Workplace Stress and Its Impact on Employees and Organizational Performance

This essay discusses the concept of workplace stress and its impact on employees and organizational performance. It explores the causes of workplace stress, its effects on employee health and productivity, and possible solutions to address the issue. The essay also highlights the importance of managing workplace stress for improving organizational performance.

Running Head: PSYCHOLOGY
0
Psychology
2/17/2019

PSYCHOLOGY
1
The essay brings about the discussion on the concept of the workplace stress and the
other issues or problems associated within an organisation. The discussion on the stress at
workplace will be done on the basis of the some of the articles and the research conducted by
some of the authors.
The article stresses over the fact that in the current scenario of economy, stress has
become one of the major concern wherein employees face the issues of workload, job-
insecurity, and low levels of job-satisfaction. The issue of stress at workplace has shown
detrimental effect on the health and wellbeing of the employees, and their productivity and
performance. The term stress in general sense, refers to what we feel, during the time we
respond to different situations and energy. It is considered normal as a part of the life,
therefore leads to major impact on our work and living (Lambert & Lambert, 2003).
Two major effects have been outlined through this article, as ‘work intensification’
and ‘job-insecurity’. The effect of work intensification creates a high pressure situation on the
employees, i.e. when they are overloaded with work and further creates the problem of job-
insecurity. The article provides some solutions to locate the issue of workplace stress as
redesigning the job-design and also through therapeutic intervention. In addition, some of the
possible strategies may include providing training in proactive supervision, and training in
conflict resolution (Babatunde, 2013).
In every organisation, organisational stress is one major aspect which affects
organisational performance and employees in numerous ways. The article in their study has
revealed about the organisational performance, as the stress in organisations affects turnover,
thereby organisation’s performance. Occupational stress often shows high level of
dissatisfaction amongst employees, which is one major aspect of reduced performance and
increased turnover. It also leads to the issues such as job mobility, burnout, poor or
ineffective performance or productivity of employees working in the organisation. Thus,
factors, i.e. environmental and organisational factors are some of the causes which lead to the
issue of the workplace stress in the organisation (Johnstone & Feeney, 2015).
Further, another article stresses the issue of stress at workplace has gained wider
importance as it is observed in every organisation at all different levels. However, looking
from a wider perspective the workplace stress explains both positive and negative aspects to
employees and organisations. The positive effects of the stress at workplace may include the
accomplishment of the goals and objectives. According to the research, the authors stated that

PSYCHOLOGY
2
an individual in stress is more capable to show high commitment and dedication towards their
targets. However, stress also exert negative influence in terms of their health, and may lead to
psychological illness and affects their state of wellness. The aspect of workplace stress has
been linked to the elements of wellbeing- absenteeism, presenteeism, costs, and challenges. It
has been found in the organisations in Britain in the year that employees reported issues of
the stress, depression due to overload of the work. Therefore, stress was attributed as one
major reason for the increased number of absenteeism within organisation (Ongori & Evans,
2008).
To conclude the above discussion it has been analysed that organisation’s stress has been one
of the issue in the contemporary organisations, which must be improved through effective
solutions or organisational strategies.

PSYCHOLOGY
3
References
Babatunde, A. (2013). Occupational Stress: A Review on Conceptualisations, Causes, and
Cure. Economic Insights – Trends and Challenges, 2(5), 2-9.
Johnstone, M. & Feeney, J. A. (2015). Individual differences in responses to workplace
stress: The contribution of attachment theory. Journal of Applied Social
Psychology, 45(7), 412-424.
Lambert, V.A. & Lambert, C.E. (2003) Psychological hardiness, workplace stress, and
related stress reduction strategies. Nursing and Health Sciences, 5, 181-184.
Ongori, H. & Evans, J.E. (2008) Occupational Stress in Organizations and Its Effects on
Organizational Performance. Journal of Management Research, 8(3), 6-14.