[TOURISM ARTICLES] STRATEGIES FOR MANAGING STRESS IN THE HOTEL WORKPLACE IN OSOGBO METROPOLIS, NIGERIA

Tourism Articles

STRATEGIES FOR MANAGING STRESS IN THE HOTEL WORKPLACE IN   OSOGBO METROPOLIS, NIGERIA

BY

                Chukwu Johnson C.,  Aiyegbayo Opeoluwa O.

and Osinubi Olufemi B.

Department of Hospitality, Leisure and Tourism Management

Federal Polytechnic, Ede, Osun State

Abstract
This study is aimed at dissecting the general idea of stress and stressors which has been viewed in different ways and conceived as pressure from the social, economic and physical environments, even as  strains within the person and  interaction between the situation and the individual. The study equally evaluates why most hotel business do not realize it goals adequately due to occupational illness facing her employees despite the technological advancement. The methods of data collection adopted were oral interview, observation and administration of questionnaire of which 350 questionnaires were administered to selected hotels in Osogbo, which formed the bases of the entire sample and 300 were returned, representing 85.70 per cent of the entire sample. Meanwhile, using simple percentage analysis, the findings revealed among others that 80.00 per cent of the respondents were of the opinion that stress affects the efficiency of staff in the hotel workplace and was concluded that stress should be adequately managed to increase productivity and promote staff development. It was recommended and conforming with global trends in hospitality and tourism industry by reducing workplace stress that is plausible and combining it with good management practice which requires employer’s cooperation.

Keywords: Stress, Stressor, Occupational Illness, Strain, development

INTRODUCTION

Stress can play a positive role at workplace by increasing the vigilance of the staff and activating their adaptive capabilities as certain level of stress begins to affect one’s health and productivity. Employees in any setting therefore, have become cautious about the incidence of stress at workplace, due to commercial and moral reasons as they are trying to adopt management approaches for controlling such stress. The situation is particularly sensitive in the hotel industry as it consists of both intensive labour and involves face to face communication with the guests.

Work stress leads to problems like absenteeism, poor performance, accidents, errors, alcohol and drug abuse (Williams et al., 2001).

A stressor is a chemical or biological agent, environmental condition, external stimulus or an event that causes stress to an individual (Sato et al., 2006). Stressors have physical, chemical and mental responses inside the body. Physical stressors produce mechanical stresses on skin, bones, ligaments, tendons, muscles and nerves that cause tissue deformation and in extreme cases tissue failure. Chemical stressors also produce biomechanical responses associates with metabolism and tissue repair (National Research Council, 2001).

Chronic pain and impairment requiring medical attention may result from extreme physical stressors. Stressors may also affect mental function and performance. Mental and social stressors may affect behaviour and how individuals respond to physical and chemical stressors (National Research Council, 2001).    

Causes of Stress at Workplace

The recognised causes of work-related stress are numerous; here are some of the causes of stress at hotel work place

a)     Political climate of the work place

b)    Requirements and the demands of the customers

c)     Role vagueness

d)    Poor relationship with the co-workers or boss

e)     Conflicting performance expectation

f)      Work pressure

g)     Overtime and exertion

h)    Sexual molestation

i)       Harassment or exploitation

j)       New work hours

k)    Over-time or working at odd hours

l)       Over-work

m)  individual socio-economic and family factors (Edward 2001).

In Malaysia, there are some other unmeasured variable that add to stress at workplace (Manshor, 2000) and these include financial stress and physical health of the employers.

According to World Health Organisation (WHO, 1999), work stress is the response people may have when presented with work demands and pressure that are matched to their knowledge and abilities and which challenge their ability to cope.

Symptoms of Stress

Stress can have both short and long term responses.  The symptoms of stress may be caused due to any organic illness of the body but may also be regarded as the signs and symptoms of excessive stress. Some of the symptoms of stress are problems on their own and can aggravate the job stress being experienced. Other symptoms if not managed can have serious consequences on the performances and health of the individual.

Various authors have categorised symptoms of occupational stress as:

(a)  Physical symptoms: These occur when the body adapts to a physical threat by the release of adrenaline in the body. This excess adrenaline in the body allows it to fight the stressor and assist in survival. Thus, physical symptoms are more difficult to quantify as there may be an overlap between these symptoms of occupational stress and other aspects of the individual life.

The physical symptoms of stress include: headaches, dizziness, sleep disturbance (insomnia), clenched jaw, grinding teeth, fatigue, skin disease, increased heart rate, high blood pressure, lack of energy, hyperventilating, and general restlessness.

(b) Psychological symptoms: Are the emotional and cognitive problems experience by the individual under condition of job stress. The emotional reaction to stress has been identified as fear, guilt, panic, denial, anger, numb, aggression and irritability, frustration, apathy, sense of helplessness, feeling over-worked, feeling overwhelmed.

(c)  Behavioural symptoms: There can be significant changes in the person’s behaviour when exposed to stress over time. They have been characterised as increased consumption of alcohol and drug abuse, absenteeism, inability to rest, changes in speech, decreased contact with family and friends, being accident prone, poor work relations, sense loneliness, avoiding others and others avoid you because you’re cranky.

Impact of Job Stress on Employee`s Performance

It is widely accepted by several people working in the hotel that stress and burn out, sap the performance of staff. Whether employees are urged for rejuvenation for themselves through communal pursuit in the world beyond the doors of hotel or whether they have access to more formalized opportunities during their work days. It has been considered by the hotel executives that initiatives for controlling stress are vital as reservation desk for hotel industry (Caryn, 2011).

In the hotel establishment, it was discovered in this research that there is a negative correlation between quality of services delivered to customers and work related quality stress that is; highly stressed employees have failed to provide high quality services compared to less stress one (Varca, 2009). Moreover, employees who are responsible for customer services, report chronic stress and they perform poorly in their job (Beehr et al., 2000).

Generally, stress related to job has been shown as a major factor which leads to declining job performance of employee (Lepine et al.,  2005). Meanwhile, high level of exhaustion leads to decline in employee’s capability to learn new things (Lepine et al., 2005) which leads to withdrawal, more depressive symptoms and hostility.

Satisfaction and Work Performance

One of the major tasks of the human resources manager is to ensure the work place motivation for employees. To keep the employees satisfied with the jobs and tasks they do. In the hospitality industry as in hotel, specifically in developed countries such as UK and USA the high employee turnover can be observed as a result of workplace dissatisfaction and poor performance.

Rafiq et al (2000) expresses five major factors that affect job satisfaction. These factors are: external job stress, internal job stress, empowerment, internal marketing and leadership (Rafiq et al.2000). However, how these factors affect job satisfaction can best be described in the form of the following diagram.

External Job Stress

Leadership

Job Performance

Job Satisfaction

Organisational commitment

Empowerment

Internal Marketing

Internal Job Stress

  

Source: Rafiq et. al. (2000)

Techniques Used in Managing Stress

v Cognitive Behavioural Approach: Cognitive- behavioural therapy (CBT) is among the most effective ways of reducing stress whether the sources of stress is chronic pain or a chronic disease, CBT may be more helpful than support groups for improving well-being and quality of life.

A typical CBT approach includes identifying source of stress, restructuring priorities, changing one’s response to stress and finding methods for managing and reducing stress.

Identifying sources of stress

One key component in most CBT approaches is keeping a dairy to record daily events and activities. The first step is to note activities that put a strain on energy and time, trigger anger or anxiety, or precipitate a negative physical response (such as a sour stomach or headache). Also, note positive experiences or physically refreshing or that produce a sense of accomplishment.

After a week or two, try to identify two or three events or activities that have been significantly upsetting or overwhelming.

Questioning the source of stress: individuals should then ask themselves the following questions:

a)     Do these stressful activities meet my goals or someone else’s?

b)    Have I taken on tasks that I can reasonably accomplish?

c)     Which tasks are under my control and which one’s aren’t?

Restructuring priorities: adding stress reducing activities, the most important steps is to attempt to shift the balance from stress producing to stress reducing activities. Eliminating stress entirely is rarely possible, but there are many ways to reduce its impact.

Consider as many relief options as possible: Example includes:

a)     Listen to Music: music is an effective stress reduces in both healthy individual and people with health problems. Research finds that listening to soothing music can decrease blood pressure, heart rate and anxiety levels in heart patient.

b)    Take long weekend or vacations.

c)     If the source of stress is in the home, plan times away, even if only for an hour or two a week.

d)    Replace unnecessary time-consuming chores with pleasurable or interesting activities.

e)     Make time for recreation: this is as essential as paying bills or shopping for groceries.

f)      Own a pet: research finds that pet owners have a lower blood pressure increase in response to stress than people who do not own pets.

Discuss feelings: the concept of communication and letting your feeling out has been so excessively promoted that it has nearly lost its value as good psychological advice. Nevertheless, feelings of anger or frustration that are not expressed in an acceptable way may lead to hostility, a sense of helplessness and depression.

Express feelings do not mean venting frustration. In fact, anger may cause a spike in blood pressure in some people. Some therapist strongly recommends just talking, rather than venting anger.

Expressing one’s feelings solves only half of the communication puzzle, learning to listen, empathize and respond to others with understanding is just as important for maintaining the strong relationship necessary for emotional fulfilment and reduced stress.

Keep perspective and look for the positive: reversing negative ideas and learning to focus on positive outcomes helps reduce tension and achieve goals.

v Relaxation and Other Alternative Approach: Relaxation methods: because stress is here to stay, everyone needs to develop methods to promote the relaxation response. Relaxation lowers blood pressure, respiration and pulse rate, releases muscle tension, and excess emotional strain. This response is highly individualized, but there are certain approaches that seem to work for most people. Meditations during the run-up to a stressful event can reduce the stress response, relaxation lowers blood pressure, respiration pulse rate, releases muscle tension, and ease emotional strain. This response is highly individualized, but there are certain approaches that seem to work for most people. Meditation during the run-up to a stressful event can reduce the stress response without impairing alertness, concentration or memory.

Combinations of these techniques probably work best. No one should expect these approaches to completely relieve their stress, but if they are done regularly, these programs can be very effective in a recent view; it was shown that mindfulness bases stress relievers and reduction (MBSR) techniques are effective stress relievers and reduced stress in healthy people. Techniques include yoga and meditations significant reductions in stress levels were seen in participants compared to those not engaging in any treatment. Outcomes were assessed using the mindfulness attention awareness scale (MAAS).

v Acupuncture: some evidence suggest that acupuncture might improve some of the physical factors associated with both stress and health problems, for example, acupuncture may improve stress related heart muscle activity in heart failure patients, which could provide an important benefit to these patients, However, acupuncture has no effect on stress –related blood pressure or heart rate.

v Hypnosis: hypnosis may benefit some people with severe stress in one study of patients with irritable bowel syndrome, stress reduction from hypnosis led to improvement in many bowel symptoms.

v Relaxation method: This includes breathing, exercise during stress breathing shallow and rapid. Taking a deep breath is an automatic and effective technique for winding down. Deep breathing exercise consciously intensifies this natural physiological reaction and can be very useful during a stressful situation or for maintaining a relaxed state during the day.

v Muscle relaxation: muscle relaxation often combined with deep breathing are simple to learn and useful for getting to sleep. In the beginning it is to have a friend or partner check for tension by lifting an arm and dropping it. The arm should fall freely. Practice makes the exercise much more effective and studies have reported beneficial effects on blood pressure in patients with high blood pressure who use this technique.

v Bio feedback: bio feedback is a technique that measures body functions, such as breathing heart rate, blood pressure, skin temperature and muscle tension. By watching these measurements, individual can learn how to alter these functions by relaxing or holding pleasant images in their mind.

v Massage Therapy: massage therapy may decrease cortisol levels and some research suggests a possible role of physical touch in managing stress.

v Herbal and natural remedies: Some people who experience chronic stress try herbal or natural remedies. Although many benefits are claimed, few (if any) have been proven. In addition, just as with standard drugs, so-called natural remedies can cause health problems, which can sometimes, be serious, similarly homeopathic remedies have not shown to be effective treatment for anxiety or stress.

v Aromatherapy: the smell of lavender has long been associated with a claiming effect. In addition, several other aromatherapies are now used for relaxations. Use cautions however, as some of the exotic plant extracts in these formulas have been associated with a wide range of skin allergies.

 Benefits of Stress Management

Here are the various benefits of stress management

(1) Knowledge earnings:

i)                   Gaining practical exposure to overcome stress during work time.

ii)                Gain knowledge to follow tactics to get relief from stress and to overcome stress during work time.

(2) Less absenteeism due to stress-related disorders.

(3) Less worker’s compensation loss due to stress- related illness or accidents.

(4) Improve job performance.

(5) Less stressful, more efficient workplace.

(6) Improve employee attitude

(7) Health related benefits of stress management are:

(a)  Decrease stress –related symptoms.

(b) Improved sleep.

(c)  Decreased anxiety.

(d) Decreased use of medication.

(e)  Decreased pain, increased ability to manage pain.

(f)   Increase sense of control and improved self-esteem.

(g)  Improve the productivity of the hospitality business.

The Study Area

Osun state is located in the south-western Nigeria with the capital as Osogbo on coordinates 7⁰46⁰ N and 4⁰34⁰E with an area of 47kmsq. According to 2006 Population and Housing Commission Census, the city has population of 156694. Osogbo shares boundary with Ikirun, Ilesa, Ede, Egbedore and Iragbiji and is easily accessible from any part of the state because of its central nature. It is about 48km from Ife, 32 from Ilesa, 46km from Iwo, 48km from Ikire and 46km from Ila-Orangun.  

Objectives of the Study

The major purpose of this study is to uncover the salient strategies for managing stress in the hotels in Osogbo metropolis. The specific objectives were as follows:

·        To identify the symptoms and causes of stress in the hotel workplace.

·        To evaluate the impact (effect) on employees performance.

·        To determine the effect of stress on the hotel business.

Research Questions

    Does stress affects staff efficiency in the hotel workplace?

    Are the techniques for managing stress adequately implemented in the hotel workplace?

    Does stress has negative impact on the growth of the hospitality business?

    Do you think there is need for stress management in the hotel workplace to meet up with global trend?

Research Methodology

A total of three hundred and fifty questionnaires were administered to selected hotels in Osogbo metropolis out of which three hundred were returned and accepted for the study. The random sampling technique was adopted for the administration of the questionnaires within Osogbo to ensure that each element in the population has an equal chance in the survey.

Data collected was subjected to statistical analysis with the use of simple percentage and chi-square to test the hypothesis for validation of the study.

Data Collection Techniques and Analysis

53 questionnaires were administered to white plain suites and towers, 51 to Atlantis Grand suites hotel, 50 to Royal spring holiday inn, 42 to Brymor hotel, 50 to Ideal Next hotel and 54 to Leisure spring hotels, Osogbo. 

Study Area	Name of selected Hotels	Numbers of respondents	Percentage (%)
Osogbo Metropolis	White plain suites and tower	53	17.66
	Atlantis Grand suites hotel	51	17.00
	Royal spring holiday  inn	50	16.67
	Brymor hotel	42	14.00
	Ideal Nest hotel	50	16.67
	Leisure spring hotel	54	18.00

         Source: Field study (2015)

Table 1: Stress and staff efficiency in the hotel workplace

Option	Respondents	Percentage (%)
Affect staff efficiency	240	80.00
Does not affect staff efficiency	50	16.67
Undecided	10	3.33

Source: Field survey (2015).

The table above shows that 80.00 per cent of the respondents were of the opinion that stress affects staff efficiency in the hospitality industry, 16.67 per cent of the respondents were of the opinion that stress does not affect staff efficiency in the hotel workplace, while 3.33 per cent of the respondent were undecided.

This shows that stress affect staff efficiency in the hotel workplace.

Table 2: Techniques for managing stress in the hotel workplace

Option	Respondents	Percentage (%)
Adequately implemented	60	20.00
Not adequately implemented	225	75.00
Undecided	15	5.00

 Source: field survey 2015

The table above shows that 20.00 per cent of the respondents were of the opinion that the technique for managing stress is adequately implemented in the workplace, 75.00 per cent of the respondents were of the opinion that the technique for managing stress in the hotel workplace is not adequately implemented, while 5.00 per cent of the respondents were undecided on the techniques for managing stress in the hotel workplace.

This shows that the techniques for managing stress are not adequately implemented in the hotel workplace.

Table 3: Stress and its impact on the growth of the hospitality business

Option	Respondents	Percentage (%)
Stress has negative impact on growth	234	78.00
Stress has positive impact on growth	60	20.00
Stress does not affect growth	06	2.00

Source: Field survey (2015)

The table above shows that 78.00 per cent of the respondents were of the opinion that stress has negative impacts on the growth of hospitality business, 20.00 per cent of the respondents were of the opinion that stress does not negative impact on the growth of hospitality business, while 2.00 per cent among the respondents were of the opinion that stress does not affect growth of the hospitality business.

This shows that stress has negative impact on the growth of hospitality business.

              Table 4: Stress management and global trends in the hotel workplace           

Option	Respondent	Percentage (%)
There is need to manage stress in the hotel	228	76.00
No need to manage stress in the hotel	54	18.00
Undecided	18	6.00

Source: Field survey (2015)

The table above showed that 76.00 per cent of the respondents were of the opinion that there is need for managing stress in the hotel workplace to meet up with global trends, 18.00 per cent of the respondents were of the opinion that there is no need for managing stress in the hotel workplace, while 6.00 per cent of the respondent were undecided about stress management and global trends in the hotel workplace.

This shows that there is need for effective and efficient management of stress in the hotel workplace to meet up with global trends in the hospitality industry.        

Hypothesis

H₀: Stress affects the efficiency of staff in the hotel.

H₁: Stress does not affect the efficiency of staff in the hotel.

. 

Option	WPS	AGS	RSH	BH	INH	LSH	Respondent
Yes	42	45	43	30	35	45	240
No	10	5	5	10	14	6	50
Undecided	1	1	2	2	1	3	10
	53	51	50	42	50	54	300

                                                                                 

α= 0.05         

Decision Rule: Reject H₀ if Fcal > Ftab, otherwise do not reject

ANOVA TABLE

Source of Variation	SS	df	MS	F	P-value	F crit
Between Groups	30	5	6	0.013688	0.999916	3.105875
Within Groups	5260	12	438.3333
Total	5290	17

Decision: We therefore accept H₀ since Fcal > Ftab, and conclude that stress affects the efficiency of staff in the hotel workplace.

Discussion

Table 1 showed that stress affects the efficiency and productivity of staff in the hotel workplace. This is in line with Williams et al. (2001) who opined that work stress lead to problems like absenteeism, poor performance, accidents, errors alcohol and drug abuse. Stress can play a positive role at workplace by increasing the vigilance of staff and activating their capabilities. A certain level of stress begins to affect one’s health and productivity. Employees are becoming cautious about the incidence of stress at workplace and are adopting various approaches to control its negative effect.

Table 2 showed that the techniques for managing stress is poorly implemented in the hotel workplace and this in the long-term affect quality of service delivery. This in in accordance with Varca, (2009) who opined that there is negative correlation between quality of services delivered to customers and highly stressed employees have failed to provide high quality services compared to less stressed employee. Therefore, techniques such as Cognitive Behavioural Approach, Relaxation and other alternative approach should be implemented in any hospitality business so as to manage stress adequately.

Table 3 showed that stress has negative impact on the growth and development of the hospitality business. if the stress is not properly managed, it can affect the productivity of an hotel establishment negatively. Factors such as the structure of the building, insufficient space to operate, lack of privacy and constant interruptions cause a high level of stress losing productivity of the employees (Stanks, 2005).

Table 4 showed that there is need to manage stress in the hotel workplace so as to meet with global trend in hospitality industry. The rapidly altering work situation has brought about the use of new technology in the industry. This addition of new technology brings with it unfamiliarity and obsoleteness among employees. Inadequate training with the use of the new technology may expose managers to experience overload, threat from subordinates, as the supervision given by them may be perceived as inadequate. This according to Dunham (2001) may deteriorate the quality of work relationships in the organisation.

Conclusion and Recommendation

Hospitality industry has been growing consistently in this present time and various factors have been supporting it to gain competitive advantage. Organizational stress is considered as a growing phenomenon and the awareness among staff and managers of its ill effect is not increasing. The impacts of stress are not necessarily negative. Inadequate stresses makes an individual bored and propagate lack of interest in the work. High levels of stress also lead to ill health and low productivity of individuals which the organization suffers the resultant effect. Fluctuating levels of stress decreases productivity, lowers employees morale, increases abstenteeism due to sickness and decreases labour turn over ; the costs of which are borne by the organization.

In order to key into global trends in the hotel workplace, it is germane to maintain optimal level of stress in the workplace so that employees can perform at the peak of their capabilities.

In the context of the managers, it was deducted through data collected through interviews that manager suffers from high level of stress at the hotel workplace which is detrimental to the organization and if not timely combated, it affects the performance of the organization as a whole because, when managers are stressed, it tends to filter down the hierarchy to their subordinates which affects productivity and efficiency of the entire organization and prevent the organization from catching up with global trends in the hotel business.

Thus, the following recommendations were made towards managing stress in the hotel workplace.

·        Motivational and career coaching should be considered by the hotel management for managers and staff on regular basis. They should undergo counselling in order to identify the level of stress and stressors. Some amount of inspiration and motivation is necessary to nullify the effect of stress on staff and increase their loyalty to the organization.

·        Reducing workplace stress is largely a matter of good management practice, and simply requires employees and employers cooperation to work together for common good. Both share joint responsibility for reducing stress, and when this is successful, it helps employees to enjoy the job more and enables the business to thrive as a result.

·        Hotel managers need to focus on the concept of rational thinking to convert negative stress to positive emotion. Managers need to be precise with their judgement, thus eliminating the factors of threat by any situation.

·        To reduce work place stress, managers may monitor the workload given out to the employees. Also while they are being trained they should let employees understand and be notified of stress awareness.

REFERENCES

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