Generalised anxiety as a measure of job performance amongst bank officers and clerks

The banking industry is one of the main instruments of economic development. The growth of any bank depends upon the performance of its manpower. Performance is the bottom line of any organization, which helps superiors to identify the strength and weaknesses of their workers, to compare abilities of workers which further help in personnel selection, promotion and assessment for training needs (Ivancewich, et. al., 1980). In the present study, the performance of 90 employees of both the sectors (Public: 25 Officers; 25 Clerks and Private: 20 Officers; 20 frontline officers) was judged by their immediate superiors. Anxiety, an emotional state or a mood, a feeling can affect performance depending upon the difficulty level of the task (Motowidlo, et. al., 1986). So, here it was hypothesized that Generalised Anxiety/Neuroticism above the optimal level would have a deleterious effect on the work performance and therefore, Correlational Design was employed. Result of Private sector bank officers shows that Anxiety was negatively correlated with two criterions of Job Performance-Obedience and Interpersonal Communication. Public sector bank officers’ reveal anxiety does not affect their efficiency in Banking Knowledge. Private sector bank frontline officers possess moderate level of anxiety thus showing their efficiency, whereas, Public sector bank clerks have shown high Neuroticism that wounds Public Dealing. As far as Lie Score is concerned, social desirability is high among clerks of both the sectors. Even the managers or immediate superiors who made performance appraisals actually committed leniency error, central tendency error and halo error as they do not want to let down the name of their bank.