Employee stress and the implication of high-power distance culture: empirical evidence from Nigeria's employment terrain

Abstract

PurposeThis paper explores the link between employee stress and the high-power distance (HPD) culture in Nigeria. The study context is the banking and manufacturing sectors in Nigeria, which have a history of exploitation, unconducive work environments to productivity, work-life imbalance, work overload, burnout and employee stress.Design/methodology/approachUsing a qualitative, interpretive methodology, this article adopts a thematic analysis of data drawn from semi-structured interviews with 24 managerial and non-managerial workers to explore the process by which Nigerian manufacturing and banking sectors' work (mal)practices go unchallenged, thereby triggering and exacerbating employees' stress levels.FindingsThe study found that the high power distance culture promotes a servant-master relationship type, making it impossible for employees to challenge employers on issues relating to stressors such as work overload, unconducive work environments, work-life imbalance and burnout, thereby exacerbating their stress levels in a country in which stress has become a way of life.Research limitations/implicationsResearch on the relationship between employee stress and HPD culture is relatively underdeveloped. This article sheds light on issues associated with stressors in Nigeria's human resource management (HRM) and employment relations practices. The link between the inability of employees to challenge these stressors (which are consequences of an HPD culture) and increased employee stress has substantial implications for employment and work-related policies and practices in general. The study is constrained by the limited sample size, which inhibits the generalisation of its findings.Originality/valueThe article adds to the scarcity of studies underscoring the relationship between high-power distance and the inability of employees to challenge work-related stressors as a predictor of employee stress and a mediator between workplace practices and employee stress, particularly in the emerging economies.

Exploring compassionate managerial leadership style in reducing employee stress level during COVID-19 crisis: the case of Nigeria

“…However, there is a dearth of scholarship on how employee stress can be managed via management-leadership compassion in an extreme situation such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, which can cause extreme degrees of chaos and uncertainty as well as unprecedented demands in terms of both the existing workload and new procedures for managing health risks (WHO, 2020a, b). Focussing on Nigeria (the context), the study involves the banking, manufacturing and health sectors, which have a history of work-related stressors (exploitation, work environments unconducive to productivity, work overload), employee stress (Oruh and Dibia, 2020) and absence/inadequacy of effective management-leadership, which is crucial in responding to this stressful situation (Oshagbemi, 2017). In doing so, the study has (hopefully) made important empirical and theoretical contributions.…”

“…According to Yange et al (2016), the manufacturing sector has remained stagnate and underdeveloped due to weak infrastructure, political instability, unneeded bureaucracy and corruption. Oruh and Dibia (2020) noted that the sector largely employs unskilled, low-skilled and untrained workers because the operators are less interested in training (or investing in skilled) workers. Despite these limitations, Yange et al (2016) observed that employees are stretched beyond normal working hours in order to meet the unrealistic targets set by the management, which creates stress for the workforce.…”

“…A compassionate response to employees' concerns about poor work conditions According to the extant literature, work overload, underpayment and delayed payment (among other features of poor working conditions) are some of the common stressors identified among employees in workplaces (Oruh and Dibia, 2020). With the chaotic, destabilising and extremely demanding nature of the COVID-19 pandemic (Zhang et al, 2020), the likelihood is that stress among employees will only intensify as employers pursue draconian measures to stay afloat.…”

Antecedents and Consequences of Work Stress Behavior

“…Antecedents of work stress originating from work itself include workload (Harry, 2020;Oruh et al, 2020;Pandey, 2020;Sidhu et al, 2020), work environment (Oruh et al, 2020;Sidhu et al, 2020), work intensification (Walker, 2020), administrative/organizational pressure (Allison et al, 2019), work/job involvement (Li et al, 2018, Park andJang, 2017), work demands (Wijewardena et al, 2020), time pressure ( Amirudin, 2019), working conditions (Goswami et al, 2019), evaluation and performance appraisal systems (Pandey, 2020) and the uncertainty of working conditions (Hampton et al, 2019).…”

“…Relationships in the organization are a source of work stress. In the literature study conducted by the author, the antecedents of work stress are related to relationships in organizations including organizational structure (Naoum et al, 2018), leadership (Elomaa et al, 2020;Manoppo, 2020;Paeveen and Adeinant, 2019;Yao et al, 2020), social support (Bjaalid, 2020;Foy et al, 2018;Yousaf et al, 2020), communication and management support (Pandey, 2020;Sahni, 2020), culture high power distance (Hampton et al, 2019;Oruh et al, 2020), autonomy (Patel and Wolfe, 2019) and work team coordination (Hampton et al, 2019).…”