Intense Workplace Pressure: Exploring the Causes and Intrapersonal Effects of Pressure on Executive Leaders

Abstract

The dynamic and frequently unpredictable corporate environment creates high-pressure situations for business leaders to navigate. A leader’s incapacity to handle pressure caused by challenging circumstances can be detrimental to their success, the success of those around them, and the overall performance of the company. Although pressure takes on various forms, leaders have identified intrapersonal pressure as particularly challenging to manage. To support individual executives, their teams, and their organizations, it is essential to investigate how intrapersonal pressure affects senior executives to determine how they use psychological resources to navigate the extreme stress when failure is not an option. The purpose of the study was to determine what causes intrapersonal pressure, how senior executive leaders perceived it, how they use resources to navigate the extreme stress, and how it affected their ability to manage pressure-induced stress. A systems lens allowed the research and the data to be viewed holistically to identify the interconnectedness of the pressure and psychological resources on the individual business executive. This qualitative study examined the lived experiences of 33 corporate executives to identify what leads executives to experience pressure, the impacts of stress, and the executive leader’s subsequent emotions. The primary method for data collection focused on in-depth interviews. A visual methodology research method was used to support the participant interviews by allowing the executive leaders to draw a picture of how they felt when experiencing the intense pressure. The qualitative data were analyzed using an inductive and deductive thematic analysis process that resulted in three meta findings. It was found that emotionally intelligent executives who possess high resilience, self-efficacy and courage can self-regulate through intense pressure situations and attenuate the stress. Furthermore, relationships have a significant power to be both positive and negative on an executive’s ability to navigate the pressure. However, business culture lauds high pressure assignments, but the rite of passage is largely destructive for executive leaders. This study and meta findings provide a deeper understanding of the extreme pressure executives experience and the causes of executive stress. The findings contribute to new empirical research that supports the significance of resilience, self-efficacy, and courage in mitigating pressure and subsequent stress for executives.