Nature of Employment and Psychosocial Stress

Abstract

Contractual employment has been on the rise for the last few decades. Traditionally, such practices were used only to manage the small or temporary fluctuations in workload. However, in present scenario some positions are staffed only with temporary employees. Contractual or temporary employment is expected to be associated with poor working conditions, negative health consequences, financial constraints, adversities, hardships etc. The objective of the present study is to examine and compare the level of psychosocial stress among regular and contract based employees, working in public sectors. Sample of 300 public sector employees from Himachal Pradesh, India were selected and divided into two groups i.e.  regular and contract based (150 each). These subjects were further divided into sub-groups based on genders. The outcome was statistically analyzed using two-way analysis of variance to find out significant differences if any. The outcome of the present study revealed that contract based employees have experienced significantly higher level of psychosocial stress as compared to regular employees. Further, males have experienced higher level of stress than their female counterparts.