A Study on Causes of Stress among the Employees and Its Effect on the Employee Performance at the Workplace in an International Agricultural Research Institute, Hyderabad, Telangana, India

Abstract

The stress has significant psychological, physiological and performance effects on human resources of an organization. The contribution of the researchers on stress was significant due to the dynamic social factors and life style changes. Though, the stress has some ill health effects not all the stresses are destructive in nature. The good stress – eustress creates positive reaction to stress that generates within person a desire to achieve and overcome a challenge and allows to perform best of his/her ability. The most of the studies carried out and reported the effects of stress on human resources and organizations are limited to either Information Technology or Banking sector. The work stress is found in all the sectors. The focus of this paper is to throw a light on the wide spread silent issue the “Stress” and its effects on employees in an International Agricultural Research Institute, Hyderabad, Telangana, India and suggest appropriate coping strategies. A survey of 200 employees of the institute carried out to assess the job related, organization related, individual related and physiological reactions to stress and its effect on employees’ performance. We have applied the descriptive analysis, correlation techniques and regression analysis to arrive the conclusions. To measure the reliability of the scale used for this research, and internal consistencies of the survey questionnaire, the reliability static Cronbach's alpha is used. The study concluded that the occupational stress is having moderate impact on the employees’ performance of the institute, the job related stress in general and the stress factor job security in particular. The employees’ reaction to the stress – physiological factors also has moderate effect the performance of an employee. Health-wise, some employees had developed chronic neck and back pain, an effect of long sitting hours at work.

Keywords: Job related stress, Individual related stress, performance, Cronbach’s alpha, stress