INFLUENCE OF JOB CHALLENGES AND GOAL AMBIGUITY ON THE PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL BEING OF EMPLOYEES OF CHAMPION BREWERIES

INFLUENCE OF JOB CHALLENGES AND GOAL AMBIGUITY ON THE PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL BEING OF EMPLOYEES OF CHAMPION BREWERIES

CHAPITRE ONE

INTRODUCTION

The Study’s Context

Psychological well-being is about living a happy life. It is the combination of feeling good and performing well (Ryff & Singer, 2008; Selingman, 2011). Individuals do not have to feel good all of the time to be happy; experiencing unpleasant or painful emotions is a natural part of life, and being able to handle these negative or painful emotions is crucial for long-term happiness (Marks & Shah, 2005). However, psychological well-being is jeopardized when unpleasant emotions are intense or long-lasting and interfere with a person’s capacity to operate in daily life.

Working effectively entails developing one’s potential, having some control over one’s life, having a feeling of purpose (e.g., working toward a specific goal), and having positive relationships (Wright 2007).

In recent years, there has been an exciting movement in the research literature from a focus on disease and dysfunction to one on well-being and good mental health (Mulgan, 2006; Layard, 2012). As a result, the World Health Organization defined health as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, rather than the absence of disease or infirmity” (WHO, 2000). According to research, employee psychological well-being has a variety of effects on organizations, including performance, productivity, turnover, and indirect costs (Page and Vela-Broderick, 2009; Wright 2007, Danna and Griffin, 1999). Enhancing employee well-being is widely recognized as critical for competitive advantage and organizational survival (Amabile, 1988; Shalley, 1995). Unfortunately, employee psychological well-being is frequently overlooked in human resource management (Baptiste, 2008).

However, there are several elements that might have an impact on an employee’s well-being, either positively or negatively. Job challenge and goal ambiguity are two examples (Locke & Latham, 2006).

Job challenge has been defined in several ways (Aneen and Sidewall, 1994; Depater, Van Vianen Beettoldt 2009; Dixo 2005; Huang et al 2007). Job challenge has been identified as a work characteristic in general research (De Peter, Van Vianen, Beehtodt 2009; Mecauley et al, 1999). Other researchers used the phrase employment challenge in their studies but did not define it (Bandura, 1986; Maurer & Tarulli, 2005). According to goal setting philosophy, a job challenge is one that is challenging but attainable. Others perceive it as meeting very high performance expectations (Berlew & Hall’s, 1966). The demand model (Karasek, 1979) addressed employment challenge in terms of both qualitative (having to deal with goal ambiguity or conflicting roles) and quantitative (the extent to which an employee is required to perform quickly). Furthermore, the best definition comes from (McCauley, Ohlott, and Rudeman, 1999), who defined five job components that reflect the most difficult portion of the profession:

Job transition, in which individuals are faced with new tasks and settings in which existing techniques and routines are insufficient,

Creating change, in which individuals have clear aims to change a situation but a loosely defined position that allows them to decide how to achieve the goal,

Managing at a high degree of responsibility is distinguished by increased visibility, the ability to make a substantial impact while dealing with larger and more complicated challenges, and higher work complexity.

Dealing with diversity entails engaging with others who have values, backgrounds, experiences, and needs that differ from their own.

Boundary management, in which personnel must work with persons over whom they have no direct power and must devise techniques for influencing and winning their cooperation.

Goal ambiguity is the second component that may have an impact on employee psychological well-being. Organizational goals drive attention, effort, and activity toward a specific goal within a specific time frame (Jung, 2012; Locke and Latham, 2002). Importantly, precise, difficult-but-achievable goals improve both individual and organizational performance (Chun & Ramey, 2005a, 200b; Juny, 2012; Lock & Latham, 2002). This is largely due to the fact that goals serve as the reference point for a wide range of organizational behaviors (Wike & Latham, 2002), including role conflict and ambiguity (House, 1972), organizational commitment (Chun & Ramey, 2005a), and job satisfaction (Jung, 2013), all of which have strong links to performance and psychological well-being. Furthermore, research regularly shows that having clear goals directly contributes to a variety of performance-related behaviors such as happiness, enthusiasm, and so on. Unfortunately, the problem of unclear goals may be more severe in the public sector. For at least two reasons, public organizations frequently struggle to explain organizational goals. Second, the complex services offered by public organizations do not lend themselves well to economic exchange, implying that prices and profits cannot act as clarifying mechanisms for public organization goals (Chun & Ramey, 2005a; Pandey & Wright, 2006). As a result, the idea of aim ambiguity is widely studied in public administration. The degree to which an organizational objective or collection of goals provides for interpretative freedom is defined as organizational goal ambiguity (Chun and Ramey, 2005a, 2005b).

Furthermore, when employees do not perceive their goals as specific, their job motivation and satisfaction suffer, and their well-being suffers, affecting the organization’s productivity and performance (Jung, 2014). Job satisfaction is likely to suffer as a result of goal ambiguity since it undermines individual self-efficacy (Bandura, 1997) and calls into question one’s understanding of organizational expectations (Davis & Stazyk, 2014; Panday & Wright, 2006; Wright, 2004).

Statement of the Issue

Previous literature was reviewed using typical sources such as abstract indexes, journals, and textbooks. Although there have been few studies on employment challenge and goal ambiguity, their relationship to psychological well-being is rarely explored.

Furthermore, different scholars held opposing viewpoints on the two aforementioned characteristics. According to Derue and Wellman (2009), job challenges promote managerial development and career advancement. While Emmons and King (1993) thought it caused stress and anxiety. The same contradictory viewpoint can be applied to goal ambiguity.

However, the productivity of every organization is determined by its members’ well-being (Pase and Vela-Brodrik, 2009). Anything that has a negative impact on their well-being will have a bad impact on their productivity and performance, which may result in the organization or company closing down. As a result, there will be an increase in unemployment and other social vices. This study was inspired by the impact of occupational challenge and goal ambiguity on the psychological well-being of employees at champion breweries in Uyo.

The Study’s Objective/Purpose

The purpose of this study is to look at the impact of job challenge and goal ambiguity on the psychological well-being of employees at Champion Brewery in Uyo. The study, in particular, tends to:

Examine the impact of job difficulty on employees’ psychological well-being.

Examine the impact of a lack of goal clarity on employees’ psychological well-being.

To determine whether there is an interaction effect of job challenge and aim ambiguity on employees’ psychological well-being.

The Importance of the Research

This research will provide several benefits. First, the findings will contribute to the Job difficulty and goal ambiguity literature, which is currently lacking.

Furthermore, the research will assist supervisors, managers, human resource employees, and the entire society in determining the level of job challenge and goal ambiguity that promotes higher psychological well-being.

Furthermore, it will assist managers and labor employers in how to improve their employees’ psychological well-being by providing an enabling atmosphere, which is one of the vitamins of psychological well-being.

Most importantly, an enabling workplace will aid in staff productivity and performance, resulting in growth. However, as the company expands, more jobs will be created for our teaming youths. As a result, social vices such as armed robbery, prostitution, and kidnapping are reduced. Surprisingly, the findings of this study would contribute to economic stability in Akwa-Ibom State and Nigeria in general.

Question for Research

Does job challenge affect employees’ psychological well-being?

Does goal ambiguity affect the psychological well-being of champion brewery employees?

Is there a relationship between job difficulty and goal ambiguity and psychological well-being?

CHAPITRE TWO

THEORY OF FRAMEWORK

Theories are then employed as a framework to assist the researcher while he conducts his research methodically in social sciences research. Thus, a theory is a systematized body of information that can be applied to a wide range of situations, as well as rules of procedure designed to analyze, explain, or forecast the nature of behavior.