THE IMPACT OF STRESS ON EMPLOYEE PRODUCTIVITY: EVIDENCE FROM THE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY IN LIBYA AND THE UK

Wasim Fathi Mohamed Berbash

Abstract


This article elaborated a comprehensive data-driven analysis on the impact of work-related stress on employee productivity. It critically examined workplace stress as an incompatibility between job demands, environmental factors, and employee coping resources, considering that while moderate stress could enhance performance, uncontrolled stress resulted in negative consequences for both employees and organizations. The study employed a quantitative research design to explore the broad scope of workplace stress, including the influence of other key factors such as family responsibilities and income level. Statistical analysis, including correlation and regression techniques, disclosed a significant negative relationship between workload stress and employee productivity. The findings indicated that stress accounted for an extensive 46.5% of the variance in productivity, supporting the hypothesis that higher stress levels had an undesirable impact on employee productivity. The article concluded with a recommendation that states organizations should implement comprehensive stress management programs. Specifically, companies should have developed multi-faceted techniques and interventions to address workplace stress in order to support employee well-being and enhance overall organizational productivity.

 

Article visualizations:

Hit counter


Keywords


workplace stress, employee productivity, work-related stress, stress management, employee well-being

Full Text:

PDF

References


Al-Shargie, F. (2019). Early Detection of Mental Stress Using Advanced Neuroimaging and Artificial Intelligence. Journal for Intelligent Signal and Imaging Research, 33-67. Retrieved from https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.08511

Becker, W. J., Belkin, L. Y., Tuskey, S. E., & Conroy, S. A. (2022). Surviving remotely: How job control and loneliness during a forced shift to remote work impacted employee work behaviors and well‐being. Human Resource Management, 61(4), 449-464. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.22102

Brouwers, E. P. M. (2020). Social stigma is an underestimated contributing factor to unemployment in people with mental illness or mental health issues: Position paper and future directions. BMC Psychology, 8(1), 36. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-020-00399-0

Brunner, B., Igic, I., Keller, A. C., & Wieser, S. (2019). Who gains the most from improving working conditions? Health‐related absenteeism and presenteeism due to stress at work. The European Journal of Health Economics, 13-14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10198-019-01084-9

Daneshmandi, F., Hessari, H., Nategh, T., & Bai, A. (2023). Examining the Influence of Job Satisfaction on Individual Innovation and Its Components: Considering the Moderating Role of Technostress, 3-12. http://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2310.13861

Darvishmotevali, F. Ali (2020). Job insecurity, subjective well-being, and job performance: The moderating role of psychological capital. International Journal of Hospitality Management 87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2020.102462

Davey, S. L., Lee, B. J., Robbins, T., Randeva, H., & Thake, C. D. (2021). Heat stress and PPE during COVID-19: impact on healthcare workers' performance, safety and well-being in NHS settings. The Journal of Hospital Infection, 108, 185–188. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2020.11.027

De Sio, S., Buomprisco, G., Perri, R., Bruno, G., Mucci, N., Nieto, H. A., & Cedrone, F. (2020). Work-related stress risk and preventive measures of mental disorders in the medical environment: an umbrella review. European review for medical and pharmacological sciences, 24(2), 821-830. https://doi.org/10.26355/eurrev_202001_20065

Dietz, C., Scheel, T., Zacher, H., & Otto, K. (2020). Leaders as Role Models: Effects of Leader Presenteeism on Employee Presenteeism and 4 Sick Leave. Work & Stress, 34(3) 3-28. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2020.1728420

Ghobbeh, S., & Atrian, A. (2024). Spiritual Intelligence's Role in Reducing Technostress through Ethical Work Climates. Preprint. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2401.03658

Hair, J. F., Hult, G. T. M., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2022). A primer on partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) (Chapter 1: An Introduction to Structural Equation Modeling) 3-33. Retrieved from https://eli.johogo.com/Class/CCU/SEM/_A%20Primer%20on%20Partial%20Least%20Squares%20Structural%20Equation%20Modeling_Hair.pdf

Harjanto, R., Suhariadi, F., Yulianti, P., Nugroho, A. N., & Damayanti, N. (2023). The importance of trust in cultivating employee loyalty and productivity in a remote work environment. International Journal of Professional Business Review, 8(6), 1–21. http://dx.doi.org/10.26668/businessreview/2023.v8i6.2159

Huang, A. A., & Huang, S. Y. (2023). Computation of the distribution of model accuracy statistics in machine learning: Comparison between analytically derived distributions and simulation-based methods. Health science reports, 6(4). https://doi.org/10.1002/hsr2.1214

Jaffe, S. (2021). Work Won't Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone. United States: Public Affairs. Retrieved from https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/work-wont-love-you-back/

Jensen, I., Arapovic-Johansson, Z., & Aboagye, E. (2022). The Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of the Productivity Measurement and Enhancement System Intervention to Reduce Employee Work-Related Stress and Enhance Work Performance. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(4), 2431. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19042431

Knief, U., & Forstmeier, W. (2021). Violating the normality assumption may be the lesser of two evils. Journal of Behavior Research Methods. 4(10) 3-7. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-021-01587-5

Okeke, M. N., Ojan Echo Oboreh, J. C. (2016). The impact of stress on employees’ productivity. International Journal of Accounting Research, 2(11), 38-49.

Oppong, S. (2017). The impact of organizational climate on job stress and performance in the Ghanaian banking sector. Journal of Banking Regulation, 18(4), 332-348.

Patwardhan, A.S., & Knapp, G.M. (2016). EmoFit: Affect Monitoring System for Sedentary Jobs, 5(14). https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1607.01077

Rahim, M. A., & Cosby, D. M. (2016). A model of workplace incivility, job burnout, turnover intentions, and job performance. Journal of Management Development, 35(10), 1255-1265. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JMD-09-2015-0138

Ravalier, J. M., McVicar, A., & Boichat, C. (2020). Work stress in NHS employees: A mixed-methods study. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(18). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17186464

Rehman, N., Mahmood, A., Ibtasam, M., Murtaza, S. A., Iqbal, N., & Molnár, E. (2021). The psychology of resistance to change: The antidotal effect of organizational justice, support, and leader-member exchange. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 678952. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.678952

Saleem, F., Malik, M. I., & Qureshi, S. S. (2021). Work stress hampering employee performance during COVID-19: Is safety culture needed? Frontiers in Psychology, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.655839

Santana, I. R., Montes, M. A., Chalkley, M., Jacobs, R., Kowalski, T., & Suter, J. (2020). The impact of extending nurse working hours on staff sickness absence: Evidence from a large mental health hospital in England. International journal of nursing studies, 112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2020.103611

Šćepanović, S., Constantinides, M., Quercia, D., & Kim, S. (2023). Quantifying the impact of positive stress on companies from online employee reviews. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 1603. Retrieved from https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-26796-6

Schreibauer, E. C., Hippler, M., Burgess, S., Rieger, M. A., & Rind, E. (2020). Work-related psychosocial stress in small and medium-sized enterprises: an integrative review. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(20). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17207446

Shaw, W. S., Main, C. J., Findley, P. A., Collie, A., Kristman, V. L., & Gross, D. P. (2020). Opening the workplace after COVID-19: what lessons can be learned from return-to-work research? Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation, 30, 299-302. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10926-020-09908-9

Sorensen, G., Dennerlein, J. T., Peters, S. E., Sabbath, E. L., Kelly, E. L., & Wagner, G. R. (2021). The future of research on work, safety, health, and wellbeing: A guiding conceptual framework. Social Science & Medicine, 269. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113593

Srivastava, S., & Agrawal, S. (2020). Resistance to change and turnover intention: a moderated mediation model of burnout and perceived organizational support. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 33(7), 1431-1447. Retrieved from https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/jocm-02-2020-0063/full/html

Van Der Feltz-Cornelis, V., Maria, C., Varley, D., Allgar, V. L., & De Beurs, E. (2020). Workplace stress, presenteeism, absenteeism, and resilience amongst university staff and students in the COVID-19 lockdown. Frontiers in psychiatry, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.588803

Wang, N., Wang, C., Hou, L., & Fang, B. (2021). Investigating Young Employee Stressors in Contemporary Society Based on User-Generated Contents. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(24). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182413109

World Health Organization. (2021). COP26 special report on climate change and health: The health argument for climate action. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240036727

Yin-Fah, B. C., Foon, Y. S., Chee-Leong, L., & Osman, S. (2010). An exploratory study on turnover intention among private sector employees. International Journal of Business and Management, 5(8), 57-64. http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v5n8p57




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejhrms.v9i1.1993

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2025 European Journal of Human Resource Management Studies

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

The research works published in this journal are free to be accessed. They can be shared (copied and redistributed in any medium or format) and\or adapted (remixed, transformed, and built upon the material for any purpose, commercially and\or not commercially) under the following terms: attribution (appropriate credit must be given indicating original authors, research work name and publication name mentioning if changes were made) and without adding additional restrictions (without restricting others from doing anything the actual license permits). Authors retain the full copyright of their published research works and cannot revoke these freedoms as long as the license terms are followed.

Copyright © 2017-2026. European Journal Of Human Resource Management Studies (ISSN 2601-1972) is a registered trademark. All rights reserved.

This journal is a serial publication uniquely identified by an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) serial number certificate issued by Romanian National Library. All the research works are uniquely identified by a CrossRef DOI digital object identifier supplied by indexing and repository platforms. All the research works published on this journal are meeting the Open Access Publishing requirements and standards formulated by Budapest Open Access Initiative (2002), the Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing (2003) and  Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities (2003) and can be freely accessed, shared, modified, distributed and used in educational, commercial and non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Copyrights of the published research works are retained by authors.