Stress experienced in organizational roles was studied on 486 executives in public and private sector banks in Goa. Pareek's Organizational Role Stress (ORS) scale was used to measure ten types of role stress. The sample was divided into three parts as short, medium and long tenure groups on the basis of length of service of the respondent. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to find out if significant differences existed between the groups in terms of the different types of role stress and the total role stress experienced. The study revealed significant differences in stress experience among short, medium and long tenure groups. For the total and for the six types of role stress, long tenure groups experienced the minimum stress, medium tenure group experienced a medium level stress and the short tenure group experienced the maximum stress, pointing to the existence of a negative relationship between length of service and role stress.

Stress (Robbins and Sanghi, 2006) experienced in organizational roles or role stress has been extensively studied by researchers. Problems in roles depend on individuals and their job characteristics and stress depends on individual perception. It is therefore imperative that job characteristics and personal factors would influence role stress. Influence of age, hierarchical level and functional assignment has been reported by Srivastav (2005, 2006 and 2007). Length of service is another important personal variable that should influence role stress. Earlier researches have reported different kinds of relationships between length of service and role stress. Sen (1981) and Surti (1982) have reported that there is no significant relationship between role stress and length of service. Gupta (1988) and Kumar (1997) found a positive correlation between the two types of role stress (role stagnation and role overload) and the length of service.

Amidst conflicting reports on the relationship between length of service and organizational role stress, the present study examines this relationship among executives in private and public sector banks in Goa.