EFFECT OF GENDER DISCRIMINATION ON EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE: MEDIATING ROLE OF OCCUPATIONAL STRESS IN BANKING SECTOR EMPLOYEES IN SRI LANKA

Nowadays discrimination among employees has become a major issue in many organizations. The current study assessed the impact of gender discrimination on employee performance and assessed the mediating role of occupational stress of executive-level employees in one of the public banks in the Ratnapura district, Sri Lanka. Simple random sampling was adopted to select the study sample. Further, the contact method of this research sample was digital, which means, questionnaires were sent for respondents via online platforms. It is found that there is a negative impact of gender discrimination on employee performance with mediating occupational stress. Founded positive relationships between the hiring gender discrimination, the promotion gender discrimination, and the wage gender discrimination with occupational stress, as well as a negative relationship between occupational stress and employee performance. The research, recommends to all HR managers to maintain gender equality within the organization, which in turn, will affect their performance.