Stress has long been recognized as a major contributor to the onset of significant physical and mental health problems in individuals (Maes, Vingerhoets, and Heck, 1987; Hinkle, 1987). During the 1980, however, stress also began to be implicated as an adverse factor in areas of life other than physical and mental health. In the organizational environment, as an example, stress was implicated in the deterioration of individual performance efficiency, which in turn, affected the overall performance of the organization (Gaines and Jerimer, 1983). Stress was also been linked to high personnel turnover in organizations (Bowers, 1983). This general area of inquiry investigated in this study involved the relationship between stress and individual productivity within an organizational environment. Specifically, within a research framework which was both predictive and methodological in character, this study sought to establish the relationship between stress levels and individual job performance.
Statement of the Problem
Productivity is a major concern in contemporary organizations. High levels of uncertainty in the general economy, intense competition both domestic and foreign, high human resource costs, and other factors cause it to be imperative for management in contemporary organizations to attain and maintain high levels of operating efficiency. Stress has been identified as once factor which can adversely affect individual work productivity. Often, researchers attribute stress outcomes to the quality, or type, of stress experienced. A divorce action, as an example, may produce stress outcomes which are both more intense and of a longer duration than the adverse stress outcomes associated with being involved in an automobile accident. Additionally, however, there are indications in the literature that the quantity of stress the sum total of all stressors being experienced by an individual ...