Mediating Effect of Self-efficacy in Relation of Job Stress and Work Satisfaction

 

Jeonug-Yeoul Kim*

Department of Addiction Rehabilitation and Counseling, Chongshin University, 143 Sogang-dong

Dongji-gu Seoul, 06988, Korea

 

ABSTRACT:

The main aim of this study was to isolate the pullulan producing yeast like fungus, the exopolysaccharide, pullulan and examine both the yeast like fungus and the product. Leaves and flowers were collected from the top of the hill with different climatic conditions compared to the plains. The yeast like fungi were isolated and cultured using a specific enrichment media to procure the product and the yeast like fungus producing it. Two varieties of pullulan were found, one pigmented and the other non-pigmented because of presence of two different strains. Leghaemoglobin, from the nodules of groundnut plant, was added to the product to prevent its oxidation, which is one of the main problems faced by commercially used pullulan. The leghaemoglobin was mixed in a buffer solution, to maintain the pH at 4, which is optimum for the yeast like fungus. The culture was subjected to anaerobic conditions by incorporation of leghaemoglobin in the culture media. The growth of the yeast like fungus stopped completely indicating the obligate aerobic nature of the yeast like fungus. Lactophenol cotton blue test was conducted and the morphological analysis confirmed the nature and structure of the yeast like fungus.

 

 

 

1. INTRODUCTION:

The social welfare job has a characteristic that it provides a comprehensive and diverse service related to the needs and desires needed by people living in the workplace, which is more stressful than other fields. And Social workers experience various job stress as emotional laborers, and this causes the job satisfaction to be reduced¹. To find solution for this problem and improve the job satisfaction, this study investigated the mediation effect of self-efficacy on the relationship between job stress and job satisfaction of social workers who work in the long-term care facilities.

 

In order to achieve the purpose of the study, first, how is the relation between job stress, job satisfaction, and self-efficacy?  Second, is there any mediation effect of self-efficacy on the relationship between the job stress and job satisfaction?

 

2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND:

2.1. Job Stress:

Job stress is defined in various ways by many investigators. Beehr and Newman² defined job stress as the condition which changes the employee's psychological and physiological situation when the occupational factors interact with the employ and results in dysfunction of him/her. French et al³ described the job stress as the incongruity between a person's ability or competency and demands of situations or job environment which is supposed to satisfy him/her. Shuler⁴ considered job stress as the reaction of adaptability to the external situation which causes the physical, psychological, behavioral stray of a member of a group. Workplace stress is the result of interaction between the individuals' characteristics and the source of latent stress in the occupational circumstances, or the unfitness of the individual's situation or role⁵. According to Parker and DeCotiis⁶, occupational stress is the dysfunctional cognition or emotion that a particular person feels as a result of a condition or event which are recognized in working places. Greenberg and Baron⁷ explains job stress as a pattern of emotional state and physical reaction which happens in a situation when a person recognize a danger of the important goal which may not be able to be achieved by him/herself. Lussier⁸ also explains that job stress is a personal emotional or physical reaction to the situations and events which happen.

 

2.2. Self-efficacy:

Self-efficacy is an idea that appeared in 1960's for the first, and defined in various ways by different researchers. Bandura⁹ defined self-efficacy as a belief or confidence in his/her job performance which a person has. It is also defined as a motivational belief which a person think that he/she has an ability to perform the work well in various situations, or the degree which a person thinks how well he/she can perform different kinds of tasks in various situations¹⁰. Yong-bae Shin¹¹ considered self-efficacy is the estimation about a person's ability which can organize and conduct essential actions for a particular result, and it is explained as a personal decision about how competently perform the task in a given situation and a personal conviction for a particular behavior¹². Lastly, Gardner and Pierce¹³ thinks that self-efficacy is a motivational conviction of a person who believes that he/she has an ability that can carry out things successfully in any kinds of varied situations and tasks, and the degree how much he/she is convinced of that. Therefore, putting these various opinions together, a self-efficacy is the degree of recognition which a person believes that he/she can perform the task with success.

 

2.3. Job Satisfaction:

There are many definitions of job satisfaction according to many different investigators. Locke¹⁴ said that job satisfaction is an attitude toward a job, and this is a positive emotion that a person gains from the work or the feedback, and Smith¹⁵ considered it as a series of attitude that a person experiences through the work in balanced emotions of good and bad feeling. It is also defined as the degree how individuals feel about their works which could be positive or negative, and the emotional reaction or attitude about the physical or social conditions of tasks which the employee’s conduct¹⁶. According to Hellman¹⁷, it is the combination itself of the cognitive and emotional reaction to the differences between the things that an employee gains actually and the things that an employee wants to gain. Weiss¹⁸ considered it as a positive (or negative) opinion about the job or the working environment, and it was described as an attitude to an occupation which happens when a job or a working experience is evaluated. This is a pleasant and positive emotional state of a person and this reflect the degree of belief that the job offers what the person wants to have¹⁹. To sum up these opinions about what self-efficacy is, it is the degree of estimation of the positive or negative emotions or attitudes which the employees experience through the occupational environment.

 

2.4. The Relation among Job Stress, Self-efficacy, and Job Satisfaction.

If an individual of an organization gets negative emotion for stressors, the job satisfaction decreases²⁰. However, the relation between the job stress and the job satisfaction is not always negative, but rather there are positive opinions²¹These positive opinions explain that in a same group, for certain person, the job stress could be linked to a positive side which is a chance. However, when the occupational stress is prolonged, dissatisfaction can't help increasing²². The stressors make the job performance disrupted. According to the research of Jong-il park²³ there was a positive correlation between job satisfaction and self-efficacy. That is, the higher self-efficacy is, and the higher job satisfaction is. Young-ja Kim²⁴ explained that there are Moderating Effects between job stress and organizational effectiveness; therefore, a person who has high self-efficacy has low stress response, and is confident in job performances, whereas a person who has low self-efficacy has high stress response, and the job satisfaction decreases after all.

 

3. MATERIALS AND METHODS:

3.1. Research design:

This study examined the mediating effect of self-efficacy on the relationship between job stress and job satisfaction of social workers who works in long-term care facilities, using a quantitative research method.

 

3.2. Subject to study and data collection:

A questionnaire survey was conducted to 360 social workers who work in 30 long-term care facilities in Seoul. The questionnaire were sent to and collected from November 1 to November 10 in 2011, and the proper respondents were 306 people. The convenience sampling, which is non-probability sampling, was chosen for sampling method.

 

3.3. Method of research:

3.3.1. Job Stress:

As for job stress, 7 items of the scale of Parker and Decotiis²⁵ was converted to be suitable for this study, and 5-point Likert scale was used. The Cronbach's for the scale of job stress was .947.

 

3.3.2. Self-efficacy:

16 items of the scale for self-efficacy of Young-ja Kim²⁴ was converted to be suitable for this study, and 5-point Likert scale was used. The Cronbach's for the scale of self-efficacy was .879.

 

3.3.3. Job Satisfaction:

6 items of Cook²⁶, Steers²⁷'s scale was converted to be suitable for this study, and 5-point Likert scale was used. The Cronbach's for the scale of job satisfaction was .797.

 

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION:

4.1. The correlation of job stress, self-efficacy, and job satisfaction.

Table 1 shows the correlation between job stress, self-efficacy, and job satisfaction of social workers. There was negative correlation between the job stress and the self-efficacy (-.218). This means the higher job stress is, the lower self-efficacy is. The correlation between job stress and job satisfaction was negative (-.525). This means the higher job stress is, the lower job satisfaction. Lastly, the correlation between self-efficacy and job satisfaction was positive (.532), and this means the higher self-efficacy, the higher job satisfaction.

 

Table 1: The correlation of job stress, self-efficacy and job satisfactio

Model	Job Stress	Self-efficacy	Job Satisfaction
Job Stress	1
Self-efficacy	-.218***	1
Job Satisfaction	-.525***	.532***	1

*p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001

 

4.2Mediating effect of Self-efficacy in Relation of job stress and Work Satisfaction:

The results of Baron and Kenny²⁸ approach to mediating testing are on the table 1, 2, 3. Firstly, the autocorrelation of the dependent variables and the multicollinearity between the independent variables were examined before the mediation testing, and the result shows that the Durbin-Watson statistic was 1.264, which indicates non-autocorrelation.

 

Table 2: Autocorrelation

R	R-Square	Adjusted R-Square	Standard error of estimate	Durbin-Watson
.218(a)	.048	.044	0.45333	1.264

 

 

Table 3: Multicollinearity

	Unstandardized coefficient		Standardized coefficient	T	P-value	Collinearity statistic
	B	Standard error	Beta			Tolerance limit	VIF
(Constant)	3.842	.093		41.134	.000
Role conflict	-.115	.029	-.218	4.315	.000	1.000	1.000

*p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001

 

Step 1 showed that the job stress (p<0.001), which was the independent variable, had a significant effect on the self-efficacy. The higher job stress (B=- .115) was, the lower the self-efficacy was, and the coefficient of determination was 4.8%. For the next, step 2 indicated that the job stress (p<.001), which was the independent variable, had a significant effect on the job satisfaction. The higher the job stress (B=- .409) was, the lower the job satisfaction was, and the coefficient of determination was 27.6%. At step 3, the job stress (B=- .334 p<.001) was statistically significant, and the regression coefficient dropped from - .409 to - .334. Therefore, the self-efficacy partially mediates the effect of job stress on job satisfaction.

 

Table 4: mediating effectiveness

	Step1	Step2	Step3
	Self-efficacy	Job Satisfaction	Job Satisfaction
Constant	3.842***	4.656***	2.166***
Job Stress	-.115***	-.409***	-.334***
Self-efficacy			.648***
R 2	.048	.276	.458
F	15.193***	115.819***	128.248***

*p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001

 

5. CONCLUSION:

This study conducted for the mediating effect of self-efficacy on the relationship between job stress and job satisfaction of social workers who works in the long-term care facilities in Seoul. As a result, The relationship between job stress and self - efficacy is negatively correlated, which means that the higher the job stress, the lower self - efficacy. The correlation between job stress and job satisfaction is negatively correlated, which means that the higher the job stress, the lower the job satisfaction. The correlation between self - efficacy and job satisfaction shows that the higher the self - efficacy, the higher the job satisfaction. The self-efficacy partially mediates the effect of job stress on job satisfaction. This indicates that it is possible for the job stress of the social workers to have a negative influence on the job performance. Therefore, the support for the proper education of self-efficacy is strongly asked to improve the social workers' job satisfaction.

 

6. ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The research was supported by the research fund of Chongshin University.

 

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