Indian Journal of Public Health Research & Development, March 2020, Vol. 11, No.

03  615

Relationship between Occupational Stress and Resilience

S. Vasantha1, R. Santhi2
1
Professor, School of Management Studies, Vels Institute of Science Technology & Advanced Studies (VISTAS),
2
Associate Professor and Head of Department of Commerce, Meenakshi College of Women

Abstract
Occupational stress or stress related to workplace refers to stress experienced as a direct result of an
individual’s occupation. or job. Stress completely disturbs the physical, psychological and financial balances
of an employee as well as employers. Due to stress employers cannot expect anticipated outcome from
employees who are burnt out, drained or stressed, resulting in loss of their drive, determination, clarity and
innovative thinking. Resilience is not just one’s capability to recover from stress, but also ability to adjust in
the face of difficult situations. There is an inverse relationship exists between stress and resilience.

Keywords:  Occupational Stress, Employee, Employer, Organization, Resilience, Work load.

Introduction and the command an employee has over meeting these

Occupational stress is the detrimental response that
happens at physical and mental level, when there is
mismatch between the prerequisites of the job and the
abilities of the worker [29]. Occupational stress refers to
stress on the job andit arises within a person when he
faces problems in his occupation [8]. The organizational
structure, employer and employees are involved in the
prevalence of occupational stress and the consequent
burnout responses of an individual. Occupational stress
affects the organization in terms of productivity, profit,
disruptions in normal operations. The employees are
also affected due to bad physical and mental health [31].
Occupational Stress:
The definitions provided by different authors for
stress are as follows: Occupational stress arises when
there is mismatch between the requirements of the job
and the capabilities of the person. It affects mental and
physical health of an individual.[6].
Occupational stress is defined as the detrimental
responses that develop in an individual. This phenomenon
usually takes place when the job’s requirements surpass
the abilities, necessities or resources of the employee [18]
Workplace stress is the negative responses given out
by the body and mind when it cannot handle the conflict
between demands raised by the job he is performing
demands [23].
Stress can be either beneficial ordetrimental. Good
stress is regarded as “eustress”. Eustress motivates us to
perform better. When this eustress goes beyond a limit,
it causes distress and hampers the performance of the
individual [34].
Stress Reactivity: The categorization of stress
reactivity as a three-phase process is mentioned in[27].
This process is termed as the general adaptation
syndrome
Phase 1: Alarm Reaction: As result of stress, the
body is affected and starts showing the symptom of
exposure to stressor. The level of resistance is weakened
if the stressor is more powerful. The result would be
burns of high degree of severity, increased heart rate and
temperature of the body etc.
Phase 2: Stage of Resistance: If Resistance
supervenes and the stressor is in accord with adaptation
of the condition, The physicalsymptoms related to the
alarm stage have almost vanished and resistance level
increases above the normal.
Phase 3: Stage of Exhaustion: After body has
adjusted to the continued acquaintance to the stressor,
finally adaptation energy is exhausted, the indicators
of the alarm reaction come again. The symptoms of the
616  Indian Journal of Public Health Research & Development, March 2020, Vol. 11, No. 03
alarm reaction come again, but at this instant they are
irreversible and the individual expires.[8]
Causes of Work Stress: A list of six causes of work
stress has been established [7]
(1) Job Conditions
(2) Role Stress
(3) Interpersonal Factors
(4) Career Development
(5) Organizational Structure
(6) Home-work Interface
a. Role Overload: Role overload is defined as a
situation when the individual is engulfed with too
many tasks and assignments to be fulfilled. The
individual is restrained from performing well due to
the unavailability of resources[17].
Role overload occurs when an individual is
confronted with a situation to perform several roles
concurrently but lacks the resources to complement
the demands posed by them. The role expects the
individuals to complete the tasks within a short
period of time [30].
The study has examined the impact of role overload
on Job stress, Job satisfaction and Job Performance
of married working women. The respondents of
this study were 150 married working women. Role
overload was positively related with stress and
negatively related with job satisfaction and job
performance [19].
A study conducted to analyze the impact of role
overload on teachers working in a university. The
teachers are subject to huge amounts of stress
due to the present scenario of heavy presence of
technology integration in the educational sector.
They are expected to extend their roles and keep
performing to produce the desired results. The
female teachers face a lot of pressures as they have
to balance between family and work life. They are
exposed to huge levels of stress. The outcomes of
the study were that the significant predictor of job
stress was role overload. [20].
b. Physical Environment: Physical environment deals
with the health and safety of the individuals working
for the organization. The Korean Occupational
Stress Scale questionnaire states that work area
should maintain high standards of cleanliness and
be free from pungent odours. Work area should
have the adequate amount of lighting. The seating
position should be comfortable for the employees so
that they can stretch for long hours depending on the
requirements of the job. The working environment
should have precautionary equipment to protect the
employees from any unexpected accidents[26].
A study has been conducted to investigate the
various factors of stressors among the employees of
IT sector. Working in a safe and healthy physical
workplace environment will ensure that the
employees perform to their maximum level and
improvise the productivity of the organization. The
individual can suffer from health issues due to poor
lighting, uncomfortable seating positions, exposure
to toxic gases and erratic work schedules.[31].
The physical environment helps in maximizing the
employees’ performance and satisfaction, improvising
social relations and health of the employees. The
below factors motivates an individual to deliver better
performance [1].
a. Sound: Sound in form of noise hampers job
performance and causes stress to the employees.
b. Temperature: The body finds it difficult to adapt
to extreme climatic conditions. The temperature
of the workplace has to suit the body needs for the
individual to work comfortably.
c. Air: Air in the workplace should be purified so that
the individuals do not face breathing difficulties. It
should be free from any type of strong odours.
d. Light: Workplace with improper and insufficient
lighting might affect the efficient and quality of
work of the employee. Thework area should be
properly illuminated.
c. Role Responsibility: A study conducted at Ghana
Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA), Takoradi.
He has done an analysis of the stress factors among
the workers of that organization. The outcomes of
the investigation were that the employees felt that
the organization was not concerned about their
employees. The organization must take measures to
resolve issues related to stress.
He states that the people working in the organization
have to shoulder two types of responsibility.
 Indian Journal of Public Health Research & Development, March 2020, Vol. 11, No. 03  617
a. Responsibility for people: Responsibility for
people triggers a lot of stress for people working
as team managers, Human resource managers.
Responsibility related to people usually calls for
lot of meetings with different kinds of people,
interacting with clients, listening to the grievances
of the employees and the team members, resolving
conflicts etc.
b. Responsibility for things such as budgets, equipment
etc. The person is responsible for these tangible
equipments. He needs to take care of the inventory
management, purchase and maintenance of the
equipments [15].
The role of multi-tasking sometimes increases
the stress level of the employees and leads to bad
performance. This qualitative study examines
the perceived stress among graduate students
by taking the various roles and responsibilities
shouldered by them and the kind of social support
they receive to overcome stress. The respondents
answered questions related to their personal and
academic life, their encounter with these stressful
situations and different ways of dealing stress. The
respondents felt that they had to struggle between
e. Job control: The investigation of the impact of
varied responsibilities. They experienced stress due
to their inability to strike a balance between both
the sides. As the respondents did not receive the
adequate social support in their new environment
forcing them to quit.[13]
There is high level of stress prevailing among the
employees working in BPO industry. It has also
studied the impact of stress on employee turnover
intention. The increased stress levels are impacting
the performance of the employees, which, in turn
affects the productivity of the organization. The
employees were not able to cope up with the stress
levels and this has led to increased attrition levels.
The cost of replacing an existing employee increases
the cost incurred to the company. The results
depicted that occupational stress was caused due
to role uncertainty/ambiguity, role boundary, role
responsibility, and the physical environment[22].
d. Social Support: The link between occupational
stress and social support (SS) was examined among
the nurses working in hospitals. They found that
Social Support significantly influences occupational
stress in hospitals nurses. They have suggested
that the management should focus on lowering
stress faced by the nurses who are married and
those who have worked for many years in the same
organization.[12]
A study has been conducted to examine the effect
of the support provided by the people around them
on occupational stress. This study was carried out
among the nurses in Iran. The outcomes of the
study found that there was a significant relationship
between stress and social support. The support
obtained from their peers and their superiors helped
them to manage stress effectively. 10]
Healthcare professionals undergo a lot of stress
because of working environment around them.
This study analyzes the influence that job demands,
social support, job control and recognition have on
the possibility that a worker will undergo stress.
The results of the study show that a low emotional
demand has more effect on reducing the likelihood
of stress than low family demands. The companies
should provide a accommodating work environment
to the employees.[32]
job control on stress revealed that job control
was a primary cause of stress and its outcomes
either directly or by how it is influenced by other
job elements like contentment, demands placed
by job, concerns about future. 170 office workers
participated in this study. The outcomes show that
job control can influence stress, but demands placed
by the jobs and concerns related to the job increases
the levels of stress.[21]
The investigation study of the role of job demands
and control on job stress and its relationship with
demographic characteristics of Iranian prison staff
concludes that the stress levels experienced by
them was high due to high job demand and low job
control.[9]
Depreciating levels of job control has ill effects on
the mental health of a person. The researchers have
conducted a longitudinal study of a national sample
of working Australians. They have suggested that
organizations should implement policies which can
increase the levels of job control and thereby leading
to better mental health of the employees.[24]
618  Indian Journal of Public Health Research & Development, March 2020, Vol. 11, No. 03
Source: [29]
Studies show that job stress is high among faculty
members of universities due to high workload and
occupational characteristics. Thus, these individuals
have higher physical and mental occupational stress and
less organizational commitment [11]
Resilience: Resilience is defined as “The capability
to cope better than expected in the face of significant
difficulty or threat”[33]. Resilience is one of the most
important human abilities that results in effective
adaptation to risk factors[3].
Relationship between Resilience and stress: A
study was conducted in the year 2017 and investigated
the correlation between occupational stress and
resilience.The study highlighted that stress is common
in all occupations and concluded that occupational stress
can be reduced by increasing resilience level among
faculty members.[2]
Resilience is described as a trait imbibed in the
personality of an individual to nullify the negative
effects of stress[35].Resilience allows the individual
to benefit from his adaptive skill, transform stressful
situations into an opportunity for learning and growing,
and consequently control stress.[4]. Resilient people use
personal and social resources to reduce the negative
effects of stress[5]. Occupational stress and resilience
exhibits a significant and inverse relation. It is in
consensus with the study conducted by Shakerina et al.
[28]
. The study results contradict the results obtained in
the study by Mahdiah et al. [14] Previous studies state that
people with high resilience levels have less chances of
developing burnout.[16]
Ethical Clearance: Not Applicable
Source of Funding: Self
Conflict of Interest: Nil
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