THE PERCEPTION OF JOB STRESS BY EMPLOYEES AND ITS EFFECT ON EMPLOYEES PRODUCTIVITY : A Comparative qualitative study of Ecobank in Cameroon and Nigeria

Abstract: Stress is considered as one of those factors that has an influence on the performance of employees negatively or positively which also affects the organization as a whole. Many employees have started to consider stress as an important issue to look at. This study investigated the employees' perceptions of stress and its effect on their productivity. We mainly compared branches in different countries (Cameroon and Nigeria) using employees from a mutual bank “Ecobank” to find out their different perceptions in relation to stress. The study was conducted with six (6) interviewees, three (3) from Nigeria and three (3) from Cameroon. From other similar studies, we have not been able to see a comparison of employees' perception between two countries and this helped us to be able to recognize a research gap. The study was done using a qualitative method which helps us to know the perceptions of employees regarding stress and its effect on productivity from both Cameroon and Nigeria. The interview was conducted with employees from different departments and different roles. The interview was a big help for us getting a broader understanding of how employees perceive stress. A thematic network and discussion was developed in order for us to interpret the results of our findings. We were able to develop 5 themes which are performance, role conflict, role ambiguity, work demand and resource constraints and with this we were able to do a comparison to find out what the employees from different countries perceive in regards to stress. We were also able to give some suggestions for further studies which one of them is based on gender differences. The results from our findings showed that workload, pressure to meet deadlines, lack of knowledge, multiple tasks, unclear responsibilities, lack of resources were the perceptions contributing to stress.