Abstract:

The aim of the study was to examine the Impact of Working Environment on Job per Performance of instructor physical education (IPE). 19 male and 13 female IPEs were the population of the study. To carry out the study, the researcher used a cross-sectional research approach. The self-administered scale was used for data collection. To analyse the collected data, the researcher used inferential statistics as well, as V3.3 by Andrew F. Hayes was used for mediation to obtain the desired result. It was found that the working environment has a negative impact on the job performance of IPEs, but after adopting coping mechanisms, they improve their performance. Statistical package version no 22 was adopted for coding and data analyses. The result of the existing study depict working environment adversely affect the job performance of the IPEs, but after adopting coping mechanism, they improve their job performance, as the coefficient value decrease but the connection between job stressors and job performance remain significant after adopting the coping mechanism as a mediator (.96). The researcher suggested that the same phenomena may be investigated at other institutions except for educational institutions. The future researcher may use the qualitative method with longitudinal research design to dig out unearth phenomena.

Key Words:

Job Performance, IPEs, Higher Secondary School, Bannu   

Introduction

Workplace stress is harmful emotional and physical when there is a lack of harmony, but when the demand of a job and the capabilities are matched, it will produce a better result, but on the other hand, the mismatch between the capability and job demand can result in poor work performance and sometimes injury as well. Job stress needs to be understood and addressed because it elements badly affect the mental and physical health of employees (Munir, 2011). The number and size of the organization are increasing with remarkable speed and are providing their services to the community. These organizations have services of specialists and experts who are supposed to provide a suitable working environment in which different physical, moral and psychological factors affect the life of an individual at home and work. They cause anxiety and tension in people, and they are unable to perform their duty effetely. His/her life is also endangered. Moreover, the overall working of the organization gets affected when employees miss the conducive environment (Soran, Balkan & Serin, 2014).

When working or living conditions or circumstances are as such for a teacher that s/he finds him/herself unable to handle them physically and emotionally, stress is produced. It could result in various ways like the disturbance in the system, obstacles, and strain in the way of attaining desired objects (Nwikina & Nwanekezi, 2010). Ambiguity, conflicting demands, role conflict, uncertain role prescription, and tough work conditions. A deviant threading/fighting behavior is reported to prevail in hostile working conditions whenever there is excessive workload (Agervold, 2009). It is the responsibility of the leader to ensure that the employees feel at ease and do not go through role overload. This will also help in reducing the incidence of deviant behavior like bullying at the workplace (Creasy & Carnes, 2017). A mismatch between the environment and individual causes stress. Stress results in discomfort, which affects the mental and physical condition of the person (Michie, 2002). 

The stressors are such situations or circumstances which lead to the state of unbalance within a person. The people, society, or organization suffer loss as a result of stress, and stress causes a lot of worries, tension, and deviant behavior in employees (Moore, Detert, Klebe Treviño, Baker & Mayer, 2012). As a result, productivity provided in employees gets badly affected teachers can get stressed of the student come late to the school, fail in the examination and do not do their assignment and homework (Adams, 2001). It is much more significant for an educational institution to do rational study and manage sources causing stress in teachers. Such a strategy is extremely important for teachers who are doing the important duty of teaching. However, it has been found that stress is found in all the educational institutions and has been determined in various studies (Kyriacou, 2001). Job stress may be defined as poor matching between the nature of work and the abilities of the person. Work stress may be the kind of awareness about conflict, ambiguity, and overload at a workplace and the physical traits to overcome these hurdles (Naharuddin & Sadegi, 2013). 

The majority of the physical education teachers take an interest in studying the job stressors, and it adversely affects job performance. Job stressors and job performance have a close relationship with various aspects of teaching (Gharib, Jamil, Ahmad & Ghouse, 2016). A study was conducted in Malaysia on 162 employees in a public organization found that there was a negative relationship in-between deviant behavior and job stress (Omar, Halim, Zainah & Farhadi, 2011). 

Statement of the Problem

A negative working environment developed various problems in different walks of life such as business, agriculture sector, and especially educational institutes, while physical education is considered the most effective discipline in Pakistan. The IPEs working environment affected the job performance since they have diverse tasks like the writing of relevant papers and books, experimentation, meeting tutorials, while in some cases, physical education teachers teach another subject as additional work (Davis, 2006). The working environment creates a hindrance in the way of effective teaching/job performance of LPEs. Various studies have been conducted to probe the situation about the effect of job stressors upon job performance. However, no study has been carried out in Pakistan (district Bannu, KP) to investigate such phenomena in the context of Instructor physical education. 

The Objective of the Study 

To determine the role of coping mechanism as mediator in-between working environment and job performance of Instructor Physical Education (IPEs) at higher secondary school level in district Bannu KP, Pakistan.

Significance of the Study 

It is important to know the factors that affect the job performance of instructor physical education and also to know their coping mechanism. A negative working environment leads to poor performance, especially in an educational institution. It is a fact that sound psychological conditions play a vital role in consciously doing the assigned duties. On the other hand, it is a widely accepted phenomenon that stressful psychological condition leads toward reduction or poor performance. This phenomenon was realized as a problem to be examined in the present study. The role of IPEs cannot be ignored due vitality of their role in educational institutions, especially at the higher secondary level. They have their own frame of work such as theory and practical classes, conduction of the sports events, and maintaining discipline in the educational institutions. Almost IPEs remained/involved in otherwise activities of job schedules attending extra theory subjects, which is badly affecting their job performance; however, this study tends to explore the true spirit of the IPEs' worth, job description, and output.

Hypothesis

Coping Mechanism Mediates Link amid Work Environment& Job Performance

Literature Review

The working environment affects job performance

attribute in a manufacturing setting. Studies in the hotel sector have shown that working conditions are poor in the hotel (Kahya, 2007). The environmental conditions in the hotel sectors vary and are from ordinary to extreme conditions. They include noise, heat, light, humidity, and dust (Jayaweera, 2015). It was found that an uncongenial atmosphere negative effect on hotel employees' performance. It was recommended that hostel manager should have to understand the problem of employees, which ultimately aim to enhance the employees' performance (Kim & Koo, 2017). Therefore, an attempt has been made in this study to feel the research gap and to investigate the working environment factors on performance-related matters in the hotel sector in Britain. There is an association between motivation and job performance that gives direction to behavior in achieving a specific goal (Evans, 1970). The motivated employees or more production than motivated ones (Afful-Broni, 2012). The incentive, motivations, and working conditions affect employee performance (Aisha & Hardjomidjojo, 2013).

Previous research study moderating and mediating role of motivation has an impact on workplace characteristic and outcome relational it has been suggested by scholars that need to be done on mediating variables in conditions and outcome studies. For example, (Kuvaas, 2006) found that motivation, whether moderated as mediated, is necessary, and there is a relationship between performance appraisal satisfaction and work performance. It is thought that job satisfaction depends on work-related behavior like coming to the job, relating a good working relationship, and doing it in a good fashion (Brown & Sessions, 2003). Many factors which collectively affect individual employees' level of job satisfaction include the leadership or the managing employee (task, people, and participation) job design (depth, perceived value, scopes, interest). Perceived long-range opportunity, social relations, the working environment, levels of ambition, and need accomplishment. It is one of the challenging areas of the workplace. It includes bulling, which means giving impossible deadlines, rude behaviors, gossip, and ageist or sexist (Fajana, 2002). Moreover, the researchers argued that deviant behavior causes frustration and irritation in employees, which ultimately affects their job performance. The same study also found that job stress and deviant behavior are the basic factors that create various physiological and physiological negative effects such as tension, anxiety, frustration, and fatigue (Spector & Fox, 2010). Bin Othman and Wahab (2010) Found that deviant behavior negative characteristics in employees like alcoholism, abuse, absenteeism, substance low job motivation, and low productivity 

Right physical and environmental factors result in increased performance (Chandrasekar, 2011). Effect of workplace and infrastructure on the performance of employees Khan et al. (2011) found that condom infrastructure and uncongenial workplace have a negative effect on the performance of employees. They took a sample of 150 respondents from the education sector in Pakistan and concluded that incentives at the workplace have a positive effect on the job performance of employees. Many work environment studies have been conducted in the office environment. For example, one study suggested that management should be designed in such a manner to improve employee working conditions and to help them be more efficient. Such a step would improve works productivity (Miles, 2000). More ever, some study has examined that working environmental factors do have an impact. Such factor includes the high and thickness of work station partition, the furniture measurement and the amount and availability of file, and the storage of the work. They affect individual and team performance, which is critical for the institutions (Vischer, 2008). The performance in any field is subjected to a peaceful and congenial atmosphere (Mahmood, 2011). The standards and competitive working conditions, peace of mind, and psychological and mental readiness are some of the important factors that lead to a peaceful atmosphere (De Rivera & Páez, 2007). Where there is a competition, there are certain stressful conditions (Swaminathan & Rajkumar, 2010). If these conditions are in control from certain perspectives like physical skills, mental knowledge, moral support, proper resources, then; one can expect quality performance. Otherwise, the situations need consideration and attention (Taylor & Stanton, 2007). Apart from some natural or pure sciences disciplines which have found some worth in technological advancement like missile or space technologies (Mody, 2006), some exploratory work like archaeology, geology where experimental work counts in merit selection at least to some extent; development of a new quality institution and of course conducive atmosphere are utmost necessary for rest of discipline and their application for the good of humanity in the country (Mohamed, 2006).

Unfortunately, health, physical education, recreation, and sport have never gained the state of importance among the disciplines in most of the EAST excluding a few like China, Japan, and Malaysia, there may be many other factors, but the most dominant in the area of physical education and sports seems to be lack of interest/ ignorance from the ruling class as well as intellectuals. The reason for the arguments is that even the first quarter of the 21st century is in its' settlements, but we don't see any sparkling personality in the area of applied research from this part of the world in the field. In the present study, the researcher has attempted to understand the job stressors and their effect on the job performance of respondents. To neutralize the effects, the researcher has selected relaxation, cognitive approach, and social support methods as coping mechanisms amid job stressors and job performance—numerous challenges faced by an individual lead to stress. Stress has become a very common issue that exists in the different aspects of human life, especially in the educational arena where the teachers are engaged in some intellectual activities. In the global arena, stress is commonly found in every individual. In an educational institution, the major cause of poor performance is due to job stress. Teachers need a variety of coping mechanisms and motivation to overcome the stress. The highest level of the teaching profession has often been considered tension-free, flexible, lower load, and foreign tours (Austin, Shah & Muncer, 2005). At the same time, the current scenario is being changed with reference to carried out the different tasks of institutions such as research activities, improvement of grades of the students as well as universities and higher qualification to attract the intelligent faculty (Taris, Schreurs & Van Iersel-Van Silfhout, 2001). Such type of pressure and burden are the cause of stress in the higher academic institutions, ultimately teachers facing serious health and well-being risk (Barkhuizen & Rothmann, 2008). Standards, personal resources, and beliefs vary from teacher to teacher, and stress is not in a similar way in the working place (Karimi & Alipour, 2011). 

Facing the un-pleasure situation and remaining happy are being possible through coping strategies. Awareness about mediators, stressors, and coping mechanisms are helpful tools to overcome and reduce the effect and burnout of stress (Srivastav, 2007). Stress is the focused phenomenon of the current research, and it is a very complicated area. The researchers have not developed a specific consensus upon the definition so far, while sometimes burnout and stress have been used synonymously (Herbert, 2011). Burnout is a condition of job exhaustion, which is entirely different from stress; however, depression is the feature of stress (Rössler, 2012). In the contemporary age, everyone, particularly teachers, is facing different forms of stress such as competition, domestic issues, violence, and the environment, but seeking pleasure and ignorance as well as avoiding pain is the inborn tendency of humans (Dunham, 2002).



Method and Material

The population of the current research study consists of male and female instructor physical education at higher secondary level 19 and 13, respectively. The aim of the study was to examine the Impact of Working Environment on Job per Performance of IPEs at Higher secondary School. 19 male and 13 female IPEs were the populations of the study. To carry out the study, the researcher used a Cross-sectional research approach. The self-administered scale was used for data collection. To analyse the collected, the researcher used inferential statistics as well as V3.3 by Andrew F. Hayes was used for mediation to obtain the desired result. It was found that the working environment has a negative impact on the job performance of IPEs, but after adopting coping mechanisms, they improve their performance. Statistical package version no 22 was adopted for coding and data analyses. The result of the existing study depict working environment adversely affect the job performance of the IPEs, but after adopting coping mechanism, they improve their job performance, as the coefficient value decrease but the connection between job stressors and job performance remain significant after adopting the coping mechanism as a mediator (.96). The researcher suggested that the same phenomena may be investigated at other institutions except for educational institutions. The future researcher may use the qualitative method with longitudinal research design to dig out unearth phenomena.  

H4: Coping Mechanism Mediates Link amid Work Environment& Job Performance

The Mediation Model 2

X = Working Environment

Y = Job Performance 

M = Coping Mechanism



Table 1. The Model Summary

R	R Square	MSE	F	df1	df2	P
.6556	.4298	.3430	112.3303	1.0000	149.0000	.0000

Table 1a. The Coefficient of Regression

Model	Coefficient	Se	T	P	LLCI	ULCI
Constant	-.2682	.3616	-.7418	.4593	-.9827	.4462
Working Environment	1.0767	.1016	10.5986	.0000	.8760	1.2774

Independent Variable: Working Environment

Dependent Variable: Coping Mechanism

Second & Third Step in Mediation (b & c) Table 2. The Model Summary

Model	Coefficient	Se	T	P	LLCI	ULCI
Constant	.3030	.1970	1.5385	.1261	-.0862	.6923
Working Environment	.2155	.0732	2.9453	.0037	.0709	.3601
Coping Mechanism	.6999	.0445	15.7098	.0000	.6118	.7879

Independent Variable: Working Environment and Coping Mechanism

Dependent Variable: Job Performance

The Fourth Step in Mediation (c) Table 3. The Model Summary

R	R Square	MSE	F	df1	df2	P
.6618	.4380	.2687	116.1224	1.0000	149.000	.0000

Table 3a. The Coefficient of Regression

Model	Coefficient	Se	T	P	LLCI	ULCI
Constant	.1153	.3200	.3603	.7191	-.5171	.7477
Working Environment	.9690	.0899	10.7760	.0000	.7913	1.1467

Independent Variable: Working Environment

Dependent Variable: Job Performance

 




The above tables were produced by process model to test the mediating role of the coping mechanism between job stressors (working environment) and the job performance of the lecturers' physical education. Four different steps were performed by the process model (a, b & c, and ?). The first step of mediation indicates (Table No. 1) with the production of the path (a) that there is 43% variation in the cognitive coping mechanism mediator is due to the job stressors (predictors). Similarly, it also showed a significant and positive (Table No. 4.18a) impact upon job stressors (working environment) on the coping mechanism (? = 1.07 while p = .000). Similarly, paths b & c, which was the third step of the mediation (Table No.), indicates 79% variation in the dependent variable (job performance of lecturer physical education) established by the predictors (working environment and the coping mechanism). In the same way, it also shows (Table No. 3) that there is also a statistically significant impact of the coping mechanism on job performance of the lecturer physical education (? = 0.699 while p = .000) and job stressor (working environment) on the job performance of lecturer physical education (? = 0.215 while p = .000). The boots-trapping was run to create the 95% confidence intervals for two parameters where the lower limit confidence interval was denoted as LLCI and the upper limit confidence interval denoted as ULCI.

Path (c) was the fourth step of mediation (Table No. 4.12a) which indicates that there is 44% variation in the criterion variable (job performance of lecturer physical education is due to predictor (working environment). In the same way, it indicates (Table No. 3) that there is a positive and significant relationship between the job stressor (working environment) and job performance of lecturers' physical education (? = 0.9690 while p = .000). Usually, the decision for four paths about mediation was made by the researcher on the significance of p-value to decide about the mediation. But due to the significance of all paths in the current mediation model researcher used the coefficient value for the below decision about mediation. It is found that the cognitive approach partially mediates the relationship between job stressors and job performance of lecturer physical education as the value of coefficient decreases and the relationship remains significant between job stressors and job performance of lecturer physical education after entering coping mechanism as a mediator (0.70) (Table No. 1a). Hence, it is concluded that the second model of mediation is partial mediation.

Conclusion

The aim of the study was to investigate the Impact Of Working Environment On Job Per Performance Of IPEs at Higher secondary School; mediating role of coping mechanism (IPE)  ( A Case Study Of District Bannu). The result of the existing study depicts that the working environment adversely affects the job performance of the IPEs, but after adopting coping mechanism, they improve their job performance, as the coefficient value decrease but the connection between job stressors and job performance remain significant after adopting the coping mechanism as a mediator (.96). The researcher suggested that the same phenomena may be investigated at other institutions except for educational institutions. The future researcher may use the qualitative method with longitudinal research design to dig out unearth phenomena. The current study was confined only to LPEs at the college level. Future investigations might be helpful at a large level, including school and university level physical education teachers and university lecturers, in order to advance the understanding regarding the phenomena. The present study was conducted at KP (district Bannu); the upcoming researcher may carry out the same stance, including the reset of provinces of Pakistan (Sindh, Punjab, and Baluchistan) for a better understanding. The existing study was investigated through a self-developed cum close-ended questionnaire. The future investigation might be interested in addressing the phenomena through open-ended questionnaires, the mixed-method approach, interview-based, or through the triangular methods. The open-ended data collection method/approach may be helpful to advance the

existing understanding.

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