The impact of work pressure on work stress; A research on bank employees

Stress is an important concept in terms of its physical and mental effects on employees. Target pressure is among the factors that affect stress. Banking is one of the sectors in which the stress and target pressure level can be seen in a high level. This study aims to clarify whether the bank employees within Tokat Province feel under pressure regarding the sales and marketing targets that are given by their senior management; and also to analyze the possible impacts of these targets over work stress. The research implies Soygür's(2018) " Target Pressure Scale" that consists of 8 items, together with House and Rizzo's( 1972) "Work Stress Scale" which involves 7 items. The research was carried out with survey method, which is classified as a quantitative research method. An online questionnaire was sent to 360 bank personnel that are actively working in banking sector within Tokat Province. 8 of these refused to take part. As a result of this research, a common understanding which attributes a positive and meaningful impact to the 'target pressure' was observed among the 352 participants who volunteered. The scarcity of the sources that focus on the relation between the 'target pressure' and the work stress in the domestic literature is one of the highlights to emphasize the originality of this study. It shows that as the target pressure increases, job stress also increases. The hypotheses put forward in the study were supported by the findings and results. Key Words: Work Stress, Work Pressure, Banking