Stress Management Survey Analysis

MBA 512

May, 5th 2010

Hatim Ouladelhadjahmed

&

Xiaoyu Yang

Topic Overview

*Take a look at some of these recent stress statistics, courtesy of the American Psychological Association (APA Survey 2004).

• Two thirds of Americans say they are likely to seek help for stress.

• 54 % of Americans are concerned about the level of stress in their everyday lives.

Having trouble coping with job stress? Check out these workplace-related stress statistics:

• 62% of Americans say work has a significant impact on stress levels.

• 52% are more stressed because of work than home.

• 54% of workers are concerned about health problems caused by stress.

• 45% of workers list job insecurity has a significant impact on work stress levels.

• 61% of workers list heavy workloads as a significant impact on work stress levels.

• 73% of Americans name money as the number one factor that affects their stress level.

• One in four workers have taken a mental health day off from work to cope with stress.*http://www.hardcore-stress-management.com/stress-statistics.html

What is Stress Defined?

• Stress is defined as an organism's total response to environmental demands or pressures.

• Stress in humans results from interactions between persons and their environment that are perceived as straining or exceeding their adaptive capacities and threatening their well-being.

http://www.answers.com/topic/stress

Background

• The survey was conducted at my work place• In the past year, we have gone through some

significant downsizing in our organization. (Through buy-outs and lay-offs)

• The result, my headcount at work was reduced by 64%

• Out of the 53 employees that remain at work, only 33 of them meet their current objectives

Background continued

• Employees that are left, don’t feel secure in their jobs, as a result of the downsizing

• My organization is continuing on downsizing• The employees that don’t meet their objectives

have a bigger negative impact on the office results, since the headcount has decreased

Research Question

• Would employees benefit from stress management training in the work place?

• Relevant Factors:– Demographics– Familiarity with Stress Management– Identifying where the stress is coming from– Identifying activities the employees can utilize to manage

their stress– Will stress management help employees with their stress

and help them meet their performance

Research Hypothesis

• If the company initiates stress management training in the workplace, would the employees meet their performance?

Data Collection & Preparation

• Would employees benefit from stress management training in the work place?

• Relevant Factors:– Demographics– Familiarity with Stress Management– Identifying where the stress is coming from– Identifying activities the employees can utilize to manage

their stress– Will stress management help employees with their

stress and help them meet their performance

Survey Description

• Demographic- Questions were written to identify range of the population in the office

• Questions included were:– Age– Gender– Employment Status- position held– Family Status

Survey Description

• Behavioral questions • Questions were designed to see if the

employees understood what is stress management and background on their stress– Are you familiar with Stress Management or other

methods of relieving stress?– Is your stress due to: Work, outside of work or both

Survey Description

• Opinion question• Questions were designed to see if the

employees would use stress management tools and if their performance was impacted by stress– Do you think Stress Management is a good initiative for

our company?– When you are under pressure at work, which of the

following activity helps you cope with your stress?– Do you perform better at work when you are less

stressed?– If the following activities were made available when you

are stressed, will it help with your productivity?

Data Collection

• Target Audience- Employees at work place• Population was 53 employees, and all 53

responded to the survey• The decision was simple, wanted to include all

employees at work location, since there were only 53 people

• We passed out 53 surveys, received 53 back. 100%

• A paper survey was provided to all employees

Delivery Method

• Physical distribution of printed surveys– Surveys handed to 53 associates at my work place– Each associate completed the survey and returned to

me, once completed– Employees did not have to place their name on the

survey– Advised employees this survey was for the purpose of a

school project – Participation was voluntary and not required– Had 100% participation from the associates. Passed 53

surveys and received 53 back

Potential Sources of Error

• Employees may have had felt pressured to respond, since it was their boss asking them to complete it

• Employees may had answered the questions untruthfully, not knowing if there was a hidden agenda

DATA PREPARATION

• Age • Gender • Employment status• Family Status     • Perception of SM• Resource of Stress• Preference of SM• Instinctive reaction under pressure• Relations between productivity and mood• Relations between productivity and different way of SM

Age Proportion

A. 18 to 26 years old

B. 27 to 35 years old

C. 36 to 43 years old

D. 44 to 52 years old

E. Over 52 years old

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

4

8

14

18

9

60% of the respondents age ranged from 36-52. It fairly match’s the official Population Pyramid

Gender Proportion

7

46

A. MaleB. Female

Out of 53 respondents, 86% are females and 14% are males.

Family Status

A. Married with Children

B. Single with Children

C. Single

D. Married no children

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

31

8

5

9

31 of respondents are married with children.

Employment Status

A. Service Assistant A

11% B. Service Assistant B

4%

C. Operator A

47%

D. Operator B

36%

E. Clerk2%

A. Service Assistant AB. Service Assistant BC. Operator AD. Operator BE. Clerk

Majority of respondents are Operator A’s

Resource of Stress

Most of the Stress the employees experience is coming from work. While 12 of the employees believe the main source of their stress is from outside work.

A. Work B. Outside work0

5

10

15

20

25

30

3532

12

Summary of the Data

• All surveys were completed • 60% of the respondents are in the middle-ages.• 86% of the respondents are female• 58% of them are married with children• 83% of them are operators• 60% of them think they have stress from work• 64% of the respondents, find Yoga as the best alternative to reduce

their stress.

Additional hypothesis for later testing

• Gender or Age could effect the preference of Stress Management

• Position may effect the level of Stress• Family status should effect the source of the stress

ANALYSIS

• We will show you 5 examples of 4 different ways we analyzed our data

1. 2 One-sample hypothesis testing

2. 1 two-sample hypothesis testing

3. 1 Simple Linear Regression

4. 1 Multiple Regression

Efficiency of the Stress Management

• Hypothesis question: Do people prefer Stress Management more or other ways to relief your stress more?

• Survey: When you are under pressure at work, which of the following activity helps you cope with your stress?

• Method: One Sample Hypothesis Testing for proportion(n>30)

one-sample test for proportion

• Conclusion: Most of the employees prefer Stress Management than other alternatives

• Interpretation: Instinctively, employees will choose to use different Stress Management techniques. In other words, when a company initiates Stress Management, they will get their original expectation of increasing productivity.

Summary of the 1SHT

• Hypothesis question: Could people under less stress perform better?

• Survey: Do you perform better at work when you are in a good mood?

• Method: One Sample Hypothesis Testing for proportion (n>30)

Stress with Productivity

one-sample test for proportion

• Conclusion: Most of the employees will perform well under less pressure

• Interpretation: The less stress the employees have the better they will perform

Summary of the 1SHT

• Hypothesis question: Are employees who are familiar with Stress Management believe it is an good initiative more or less than the employees who are not familiar with it?

• Survey:

Are you familiar with Stress Management or other methods of relieving stress?

Do you think Stress Management is a good initiative for our company?

• Method: Two Sample Hypothesis Testing for proportion (n>30)

Belief of the Stress Management

two-sample test for the proportion

Summary of the 2SHT

• Conclusion: There is no difference in the belief of Stress Management between the employee who is familiar or unfamiliar with the method

• Interpretation: The employees who are familiar or unfamiliar with Stress Management, both believe Stress Management should have a positive impact on their performance

Simple Linear Regression

• Question: Is there a relationship between the Productivity and the preference to get relief?

• Dependent (Y): Productivity level of employee under less stress

• Independent (X): Preference of the way to relieve stress • Null: H0: =0b Productivity has no relation with preference

• Alt: H0: 0 b Productivity has a relation with preference

Data Analysis

Summary of Regression

• Formula: Y=-0.1X+0.62• Interpretation: Since p-value = 0.363 > 0.05, do

not reject the Null, the variable is insignificant. There is no relation between the Productivity and the preference to get stress relief.

• Conclusion: We can not predict the Productivity by the variable.

• Reliability: This model is only 2% reliable

multiple regression

• Question: Is there a relationship between the Productivity and the ways of Stress Management?

• Dependent (Y): Productivity level of employee under “less stress”

• Independents (X): 4 different Stress Management techniques: Yoga, Exercise, Artistic Expression and SPA

• Null: H0: =0b Productivity has no relation with techniques of Stress Management

• Alt: H0: 0 b Productivity has a relation with techniques of Stress Management

Data Analysis

Summary for the Regression

• Formula: Y=0.01X1+0.12X2+0.02X3-0.13X4+0.6

• Interpretation: Since p-value are all greater than 0.05, the variables are insignificant. There is no relation between the Productivity and the different kinds of Stress Management techniques.

• Conclusion: We can not predict the Productivity by these 4 variables. Yoga, Exercise, Artistic Expression and SPA)

• Reliability: (0%) reliable of this model

Reporting

1SHT 1SHT 2SHT Regression Multiple Regression

Conclusion

Most of the employees prefer

Stress Management other than

alternative ways

Most of the employees will

perform well under stress

There is no difference about the belief of the

S.M. between the employee familiar or unfamiliar with

the method

 We can not predict the

Productivity by the

variable.

 We can not predict the

Productivity by these 4 variables.

Interpretation

Employees preferStress Management

to be their first Consideration

When employees have less stress

they will have more productivity

The employees both believe the

Stress Management whether they

know them or not.

 We can not predict the Productivity by the selections of how to get relief and 4 ways of Stress Management either.

Research Question: Would employees benefit from stress management training in the work place?

Final Conclusion

• As indicated by the hypothesis testing, the employees will definitely benefit from stress management training in the work place. As far as performance, the employees will meet it, regardless if they are familiar with stress management or not.

• We can not predict what kind of Stress Management will be the desirable selection.

• However, Stress Management is really as good as we thought previously and our survey is actually helpful.

• Hypothesis Testing: We should had asked different questions, in order to have the opportunity to conduct different hypothesis testing.

• Regression: If we would had researched different stress management techniques, we could had been able to include them in the survey to analyze the relationships.

• Should had included a question, that would had captured the level of stress by the employees and level of productivity.

Do you have any recommendations?  

Suggestions for future research

• The questions could had been tailored better to fit the different analysis tools at hand

• This study was trying to answer two questions: 1. for stress management and 2. for productivity. If we had to do it over, I think we would had needed to ask a couple of more questions for each; 5 relating to stress management and 5 relating to performance, on top of the 5 demographic questions.

• Would include other employees from different departments, that did not report to me, to try to eliminate potential source of error

• Try to get a more balanced respondents for gender

Questions?