Investigating the relationship between the leadership style of managers, personality type and the level of stress among Parsian bank employees in the north and west branches of Tehran

Dissertation for Master's degree (M.A)

Trend: Human Resource Management

Abstract:

According to the conducted studies, a high percentage of the employees of the organizations complain about the signs of stress and often attribute their stress to the leadership style, now this question is raised, is there a relationship between the leadership style of the managers, the type of personality and the level of stress of the organization's employees? It is necessary to explain, due to the effect of personality on tension, this factor was considered as a moderating variable in the analyses.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship between the manager's leadership style, personality type, and the level of tension among Parsian Bank employees in the north and west branches of Tehran. The present research is applied in terms of objective and descriptive-survey in terms of data collection, and in terms of field implementation, the statistical population of the studied managers and employees of Saf Parsian Bank in the north and west branches of Tehran city were 150 people, of which a sample of 108 people was randomly selected according to Cochran's formula. To collect information, a questionnaire tool was used, which after confirming its validity and reliability (Cronbach's alpha coefficient) was distributed among the sample for the leadership style questionnaire 96.5%, for the tension questionnaire 88% and for the personality type questionnaire 92%. To analyze the research data, descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage) and inferential statistics (non-parametric test, correlation test) were used to analyze the research data. Pearson, regression analysis, analysis of variance table and Friedman's test) have been used.

The research findings confirm:

There is a significant relationship between the manager's leadership style, personality type and the level of tension in the employees of Saf Parsian Bank.

In addition, the results show that the level of tension of the employees in both personality types A and B is lower as we get closer from the authoritarian-exploitative leadership style to the cooperative style. Also, 96% of the surveyed society identified the work environment as a source of stress.

The results show that the level of stress of type A employees with an average of 1.5652 is higher than the level of tension in personality B with an average of 1.2448. Also, in relation to managers, the level of stress in personality A is 1.3727 higher than the level of tension in type B with an average of 1.18.

At the end, suggestions at both organizational and individual levels for Ensuring the mental health of employees in the organization has been proposed in order to preserve and maintain human resources and increase their efficiency.

Key words: authoritarian-exploitative leadership style, authoritarian-benevolent leadership style, consultative leadership style, collaborative leadership style, tension, personality A, personality B

Introduction

In today's world, tension[1] has severely threatened human life and its destructive effects in individual and social life are clearly visible. Employees' concern about work, organization's expectations, management problems and employees' expectations from the organization's managers all cause that people from the moment they wake up in the morning until they rest in the evening, always have various emotions, tensions, worries, fears and hopes, which sometimes are not compatible with their physical, nervous and mental capacity. The set of such states and pressures caused by it is called stress. (Alavi, 1372)

The subject of stress has a long history in psychiatry and has been studied for years as one of the important issues of management science due to the important effects it has on people's behavior and performance. Stress causes the human body to perform the tasks that it performs easily in normal conditions, with difficulty in the conditions of stress. Therefore, stress causes a lot of damage to the individual and the organization.

The present study investigates the relationship between the manager's leadership style, personality and the level of stress in the employees of Saf Parsian Bank in the north and west of Tehran. For this purpose, this research is written in five chapters.

The first chapter includes the introduction, statement of the problem, importance of the problem, research objectives, research assumptions, definition of words, research method and research process, research background and research scope. In the second chapter, the theories related to the basic topics of the research, i.e. leadership styles, tension and personality, have been examined. Then, the relationship between managers' leadership styles and tension has been investigated. In the third chapter, the research method is presented in detail.. In the fourth chapter, the collected data has been analyzed, and finally, in the fifth chapter, summary, conclusions and suggestions have been presented.

1-2-Statement of the problem

According to the studies conducted, a high percentage of the employees of the organizations can see the signs that indicate the existence of tension in them (Ivanswitch and Matson, 1980), (Robbins, 1993), (Abtahi, 1370) and (Rafiei, 1373).

On the other hand, oftentimes employees who live under stressful conditions complain about the leadership style of their managers. Now the question is whether there is a meaningful relationship between the leadership style of managers, the personality and the level of stress of employees.

Leadership means the ability to influence a group in order to achieve a goal or goals (Robbins, 2016). Leadership style refers to permanent and continuous behavioral patterns that people use when working with others and through others and is understood by people (Maqemi, 2017). By relying on an inappropriate leadership style or inconsistent motivational technique, organizational goals will be damaged, and employees may also feel resentment and reluctance, oppression, insecurity, and dissatisfaction. The pattern and model of management in every society is influenced by the leadership practices in that society. Some management researchers believe that the main difference between a successful organization and an unsuccessful organization is in its leadership style. Factors such as culture, time, experience and preparation for leadership and understanding and evaluation and priorities and expectations have an effect on the way of leadership. Before thinking about leading the followers, the leader or manager must first correctly identify the forces that exist under him because each of the followers has his own characteristics and he expects the leader to deal with him in a way so that his needs are met (Khorshidi, 2013).

Appropriate and appropriate leadership methods differ from each other according to how long each employee has been in charge of the position and job. Employees may have high expectations and duties from their manager on the first day of employment in an organization. It means that the manager specifies what he expects from the employees and also that he specifies in detail for the employees how to perform each task and responsibility, but in the next stages, the employees expect from the management that they are given more freedom of action, that is, that an agreement is made with them on what is expected of them, and that the employees are allowed to decide freely and how to do that work, and then they are informed of the manager's appropriate feedback about the result and how to do that work. In the third stage, employees may expect the manager to give them positive or negative feedback about how they do their work. Finally, an employee who is highly motivated may be able to complete his work and job independently, although this may not be appropriate for some employees.

Rensis Likert, a professor at the University of Michigan, has studied leadership and management patterns and styles for thirty years, and as a result of this research, he has expanded the ideas that are important in understanding leadership behavior. Likert has presented the classification of the main styles of task-oriented and employee-oriented and the four-level model of management effectiveness. Likert has determined four styles under the title system one or autocratic-exploitative style, system two or autocratic-benevolent style, system three or consultative and system four or collaborative style for leadership. In summary, in Likert's theory, method number 1 is pro-work, managerial, autocratic and highly organizational. But method number 4 is management in favor of communication and is based on teamwork, mutual trust and confidence. Method number 2 and 3 are intermediate steps between two maxims that are closer to theories X and Y. With the help of the theory of four leadership styles, organizations can be measured in terms of leadership style and determine the relationship between organizational efficiency and the type of leadership.

On the other hand, nowadays, psychological stress has become an integral part of human life and determining the health or illness of people is very important. Mental stress affects physical and mental functions through psycho-neurophysiological mechanisms, and in the long run, it can lead to the creation or aggravation of physical or psychological disorders. The causes of mental stress can be both internal and external.