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Abstract: Stress shows to what extent the workplace, wherever it may be, in an office or on a building site is a "friendly" one, stimulating professional performances or, on the contrary, a place triggering inhibition. Organizational stress is influenced both by material factors, including even the office design, but also spiritual-personal factors, such as the ability to "make the best of a bad job" and get over the daily problems. Actually, stress is a barometer sensitive to any environmental change, be it positive or negative. The moment the requirements of the environment where the employees carry out their activity goes beyond their capacity of withstanding them, stress will emerge.

Key words: organizational stress, causes of stress, stressors (stressing agents), performance

JEL classification: J24, L20, O15

1. Introduction

Regardless of the environment where people work and the situations occurring at work, stressing agents act on an individual, group and organizational level.

Organizational stress is best characterized using the psychosocial factors and the theories on stress at the workplace.

2. Psychosocial factors of organizational stress

Organizations are characterized by a continual process of input, processing and output and for this reason they need to be viewed as an open dynamic system. The inputs using which organizations provide products and services are: human resources, energy, materials, and financial resources. They can influence the behavior of the employees in the organization who complete the firm's specific activities.

The place where people spend most of their time is the organization. It will go on, it will continue to function and it will develop when the people in the organization will be motivated to accomplish the activities entrusted to them.

The behavior of one's work colleagues, the relations with the people from the external environment, the type of organization and its norms influence the behavior of each employee who is a member of the respective organization.

At the basis of the emergence of organizational stress are two stressing agents, namely:

- role conflict;

- role ambiguity.

In an organization, when an employee with a certain function is submitted to requirements with a contradictory character, a role conflict will emerge. In this case, the person undergoes pressures and only the person in case will choose whether or not to conform to...

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