physically and mentally to the changes, events and the situations. The individuals experience stress in different forms for different reasons. The reactions are generally based on the perception of the event or the situation. People experience stress in different ways due to the different reasons. The reactions are based on the perception of the discrete situations. The management programs for stress are attracting a large number of people in today’s generation. It has been seen in the condition in workplace situations. All the employees who are working in the IT sectors have experienced various kinds of anxieties, frustrations and tensions that are related to the job roles that are assigned to them or even in the relation to the general form of the environment of the work.  The increased form of the increased scales of operations, urbanization and industrialization can be major cause of stress. The majority of the people who are experiencing stress may always feel that they lost all their control over what is happening to them in their life.  Stress is a dynamic factor for the individual who confronts with their opportunity, challenge and the constraints that are related o the employees for the delivery and the outcome of what is perceived to be important yet uncertain.  Nowadays stress has become a widespread form that is tending to emerge as a form of an epidemic. A huge of number of employees and their managers in the organization does not understand that they are the only form of source for the primary form of the sustainable sources for the competitive advantages. The employees should also understand that stress is always takes place due to the propensity of the individuals and their responses for withstanding the pressures of work. The employees should generate a habit of withstanding the pressure of the work and they should strive towards achieving success from the external form of stressors.

Aims and objectives of the study

Occupational stress is the experience of the unpleasant form of the emotions that includes tension, anxiety, anger and depression (Pettigrew, 2014). This definition is used in an extensive way in the literature of occupational stress. Both the employers and the government are having increased concerns about the occupational stress for more than over twenty years. The modern trend of the society includes, the organizational downsizing, increased demands for jobs, the huge form of competition for funding and the increased demand in the fields of job have led to the rising form of occupational stress. The cost of the stress of the occupation in the United States is estimated over a range between 200 and 300 billion dollars annually (Le Fevre,Matheny, & Kort, 2003). One of the studies in the United States have revealed that the high percentage of absenteeism in the organization on monthly basis is estimated to be very much related to the stress (Elkin & Rosch, 2004). Another report observes that about 75 percent to about 90 percent of the physician have visits are been estimated to be related to stress complaints and illnesses. Unmanaged form of stress for the employees can result in the short term and the long-term negative effects on health including the exhaustion, physical pain, depression, sleep disturbances, and even death.

The stresses that are experienced in the IT sectors have a very negative impact on the health of the employees. It also affects the performance and the behaviour of the employees who are working in the organization. Therefore, to overcome these situations, several strategies implemented for effectively managing the stress of the individuals who are working in the organizations. There are various negative effects of stress on the employees and to manage the harmful consequences of stress the individuals needs to implement the various coping mechanisms of stress. The coping mechanisms generally include the strategies of the organization and the strategies’ of the individuals.  

Several organizational strategies are often including encouraging the effective form of communication between the employees and their employers. Effective form of the communication can guide in changing the various views and the opinions that are held for the employees. The employers can certainly implement various signs and symbols that are not commonly misinterpreted by the employees (Arredondo et al., 2015).The strategies include encouragement of the employees’ participation in the decision-making that essentially reduces the role organizational stress. It also includes granting the employees more independence &responsibilities, which will encourage timely feedbacks. Lastly, it also includes employee promotion and job enrichment.

On the other hand, the individual strategies who are managing the level of stress include prioritizing and scheduling daily work responsibilities and working according to the plan. Taking the regular breaks from work and relaxing themselves for the effective performance in the future (Arredondo et al., 2015). The employees also need to work very hard for striving to achieve a greater form of goals by the employees in the workplace. The employees should always indulge into some form of physical exercises that will help them to stay fit, which will help to divert their minds from the immense form of the pressure in work. The employees should always build the social support. They should have closed the connections with the trustworthy peer who can always listen to their problems and can boost their level of confidence (Arredondo et al., 2015). This social network will help the employees to overcome their stress. The employee counseling are a very good level of strategy that done to overcome stress level of the employee. Employees should also be given career counseling, which can help them to reduce their various ambiguities and also trains them for implementing the various mechanisms of coping with the stress.

Research Questions

The literature review lacks the support of the relevant literatures. The researcher has focused on the different forms of stress and their related coping strategies. However, there are no evidences formed that how the amount of occupational stress affects the strategies of coping in the employees of the IT sectors of Malaysia. In addition, there are no such studies that aim the stress coping strategies of the population of Malaysia. Therefore, in the following study we will discuss about the various coping strategies applied by the population of Malaysia to cope with their stress in workplace.

The aim of the study is to analyze the various causes of stress and about their coping strategies that are applied by the IT employees while they handing their immense amount of stress in office. The literature review analysis the relationship about the various forms of decisions that are taken by the employees to adjust to the stressful situations in their workplace 

The study is a quantitative form of research that employs the quantitative techniques for the analysis of the data that is received from the participants of the study. The sampling technique used in the research is cluster sampling. The designation and the work experience of the participants serves as the cluster for the research. Only a few amounts of clusters are considered as the upper and the lower management. The survey was done in the form of questionnaire survey. The responses from the questionnaire survey are then converted into the quantitative form of data. The Independent variables for this design are stress and decision-making styles and the Dependent variable is the coping strategies of the professionals of the IT sectors of Malaysia. To control the biasness within the participants, the researchers select the participants in a randomized manner. 

Categories	Frequency (N=250)	Percentage
Age
21-31	146	58.4
32-42	39	15.6
43-53	39	15.6
54-64	26	10.4
Experience
0	37	14.8
0-10	44	17.6
11-21	76	30.4
22-32	36	14.4
33-43	57	22.8
Hospital Visit
0	106	42.4
1	67	26.8
2	44	17.6
3	15	6.0
4	11	4.4
5	6	2.4
6	1	.4
Position
Interns	37	14.8
Juniors	44	17.6
Seniors	76	30.4
Boards of Directors	36	14.4
Executive	57	22.8

 Table 1: The table shows the Respondent’s Demographic Profile

The study is done to find out the stress level and decision making patterns of the IT professionals. The employees for the study are selected from the IT sectors of Malaysia. However, data is collected from both administrative and technical staff of the IT sectors. The targeted sample size for the study is 250. A self-administered online questionnaire was distributed to the respondents through the medium of social network websites. An online medium was chosen since it could reach a geographically wider group of respondents (Evan and Murthres, 2005). Respondents were Malaysians aged 21 to 64 years and above, and from the various urban cities such as the Kuala Lumpur, Penang and who have the minimum experience of 10 years and  maximum of 43 years of experience. The professionals were taken from the various designations namely, interns, juniors, seniors, executive and directors. From the table it can be observed that the maximum age group that is 58.4% of the population was between the age of 21 to 31 years of age. The professionals who had 11 to 21 years of experience was maximum, that is 30.4%.  In addition it was also observed from the data that the maximum population of the professionals were in the position of seniors (30.4%), then executives (22.8%), then Juniors (17.6%) and the percentage of board of directors 14.,4% and interns were  14.8%.

Hypothesis

The materials used for the purpose to collect the data by taking the responses from the participants of the study that includes two questionnaires that are discussed below

The questionnaire used for the purpose of decision-making analysis was the General Decision Making Style developed by Scott and Bruce (1995). This questionnaire aims to obtain the responses from the participants related to their decision making style within the organization. It consists of 25 questions which helps in understanding the decision making style of the individual. It uses a 5 point Likert scale where it offers 5 options to the respondent which range from 1 to 5 where 1 is Strongly disagree while 5 is strongly agree. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire as tested using Cronbach’s alpha was 0.91. (Allwood & Salo, 2012). 

The questionnaire used for the purpose of analysing job stress was the Brief Job Stress Questionnaire developed by Ministry of Labour, Japan (Kato, 2000). This questionnaire aims to understand the various factors pertaining to job stress amongst the participants. The questionnaire consists of 57 questions containing questions related to nature of job, health, interpersonal communications and job satisfaction but only 46 questions will be used as the researcher is not doing research for job satisfaction. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire is tested using Cronbach’s Alpha. The questionnaire uses a 4 point Likert scale approach which offers 4 options to the respondents ranging from 1 to 4 where 1 is “very much so” and 4 is “not at all”. 

The questionnaire used for analysing the coping strategies was COPE Inventory developed by Carver (2013). It consists of 60 questions that aims to identify the key coping strategies as used by individuals. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire is high as it has a Cronbach’s Alpha score of 0.79 (Donoghue, 2004). The questionnaire uses a 4 point Likert scale approach which offers 4 options to the respondents ranging from 1 to 4 where 1 is I usually don’t do this at all and 4 is I usually do this a lot.

Firstly, the participants were given an introductory email that contained the information about the study from the researcher. As the questionnaire is self administered, a link was provided in the email that would direct them to the online questionnaire. The potential participants may click the link whenever it is convenient for them. Secondly, questionnaire would contain a consent form and information sheet regarding the study such as a brief overview of the study, number of sections and questions, expected duration, data collection period and participant rights. Upon providing consent, the participant would be directed to Section A. Section A would record mandatory responses to questions regarding demographic profile (age, employment position, years of experience and number of visit to medical institute in the past 5 years). Section B would be on Job Stress, which uses a 5-point Likert scale, which would reflect on Job and health. Then, they will proceed to section C. Section C would be on Decision Making styles. Once participants have responded the two questionnaires, data collection is considered to be complete. Lastly, once the procedure is completed, the respondents were thanked for their responses and may close the link. The contact information of the researcher and supervisor were provided if the participant were interested in the results of the study.

Effects of stress

Hypothesis H1 : Job stress will be correlated to Decision Making style

Variables		Mean	SD	1	2
Stress		115.48	14.35	1
Decision Making Style		81.84	9.048	0.013*	1

Table 1 shows correlation data for Stress and Decision Making Style

Table 1 shows the correlation between Job stress and Decision making styles as a whole. In order to know whether or not Job stress is correlated to Decision making styles we run the “Pearson Product-moment correlation” and It can clearly be seen from the table 1 that they are positively correlated (r =0.127, n=250, P<0.044). It means higher the Job stress higher will be decision making style. Hence , Hypothesis 1 is accepted.  

Hypothesis H2 : Job stress will be correlated to coping strategies 

Variables		Mean	SD	1	2
Stress		115.48	14.35	1
Coping Strategy		144.05	19.92	0.107	1

Table 2 shows correlation data for Stress and Coping Strategy  

Table 2 shows the correlation between Job stress and Coping strategies. In order to know whether or not Job stress is positively correlated to Coping strategies. We run the “Pearson Product-moment correlation” and It can clearly be seen from the table 2 that they are  not  correlated (r =0.107, n=250, P>0.09). It means higher the Job stress the higher will be Coping strategies used. Hence, hypothesis 2 is rejected 

Hypothesis H3 : Coping Strategy will be correlated to Decision Making Style.

Variables		Mean	SD	1	2
Coping Strategy		144.05	19.92	1
Decision Making Style		81.84	9.048	0.390	1

Table 3 shows correlation data for Coping Strategy and Decision Making Style 

Table 3 shows the correlation between Copping strategies and Decision making styles as a whole. In order to know whether or not Copping strategies are correlated to Decision making styles we run the “Pearson Product-moment correlation” and It can clearly be seen from the table 1 that they are Positivelycorrelated (r =0.390, n=250, P<0.00). It means higher the coping strategies the higher will be decision making style. Hence Hypothesis 3 is accepted . 

Hypothesis H4.Coping strategies mediates the interaction effect between stress on decision making style 

b=0.149, t=1.700,p=0.090 indicates that stress is non significant prediction with the  relationship with coping strategy. b=0.055,t=1.474,p=0.142 indicates that stress is not significantly predicted decision making style even with coping strategy in the model. b=0.017,t=6.4490,p=0.000, indicates that coping strategy significantly predicts decision making style. When coping strategy is not present in the model, stress does not significantly predict decision making style, b=0.080,t=2.023,p=0.044 . Therefore, hypothesis 4 is rejected. 

Hypothesis H5.Position moderates the interaction effect between stress and decision-making.

b=0.025,95% CI [-0.038,0.088 ], t=0.773, p=0.440 indicates that the relationship between stress and decision making style is not moderated by position. When position are low, there is non-significant relationship between stress and decision making style, b=0.053, 95% CI [-0.071,0.176 ], t=0.838, p=0.403. At the mean value of position, non-significant relationship between stress and decision making style, b=0.086 , 95% CI [ -0.007,0.179 ], t=1.823, p=0.067. While when position are high, there is non-significant relationship between stress and decision making style, b=0.119, 95% CI [ -0.009,0.247 ], t=1.834, p=0.068. Therefore, hypothesis 5 is rejected.   

Discussion and Conclusion

The present study revealed following major findings. From Hypothesis 1, it can be inferred that job stress is correlated to the decision making style of the employee. Decision-making is an important talent of the team leaders who belongs to the operational department. Researchers have found out that the members of the team always share the equal responsibility for solving the problems that are contributing timely and valuable information to the team leader (Perry-Smith & Shalley, 2014). Many times, it has been seen that the employees tend to make a heroic attempt to save the vessels that are on fire or sinking, when the situation is really a salvage operation. The increases in the several choices are available to the decision-makers that seem to be the optimal form of solution that can be found. The lessons that are learned from the various forms of navigations that are involved in the mishaps that could be detected early and that the ample time exists for identifying more than the one of the alternatives (Chughtai, Byrne & Flood, 2015). There are teams that are composed of more than one person and the resources are required for the identification of more than one alternative that are generally available.  It has observed that the members of the team often believes that they do not possess the time to make any more suggestions or they can see any other form of alternatives (Mulki, Caemmerer & Heggde, 2015). 

Therefore, it is very important for the employees to make the wise decisions for their team and organization. Faulty decision-making can affect their work and that can reversely affect their mental health by creating a good amount of stress. The problems of stress have become a major importance to both the employers and employees. Stress generally involves the circumstances and the experiences that are perceived as a threatening for the individuals (Mulki, Caemmerer & Heggde, 2015). The major form of stress includes frustration, depression, conflict change and pressure, which can produce the physiological and psychological stress. However, from the past studies it is very clear that the stresses in the jobs of the IT employees are very much related to the styles of decision making of the IT employees. The unnecessary stressor keeps the employees very much confused and they are unable to take the correct decisions that can be better for their workplace.

 From hypothesis 2, it can be inferred that the stress of jobs are negatively correlated with the coping strategies of the individuals. The hypothesis reveals that higher the jobs stress, then the application of the strategies will also be higher. Stress has nowadays becoming a very significant problem with the result of the dynamic factors of the society and the changing needs of the life styles (Chow, 2013). The stress is the man‘s adaptive reaction for the outward situation that would lead to the physical behavioral and  mental changes. The cell of the brain generally creates ideas. Too much amount of the stress can create stress (Strom, Sears & Kelly, 2014). From several researches it has been found that stress is very much harmful and can have a negative- impact on the mental health of the individual (Shin & Jung, 2014). Appropriate amount of stress can actually trigger the passion for work, but too much amount of negative stress can damage the health of the person. The high amount of stress gets reflected on the work of the individuals (Strom, Sears & Kelly, 2014). Stress also degrades the coping mechanisms of the individuals. The higher amount of stress takes the individual to the zone of excessive damage and thus they are unable to take the proper strategies for stabilizing their conditions. However, the above studies do not support that the coping strategies are negatively related to stress. Several articles have been suggesting that the coping strategies have a major impact on the stress and the mental health of the IT workers. However, from this study it can be observed that the right way and the correct strategies can help to get the employees out from their major stresses. Employees are also humans and they can have poor performances on one day or they can also make mistakes. Nevertheless, this does not mean that the employees need to be depressed about the situation. They need to overcome their situation and show courage to fix their problems and work accordingly (Chow, 2013). They should know when to use their coping mechanisms and find the ways to be highly motivated in their jobs.

 Low opinion can be the  main reason for holding the capacity of making the decision that may reflect the low form of the self-esteem that are commonly very much present in the depression, and it may also reflect the reality. There are various form of the exhibiting the greater forms of the depressive symptomatology and the use of the maladaptive strategies of marketing, the more likelihood of making the inferior form of decisions increases (Lievens & Vlerick, 2014). Thus, depressed individuals may accurately recognize their inferior decision-making ability, as well as the lower likelihood of using vigilant, or productive, decision-making strategies. Indeed, sad mood has been shown to impair adaptive decision-making and depression was also shown to be related to worse decisions. Similarly, depressed individuals would be less likely to trust their intuition, and more likely to avoid making decisions and to be anxious and brooding about their decisions (Strom, Sears & Kelly, 2014). Interestingly, spontaneity in regards to decision-making does not seem to be related to depression. It is possible that the mechanism behind spontaneous decision-making is different for persons with lower and higher depressive symptoms. Non-depressed individuals may engage in a spur-of-the moment decision-making to feel adventurous or daring. In contrast, depressed individuals might make rapid decisions to avoid the anxiety of thinking about options and deciding actively. This possibility is partially supported by the finding that depressive symptoms were related to the reduced use of vigilant decision-making. From the above researches, it is very much evident that there exists a direct relationship between the coping mechanisms and the decision-making styles of the employees. It is very necessary for the employees to cope with the situation and act accordingly. In international companies, the employees should know that how they can best handle crisis. They should have the ability to cope with their stress and should take proper decisions to get their company out of the situation. The current study also showed that the higher percentages of workers of the IT firms in Malaysia were having good decision-making skills if they could cope with their stress.

From hypothesis 4, it can be inferred that coping strategies do not mediates the interaction effect between stress and position on decision-making. The strengths of the emotions were observed to be very much related to the positive way of coping but they are less to the negative coping. The emotional strengths necessarily include the active behaviors that foster an effectual form of analysis of the particular situation and the ability of solving the problem or the positive strategies of coping. Offensively the minded form of the attitude that is work-related obstacles and the challenges that was strongly been associated with the emotional strength (Strom, Sears & Kelly, 2014). Emotional strength assists controlling one of their own reactions, and facing the events that are stressful and are direct rather than engaging in more passive form of distraction or the withdrawal, self blame, rumination and escape, rumination. 

From hypothesis 5, it can be inferred that, the variable position moderates the interaction effect between the variables stress and decision-making. The uncommon experience of the stress brings a lot of motivation for reducing the negative impacts for restoring the stability or the comfort. Actions were also taken by the individual to ameliorate the various effects of the stress that are termed to be coping, and to take the form of the attempts for adjusting to the situation or commonly of both simultaneously. The initial form of the appraisal to the potentially stressful situation or the events that involves the assessment of the demands that are being made upon the individual (Strom, Sears & Kelly, 2014).

However, from the current it can be found out that the position of the variable moderates the interaction effect between the variables stress and decision-making of the IT employees in Malaysia.

The theoretical implication of the study states that most of the previous studies focus on the age with gender and very much less with the position and the designation of the working individuals. The current study deals with the designation and position of the workers in the IT organization.

The practical implication of the current study is it had studied the stress level of the workers who are not only from varied age groups but also from various designations in their organization. This can benefit the culture by making the employees aware about the different forms of coping strategies they can apply for reducing the amount of stress they are facing everyday in their lives.

The current study is about the various forms of coping mechanism that the employees of the IT companies tries to apply for taking the exact decisions for any crisis situations in the company. The study observes that the stress have their affect on the coping mechanisms of the employees of Malaysia. The coping strategies also affect the decision making of these employees.

However, there are certain limitations in the current study. The study is done with the population of a small area in Malaysia. Therefore, the results cannot be generalized all over the world. The study has worked with various designation of work of the employees. Therefore, the data are discrete. However, if the study were focused towards one specific position, then the data would have been more accurate.  Lastly, not all the people in the world is aware of the coping strategies, therefore, the awareness about the strategies for coping with stress are majorly required.  

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