Job Stress at Work Place

Table of Contents

Executive Summary 2

Introduction 3

Major sources of job stress 3

Job Content 4

Personal factors 4

Effects of job stress 4

Negative effects 5

Positive effects 8

Recommendations 10

Conclusion 12

References 13

Executive Summary

Recent statistics show that an increasing number of employees are experiencing excessive job stress at their workplace. Two major stressors that are driving this increase in workplace stress are job content and personal psychological condition of the employees. Moreover, these stressors seem to have negative effects on the employees’ well-being and productivity as well as the organization’s overall performance level. However, research has demonstrated that stress may also positively contribute towards an employee’s performance level by inducing motivation, creativity, and proactivity at the workplace. Hence, it is critical for organizations to create a balanced level of positive and negative stress in order to ensure optimal productivity levels.

The purpose of this paper is to: analyze the major positive and negative effects of job stress on employees and the organization, and provide feasible recommendations in order to optimize the workforce.

Based on analysis of various occupations, there are three major recommendations made in this report that will aid managers in balancing job stress levels at the workplace:

• To utilize job analysis in order to create more balanced workloads

• Reduce the perceptual gap between employees’ abilities and performance expectations by ensuring person-job match and providing effective training and development programs

• Use Employee Assistance Programs to monitor and improve employees’ physical and psychological health

Since these recommendations are generalized across many occupations, managers will have to find the major stressors at the workplace and accordingly,...