Effects of Work Stress on Job Performance

Stress is a state of mind that reflects certain bio-chemical reactions in human body and it‘s projected by sense of anxiety, tension and depression and caused by such demands by environment forces or internal forces that cannot be met by the resources available to the person. The intensity of such demands that require a re-adjustment of resources or operational styles would determine the extent of stress. Such environment events and conditions that have potential to induce stress are known as ―stressors‖. One of the major concerns of management is the negative impact stress to withdraw from the contact with the stressors in the form of turnover and absenteeism.

Almost every aspect of work can be stressor for someone. Even though there are many factors in work environment that has some influence on the extent of stress of that people experience at the job, the following factors have been shown to be particularly strong in inducing stress. Stressors intrinsic to the job • Role ambiguity • Role conflict: • Lack of participation: Personal sources: Events in personal life cannot be isolated from events in work life. A person with an unhappy family life seldom expresses a positive attitude at work. Much of the stress brought about by non-work situations may be due to divorce, marriage, and death of loved one, financial difficulties and much other socio-cultural relationship. These difficulties are stress producer especially if they are unexpected.

One of the major concerns of management is the negative impact on performance. People under high stress tend to withdraw from the contact with the stressor in the form of turnover and absenteeism. In extreme cases it may result in sabotage. Workers sometimes create mechanical failure in order to take a break from monotonous work. Any factor that causes negative effects on our physical and psychological well-being is also expected to affect our work behavior. Exposing to strong & enduring stress influence important aspects of behavior at jobs thus affecting productivity The relationship between stress and job performance appears to be rather complex. It is affected by the difficulty of the task being performed, the nature of the specific stressor involved in and a wide range of personal and situational factors. However, in general productivity is considered to be at peak with moderate level of stress. Performance is poor at low level of stress as well as high level of stress. At low level of stress, the person may not be sufficiently energized and may not be whole-heartedly involved in his/her work, resulting in low productivity. As the level of stress increases from low levels to moderate levels,

Some of the stresses reducing strategies that strengthen the individual‘s well beings are: • Readjust life goals: Because of the competition to ―get ahead‖, most individual set very high standards and goals for themselves. They are always trying to do much in too little time. They have tremendous fear of falling and they are running to nowhere. There high expectations and limited resources to reach such expectations result in stress. So, people must readjust their goals and make sure they have the ability and proper resources to reach such goals. • Practice Yoga: Yoga is a structured set of exercise and body movements with deep breathing and mind concentration, so that it is a way of getting away from the stressors. It is methodology to integrate body and mind forces to bring them into state of harmony with the ultimate goal of being in unison with the infinite. Yoga help in turn stimulates the nervous system. • Job enrichment: Redesigning the job should be in such manner as to use maximum potential of the employee with emphasis involvement in such redesigning. This will help reduce stress caused by monotony, routine work. Role ambiguity, work overload or under load. Job enrichment enhances motivation and leads to more challenging assignment, improved task significance, more responsibility, more meaningful work and more control. • Participation in decision making: If the employees are invented to participate in making decision involving their own work setting, within the organization guidelines, this work make the employees feels that they are their own boss , a factor that is associated with less negative reactions to stress. Participation increases job involvement and reduces ambiguity and conflict the two stress producing agents. • Building team work: The management must create a work environment in which the members of the work group consider themselves as members of the same family. There should be no provision for interpersonal conflict within individuals and the group. single technique can single handily manages stress. Rather combined techniques to be effective in occupational stress. The above mentioned stress management techniques can go a long way in reducing stress among teachers and improving the efficiency of the employees. It is important to deal with stress at an early stage. Early warning signs such as headache, back pain. Irritability and insomnia, absenteeism from work or alcoholism should be taken seriously.

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M.Com, M.Phil, M.B.A, HTET, NET (Management), NET (Commerce) Assistant Professor of Commerce, Ishar Jyot Degree College, Pehowa, Kurukshetra