Work stress and its relationship with workers’ health: An empirical study of a police contingent in Peninsular Malaysia

Job stress – in the guise role ambiguity, role conflict and role overload - is an unavoidable situasion confronted by almost all workers. The inability of workers to handle stresses in executing daily job may not help them to mintain their physical and psychological health. Although the nature of this correlation has been much studied, the role of job stress as an important predictor is given little attention in organizational stress research literature. This study was undertaken to measure the correlation between job stress and workers’ health. A questionnaire survey was conducted to gatherprimary data from 142 policemen at a police contingent headquarters in peninsular Malaysia. Results of the Smart Partial Least Squares (SmartPLS) path model analysis revealed three important findings: first, role ambiguity was an important predictor of workers’ health, in that unclear organizational objectives, job scopes, job goals and responsibilities increased workers’ stresses which impacted negatively on their physical and psychological health. Second, role conflict was an important predictor of employees’ health, in that multiple job demands, varying opinions and inappropriate instructions given by superiors increased workers’ stresses which worsened their physical and psychological health. Finally, role overload was an important predictor of employees’ health, in that doing daily chores which kept multiplying beyond workers’ capabilities aggravated workers’ stresses and deteriorated their physical and psychological health.