Are public organizations more stressed than private?: a study of work stress considering value congruence

16th congress of the European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology May 22nd-25th, 2013 Münster, Germany ARE PUBLIC ORGANIZATIONS MORE STRESSED THAN PRIVATE? A study of work stress considering value congruence  Valentina Ramos1 & Filomena Jordão2 Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences University of Porto Grant: SFRH / BD / 43315 / 2008 The purpose of the present research is to compare private and public organizations according to their work stress and value congruence. For this reason, we applied an inventory in a private and public organization to measure the perception of the work stress and the value congruence considering person-organization fit, value conflict and value recognition. Samples were matched in order to make comparisons according to gender, age and employed time in the organization (Nprivate=Npublic=149). Our results indicate a statistically significant correlation between stress and gender (βmen=-.420, p<.05), stress and value conflict (β=.021, p<.05) and stress and type of organization (βprivate=.339, p<.05). Correlations between stress and value conflict were previously found by Morais, Ramos, and Jordão (2012). In the case of gender, we found several studies that show similar results and others that contradict them. According to the type of organization, we also found studies that confirm our results, however other authors had different outcomes. This research represents a contribution to the comprehension of differences that exists between public and private organizations according to stress levels. ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION When job stress is experienced negatively, it becomes an element with implications for the performance of both: workers and organizations. The stress is an experience derived from the relationship between personal characteristics and organizational characteristic (Mazzola, Schonfeld, & Spector, 2011). Organizational cultures is one of the factors that have been correlated with stress (Mazzola et al., 2011), specifically considering the relationship between personal and organizational values. The relationship between these two types of values has been studied in terms of congruence and its effect on the organization has been determined in terms of satisfaction, retention, performance and welfare (Boxx & Odom, 1991, Davis, 2006; Edwards & Cable, 2009). For the Portuguese context, studies on job stress and organizational values have not considered both variables together. Only recently, investigations have begun to consider the value congruence and its influence at the organizational level. Through its investigations in a Portuguese organization, Morais, Ramos, and Jordão (2012) identified the existence of significant relationships between job stress and value congruence measured by person-organization fit, value conflict and organizational values recognition, showing that with the increment of value congruence, decreases stress. However, it was relevant to confirm these results in other organizations. For this reason, and because of the importance of the relationship established between organizational and personal values and job stress, we identified as the purpose of our study to verify whether there is a relationship between job stress and value congruence in a public and a private Portuguese organizations. RESEARCH QUESTIONS RQ1: What is the relationship between the work stress and value congruence in Portuguese organizations? RQ2: What is the role of individual (demographic variables) and organizational variables (sector) in the relationship between job stress and value congruence ? METHOD SAMPLE To collect data we used an inventory for measuring the perception of job stress and value congruence. Perceived work stress was measured through a general question: "To what degree are you feeling stressed because of your work" to be answered according to a Likert scale of five points indicating: 0-None, 1-Weak, 2 -Moderate, 3-Strong and 4Very Strong. The value congruence was measured using the APO Inventory of Ramos et al. (2012). An email with the link to the Inventory was sent to all collaborators from the organizations, inviting them to participate in the study. In the case of the public organization, the Inventory was also distributed in paper format to workers that do not have access to the net. For the filling online we used Google Docs. The correlations were made using parametric methods (Pearson correlation coefficient). Correlations were made using ANOVA test with Bonferroni adjustment as a measure. The statistical program used was SPSS 20. MATERIAL and PROCEDURE DATA ANALYSIS RESULTS and DISCUSSION Our results indicated that private sector workers experience work stress significantly more than public sector workers. This contradicts previous researches made in Portugal, who argue that the public sector is under more external demands, so that workers in this sector feel more stress than workers in the public sector (Ferreira & Martinez, 2012). The main element of the value congruence that correlates significantly and positively with the stress is the value conflict, in organizations of both sectors. The significant correlation found between job stress and conflict confirms previous results obtained by Bouckenooghe et al. (2005) and Lamm et al. (2010), and in the case of Portuguese context by Morais (2011). Correlations between gender and stress pointed out that women significantly experience more work stress than men. In the case of differences considering the organization sector, our results corroborate the findings of Ramos and Jordão (2012) for the private sector. In the Portuguese private sector there is no difference between men and women according to work stress. The main differences were given by the existence of sources of stress and coping strategies that would be typical for each gender (Ramos & Jordão, 2012). In the case of the public sector we found that it is women who significantly experience more work stress than men. Those research indicating that women are more stressed point out that this is due to the existence of female exclusive sources of stress such as the double responsibility between work tasks and family task (Choi & Chen, 2006). CONCLUSIONS REFERENCES Our research determined the value conflict as the element of the value congruence that relates significantly and positively to the experience of work stress in both organizations analyzed. Our results also indicate the importance of considering the sector of the organization and the importance of considering the gender of the worker in studies on job stress. RQ1: What is the relationship between the work stress and value congruence in Portuguese organizations? RQ2: What is the role of individual (demographic variables) and organizational variables (sector) in the relationship between job stress and value congruence ? Bouckenooghe, Dave, Buelens, Marc, Fontaine, Johnny, & Vanderheyden, Karlien. (2005). The Prediction of Stress by Values and Value Conflict. The Journal of Psychology, 139(4), 369-382. Boxx, W. Randy, & Odom, Randall Y. (1991). Organizational values and value congruency and their impact on satisfaction, commitment, and. 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The relationship between cultural and non-cultural elements as a way to describe organizational context. Psicologia.com, 16(7). http://hdl.handle.net/10401/5459 Ramos, Valentina, Morais, Teresa, & Jordão, Filomena. (2012). Desarrollo y validación del Inventario para medir la articulación entre la persona y la organización (Inventario APO) Revista Evaluar, s/n. 1 [email protected] 2 [email protected]