Perceived Effects of Job Stress on Interpersonal Relations: A Case Study of the Government Service Insurance System—Manila Branch

Abstract

Today’s fast-paced and modern world require that individuals within an organization be adept in adjusting to the daily stresses in their jobs. Stress as a concept has become one of the most intriguing concerns for many organizations in the 80’s due to the serious effects that it reportedly brings. It has been commonly referred to as pressures, hassles, distress, and burn-out. Whatever names, they call it, stress has been believed to bring negative effects on an individual particularly with respect to his interpersonal relations with other members of the organization.

Wester-based theories have categorized stress into two forms: constructive and destructive. However, stress itself is a subjective term, and as such depends on various factors such as an individual’s personality, his family, social and emotional background. Suffice it to say that stress is largely a matter of perception. What may be stressful to one my be relatively stress-free to another. Only it effects on a person determines whether they are considered positive or negative forms of stresses.

The corporate world is constantly faced with stresses, both internal or external to the organization. This is largely due to the increased complexity of modern-day jobs as well as increased economic pressures on the individual.

One of the factors that is likely to be affected by the levels of stress an individual experiences is his interpersonal relationships. It is a common notion that individuals while experiencing stress, often manifest poor or worsened interpersonal relations. In the Western context, stress is most oftenly referred in its negative form because it reportedly brings more destructive effects than it brings positive results.

The researcher is face with the doubt that when the Western-based theories on stress are applied to the Filipino context, there would likely be differences with respect to the effects of stress to individuals as well as their responses to pressures. It is this objective to verify the perceived effects of stress on interpersonal relations which encouraged the researcher to give it substantial focus via this study. Since stress is basically foreign to most Filipinos with respect to the way they view their problems in their respective jobs, researches dealing with stress in relation to the interpersonal relations seem elusive. Apparently, this topic has not yet merited the attention of researchers on this field. It is for this reason that the researcher has undertaken on exploratory-descriptive method of research. The organization that the research chose as the subject of this study is the Government Service Insurance System – Manila Branch. As a governmental bureaucratic organization, they are always at grips with pressures and stresses since the organization functions directly with the public. Hence the employers in any government agency are usually considered as “public servants.” It is presumed by the researcher that having this consideration in mind, GSIS provides the perfect context for this case study on the effects of stress and interpersonal relations. Survey questionnaires were used by the researcher as a tool for gathering data in this study. A separate set of questionnaires were administered to the superiors and another to the subordinates in order to compare the effects of stress on the interpersonal relations of both levels. Based on the findings, it was evident that instead of expecting a worsened nature of the interpersonal relationships of the superior due to the degrees of job stress that they experience almost daily, it is surprising to find out that there was a notable perceived positive change in their interpersonal relationships. They have reportedly improved their other-orientedness towards their subordinates, fellow superiors as well as to their clients. Furthermore, the survey indicated improvements in themselves with respect to their qualities as superiors and managers. Meanwhile, the subordinates perceived no change in the nature of their relationships with others while they are undergoing stress. According to them, they have retained their good interpersonal relationships inspite of the pressures that they encounter in their respective jobs. The researcher therefore concluded that stress as a subjective term, may also function positively for individuals specifically for the superiors who more or less are conscious that stress is a part of their managerial jobs.