Title: Identification of psychosocial stress factors in an industrial environment

Authors: Nupur Kashyap, Sanjeev Sinha

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Allahabad – 211 004, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Allahabad – 211 004, India

Abstract: Industries are mostly considered as the hub of physical activities, but for the engineers working there at different levels, the job is more of the mental type than the physical one. Every organisation has its own socio-environment, and thus, its own psychosocial stress factors. The employees have to work under these stressors that induce in them mental fatigue. This paper identifies the main psychosocial stressors in accordance to their effectiveness value that would help in reducing mental fatigue of engineers and thus enhancing their productive capacities. This study made a cross-sectional questionnaire survey of stress factors related to psychosocial job characteristics and individual mental fatigue. The questionnaire was sent to engineering based Indian industries. Regression analysis was performed for analysing the problem. The results indicate that conflict or poor relations is the psychosocial stress factor that influences the mental fatigue most, followed by excess work, organisational politics and family life.

Keywords: conflict; excess work; family life; engineering industry; mental fatigue; organisational politics; psychosocial stress factors; engineers; job characteristics; India.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSSS.2010.036091

International Journal of Society Systems Science, 2010 Vol.2 No.3, pp.226 - 241

Published online: 19 Oct 2010 *

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