Stress training; an investment?

Stress has become integral part of our modern workplace as we lose the more social and informal work setting to western corporate structures. Traditional roles such as farming may have being more physically demanding, but they allowed for social interactions and individual control of one’s own work, which research indicates reduces stress.

Today, the corporate working environment is definitely less social, more antagonistic and competitive, leading to higher levels of stress. Whilst different work places have different characteristics, stressors have increased in the Ghanaian work environment. Research among university lecturers indicates that the essential causes of stress are clearly linked to work approach in the modern workplace. It also showed that more individualistic approach, loss of control over one’s own work, excessive focus on workload over anything else and competition for senior roles can easily lead to bullying, harassment or a blame culture, which all cause stress.

To determine whether stress training is a [valuable] investment is to identify what is the impact of stress on workplace performance? Job performance is the result of three factors working together: skill, effort and the nature of work conditions. Stress can have negative consequences on performance by affecting all three factors. Stress affects your employees’ competency by reducing their cognitive abilities through anxiety whilst also affecting their physical and emotional wellbeing. The mental ability of employees is affected by poor concentration and decision making abilities; also caused by excessive stress.

In a research on medical trainees, the documented consequences of stress included: alcohol and drug abuse, interpersonal relationship difficulties, depression, anxiety, and suicide. Other studies have also shown stress can be detrimental to professional’s academic achievement and effectiveness in work situations by decreasing attention span, concentration, decision-making skills, and ability to establish productive working relationships.

In addition to affecting psychological and emotional well being, stress can also result in a decrease in physical health, such as the development of hypertension, heart disease, and immune deficiency disorders. The results of the study above indicate that there is a negative relationship between job stress and job performance.

All the conditions as result of stress discussed will affect employees’ energy and the maximum effort they can put forth. Stress can also negatively impact the work environment as it affects the emotional wellbeing and employees’ ability to establish productive working relationship.