Defining stress and burnout
Stress is a mental and physical condition that directly and negatively affects an individual’s productivity, effectiveness, personal health and quality of work. Job stress can be conceptualized as an individual’s reactions to work environment characteristics that appear threatening to him or her. The harmful and costly consequences of stress demonstrate the need for strategies to limit stressors within the organisation (Gill at al., 2006). Burnout is a syndrome or state of physical, emotional and mental exhaustion, as well as cynics towards one’s work in response to chronic organisational stressors (Gill at al., 2006). Looking from an organisation point of view it is obvious the impact would be harmful.
Sources of stress
There is number of factors that can affect worker’s levels of stress. Poor working design, management and not good enough working conditions are just a few of many. Research findings show that the most stressful type of
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