Understanding Workplace Stress: A Qualitative Study

PSY311 Social Psychology

Research Question

There is no general agreement on how to define stress. It is simply explained as emotionally and physiologically challenging experiences (Stults-Kolehmainen & Sinha, 2014). The work place stressors develop into acute stress that can become unmanageable. Although workplace stress is looked upon to be normal, it can impact on the performance and productivity of the worker.  While it is not possible to control the workplace environment and the conditions for the employees, one can make efforts to understand the reasons behind the work stress and what steps or interventions can be taken to lower the work stress.

Workplace stress is not an unknown subject and experienced commonly by employees at the workplace in different industries. How do workers from two different sectors perceive the levels of stress and if they have different attitudes and strategies for workplace stress?

Work stress is linked to several physical and mental health issues. Moreover, if the workers are under continuous stress, it can lower their productivity, impact their health and raise the sickness absence leave. If the stress at the workplace is ignored, it can be detrimental for the whole organization (Havermans et al., 2018). Thus, it becomes essential to understand the underlying causes behind the stress and look for preventive measures. It would be a mistake to ignore the supervisors, managers, and employees as they are the central stakeholders.

The International Labor Organization has reported greater pressure on workers related to time, work demands, conflicting roles, complicated relationships that lead to stress and violence (Giorgi et al., 2017). Occupational health research has established that work-related stress leads to a range of health risks (Stults-Kolehmainen & Sinha, 2014). Research finds that those who exercise suffer from less depression, fatigue and anxiety. Despite the well-known benefits of physical exercise, in the US only about 21.9 % of adults participate in light-to-moderate physical exercises (Stults-Kolehmainen & Sinha, 2014). Physical exercises are seen as a notable stress management technique as there is a powerful link between stress and exercise. According to Stults-Kolehmainen & Sinha (2014), Psychological stress can leave a negative impact on physical and mental health. Those under high stress are less likely to suffer from coronary heart disease and a weakened immune system and the nervous system. Stress is linked to several mental symptoms like dementia, fatigue, and cognitive dysfunction. There is a strong connection between exercise and health consequences.  

Stress management interventions (SMIs) development and implementation require a more in-depth understanding of the work stress of employees (Havermans et al., 2018). Even if one cannot change certain conditions or stressful situations, steps can be taken to build emotional support to lower the damaging effects of stress and improve job satisfaction among the workers.   As many of the work stress determinants are psychosocial work factors, communications with the employees can provide a valuable perspective on the reasons behind the workplace stress and what kind of hands-on approaches can be used as interventions to lower stress. Despite awareness of the workplace stress, the needs of workers are often ignored at the workplace. The employees often withhold information and are not too involved because of the indifferent attitude towards the issues. Stress can make one less active physically and leave other negative influences on the lifestyle such as smoking, drug use and alcoholism (Stults-Kolehmainen & Sinha, 2014). However, the impacts are seen to be higher among the more disadvantaged socioeconomic class and positions. The social inequalities play a role behind the work-related stress and can be an important factor when comparing work-related stress across different organizations and countries (Stults-Kolehmainen & Sinha, 2014). The workers when not rewarded appropriately regarding salary, promotion or esteem despite the high efforts spent at work leads to stress.

Background

Favorable working conditions and workplace policies play a role in work stress and mental health of workers. Protective policies with unemployment protections and benefits impact the socioeconomic variances of stressful work nationwide (Lunau, Siegrist, Dragano & Wahrendorf, 2015). The employees are forced to take any type of job if the standard of living relies on the performance of the market, and this can lead to stressful conditions. Educational qualification plays a vital role in getting absorbed within the labor market integration, and employees with higher levels of education are likely to face minor disadvantages.
Two Interviews

A total of 2 semi-structured interviews were carried out with two employees. The interviews with eight questions focused on respondents’ experiences related to their work and work-related stress within their organization. Respondents were alone during the interview and at home in a relaxed environment where they could respond freely. The interviewees were enlisted through the network and contacted by telephone and email. The interviews were done face-to-face, and the purposive sampling focused on getting information on the stress at work, its influence on them, stress management, and their coping strategies.  Both the respondents were older than 18 years of age and worked in different sectors.
Interviewee 1

Interviewer: Please describe stress you are facing at work

Interviewee1: I am happy with the work environment, and I do what I like the most, which is teaching. But because I am staying away from family, it gives stress on the personal side.

Interviewer: Please describe the influence of stress on your work.

Interviewee 1: Personal factors may sometimes bring stress to work, but the work environment is very comfortable, and actually helps to relieve personal stress. Work helps me to be more involved and make me forget about the stress created by living away from family.

Interviewer: Please describe how the work-life stresses effects on your personal life.

Interviewee 1: Work helps me to overcome stress in personal life.

Interviewer: What are the main factors that are responsible for causing stress in the workplace?

 Interviewee 1: Staying away from home town, family, and friends.

Interviewer: What are your thoughts about the positive impact of the stress on your productivity?

Interviewee 1: Very useful! When I have stress from the personal life I try to overcome by getting involved more into work and my productivity increases.

Interviewer: Describe your expectations from the institute to improve stress management.

Interviewee 1: Give more vacations and allows to pool the vacations into a single long vacation in a year.

Two Interviews

Interviewer: How about – what are some of the ways in which persons manage workplace stress?

Interviewee 1: I try to overcome by socializing with colleagues.

Interviewer: What has helped to reduce workplace stress?

Interviewee 1: Good communication and socializing with colleagues.

Interviewer: How do you cope with workplace stress?

Interviewee 1: I cope very easily as I work as a teacher and teaching is my passion.

Interviewer: Thanks for your time.

Interviewee 1: You’re welcome.

Interviewee 2

Interviewer: Please describe stress you are facing at work.

Interviewee 2: Sometimes boring work and some period’s excessive workload. I feel very much stressed with unhealthy computation. Also, it’s stressing when I have no support and too much overburden with different assignments.

Interviewer: Please describe the influence of stress on your work.

Interviewee 2: When the work is boring, it can decrease my motivation to work. In periods where the workload is excessive, I can be overwhelmed.

Interviewer: Please describe how the work-life stress effects on your personal life.

Interviewee 2: When the workload is excessive, I can have mood swings and a lot of small things will irritate me. Sometimes I feel I can’t sleep well.

Interviewer: What are the main factors that are responsible for causing stress in the workplace?

Interviewee 2: Unorganized, heavy workload is for me the most cause of stress at the workplace. It’s very much stressful with very tight deadlines.

Interviewer: What are your thoughts about the positive impact of the stress on your productivity?

Interviewee 2: Work appreciation, recognize when someone does a good job. This will give so some confident/ a boost to continue doing your work. If you only get negative feedback, you will be demotivated.

Interviewer: Describe your expectations from the institute to improve stress management.

Interviewee 2: More flexibility and more vacation days. Moreover, also acknowledge of my work and also have a healthy discussion to minimize the stress.

Interviewer: How about – what are some of the ways in which persons manage workplace stress?

Interviewee 2: Definitely good communication skills between colleagues and supervisors. And more clarified work objectives.

Interviewer: What has helped to reduce workplace stress?

Interviewee 2: Since I know majority of my work, I always like to have it organized. Organized work will help you avoid stressful situations

Interviewer: How do you cope with workplace stress?

Interviewee 2: I always try to plan my work in advance in order to see thing very clear. Less mistake will be done when you have time to prepare your work. Too much work at the same time will lead to stress and lack of concentration.

Interviewee 1

Interviewer: Thanks for your time.Thematic Analysis and Final Report

The interviews were recorded, and the notes were made during the interview. Each of the interview lasted for about ten to fifteen minutes. The recordings were inspected for data collection as well as to inspect the need to make any adjustment of the interview protocols. Before the data collected from the interview recordings was transcribed and analyzed, it was cross-checked for accuracy.

Thematic analysis was chosen as a suitable research methodology.  The themes are absed on the data and from the previous understanding of the subject. Repetition is the easiest way to look for themes in a thematic analysis and search for topics that occur and reoccur (Ryan & Bernard, 2003). The transcribed interview texts were identified for topics and grouped in themes that were of specific relevance to the research question.
Main themes

A five-theme structure was developed based on the transcribed interviews and the data collected from the two workers. These central themes were 1) About work stress, 2) Cause and impact of work stress, 3) Positive impact of the stress, 4) Involvement of organization to prevent work stress, 5) Work stress prevention measures and coping strategies.
Table 1 presents the themes and sub-themes from employees.

	Main themes	Sub-themes Employees
1.	About work stress	1.Work gives satisfaction and relieves stress.
		2. Boring work and excessive workload
2.	Cause and impact of work stress,	1. Personal factors like staying away from family and friends, Comfortable work environment relieves personal stress
		2. Unorganized, heavy work with very tight deadlines, Decrease motivation, mood swings, can’t sleep well
3.	Positive impact of the stress	1. Getting more involved with work which increases productivity
		2. Work appreciation for others motivates one to work harder.
4.	Involvement of organisation to prevent work stress	1. More vacations and a long single vacation every year.
		2. More flexibility and vacation days, appreciation for my work and healthy discussions
5.	Work stress prevention measures and coping strategies	1. Socializing with colleagues, Good communication, socializing with colleagues and love for my work
		2. Good communication skills between colleagues and supervisors, more simplified work objectives, organized work planned in advance, lesser mistakes with higher focus.

Both workers feel differently about work stress. The one who is a teacher is passionate about his work that gives him satisfaction and relieves stress.

I am happy with work environment, and I do what I like the most, which is teaching […]”
The other worker feels acute work stress as he finds boring and with excessive workload.

Sometimes boring work and some period’s excessive workload. I feel very much stressed with unhealthy computation. (Respondent 2).
 Here it is evident that the kind of work and work environment can create or relieve stress levels.
Cause and impact of work stress

Both workers are well aware of the reason behind the cause of work stress in their occupation. For the teacher, it is staying away from his family and friends that causes stress.

Staying away from hometown, family, and friends. (Respondent 1).
For the other worker, it is the too much overburden and excessive workload at the workplace that causes stress for him.

Sometimes boring work and some period’s excessive workload. I feel very much stressed with unhealthy computation. (Respondent 2).
 The cause of work stress can be both personal and work-related. Both the respondents are aware of the work stress and its impacts.  However, for the first interviewee, his passion for his work and work environment helps to relieve his stress level.

Interviewee 2

Comfortable work environment relieves personal stress (Respondent 1).
 For the second interviewee, the heavy workload and tight deadlines leave him very stressful. He is unable to sleep well and experiences mood swings.

When the workload is excessive, I can have mood swings and a lot of small thing will irritate me. Sometimes I feel I can’t sleep well (Respondent 2).

The case and impact of work stress are different for different workers.

Both workers are aware of the positive impact of stress. For the teacher, stress means getting more involved with work which increases productivity.

Very useful! When I have stress from personal life I try to overcome by getting involved more into work and my productivity increases (Respondent 1).
 For the other worker, he seeks positivism in stress by looking at work appreciation for others that motivates him to work harder.

Work appreciation, recognize when someone do a good job. This will give so some confident/ a boost to continue doing your work. If you only get negative feedback, you will be demotivated (Respondent 2).
Despite a negativity around the word” stress,” there are ways to extract positive impacts from it.
Involvement of organisation to prevent work stress

This theme contains the need for the Involvement of organization to prevent work stress for their workers. Both workers feel that workplace administrators can bring out some changes to improve the workplace environment for the employees. The teacher feels that having a single long vacation every year can help curb workplace stress.

Give more vacations and allows to pool the vacations into a long single vacation in a year (Respondent 1).
The second worker emphasizes the need for vacations, more at workplace and appreciation for work and healthy discussions with superiors.

More flexibility and more vacation days. And also acknowledge of my work and also have healthy discussion to minimize the stress (Respondent 2).

 Clearly, there is a need for a more supportive organizational culture and more awareness and involvement for the superiors and higher management. A supportive organizational culture who is well aware of the needs of its workers can lower workplace stress and spread a feeling of unity throughout the organization. The employee expressed that a supportive environment with flexibility can lower work stress. It is the responsibility of the higher management to create a supportive organizational culture b focusing more on the workers.

Both respondents expressed a necessity for work stress prevention procedures to reduce work stress.  and they felt that open discussions about stress were essential between the employers and employees. The teacher felt that some effective measures and coping strategies involve socializing with colleagues and good communication. He felt that it was easy f for him to cope a because of his s love for my work.

Thematic Analysis

I try to overcome by socializing with colleagues. Good communication and socializing with colleagues. (Respondent 1).
The other worker also felt that good communication skills between colleagues and supervisors, more simplified work objectives can release work stress.

Definitely good communication skills between colleagues and supervisors. And more clarified work objectives (Respondent 2).
At the same time, he felt that if he could put in a more organized work planned in advance, there would be lesser mistakes with higher focus.

Since I know majority of my work, I always like to have it organized. Organized work will help you avoid stressful situations (Respondent 2).
However, he still felt that because of the excessive workload, it was difficult to plan in advance and can lead to lack of concentration and more stress. Employees expressed a requirement for work stress deterrence and interventions. They shared a common view of better communication and open discussion. Both the workers have their own ways and means of dealing with work stress and develop coping strategies.
Discussion

 There are diverse causes behind work stress that are described by the employees who took part in the current study. It is indeed a complex challenge to understand work stress, the cause, and factors behind and the coping mechanism. At the same time, some commonalities were found in the themes recognized from the responses. Both employees reported a need for good communication at the workplace. Communication between employees and their superiors can facilitate awareness raising regarding workplace stress. Open communication about workplace stress and its negative impacts on health can build knowledge about these issues. The findings of the present study show that the workers did want a discussion about work stress.  The senior management could avert work stress by helping their employees to express their feelings and expectations more clearly. While for one employee, it was easier for him to cope with work stress because of the passion for his job, for the other, it was difficult as he found his workplace boring and overloaded with work. The difference in their attitude towards their work leads to variations in their coping mechanism about work stress. The discussion shows that it is easier for the worker to cope with work stress who loves his work.

The above discussion shows that the workplace administration and management need to be aware of the work stress experienced by the employees in their daily work: The discussion supports the literature that occupational stress can damage social and professional lives of the workers as asserted by Giorgi et al. (2017). The fact that both respondents talk about the need for communication shows the lack of it at their workplace. This is important as both workers from different sectors carry different attitude towards their workplace and work. It is because of their different attitudes; they devise different coping strategies to manage stress at the workplace. It is essential for the organizations and companies to be aware of the challenges faced by the workers in the workplace and how the work pressures, tight deadlines, fewer leaves and lack of communication can leave the workers anxious and overwhelmed. Increased work stress lowers job satisfaction, and it can further impact the work performance.
Strengths and limitations

Findings and Discussion

A strength of this study was the choice of the topic and sample of employees from different sectors. The fact that the participants in the study did not belong to the same departments allowed them to communicate their needs freely. There was no chance of bias in the
heterogeneous group in the study as the interviewees were no personal acquaintances of the interviewer. The carefully planned analysis and qualitative approach plus the previous literature study met the criterion set in the current study. The objective was to get an understanding into a multifaceted challenge of workplace stress. The study also has certain limitations that should be taken into account.  The first major limitation is the limited number of participants and the lesser number of questions in the interview. The narrow diversity of the interview sampling and no feedback on from respondents on the findings add to the limitations. The fact that the interviews were conducted face to face add to its strengths as well as limitations. While face to face interviews allowed authenticity and credibility, the interviewer has left out more sensitive parts for the interview.

There is a requirement for further studies to deliver a better investigation of the association between work-related stress and poor outcomes among the workers. It is essential to map the incidence of health issues in different organizations and examine if they are connected to work-related stress.

Conclusions

The findings of this study specify that employees have complicated work stress causes and prevention needs. Even though the employees in the study did not work at the same sections, their responses pointed at parallel needs. As both the employees and senior management play an important role in work stress prevention, it is essential for them to come together and facilitate open dialogues on workplace stress and intervention implementation. The study acknowledges the presence of work stress in different work areas and how it can impact the workers. Given the adverse consequences of work-related stress, it is essential for the employees and employers to come together and devise strategies to lower these issues that can impact the physical, mental health of the working population.

References

Giorgi, G., Arcangeli, G., Perminiene, M., Lorini, C., Ariza-Montes, A., Fiz-Perez, J., Di Fabio, A., … Mucci, N. (2017). Work-Related Stress in the Banking Sector: A Review of Incidence, Correlated Factors, and Major Consequences. Frontiers in psychology, 8, 2166.

Havermans, B. M., Brouwers, E., Hoek, R., Anema, J. R., van der Beek, A. J., & Boot, C. (2018). Work stress prevention needs of employees and supervisors. BMC public health, 18(1),

Lunau, T., Siegrist, J., Dragano, N., & Wahrendorf, M. (2015). The association between education and work stress: does the policy context matter?. PloS one, 10(3), e0121573.

Ryan, G. W., & Bernard, H. R. (2003). Techniques to identify themes. Field Methods, 15(1), 85-109.

Stults-Kolehmainen, M. A., & Sinha, R. (2014). The effects of stress on physical activity and exercise. Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 44(1), 81-121.