UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business Hong Phuong Nhi THE MODERATING EFFECT OF LOCUS OF CONTROL ON JOB STRESS-JOB SATISFACTION RELATIONSHIP: EVIDENCE FROM THE BANKING INDUSTRY IN VIETNAM MASTER OF BUSINESS (Honours) Ho Chi Minh City - Year 2016 UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business Hong Phuong Nhi THE MODERATING EFFECT OF LOCUS OF CONTROL ON JOB STRESS-JOB SATISFACTION RELATIONSHIP: EVIDENCE FROM THE BANKING INDUSTRY IN VIETNAM ID: 22140033 MASTER OF BUSINESS (Honours) SUPERVISOR: Dr Tran Phuong Thao Ho Chi Minh City - Year 2016 Table of content Introduction Literature review and hypothesis development 2.1 Foundational theory 2.2 Related review and hypothesis 10 Research method 20 3.1 Procedure and sample 20 3.2 Measurements 22 Data analysis and results 23 4.1 Measurement validation 23 4.2 LOC as moderator of job stress - job satisfaction relationship: 25 4.3 Common method variance 26 4.4 Hypothesis testing 27 4.5 Discussion 32 Conclusions 34 5.1 Implications for theory and research 34 5.2 Implications for managers 35 5.3 Conclusions 35 5.4 Limitations and directions for future research 36 Appendix Scale items 38 Appendix Questionnaire English version 40 Appendix Questionnaire Vietnamese version (Bảng câu hỏi khảo sát) 43 References 48 List of tables and figures Table : Literature review 17 Figure : Conceptual model 20 Table : Descriptive statistics 22 Table : Means, Cronbach alpha, and EFA loadings of items after deleting items 24 Table : Means, standard deviations, correlations and internal consistency reliabilities 28 Table : Results of hierarchical regression testing moderating hypotheses for whole sample 30 Table : Results of hierarchical regression testing moderating hypotheses for two groups 31 Table : Results 32 The moderating effect of locus of control on job stress-job satisfaction relationship: evidence from the banking industry in Vietnam Abstract This research aims to investigate the impact of locus of control on relationship between three dimensions of job stress (role ambiguity, role conflict and work overload) and job satisfaction in the banking industry in Vietnam This study also examines different levels of job stress and job satisfaction of employees between state-owned banks and private banks The hierarchical regression was conducted to examine the impact The results indicated that role conflict, work overload and locus of control had significantly negative impact on job satisfaction The results also showed the moderating effect of locus of control on the job stress – job satisfaction relationship in private banks Introduction Employees can be one of the most precious fortunes in firms While banking marrket has been growing faster and faster, bank employees have experienced job stress Job stress refers to any characteristics of working environment posing a threat to individual (Caplan, Cobb & French, 1975) Malik (2011) indicates that the global banking sector has experienced rapid and significant changes due to globalization, harsh competition Hence, such workplace seems to cause stress for bank employees Besides, a wide range of prior studies show that bank employees have experienced a high level of stress and low job satisfaction (Devi & Sharma, 2013; Bajpai & Srivastava, 2004; Karatepe & Aga, 2013) A study by Malik and Waheed (2010) also mentions this negative relationship between job stress and job satisfaction in banking industry Other studies also indicate that bank employees are suffering from the issues of low wages, high turnover, and job insecurity among bank employees which may lead to low job satisfaction (Springer, 2011; Belias, Koustelios, Sdrolias & Aspridis, 2015) Similar findings on the relationship between job stress and job satisfaction could be seen in other industries (Behrman, 1984; Grefson & Wendell, 1994; Chiu, Chien, Lin & Hsiao, 2005; Khattak, Ul-Ain & Iqbal, 2013) For example, Chen and Silverthorne (2008) examine job stress in accountant firms Siegal (2000) investigates three dimensions of job stress in software companies Moreover, Balogun and Olowodunoye (2012) confirm that job satisfaction significantly impacts on turnover intention among bank employees Therefore, how to control job stress – job satisfaction relationship is one of key factors in human resources management In recent years, the Vietnamese banking industry has developed remarkably As reported by the National Financial Supervisory Commission (Ninh, 2016), the whole banking system has 35 local commercial banks, 55 foreign bank branches, comparing to the figure of commercial banks in 1986 (renovation stage) Since Vietnam joined in World trade organization (WTO) in 2007, banking market has become more and more competitive In response, bank employees have to make effort to achieve high target, provide good customer services and complete other tasks in a restricted time Ngoc (2016) argues that bank employees in recent years have been suffering from high target, position movement, work conditions changes, over workload, cutting wages and benefits, etc so they intend to quit job Moreover, it could be explained by the facts that in 2012 the Prime Minister approved Project 254 “Restructuring credit institutions system 2011-2015” to reduce the number of weak banks and improve the banking system’ soundness and safety Thus, this has caused significant changes in policy and work conditions which led to high voluntary turnover rate Another evidence given by Lan (2015) shows that an average turnover rate in banking sector in Vietnam reached to 15%, the highest level among several examined industries As such, it could be conducted that bank employees in Vietnam have suffered from high pressure, high level of stress and low satisfaction in recent years Consequently, current research aims to examine the relationship between three dimensions of job stress (i.e role ambiguity, role conflict, and work overload) and job satisfaction in Vietnam In addition, a few researchers suppose that the job stress – job satisfaction relationship may depend on several individual personality characteristics, especially locus of control (Chen & Silverthorne, 2008; Martin, Thomas, Charles, Epitropaki & McNamara, 2005) Locus of control is defined as an individual’s beliefs about what determines whether or not they get reward in life (Rotter, 1966) Rotter classifies locus of control into external and internal locus of control Locus of control is still a new concept in Vietnam, but it has been explored in many studies all over the world (Rahim, 1996; Judge, Erez, Bono & Thoresen, 2003; Chiu, Chien, Lin & Hsiao, 2005; Lee, 2013) Perrewe (1986) proves that employees who have external locus of control suffer higher level of job stress and lower job satisfaction Those previous studies suggest that there can be the presence of locus of control as a moderator of job stress job satisfaction relationship Recently, some Vietnam banks have been studying the moderating effect of locus of control on job stress – job satisfaction relationship to manage human resources effectively In general, Vietnamese banking industry has developed notably during the past few years and experienced many changes Because of these changes, bank employees have been suffering from high level of stress and low level of satisfaction Besides, locus of control may impact the job stress - job satisfaction relationship and have been studied by several researchers Current study aims to investigate locus of control as a moderator of job stress - job satisfaction relationship in Vietnam banking industry Specifically, the study intends to examine the impact of role amibiguity, role conflict, workload, locus of control on job satisfaction In addition, current research proposes to compare the locus of control effect between private and state-owned banks Literature review and hypothesis development 2.1 Foundational theory Person–environment fit and person-organization fit theory This research applies person-environment (P-E) fit and person-organization (P-O) fit theory in analysing relationship between job stress and job satisfaction (Yang, Levine, Smith, Ispas & Rossi, 2008) P-O fit concerns the antecedents and consequences of suitability between people and the organizations where they work (Kristof, 1996) Person–job fit is other way to consider P-E fit for work situations and it contributes positively to variance in job attitudes It is stated that people are happier and more successful in their work environment when their personality matches features of the environment Low level of P-O fit may lead to job dissatisfaction, intention to leave, and higher levels of stress Therefore, better fit between personal and organization as well as personal and job can enhance job satisfaction and minimize job stress Social learning theory The current study applies social learning theory of Rotter (1954) in studying locus of control The main idea in Julian Rotter's social learning theory is that personality represents an interaction of the individual with his or her environment Rotter (1966) defines locus of control as people’s cross-situational beliefs about what determines whether or not they get reinforced in life Based on employee’s belief and daily behaviour, an individual can be classified as internal locus of control or external locus of control According to the theory, individuals with internal locus of control believe in their own ability to control themselves and influence the world around them On the other hand, a person with a high external locus of control typically believes that personal outcomes depend on the environment (Rotter, 1990) People with different types of locus of control response differently to their environment This will be argued in next sections 2.2 Related review and hypothesis Job stress and job satisfaction According to Darmody and Smyth (2016), the individual is likely to experience occupational stress or job stress when the demands of the job exceed a person’s abilities Job stress may refer to a dynamic condition in which the individual is confronted with an opportunity, constraint or demand related to what he or she desires and for which the outcome is perceived to be both uncertain and important (Robbins, as cited by George & K.A., 2015) or any characteristics of the job environment which pose a threat to the individual (Caplan, Cobb & French, 1975) Job stress is different from general stress because it is organization related (Montgomery, Blodgett, & Barnes, 1996) The factors causing stress in a person are called stressors Many studies have focused on two key role stressors: role conflict and role ambiguity (Coverman, 1989; O’Driscoll & Beehr, 2000; Siegall, 2000; Behrman, 1984) It is similar to the argument that organizational based antecedents of job satisfaction are role ambiguity and role conflict (Van Sell, Brief &Schuler, 1981; Fisher & Gitelson, 1983; Siegall, 2000) In addition, Rahim (1996) indicates that job stress has four dimensions: role conflict, role ambiguity, role overload and role insufficiency Most studies have included the dimension “role overload” along with role conflict and role ambiguity (Abraham, 1997; Hang-yue, Foley& Loi, 2005; Chiu, 10 ...UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business Hong Phuong Nhi THE MODERATING EFFECT OF LOCUS OF CONTROL ON JOB STRESS -JOB SATISFACTION RELATIONSHIP: EVIDENCE. .. moderating effect of locus of control on the role ambiguity - job satisfaction relationship in private bank than in state-owned bank H4b: There is higher moderating effect of locus of control on the. .. showed the moderating effect of locus of control on the job stress – job satisfaction relationship in private banks Introduction Employees can be one of the most precious fortunes in firms While banking