Ravalier PhD Theis.pdf - Anglia Ruskin Research Online

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on stress-related outcomes was conducted by Breslow and Buell (1960).
These authors conducted the study with light industrial workers in the
USA, and found that those individuals who worked over forty-eight hours a
week had twice the risk of death due to coronary heart disease than did
individuals working in a similar environment for a maximum of forty hours
per week. More contemporary publications have also supported such
findings. Zadeh and Ahmad (2008) found that male employees working
over forty hours had significantly different levels of psychological stress
than those working fewer than or equal to forty hours, and a study by
Kirkcaldy, Trimpop and Cooper (1997) with German physicians as
participants established that those working in excess of 48 hours per week
displayed significantly more driving accidents (although not work-related
accidents), and they reported significantly higher levels of job-related
stress than those colleagues working fewer than 48 hours per week.
Both work overload and work underload have shown to generate
psychological and physical strain (Cooper, Dewe & O’Driscoll, 2001).
Qualitative and quantitative workload can each have a marked effect on
an individual’s experience of stress in the workplace. Quantitative
workload refers to the sheer physical amount of work that an individual
has to do within their job, and the time frame in which this work must be
completed (Narayanan, Menon & Spector, 1999). Quantitative workload
has been shown to be related to high levels of strain, anxiety and
depression, as well as job performance. Qualitative underload, i.e. having
a lack of quality work to perform, has similarly been shown to add to
employees’ experience of workplace stress. This can be due to a variety
of factors such as monotonous work and work lacking a challenge (Kelly &
Cooper, 1981).
5) Shift Work:
Shift work can be a source of stress for individuals (Srivastva, 2010).
Shift work comes in a variety of forms; for example times and lengths, and
there are variations in the extent and frequency with which staff are
required to change shifts (Arnold, 2005). Hoffman & Scott (2003) found
that nurses who worked 12 hour shifts were more stressed than those who