Introduction

Background of the study: The unstable nature of the economy and growing competition has put a huge demand on professionals today. As a consequence, workaholism is increasing as a behavioural pattern among workers. The concept of work demand is generally thought to mean work role characteristics that are associated with work demands. However, work demand refers to pressures arising from excessive workloads and time pressures (International Journal of Nursing Studies, 2008).In recent times, more attention has been shifted to work and work-related stress that arises from work demands such as work overloads, irregular work schedules, long hours of work, and overtime work, similarly, work demand is recognized worldwide as a major challenge to workers health and the healthiness of their organization (International Labour Office, 1986; 1992). Workers who are stressed out are prone to be unhealthy, less productive, less safe at work, and ill-motivated and their organizations are less likely to be thriving in a competitive market. Work and work-related stress can be brought about by pressures at home and work, though, the focus of this study is on work pressures arise from the workplace, however, employers cannot usually protect workers from the stress that arising outside work, but they can protect them from the stress that arises from the workplace. Work and work-related stress arising from work demands can be a real problem to the organizations as well as for their workers. 

The focus of this study is concerned largely with the everyday work and work-related stress due to work demand and not specifically with the stress caused by sudden traumatic events nor with the management of post-traumatic stress disorder. The goals of best practice objectives with regards to stress management are to prevent stress from happening or, where employers are already experiencing stress, to prevent it from causing serious damage to their workers’ health, well-being, and organization performance. In many countries, legislation obliges employers to take care of the health and safety of their workers. This duty is normally interpreted to include the management of work and work-related stress hazards, individual well-being as well as physical health outcomes. Work stress is the response people may have when presented with work demands, that are not matched with their knowledge and abilities and which challenge their ability to cope with work demands. Work stress occurs in a wide range of work circumstances but is often made worse when employees feel they have little support from their organization and supervisors, and where also they have little autonomy over their work or how they can cope with its demands.

Several studies had been carried out on the effects of work demand on the health of the organization, the well-being of the workers, and workers abilities and capabilities to manage demand and pressure that arises from workplace demand since is a known fact that individuals makeup (i.e. one ability to cope and emotional intelligence) goes a long way in determining one’s ability to survive despite challenges, that is why this study included variables such as perceived coping ability, emotional intelligence and perceived organizational support as a mediating variable to the study. Work stresses due to work demand and coping ability have received widespread attention in recent years both in the psychological literature, journals and in the media. This is due to the findings that work stress is not only widespread; it also has deleterious effects on organizational productivity, workers' physical health, and mental health. There are large individual differences in the way individuals cope with their work and work-related stress. It can be said with some certainty that work stress and coping are ubiquitous in everyday life and affect everyone. Work stress and coping are how individuals manage distressing problems and emotions, which have been the focus of a remarkable amount of research over the past few decades. However, the focus of this study is on proactive coping ability on work demand.

However, coping can be defined as continuously changing cognitive and behavioral efforts to control particular external and/or internal strains that are appraised as demanding or more than the resources of an individual (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984). Similarly, coping is also viewed as a dynamic process and responds to a situation characterized by uncertainty and important consequences (Latack, 1986). In this study, the proactive coping ability is one’s penchant to look forward to and get ready for life’s challenges (Schwarzer & Taubert, 2002). In psychology, three decades of study on the psychological aspects of work strain, most significant work and work-related strain. Similarly, work strain was acknowledged to take place in almost all spheres of life including school, work, interpersonal relationships, and family. Given the prevalent work stress and the call to reduce it, there has been a large number of coping studies throughout the previous three decades. Coping strategies play a vital part in peoples' bodily and psychological well-being when confronted with negative events, stress, and challenges. Coping may be viewed more generally as a component of an approach to life in which peoples' efforts are directed towards goal management and the recognition and utilization of social resources to attain one’s goals. While in the earlier period, coping was view primarily as reactive, an approach to be deployed once strain had been experienced, lately coping is viewed as something an individual can do prior stress occurs. Increasingly, coping is perceive as having several positive functions. The idea that coping can have positive functions parallels a recent study highlighting the position of positive thinking in the promotion of health (Taylor, Kemeny, Reed, Bower, & Gruenewald, 2000).

Proactive coping incorporates an assenting and optimistic approach to dealing with stressors. In their opening commentary on a particular matter on happiness, excellence, and optimal human functioning is the leading topic of the American Psychologist in the new millennium. Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000) argue the significance of positive individual qualities and positive institutions for improving the quality of life and preventing workers from experiencing work stress. Proactive coping ability focused on achieving good quality of life and in so doing imbibing fundamentals of positive psychology. There are several reasons for believing that positive beliefs might contribute to the promotion of well-being. For example, positive beliefs may envisage higher levels of physical wellbeing by promoting improved health practices. Individuals, who have a positive sense of self-worth and believe in their ability to exert control, may be more likely to practice conscientious health habits. Positive emotional states are related to self-confidence, good social relationships, and positive individuals may have good social support and or they may be more successful in mobilizing it when they undergo a lot of stress (Taylor & Brown, 1994). Also, individuals who possess healthy psychosocial resources, including high self-esteem, optimism, and a sense of personal control are more expected to proactively cope concerning work demand which may reduce the effects of work strain (Aspinwall & Taylor, 1997). The focus is on proactive coping and its function in promoting well-being. Proactive coping is an approach that is multifaceted and futuristic. Proactive coping combines processes of individual quality of life management with those of self-regulatory goal accomplishment. Proactive coping is different from usual conceptions of coping in three main ways:

Firstly, traditional coping forms tend to be reactive coping in that they deal with stressful events that have already occurred, to compensate for loss or harm in the past; proactive coping is more future-oriented. Since the demanding events have previously taken place, reactive coping efforts are aimed at either alleviating harm or compensating for a loss. generally, this is the form of coping that has been assessed in much of the research on coping to date. In contrast, proactive coping is oriented more towards the future. It consists of efforts to build up general resources that facilitate the promotion of challenging goals and personal growth. Secondly, the distinction between reactive coping and proactive coping is that reactive coping has been regarded as risk management and proactive coping is goal management (Schwarzer, 1999a). In proactive coping, people have a vision. They see risks, demands, and opportunities in the future, but they do not appraise these as threats, harm, or loss. Rather, they perceive difficult situations as challenges. Proactive coping is goal-oriented instead of risk management. Thirdly, the importance of proactive coping is more positive than reactive coping in that it derives from perceiving situations as demanding and stimulating whereas traditional coping originates from risk appraisal, i.e., environmental and work demands are appraised negatively, as threats. However, for this study, I am concerned with proactive coping which deals with a stressful situation from harming workers.

The concept of emotional intelligence in the workplace has been enthusiastically received in the popular press, with many espousing it as the recipe for success in every sphere of life. Despite the often extravagant claims made for its beneficial qualities, however, scientific data on the features and outcomes of emotional intelligence are only beginning to emerge in the psychological literature. Furthermore, although theorists have emphasized the importance of emotional intelligence in workplace settings and speculated that the more emotionally intelligent workers are, the more they would cope with work demands that arise from every day to day work activities, there has been little scientific research examining emotional intelligence in workplace settings as regards work stress that arises from work overload, irregular work schedules, long hours of work and overtime work. Psychologists have investigated other emotional phenomenon in the context of work and family demands, work and family conflicts many of which could be considered to involve aspects of emotional intelligence, for example, emotional perception and expression in an organization, empathy, and emotional knowledge and understanding. Researchers on work stress arising from work demand have demonstrated that the better workers are at using their emotional intelligence, the less work stress they would be experienced in the workplace. The findings derived from emotional intelligence literature reveal that people differ in their abilities to accurately perceive, identify and express emotion, understand and reason about emotions and effectively regulate and manage emotions. Thus it may be argued that the work demands literature supports the suggestion that some individuals are indeed more “emotionally intelligent” than others. Moreover, these differences in emotion-related abilities are reliably associated with what may be considered as an adaptive and desirable life outcome in the workplace. However, emotional intelligence is defined by Mayer and Salovey (2000) as the ability to perceive emotions, to access and generate emotions to assist thought, to understand emotion and emotion knowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth. Indeed, this striking congruence between the kinds of abilities involved in emotional intelligence, and the kinds of abilities required to successfully negotiate work demand, suggest that if ever there were a context in which emotional intelligence might be more important, it is workplace setting.

The concept of perceived organizational support (POS) is the degree to which employees believe that their organization values their contributions and cares about their well-being and fulfills socio-emotional needs (Eisenberger1986). POS is generally thought to be the organization's contribution to positive reciprocity dynamic with employees, as employees tend to perform better to reciprocate received rewards and favorable treatment. This idea bloomed from Eisenberger and Rhoades' organizational support theory. In today’s competitive business environment, keeping employees enables the organization to be successful. Employees are viewed as one of the most important assets for most organizations, in particular, service-based organizations, because of the benefits of delivering successful performances (Evans et al., 2003). The banking industry, health sector, and ministries are service-based organizations, dependent on the availability of good quality employees to deliver, operate, and maintain the organization's goodwill from damage and as well as a competitive advantage (Amoah and Baum, 1997).

Moreover, achieving service quality and excellence (Saibang and Schwindt, 1998) and making satisfied and loyal customers depends on the attitudes, performance, and behavior of employees (Kusluvan and Kusluvan, 2000). Ghani, 2006) stated that employees lead to organizational success. Organizational support is one of the most important organizational concepts that keep employees in the organization since organizational support is known as a key factor in increasing job satisfaction and the organizational commitment of employees. On the other hand, organizational commitment and job satisfaction are equally important to customer satisfaction (Lam and Zhang, 2003). Service-oriented organizations such as banking, health, and ministries recognize that employee satisfaction will go a long way toward contributing to their goal of having happy customers (Robbins and Judge, 2009), while an employee evaluates his/her organization, he or she often tends to compare recent organizations with the previous one and tends to compare the future of his or her job position in the organization with similar positions of other organizations (Kanaga and Browning, 2007). This process employed by employees as a mental process affects the perception of their organizational support. As seen from this perspective, the question “what employee expects from their organization?” is one of the recurring questions of organizational support. When examining perceived organizational support as a conceptual, it is expressed as a perception of what degree of importance to contribute to employees by the organization. Expectations of this perception in the employee’s mind are outcomes such as considering employee goodness by the organization, appreciation in the organization, and sharing common values between organization and employee. Employees supported by their organization feel this support is given because they are valuable employees for their organizations. Employees who feel their organization value and appreciate them are satisfied with their job and attached to their organization. Several studies showed that employees who are supported by their organization are satisfied with their job (Buchanan, 1974; Tansky and Cohen; 2001; Riggle et al., 2009).

However, previous studies also demonstrated that organizational support given to employees by their organizations engenders improvement of positive behaviours and attitudes like affective and normative commitment (Eisenberger et al., 1986). Many studies, however, considered job satisfaction as an antecedent of organizational commitment (Currivan, 1999; Gaertner, 1999). The primary reason for this causal order appears to be that a greater amount of time would be required for an employee to determine his or her level of commitment to the organization than would be the case with his or her level of organization since the degree of one’s job satisfaction appears to be largely associated with specific and tangible aspects of the work environment and may represent a more rapidly formed effective response than commitment (Porter et al., 1974). For this reason, it is suggested that organizational support is an antecedent of organizational success. Previous studies had paid more attention to work and family demands, work and family conflicts, emotional intelligence, coping ability, and bank workers as predictors of work demands and work-related stress, less attention has been paid to the contributive factor of perceived organizational support, proactive coping ability, emotional intelligence and how imperative these factors may be in affecting workers positively in coping with work demands.

Statement of Hypotheses

1. There will be a significant positive independent and joint effect of proactive coping ability, emotional intelligence and perceived organizational support on work demand among private and public sector employees such that private sector employees with high proactive coping ability, emotional intelligence, and perceived organization support will cope with work demand than their public sector counterparts.

2. There will be a significant difference in organizational type on work demand such that private organizations will experience high work demand than their public organizations

Methods

Design and participants

The study adopted design cross sectional survey. A total 180 private and public employees were sampled. The participants comprised of 62 males (34.4%) and 118 females (65.6%) with age range of 19years and 60years  with the mean age of 36.57, (S.D= 7.96). Marital status were single 10(5.6%), married 160 (88.9%) , and widowed 10 (5.6%).  Educational qualifications ranged from Post Graduate 17(9.4%), HND/BSC 133(73.9%), NCE/OND 18(10.0%) and SSCE 12(6.7%), years in services ranged from 1year to 33years, hours spent at work ranged from 1hour to 12hours per day, the type of organization was private 17 (9.4%) and  Public 163(90.6%), and the type of work ranged from all day work 113 (62.8%) and shift work 67

Setting

Measures and Instruments

The section A measured respondent’s relevant socio-demographics variables such as age, gender, marital status, educational qualification, years in services, hours spent at work, type of work and type of organization.

 Proactive coping ability was measured by using Perceived Coping Ability Scale (PCAS) developed by Green-glass, Schwarzer, & Taubert (1999). It was designed to measure the participants  level of coping ability. PCAS was 14-item instrument rated on a 4-point scale (1=not at all, 4=completely true). Sample items include; “Despite Numerous setbacks, I usually succeeded in getting what I want”. Green – glass et al (199) reported Crombach’s alpha of .92 for PCAS. Abikoye (2009) reported a Crombach’s alpha of .93 for the scale among Nigerian sample. In the present study, a .82 Crombach’s alpha was obtained. High score in PCAS indicated that the employees were able to effectively with the challenges emanating from their work demand.

Emotional intelligence was measured using Emotional Intelligence Scale developed by Schutte, Malouff, Hall, Haggerty, Cooper, Golden, & Dornheim. (1998). It is a 33 items inventory design. It was designed to measure general emotional intelligence using four subscales: emotional perception, utilizing emotions, managing self-relevant emotions and managing others emotions. The  SSEIT is structured off  of  the  EI  model by Salovery and Mayer (1990). This test includes a 33-item self-report  using a 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree) scale of responses. Schutte and her colleagues report an internal consistency that ranged from .87 to .90 as measured from cronbach’s alpha, and it has a test retest reliability of .78. In the present study, a .84Crombach’s alpha was obtained. Ogungbamila (2011) obtained .70 and 76 cronbach’s alphas respectively for the overall scale.

Perceived organizational support was measured using Organizational Support (OSS) by Eisenberger, Fasolo, and LaMastro (1990). It was a 36 items inventory design. It was designed to measure the extent at  which  an employee belief that his/ her goals and aspirations are supported by the organization. SPOS is related on a 7 point scales (0 –strongly disagree, 6 – strongly agree). Sample item include “My organization take pride in my accomplishment at work”. In the present study, a .766 Crombach’s alpha was obtained. High score indicates high level of perceived organizational support Sunday (2011) obtained 0.64cronbach’s alpha for OSS.

Work demand  was measured by using Work Demand Scale (WDS) by Karasek (1979) and Boyar, Carr, Mosley, and Carson (2007). It was a 6 items inventory design. It was designed to measure psychological stressors, such as time pressure and workload. Respondents  were asked to indicate the extent to which they agree with the statement through Likert scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). Sample items include “My job requires all my attention” and “I always feel that I do not have enough time to complete my work. In the present study, a .75 Cronbach’s alpha was obtained. High score indicates high level of work demand.

Procedures

The researcher takes ethical permission from the head of human resources department of the selected organizations for this study in Ogun State before distributing the questionnaire to the employees. The instrument was distributed to the participants and retrieve after less than 30minutes having explained how to fill it to the respondents. The researcher ensured that all respondents understood all items on the questionnaire by explaining each items that seem difficult. Out of the 350 sets of questionnaires administered, 180 were duly completed, returned and found usable. Data collection took less than two months.

Data Analysis

Pearson Product Moment Correlation was used to inter-correlate the variables. The mean and standard deviation for each of the groups were calculated to know if differences existed among the groups. Hypotheses were analyzed with the use of appropriate statistical tools. Regression Analysis was employed for the hypothesis 1 in order to ascertain independent and joint effect of proactive coping ability, emotional intelligence and perceived organizational support on work demand. Hypothesis 2 was analyzed with t-test independence in order to ascertain if there is significant difference in the proactive coping ability, emotional intelligence and perceived organizational support and work demand among private and public sector employees.

Result

Variables	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13
1. Work Type	1
2.Age	-.02	1
3.Gender	.01	-.05	1
4.Marital Status	-.03	.42**	.14	1
5.Education	-.07	-.41**	-.31**	-.66**	1
6. Years Services	-.01	.83**	-.02	.51**	-.58	1
7.Hours of Work	-.06	-.13	.03	-.02	.07	.05	1
8.Organizational Type	.13	-.02	-.02	-.18*	-.01	-.19*	-.21**	1
9.Organization Support	.00	.06	-.11	.07	.02	-.11	-.38**	.21**	1
10.Coping Ability	.05	.01	.19**	.24**	-.29	.16*	.03	-.16*	-.12	1
11.Emotional Intelligence	.04	.17*	-.21**	-.03	-.18*	.27**	-.05	.11	-.02	.49**	1
12.Organization Support	.02	.17*	.20**	.43**	-.46	.33**	-.03	-.10	- .21	.44**	.22**	1
13.Work demand	.02	-.12	.37**	.17*	-.02	-.06	.16*	-.26	-.05	-.07	-.66**	-.01	1
Mean	-	36.58	1.66	-	-	-	8.21	1.37	1.91	37.25	105.41	105.96	16.25
SD	-	7.96	.48	-	-	-	.96	.48	.29	7.47	15.73	16.50	4.49

*Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

Table 1: Summary of Correlation Matrix Showing the Relationship among the Study Variables.

The results in Table 1 shows that the relationship between proactive coping ability and work demand was not significant [r (178) = -0.07, P >0.05. The relationship between emotional intelligence and work demand was negatively significant [r (178) = -.66, P<0.01]. This was such that employees with higher emotional intelligence tend to experience high work demand. The relationship between perceived organizational support and work demand was not significant [r (178) = -.01, P>0.05]. This was also noted that hours spent at work was positively significant with work demand [r (178) =0.16, P<0.05]. From the demographic factors with the study, and gender [r (178) = 0.37, P< 0.01] and marital status [r (178) =0.17, P < 0.05] had significant relationship with work demand.

Hypotheses Testing

Variables	Β	T	p	R2	Df	F
Coping Ability	.32	4.92*	<.01 <.01 >.05	.52	3,176	64.51**
Emotional Intelligence Organizational support	-.83 0.30	-.13.84* .52

            * P< 0.01

Table 2: Summary of Multiple Regression Showing Coping Ability, Emotional Intelligence and Perceived Organizational Support Predicts Work Demands

The result in Table 2, indicated that proactive coping ability significantly predicted work demand (β = .32, P < 0.01]. This implies that the level of proactive coping ability by employees determine work demand. This result confirmed the formulated hypothesis 1. As also indicated emotional intelligence significantly predicted work demand (β = -.83, P<0.01). This implies that the level of emotional intelligence by employees determine work demand. This result confirmed the formulated hypothesis 1. As also indicated perceived organizational support did not significantly predicted work demand (β = 0.30, P > 0.05). This implies that the level of perceived organizational support by employees does not determine work demand. This result negated the formulated hypothesis 1.However, proactive coping ability, emotional intelligence and perceived organizational support have a joint prediction on work demand among private and public employees [F (3,176) =64.5; p< 0.05]. Based on this finding, hypothesis 1 was partially confirmed. This show that the proactive coping ability and emotional intelligence independently predicted work demand while perceived organizational support does not independently predicted work demand; therefore, proactive coping ability, emotional intelligence and perceived organizational support by employees jointly predicted work demand.

Organizational Type		N	Mean	Sd	df	t	P
Work demand	Private	17	16.88	3.74	178	.60	< .01
	Public	163	16.19	4.56

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table 3: Summary of Independent T-test showing Difference in Organizational type on Work demand

The result indicated that organizational type does not significantly influence work demand [t (178) = .60, P >0.01]. Based on these findings, hypothesis 2 was rejected.

Discussion

Hypothesis 1, which stated that there will be a significant independent and joint effect of proactive coping ability, emotional intelligence and organizational support on work demand among private and public sector employees such that private sector employees with high proactive coping ability, emotional intelligence, and perceived organization support will cope with work demand than their public sector counterparts was partially confirmed by the result in Table 2. It was a mixed result, perceived organizational support as a variable did not significant predicted work demand, proactive coping ability and emotional intelligence significantly and independently predicted work demand and there were joint prediction of these three variables on work demand.

The result on perceived organizational support indicated that perceived organizational support did not significantly predicted work demand. The result supported the findings of Srivastava (2011) which reported that job burnout was negatively related to managerial effectiveness and perceived organizational support. The result was further strengthen by the findings of Deepti ( 2000)  which reported  that  organizational  role  stress  is  negatively  &  significantly  related with job satisfaction. Perceived Organizational Support was found to lessen the stress level of the employees, thereby indirectly affecting job satisfaction. In addition, the results of  the  hierarchical  multiple  regression  analysis  support  the  moderating  effect  of  Perceived  Organizational Support with  regard  to  the  relationship between organizational  role  stress &  job satisfaction. The result negated the findings of Colakoglu, Culha and Atay (2010) which indicated that perceived organizational support had a significant positive effect on job satisfaction, affective, normative and continuous commitment.  Job satisfaction had a significant positive effect on affective, normative and continuous commitment as well. This result further negated the findings of Cropanzano (1997) which submitted that POS had positive relationship with job performance indirectly via job satisfaction, positive affectivity, and affective commitment. The resulted further refuted the findings of Rhoades and Eisenberger (2002) which submitted that the relationship between POS and job performance (JP) significantly predicted job satisfaction (JS), positive affectivity (PA), and affective commitment.

The result on proactive coping ability indicated that proactive coping ability significantly predicted work demand. This result supported the findings of Wu (2007) which reported that there was no significant differences between groups were identified in the present study, within both groups; proactive coping, work hope, and career planfulness were positively correlated. The role of work hope as a mediator between proactive coping and career planfulness was tested in domestic and international students respectively. The result was further strengthen by the findings of Greenberg (2002) which also reported that considerable differences exist in the way people respond to stress and that individuals have an optimal level of organizational stress under which they operate most efficiently. The result of the current study also went further to support the findings of Frydenberg (2002) which reported the extent to which an individual feels confident about their control over the environment affects whether an encounter will produce threat or challenge appraisals. The result of this study further corroborated with the findings of Vijay (2010) which indicated that the effect of flexible work schedule, employee support and training, and telecommuting as potential coping resources to relieve stress. he further identified perceived workload, role ambiguity, work facilitation, and decision latitude are potential stressors of it professionals with removing role ambiguity and improving work facilitation reduce work-related stress and allowing employees to have flexible work schedules ease their perceptions of workload.

The result on emotional intelligence indicated that emotional intelligence significantly predicted work demand. This result supported the findings of Mohamad (2014) which submitted there was a significant relationship between emotional intelligence as an overall construct and organizational commitment. Further studies had shown significant relationship between emotional intelligence and organizational commitment among employees. Carmeli (2003) also claimed that most of the research on EI was associated with job satisfaction, high ability to solve the problem and pressure, changing orientations that are more preferable and strongly organizational commitment. Zeidner et al. (2004) proposed that individual who has more sense of emotions are more successful to communicate their ideas, goals and objectives towards persuade people. This result went further to supported Abraham (1999) findings which indicate that emotional intelligence augments positive work attitudes, altruistic behavior and work outcomes, and moderates the effect of work-family conflict on career commitment but not the effect on job satisfaction. This finding is consistent with the argument according to which emotionally intelligent individuals are likely to display higher overall satisfaction in the workplace. The present result eventually negated by the findings of Nikolau and Tsaousis (2002) which reported a negative relationship between emotional intelligence and perceived stress in the workplace.

The result on proactive coping ability, emotional intelligence and perceived organizational support jointly predicted work demand among employees as confirmed in Table 4.2. There has been less attention on the combination of the variables; however, there were no studies to substantiate the findings. Moreover, organizations should endeavors to watch out during their recruitment process these personal characteristics for optimum employees’ performance and effective coping with work demand.

Hypothesis 2, which stated that there will be a significant difference in organizational type on work demand such that private organizations will experience high work demand than their public sector counterparts was not confirmed by the result in Table 3. This implies that irrespective of organizational type had no influence on work demand among employees, similarly organizations should made use of the same recruitment processes irrespective of the organizations type.

Conclusion       

Undoubtedly, work demand is a major challenges among private and public sector employees’ in Nigeria, although studies on work demand abound, however,  none have simultaneously examined the impact of coping ability, emotional intelligence and perceived organizational support on work demand, indicating a vacuum in literature. The present study attempted to fill the gap by investigated the effects of coping ability, emotional intelligence and organizational support as correlates of work demand among private and public sector employees’ in Southern western Nigeria as samples. In support of the studied hypotheses, the findings of this present study showed, coping ability, emotional intelligence have an independent prediction on work demand among private and public employees as well as joint prediction among the variables. More so, organizations should endeavors to ensure and incorporate in their recruitment process a set of psychology instrument that will be able to assess the capabilities and abilities of employees’ that will be suitable for the kind of work demand that is peculiar to the organizations in order for the employees to perform optimally.

This finding has practical implications for reviewing and updating organizational employers on the imperative of matching employees’ abilities to the work they are employed to perform in the organization. Similarly, the important of employing those employees with high emotional intelligence is stressed in this study in order for the employees to be able to cope with pressures that arise from their daily work activities in the organization. In contrast, less attention should be pay to the issue of organizational support in this present study, organization support did not predicted work demand, though it is necessary to give support to employees but personal characteristics such as one’s level of coping ability and emotional intelligence have predicted work demand compared to perceived organizational support among private and public sector employees. As demonstrated in this present study, organizational type does not significantly influence work demands, although private sector employees experienced slightly more work demands compared to their public sector employees.

The following recommendations are based upon findings and conclusions of the study: firstly, organizations and human resources management department should ensure that employees are matched to the job given to them in line with their capabilities, abilities and emotional competences of the employees in order to be able to manage pressures arising from excessive workload and time pressures, rather than fixing a job to an employee’s which may exceed the capabilities, abilities and emotional competence of the employees, in the light of this, human resources management department of organizations should incorporate in their process of recruitment, psychological tests that would make accurate assessment of the traits of interest as regards the traits needed for the job pressures arising from excessive workload and time pressures.

Secondly, based on this study, it is suggested that future studies on employees work demand, they should include a comprehensive list of independent variables to overcome specifications errors, this is because limited number of independent variables were included in this study and others variables not examined in this study could have accounted for more variance in employees work demand. In addition, the tentacles of the research should be extended to other organizations, not limited to banking sector, health sector and ministries of works in Ogun state but rather to other states or cities such as Lagos state, Abuja FCT, Port Harcourt among other states and cities.

Finally, researchers should conduct a comparison study with other private and public sector of comparable size. This study would give the organizational a benchmark as well as an awareness of norms within different organizations in Ogun state.

Acknowledgement

I wish to express my profound gratitude and sincere appreciation to  Dr. Olowodunoye S.A for his meritorious support, guidance and suggestions during this study and my colleagues for their support.

Declaration of Interest Statement

The authors have no conflict of interest to declare

Data Availability Statement

The data associated with this study are available from correspondence author upon request.