Effect of Gender Discrimination on Employee Performance: Mediating Role of Occupational Stress: A Study of Executive Level Employees in the Banking Sector of Sri Lanka

Abstract

Even though there are many determinants of the employee performance mentioned in the extend literature, gender discrimination effects on employee performance has not been studied in the Sri Lankan banking sector yet. Discrimination among employees has become an important issue in the current organizations. Bridging this gap in the context, the current study assessed the impact of gender discrimination on employee performance and assessed the mediating role of the occupational stress in the branches of people's bank in Rathnapura district. The current study was conducted as a crosssectional, field study among a sample of eighty executives in the bank following the simple random sampling technique. Primary data was collected through a standard questionnaire distributed via the online platform. The collected data were analyzed with the support of the SPSS employing correlation, regression, and descriptive statistics. It is found that there is a negative impact of gender discrimination on employee performance with mediating occupational stress. According to the results of the study there was a positive relationships between hiring, promotion and wage gender discriminations with occupational stress, as well as a negative relationship between occupational stress and employee performance. Hence it is recommended to all HR managers in the organizations to maintain gender equality within the organization, which in turn, will affect their performance.