Friday, August 21, 2015

Anxiety in the workplace can lead to lower job performance

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-08/uotr-ait082015.php

Public Release: 20-Aug-2015
Anxiety in the workplace can lead to lower job performance
Study of RCMP officers finds quality of relationships with coworkers, supervisors helps reduce effects of workplace anxiety
University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management

The effect of workplace anxiety on job performance is closely connected to the quality of relationships between employees, their bosses and their co-workers, according to a new study from the University of Toronto focusing on police officers.

U of T Scarborough and Rotman School of Management professors Julie McCarthy and John Trougakos, along with Bonnie Cheng from Hong Kong Polytechnic University, explored the effects of workplace anxiety among officers of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), a national police service. They found the high levels of emotional exhaustion that come from workplace anxiety can directly lead to lower job performance.

"Workplace anxiety is a serious concern not only for employee health and well-being, but also for an organization's bottom-line," says Trougakos, an expert on organizational behaviour.

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"Police officers, like all of us, have a finite amount of resources they can draw on to cope with the demands of their job," says McCarthy, an expert on work-life integration and stress management. "If these resources are depleted then high levels of workplace anxiety will lead to emotional exhaustion and this will ultimately affect job performance."

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Supervisors and co-workers who are empathetic and provide emotional support by listening to their peers go a long way in fostering a positive work environment, notes McCarthy. These kinds of strong interpersonal relations are built on high levels of understanding and trust, which allows individual needs to be met.

"Our findings highlight the importance of programs that allow employees to recover, build resilience and develop strong social support networks in the workplace," she says.

Statistics about anxiety in the modern workplace are alarming, with one survey showing 41 per cent of employees from a range of industries reporting high levels of anxiety in the workplace. The hope, McCarthy says, is to highlight the importance of having strong social support networks not only in high-stress occupations, but in any line of work.

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