Occupational stress has become a common problem throughout the industrial world. Over the years its prevalence has increased, thus affecting the individual 's mental health and well being. In order to understand its effect on health, it becomes important to define 'health ' itself. The World Health Organisation (WHO) terms health1 as a 'state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity '. In more recent years, this statement has been modified to include the ability to lead a 'socially and economically productive life '.
The Effects of Stress in a Job
Research2 in organizational behavior has shown that an individual could suffer from significant health complications - backaches, headaches, gastrointestinal disturbances, anxiety and depression amongst others - if subjected to stress over a long time. Behavioural changes in the form of excessive tobacco smoking and alcohol consumption, nervous disorders, heart diseases, diabetes, obesity etc are also related to stress. Job dissatisfaction is known to lead to job stress, which in turn reduces the productivity (Madeline, 1983).
Over the years, a lot of research has been carried out in the realm of work place stress and it has been emphatically proven that
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