Organizational Psychology: Stress in the workplace

Stress in the workplace
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The increase in the rate of work place related stress has necessitated reviews on stress and its impact on the psychological wellbeing and productivity in employees. Even as the healthcare costs related to stress keep rising most governments and employers do not have adequate measures and policies to deal with the issue. Thus, workplace related stress has economic consequences and health problems which impact negatively on organizational performance. In essence, workplace stress causes increased absenteeism as well as increase in costs. In organizational psychology, the subject of organizational stress has gained more prominence as researchers look into causality of stress in the workplace. The health consequences of stress are many including increased risk of cardio vascular diseases as there is a mismatch between work demands and low returns (Kivimäki et al., 2002).
Stress and the workplace
Organizational stress among employees may occur when there is a mismatch between the demands and pressures of the work versus the knowledge and coping mechanisms available in the workplace (Finney et al, 2013). Essentially, stress might be triggered by various reasons and in different situations, but the level of support from fellow workers or supervisors m determines the ability to cope with work related stress. However, pressure is not necessarily harmful in the workplace as employees are more likely to be alert, but when it is too much it often leads to stress. In addition, inability to affectively utilize skills and knowledge m often causes stress as workers are unable to cope. Thus, an appropriate working place is one in which the pressures match with the employee’s knowledge, abilities and support from peers and the organization.
Stress and stressors
There is no universally acceptable definition of stress, but the strain of stress occurs through exposure to stressors in demanding circumstances. The stressors could be particular events, long time events that occur on a daily basis or traumatic experiences. Workplace stress occurs through workplace stressors that put employees in a state of distress, but individual level factors might also lead to emergence of stress and may also be moderators of stress. Stress that occurs for a lengthy period of time might cause burnout which is the response to interpersonal stressors in the workplace. Burnout is in turn related to feelings of detachment, cynicism, exhaustion and low motivation in the workplace (Finney et al, 2013).
Stress and performance
Other than being detrimental to the health and mental well being of employees, stress also has a negative impact on workplace performance. Employees perform better when they align their work performance with an organization’s goals, but stressors make this objective harder to achieve. There are numerous angles through which stress affects performance. One of the ways th...