An analysis of job stress outcomes among bank internal auditors: environmental job stressors, including politics and rewards, were more stress producing than workload stressors such as time pressure.

Publication: Bank Accounting & Finance

Publication Date: 01-JUN-06

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COPYRIGHT 2006 Institutional Investor, Inc.

Bank internal auditors provide a valuable and important service for financial institutions. They typically audit their bank's branches, lending centers and the various back-office operations. As part of their jobs, these auditors document internal controls and test whether these controls are working, and audit the computer systems essential for modern banking operations. These many and varied responsibilities may cause job stress for a bank's internal auditors, which then may result in job dissatisfaction or job burnout. This article presents the findings of a study of job dissatisfaction, job stress, job burnout and job-related self-esteem among a nationwide random sample of 180 bank internal auditors.

Background

Although stress is considered necessary for personal growth, change, development and performance, it does put a strain on the individual. Physiological stress symptoms may include headaches, high blood pressure and/or an acid stomach. Psychological responses may include apathy, forgetfulness, irritability or dissatisfaction. Individual behavioral consequences may include loss of appetite, weight gain or loss, change in tobacco or alcohol habits or sudden alterations in appearance. An individual's response to stressors will be mediated somewhat by his or her personality characteristics. In addition, events that are very stressful to one person may not be stressful to another; individuals vary in the amount of stress they can tolerate without showing signs of job-related tension. (1)

Job stressors refer to any characteristic of the workplace that poses a threat to the individual, whether due to job demands that a person cannot meet or due to a lack of sufficient resources to do the job. For job stress to occur, the environmental demand of the job is typically considerably out of balance with the capability of the employee. This occurs when an individual has little control over the job, when work demands exceed his or her abilities or when job conditions thwart the attainment of personal expectations and goals. Stress is additive. Therefore, an increase in the number of stressors in the work environment results in an increase in overall job stress level.

Excessive job stress has been widely recognized as a source of increased discontent with one's job. According to job dissatisfaction studies, if the needs an individual is looking for a job to satisfy are not met, job dissatisfaction is likely to increase. When emotional and interpersonal stressors from a job become chronic and are not relieved, the employee may be in danger of job burnout.

Job burnout (a state of physical, emotional and mental exhaustion caused by long-term involvement in emotionally demanding situations) is often characterized by gastrointestinal problems, sleep disturbances, back pains, headaches, colds and flu, depression, guilt and exhaustion. (2) Job burnout may, however, be mediated by an individual's level of...

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