Impact of Work Intensification, Job Stress, and Satisfaction Essay

This essay examines the significant impact of work intensification and job stress on employee job satisfaction within organizations. It delves into the causes and effects of job stress, highlighting its connection to reduced productivity, absenteeism, and potential conflicts. The essay explores various theoretical models, including the cognitive theory, person-environment theory, demand-control model, and effort-reward imbalance, to explain the relationship between job stress and job satisfaction. It also provides practical recommendations for both employees and managers to mitigate job stress and enhance job satisfaction. These recommendations include organizational strategies such as creating focus groups and providing training, as well as individual strategies like time management and seeking support. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of identifying and addressing factors that impact job stress to foster a more positive and productive work environment for both employees and the organization as a whole.

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Organizational Behavior
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Introduction
This essay focuses on the effect of work intensification and an analysis of how job stress
relates to job satisfaction. In addition, remedies are provided regarding how the effects of job
stress can be prevented. Basing on the modern world, the innovative technology, consumer
demands and the extension in the market for competitors experience a continuous growth (Li,
Hu, Zhou, He, Fan, Liu, Zhang, Li and Sun, 2014 pp.10). For this reason, several institutions
shift their content constantly and they get deeper to work for the development of the
organization. If the organizations wish to succeed, the employees are required to be flexible and
adaptable to the rapid changes experienced in the working environment (Hoboubi, Choobineh,
Ghanavati, Keshavarzi and Hosseini, 2017 pp.68). The issue resulted in an intensification of
work and heavy workload which slowly leads to job stress, and affects the employee’s job
satisfaction.
Discussion
Job stress refers to the destructive emotions and the physical responses which are
associated with the job qualifications, for instance, if there lack a match of the individual
abilities, the employee’s needs, or the resources. Job stress results from injuries as well as poor
health.
On the other hand, job satisfaction can be defined in various diverse ways. Some
individuals perceive that job satisfaction is the content that an individual has in regard to their

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work (Taylor, 2017, (n.d)). In simple words, if they like their job, the facets associated with the
job as well as the individual factors which include supervision or the nature of the job. Zablah,
Carlson, Donavan, Maxham III, and Brown, 2016 outlines the cause of job satisfaction. For
instance, for an employee to be satisfied they must be fit for the job in terms of qualifications,
environment, and salary demands. In case the personality traits of an individual do not fit the job
or organization they are prone to experience job stress (Zablah, Carlson, Donavan, Maxham III,
and Brown, 2016 pp.743). Also, if there is misguide regarding the individual perceptions about a
certain job they are prone to experience job stress as well. There individuals should minimize the
overload of emotional labor to avoid job stress and acquire job satisfaction.
The job stress and job satisfaction are related. From the theoretical perspective, the
theory of person-environment indicates that stress occurs due to the individual fit or rather misfit
with the surrounding. For instance, an individual may experience stress when trying to cope and
also induce their defense mechanisms at work (Burchell, Hudson, Ladipo, Mankelow &
Nolan, 1999, (n.d)). Various studies have been conducted which reveals that job stress correlates
to the job satisfaction hence the productivity levels of the employees are impacted.
Job stress matters to the stakeholders, employees, and to the managers of the institutions.
It is a difficult term which has various definitions, and its effects on job satisfaction can be
explored using various theoretical models. The cognitive theory focuses on stress, coping with
job stress, and it views stress as the friction which arises between an employee and their working
environment. The cognitive theory provides resources as significant factors in the organization
which may cause job stress (Bemana, Moradi, Ghasemi, Taghavi and Ghayoor, 2013 pp.235).
The theory suggests that if the needs of the employees are more than the available resources,
then stress is bound to occur. The affective job satisfaction is defined as the individual emotional

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view about the entire task. The demand-control model developed by Karasek assumes that
psychological strain is an effect of job stress which impacts job satisfaction. Clearly, there a is
psychological strain which impacts the decision-making of an employee. The model of the
effort-reward imbalance indicates that stress may arise if there is a mismatch between the
employee’s high commitment and low rewards (Yaacob and Long, 2015. Pp.81). The low
rewards may include low salaries, no promotion, and no recognition at workplace. For this
reason, employees may lack the motivation to work harder in fear that they will not be rewarded.
Other factors that are associated with job stress are workload, disturbances in the working
environment, career development, and the role of conflicts. Clearly, the employees determine the
production level of every organization (Usman, Akbar and Ramzan, 2013 pp.71). The
organization may still have low productivity levels regardless of high capital, or latest
technology in the organization if the employees are not satisfied. Therefore, due to job stress, the
employees have a low intellectual happiness which is followed by poor health (Bakker and
Demerouti, 2014 pp.10). At the same time, the job stress encourages absenteeism of employee
with no good reasons. Various scholars confirm that the turnover rate of institutions is
determined by the employee satisfaction and the levels of job stress.
Job stress may affect the events and the purposes of various institutions. This is because
the job pressures may impact the employee’s performance as outlined in this paper.
Disagreements may arise in the case of job stress hence conflicts occur. Employees realize they
have dragged in various events and they struggle to position themselves to understand the role of
conflict in the organization. Also, conflicts occur as the employees want to achieve satisfaction
but the job stress causes challenging demands which do not match from one employee to the
other. Employees encounter stress through competition, mass retrenchment, uncertainty about

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the future outlook of the organization, and due to the advances in the technology (Allisey,
Noblet, Lamontagne and Houdmont, 2014 pp.755). Employees have to cope with the competitive
nature and therefore they spend time struggling with the job obligations hence negative effects
are experienced in their personal, social and domestic life. Therefore, the employees develop
physical and mental health issues due to the dissatisfaction at the workplace (Fila, Paik, Griffeth
and Allen, 2014 pp.642). At the same time, the employees may impact the customers if they
experience job stress. This is because the employees will lower the quality of their services to the
customers hence customer satisfaction reduces. Therefore, the employers need to recognize the
stressors in the organization that causes the outlined negative impacts to the organization. If the
job stress decreases, the employees and the customers will be satisfied hence the organization
will benefit in terms of productivity.
There are various ways in which the effects of job stress may be prevented, especially on
job satisfaction. First, the organizations should do several things to help the employees cope
with technological advances hence minimize the job stress. Organizations should create the focus
groups for the employees. The organizations will create the groups by selecting random staff
from the departments where they are given an opportunity to express their experiences as well as
opinions concerning the institution. Training should be provided concerning the new structures
and advances in technologies to minimize their resistance to changes and increase their
competence (Charoensukmongkol, 2014 pp.345). The managers should ensure that the changes
are implemented chronologically. The chronological approach is also called the step by step
method where employees are exposed to problems slowly hence the managers have ample time
to provide solutions to the problems before the systems are implemented in the organization.

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The employees should ignore the poor habits which facilitate to job stress. They can
resist perfectionism by setting the realistic goals where they can perform best. They may also
find humor in various situations to overcome job stress. Employees should be proactive basing
on the duties by presenting their concern to the employers (Cicolini, Comparcini and Simonetti,
2014 pp.860). At the same time, employees should organize as well as prioritize their job by
managing their time well hence reduce the job stress. Also, employees need to take leaves and
enhance good relationships with others to minimize conflicts within the institutions. In case of
poor health, employees should exercise and take a balanced diet to reduce job stress.
On the other hand, the managers should do various things to increase the job satisfaction
for the employees and minimize the job stress. First, the managers should consult their
employees before implementing several processes within the organization. This provides
opportunities for the employees to take part in decision-making and also the conflicts are
managed positively. The managers should clarify the expectations within the institutions. This
step can be achieved by sharing the information with the staff to minimize the uncertainty levels.
They may also define the goals, roles as well as responsibilities for the employees. Finally, they
may issue incentives and rewards as a way of recognizing their employees. This step can be
achieved if the managers respect the staff, offer good salaries, and praise the good performance.
In addition, the managers should exercise fair deals with the employees to enhance their
satisfaction.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this essay explores the effects of job stress on job satisfaction and the
preventive measures which can be offered. Job stress determines the levels of motivation of the

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employees in the organizations. Job stress may have a great impact even to the community due to
the low productivity of the organization. The career development, the role of conflict,
absenteeism, low productivity, low reward, workload, and disturbances in the working
environment are the significant effects of jobs stress as outlined in this essay. Therefore, the
employees and the managers are obliged to offer preventive measures to minimize job stress and
enhance job satisfaction. Various theories and models such as the cognitive theory, person-
environment theory, demand-control model, and the model of the effort-reward imbalance have
been used in the essay to explain the relationship which exists between job stress and job
satisfaction. The recommendations are that employers and employees should identify the factors
of optimization which impacts the job stress as well as job satisfaction. Employers need to
support their employees and also employ those who fit their abilities and the expertise. Exact
definitions should be provid4ed regarding the jobs. Finally, the employers should ensure that the
employees have the best working environment in terms of structures, clean environments with
fewer disturbances to minimize stress and increase the job satisfaction.

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