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Top1. Introduction
After the mid-1980s and till the 2000s, the Greek financial system has adjusted to the regulatory framework of the European Union. The main characteristic of this period was the liberalisation, the modernisation and the internationalisation of the banking sector. The effect of changes as well as favourable macroeconomic conditions was an increase in profitability, especially in the 2000s. However, with the start of the crisis, Greek banks experienced significant falls in their profitability. The situation in the Greek banking sector during the years of the crisis was characterised by consolidation process and concentration, worsening of the banks' financial situation, increasing of Non-Performing Loans (NPLs), the decrease in deposits by domestic enterprises and households and the parallel increase in loan's interest rate.
Traditionally, the Greek banking sector was considered as a sector with satisfactory financial compensation and social recognition. Due to the general uncertain financial environment and memorandum obligations during the last decade, the situation has changed.
In the adverse macroeconomic conditions of the crisis, the Greek banking industry was radically restructured following a series of consolidation actions, which resulted in the transformation of the domestic banking landscape. In general, from 2006 till 2016 banks in operation have been reduced through mergers, acquisitions and resolution from sixty-four at the beginning of the period to thirty-nine at the end (Gortsos, 2014). Almost all foreign banks with the customer service network have left. The four systemic banks (Piraeus Bank, National Bank of Greece, Eurobank and Alpha Bank) and Attica Bank cumulatively account for more than 95 per cent of the Greek banking system' assets compared with 67,7 per cent at the end of 2006.
As of the end of 2016, the Greek banking sector consists of 39 credit institutions with 2.210 branches and 41.211 employees (Bank of Greece, 2017). As the number of credit institutions operating in Greece has been reduced the degree of concentration has increased considerably. Comparing to 2006 the number of credit institutions in Greece decreased by almost 70 per cent. The number of bank employees has been reduced by 40 per cent, mainly using voluntary redundancy schemes. The number of bank branches has declined by 42 per cent. The larger than initially expected duration and depth of the economic downturn in Greece with very high levels of unemployment, a significant fall in productive activity, a reduction in consumption and the outflow of deposits created challenging operating conditions for banking institutions. During the crisis, the assets of Greek commercial banks declined, according to the data published by the Bank of Greece, by € 114 bn.
This situation, coupled with the financial problems facing a very large number of customers, creates an “explosive mix” especially for bank branch employees, as disputes and tensions are an almost daily occurrence. At the same time, the decline in human resources has increased pressure and competitiveness in the day-to-day work of bank employees, causing many of them to feel depleted.
The burnout phenomenon began to be discussed and studied from the beginning of the 1970s abroad and about two decades later in Greece. Burnout is a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment (Maslach, et al., 1996). The first studies of the burnout syndrome referred to people working in occupations with direct personal interaction. This concerned especially job positions in human services, such as health care, social work, psychotherapy, legal services, and police work (Schaufeli, et al., 2008). Case studies from early researches provide a representative picture of the situation of people who lost energy and sense of self-worth. The reduced sense of meaning was particularly important in occupations in which people were involved in ambitious goals, such as helping and supporting others. Discussions about burnout were initially associated with the above fields because there was a good basis for developing such issues as emotions, values and relationships between people. These issues were not widely known in the research literature until then (Schaufeli, et al., 2008).