job stress among muslim immigrants in north america: moderating effects of religiosity

STRESS MEDICINE, VOL. 9 145-151 (1993)

JOB STRESS AMONG MUSLIM IMMIGRANTS IN NORTH AMERICA: MODERATING EFFECTS

OF RELIGIOSITY

MUHAMMAD JAMAL, PhD Department of Management, Concordia University, Loyola Campus, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H4B 1 R6

JAMAL BADAWI, PhD Department of Management, Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, B3H 3C3

SUMMARY

This study examined the relationship of job stress with psychosomatic health problems, happiness in life, job satisfaction, job motivation, organizational commitment and turnover motivation in a sample of Muslims living in Canada and the USA. Data were collected by means of a structured questionnaire ( N = 325). Results generally supported the prediction that job stress will be positively related to psychosomatic health problems and turnover motivation, and negatively related to happiness in life, job satisfaction, job motivation and organizational commitment. Degree of religiosity was proposed as a moderator of job stress-outcome relationships. Results from moderated multiple regression indicated that for this sample of Muslims religiosity was an important moderator of the stress- outcome relationships. Implications of the findings for stress management and for future research in the racioethnic area are highlighted.

KEY woms-Stress, psychosomatic health, job satisfaction, Muslims in North America, religiosity.

The symptoms of job stress are widespread among working people, as are the adverse effects of high stress on their well-being, health and effectiveness.’ Job stress has been recognized as one of the most serious occupational health hazards of our time.2 Work-related stress affects employees’ health, with 50-80 per cent of all diseases being psychosomatic or of a stress-related n a t ~ r e . ~ In addition, job- related stress results in organizational problems of employees’ job dissatisfaction, burnout, high absenteeism and turnover, low organizational commitment, and marginal job perf~rmance.~~’ By and large, the focus of job stress research in North America and other industrialized countries has been the Anglo-Saxon majority, with little or no recognition of the growing diversity of ethnic pres- ence in the workforce.6 In the past two decades, ethnic diversity in the labor force has become a fact of life, as more and more people from non- Anglo-Saxon Christian backgrounds are being per- manently settled in North America. This article

attempts to examine the relationship of job stress with psychosomatic health, happiness in life, job satisfaction, job motivation, organizational commitment, and turnover motivation among gainfully employed Muslims ( N = 325) living in Canada and the United States of America. In addition, moderating effects of religiosity on the relationship between job stress and outcome variables will also be examined.

Job stress can be conceptualized as an individual’s reactions to work environment characteris- tics that appear threatening to the individual. It indicates a poor fit between the individual’s abilities and the work environment, in which either excess- ive demands are regularly made of the individual or the individual is not fully equipped to handle a particular situation. Implicit in this conceptuali- zation of stress is the chronic nature of job stress, which implies that chronic stress arises when the individual does not fully recover between work- days, causing lasting physiological strain which

0748-8386/93/03014547$08.50 0 1993 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Received 21 February I993 Accepted 6 April 1993

146 M. JAMAL AND J. BADAWI

may result in stress-related disease or end-organ dysfunction.' In contrast, acute stress is conceptualized in terms of short, temporary situations such as taking examinations or dealing with short-lived extraordinary workloads such as faced by account- ants at the end of the fiscal year, or departmental clerks with the Christmas shopping rush. Investi- gations which employ the acute stress perspective generally measure changes from, and return to, baseline states, whereas the studies which employ the chronic stress perspective usually rely on self- reports of psychological states and a range of symptoms assumed to be related with the enduring char- acteristics of particular occupations or types of jobs.7

In the present study, the person+xwironment fit model of chronic job stress was utilized. However, others have conceptualized stress differently, and these conceptualizations have been reviewed else- where.* Our choice of the P-E fit model was based on its popularity in behavioral science as well as its solid empirical support. Notwithstanding conceptual variation, job stress usually results in dis- ruption of the individual's psychological and physiological homeostasis, forcing deviation from normal functioning in interactions with job and work environment. In the face of chronic job stress, the individual's deviation from normal functioning more often tends to move towards the dysfunctional side from the individual perspective as well as from that of the employing organization.'-" This is because, as argued by Gupta and Beehr, most employees are extremely averse to chronic job stress that creates a noxious situation in the work environment.'*

Racial and ethnic diversity in the workforce in North America and other industrialized countries has increased significantly in the last 25 years and is projected to increase further in coming years.I3 As the composition of the workforce becomes increasingly diversified, the assumption that knowledge about work behavior compiled almost exclus- ively for white men using white subjects applies equally well to other ethnic groups is increasingly inappropriate. Thus there is a growing need to understand the heterogeneity of the workforce for effective management of human resources as well as of organizational f~nctioning.~J~

With racioethnic diversity in North America has also come religious diversity: Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and Muslims. As mentioned previously, this study was conducted among Muslims living in Canada and the USA. The number of Muslims in

North America has risen dramatically in the last half century through immigration, procreation, and conver~ion.'~ It is estimated that there are approximately four to six million Muslims in North America. About two-thirds of the total are immigrants from Muslim countries and their descen- dants. The vast majority of the others are AmericadCanadian converts, mostly with Afro- American backgrounds. If the Muslim community continues to grow at the present rate, by the year 2015 Islam will be the second largest religion in North America.16

In a recent review of articles on racioethnic issues, it was found that out of 11 804 articles published in 16 leading management journals from 1971 to 1989, only 201 address issues of race or ethnicity.17 In addition, it was found that a majority of the published articles (54 per cent) focused on either hiring decisions or equal opportunity/affirm- ative action. However, a significant number of articles were devoted to main topics in management such as job satisfaction, performance evaluation, need satisfaction and motivation. This paucity of research becomes even more acute for the Muslim minority in North America. To the best of our knowledge, no systematic research has been done in management/organizational behavior involving the Muslim minority in North America, with two exception^.'^,'^ However, both studies used Muslim students studying at American universities as their sample, instead of full-time employed Muslims in North America. Although using such student sam- ples creates an international flavor in research, many visa students are obligated to return to their home countries after graduation. Thus the present study in a modest way attempts to offer some empirical evidence in an area of management research where the record even to date seems to be what Cox called 'quite meager'.I4

It is proposed in the present study that religious conviction (religiosity) among Muslims in North America will moderate the relationship between job stress and outcome variables. Islam, the religion of Muslims, is perceived by its adherents as a complete way of life, with instructions for both work and non-work life spheres. In the work sphere, Islam informs its followers that 'whoever goes to bed exhausted because of hard work, he has thereby caused his sins to be absolved'.'' This and many more similar instructions guide the work behavior of Muslims in organizations. Thus, when things become tough because of high job stress, Muslims with high religiosity will more likely turn to God

JOB STRESS AMONG MUSLIM IMMIGRANTS 147

for consolation and help than Muslims with low religiosity. The above prediction is generally supported among other religious groups in North America.20

Specifically, the following two hypotheses were tested in the present study:

Hypothesis I . Job stress will be negatively related to happiness in life, job satisfaction, job motivation and organizational commitment, and positively related to psychosomatic health problems and turnover motivation.

Hypothesis 2. Religiosity will be an important moderator of job stress and outcome relationship. That is, respondents with high religiosity will be less seriously affected by the adverse effects of job stress than respondents with low religiosity in similar situations.

METHOD

Research setting and subjects

Data for this study were collected from Muslims living in the USA and Canada by means of a structured questionnaire. Approximately 684 question- naires were mailed to paid members of the Islamic Society of North America with instructions to mail back the completed questionnaire directly to researchers at the university's address. With one follow-up, 325 (48 per cent) completed question- naires were returned. The majority of respondents were male (86 per cent), married (72 per cent) and Canadian or American citizens (81 per cent). The average respondent was 39 years of age, had been in North America for the last 15 years and had 2.6 children. Forty-six per cent of the sample had graduate education (Master, PhD, MD) and only 18 per cent had below high school education (grade 12 or lower). Respondents reported a variety of mother tongues including Urdu (36 per cent), Ara- bic (30 per cent), English (14 per cent), Bengali (5 per cent), Somali (3 per cent), Turkish (3 per cent) and miscellaneous (9 per cent).

Measures Psychosomatic health problems Psychosomatic

health problems were assessed by adapting measures from Michigan studies of workers' health." Health problems examined in the present study included headaches, upset stomach, trouble getting to sleep, gas or bloated feelings, changes in bowel

movement, early morning sickness, loss of appetite, dizziness during the day, nervousness or shakiness inside and inability to relax. Each health problem had 1-5 response categories, 1 representing having to face the problem less than once a month and 5 representing having to face the problem several times a week. Individuals' responses on various health problems were combined to create an index of psychosomatic health problems. A higher score on this index indicated a higher degree of health problems.

Happiness in life Happiness in life was assessed with a behaviorally anchored type scale developed by Fordyce." The scale has 1 1 well-defined stages of happiness in life and respondents are instructed to check one statement that best describes hisher average (common feelings) happiness. This scale is widely used in quality of life studies and has excellent psychometric properties. A higher score on this scale indicated a higher degree of happiness in life.

Job satisfaction Job satisfaction was assessed by employing the Hoppock Scale.22 The scale has four items and each item has from 1-7 scale points. A higher score on this scale indicated a higher level of job satisfaction.

Job motivation Job motivation was assessed with a seven-item scale adopted from Guion and land^.*^ The response option varied from 1 to 5 and a higher score indicated a higher degree of job motivation.

Organizational commitment Organizational commitment was assessed with the Porter Scale." The scale has 15 Likert-type items, with response categories varying from strongly agree to strongly disagree. This scale is widely used in management research and has good psychometric proper tie^.^ A higher score on this scale indicated a higher degree of organizational commitment.

Turnover motivation Turnover motivation was measured with the one-item global measure of asking the respondent to give his or her probability of staying with the same employer 2 years from the day the questionnaire was answered. This measure has been reported as a reasonably valid measure of actual turnover. A higher score on this measure indicated a higher probability of leaving the present organization.

148 M. JAMAL A N D J. BADAWI

Job stress Job stress was assessed with a 13-item Table 2-Relationship between job stress and dependent scale developed by Parker and Decotiis.’’ This is also a Likert-type scale with 1-5 response options Variable Correlation Simificance

variables ( N = 325)

- indicating strong agreement to strong disagree- ment. A higher score on this scale indicated a higher

level

degree of job stress. Psychosomatic problems 0.33 p<o.o1 Haminess in life -0.39 P < O . O l

Religiosity Religiosity was assessed by asking respondents to indicate on a scale of 1-10 (1 being low and 10 being high) how they would describe their degree of religiousness both at present and in the past in their homeland. Since both measures of religiosity correlated highly, it was decided to use the measure of religiosity at present in the present study.

RESULTS

The means, standard deviation and alpha reliability coefficients (for scales with multiple items) of psychosomatic health problems, job satisfaction, job motivation, organizational commitment and job stress, happiness in life, turnover motivation and religiosity are presented in Table 1. Reliability

Table 1-Means, standard deviations and reliability coefficients of studv variables

Variable No.of Means SD Alpha

Psychosomatic health problems 10 16.49 5.75 0.79

Happiness in life 1 6.99 1.71 - Job satisfaction 4 19.26 4.01 0.82 Job motivation 7 23.33 3.38 0.50 Organizational

commitment 15 45.50 7.24 0.75 Turnover

motivation 1 2.45 1.39 - Job stress 13 32.10 9.31 0.89

items reliability

Religiosity 1 6.89 2.04 -

coefficients varied from 0.50 (job motivation) to 0.89 (job stress). The job motivation scale was found to be less reliable than other scales used in the present study. It was nevertheless retained for further analyses due to its reasonable reliability reported in the literature and its widespread use.”

Pearson correlations between job stress and six dependent variables are presented in Table 2. As predicted, job stress was significantly negatively correlated with happiness in life, job satisfaction,

JOG satisfaction -0.41 p < 0.01 Job motivation -0.20 p c 0.01 Organizational

commitment -0.25 p < 0.01 Turnover motivation 0.18 p < 0.01

job motivation and organizational commitment. In addition, job stress was found to be positively correlated with psychosomatic health problems and turnover motivation. Thus, hypothesis 1 was clearly supported by the data in the present study.

Moderated multiple regressions were used to test hypothesis 2, which concerned the interactive effects of religiosity on job stress and outcome variables. To determine the joint contribution of job stress and religiousness on six outcome variables, we performed a hierarchical regression analysis in which job stress was entered first, followed by religiosity and then job stress x religiosity. A summary of these analyses is presented in Table 3.

Out of a possible six interaction effects, only four were found to be statistically significant, which partially confirmed hypothesis 2. A close examination of the data through subgroup analysis revealed that in all four significant interaction effects, high religiosity respondents suffered less seriously from the adverse effects of job stress than respondents with low religiosity. It is interesting to note that all significant interaction effects involved variables which are important to employing organizations, such as job motivation, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover motivation. Thus, it can be said that for Muslims in the present sample, religiosity appeared to be an important buffer against the dysfunctional consequences of job stress.

DISCUSSION

The results of the present study indicated that job stress was positively related to psychosomatic health problems and turnover motivation, and negatively related to happiness in life, job motivation, job satisfaction and organizational commitment among employed Muslims in Canada and the


Table 3-A summary of moderated multiple regression of job stress, religiosity and the six outcome variables ( N = 325)

Predictor Outcome variables Psychosomatic Happiness Job Job Organizational Turnover

problems in life satisfaction motivation commitment motivation R2 R 2 ~ R2 RIA R2 R2A R2 RZA R2 R2A R2 RIA

Job stress (JS) 0.12* 0.12* 0.14* 0.14* 0.16* 0.16* 0.07* 0.07* 0.05* 0.05* 0.03* 0.03* Religiosity (R) 0.13* 0.01 0.16* 0.02 0.17* 0.01 0.08* 0.01 0.06* 0.01 0.04* 0.01 JS X R 0.13* 0.00 0.17* 0.01 0.20* 0.03* 0.13* 0.05* 0.10* 0.04* 0.07* 0.03*

pcO.05.

USA. These findings are in complete agreement with the bulk of existing studies on job stress, which primarily involved Anglo-Saxon Christian majori- ties. The fact that the present sample was very het- erogeneous, involving subjects from blue-collar to professional (MDs, PhDs, engineers), lends further credibility to our findings. Before the findings are discussed any further, a note of caution is war- ranted about the perceptual nature of measures used in the present study. Moreover, it should also be acknowledged that our findings might be limited to the sample population investigated.

The findings that job stress is related to psychosomatic health problems are consistently reported in the stress l i t e r a t ~ r e . ' ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ , ~ ~ For example, in a recent study of clerical workers and sales assistants from a financial services organization, Steffy and Jones found that measures of perceived job stress were significantly related to sychosomatic distress and coronary disease risk?'Similarly, in a study of 21 5 nurses, it was found that job stress and four job stressors (ambiguity, overload, conflict and resource inadequacy) were positively correlated with psychosomatic problems." Although self- reported measures of health were employed in the present study, it is encouraging to note that the strength of relationships appears to be comparable with studies which employed objective measures of health." In addition, our findings are also comparable to studies which used non-self-reported measures of job stress in studying employees' health.'jZ9

The findings that job stress is significantly related to work attitudes such as job satisfaction, job motivation, organizational commitment and turnover motivation are also regularly reported in stress l i t e r a t ~ r e . ~ * ' ~ ' ~ ~ That these results are replicated among immigrants in North America is not surpris- ing, because when individuals perceive their job as psychologically threatening and harmful, it is

very unlikely for them to say that they are satisfied with their jobs. Similarly, when jobs are perceived as being unpleasant and rushed, it is logical for individuals to exhibit less liking for these jobs. Thus, it becomes quite reasonable to experience low job satisfaction, and exhibit marginal motivation and organizational commitment and higher desire to leave the present organization, when con- fronted with chronic high job stress. The findings of the inverse relationship between job stress and happiness in life, though unique to the present study, may be construed as an additional support to the pervasive effects of job stress on employees' personal well-being and work attitudes and behavior.

Religiosity was found to be an important moderator of job stress and outcome relationships, significantly moderating four of the six relationships. All moderated relationships involved work-related variables (ie job satisfaction, job motivation, organizational commitment, turnover motivation), sug- gesting that religiousness acts as a buffer against the adverse consequences of chronic job stress. The unique variance explained by the interaction effects of job stress x religiosity was 3 per cent for job satisfaction, 5 per cent for job motivation, 4 per cent for organizational commitment, and 3 per cent for turnover motivation. These findings are not sur- prising, as religiosity establishes a relationship with God and the supernatural. When chronic stress becomes an everyday happening at jobs, people with stronger religious conviction turn towards God for consolation and help, and in turn become less seriously affected by high stresses than other people in similar situations. In general, the role of religion in coping with overall life stress has been well documented."

From the managerial perspective, many would argue that religiosity cannot be used as the basis for employment decision^.^' In support of their

150 M. JAMAL AND J. BADAWI

argument they might, therefore, say that knowing how religiosity impacts or does not impact employees’ attitudes and behavior has no practical value to managers since there is nothing a manager can do about it legally. The same argument might be suggested for gender differences in work-related attitudes and behavior. Gender cannot be used as a basis for employment decisions either. But, by studying any differences among employees due to sociodemographic variables such as gender, race, religion, marital status, age, etc, we add to our knowledge of employees’ attitudes and behavior. This extra knowledge might help managers to understand their employees better and this under- standing may lead to more desirable work out- comes in an increasingly divergent workforce in North America and perhaps in other c o ~ n t r i e s . ~ ” ~ ’ ~ ‘

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This study is partially supported by a research grant to the first author from Fonds pour la formation de chercheurs de I’aide a la Recherche (91-ER- 0506). The authors would like to acknowledge the assistance of Dr Amer Al-Roubaie and Ms Jialin Xie in the DreDaration of this manuscrbt.

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job stress among muslim immigrants in north america: moderating effects of religiosity

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