The Consequences And Effects Of Work Stress In The Workplace

Stress at work Work stress is a common terminology across the world due to the recognition that it poses a great risk to the workers’ health and to organizations performance. This is because stressed employees are poorly motivated, less productive, unhealthy, and likely to cause accidents and injuries at the workplace. Consequently, an organization whose workforce is constantly stressed shows poor performance in the competitive environment. () defines work stress as “the response people may have when presented with work demands and pressures that are not matched to their knowledge and abilities and which challenge their ability to cope”(). Although () emphasize that work pressure is inevitable in the work place because it is a form of motivation …show more content…
For instance, mental stress could lead to psychological changes such as anger, depression, irritability, boredom, irritability, anxiety and nervousness. Additionally, physical work stress has been linked to digestive problems, chest pain, skin disorder, muscle tension, loss of appetite, head ache restlessness, high blood pressure, ulcers, and indigestion among others. Furthermore, work stress could lead to behavioural changes, which are manifested through overeating or undereating, absentiseem, alcohol and drug abuse, sleeplessness, and loneliness (). As captured The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) 99-101 model below, It is obvious that not only does work stress have detrimental effects on a workers’ health being, but work stress affects job performance and organisation’s performance, therefore there is a need to understand main causes of work stress as discussed in the next …show more content…
However, “most stress interventions focus on changing the worker instead of the work environment” (). According to () researchers have approached interventions methods from a three-tier paradigm that is primary, secondary and tertiary methods. The goal of primary interventions measures is to change, reduce, or eliminate stressing factors. Contrastingly, the secondary measures are aimed at helping employees who are already showing stress symptoms from suffering from work stress sickness by teaching them how to deal with job stressors. Additionally, the tertiary intervention approach is aimed are reversing the effect of work stress on an individual through treatment and rehabilitation of employees who are showing health problems arising from work stress (). This section presents the different types of interventions that are common in preventing, intervening and reversing work stress