Workplace Stress and Employee Performance: A Study of the Corporate Sector

Abstract

Stress has become one of the most widely discussed features of modern working life, particularly in the corporate sector, where long hours, performance targets, technological connectivity and job insecurity are common. This paper examines the relationship between workplace stress and employee performance in the corporate sector using secondary data from the World Health Organization, the International Labour Organization, Gallup and the academic literature. It first reviews the principal theoretical models of stress, including the general adaptation syndrome, the transactional model, the demand-control model, the effort-reward imbalance model and the job demands-resources model. It then presents international indicators on the prevalence and cost of work-related stress and reviews meta-analytic evidence on how different kinds of stressors affect performance, burnout and engagement. The paper finds that stress is widespread and costly, that stressors which employees see as obstacles to their work are consistently harmful to performance, and that stressors perceived as challenges can sometimes be beneficial, so that the relationship is not simply linear. It also finds that the availability of resources, such as control, support and recovery time, strongly influences whether demands lead to exhaustion or to engagement. The paper concludes with recommendations for organisations on prevention, support and job design.