American Psychological Association (2018) states that stress occurs as a result of perceived incapability to meet demands placed on us. When overwhelmed by circumstances, individuals often become easily irritated and angry, losing the ability to be effective and a feeling of anxiety causing lack of confidence and the tendency of withdrawal. Distress is a psychosocial state often experienced when there are inadequate resources to meet what is required of us. Michie (2002) defines stress as the pressure from the environment that causes one to strain on account of a given situation or condition. It thus varies from one state to another and depending on its intensity, it can cause a mere disturbance of the mind or cause serious health issues. Scientists define stress as the reaction of the body to any stimulus in the environment. It is almost impossible to talk about stress without mentioning the Selye’s and Lazarus theories which attempt to explain stress from different perspectives. The former concentrates on how an organism reacts to a stimulus in three distinct stages, that is, shock, adaptation, and the inability to take up anymore thus causing death. On the other hand, the Lazarus theory views stress from a relational concept, stating that individuals will react to stress on account of how it affects their well-being. According to Campbell (1990), job performance refers to all forms of activity that an employee observes within the workplace that are relevant to the achievement of organizational goals.
Occupational Stress
According to Vokic’ & Bogdanic’ (2007), occupational stress is a condition affecting the mental and physical health of a worker thus impacting their quality of work regarding effectiveness and productivity. A person’s better part of their life is spent at the place of work making it inevitable for one to separate the element of work from their value for life. Hence, individuals feel a sense of purpose, satisfaction, and happiness from being effective and accomplishing their goals at work and having their efforts recognized. When this is not achieved, they are demoralized, their mental and physical health becomes affected, and their motivation to perform diminishes. It is thus important for employers to take up responsibility for the provision of a good working environment if the maximization of their staff’s potential is to be achieved. The success and effectiveness of an organization are dependent on the collective performance of every individual working in the company. Gary (1996), states that it is crucial for employers to be concerned about the human resource needs, and as such, provide an appropriate working environment for them to thrive.
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Beehr (1976), states that the common causes of stress in the workplace are multitasking, an overrated value of competition, institutional elements like ambiguity in management, unbecoming work environments and personal stress factors. Distress at the place of work will often be caused by factors related to job description, managerial elements, organizational culture, career development, conflicts in the execution of roles, and stress arising from interrelationships. What is required of an employee in their job description sometimes could not be involving enough and they might find it tedious. To this end, work becomes a place where employees go to not because they are interested in what they do but just to meet their needs. On the other extreme is that some jobs are involving and demand too much from an individual causing them lack of sleep in an attempt to solve and meet the challenges they face in their line of duty. This might be caused by an organization’s inability to recruit the required quality and number of expertise thus overwhelming an individual with below average qualifications for the job or causing work overload for the available skill. This results in long hours at work, denying individuals their right to rest and be re-energized for another day of work.
Alkubaisi (2015) notes that stress at work often results in a disparity between an individual’s abilities, needs and expectations and what is required of them. Bad management, on the other hand, will involve elements of discrimination, harassment, inequality in compensation, and over supervision. During the recruitment process, it is essential to make sure that the right people are hired for the job, otherwise, if they do not fit in the organizational culture, it becomes a source of stress in itself, and such persons are unable to perform as per their potential. An institutions’ personnel consist of people with different and unique personalities that are necessary for the success of the firm. However, if the coexistence of these individuals is not correctly managed, conflicts are most likely to be observed. Thus, proper channels for conflict prevention and management should be put in place to avoid distress at work.
Effects of Stress on Job Performance.
According to Materson (2007), job stress is almost inevitable in every occupation, and it affects performance. A lot of coercion and pressure to meet deadlines more often than not causes the lack of effectiveness at work because it results in exhaustion, lack of motivation and drives away interest. To this extent, job satisfaction is not achieved, and performance falls victim to all this. Hendry & Jenkins (1998) contend that an ideal performance is subject to ideal work conditions and when this state is disturbed, there is bound to be stress on the employee thus adversely affecting their ability to perform. Occupational stress handicaps the decision making increasing harm and wastage at the workplace. It is important, however, to note that not all stress causes adverse effects but rather some level of stress is necessary to advance innovation and beyond expected performance and creativity in the solving of issues and challenges that are part of the everyday routine at the workplace. An individuals’ attitude and potential dictate whether the level of stress brings about productivity or harm to both them and the firm.
Beehr & Newman (1978) state that both high and low levels of stress in business result in low performance. Therefore, moderate stress is good for the maximization of productivity (McGrath, 1976). High levels of stress at work will cause an increase in absenteeism, reduced creativity, anxiety, a decrease in confidence, and increasing conflict all of which lead to low performance and a deviation of attention from organizational goals. According to Damle (2012), factors that contribute to stress and impact performance do so by influencing the options an individual chooses to put their effort into and whether they fully maximize their abilities in doing so. Stress slowly crashes the interest of the jobs ultimately destroying the client loyalty due to poor service and product quality leading to massive losses. Conflict often rising from stress kills teamwork which eventually negatively affects performance. In matters performance, it is safe to say that stress affects the innate abilities such as knowledge, skill, and attitude because they are the elements behind the strength to endure. Webb (2018) asserts that stress affects significant contributors to performance like teamwork, work attitudes, and safety.
Coping and Managing Stress
Riggio (2003) notes that occupational stress is inevitable but requires proper management to maintain an appropriate work behavior. Coping and managing stress at work will thus involve the ways that will help the staff adapt to stressful stimuli. According to Bond & Bunce (2000), it is crucial for an organization to employ cognitive-behavioral interventions that enlighten the workforce on the impact their thought system has on how they cope and manage stress and therefore, help them develop adaptive skills in the event of stress. Some of these skills involve management tools like time management, goal setting, self-evaluation, negotiation and conflict resolution skills. Other adaptive skills include psycho and physical exercises like meditation, journaling, and deep breathing. Psychological interventions like counseling and psychotherapy also go along way into helping an individual discover their ability to cope with certain stressors.
In the event stress is related to the job design, then it is appropriate that the management looks into the elements of the job and redesign it for the achievement of effectiveness and performance. Effective recruitment resulting to the best fit candidate for a job is equally important making sure that one’s potential is not undermined or the workforce is not overwhelmed due to their inability to perform based on their expertise. According to Beehr & Newman (2003), the redesigning of jobs to achieve job control enhances their job commitment since it achieves work autonomy. This might include a decrease in the work overload involving job holders in decisions that affect their duties which help decrease role conflict.
The dynamic nature of business will always cause stress due to the need for organizations to adapt to change for them to survive. It is, therefore, necessary for organizations to embark on continuous training and development in their fields and take up stress management training for their wellbeing and that of their staff. A good employer seeks not only for productivity but also the sustainability of both the firm and that of his employees, and as such, they will employ employee welfare programs to ensure a well catered for staff.
References
Alkubaisi, M. (2015). How can stress affect your work performance? Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5529/4532dd795c4a527762d9f4b0472198a8ea6f.pdf
American Psychological Association (2018).
Beehr T.A, (1976), Human stress and cognition in organizations, (pp. 3- 19). New York: John Wiley
Beehr, T.A., & Newman, J.E. (1978). Job stress, employee health, and organizational effectiveness: A facet analysis, mode, and literature review. Personnel Psychology, (1978), 31, 665-699.
Bond, F. W., & Bunce, D. (2000), Mediators of change in emotion-focused and problem-focused worksite stress management interventions. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology , 5, pp: 156–163.
Campbell, J.P. (1990). Modeling the performance prediction problem in industrial and organizational psychology, (1990).
Damle, R. (2012). Employee Performance A Function of Occupational Stress and Coping . Retrieved from http://www.dypatil.edu/schools/management/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Employee-Performance-a-Function-of-Occupational-Stress-and-Coping-A-Study-on-Central-Government-Employees-Radha-Damle.pdf
Gary, J. (1996). Organizational Behavior: Understanding and Managing life at work . Harper Collins Publisher Inc. New York.
Hendry, C., and Jenkins, R. (1998). Psychological contracts and new deals, Human Resource Management Journal. , 1998. 7: 38-43.
Materson, I. (2007). Stress at work: A managerial perspective . Human Stress press, Inc.
McGrath, J. E., (1976). Stress and behavior in organizations . Human Stress press, Inc.
Michie, S. (2002). Causes and management of stress at work. Occupational. Environ. Med.59: 67–72.
Riggio R.E. (2003). Leadership and Organizational Psychology. Human Stress press, Inc.
Vokic, N.P., and Bogdanic, A. (2007). Individual difference in occupational stress perceived: A Croatian Study, Working Paper Series, (2007) Paper No. 07-05
Webb, C. (2018), How Stress Affects Attitudes & Behaviors in the Work Environment . Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/stress-affects-attitudes-behaviors-work-environment-11304.html
