Factor affecting occupational stress among waste management workers of the northern region

The prevalence of occupational stress has been a crucial issue to waste management workers in developing countries such as Malaysia. Some previous studies have come out with the factors that impact on the waste management workers. This study was conducted to investigate the prevalence of occupational stress and the relationship between job demand, workplace environment and social support with occupational stress among the waste management workers of the four states of northern region (which are Perlis, Kedah, Penang and Perlis). This study was applying the quantitative method by distributing questionnaires consisting of 40 items comprising instruments measuring job demand, workplace stress, social support and occupational stress to the 368 respondents from the Majlis Perbandaran and Majlis Bandaraya. The result reveals that the job demand contributed the highest significant impact to occupational stress. Moreover, there is a significant relationship between social support and occupational stress. However, there is no significant relationship between workplace environment and occupational stress. As such, in managing occupational stress, this study proposes the implementation of flexible working hours, appropriate equipment and reviewing their daily tasks for better quality of wor