Impact of the use of Information Technology on Employee stress level and Job satisfaction in the banking and financial sector of Sri Lanka

Increasing use of information technology by business organizations has brought on severe effects on human behavior. Organizations have become conscious about shortcomings of IT such as ‘technophobia’ and ‘technostress’ and are interested in seeking solutions to minimize negative effects of IT. This research deals with the impact IT has on employee stress level and job satisfaction. The research approach used is the deductive method of reasoning. Using the survey method as the research strategy, a cross-sectional study was conducted involving the Sri Lankan Banking and Financial sector, chosen through multi-stage probability sampling. Expecting a response rate of 65%, 590 questionnaires were distributed among the banking and financial sector employees in Colombo. 384 completed questionnaires were collected. Data gathered from the sample was descriptively analyzed as well as crosstabulated to infer secondary associations between demographic factors. For statistical analysis, Spearman’s correlation was used. It is a non-parametric measure of correlation between variables which assesses how well an arbitrary monotonic function could describe the relationship between two variables. The process of analysis was carried out through SPSS statistical software. The analysis revealed that information overload and technostress have a linear relationship with factors such as education, experience, task for which IT has been used etc. Similarly, categories of job satisfaction such as “retention” and “job attendance” were also identified as having a correlation with factors such as attitude, image, IT complexity etc. Consequently, this paper concludes with a discussion and a recommendation to overcome the negative outcomes of IT on employee stress and job satisfaction while enhancing the positive ones.