The Impact of Job Stress and Empowerment on Employees’ Performance : An Analysis of Private and Public Sector Universities of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Abstract

Stress is a unique term which is used in different forms in the previous theories and research. Hans Selye was one of the founding father of stress research. Selye (1936), first introduced the idea of stress the life science and defined stress as the force, tension or pressure subjected upon an individual who resists these forces and attempts to uphold its true state. His view in 1956 was that stress in not necessarily something bad but also it depends on how you take it. Moreover, Robbins (1996), assumed stress is the active state of mind in which a human-being faces both an opportunity and constraints. In addition, Sauter and Murphy 1999, assumed stress is the critical reaction of the human body that results when job requirements do not match with the intended capabilities or environment. Similarly, Mahfood, Pollock and Longmire (2013), discussed that stress has many forms but one of the specific form of stress for humans is job stress. Summers (1995), suggested that job stress is mostly referred to the uncomfortable feeling of an individual caused by the changes of normal lifestyle. In addition, Nwadiani (2006), job stress is the disorganization in personality and behavior due to the disturbance of the emotional stability of the individual.