An Analysis of Factors Causing Workplace Stress and Coping Methods

This report delves into the critical issue of workplace stress, examining its causes and impacts on employee well-being. The study, rooted in organizational psychology, aims to identify the factors that contribute to stress, such as heavy workloads, lack of growth opportunities, and insufficient social support. It investigates the negative consequences of prolonged stress, including health issues like anxiety and insomnia. The research employs a descriptive design, collecting both primary and secondary data through literature reviews and surveys of employees. The objectives include recognizing the key causes of workplace stress, analyzing the identified reasons, determining the necessity of eliminating stress, and recommending strategies for controlling it. The report also explores various coping mechanisms to mitigate the adverse effects of workplace stress, offering valuable insights for both employees and practitioners seeking to foster a healthier and more productive work environment. The study's findings emphasize the importance of managing and reducing stress to enhance overall well-being and improve organizational outcomes.

Title: Analysing the Factors behind Workplace Stress and Coping Mechanisms

Abstract
Workplace stress is quite common in this competitive world and majority of the people across
the world who is associated with a job or has been into that field have faced certain major or
minor work related stress. For example, the pressure of meeting a deadline is a stress that
generates from workplace. Short term stress although may not have any strong impact, the
prolonged stress sometimes become overwhelming for an individual affecting his mental and
physical health. Therefore, it is primarily necessary to understand the reasons of workplace
stress so that those issues can be addressed and mitigated in an effective manner. The
proposed research aims in identification of the negative impacts of workplace stress in human
health. The proposed research will further analyse the process in which those stress can be
managed so that the negative effects of the stress can be reduced. The proposal discusses the
methods, tools and techniques that will be used to complete this study. The proposal
documents the aims and objectives of the study and proposes the method for collection and
investigation of information related to the research.
1

Introduction
The undertaken study aims in identification and analysis of the actors that contributes
to workplace stress. The management of the workplace stress becomes integral as it can have
negative influence on the physical and emotional health of a person. The undertaken research
is relevant to area of my course which is organizational psychology. The research will be
analysing the factors that contributes to the organizational stress. Analysis of the same is a
necessity mainly because the effect on uncontrolled stress is quite severe and might result in
increase of health issues such as headache, stomach ache, disturbance in sleep and short
temper (Tetrick and Winslow 2015). The disappearance of the workplace stress is quite
difficult and therefore analysis of the main factors contributing to that stress becomes a
necessity.
The proposed research aims in investigation of the common problems that arises due
to workplace stress. The APA’s annual stress in America survey has listed that one of the
most significant source of stress is work as indicated by majority of the Americans. Through
this proposed research, the researcher aims in analysing the physical and emotional impact of
stress on a person (Beehr 2014). The research will be identifying the most common source of
work stress so that the impact of the same can be considerably reduced.
The proposed research will mainly envisage the factors that cumulatively contribute
to work related stress. Few off the most common factors behind the increase in work related
stress across the globe include low salaries and excessive work-loads (Chao et al. 2015).
Also, the less growth opportunity or advancement opportunity is another key reason behind
the increase in stress. The proposed study further aims in envisaging the impact or ill effect
of the uncontrolled stress, as it is quite a difficult task to completely eliminate work related
2

stress. In case a stress persist for a longer period of time, there is a high possibility of increase
in deterioration of the health and mental wellbeing.
This particular research is interesting to me mainly because it is significantly related
to my course work. I am pursing a course on organizational psychology and therefore, this
topic of research holds a significant importance to me. The problem of work place stress or
organizational stress seems to increase over the years and therefore, I found it necessary to
perform a detailed research in this topic (Ahmad et al. 2015). Also, this will help others in
coping up with the organizational stress by identifying the main causes of such stress in an
effective manner (Spence Laschinger and Nosko 2015). The proposed study will be important
to the practitioners as well, as it aims in easier identification of the common mechanism of
the office stress. Since office stress is very destructive for physical and sensitive responses it
becomes essential to investigate key causes of workplace stress. Prolonged workplace stress
can result in increase of stress and anxiety and therefore this issue is needed to be escalated in
an effective manner (Anthony‐McMann et al. 2017). Also, it is obligatory to identify key
strategies that can considerably help in managing and reducing the workplace stress. The
findings of the proposed study will further help in reducing the major cause of the stress that
will promote healthy livings. Thus, there are certain needs of conducting this particular
research as it will ascertain that the key issues and the factors related to organizational and
workplace stress are investigated and managed. Since this proposed research will further
analyse the factors that can help in reducing workplace stress the conduction of this particular
research is justified.
The literature search reveals various factors that contribute to organizational or
workplace stress. Very few of them include waged for long hours, having a heavy work
pressure or tight deadlines, not getting enough scope to perform or doing a boring work over
the years (Johnstone and Feeney 2015). The short term stress such as the pressure of meeting
3

a deadline or a long time stress of lack of having a social support can significantly affect
mental wellbeing of an individual. Chronic stress seems to have prolonged ill effect which
include anxiety, insomnia, high blood pressure or having a weak immune system (Shkëmbi,
Melonashi and Fanaj 2015). Therefore, management of such stress and removal of the same
from workplace becomes integral. One of the key process of managing the tress is to track the
stressors by identifying he most stressful situation of the workplace. Reduction of the
workplace stress becomes integral to live a healthy and tension free life (Rees et al. 2015).
Also, it becomes very necessary to manage the stress to reduce the long term effect of the
stress.
The key empirical findings of the preliminary literature review is that there can be
several factors contributing to the workplace stress and management of the same becomes a
necessity. The cause of stress, however, small it might be, is needed to be identified and
addresses so s to lead a healthy life (Yeboah et al. 2014). Also, it becomes necessary to
understand key processes in which these stress can be effectively managed and mitigated.
The findings from the preliminary literature review indicate that conducting this
particular research becomes a necessity as there are various factors can be a reason of
workplace stress (Kushwaha 2014). The execution of this study becomes a necessity since it
addresses the key causes of the workplace stress and further provides a solution for managing
the workplace stress. Also it is critically important to comprehend the importance of
managing the office stress in maintaining a healthy life.
Objectives-
The objectives of the proposed research are indicated as follows-
 To recognise the key causes of workplace stress
 To analyse the identified reasons of workplace stress
4

 To determine the necessity of eliminating the workplace stress
 To recommend strategies of controlling the workplace stress
Research Questions-
The questions of the research which will be responded in this proposed research are
indicated as follows-
 What are the most common factors behind increase in workplace stress?
 What are the negative influences of the workplace stress?
 How can the workplace stress be controlled?
 What are the strategies of reducing the workplace stress?
Method
In the previous section, the objectives and the questions that will be addressed in this
study are identified. The correct execution of the proposed study is subjected to finding
appropriate tools and technique that will help in easier completion of the proposed research
(Mackey and Gass 2015).
Use of certain specific tools and techniques are necessary to appropriately design and
conduct this research. It is integral for a research study to correctly define the research
methods mainly because the choice of the research methods governs the success or failure of
the study.
The research philosophy that is proposed for this study is positivism philosophy
(Kumar 2019). The choice of positivism for this research is mainly found to be appropriate
because it mainly adheres to the factual knowledge that is gained through observation. In this
particular study, the main ole of the researcher is limiting the collected data and interpreting
5

that data in an objective way (Flick 2015). Therefore, the findings from this study will mainly
be observable and quantifiable. Since the use of positivism philosophy corresponds to the
human knowledge and experience, it is noteworthy to make a correct usage of positivism in
analysis of the main factors behind workplace stress.
The research design that is proposed for this particular research is descriptive
research design. The choice of the descriptive design of research is quite significant and
important for this study particularly because it generally indicates use of pure data without
any sort of manipulation of the research variables (Bresler and Stake 2017). This particular
research design generally focuses on the process of describing a phenomenon based on the
demographic segment. Since this proposed research will be making use of the primary data,
the use of the descriptive research design is found to be justified in this case. The descriptive
research design that has been opted for this study will permit the researcher to discuss the
reason behind occurrence of a particular phenomenon, which is in this case is the occurrence
of workplace stress. It is integral to determine the reason behind the increase in workplace
stress and therefore, the choice of descriptive research design is justified.
There are mainly two broad data types that are used in in a research, the primary data
and the secondary data. For this particular study, both primary and the secondary data will be
collected so that the researcher can collect enough data to fulfil the research objectives
(Ledford and Gast 2018).
The secondary data that will help in investigation of the research objectives will be
collected by a detailed literature review. The review of the present literature will help in
easier documentation of the various causes of increase of stress in workplace. The collection
of secondary data is advantageous for the research as a huge amount of data can be collected
from the literature and journals that have been published in this field. Also, the collection of
6

the data from the peer reviewed journals guarantees the authenticity of the data. Therefore,
the choice of the secondary data is justified.
Side by side with the secondary data primary data will also be obtained. The study
aims in analysing the key reasons behind workplace stress and therefore, it is integral to
collect data from the first hand source or the sources who have experienced such stress.
Therefore, the collection of the primary data for the research becomes a necessity. The
employees who face workplace stress are needed to be contacted to collect data from them. It
is integral to identify the various factors that contributes to the stress and therefore, collection
of primary data for this proposed research becomes a necessity (Silverman 2016).
There can three broad methods of primary data collection, which are observation,
interview and survey. The Interview method helps in having a direct communication with the
research respondents in collection of their views while the method of survey helps in
collection of data from a large number of individuals. The interview process is time
consuming however, the most authentic data is collected from this method. The method of
observation may not be very significant for the research that have time constraints. The
method of collection of primary data that is chosen for this particular research involves the
use of survey to ask questions to the employees who have faced workplace stress. The
questions will be based on the conclusions from the secondary data of the research. For this
proposed research, a sample size of 50 respondents who have faced workplace stress will be
surveyed. The respondents are chosen by the method of random sampling (Taylor, Bogdan
and DeVault 2015).
The data analysis method that is chosen for this study is a mixed method, that is both
qualitative and quantitative analysis will be carried out. The secondary data obtained will be
analysed in a qualitative manner, while the collected primary data will undergo quantitative
7

analysis. The data will be investigated by making use of google spreadsheet. The responses of
each respondents will be depicted in form of graph and charts that will be generated by
analysis of the data from excel (Jamshed 2014). Since the research aims in understanding the
key causes workplace stress and recommendation of the factors contributing to the workplace
stress, it is of significant importance to statistically analyse the collected data. Anova test is
not used in this research as Anova is majorly used for determining whether there is any
statistical difference between the variables. T test is not used in this research as well since it
is mainly used for depiction of an inferential statistic which is not relevant to this research.
General Timeline
Tasks Wee
k 1
Wee
k 2
Wee
k 3
Wee
k 4
Wee
k 5
Wee
k 6
Wee
k 7
Wee
k 8
Wee
k 9
Wee
k 10
Topic
Identificatio
n
Background
Study
Preliminary
Literature
Review
Objectives
Identificatio
n
8

Proposal
Writing
Proposal
Submission
Main
Literature
Review
Primary
Data
Collection
Data
Analysis
Draft
Dissertation
Writing
Final
Research
Paper
Submission
of the Paper
9

The entire study is set to be completed in ten weeks and for that, the general timetable
of the research is depicted above. Each of the tasks related to the research will be carried out
in a sequential manner to complete the final project report by the end of week 10.
Discussion
The previous section has identified the key methods that will be used for execution
and accomplishment of the study. The choice of the approaches, tools and techniques for the
proposed research is justified. The methodology proposed indicates the use of both primary
and secondary data. Therefore, the chances of gathering of irrelevant research data is
eliminated. Also, there are certain key benefits of making use of both primary and secondary
data. A wide range of data can be obtained with this method. Also, the method of making use
of quantitative data investigation process will help in analysing the data in a statistical
manner and therefore, the chances of error is considerably reduced. The secondary data for
the research will be collected through literature review that will provide a detailed
understanding of the common factors that add to stress in workplace. Since the research aims
in analysis of the factors in which the issues can be managed, the extensive literature review
that is proposed for this particular research seems to be justified. The collection of primary
data will help in cross checking if the data obtained from secondary sources actually matches
the responses obtained from primary sources (Quinlan et al. 2019). Thus, it can be said that
the chosen methods will appropriately address the research questions that have been
identified in the preceding section. Also the method of making use of quantitative data
examination generally helps in obtaining statistically correct data (Vamsi Krishna Jasti and
Kodali 2014). Thus, the methodology that has been chosen for the proposed research is
justified in this case.
10

The proposed method does not have any key drawback, however, while collection of
the primary data, the authenticity of the data is needed to be guaranteed. The benefit of the
proposed method is that both primary and secondary data has been used in the study that
eliminate the chances of collection of vague data. Also this particular research study will be
analysing the key factor of workplace stress which will help the employees in getting rid of
the stress (Judd, Dorozenko and Breen 2017). The proposed research will be beneficial in a
broader term as it is related to envisaging the mental and physical wellbeing of the
individuals. Also the success of this proposed research will ensure that the root cause of
facing the organizational stress is eliminated or reduced.
The proposed research will contribute to the previous researches that have been done
in this field. It will ascertain that the key causes of workplace stress are easily identified so
that the process in which these stress can be reduced are identified. The success of this
proposed research will help the employees to know about the probable causes of stress. It will
further enable the employers to know about probable causes of stress. The employers should
take an initiative to reduce the workplace stress to ensure health physical and mental health of
their employees.
The proposed research will contribute to the theory as well. The proposed research
will ensure that the key causes of workplace stress are identified and approaches that can be
taken for mitigation of the same are identified as well. Therefore, the proposed research will
significantly contribute to the theory.
The proposed research opens up for future research in this field. Future research in
this field in necessary as various other kinds of workplace stress can be identified or faced.
Therefore, the findings of the research will be integral and important for future researches to
be conducted in this field. Thus, having a correct and accurate result of this research is
11