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Volume-6, Issue-1, January-February-2016
International Journal of Engineering and Management Research
Page Number: 402-407
A Literature Review on Occupational Stress and Job Performance
Bulbul Kar1, Dr. Biswadeep Mishra2
1Research Scholar, Department of Management Studies, Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya, Bilaspur, {C.G.}, INDIA 2Associate Professor, Department of Management Studies, Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya, Bilaspur,{C.G.}, INDIA
ABSTRACT
Occupational stress is a subject which is difficult to stay away from. It is an excessive cost of doing business that influences both worker and corporate benefits. Stress is the demand of the day and it's exceptionally difficult to be totally without Stress. Work Stress or Occupational Stress has turned into a popular expression and a late estimate is that stress results in lost work efficiency because of absence from work. Research proof demonstrates past debates that stressdysfunctionalaffect both individual and hierarchical results. Effect of word related stress on worker execution has been perceived as a critical range of sympathy toward organization. Negative Stress influences the physical and emotional wellness of the workers that thusly influences their execution on employment. Research into the relationship in the middle of Stress and job performance has been ignored in the word related Stress writing .It is in this manner noteworthy to comprehend word related Stress and on one hand different parameters of job performance and effect of stress on various parts of job performance on the other. A great deal of writing is accessible on Stress and job performance. It is neither conceivable nor attractive to overview the entire writing. In this manner, audit has been taken just for important works. Such survey of writing dependably offers the researcher some assistance with being getting a review of issue under study. Consequently, the word related Stress and its effect on job performance are looked into.
Keywords---- Job Performance, Productivity, Occupational Stress, Stress.
I.
INTORUDCTION
Occupational stress is commonly acknowledged to be a critical issue for managers of organizations as occupational stressors tend to contribute to organizational inefficiency, high staff turnover, absenteeism due to sickness, decreased quality, and quantity of practice,
increased costs of health care, and decreased job satisfaction. One of the vital impacts of occupational stress is on job performance. Occupational stress is a mental and physical condition, which affects an individual’s productivity, effectiveness, personal health and quality of work. Occupational stress victims experience lowered quality of work life and performance. The harmful and costly consequences of stress demonstrate the need for strategies to limit stressors within the organization. Organization that does not adopt strategies to alleviate stress may find their employees looking elsewhere for better opportunities. The impact of stress from overwork, long hours at work and work intensification has had major and often devastating effect on organizations of developingnations.The process of restructuring, downsizing and re-engineering have helped companies to become lean, but not without great costs. Employees are experiencing more stress and uncertainty because companies got leaner without building their ‘muscle’. Just like going on a diet without exercising. The organization weighs less but the percentage of fat which manifests as high stress, low morale, and less optimal productivity has actually increased. Some organizations have even become anorexic. They are too lean, but because they think they are fat, they continue to “diet”.
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correlations between organizational commitment and work behavior were found against self-reported and for supervisory report of performance. The problems arise for the organizations when they start perceiving that their organizations are already performing at their level best and with great efficiency furthermore, there is no need for further improvement in their organizations. Hence keeping in view these barriers must be tackled and addressed as they result in underdeveloped competencies and more over lead towards, finally the organizational ineffectiveness. Ultimate success or failure of an organization is determined majorly by the performance of their employees. At a conceptual level, four types of relationships were proposed to exist between the measures of job stress and job performance .One is a negative linear relationship, when productivity decreases with stress (distress). Productivity can also increase as a consequence of stress, thereby implying a positive linear relationship between the two. Thirdly, there could be a U-shaped or a curvilinear relationship wherein, mild stress could increase the productivity initially up to a peak and then it declines as the person descends into a state of distress.
II.
OCCUPATIONAL STRESS
Stress is everywhere, but as a relatively new phenomenon. At the same time as it is arguable that the term ‘stress’ is so pervasive that it has been entirely cut adrift from both professional discourse and real life experience, it still retains a profoundly serious currency. Real or imagined, understood or misused, rare or widespread, the problem of stress cannot be ignored. The wider we use term ‘stress’, the more elusive its meaning. Research on workplace stress has been extensive, due to the estimated costs it imposes on society. The first difficulty encountered by the research community was to find an appropriate, workable and consensual definition of stress. Mass media and the general public have largely adopted the term “stress”, though not always attributing it the same meaning as the research community (Geare, 1989). The difficulty in defining stress arose predominantly from its broad symptoms and the individual differences that could be observed between people. The first definitions categorized stress either as a response to a Stimulus or as the stimulus itself (Cooper et al., 2001).
The response-based definition of stress is represented by Selye’s “general adaptation syndrome”, which was the first attempt to conceptualize stress from a medical point of view. Under Selye’s definition, stress is “the nonspecific response of the body to any demand” (Selye, 1976, p. 53). Stress is then a set of symptoms, which in this definition are viewed as “non-specific” (Selye, 1976) in that they follow the same pattern whatever the stressor. Indeed, stress has been related to a limited number of symptoms ranging fromphysiological reactions to psychological and behavioral consequences:
- Greater coronary disease risks, musculoskeletal disorders (Kalia, 2002), as well aspeptic ulcers (Cooper & al, 2001); - Anxiety, depression, job dissatisfaction, emotional exhaustion, fatigue, boredom, reduced organizational commitment;
- Lower performance on the job, turnover, absenteeism, substance abuse.
Selye (1976) does not deny, however, that stress symptoms may vary. He attributes these variations to the demands’ intensity and individuals’ sensitivity. He then distinguishes “distress” and “eustress,” the former being a set of stress symptoms detrimental to health and the latter a healthy and positive set of stress symptoms. As Cooper et al. (2001) remind Stress, an adaptation mechanism, further research showed that some symptoms have indeed been linked to specific stressors, and the claim that symptoms are not specific is then partly invalidated. Consequently, as it appears that stress symptoms can differ from one situation to another and from one individual to another, stress cannot be defined from its consequences to people’s well-being and on the basis of their behaviors.
Stress is not a new concept, dating back at least to the14th century (Lumsden 1981). However it becamesignificant with the work of the 17th century scientistRobert Hooke who used it in an engineering context.His analysis influenced early 20th centuryapproaches to stress, where it was perceived inmechanical terms as a load on a system whetherbiological, psychological or social (Lazarus 1993).World War II brought interest in combat relatedstress, and following the war this concept was appliedto situations of ordinary living. The model of stresswas borrowed from engineering and was appliedmechanistically, utilizing simplistic and linearnotions of stimulus and response (Lazarus 1993).This was challenged in the 1950’s by the discoverythat stressful conditions did not always producepredictable results; individual differences becameaccepted as being significant variables (Lazarus et al1952; Lazarus 1993).
Originally the focus on the individual was in terms ofpersonality variables which were still linked to themechanical views of stress: just as some metals aremore resilient to stress than others, it was seen thatsome people are more prone to the negativeconsequences of stress. Research efforts are ongoingto this day to discover which personality traits offergreater resilience in the face of stress (Lazarus 1993).
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former approach which involved animal research and utilized physiological measuresof response to stress (Singer & Davidson 1991).This psychosocial perspective focuses more onhealthy humans and nonphysical stressors, and noevents are seen as universally stressful(Frankenhaeuser 1975). Cognitive processes -generally discussed under the rubric of appraisal – areviewed as a central component in the mediation ofstress (Fleming et al 1984).
Modern definitions of stress all recognize that it is a personal experience caused by pressure or demands on an individual, and impacts upon the individual’s ability to cope or rather, his/her perception of that ability. Work-related stress occurs when there is a mismatch between the demands of the job and the resources and capabilities of the individual worker to meet those demands. Subjective and self-reported evaluations of stress are just as valid as ‘objective’ data, such as statistics on accidents or absenteeism. A recent report by the National Association of Mental Health distinguishes between stress and pressure, where pressure can be defined as a subjective feeling of tension or arousal that is triggered by a potentially stressful situation. However, where pressure exceeds an individual’s ability to cope, the result is stress.
Luthans (2006) defines stress as a response to certain situation or condition that is determined by individual difference and psychological process, as a consequence of the action of the environment, situation or event that puts too much demand on one’s psychological and physical domain. Occupational stress arises due to the demands of the environment and different responses each individual has in facing the demands. Stress is a condition in which individuals are exposed to opportunities, obstacles and desires, and although the results obtained are extremely important, they cannot be ascertained (Robbins & Judge, 2008). Occupational stress in this study is defined as pressure, tension or an unpleasant situation experienced by female employees that could affect their emotions, thinking process and condition.
Stress can bring either positive or negative effect on the performance of the female employees, depending on the level of stress felt by these female employees. Stress at low to medium levels stimulates the body and improves the ability to react; this will help individuals do their job better,faster or more comprehensively. However, excessive stress puts unachievable demands or constraints on a person, resulting in lower performance (Robbins & Judge, 2008).
III.
JOB PERFORMANCE
The job performance of the employee is a measurement tool how the employee is performing in the given work (Lagace et al., 1993). The job performance of the employee is measured by the job performance index (Petty et al; 1984). It consists of the skills of the employees
(Del Recchio, 1998)138, initiativeness (Flaherty and Pappas; 2000) and assertiveness (Mukki et.al; 2006) among the employees. In the present study, the job performance among the employees is measured with the help of five important factors namely Managerial Skills, technical Skills, Flexibility, Personal Skills and assertiveness and initiativeness. The variables related to the 38 variables are drawn from the review of previous studies. (Sengepta and Zafor, 2001) these are presented in table 1.
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than did those who reported low or high levels of job stress. Jamal studied a relationship between job stress and job performance between managers and blue-collar workers. Job stress is defined as individuals’ reactions to the characteristics of the work environment that appear threatening to them.
Four types of relationships are proposed between job stress and performance:
1. Curvilinear/U-shaped, 2. Negative linear, 3. Positive linear, and
4. No relationship between the stress and performance. Job performance is the result of three factors working together: skill, effort and the nature of work conditions. Skills include knowledge, abilities and competencies the employee brings to the job; effort is the degree of motivation the employee puts forth toward getting the job done; and the nature of work conditions is the degree of accommodation of these conditions in facilitating the employee’s productivity.
IV.
IMPACT OF OCCUPATIONAL
STRESS AND JOB PERFORMANCE
Majority of the articles reviewed by this researcher mentioned about the impact of stress but many of them only talk about the impact of stress on particular aspect or dimensions of job, that means the researcher has not come across any article or report that takes a comprehensive view of the subject. Hence it is pertinent to understand as to what constitutes job performance or what are the different dimensions of job that are likely to be affected by stress. Scullen (2000) described job performance comprising of four aspects; i) general performance, ii) human performance, iii) technical performance and iv) administrative performance. Rubina et al. (2008) viewed job performance as the result of three factors working together: skill, effort and the nature of work conditions. Skills include knowledge, abilities and competencies of the employees; effort is the degree of motivation the employee puts forth towards completing the job; and the nature of work conditions is the degree of accommodation of these conditions in facilitating the employee’s performance.
The whole concern for the organizations is performance of their employees irrespective of factors and conditions. Good performance of employees leads to good organizational performance which is an indicator of their success (Armstrong & Baron, 1998). Ultimate success or failure of an organization is determined majorly by the performance of their employees (Bartlett &Ghoshal, 1995 in Ahmed and Ramzan, 2013).Stress has significant impact on company and people performance and it terribly affects health of employees (Mimura and Griffiths, 2003 in Shah et al, 2012). The studies conducted in western countries have shown that the sources of stress that we name as
Occupational Stress Inducers (OSI) in this study are negatively related to well-being and job satisfaction of employees. (Robertson, Cooper, & Williams, 1990). Shah et al.(2012) in their study on impact of stress on employee performance among teaching faculty, found a negative relationship between organizational structure and employee efficiency while rewards were found to be positively correlated to employee efficiency as expected. Rubina et al. (2008) too found a negative relationship between job stress and job performance. However the male employees were found to be affected more than their female counter parts.
Munir and Islam (2011) tested relationship between work stressors like role ambiguity, workload pressure, home-work interface, performance pressure, relationship with others and role conflicts on one side and job performance on the other with motivation as mediator and found that “role conflict” and “role ambiguity” have a positive relation with stressors against the common notion while the relationship is found to be negative between other stressors and job performance.
Imrab et al. (2013) found that stress is responsible for decreasing the performance of bank employees. Ahmed &Ramzan (2013) too found a negative correlation between stress and job performance i.e. as the stress increases the job performance goes down and vice-a-versa.
Usman Ali et al. (2014) found that workload, role conflict, and inadequate monitory reward are the prime reasons of causing stress in employees that leads to reduced employee efficiency. Deshinger (2003) suggested that different aspects of employee job performance that are likely to be affected by stress include Productivity, Job Satisfaction / Morale, Absenteeism, Decision Making Abilities, Accuracy, Creativity, Attention to Personal Appearance, Organizational Skills, Courtesy Cooperation , Initiative , Reliability, Alertness ,Perseverance and Tardiness.
Occupational stress has been found to be related to job performance (Motowidlo, Packard, Manning, 1986; Donaldson-Feilder2011). Yozgat, Yurtkora, Bilginoglu (2013), in a research of job stress and job performance among employees in public sector found a negative relationship between job stress and job performance. In a similar research in China, Siu (2003) revealed that there is a negative relationship between sources of stress and self-related job performance.
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employees, their job satisfaction and performance as well as their commitment negatively (Shikieri& Musa 2011). Wu (2011), in a similar study, found that job stress and job performance were negatively correlated. Naqvi et al (2013), found lack of financial rewards, inflexibility in work hours, personal issues, low control over the work environment and bureaucratic management system to be negatively correlated with employees “productivity.
In a similar study, Dhamodharan&Arumugasamy (2011) found that, occupational stressors influence positively the coercive and authoritative leadership and influence negatively the affiliate, democratic, pace-setting and coaching. A research work by Jeyaraj (2013) on occupational stress among teachers, found that teachers who reported greater stress were less satisfied with teaching, report greater frequency of absence and a greater number of total days absent, were more likely to leave teaching (career intensions) and less likely to take up a teaching career again (career commitment).
Dunmade, Adegoke&Agboola (2014), in a study of techno-stress among university workers, found that, techno-stress has negative consequences on the individual worker’s performance. In a similar research among state university department Suandi, Ismail, & Othman (2014), found that, the relationship between job stress and job performance is at a quite negative but moderate level. According Forkuoh et al (2014), employees‟ commitment positively impact on the growth and succession of small and medium scale enterprises but high level of stress significantly impact on commitment and affect productivity (Jamal 2011; Siu 2003).
V.
CONCLUSION
Occupational role stress is an area which has touched every employed individual of working in different sector either in a good or a bad way. The analysis of the literature based on occupational stress and job performance revealed that irrespective of the fact that whether it is public sector or public bank there is no unanimity among researchers on the parameters of job performance. Some researcher believe that job performance as the result of three factors working together: skill, effort and the nature of work conditions but these factors are not applicable for every type of organization.The major effect of occupational stress which is commonly found in different sector is that, that both occupational stress and job performance are negatively correlated. Researches from various fields have adopted different parameters to measure job performance. Therefore further research in this area may answer this question.
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