Occupational Stress and Scientific Monitoring
Literature Review
2.1 Introduction
The definition of the term occupational stress is derived from the definition of its two constituent words. In this context, occupational refers to anything that is related to the workplace while stress is defined as a natural body reaction from physical, mental or emotional strain in an individual. Thus, occupational stress can be defined as any mechanism by which the body attempts to adapt to the workplace environment. These include normal mechanisms for dealing with workplace stress, commonly known as the fight or flight response as well as any expected or unexpected reactions in response to the workplace. These include eyestrain because of staring at computer screens for too long, emotional and physical stress, depression, anxiety, aggression, cognitive impairment such as degraded memory or reduced concentration span, etc. All of these reactions can lead to poor work output, increased employee turnover, higher absenteeism, cardiovascular disease, injury or even death (Patterson et al., 2005).
Occupational stress can also be defined as a hazard under the relevant occupational safety and health legislation that can cause any harm to employee health and to which employers have a duty of care to assess, identify and control as much as possible. It can also be defined in other words as the consequence of an individual being unable to cope with pressures in the workplace (Rees, 1997). These undesirable outcomes come about either because of poor fit between the persons abilities and the requirement of his or her position or because of workplace conditions being otherwise unfavorable. Because the well-being of employees is inextricably associated with organizational performance and productivity, occupational stress demands timely investigation to identify ways to mitigate these effects (Osibanjo and Salau, 2016).
Although unemployment levels in the United States have steadily declined in recent years, there has been a corresponding increase in the amount of occupational stress levels being reported by American workers. A survey sponsored by Everest College and conducted by Harris Interactive found that fully 83% of all employed workers in the United States report being stressed by at least one job-related factor (an increase from 73% for the previous year), with inadequate pay and inordinately excessive workloads being among the top factors reported by U.S. workers (Work stress on the rise, 2013). Based on the findings that emerged from this survey, John Swartz, the regional director of career services at Everest College, concluded that, More companies are hiring, but workers are still weary and stressed out from years of a troubled economy that has brought about longer hours, layoffs and budget cuts (as cited in Work stress on the rise, 2013, p. 3).
Although a growing body of research confirms that pay levels are no longer among the most motivational factors for workers, compensation levels remain at or near the top of job-related stressors today. In this regard, the Harris Interactive survey found that inordinately heavy workloads tied with inadequate compensation levels as being the top job stressors at present, and both of these variables showed significant increases over the previous year (Work stress on the rise, 2013). Other job-related factors that were found to exacerbate occupational stress levels included poor relationships with coworkers, the amount of time required to commute to and from work, being compelled to work in a career field that is not aligned with their personal interests, poor work-life balances and a paucity of career advancement opportunities (Work stress on the rise, 2013).
It is also noteworthy that there were some significant gender-related differences in the occupational stress levels reported by American workers, with nearly twice as many female workers as male workers (18% vs. 10%) reporting inadequate pay levels as their primary job stressor (Work stress on the rise, 2013). In addition, younger workers were more likely than their older counterparts (i.e., Baby Boomers) to report being stressed as a result of their employment (Work stress on the rise, 2013). In sum, younger American women (aged 18 to 29 years) are the most stressed at work but other categories of workers remain at high risk of occupational stress as well (Work stress on the rise, 2013). Although everyone experiences the negative and positive effects of occupational stress uniquely, there are some common types of stress that are typical responses to unmitigated workplace stress as discussed below.
2.2 Types of stress
Stress is the human response to any types of demand, and such responses can be either positive or negative (Sharma, 2015). From a biophysical perspective, stress can be regarded as being a mental, physical, or emotional response that results in mental or physical tension (Sharma, 2015). Occupational stress can also be defined as the adverse psychological and physical reactions that occur in an individual as a result of their being unable to cope with the demands being made on them (Omolara, 2008). Stress that happens due to a person's employment is termed occupational stress. The terms workplace stress, job stress and occupational stress are used interchangeably (Dollard, 2003). Regardless of what it is called, occupational stress levels are notoriously difficult to quantify and measure, making the evaluation of stress-management interventions especially problematic. In response, researchers have developed a number of different categories of job stressors to facilitate the process as discussed below.
Job stressors have been classified into various categories by different investigators over the years. For example, El-Kot and Burke note that researchers during the second half of the 20thc century identified five discrete categories of job stressors as follows: (1) stressors intrinsic to the job, (2) from one's role in the organization, (3) career development, (4) relationships with others, and (5) organizational structure and culture. Other researchers have identified four main categories of job stressors: (1) from task demands, (2) role demands, (3) physical demands (from elements in one's physical setting or environment), and (4) interpersonal demands; in addition and more recently, work-family demands have also been included in the categories of job stressors by some organizational behavioral researchers (El-Kot and Burke, 2011).
More succinctly, as posited by Nordstrom et al. (2001), there are two major types of stress that can occur in a person. These are physical and mental stress. Physical stress refers to any physical reaction of the body toward various triggers. Physical stress is a major cause of emotional stress since the two manifests in each other. Mental stress, on the other hand, refers to mental exhaustion. According to Keegel et al. (2009), mental stress refers to mental strain as a result of a harmful agent that can lead to illness. It is reasonable to posit that sustained mental strain due to occupational stress can have such serious effects.
The two different types of stress have different signs and symptoms, some of which are more readily discernile than others. For example, physical stress can be seen when the persons heart rate becomes high and they begin to breath faster. In certain situations, the person can also start to sweat profusely or even have cold feet, hands or skin. Another common sign is that the mouth of the individual dries up and they may also; feel tired and fatigued more frequently. There may also be muscle spasms, shortness of breath, tightening of muscles and tension of the body (Iavicoli et al., 2001).
Other common signs of physical stress include the person eating more or less than normal constantly feeling nervous. This is often detected in signs such as twitching of muscles, fiddling, talking rapidly or too much, grinding teeth, nail biting, pacing up and down restlessly, or other uncommon repetitive habits. In other extreme situations, the person may develop diseases or conditions such as migraines, asthma, stomach and skin problems, aches and pains, flu, etc. These signs come about as a result of the physical well-being of the person being off balance (Crouter and Manke, 1994).
As noted above, younger American women currently suffer the highest levels of occupational stress in the country, and these individuals are also at higher risk of experiencing adverse effects from job-related physical stress as well as the deleterious effects that can result from occupational mental stress (Chitnis, 2014). In this regard, mental stress is often seen when the person has sleeping disorders that make them either sleep less or more than usual, constant feeling of worry, anxiety or confusion, frequent mood changes such as frustration, depression, anger, defensiveness, irritability, irrationality, impatient, restlessness or overreaction. Other common signs of occupational stress include dependence on harmful substances such as drugs, alcohol or cigarettes (Okechukwu et al., 2010). In certain situations, the person may also develop a poor memory or the inability to make decisions. In extreme situations, a person may even develop irrational fears of normal situations such as seeing sunlight, washing under running water, venturing outdoors, etc. All these signs come about because of the mental situation of the person being adversely affected by job-related stressors.
2.3 Signs of occupational stress
Occupational stress usually starts out as acute stress that occurs from the increasing demand and pressure of the work situation. It can lead a person to emotional distress that is seen in anger, anxiety, depression, or irritability. It can also lead a person to physical problems such as muscle tension, aches and pains, frequent headaches, jaw and back pain. These normally come from the person being exposed to a lot of manual work in the workplace such as walking or standing for long periods. Such activities may also lead to elevation of blood pressure levels, sweaty palms, rapid heartbeat, dizziness, cold feet and hands, chest or back pain, migraines or shortness of breath. Occupational stress can also be seen when a person develops stomach or bowel problems including heartburn, diarrhea, constipation, flatulence or irritable bowel syndrome. These may be as a result of physical or mental stress in the workplace (Eldon and Shani, 1991).
Occupational stress may also have other signs such as loneliness or isolation of an individual, agitation or the person being unable to relax, pessimism, loss of concentration, constant worrying, procrastination or neglecting personal responsibility or other nervous habits such as pacing, grinding teeth and nail biting.
2.4 Effects/Consequences of job stress
As put by Hulshof et al. (1999), occupational stress is quite normal. However, when it becomes excessive, there are certain adverse effects that it may cause. These effects can be divided into three distinct categories. These are effects on the individual, to family and to the organization. At all these three levels, occupational stress produces a wide range of expensive, debilitating and undesirable consequences (Ross, 2005) as discussed further below.
2.5 Consequences to the individual
Workplace stress can lead to various effects on the individual. These may be mild or severe depending on the extent of the stress. They can be divided into two major groups, which are physical and psychological effects. In this regard, El-Kot and Burke (2011, p. 11) report that, Individuals reporting higher levels of job stressors generally indicate lower levels of job satisfaction, more absenteeism, lower job performance, greater intent to quit, and lower levels of psychological and physical health.
The major physical effects are unwanted feelings and behaviors, which include fatigue, stomach upset, headache, muscular aches and pains, disturbance of sleep or sleeping disorders, eating disorders and other chronic or mild illnesses. Others include low motivation, low work-life balance, low overall quality of work life, absenteeism, low morale, low productivity, unsound decisions, intention to get a better job, occupational burnout, alienation, increased substance abuse, sabotage or solitude. Psychological problems include anxiety, irritability or short temper, psychological distress, passive-aggressive behaviors, loss of self-confidence, loss of self-esteem, feelings of fatigue and futility, impulsive behavior, loss of contact with reality, job and life dissatisfaction, and emotional fatigue (Spector, 2002). More troubling still, the consequences of unmitigated negative occupational stress on the individual extend to all types of sectors and industries among both white- and blue-collar workers (Chaudry, 2012).
When occupational stress is not kept in check, it may become chronic and lead to signs such as trauma or even depression. A person may also change their beliefs or views regarding a particular aspect of life because of their active self-examination often without professional helps. Other adverse effects include heart attack, cancer, violence, suicide or even paralysis (Manon Mireille and Barling, 2004).
In a study that was conducted in the US (Smith et al., 1992), it was found that electronic monitoring of employees in the workplace led to increase workplace stress and thus many either experienced high boredom levels, anxiety, depression, health complaints, psychological tension, anger, and fatigue. The researchers also found that these companies had high employee turnover because of this monitoring (Smith et al., 1992).
2.6 Consequences to family
The individuals family also experiences undesirable consequences because of occupational stress. Consequently, of occupational stress, the individual may also carry some of the stress to their home thus causing stress to the other family members. The person may also fail to provide for the family because of losing their job or spending too much money on substance abuse or treatment. There are also other adverse effects to the family. These include dealing with sickness or even death of the individual (Windle and Dumenci, 1997). In certain situations, occupational stress may also break marriages and families because of the family not being able to cope with the indiviuals dysfunctional responses. The couple may also be adversely affected in their sex life because of stress. Occupational stress also increases domestic pressures such as financial worries and childcare responsibilities thus affecting the quality of life outside their work (Suraj-Narayan, 2005). Other effects include taking work home, which reduces the amount of time spent with family members, job relocations that may split families and a lack of leisure activities (Suraj-Narayan, 2005).
2.7 Consequences to the organization
At the organizational level, there are also consequences of occupational stress that are felt. These are majorly divided into two subgroups, which are organizational symptoms and costs. Organizational symptoms include discontent and low morale that may also spread to other members of the workforce, low productivity, poor quality of service to customers or clients that may lead to loss of customers, bad publicity especially when an individual suffers chronic effects of workplace stress, high accident rates that lead to huge insurance compensations, premature retirement, high staff turnover, poor internal communication, increased internal conflict, diminished cooperation of staff members or a dysfunctional workplace climate (Huffman and Cohen, 2004). Indeed, the research to date suggests that as much as 50 percent of all workplace absences attributable in some fashion to occupational stress (Akpochafe, 2012).
Organizational costs include reduced performance or productivity of workers that leads to decreased added value to the product or service thus diminishing client satisfaction, high costs as a result of increased employee turnover, increased staff retraining and training costs, increased insurance premiums as a result of frequent insurance claims and payouts, increased health-care costs and sick pay to employees, increased disability payments as a result of workplace accidents, increased cost of repairing damaged equipment, and bad publicity which also diminishes revenues greatly (Bjean and Sultan-Taeb, 2005). Because occupational stress have been swhon to have a direct impact on employee performance, it is not surprising that there is also a corresponding decline in the overall productivity level of affected organizations. Such declines in overall productivity have a concomitant effect on companies profitability and can even result in an increasingly negative perception of a company (Sharma, 2015). Consequently, the adverse effects of occupational stress ultimately combine to adversely affect employee relations as well as organizational performance and profitability (Sharma, 2015).
According to a study conducted by Daniels (2004), occupational stress has been found to cost the UK economy and estimated $4 billion every year (Brun and Milczarek, 2007). These costs are majorly from insurance claims related to occupational stress. With such huge payouts, the researchers found that there is reason to concentrate on the sociocultural variation in their findings. They also found that this huge sum was also coming from loss of customers, high employee turnover and negative publicity because of occupational stress. In the European Union as a whole, it is estimated that roughly 20 million Euros is lost each year as a result of work-related stress (European Commission, 2002, Milczarek et al., 2009).
2.8 Positive effects of workplace stress
Though occupational stress is often associated with negative effects, there are certain positive effects that come from workplace stress. However, experts put a caveat on positivity of stress stating that it only happens when stress is balanced and moderated. This is what they commonly refer to as good stress (Shigemi et al., 2000). For example, Sauder and Murphy (2016) report that there are some misperceptions concerning stress and its effects of humans that indicate that all such stress is harmful. A growing body of evidence, however, confirms that some level of stress is an essential part of the human condition and people tend to respond favorably to some types of stress. According to Sauder and Murphy (2016, p. 6), Challenge energizes us psychologically and physically, and it motivates us to learn new skills and master our jobs.
Notwithstanding the potential deleterious effects of unmitigated and relentless workplace stress, it is clear that without some levels of stress, employees would become complacent with corresponding declines in their job satisfaction and morale levels just as too much workplace stress can cause these unwanted outcomes. In sum, Sauder and Murphy (2016, p. 7) conclude that, The importance of challenge in our work lives is probably what people are referring to when they say a little bit of stress is good for you.
One of the most significant outcomes of good stress is increased creativity. Consequently, of an individual experiencing workplace stress leading to loneliness or solitude, the person may have a chance to broaden their mind and embrace new ideas thus leading them to increase their creativity considerably. To some individuals, stress is also a motivating factor. When these individuals are stressed out, they find a good way to handle it by channeling their emotional and physical responses towards working harder or rectifying any wrongs they had done for example procrastination (Smith, 2003).
Stress is also recognized as a cognitive enhancer. Workplace stress improves some aspects of intelligence by giving the mind a boost associated with increased focusing. When a person is stressed, they may be able to recall or memorize things better and their concentration levels may also; increase. It also enhances the physical performance and endurance of an individual. When the person is able to channel their stress towards physical activities, it leads to release of adrenaline. This causes the heartbeat and metabolism to increase. However, these return to normal levels a few minutes after the activity. Therefore, the person will have increased reflexes and reactions that build endurance, prevent and fight fatigue and tiredness.
Researchers have also shown that stress helps to improve immune responses. In a study report presented by Striker et al. (1999), it was found that stress helps to increase production of the stress hormone, cortisol, which increases the bodys immunity. This also has some negative aspect since cortisol overloading may lead to abdominal obesity, which increases the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease and diabetes.
Stress may also help an individual to solve their problems. Consequently, of stress, the individual may be able to look at something differently which allows them to solve issues between them. Moderate anxiety has been shown to help people in decision making by spurring them to the right direction.
2.9 Causes of workplace stress
Given its enormous impact on organizational performance and productivity, it is not surprising that a growing body of scholarship has been devoted to the causes of workplace stress in recent years. Studies by the American Psychological Association have identified the main causes of stress in the United States as shown in Table 1 below.
Table 1
Current leading causes of stress in the United States
Cause
Factors
1
Job Pressure
Co-Worker Tension, Bosses, Work Overload
2
Money
Loss of Job, Reduced Retirement, Medical Expenses
3
Health
Health Crisis, Terminal or Chronic Illness
4
Relationships
Divorce, Death of Spouse, Arguments with Friends, Loneliness
5
Poor Nutrition
Inadequate Nutrition, Caffeine, Processed Foods, Refined Sugars
6
Media Overload
Television, Radio, Internet, E-Mail, Social Networking
7
Inability to release adrenaline and other stress hormones
Source: American Institute of Stress (2018), 2014 Stress Statistics at https://www.stress.org/
As can be seen from the breakdown of the leading causes of stress in the United States today shown in Table 1 above, job-related stressors such as poor relationships with coworkers and superiors as well as inordinately heavy workloads form the primary cause of stress today. Likewise, the second-leading cause of stress in the United States is also job related, with the loss of employment or benefits representing the second-leading cause of stress in the country.
Moreover, the numbers of Americans that are experienced these types of job-related stressors is staggering as shown in Table 2 below.
Table 2
U.S. stress statistics
Category
Data
Percent of people who regularly experience physical symptoms caused by stress
77 %
Regularly experience psychological symptoms caused by stress
73 %
Feel they are living with extreme stress
33 %
Feel their stress has increased over the past five years
48 %
Cited money and work as the leading cause of their stress
76 %
Reported lying awake at night due to stress
48 %
Source: American Institute of Stress (2018), 2014 Stress Statistics at https://www.stress.org/
As can be seen from the data presented in Table 2 above, more than three-quarters (77%) of American workers report experiencing stress-related physical symptoms and nearly as many (73%) report regularly experiencing job-related psychological symptoms. In addition, one-third of American workers report feeling as if they are living with extreme stress and nearly half (48%) report feeling as if their level of stress has intensified over the past 5 years. Given these disturbing trends, it is not surprising that many American workers also report suffering from various job-related stressors as set forth in Table 3 below.
Table 3
Stress impact statistics
Category
Data
Percent who say stress has a negative impact on their personal and professional life
48 %
Employed adults who say they have difficulty managing work and family responsibilities.
31 %
Percent who cited jobs interfering with their family or personal time as a significant source of stress.
35 %
Percent who said stress has caused them to fight with people close to them
54 %
Reported being alienated from a friend or family member because of stress
26 %
Annual costs to employers in stress related health care and missed work.
$300 billion
Percent who say they are always or often under stress at work
30 %
Source: American Institute of Stress (2018), 2014 Stress Statistics at https://www.stress.org/
While some types of job-related stress may be conducive to higher levels of creativity and serve as a motivational factor, the data presented in Table 3 above makes it clear that many American workers suffer from occupational stress. In fact, nearly half (48%) report that stress has had a negative effect on their personal and professional lives, and more than half (54%) report that stress that caused them problems with their interpersonal relationships. In addition, almost one-third (30%) report feeling that they are frequently or always under stress at their jobs, and more than one-third (35%) report that their jobs have interfered with their family or personal affairs resulting in elevated stress levels. Beyond the human toll exacted by job-related stress, the economic impact is also enormous, standing at about $300 billion a year in health care costs and missed work.
Research by the American Psychological Association has also identified a number of physical symptoms that are caused by occupational stress that are congruent with the most frequently cited symptoms in the relevant literature as set forth in Table 4 below.
Table 4
Percentage of American workers citing job-related stress: physical symptoms
Category
Data
Fatigue
51 %
Headache
44 %
Upset stomach
34 %
Muscle tension
30 %
Change in appetite
23 %
Teeth grinding
17 %
Change in sex drive
15 %
Feeling dizzy
13 %
Source: American Institute of Stress (2018), 2014 Stress Statistics at https://www.stress.org/
As can be seen from the data presented in Table 4 above, more than half (51%) of American workers report experiencing fatigue as a result of job-related stress, and nearly as many (44%) report suffering from headaches. More than one-third of American workers (34%) also report experiencing upset stomachs, muscle tension (30%) and almost one-quarter (23%) report changes in their appetites due to job-related stress. Smaller percentages of American workers also reported suffering from bruxism (e.g., teeth grinding), changes in their libidos, or feeling dizzy. In addition, many American workers also report experiencing a wide array of psychological symptoms due to job-related stress as set forth in Table 5 below.
Table 5
American workers citing job-related stress: psychological symptoms
Category
Data
Irritability or anger
50 %
Feeling nervous
45 %
Lack of energy
45 %
Feeling as though you could cry
35 %
Source: American Institute of Stress (2018), 2014 Stress Statistics at https://www.stress.org/
As can be seen from the data presented in Table 5 above, fully half of American workers report suffering from irritability or anger due to job-related stress and 45% each report feeling nervous or experiencing a lack of energy. In addition, more than one-third (35%) reporting feeling as they could cry at any time due to job-related stress. These recent statistics underscore the fact that getting up and going to work each day can be a death-defying experience for many if not most Americans today.
Although there is a general consensus among researchers that the overarching causes of workplace stress include various workplace conditions and the manner in which workers interact with these conditions (Sauter and Murphy, 2016). There remains some debate among researchers, however, concerning the precise role played by individual factors such as personality, coping skills and resilience on the effects of workplace stress (Sauter and Murphy, 2016). Employee resilience to workplace stress is defined by Nilakant and Walker (2014, p. 80), as being the maintenance of positive adjustment under challenging conditions such that the organization emerges from those conditions strengthened and more resourceful.
While additional research is needed concerning these individual factors and their role in employee responses to workplace stress, it is reasonable to posit that certain types of working conditions are the source of stress for most individuals (Sauter and Murphy, 2016). This assertion is congruent with the guidance provided by the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health which has recognized that while views differ on the importance of worker characteristics versus working conditions as the primary cause of job stress, the overarching theme that emerges from the research to date concerning occuational stress is that certain working conditions, such as excessive workloads and conflicting expectations, are stressful and negatively affect most people (as cited in Sewell, 2009 p. 37).
What is known for certain at present is that there are many causes of stress ranging from work demand, supervisory style, organizational culture and support, work hazards, general work environment, role conflict, workplace changes, individual factors, job involvement, work flexibility, workplace incidents, etc. Six major causes of workplace stress have been identified by the Health and Safety Executive of the UK (Health and Safety Executive, 2013) as follows:
2.9.1 Unreasonable demands: This cause includes issues such as workload, work patterns and the work environment;
2.9.2 Excessive control: How much say the person has in the way they do their work;
2.9.3 Lack of support: This includes the encouragement, sponsorship and resources provided by the organization, line management and colleagues;
2.9.4 Lack of proper workplace relationships: This includes promoting positive working to avoid conflict and dealing with unacceptable behavior;
2.9.5. Lack of understanding of role of job expectation: Whether people understand their role within the organization and whether the organization ensures that they do not have conflicting roles; and,
2.9.6 Unmanaged workplace changes: How organizational change (large or small) is managed and communicated in the organization (Workplace stress management standards, 2017, p. 2).
These causes of workplace stress are also similar to those identified by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in the US (Occupational Safety & Health Administration, 1995) and are discussed further below.
2.10 Unreasonable demands
Workplace demands include issues relating to workload, work environment and patterns. Occupational stress may occur when the employees are unable to cope with their workplace demands. Consequently, of this, the person may feel that they are unable to match the skills and abilities. Therefore the employees develop stress as a way of compensating for their inability to meet the workplace demands (Tarafdar et al., 2007). This cause of workplace stress is consistent with the definition provided by Sharma (2015) which states that occupational stress can be defined as the adverse psychological and physical reactions that occur in an individual as a result of their being unable to cope with the demands being made on them (p. 53).
2.11 Excessive control
Control applied by employers and supervisors is also a contributing factor to workplace stress. When employees are excessively monitored in the workplace, they develop boredom, dislike, low motivation and low morale, which lead to workplace stress. Consequently, of this excessive control, the employees are unable to use their skills, creativity and initiative towards the success of the organization. The employees also become discouraged to develop new skills since they are demotivated and unwilling to take new challenges in the workplace. A study by Kirk-Brown and Wallace (2009) found that the extent to which employees feel they lack personal day-to-day control over their job responsibilities will likely be the extent to which these employees are at greater risk of developing occupational stress. For instance, Kirk-Brown and Wallace (2009, p. 30) advise that, Perceptions of personal control alleviate the negative impact of job demands. Control refers to the worker's ability to reframe events or situations as less threatening.
2.12 Lack of support
When employees lack encouragement, resources and sponsorship from the organization, supervisors and colleagues, they develop stress. This is because they are unable to achieve the performance measures attached to their jobs and they experience challenges and other issues that they are unable to resolve. Therefore the employees are discouraged to put their best efforts towards the success of the company or organization (Verbeek et al., 2004).
2.13 Lack of proper workplace relationships
Workplace relationships create conflict that employees are unable to resolve. These include bullying, harassment and other undesirable behaviors. When the organization lacks policies and procedures to prevent or resolve such unacceptable behavior, they seem out of control and employees develop stress because of this.
2.14 Lack of understanding of role of job expectation
When employees do not understand their role within an organization or when they are not appreciated or valued within an organization, they develop internal conflicts since they do not understand their importance and job expectations. Employees thus do not make efforts to ensure their work is done to the best of their ability and they become demoralized and demotivated to work.
2.15 Unmanaged workplace changes
Resistance to change is one of the major causes of workplace stress. This is especially so when the change involves large aspects of the organization such as an overhaul of management or standard operating procedures. Such changes may be overwhelming for the employees and when change management is not done, the employees will not be aware of the reason for the change and thus will resist it leading to workplace stress as they feel uncomfortable with the new status quo (Vahtera et al., 1999).
2.16 Factors that affect job performance from stress
An unfortunate concomitant of virtually any type of employment is some level of stress. In some cases, the stress that employees routinely experience is motivational and contributes to greater levels of creativity, but in far too many cases job-related stress is like a silent killer. In fact, left unabated, job-related stress can have a profoundly adverse effect on job performance. In this regard, Lynott (2011, p. 26) emphasizes that, Stress is a constant presence in the workplace, and never more so than in difficult economic times such as these. Occasionally it erupts into headline-making instances of deadly violence. More often, however, stress simmers just beneath the surface, silently eating away at morale [and] productivity.
In sum, it is apparent that to the extent that workers are stressed out due to job-related factors will likely be the extent to which their job performance is affected, and there has also been a growing body of scholarship devoted to these issues in recent years. For instance, in a study conducted by Abu Al-Rub (2004), it was shown that there is a U-shaped or curvilinear relationship between workplace stress and job performance. The study showed that workers who had moderate levels of occupational stress performed worse in their jobs compared to those who have extremely low or high levels of workplace stress. In a different but similar study, it was shown that there might be four different relationships between workplace stress and job performance. These are curvilinear or U-shaped, negative linear, positive linear and no relationship (Jamal, 1984).
These two studies cited above identified various factors that emanate from stress and directly affect the employees job performance. One of the major factors was lack of resources. When the employee lacks the necessities to conduct their job, they are unable to perform in their roles. The second factor was work overload, which made the workers to be overwhelmed and lack direcion with their work. Third was lack of communication between the employees and supervisors. This meant that the employees lacked direction and were unable to conduct their day-to-day activities. It also created a disconnect in passing of duties thus making supervisors to be recognized as commanders rather than co-workers.
Another study found that employees who were under stress were 50% more likely to err in their work while another study showed that this could be as high as 70% depending on the level of stress. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics also shows that for every day that a worker undergoes stress they may end up being out of the workplace for roughly 20 days. To employers, this represents a huge reduction in job performance.
Other studies conducted in the early 50s (Lazarus et al., 1952) and late 60s (Wilkinson, 1969) show that occupational stress affects tracking, verbal reasoning, signal detection and sentence formation of employees. This may also adversely affect the client-employee relations thus reducing the quality of service or product given to the employer. More research (Cohen, 1980, Glass and Singer, 1972) has supported these statements by adding that stress creates perpetual distractions that prevent tolerance, increase frustration, decrease clerical accuracy and increase workload either perpetually or eventually through procrastination. All these factors lead to poor job performance.
According to Michie (2002), individuals differ in their stress risk and vulnerability to adverse effects of stress. Individuals, they may tend to react emotionally to situations, which results in them disconnecting with the workplace thus reducing their job performance. Others may experience fatigue or tiredness that prevents them from performing their tasks. In another study by Michailidis and Asimenos (2002), it was found that occupational stress negatively impacts the degree of satisfaction of the employee with their own achievement. This also negatively affects personal growth, skill utilization and participation in decision-making thus reducing job performance.
2.17 Management of stress
Stress management has been the subject of many workplace changes in order to control the levels of stress to improve work performance. It is in the best interests of organizations of all sizes and types to manage workplace stress to the maximum extent possible due to the documented adverse impact that unmitigated stress can have on employee job satisfaction and physical well-being (Randall and Buys, 2013). Likewise, the management of workplace stress is also important due to the increased workers compensation claims that are associated with elevated levels of stress (Randall and Buys, 2013).
Several techniques have been applied to improve the general well-being of employees with varying levels of effectiveness. In addition, few of these methods have received attention from researchers therefore the amount and quality of evidence on the various techniques varies greatly. Management of stress builds on the models of stress, especially the demand-control-support model that states that for stress to be managed effectively, it is important for there to be a reward and efforts to promote balance. In addition to this, the organization must have sufficient systems to ensure organizational justice by ensuring management of stress and any programs adopted are undertaken by all employees including the senior management (Johnson and Hall, 1990, Karasek and Theorell, 1990). Researchers agree that there are two major models of workplace stress management. These are the transactional model and health realization or innate health model.
2.18 Transactional model
The transactional model suggests that stress results from an imbalance between the demands of an individual and the resources available or when pressure exceeds the ability of the individual to cope. It was developed by Lazarus and Folkman (1984) who posited that stress management is best when the individual accepts that stress is as a result of the inability of the person to cope. Therefore, stress management is premised on mediating the stress response to allow the individual to control stress levels and increase their coping ability.
According to the transactional model, the person must also identify the factors that affect their ability to control the stress in order to identify the right intervention methods that effectively target the identified factors. The authors of this model argue that stress is a transaction between the individual and their environment thus by identifying and controlling the mitigating factors, stress can be managed effectively. The transactional model proposes the individual to be taught how to manage their stress or how they can adequately develop coping skills to improve their lives and be able to handle all manner of stressors.
2.19 Health realization or innate health model
This model was put forth by Sedgeman (2005) and Mills (1995). The authors argue that stress is not founded on the presence of an actual stressor. The model does not focus on the individuals appraisal of the stressor rather on their thought process, which determines their response to the situation. The authors of the model argue that stress is managed by self-appraisal, which filters all factors of insecurity of negativity and creates a feeling of well-being by putting a grip on negative or insecure thinking. The individual will thus be able to disengage from the stressor and introduce natural positive feelings that ultimately reduce stress.
2.20 Organizational level management
Michie (2002) posits that for the effective management of workplace stress, there must be organizational level interventions. The need for organization level stress management is because the workplace itself is the stressor. Therefore, the organization must introduce interventions at the structural level including hiring more staff, reducing or increasing work schedules appropriately, or creating a conducive environment or at the psychological level including social support, effective supervision rather than invasive supervision and increasing employee participation in decision-making. Likewise, Cooper and Cartwright (1999) report that, Physical characteristics of the job [such] as excessive heat and noise may produce strain among workers and increase the probability of accidents. Shift schedule, a structural aspect of work, can engender significant level of physical and mental discomfort if not ordered correctly. The emphasis here is on the organization being the source of stress management practices rather than the individual and it has been shown to be effective (Gardell and Gustavsen, 1980, Williams et al., 1998).
2.21 Definition of supervision
Supervision is defined as the regulation or control of behavior through laid out rules or restrictions. According to various authors, there are different aspects of supervision that need to be looked at in defining it. These include taking up of ideas and practices that provide the right environment to follow the laid out rules and restrictions, overseeing that employees are provided with the right tools and resources to succeed in their tasks, providing advice and support, organizing work tasks in a great order to make decisions.
2.22 Categories of supervisory models
Supervision models can be categorized into three categories based on their defining characteristics. These categories are the psychotherapy-based supervision models, developmental models, and integrative models (Smith and Witt, 1993).
2.23 Psychotherapy-based supervision models
These models dwell on the natural extension of the therapy itself and inform the observation and selection of data for supervisors (Holloway and Wolleat, 1994). One example of these models is the psychodynamic approach to supervision which sates that psychodynamic supervision can be divided into three categories which are supervisor-centered, employee-centered and supervisory-matrix-centered (Loganbill et al., 1982). Employee-centered supervision came from Sigmund Freud, which states that supervision focuses on the employee behaviors. In this case, the role of the supervisor depends on the employees behavior. Supervisor-centered focuses on the supervisors content and process to assist employees in management of resistance, resolving anxieties and other problems. The supervisory-matrix-centered approach means that the supervisors role is not that of an uninvolved expert rather they should participate and reflect upon employee duties and behaviors (Haynes et al., 2003).
Another example of these models is the cognitive-behavioral supervision model which states that the supervisors major task is to teach the employee the theoretical aspects of their work (Liese and Beck, 1997). Another model is the person-centered supervision model, which states that the supervisor should ensure that the employees have the right tools, skills and resources to perform their tasks. Therefore the supervisor is a collaborator in the success of the individual by providing an environment to engage the employee towards success (Lambers, 2000).
2.24 Developmental models
Developmental models define progressive stages of development of the employee from a novice to an expert with each stage consisting of discrete skills and characteristics. According to these models, the supervisor takes a developmental approach to supervision by accurately identifying the current stage of the employee and facilitating their progression to the next stage (Zimmerman and Schunk, 2003). One of the most popular developmental models is the integrated development model developed by Stoltenberg (1981) and Stoltenberg and Delworth (1987). The model describes three levels of employee development. The first is entry-level where they are full of anxiety and fear of evaluation. The mid-level is where the employees experience fluctuating levels of confidence and motivation while the third level is that of security and stable levels of motivation. Another model is Ronnestad and Skovholts model which states that employees develop in six phases (Ronnestad and Skovholt, 2003). The first three are based on the integrated development model while the other three are the novice…
Occupational Stress and Scientific Monitoring
Literature Review
2.1 Introduction
The definition of the term occupational stress is derived from the definition of its two constituent words. In this context, occupational refers to anything that is related to the workplace while stress is defined as a natural body reaction from physical, mental or emotional strain in an individual. Thus, occupational stress can be defined as any mechanism by which the body attempts to adapt to the workplace environment. These include normal mechanisms for dealing with workplace stress, commonly known as the fight or flight response as well as any expected or unexpected reactions in response to the workplace. These include eyestrain because of staring at computer screens for too long, emotional and physical stress, depression, anxiety, aggression, cognitive impairment such as degraded memory or reduced concentration span, etc. All of these reactions can lead to poor work output, increased employee turnover, higher absenteeism, cardiovascular disease, injury or even death (Patterson et al., 2005).
Occupational stress can also be defined as a hazard under the relevant occupational safety and health legislation that can cause any harm to employee health and to which employers have a duty of care to assess, identify and control as much as possible. It can also be defined in other words as the consequence of an individual being unable to cope with pressures in the workplace (Rees, 1997). These undesirable outcomes come about either because of poor fit between the persons abilities and the requirement of his or her position or because of workplace conditions being otherwise unfavorable. Because the well-being of employees is inextricably associated with organizational performance and productivity, occupational stress demands timely investigation to identify ways to mitigate these effects (Osibanjo and Salau, 2016).
Although unemployment levels in the United States have steadily declined in recent years, there has been a corresponding increase in the amount of occupational stress levels being reported by American workers. A survey sponsored by Everest College and conducted by Harris Interactive found that fully 83% of all employed workers in the United States report being stressed by at least one job-related factor (an increase from 73% for the previous year), with inadequate pay and inordinately excessive workloads being among the top factors reported by U.S. workers (Work stress on the rise, 2013). Based on the findings that emerged from this survey, John Swartz, the regional director of career services at Everest College, concluded that, More companies are hiring, but workers are still weary and stressed out from years of a troubled economy that has brought about longer hours, layoffs and budget cuts (as cited in Work stress on the rise, 2013, p. 3).
Although a growing body of research confirms that pay levels are no longer among the most motivational factors for workers, compensation levels remain at or near the top of job-related stressors today. In this regard, the Harris Interactive survey found that inordinately heavy workloads tied with inadequate compensation levels as being the top job stressors at present, and both of these variables showed significant increases over the previous year (Work stress on the rise, 2013). Other job-related factors that were found to exacerbate occupational stress levels included poor relationships with coworkers, the amount of time required to commute to and from work, being compelled to work in a career field that is not aligned with their personal interests, poor work-life balances and a paucity of career advancement opportunities (Work stress on the rise, 2013).
It is also noteworthy that there were some significant gender-related differences in the occupational stress levels reported by American workers, with nearly twice as many female workers as male workers (18% vs. 10%) reporting inadequate pay levels as their primary job stressor (Work stress on the rise, 2013). In addition, younger workers were more likely than their older counterparts (i.e., Baby Boomers) to report being stressed as a result of their employment (Work stress on the rise, 2013). In sum, younger American women (aged 18 to 29 years) are the most stressed at work but other categories of workers remain at high risk of occupational stress as well (Work stress on the rise, 2013). Although everyone experiences the negative and positive effects of occupational stress uniquely, there are some common types of stress that are typical responses to unmitigated workplace stress as discussed below.
2.2 Types of stress
Stress is the human response to any types of demand, and such responses can be either positive or negative (Sharma, 2015). From a biophysical perspective, stress can be regarded as being a mental, physical, or emotional response that results in mental or physical tension (Sharma, 2015). Occupational stress can also be defined as the adverse psychological and physical reactions that occur in an individual as a result of their being unable to cope with the demands being made on them (Omolara, 2008). Stress that happens due to a person's employment is termed occupational stress. The terms workplace stress, job stress and occupational stress are used interchangeably (Dollard, 2003). Regardless of what it is called, occupational stress levels are notoriously difficult to quantify and easure, making the evaluation of stress-management interventions especially problematic. In response, researchers have developed a number of different categories of job stressors to facilitate the process as discussed below.
Job stressors have been classified into various categories by different investigators over the years. For example, El-Kot and Burke note that researchers during the second half of the 20thc century identified five discrete categories of job stressors as follows: (1) stressors intrinsic to the job, (2) from one's role in the organization, (3) career development, (4) relationships with others, and (5) organizational structure and culture. Other researchers have identified four main categories of job stressors: (1) from task demands, (2) role demands, (3) physical demands (from elements in one's physical setting or environment), and (4) interpersonal demands; in addition and more recently, work-family demands have also been included in the categories of job stressors by some organizational behavioral researchers (El-Kot and Burke, 2011).
More succinctly, as posited by Nordstrom et al. (2001), there are two major types of stress that can occur in a person. These are physical and mental stress. Physical stress refers to any physical reaction of the body toward various triggers. Physical stress is a major cause of emotional stress since the two manifests in each other. Mental stress, on the other hand, refers to mental exhaustion. According to Keegel et al. (2009), mental stress refers to mental strain as a result of a harmful agent that can lead to illness. It is reasonable to posit that sustained mental strain due to occupational stress can have such serious effects.
The two different types of stress have different signs and symptoms, some of which are more readily discernible than others. For example, physical stress can be seen when the persons heart rate becomes high and they begin to breath faster. In certain situations, the person can also start to sweat profusely or even have cold feet, hands or skin. Another common sign is that the mouth of the individual dries up and they may also; feel tired and fatigued more frequently. There may also be muscle spasms, shortness of breath, tightening of muscles and tension of the body (Iavicoli et al., 2001).
Other common signs of physical stress include the person eating more or less than normal constantly feeling nervous. This is often detected in signs such as twitching of muscles, fiddling, talking rapidly or too much, grinding teeth, nail biting, pacing up and down restlessly, or other uncommon repetitive habits. In other extreme situations, the person may develop diseases or conditions such as migraines, asthma, stomach and skin problems, aches and pains, flu, etc. These signs come about as a result of the physical well-being of the person being off balance (Crouter and Manke, 1994).
As noted above, younger American women currently suffer the highest levels of occupational stress in the country, and these individuals are also at higher risk of experiencing adverse effects from job-related physical stress as well as the deleterious effects that can result from occupational mental stress (Chitnis, 2014). In this regard, mental stress is often seen when the person has sleeping disorders that make them either sleep less or more than usual, constant feeling of worry, anxiety or confusion, frequent mood changes such as frustration, depression, anger, defensiveness, irritability, irrationality, impatient, restlessness or overreaction. Other common signs of occupational stress include dependence on harmful substances such as drugs, alcohol or cigarettes (Okechukwu et al., 2010). In certain situations, the person may also develop a poor memory or the inability to make decisions. In extreme situations, a person may even develop irrational fears of normal situations such as seeing sunlight, washing under running water, venturing outdoors, etc. All these signs come about because of the mental situation of the person being adversely affected by job-related stressors.
2.3 Signs of occupational stress
Occupational stress usually starts out as acute stress that occurs from the increasing demand and pressure of the work situation. It can lead a person to emotional distress that is seen in anger, anxiety, depression, or irritability. It can also lead a person to physical problems such as muscle tension, aches and pains, frequent headaches, jaw and back pain. These normally come from the person being exposed to a lot of manual work in the workplace such as walking or standing for long periods. Such activities may also lead to elevation of blood pressure levels, sweaty palms, rapid heartbeat, dizziness, cold feet and hands, chest or back pain, migraines or shortness of breath. Occupational stress can also be seen when a person develops stomach or bowel problems including heartburn, diarrhea, constipation, flatulence or irritable bowel syndrome. These may be as a result of physical or mental stress in the workplace (Eldon and Shani, 1991).
Occupational stress may also have other signs such as loneliness or isolation of an individual, agitation or the person being unable to relax, pessimism, loss of concentration, constant worrying, procrastination or neglecting personal responsibility or other nervous habits such as pacing, grinding teeth and nail biting.
2.4 Effects/Consequences of job stress
As put by Hulshof et al. (1999), occupational stress is quite normal. However, when it becomes excessive, there are certain adverse effects that it may cause. These effects can be divided into three distinct categories. These are effects on the individual, to family and to the organization. At all these three levels, occupational stress produces a wide range of expensive, debilitating and undesirable consequences (Ross, 2005) as discussed further below.
2.5 Consequences to the individual
Workplace stress can lead to various effects on the individual. These may be mild or severe depending on the extent of the stress. They can be divided into two major groups, which are physical and psychological effects. In this regard, El-Kot and Burke (2011, p. 11) report that, Individuals reporting higher levels of job stressors generally indicate lower levels of job satisfaction, more absenteeism, lower job performance, greater intent to quit, and lower levels of psychological and physical health.
The major physical effects are unwanted feelings and behaviors, which include fatigue, stomach upset, headache, muscular aches and pains, disturbance of sleep or sleeping disorders, eating disorders and other chronic or mild illnesses. Others include low motivation, low work-life balance, low overall quality of work life, absenteeism, low morale, low productivity, unsound decisions, intention to get a better job, occupational burnout, alienation, increased substance abuse, sabotage or solitude. Psychological problems include anxiety, irritability or short temper, psychological distress, passive-aggressive behaviors, loss of self-confidence, loss of self-esteem, feelings of fatigue and futility, impulsive behavior, loss of contact with reality, job and life dissatisfaction, and emotional fatigue (Spector, 2002). More troubling still, the consequences of unmitigated negative occupational stress on the individual extend to all types of sectors and industries among both white- and blue-collar workers (Chaudry, 2012).
When occupational stress is not kept in check, it may become chronic and lead to signs such as trauma or even depression. A person may also change their beliefs or views regarding a particular aspect of life because of their active self-examination often without professional helps. Other adverse effects include heart attack, cancer, violence, suicide or even paralysis (Manon Mireille and Barling, 2004).
In a study that was conducted in the US (Smith et al., 1992), it was found that electronic monitoring of employees in the workplace led to increase workplace stress and thus many eitherexperienced high boredom levels, anxiety, depression, health complaints, psychological tension, anger, and fatigue. The researchers also found that these companies had high employee turnover because of this monitoring (Smith et al., 1992).
2.6 Consequences to family
The individuals family also experiences undesirable consequences because of occupational stress. Consequently, of occupational stress, the individual may also carry some of the stress to their home thus causing stress to the other family members. The person may also fail to provide for the family because of losing their job or spending too much money on substance abuse or treatment. There are also other adverse effects to the family. These include dealing with sickness or even death of the individual (Windle and Dumenci, 1997). In certain situations, occupational stress may also break marriages and families because of the family not being able to cope with the individuals dysfunctional responses. The couple may also be adversely affected in their sex life because of stress. Occupational stress also increases domestic pressures such as financial worries and childcare responsibilities thus affecting the quality of life outside their work (Suraj-Narayan, 2005). Other effects include taking work home, which reduces the amount of time spent with family members, job relocations that may split families and a lack of leisure activities (Suraj-Narayan, 2005).
2.7 Consequences to the organization
At the organizational level, there are also consequences of occupational stress that are felt. These are majorly divided into two subgroups, which are organizational symptoms and costs. Organizational symptoms include discontent and low morale that may also spread to other members of the workforce, low productivity, poor quality of service to customers or clients that may lead to loss of customers, bad publicity especially when an individual suffers chronic effects of workplace stress, high accident rates that lead to huge insurance compensations, premature retirement, high staff turnover, poor internal communication, increased internal conflict, diminished cooperation of staff members or a dysfunctional workplace climate (Huffman and Cohen, 2004). Indeed, the research to date suggests that as much as 50 percent of all workplace absences attributable in some fashion to occupational stress (Akpochafe, 2012).
Organizational costs include reduced performance or productivity of workers that leads to decreased added value to the product or service thus diminishing client satisfaction, high costs as a result of increased employee turnover, increased staff retraining and training costs, increased insurance premiums as a result of frequent insurance claims and payouts, increased health-care costs and sick pay to employees, increased disability payments as a result of workplace accidents, increased cost of repairing damaged equipment, and bad publicity which also diminishes revenues greatly (Bjean and Sultan-Taeb, 2005). Because occupational stress have been swhon to have a direct impact on employee performance, it is not surprising that there is also a corresponding decline in the overall productivity level of affected organizations. Such declines in overall productivity have a concomitant effect on companies profitability and can even result in an increasingly negative perception of a company (Sharma, 2015). Consequently, the adverse effects of occupational stress ultimately combine to adversely affect employee relations as well as organizational performance and profitability (Sharma, 2015).
According to a study conducted by Daniels (2004), occupational stress has been found to cost the UK economy and estimated $4 billion every year (Brun and Milczarek, 2007). These costs are majorly from insurance claims related to occupational stress. With such huge payouts, the researchers found that there is reason to concentrate on the sociocultural variation in their findings. They also found that this huge sum was also coming from loss of customers, high employee turnover and negative publicity because of occupational stress. In the European Union as a whole, it is estimated that roughly 20 million Euros is lost each year as a result of work-related stress (European Commission, 2002, Milczarek et al., 2009).
2.8 Positive effects of workplace stress
Though occupational stress is often associated with negative effects, there are certain positive effects that come from workplace stress. However, experts put a caveat on positivity of stress stating that it only happens when stress is balanced and moderated. This is what they commonly refer to as good stress (Shigemi et al., 2000). For example, Sauder and Murphy (2016) report that there are some misperceptions concerning stress and its effects of humans that indicate that all such stress is harmful. A growing body of evidence, however, confirms that some level of stress is an essential part of the human condition and people tend to respond favorably to some types of stress. According to Sauder and Murphy (2016, p. 6), Challenge energizes us psychologically and physically, and it motivates us to learn new skills and master our jobs.
Notwithstanding the potential deleterious effects of unmitigated and relentless workplace stress, it is clear that without some levels of stress, employees would become complacent with corresponding declines in their job satisfaction and morale levels just as too much workplace stress can cause these unwanted outcomes. In sum, Sauder and Murphy (2016, p. 7) conclude that, The importance of challenge in our work lives is probably what people are referring to when they say a little bit of stress is good for you.
One of the most significant outcomes of good stress is increased creativity. Consequently, of an individual experiencing workplace stress leading to loneliness or solitude, the person may have a chance to broaden their mind and embrace new ideas thus leading them to increase their creativity considerably. To some individuals, stress is also a motivating factor. When these individuals are stressed out, they find a good way to handle it by channeling their emotional and physical responses towards working harder or rectifying any wrongs they had done for example procrastination (Smith, 2003).
Stress is also recognized as a cognitive enhancer. Workplace stress improves some aspects of intelligence by giving the mind a boost associated with increased focusing. When a person is stressed, they may be able to recall or memorize things better and their concentration levels may also; increase. It also enhances the physical performance and endurance of an individual. When the person is able to channel their stress towards physical activities, it leads to release of adrenaline. This causes the heartbeat and metabolism to increase. However, these return to normal levels a few minutes after the activity. Therefore, the person will have increased reflexes and reactions that build endurance, prevent and fight fatigue and tiredness.
Researchers have also shown that stress helps to improve immune responses. In a study report presented by Striker et al. (1999), it was found that stress helps to increase production of the stress hormone, cortisol, which increases the bodys immunity. This also has some negative aspect since cortisol overloading may lead to abdominal obesity, which increases the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease and diabetes.
Stress may also help an individual to solve their problems. Consequently, of stress, the individual may be able to look at something differently which allows them to solve issues between them. Moderate anxiety has been shown to help people in decision making by spurring them to the right direction.
2.9 Causes of workplace stress
Given its enormous impact on organizational performance and productivity, it is not surprising that a growing body of scholarship has been devoted to the causes of workplace stress in recent years. Studies by the American PsychologicalAssociation have identified the main causes of stress in the United States as shown in Table 1 below.
Table 1
Current leading causes of stress in the United States
Cause
Factors
1
Job Pressure
Co-Worker Tension, Bosses, Work Overload
2
Money
Loss of Job, Reduced Retirement, Medical Expenses
3
Health
Health Crisis, Terminal or Chronic Illness
4
Relationships
Divorce, Death of Spouse, Arguments with Friends, Loneliness
5
Poor Nutrition
Inadequate Nutrition, Caffeine, Processed Foods, Refined Sugars
6
Media Overload
Television, Radio, Internet, E-Mail, Social Networking
7
Sleep Deprivation
Inability to release adrenaline and other stress hormones
Source: American Institute of Stress (2018), 2014 Stress Statistics at https://www.stress.org/
As can be seen from the breakdown of the leading causes of stress in the United States today shown in Table 1 above, job-related stressors such as poor relationships with coworkers and superiors as well as inordinately heavy workloads form the primary cause of stress today. Likewise, the second-leading cause of stress in the United States is also job related, with the loss of employment or benefits representing the second-leading cause of stress in the country.
Moreover, the numbers of Americans that are experienced these types of job-related stressors is staggering as shown in Table 2 below.
Table 2
U.S. stress statistics
Category
Data
Percent of people who regularly experience physical symptoms caused by stress
77 %
Regularly experience psychological symptoms caused by stress
73 %
Feel they are living with extreme stress
33 %
Feel their stress has increased over the past five years
48 %
Cited money and work as the leading cause…
Occupational Stress and Scientific Monitoring
Literature Review
2.1 Introduction
The definition of the term occupational stress is derived from the definition of its two constituent words. In this context, occupational refers to anything that is related to the workplace while stress is defined as a natural body reaction from physical, mental or emotional strain in an individual. Thus, occupational stress can be defined as any mechanism by which the body attempts to adapt to the workplace environment. These include normal mechanisms for dealing with workplace stress, commonly known as the fight or flight response as well as any expected or unexpected reactions in response to the workplace. These include eyestrain because of staring at computer screens for too long, emotional and physical stress, depression, anxiety, aggression, cognitive impairment such as degraded memory or reduced concentration span, etc. All of these reactions can lead to poor work output, increased employee turnover, higher absenteeism, cardiovascular disease, injury or even death (Patterson et al., 2005).
Occupational stress can also be defined as a hazard under the relevant occupational safety and health legislation that can cause any harm to employee health and to which employers have a duty of care to assess, identify and control as much as possible. It can also be defined in other words as the consequence of an individual being unable to cope with pressures in the workplace (Rees, 1997). These undesirable outcomes come about either because of poor fit between the persons abilities and the requirement of his or her position or because of workplace conditions being otherwise unfavorable. Because the well-being of employees is inextricably associated with organizational performance and productivity, occupational stress demands timely investigation to identify ways to mitigate these effects (Osibanjo and Salau, 2016).
Although unemployment levels in the United States have steadily declined in recent years, there has been a corresponding increase in the amount of occupational stress levels being reported by American workers. A survey sponsored by Everest College and conducted by Harris Interactive found that fully 83% of all employed workers in the United States report being stressed by at least one job-related factor (an increase from 73% for the previous year), with inadequate pay and inordinately excessive workloads being among the top factors reported by U.S. workers (Work stress on the rise, 2013). Based on the findings that emerged from this survey, John Swartz, the regional director of career services at Everest College, concluded that, More companies are hiring, but workers are still weary and stressed out from years of a troubled economy that has brought about longer hours, layoffs and budget cuts (as cited in Work stress on the rise, 2013, p. 3).
Although a growing body of research confirms that pay levels are no longer among the most motivational factors for workers, compensation levels remain at or near the top of job-related stressors today. In this regard, the Harris Interactive survey found that inordinately heavy workloads tied with inadequate compensation levels as being the top job stressors at present, and both of these variables showed significant increases over the previous year (Work stress on the rise, 2013). Other job-related factors that were found to exacerbate occupational stress levels included poor relationships with coworkers, the amount of time required to commute to and from work, being compelled to work in a career field that is not aligned with their personal interests, poor work-life balances and a paucity of career advancement opportunities (Work stress on the rise, 2013).
It is also noteworthy that there were some significant gender-related differences in the occupational stress levels reported by American workers, with nearly twice as many female workers as male workers (18% vs. 10%) reporting inadequate pay levels as their primary job stressor (Work stress on the rise, 2013). In addition, younger workers were more likely than their older counterparts (i.e., Baby Boomers) to report being stressed as a result of their employment (Work stress on the rise, 2013). In sum, younger American women (aged 18 to 29 years) are the most stressed at work but other categories of workers remain at high risk of occupational stress as well (Work stress on the rise, 2013). Although everyone experiences the negative and positive effects of occupational stress uniquely, there are some common types of stress that are typical responses to unmitigated workplace stress as discussed below.
2.2 Types of stress
Stress is the human response to any types of demand, and such responses can be either positive or negative (Sharma, 2015). From a biophysical perspective, stress can be regarded as being a mental, physical, or emotional response that results in mental or physical tension (Sharma, 2015). Occupational stress can also be defined as the adverse psychological and physical reactions that occur in an individual as a result of their being unable to cope with the demands being made on them (Omolara, 2008). Stress that happens due to a person's employment is termed occupational stress. The terms workplace stress, job stress and occupational stress are used interchangeably (Dollard, 2003). Regardless of what it is called, occupational stress levels are notoriously difficult to quantify and measure, making the evaluation of stress-management interventions especially problematic. In response, researchers have developed a number of different categories of job stressors to facilitate the process as discussed below.
Job stressors have been classified into various categories by different investigators over the years. For example, El-Kot and Burke note that researchers during the second half of the 20thc century identified five discrete categories of job stressors as follows: (1) stressors intrinsic to the job, (2) from one's role in the organization, (3) career development, (4) relationships with others, and (5) organizational structure and culture. Otherresearchers have identified four main categories of job stressors: (1) from task demands, (2) role demands, (3) physical demands (from elements in one's physical setting or environment), and (4) interpersonal demands; in addition and more recently, work-family demands have also been included in the categories of job stressors by some organizational behavioral researchers (El-Kot and Burke, 2011).
More succinctly, as posited by Nordstrom et al. (2001), there are two major types of stress that can occur in a person. These are physical and mental stress. Physical stress refers to any physical reaction of the body toward various triggers. Physical stress is a major cause of emotional stress since the two manifests in each other. Mental stress, on the other hand, refers to mental exhaustion. According to Keegel et al. (2009), mental stress refers to mental strain as a result of a harmful agent that can lead to illness. It is reasonable to posit that sustained mental strain due to occupational stress can have such serious effects.
The two different types of stress have different signs and symptoms, some of which are more readily discernible than others. For example, physical stress can be seen when the persons heart rate becomes high and they begin to breath faster. In certain situations, the person can also start to sweat profusely or even have cold feet, hands or skin. Another common sign is that the mouth of the individual dries up and they may also; feel tired and fatigued more frequently. There may also be muscle spasms, shortness of breath, tightening of muscles and tension of the body (Iavicoli et al., 2001).
Other common signs of physical stress include the person eating more or less than no.......ing, talking rapidly or too much, grinding teeth, nail biting, pacing up and down restlessly, or other uncommon repetitive habits. In other extreme situations, the person may develop diseases or conditions such as migraines, asthma, stomach and skin problems, aches and pains, flu, etc. These signs come about as a result of the physical well-being of the person being off balance (Crouter and Manke, 1994).
As noted above, younger American women currently suffer the highest levels of occupational stress in the country, and these individuals are also at higher risk of experiencing adverse effects from job-related physical stress as well as the deleterious effects that can result from occupational mental stress (Chitnis, 2014). In this regard, mental stress is often seen when the person has sleeping disorders that make them either sleep less or more than usual, constant feeling of worry, anxiety or confusion, frequent mood changes such as frustration, depression, anger, defensiveness, irritability, irrationality, impatient, restlessness or overreaction. Other common signs of occupational stress include dependence on harmful substances such as drugs, alcohol or cigarettes (Okechukwu et al., 2010). In certain situations, the person may also develop a poor memory or the inability to make decisions. In extreme situations, a person may even develop irrational fears of normal situations such as seeing sunlight, washing under running water, venturing outdoors, etc. All these signs come about because of the mental situation of the person being adversely affected by job-related stressors.
2.3 Signs of occupational stress
Occupational stress usually starts out as acute stress that occurs from the increasing demand and pressure of the work situation. It can lead a person to emotional distress that is seen in anger, anxiety, depression, or irritability. It can also lead a person to physical problems such as muscle tension, aches and pains, frequent headaches, jaw and back pain. These normally come from the person being exposed to a lot of manual work in the workplace such as walking or standing for long periods. Such activities may also lead to elevation of blood pressure levels, sweaty palms, rapid heartbeat, dizziness, cold feet and hands, chest or back pain, migraines or shortness of breath. Occupational stress can also be seen when a person develops stomach or bowel problems including heartburn, diarrhea, constipation, flatulence or irritable bowel syndrome. These may be as a result of physical or mental stress in the workplace (Eldon and Shani, 1991).
Occupational stress may also have other signs such as loneliness or isolation of an individual, agitation or the person being unable to relax, pessimism, loss of concentration, constant worrying, procrastination or neglecting personal responsibility or other nervous habits such as pacing, grinding teeth and nail biting.
2.4 Effects/Consequences of job stress
As put by Hulshof et al. (1999), occupational stress is quite normal. However, when it becomes excessive, there are certain adverse effects that it may cause. These effects can be divided into three distinct categories. These are effects on the individual, to family and to the organization. At all these three levels, occupational stress produces a wide range of expensive, debilitating and undesirable consequences (Ross, 2005) as discussed further below.
2.5 Consequences to the individual
Workplace stress can lead to various effects on the individual. These may be mild or severe depending on the extent of the stress. They can be divided into two major groups, which are physical and psychological effects. In this regard, El-Kot and Burke (2011, p. 11) report that, Individuals reporting higher levels of job stressors generally indicate lower levels of job satisfaction, more absenteeism, lower job performance, greater intent to quit, and lower levels of psychological and physical health.
The major physical effects are unwanted feelings and behaviors, which include fatigue, stomach upset, headache, muscular aches and pains, disturbance of sleep or sleeping disorders, eating disorders and other chronic or mild illnesses. Others include low motivation, low work-life balance, low overall quality of work life, absenteeism, low morale, low productivity, unsound decisions, intention to get a better job, occupational burnout, alienation, increased substance abuse, sabotage or solitude. Psychological problems include anxiety, irritability or short temper, psychological distress, passive-aggressive behaviors, loss of self-confidence, loss of self-esteem, feelings of fatigue and futility, impulsive behavior, loss of contact with reality, job and life dissatisfaction, and emotional fatigue (Spector, 2002). More troubling still, the consequences of unmitigated negative occupational stress on the individual extend to all types of sectors and industries among both white- and blue-collar workers (Chaudry, 2012).
When occupational stress is not kept in check, it may become chronic and lead to signs such as trauma or even depression. A person may also change their beliefs or views regarding a particular aspect of life because of their active self-examination often without professional helps. Other adverse effects include heart attack, cancer, violence, suicide or even paralysis (Manon Mireille and Barling, 2004).
In a study that was conducted in the US (Smith et al., 1992), it was found that electronic monitoring of employees in the workplace led to increase workplace stress and thus many either experienced high boredom levels, anxiety, depression, health complaints, psychological tension, anger, and fatigue. The researchers also found that these companies had high employee turnover because of this monitoring (Smith et al., 1992).
2.6 Consequences to family
The individuals family also experiences undesirable consequences because of occupational stress. Consequently, of occupational stress, the individual may also carry some of the stress to their home thus causing stress to the other family members. The person may also fail to provide for the family because of losing their job or spending too much money on substance abuse or treatment. There are also other adverse effects to the family. These include dealing with ickness or even death of the individual (Windle and Dumenci, 1997). In certain situations, occupational stress may also break marriages and families because of the family not being able to cope with the individuals dysfunctional responses. The couple may also be adversely affected in their sex life because of stress. Occupational stress also increases domestic pressures such as financial worries and childcare responsibilities thus affecting the quality of life outside their work (Suraj-Narayan, 2005). Other effects include taking work home, which reduces the amount of time spent with family members, job relocations that may split families and a lack of leisure activities (Suraj-Narayan, 2005).
2.7 Consequences to the organization
At the organizational level, there are also consequences of occupational stress that are felt. These are majorly divided into two subgroups, which are organizational symptoms and costs. Organizational symptoms include discontent and low morale that may also spread to other members of the workforce, low productivity, poor quality of service to customers or clients that may lead to loss of customers, bad publicity especially when an individual suffers chronic effects of workplace stress, high accident rates that lead to huge insurance compensations, premature retirement, high staff turnover, poor internal communication, increased internal conflict, diminished cooperation of staff members or a dysfunctional workplace climate (Huffman and Cohen, 2004). Indeed, the research to date suggests that as much as 50 percent of all workplace absences attributable in some fashion to occupational stress (Akpochafe, 2012).
Organizational costs include reduced performance or productivity of workers that leads to decreased added value to the product or service thus diminishing client satisfaction, high costs as a result of increased employee turnover, increased staff retraining and training costs, increased insurance premiums as a result of frequent insurance claims and payouts, increased health-care costs and sick pay to employees, increased disability payments as a result of workplace accidents, increased cost of repairing damaged equipment, and bad publicity which also diminishes revenues greatly (Bjean and Sultan-Taeb, 2005). Because occupational stress have been swhon to have a direct impact on employee performance, it is not surprising that there is also a corresponding decline in the overall productivity level of affected organizations. Such declines in overall productivity have a concomitant effect on companies profitability and can even result in an increasingly negative perception of a company (Sharma, 2015). Consequently, the adverse effects of occupational stress ultimately combine to adversely affect employee relations as well as organizational performance and profitability (Sharma, 2015).
According to a study conducted by Daniels (2004), occupational stress has been found to cost the UK economy and estimated $4 billion every year (Brun and Milczarek, 2007). These costs are majorly from insurance claims related to occupational stress. With such huge payouts, the researchers found that there is reason to concentrate on the sociocultural variation in their findings. They also found that this huge sum was also coming from loss of customers, high employee turnover and negative publicity because of occupational stress. In the European Union as a whole, it is estimated that roughly 20 million Euros is lost each year as a result of work-related stress (European Commission, 2002, Milczarek et al., 2009).
2.8 Positive effects of workplace stress
Though occupational stress is often associated with negative effects, there are certain positive effects that come from workplace stress. However, experts put a caveat on positivity of stress stating that it only happens when stress is balanced and moderated. This is what they commonly refer to as good stress (Shigemi et al., 2000). For example, Sauder and Murphy (2016) report that there are some misperceptions concerning stress and its effects of humans that indicate that all such stress is harmful. A growing body of evidence, however, confirms that some level of stress is an essential part of the human condition and people tend to respond favorably to some types of stress. According to Sauder and Murphy (2016, p. 6), Challenge energizes us psychologically and physically, and it motivates us to learn new skills and master our jobs.
Notwithstanding the potential deleterious effects of unmitigated and relentless workplace stress, it is clear that without some levels of stress, employees would become complacent with corresponding declines in their job satisfaction and morale levels just as too much workplace stress can cause these unwanted outcomes. In sum, Sauder and Murphy (2016, p. 7) conclude that, The importance of challenge in our work lives is probably what people are referring to when they say a little bit of stress is good for you.
One of the most significant outcomes of good stress is increased creativity. Consequently, of an individual experiencing workplace stress leading to loneliness or solitude, the person may have a chance to broaden their mind and embrace new ideas thus leading them to increase their creativity considerably. To some individuals, stress is also a motivating factor. When these individuals are stressed out, they find a good way to handle it by channeling their emotional and physical responses towards working harder or rectifying any wrongs they had done for example procrastination (Smith, 2003).
Stress is also recognized as a cognitive enhancer. Workplace stress improves some aspects of intelligence by giving the mind a boost associated with increased focusing. When a person is stressed, they may be able to recall or memorize things better and their concentration levels may also; increase. It also enhances the physical performance and endurance of an individual. When the person is able to channel their stress towards physical activities, it leads to release of adrenaline. This causes the heartbeat and metabolism to increase. However, these return to normal levels a few minutes after the activity. Therefore, the person will have increased reflexes and reactions that build endurance, prevent and fight fatigue and tiredness.
Researchers have also shown that stress helps to improve immune responses. In a study report presented by Striker et al. (1999), it was found that stress helps to increase production of the stress hormone, cortisol, which increases the bodys immunity. This also has some negative aspect since cortisol overloading may lead to abdominal obesity, which increases the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease and diabetes.
Stress may also help an individual to solve their problems. Consequently, of stress, the individual may be able to look at something differently which allows them to solve issues between them. Moderate anxiety has been shown to help people in decision making by spurring them to the right direction.
2.9 Causes of workplace stress
Given its enormous impact on organizational performance and productivity, it is not surprising that a growing body of scholarship has been devoted to the causes of workplace stress in recent years. Studies by the American Psychological Association have identified the main causes of stress in the United States as shown in Table 1 below.
Table 1
Current leading causes of stress in the United States
Cause
Factors
1
Job Pressure
Co-Worker Tension, Bosses, Work Overload
2
Money
Loss of Job, Reduced Retirement, Medical Expenses
3
Health
Health Crisis, Terminal or Chronic Illness
4
Relationships
Divorce, Death of Spouse, Arguments with Friends, Loneliness
5
Poor Nutrition
Inadequate Nutrition, Caffeine, Processed Foods, Refined Sugars
6
Media Overload
Television, Radio, Internet, E-Mail, Social Networking
7
Sleep Deprivation
Iability to release adrenaline and other stress hormones
Source: American Institute of Stress (2018), 2014 Stress Statistics at https://www.stress.org/
As can be seen from the breakdown of the leading causes of stress in the United States today shown in Table 1 above, job-related stressors such as poor relationships with coworkers and superiors as well as inordinately heavy workloads form the primary cause of stress today. Likewise, the second-leading cause of stress in the United States is also job related, with the loss of employment or benefits representing the second-leading cause of stress in the country.
Moreover, the numbers of Americans that are experienced these types of job-related stressors is staggering as shown in Table 2 below.
Table 2
U.S. stress statistics
Category
Data
Percent of people who regularly experience physical symptoms caused by stress
77 %
Regularly experience psychological symptoms caused by stress
73 %
Feel they are living with extreme stress
33 %
Feel their stress has increased over the past five years
48 %
Cited money and work as the leading cause of their stress
76 %
Reported lying awake at night due to stress
48 %
Source: American Institute of Stress (2018), 2014 Stress Statistics at https://www.stress.org
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