Defining occupational stress: A systematic literature review

Abstract

Stress is the health epidemic of the 21st century. Stress results in negative outcomes as well as positive outcomes. Moreover, with the evolution of industries, work-related stress is a phenomenon that constantly increases in severity. Therefore, a professional's stress can negatively impact the quality of their work. Thus, the ‘Occupational Stress’ study requirement is a timely topic. However, the lack of a wholesome generic definition for occupational stress is a hurdle for further research on the study area. Hence, this study aimed at developing a definition for ‘Occupational/ Job/ Work/Workplace Stress’. The research was wholly based on an in-depth literature review. One hundred one research publications were analysed to extract twenty-five definitions of ‘stress’ and ‘occupational stress’. The definition was conceptualised by establishing three ‘Themes’ and ‘Key Constructs’ within the themes using the content analysis of the available definitions in the literature. As a result, a new theme was identified in addition to the ‘occupational stress’ compared to the ‘stress’. Furthermore, it is evident that ‘Occupational Stress’ is also linked to occupation/ work/ job acting as a subset of ‘Stress’. Therefore, the derived definition can be used as a basis for further research on occupational stress.