BIO-SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS AND COPING ABILITY PREDICTING PERCEIVED JOB DEMAND AMONG EMPLOYEES OF TELECOMMUNICATION COMPANIES

Abstract

This study thus considered bio-social characteristics and coping ability as factors predicting perceived job demand among employees of telecommunication companies. An ex-post facto research design was used with 246 employees (male=118; female=128) that were selected using purposeful random sampling techniques. The participants age ranged between 23 and 65 (Mean=37.78; SD=10.27) and they responded to validated instrument measuring coping ability (α=.93) and perceived job demand (α=.72). Hierarchical regression analysis was used to test the formulated hypotheses. The results went contrary to the hypotheses such that perceived job demand increases with increase in coping ability (β=.29, p <.01). Among the bio-social characteristics, only educational qualification influenced perceived job demand such that higher qualification implies higher perceived job demand (β=.69, p <.01). This implies that employees with higher skills, potentials and ability to cope with the job are those that are likely to experience more responsibilities via promotions, increased task commitment and entrusted with managerial roles such that triggers their job demands. Thus it was recommended that employees with these itemized qualities should be motivated in their job functioning with necessary resources to continually function effectively.