A Hidden Threat: Work Stress among Business Managers in Pakistan

This paper aimed to identify the significant sources and level of work stress experienced by the frontline, middle, and senior level business managers in Pakistan. Six factors namely role ambiguity, role conflict, quantitative role overload, qualitative role overload, career development, and responsibility for others were used as major antecedents of work stress in this study. Study used quantitative strategy and cross-sectional survey method for data collection from 456 respondents belonging to front line, middle, and senior managerial positions from 30 randomly selected organizations operating in private sector of Pakistan. Results revealed that 81% of the respondents have been exposed to moderate level of work stress. Responsibility for others and concern for career development were viewed as factors causing relatively greater amount of stress at workplace. Role ambiguity and role conflict were viewed as factor causing relatively least amount of work stress among respondents. Significant differences between different demographic groups for most of the stressors were also found. Since no study identifying sources and level of work stress in Pakistan has been conducted so far, importance of this study lies in highlighting the exact antecedents of work stress and amount of stress caused by them in Pakistan.