Juniper Publishers-Work Related Stress: A Literature Review
Juniper Publishers- Open Access Journal of Social Sciences & Management studies
Definition of Occupational Stress
As per distinctive investigations the thought of
stress has been anticipated and shown with various qualities. According
to the definition from one scholastic from the long history, stress
could be described as “the non-specific response of the body to any
demand placed upon it” (Selye, 1987, p.17).Following the literature in
the near histories; the term of stress has been recreated in the form of
a term which could be used to describe a force that results in or else
causing for the deformation and meanwhile the response to the stress now
could be possibly described as the strain referring to the
manifestation in a body Le Fevre et al. (2003). The concept of stress is
always accompanied by several notions such as performance, motivation
and as well as the employee wellbeing when referring to anorganization.
As described in many research articles on employee
stress levels, it is obvious that the employers are keeping constant
tracks in line with the optimal stress levels to boost the employee
performance. Nevertheless, it was also mentioned that these sorts of
would not much help to maintain fine line between stress levels,
motivation and one’s wellbeing [1]. The notion of stress would not
always act as a negative factor according to Papasolomou-Doukakis et al.
(2004) to be eligible and fully engaged in the competitive environment
within the prevailing organization the amount of pressure or the stress
that would arise at time can also act as a motivator.
Stress Models
According to the publications by New Zealand
government on work safety, there are seven models to be discussed in
general
with special references [2]. The very important thing to note on these
models is that none of these models are perfectly describing any
backgrounds for the various models for stress, yet some models are
adding values while some are hiding certain values. The models can be
named in sequence; “A traditional model”, “The bucket model”, “An
Academic model”, “The demand, control, support model”, “The effort
rewards imbalance model”, “The ‘status syndrome’ – the effect of
hierarchy”, “An alternative model of stress”.All these models have some
sort or the certain level of similarities in the theories that are
discussing within the model.
For instance, the first model which is named above, A
traditional model; this describes in simply the stress is a certain
level of perception that leads the mind of the employee towards an end
where he or she is going to think that he or she would not be able to
cope with the work stuff and finally result in fatigue. The best example
to precise that the models are describing a certain level of
similarities is that the “Bucket model” is also describing the fatigue
condition of an employee which leads for the employee to experience
unpleasant experiences by linking the human body in to a bucket full of
unpleasant experiences.
Key Concepts
Employee stress has been named in different ways over
the years and it’s commonly called occupational stress or work place
stress. Also, its meaning developed over the years, Initial days, it was
identified as the pressure from the environment an employee gets. But
later it was identified as it get an employee within him. Now it is
identified as the relationship between a situation and employees’
reaction towards it. When an employee cannot fulfill
the demand, she/he gets from the environment, he/she will get
stress. This may be a mental or physical demand.Also, it’s an
unwanted reaction people have on severe pressures or demand
placed on them. Work environment and management support will
greatly help employees to manage their work place stresses.
Selye (2006) says that stress is a nonspecific response of the
body to a demand. If an employee gets a work load than they can
handle, they will get stress. But the level of stress is differing from
employee to employee. If the stress is continuing for a longer
period it will lead to mental, physical and behavioral problems.
Based on a research done in Sri Lanka (Opatha, 2011), addiction
to smoking and drinking may be a result of stress.
Even though sometimes, stress has a positive effect for
employees all the time when they extent their limit, they get
negative results.Eachemployee will get stress at any point in their
job. Malta [3] mentions that when a person gets a stressful situation
frequently, he/she will not be able to cope with the situation. Work
place pressure will help employees to keep motivated and learn.
But individual differences and available resources will change the
employee’s cope up level and make him/her stressful.
Various research shows that many stressful situations occur
when employee face excessive work demand in his jobs. If the
employee’s knowledge and abilities cannot fulfill the work
demand, he trends to face work place stress. Also, when the
employee doesn’t have any choice on his jobs, some time she/
she must perform his/her jobs without willingness. In such a
situation, there is a big chance that employee get work place
stress. If an employee is in a wrong job for his personality it also
will lead to occupation stress.In this research study, employee
stress, occupational stress organizational stress will be used as
one word. As mentioned above occupational stress cause damage
the physical, mental and behavioral aspect of an employee. Using
all three aspects, we can identify employee stress level in work
placeHFRS (2011).
Evidence on the occupational stress
Occupational stress occurs when the employees experience
aversive or unpleasant emotional states in their work place.
Kyriacou and Sutcliff defined stress as the unpleasant emotions
like tension, frustration, anxiety, anger and depression[4]. Newton
(2009) and Head and wearing (2002) also defined the work place
stress like the above definition. Various psychological theories also
provide definitions of stress. Specially Beehr and Newman, 1978,
French et al.and Cooper, 1998 also contributed extensively for the
research on occupational stress.Eg: If an introvert employee is
placed as a marketing of officer, he will not be able to perform his
job well and this will lead to stress.
When employee cannot cope with his day to job requirements,
it easily lead to the occupational stress. By improperly manage
work organizations, by not properly manage work designs,
poor leadership and management, poor working conditions
and competitive work cultures can be main courses of stress
in today’s business word. (Mead, 2001). According to Mead
(2001) workload is the main source of employees’ occupational
stress. When the production rate high and work load is there is
a negative relationship to the employee’s performance. When the
performance low, he/she trend to get stress. Siegrist did a 5 years
study using 1,100 factory workers in 1996. This research pointed
out that when the workload increases workers stress level, blood
pressure and cholesterol level increase. Rubina et al. (2008) did
a similar research on work place stress and they found out that
lack of resources, workload, lack of communication, discomfort
with supervisors have contributed to increase the stress level of
the employees[5,6].
Asifargue that (2009), technology suppose to shorten the
working week and give more leisure time to the employees, but
reverse is happening. People are working long hours and spend
less hours with family. Due to less family time, employees get
stress,Subha and Shakil (2010) mentioned that rapid work place
changes have increase the work place stress[7]. Many people in
various jobs are finding difficult to cope up with the rapid changes
in technology. Another important fact here is, employees feel
that they are a part of a machine and they don’t feel they are a
human and they have an individual live. This lead to the work
place isolation and stress. Gallespie et al.(2001), found out that
introduction of new technology (Internet communication, web
based on line teaching, software packages) have increased the
workload and occupational stress. Since the university staff do not
get adequate training and time allocation for their competency
development, these new technological changes lead occupational
stress.
Not only that Asif pointed out that shift works, deadlines,
longer working hours, distance to work place and commuting to work place, unfavorable working conditions, work mates and
colleagues, job security and boredom will lead to the occupational
stress. Rubina et al. (2008), mentioned that distance to work
place also course for the occupational health, Due to the modern
congested roads, will increase the stress level of the employees.
Now days, most of employees are working far away from their
homes and those employees’ trend to get occupational stress
easily. According to Elovainio et al.(2002), “Working in a job just
for the money leads to a lack of self-value& lack of fulfillment”.
Meneze (2005) mentioned that (2005) “most people don’t realize
just how stressful this can be and they underestimate the longterm
effects it can have on their health. According to Parikh et
al.(2004) when an employee gets this kind of work place stress
is the most difficult to spot and challenging to fix, since finding a
rewarding job is not always easy[8].
Michie(2002) pointed out that working with people that
an employee doesn’t like and don’t ‘get on with’ can be a huge
source of workplace stress. According to Giga & Hoel (2003)
“spending many hours each day with people you hate can be
very bad for your long-term health, specially, if an employee gets
angry or resentful regularly it will badly affect to the health of the
employee. Employees always should try to find ways of improving
relationships with colleagues at work and reduce the risk of
getting work place stress.
According to Malta [3] mentioned that job for life is concept
have gone now and losing a job is very stressful. Due to this worker
are struggling to keep his jobs. Schultz (2002) says that “changing
occupations is far more common now days - this can be one of
the most stressful times in a person’s life”. Also, they highlight that
“lack of funding, resources and support services, most workers
identify diminishing resources as a primary barrier to carrying
out their role efficiently and to an appropriate standard leading
to stress”.
Further to Gillespie et al.(2001), lack of resources leads to the
decline in staff numbers, and therefore no longer adequate staff
to perform the work required. This causes more pressure on the
few workers and creates unbearable workload for workers and
therefore as a result occupational stress increase. One other factor
that affects employee performance is technical training. According
to Levey (2001), employees can bring skills to a position but
there are likely to be internal, company- or industry-specific
activities that will require additional training. For instance, if a
process requires a new software package it’s unrealistic to expect
employees to just figure it out; they should receive adequate
training. Rubina et al.(2008) argue that proper technical training
does not only improve employee performance but also improves
their efficiency.
Through knowing how to use and handle specific tasks at
work, makes employees accomplish the tasks much easier and
efficiently. On the other hand, having no proper technical training
hinders employees‟ performance in that they will need spend
more time and consult experts which would even mean more costs
to the organization. When the company provide proper technical
training, he will work in the company without stress. But if the
employee were not properly trained, he will get stress. According
to Rebecca (2010), employees don’t perform in a vacuum. There
are a variety of factors like
a) Personal
b) company-based and
c) external
Work place environment and culture are very important factors
for employee’s performance in an organization. Deena (2009)
says that some people are highly sensitive to the organization
environment and culture while some are less. Workplace should be
conducive for work and perform the given tasks effectively. Parikh
at el emotions that organization environment should be modifies
to help employees to perform. A favorable working environment
will ensure that employees perform well.
In 2009, Asif indicates that employee’s qualification and job
fitness will help employees to reduce job stress. When employees
qualified for the job only, they will perform the job and meet the
expectations. The knowledge, skills and attitude should match
toward the jobs. According to Deena (2009) when an employee
is in a wrong job, he will not be able to perform, and the company
cannot achieve the expected results. Levey (2001), mentioned
that knowledge and skills pays a vital role in organizational
performance and if the employee is not perform his job due to
lack of knowledge or skills, he will get stress. When an employee
has required skills with proper attitude, he will exceed in his job
without workplace stress.
According to Asif (2009) when the employees have clear goals
and expectation they can perform well. When the employees
do not get clear goals, since they cannot perform, they get
further attributes good employee performance to clear goals
and expectations. When everyone understands the targets and
expected outcomes, it is easier to take steps to get there and
measure performance along the way. Organizations without clear
goals are more likely to spend time on tasks that do not impact
results.
In addition, Rebecca (2010) argues that if organizations are to
achieve clear goals and directions, support from superiors is very
necessary. Superiors must understand the needs of the employees
for the employee to work efficiently. Sometimes frequent fault
finding of the employee’s work may also lead to deficiency in work.
Employee effectiveness is also lost if there is no proper guidance
or planning in an organization. Michie (2002) relates this situation
to a tourist who has no guide. He notes that it would not be long
before such a tourist loses his track or direction and so would
be the case of an organization which has no good supervisoremployee
relationship.
Mead (2000) mention that quality of tools and
equipment can
also affect performance of employees and reduce the stress level they
get in the work place. Adding to that Malta [3]mention that
as a driver needs a vehicle in operating condition, each employee
need tools and equipment necessary for their specific jobs. Physical
tools, supplies, software and information’s can be identified as the
tools and equipment. Malta mentioned that today there are up to
date software which do work and help to perform tasks in real
time and much faster compared to manual systems or outdated
software. As mentioned by Mead (2000) outdated equipment. Not
happing proper equipment and tools effect to the performance of
the employees and finally the result of the company. When proper
equipment’s are not available for work employees cannot perform
well and due to that they get occupational stress.
According to Rebecca (2010) company culture are affect to the
tress level of the employees. When they have a competitive culture,
they get more stress than in a cooperative culture. Also Rebecca
mentions that poor work place moral, there will be more whining,
complaining and people will do their job without commitment. On
the positive end, the workplace is energized by a sense of purpose
and teams that genuinely want to work together.
Empirical Evidences on the Stress and Organizations Performance
Stress mainly affect to the employee turnover (Mead, 2009).
The rate of turnover varies from company to company. The highest
level of turnover normally found in private sectors than public
sectors. The levels of turnover also vary from region to region.
The highest rates are found where unemployment rate is lower
and where it is easy for people to get alternative employment.
Sometimes employee turnover benefits organizations positively.
This might happen when a poor performer is replaced by a more
skilled employee and when a retired employee replaced by a
younger one.
Employee turnover may be also costly as it requires different
cost to take account such as administrative costs of recruitment,
cost of covering during the period in which there is a vacancy,
training cost for the new employee etc. (Dessler, 2000).Turnover
occurs for many different reasons. Sometimes new job attracts
employees and pull them to leave the old one. In contrary
employee also pushed to leave job due to the dissatisfaction in their
present workplace or by domestic circumstances when someone
reallocates with their spouse or partner. A poor relationship with
the management can be an important reason for the employees
to leave their jobs. It is relatively rare for people to leave jobs in
which they are happy even offered by higher salary elsewhere.
A lack of proper training and development is also major
cause for voluntary turnover. Employees prefer security of their
jobs. Turnover could be minimized through considering different
preventive measures by the management. These may include
providing training to the line managers for an effective supervision
before appointing or upgrading them, providing security of jobs
with good working environment etc. There may be an offer for retraining
the existing managers who have a poor record at keeping
their staff happily. Supervising managers could be accountable for
employee turnover in their teams. Maximization of opportunities
for individual employees such as accommodate individual
preferences on working hours, regular appraisals, providing as
much job security as possible can help to reduce turnover. Due
to the factor motioned the above can lead to increase the stress
level of the employees and then those employees will leave the
organization. Employee’s high turnover rate will reduce the
company’s profitability.
Occupational stress reduces the morale of the employees.
Workplace events play a large part in changing employee morale,
such as heavy layoffs, the cancellation of overtime, cancelling
benefits programs, and the lack of union representation. Other
events can also influence workplace morale, such as sick building
syndrome, low wages, and employees being mistreated.Factors
influencing morale within the workplace can be illustrated through
the below given attributes:Job security, management style, staff
feeling that their contribution is valued by their employer, realistic
opportunities for merit-based promotion, the perceived social
or economic value of the work being done by the organization
as a whole, the perceived status of the work being done by the
organization as a whole, team composition, the work culture.
When the above factors positively influence the stress, the
employee get low morale and if it’s other way employee get high
morale.To determine the impact of downsizing, the effects of job
insecurity and economic need to work on employee attitudes was
examined by Brucknerand his colleagues in 1992. In this study,
Brockner decided to use work effort as a measure of job attitudes.
The study found that high job insecurity coupled with high need to
work, resulted in increased work effort following a layoff. High job
insecurity coupled with low need to work resulted in no change
in the level of work effort. This seems to indicate that when there
are high levels of job insecurity, as would be expected during
downsizing, employees with a high need to work will increase
their work effort, while those with a low need to work will have
no change in work effort.When an organization downsize its work
force, there will be high stress level in the company.
All the time stress having undeniable effects on corporate
performance, stress has been understood from the individual
perspective. All the time researchers have done research on the
effects of stress has been centered on individual performance.
According to Newstroom (2007) there is an inverted U relationship
is the most studied pattern of the stress and performance. The
meaning of that is moderate level of stress stimulate the body to
perform. It means too low or too high stress influence performance
negatively.According to Robbins (2003), the inverted U pattern
may also describe the reaction to stress overtime as well as to
changes in stress intensity. “The notion that stress has detrimental
effects on individuals, and subsequently affects the performance
of organizations is shared by a several researchers[9,10].
According to Everly& Benson (1989) mention that “overtime
stress response exerts a generalized wear and tear on the body” and unhealthy body will not help employees to perform in their
jobs. But according to Welford [11] optimum level of stress at
work will employees to work at their optimum level. When
employees get adequate challenges, they get optimum level of
stress. Therefore, according to Welford [11]and Jing [6] a certain
number of employees stress beneficial to the organization and
increase the organizational profits.
According to Lambert, Lambert &Ito [3] stress is a major
contributing factor to corporate inefficiency, high staff turnover,
absenteeism, decreased quality and quantity output and
increased health care cost for staff. In 2007, Ngeno [10] conducted
a research to examine the causes for burnout among the primary
teachers in Kenya. In this research he found out that burnout
has a negative impact on the performance of the teachers.Also,
according to the research conducted by Munali in 2005, stress
affect the performance of the hotel workers. For this research
Munali collected data from 300 hotel employees and finally found
out that stressful employees get absent from work due to physical
illnesses.
According to Ivancevich et al. [12], while organization
consequences are many and varied, they share one common
feature. Stress cost organizations money. Ongori&Agolla[5]
mention that greater the stress encounter by the employees in their
life tend to reduce the performance of the employees. According
to them the finally it negatively affects to the performance of the
organization. According to Elovainio et al.(2002) occupational
stress is challenge for employers and high level of occupational
stress lead to low productivity and other employee problems.
He further cited that employers should find a way to address
the issues of occupational stress since it badly impacts to the
performance of the employees[13-15].
Conceptual Model on Stress
There exist various publications on the name of job or work
stress and its relationships with several internal and external
factors.According to Shrestha[16] he has examined that “there
exists relationship with job stress and psychological strain and
the moderating effects of locus of control social support and
perceived organizational support in this relationship”(Figure
1). Models have been discussed in order to find the relationship
of the job performance and the stress level of the employees of
different organizations. According to Ali et al.[17] in the year
2014, their study was carried out in search of the factors affecting
the job performance keeping the variable of job performance as
the dependent variable and the stress factors as the independent
variables (Figure 2).
Summary
There are number of models which have been described
throughout the stress literature. Out of all the stress models the
models that described the linkages between the job performance
and the impact from the stress levels have been taken in to account
when conducting this research. Some basic research which is
being used for the research could be summarized as shown in the
(Table 1).
Conclusion
Job stress represents the most complex territories confronting
the present manager with regards to dealing with their employees.
Numerous investigations have shown an expansive effect at job
stress on the job performance and job productivity of organization.
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