Determinants of Managers’ Well-Being in Albania’s Lending Sector: A Study of Microfinance Institutions and Commercial Banks

Employee well-being has become a central concern in organizational research due to its strong implications for performance, job satisfaction, and organizational sustainability (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007; Schaufeli & Taris, 2014). In high-pressure sectors such as banking and microfinance, managers operate under strict regulatory requirements, demanding performance targets, and continuous monitoring, which may significantly affect their psychological well-being (Giorgi et al., 2017; Lee & Kim, 2023). Managerial well-being is particularly important because managers are responsible not only for achieving organizational objectives but also for supervising employees and maintaining operational stability. These challenges are especially relevant in emerging financial systems such as Albania’s, where the financial sector is largely lending-oriented and dominated by commercial banks, with microfinance institutions playing a complementary role in expanding access to finance (Bank of Albania, 2025; World Bank, 2020). Managers in these institutions face pressures related to regulatory compliance, performance expectations, and the responsibility of supporting credit access for households and SMEs. This study investigates the determinants of managers’ well-being in Albanian lending institutions using the Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) model (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007). It examines how job demands (e.g., workload, performance pressure), job resources (e.g., organizational support, autonomy), and work–family conflict influence managerial well-being. The study also explores whether significant differences in well-being exist across demographic characteristics such as gender, age, type of institution, position, years of service, and number of supervised employees.