Abstract

Michael O. Samuel*, Helen O. Osinowo and Crispen Chipunza

The main objective of the study was to assess the impact of financial distress in the Nigerian banking industry as it affected job satisfaction, perceived stress and psychological well-being of employees and depositors. The research adopted case study as a strategy and employed independent groups design in order to get a balanced assessment of the subject. Variables of interest were not manipulated in order to allow for accuracy of judgment and results. Self administered questionnaire - perceived stress scale by Blaus (1965); psychological well-being scale by Goldberg (1978); job satisfaction scale by Ugwuegbu (1985) and a self-developed questionnaire by the researchers to solicit information from bank employees and depositors - was administered to 105 respondents comprising of 61 bank employees and 44 bank customers. The questionnaire had a Cronbach alpha coefficient of α = 0.88 thus confirming the reliability of the data collecting instrument. A total of 5 hypotheses were formulated and tested. The results showed that employees in healthy banks were more satisfied with their jobs than those in distressed banks; but the difference between their mean scores did not reach a significant level thus suggesting that employees in distressed banks equally enjoyed their jobs like their colleagues in healthy banks. Curiously, depositors in healthy banks experienced higher level of stress than depositors in distressed banks; while employees in healthy banks experienced higher job satisfaction than those in distressed banks. Finally, the results also showed that employees in distressed banks did not experience higher stress level than those in healthy banks.