Stress and Psychological Well-Being of Government Officers
in Malaysia
Jasmani binti Mohd Yunus, Universiti Utara Malaysia, College of Business, Malaysia
Abdul Jumaat bin Mahajar, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Faculty of Management and
Economics, Malaysia
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this paper is to present the findings on the occupational stress among administrative
and diplomatic (PTD) officers. Quantitative data were collected via a questionnaire distributed amongst
the PTD officers in Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur. A total of 329 officers completed the questionnaires.
The result shows that occupational stress has a significant positive correlation with psychological wellbeing. It is interesting to note that hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated the four dimensions
of occupational stress, namely role overload, role insufficiency, role ambiguity and role boundary have
significant relationships and influence on psychological well-being.
INTRODUCTION
There has been many research on occupational stress. The occupational stress terminology is used
interchangeably with work stress and/or job stress but its meaning refers to the same thing (Larson, 2004).
Job stress has long been an important concept in the study of employees’ responses to their work
environments. The many challenges in the work environment, characterized by heightened competition,
increased work targets, threats of job loss, organizational change, lack of time, lack of space, continuous
technological development, conflicting demand from organizational stakeholders McHugh, 1997),
increased use of participationary management and computerization (Myers (2000), greater uncertainty
and others have resulted in higher work stress. Work stress is a major issue in the occupational safety and
health aspect as well as organizational well-being (Williams & Cooper, 1995) since it risks the employees’
health and organizational success (Noblet, Rodwell & McWilliams, 2001). Occupational stress can cause
unusual and dysfunctional behavior at work and contribute to poor physical and mental health (WHO,
2004). Job stress has long been an important concept in the study of employees’ responses to their work
environments. The many challenges in the work environment, characterized by heightened competition,
increased work targets, threats of job loss, organizational change, lack of time, lack of space, continuous
technological development, conflicting demand from organizational stakeholders (McHugh, 1997),
increased use of participatory management and computerization (Murray and Gibbon, 2007). Stressful
employees are more likely to be unhealthy, poorly motivated, less motivated and less safe at work (WHO,
2004). Work related stress also has been related to organizational problems such as absenteeism, high
turnover, poor job performance, accidents and errors, and alcohol and drug abuse (Manshor, Fontaine,
and Chong, 2003) and burnout (Mimura and Griffiths, 2003). Beyond absenteeism, ‘presenteeism’ or
being present physically at work, but working less productively can also be the impact of work stress
(Caverley, 2005). In Malaysia, the same phenomenon may hold true because the weakening of global
economy during the last several years has resulted in substantial downsizing and retrenchments within the
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The Journal of Human Resource and Adult Learning Vol. 7, Num. 2, December 2011
electronics sector which accounted accounted for 60% of the country’s total export (Bank Negara
Malaysia, 2001). The main objective of this study is to examine the relationship of sources of
occupational stress, coping strategies and well being among PTD officers in Malaysia.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Occupational stress, according to Malaysian Psychiatric Association (2009), is defined as the
awareness of not being able to cope with the demands of one’s work environment with an associated
negative emotional response. World Health Organization (2004) defines Occupational related stress as
the response people may have when presented with work demands and pressures that are not matched to
their knowledge and abilities and which challenge their ability to cope. Beehr and Newman (1978) define
occupational stress as a condition arising from interaction of people and their jobs and is characterized by
changes within people that force them to deviate from their normal functioning. Occupational stress is
also considered as the harmful physical and emotional response that occurs when the requirements of the
job do not match the capabilities, resources, or needs of the worker (Marzabadi and Tarkhorani, 2007).
Karasek defines jobs and their associated stress levels by their particular demand-control combination
(Schnall, Landsbergis, Dietz, Warren, Pickering, and Schwartz, 1998). Karasek's High Demand-Low
Control Model defines high stress, unhealthy jobs as those with low control and high demand conditions.
Murugayah (2008) found that generally, management and professional officers of the civil service
experienced moderate level of work stress. Murugayah (2008) also found that majority of professional
officers experienced moderate level of work stress. Similarly, Hafidah (2006) found that majority of
National Anti-Drugs Agency experienced moderate level and Datu Raiman (1994) who studied
occupational stress among headmasters in Kota Marudu, Sabah found that majority of the respondents
were having moderate level of work stress. Osipow (1988) points out six sources which may cause
occupational stress, i.e. role overload; role insufficiency; role ambiguity; role boundary; role
responsibility; and physical environment. Role overload happens when an individual experience the
lacking of resources, including time and energy, needed to meet the demands of all roles (Hecht, 2007).
Ahmady et al. (2007) defines role overload as having too much to do and too many responsibilities to do
everything well. Role insufficiency measures the degree to which a person’s training, education, skills,
and experience are appropriate to his/her work (Osipow, 1988). Role ambiguity - Role ambiguity means
the lack of clear and specific information regarding work role requirements (Quah and Campbell, 1994).
Ahmady, Changiz, Masiello and Brommels (2007) defines role ambiguity as having unclear feedback
from others about one's responsibilities and performance. According to Manshor et al. (2003), role
ambiguity arises when a person does not have a clear picture about his work objectives and the scope and
responsibilities of his own job as well as his co-workers’ expectation of him. According to Bulger,
Matthews and Hoffman (2007), role boundaries relate to how individuals who have multiple roles
organize themselves in each role. A boundary can vary in strength depending on its permeability and
flexibility. Permeability is the extent to which one role intrudes or penetrates into another. A work
boundary can be considered permeable if the employee receives calls from family while at work. A
personal life boundary can be considered permeable if the employee takes work home to complete.
Flexibility is the extent to which one role can be relaxed to meet the needs of another role. There are two
aspects of flexibility in relation to role boundary strength: ability and willingness. Role responsibility is
the level of responsibility an individual feels for his/her own performance and welfare and the well-being
of his/her colleagues as well (Osipow, 1988). Additionally, a physical environment is the extreme
The Journal of Human Resource and Adult Learning Vol. 7, Num. 2, December 2011
41
physical condition/surrounding which may be stressful to a person, such as heat and noise (Osipow, 1988).
Boey, Chan, Ko, Goh and Lin (2010) found that majority (35.4%) of nurses in Singapore considered the
occupational stress as moderate, 32.4% considered it as high, and another 32.2% considered it as low. Role
conflict has been found to have a positive relationship with psychological well being (Chandraaiah, Agrawal,
Marimuthu and Manoharan, 2003; Fairbrother and Cai and Zhang, 2008. When individuals are required to
play two or more roles that work against each other, they are likely to experience occupational stress. This
is because role conflicts create expectations that may be difficult to reconcile. Work overload, both
quantitatively and qualitatively, has been empirically related and is the main source to a variety of
psychological behavioural strain symptoms (Murray-Gibbons and Gibbons, 2007; Emilia and Hassim, 2007;
Cai, Li and Zhang, 2008; Ho, 1996; Mansor, Fontaine and Chong, 2003; Duffy and Ching 2001; Salmond
and Ropis, 2005; Chandraaiah, Agrawal, Marimuthu and Manoharan, 2003), heavy workload lowers one’s
psychological wellbeing. Chandraaiah, Agrawal, Marimuthu and Manoharan (2003) found that the Indian
managers who are young adults (25-35 years) and in the early middle age (36-45 years) were experiencing
more stress due to role overload, role ambiguity and strenuous working conditions. Baehler and Bryson
(2008) conducted an exploratory study on 24 policy advisors/managers in New Zealand and concluded
policy advisors experienced stress under the well accepted labels of role overload, changing
expectations/priorities, control, culture, external scrutiny and interpersonal relationship. However, these
factors differ from the generic concepts associated with them. Fujino, Mizoue, Izumi, Kumashiro, Hasegawa
and Yoshimura (2001) found that permanent night workers in Japan who have high workload, high job
control and single were likely to have mental health problems as compared to those who have fewer
workload, lower job control and are married. Partially, this finding differs from most of the Western research
which found that people with higher job control and single are less stressful. Kaufman (2005) listed the
causes of stress and burnout, among others, extended hours of working and the 24/7 environment and global
organizations. Fairbrother and Warn (2003) conducted a research among naval officer trainees and found
that stress was associated with the lack of clarity in the work role, disruption of everyday routine and
disruption of personal life. On the other hand, stress is not associated with discomfort due to the physical
environment, or with the psychosocial factors of leadership, teamwork and social climate. Apart from
stressors which relate to workplace, Manshor (2000) found in his study that there are numerous other
unmeasured variables that can contribute to stress at the workplace, including individual and family factors,
socio-economic and financial status, and mental and health factors. Mathew (2005) found that special
educators in India experience works stress due to home/work interface, which include the demands of work
has affected the relationship with spouse/children, with social/private life, the spouse’s attitude towards the
work and absence of emotional support from others outside work.
Hence, the hypothesis conjectured in this study are:
Ho1: Role overload has no relationship with psychological well-being.
Ho2: Role insufficiency has no relationship with psychological well-being.
Ho3: Role ambiguity has no relationship with psychological well-being.
Ho4: Role boundary has no relationship with psychological well-being.
Ho5: Role responsibility has no relationship with psychological well-being.
Ho6: Physical environment has no relationship with psychological well-being.
Ho7: Occupational stress has no relationship with psychological well-being.
Ho8: Dimensions of occupational stressors (role overload, role insufficiency, role conflict, role ambiguity,
role boundary, role responsibility and physical environment) have no relationship with
psychological well-being.
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The Journal of Human Resource and Adult Learning Vol. 7, Num. 2, December 2011
METHODOLOGY
Respondents in this study consisted of PTD officers attached to 25 randomly selected ministries
(Prime Minister’s Department, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities,
Ministry of International Trade and Industry and Minstry of Health. A Total of 550 questionnaires were
distributed to the Ministeries/Departments. It took one month for the researcher to distribute and collect
the responses.
MEASUREMENTS
The predictor variables in this study consist of occupational stressors which consisted of role
overload, role insufficiency, role ambiguity, role Boundary, role responsibility and physical environment.
The occupational stressors were measured using The Occupational Stress Inventory-Revised (Osipow,
1998), namely the Occupational Roles Questionnaire (ORQ) which originally has 60 items. The
questionnaire was used by Murugayah (2008) who conducted a study on government officers of
administrative and professional level in Malaysia. Originally, The OSI-R has three components, i.e.
Occupational Roles Questionnaire (ORQ), Personal Strain Questionnaire (PSQ) and Personal Resources
Questionnaire (PRQ). Salmond and Ropis (2005) who made a mixed-method and comparison study
between medical-surgical and home care nurses in the United States found that the former experienced
higher stress than the latter. In examining relationship of job stressors and general well-being of the
nurses, it was found nurses who experience higher level of stress will report higher negative mood, vice
versa. Ho (1996) found that there are significant and positive relationships between the teacher stress
measures and the GHQ. In conducting a research on a university staff, Dua (1994) found that general
stress and work related stress are associated with poor physical health, poor psychological and emotional
health and high job dissatisfaction. Malek, Mearns and Flin (2010) made a comparative study between
Malaysian and the United Kingdom firefighters and found that the sources of occupational stress have
significant negative correlations with psychological wellbeing among firefighters in the United Kingdom
and Malaysia. The dependent variable was measured using The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12)
and meant to assess the severity of a mental problem. This instrument was developed by Goldberg et
al.(1998) to detect minor psychological disorders among respondents in a community setting. GHQ
originally contains 12 items but for the purpose of this research, 10 items were selected. GHQ-12 is a
validated screening instrument designed to detect possible psychiatric morbidity and to assess general
psychological well-being of respondents. The respondents were asked to indicate whether they had
experienced the condition related to mental health over the past six weeks. A higher score indicated
poorer mental health status. Kapur, Borrill and Stride (1998) used the GHQ-12 to measure psychological
distress among medical consultants and junior doctors in the United Kingdom. Zulkefly and Baharuddin
(2010) also used this instrument to assess psychological health of Malaysian college students. The 10item comprises six ‘negative’ and four ‘positive’ items concerning the past few weeks. Negative items
included ‘I lost much sleep over worry’ while positive items included ‘I felt capable of making decisions
about things’. The respondents were asked to rate their psychological well-being over the past six weeks
using a 5-point scale. GHQ-12 is usually regarded as testing only a single dimension of psychological
health (Gao, Luo, Thumboo, Fones, Li, & Cheung, 2004) while other researchers consider it as having
two (Hu, Stewart-Brown, Twigg & Weich, 2007) and three dimensions (Zulkefly & Baharudin, 2010).
The Journal of Human Resource and Adult Learning Vol. 7, Num. 2, December 2011
43
METHOD OF ANALYSES
Response and Profile of Respondents
At the end of the stated period, of the 550 questionnaires sent out, 329 usesable response were
obtained representing a response rate of 59.81 per cent. The sample profile is shown in Table 1. The
frequencies for the number of individuals in the five ministries/ departments are shown in Table 1. It may
be seen that the greatest number of respondents are from the Prime Minister’s Department (51.4%),
53.8% are female; majority of them are 46.5% years old and about 42.6% of the respondents are single,
As for races 86.6% of the respondents are Malay, about 62.9% of the respondents are PTD officers of
grade M41 – M44, and 76.3% of the respondents are degree holders, 22.8% are masters holders and 0.9%
are Ph.D holders and 64.4% had served from 1 – 5 years.
Demographic variable
Ministry/ Department
Gender
Age
Marital status
Race
Grade
Academic qualification
Tenure of service
Length of service in present
ministry/department
44
Table 1: Sample Profile
Categories
JPM
MOF
MPIC
MITI
MOH
Male
Female
≤ 25 years old
26 – 30 years old
31 – 35 years old
36 – 40 years old
41 – 45 years old
≥ 46 years old
Single
Married (without children)
Married (with children)
Divorced
Others
Malay
Chinese
Indian
Others
M41 – M44
M48
M52
M54
Degree
Masters
Ph.D
< 1 year
1 – 5 years
6 – 10 years
11 – 15 years
> 15 years
< 1 year
1 – 5 years
Frequency
169
37
26
48
49
152
177
32
153
86
38
5
15
140
54
130
3
2
285
18
15
11
207
78
39
5
251
75
3
46
171
73
21
18
73
212
Percentage %
51.4
11.2
7.9
14.6
14.9
46.2
53.8
9.7
46.5
26.1
11.6
1.5
4.6
42.6
16.4
39.5
0.9
0.6
86.6
5.5
4.6
3.3
62.9
23.7
11.9
1.5
76.3
22.8
0.9
14.0
52.0
22.2
6.4
5.5
22.2
64.4
The Journal of Human Resource and Adult Learning Vol. 7, Num. 2, December 2011
6 – 10 years
11 – 15 years
> 15 years
33
6
5
10.0
1.8
1.5
i)
Occupational stress
All hypotheses were tested by using inferential statistics. For the first to seventh hypotheses, they
were tested by using Pearson Correlation; for the eighth hypothesis, multiple regression was used, and
hierarchical multiple regression was used to test the ninth hypotheses.
ii)
Usage of Pearson correlation
Pearson correlation was used to test hypotheses 1 to 7. The analysis was meant to determine
whether occupational stress and the six dimensions of occupational stress have any relationship with
psychological well-being. The output is shown in Table 2.
Table 2: Results of Pearson correlation analysis between Occupational Stress and Psychological
Well Being
Variable
Psychological Well Being
Role Overload
.116
Role Insufficiency
.341
Role Ambiguity
.333
Role Boundary
.326
Role responsibility
.050
Physical Environment
.055
Occupational Stress
.434
* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed)
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed)
The result of the analysis shows that there is a significant relationship between role overload and
psychological well-being. The correlation value of this variable of r =0.116, means that a positive and low
relationship exists between the two. Thus Ho1 is rejected. The result shows that role insufficiency has
significant and positive relationship with psychological well-being. The relationship between the two is
moderate because the r-value = 0.341. Thus, Ho2 is rejected. The result of the analysis shows that there is
a significant correlation between role ambiguity and psychological well-being. The correlation value of r
= 0.333 indicates that the two variables are positively and moderately correlated. Thus, Ho3 is rejected.
The result shows that role boundary and psychological well-being is significantly correlated. Since the
correlation value, r = 0.326, role boundary and psychological well-being is positively and moderately
correlated. Hence, Ho4 is also rejected. There is no significant correlation between role responsibility
and psychological well-being as the p-value of 0.362 > 0.05. Thus, Ho4 fails to be rejected. The physical
environment and psychological well-being is not significantly correlated as the p-value of 0.324 > 0.05.
Thus, we fail to reject Ho6. There is a significant positive relationship between occupational stress and
psychological well-being (r = 0.434, p < 0.05). Since the p-value is 0.434, it is indicated that the
relationship between the two variables is a moderate relationship. We may infer that higher scores on
occupational stress are associated with higher score on psychological well-being (higher score indicates
low level of psychological well-being). As a conclusion, we have to reject Ho7 as Ha7 is substantiated.
The Journal of Human Resource and Adult Learning Vol. 7, Num. 2, December 2011
45
iii) Usage of multiple regression
A multiple regression analysis is used to test Ho8. Multiple regression tells how much of the
variance in the dependent variable can be explained by the independent variable. From the model
summary indicated in Table 3, we can see that the R2 value is 0.265 which means that independent
variable only explains 26.5% of the variation in the dependent variable. The adjusted R 2 value is 0.252
which means that the dimensions of occupational stress contributed only 25.2% of psychological wellbeing. The remaining 74.8% were contributed by other factors not included in this study.
Table 3: Multiple regression analysis of Occupational Stress
Variables
Beta
t
Role Overload
.098
2.045
Role Insufficiency
.267
5.453
Role Ambiguity
.239
4.831
Role Boundary
.250
5.096
Role responsibility
.035
.716
Physical Environment
-.001
-.030
Significant t
.042
.000
.000
.000
.475
.976
a. Dependent variable Adjusted R2 = .265 F = 19.381 ** p < 0.01
Y = 1.033E-17 + 0.105X1 + 0.328X2 + 0.287X3 + 0.319X4 + 0.045X5 – 0.002X6
The regression analysis on all six dimensions of occupational stress were significant at p < 0.05, at
F = 19.381. However, it was found out that only four dimensions were significant which have p-value <
0.05, namely role overload, role ambiguity, role boundary and role insufficiency. Another two dimensions,
i.e. role responsibility and physical environment were not significant to psychological well-being since
the p-value of each was 0.475, and 0.976. We may conclude by saying that at least 4 dimensions of
occupational stress, namely role overload, role ambiguity, role boundary and role insufficiency has
impact on psychological well-being. Hence, Ho8 is rejected.
RECOMENDATIONS, LIMITATIONS, AND CONCLUSION
The result shows that the mean score for role overload is the highest (3.848) among all dimensions
of occupational stress. This indicates that PTD officers perceive that heavy workload is the main factor
which contributes to their stressful condition. This finding is in agreement with the documented sources
of stress in the international literature. Many researchers (Manshor, Fontaine and Chong, 2003; MurrayGibbons and Gibbons, 2007; Emilia and Hassim, 2007; Cai, Li and Zhang, 2008; Ho, 1996, Duffy and
Ching, 2001; Fairbrother and Warn, 2003; Salmond and Ropis, 2005; Zakerian, 2009; Baehler and
Bryson, 2008; Fujino, Mizoue, Izumi, Kumashiro, Hasegawa and Yoshimura, 2001) found that heavy
workload is one of the main factors which causes stress across all types of occupations, namely managers,
nurses, chefs, nurses, teachers, naval officers, policy advisors and permanent night workers. As expected
from the result of correlation analysis, a multiple regression analysis shows that only four dimensions of
occupational stress has a significant influence towards psychological well-being, namely role overload,
role insufficiency, role ambiguity and role boundary. As indicated by the multiple regression analysis,
25.2% of psychological well-being is due to occupational stress, whereas another 74.8% were contributed
by other factors not included in this study.
Undeniably, organizational factors can lead to poor emotional health. Dua (1994) found that apart
from physical health and job dissatisfaction, emotional health are also the direct impacts of general stress
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The Journal of Human Resource and Adult Learning Vol. 7, Num. 2, December 2011
and occupational stress. Brubaker (as cited by Pattie, 2006) reported that occupational stress which
resulted from service-oriented jobs has a steady increase of psychological ailments. Similarly, Marzabadi
and Tarkhorani (2007) found that organizational factors are among the causes of stress and burnout.
According to Murphy (as cited by Wood & Budden, 2006), understanding the causes of job stress by
measuring it accurately and identifying problem areas, implementing interventions and re-evaluating the
situation could prove useful. Hence, the researcher has come up with eight recommendations to improve
the present situation, as well as to cater the problems brought by the four dimensions of stress, namely
role overload, role ambiguity, role insufficiency and role boundary. Interpersonal relationship and family
factors have also been taken into account.
i)
Stress survey
This survey should be administered to PTD officers across all states in Malaysia. Through this
survey, PSD can study what the pattern of occupational stress looks like and immediate actions must be
taken if the stress level shows an increment. However, if the stress level is reported to be moderate, it
cannot be taken for granted because there is a tendency to increase if appropriate action is not taken.
ii)
Stress management program
Stress management training program should be designed for all PTD officers so that they can learn
more about stress, its effects and how to cope with it. In this regard, PSD should collaborate with the
National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in organizing the courses.
iii) Job rotation
All ministries/departments should give more attention to job rotation. As of now, there are a
significant numbers of PTD officers who have been placed in the same division/unit for more than 5 years.
Job rotation should be made compulsory to all officers. Actually, job rotation is one of the ways to offset
boredom, which can occur when performing the same job over an extended period of time. Job rotation
can be made within the same division/unit or across department or even across ministries. Hopefully, job
rotation can make people get the best out of their potential.
iv)
Mentoring
A mentoring programme is an official programme aims at personal developmental relationship in
which senior officers who have more experience or more knowledge help and guide less experienced or
less knowledgeable officers. In other words, it provides is a way for a mentee or junior officer to release
their stress and ask opinion of his/her mentor on how to overcome the stressful situation.
v)
Sports and Recreational Facilities
Ministries/departments should provide recreational facilities such as gymnasium, sports equipment
etc. for the staff. These facilities should be made available to all staff after office hours. Sporting
activities and exercise are among the important ways to ease stress because they help to flush stress
hormones like adrenaline out of the body.
vi)
Counselling service
Counselling is a professional guidance in resolving personal conflicts and emotional problems
(FreeDictionary.com). The counsellor focuses on enhancing the psychological well-being of the client,
such that the client is then able to reach his/her full potential. A trained counsellor may be able to help in
a number of ways. It can enable the client to develop a clearer understanding of his/her concerns and help
The Journal of Human Resource and Adult Learning Vol. 7, Num. 2, December 2011
47
him/her acquire new skills to better manage his/her problems. The counsellor can offer a different
perspective and help him/her think of creative solutions to problems.
vii)
Time management
PTD officers should learn how to effectively manage their time. They should know how to
prioritise their works when a lot of works are delegated to them at the same time. PTD officers must be
able to delegate the works to their subordinates. Truly, they will have to spend time to coach and guide
subordinates on how to do the works, but in the long run, it is worthwhile.
viii)
Communication
Since occupational stress may be attributed by lack of effective communication, organization
should encourage effective communication among its staff whether it is upward, downward or horizontal
communication. Effective communication can also be practiced at home, between spouses or with other
family members.
Research Limitation
This study acknowledges several limitations. First, the time duration to complete this research is
very limited. As such, data collection cannot be expanded beyond Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya. Second,
this study is a cross-sectional design in which data were gathered at one point within the period of study.
This may not be able to capture the developmental issues and/or causal connections between variables of
interest.
Future Research
Future research should be conducted to identify the relationship between occupational stress and
physical health among PTD officers. It is also recommended that the scope of the research be broadened
to PTD officers in all states in Malaysia. Further, future research should also consider longitudinal
research in order to capture the development and/or causal connections between occupational stress and
psychological health and/or physical health.
CONCLUSION
This study has been fruitful in identifying the relationship between occupational stress and
psychological well-being. It is hoped that this study would trigger an interest from all relevant parties
related to PTD officers to dwell further into the research questions, particularly, those related to
psychological well-being of PTD officers who have contributed significantly to the public service and the
nation’s development. It is also hoped that afterwards, PTD officers can live a healthy life and are able to
balance it in almost every aspect. Psychological well-being should go mainstream and become a strategic
issue that is routinely considered by all organizations, both in private and public service. This is so
because if the employees’ well-being is well taken care of, it's a win-win situation for the employees and
organization alike.
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