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Work stress is defined as the harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when job requirements do not match the worker's capabilities, resources, and needs (National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health 1999). It is recognized world-wide as a major challenge to individual mental and physical health, and organizational health (ILO 1986). Stressed workers are also more likely to be unhealthy, poorly motivated, less productive and less safe at work. And their organizations are less likely to succeed in a competitive market. By some estimates work-related stress costs the national economy a staggering amount in sick pay, lost productivity, health care and litigation costs (Palmer et al. 2004).
Work stress can come from a variety of sources and affect people in different ways. Although the link between psycho-social aspects of the job and the health and well-being of workers has been well documented (Dollard and Metzer 1999), limited work has been done on the effects of distinct stressors on job performance. As well, various protective factors can prevent or reduce the effects of work stress, and litde research has been done toward understanding these mitigating individual and organizational factors.
One important source of work stress is job strain. According to the demand/control model (Karasek 1979), job strain is determined by the interactions between psychological demands and decision latitude (see Work stress). The first dimension, the psychological demands on the worker, relate to pace and intensity, skills required, and the ability to keep up with colleagues. The second dimension relates to the degree of creativity versus repetition, as well as the extent of freedom and responsibility to decide what to do and when to do it (Lindström 2005). Four work environments can then be derived: high-strain jobs, active jobs, low-strain (relaxed) jobs, and passive jobs (see Psychological demand/ decision latitude model).
Though simple identification of low- and high-strain jobs may be important, the distinction between job control and psychological demands must be retained because each category can have different effects on workers and their organizations. For instance, when job control is high and psychological demands are also high, learning and growth are the predicted behavioural outcomes. Much of the energy aroused by job challenges can be translated into direct action-effective problem solving-with little residual strain....