Occupational stress impact on individual performance among employees: the moderating role of emotional intelligence: case: Naftal

Abstract

Prior empirical research findings regarding the relationship between job stress and job performance are very inconsistent, although the majority of studies show that occupational stress has a negative influence on employee performance; there are some studies in which a positive impact is found. It is discussed in this study that one explanation for these inconsistent results may be the existence of a moderating effect. The nature of the impact that stress generates on performance is related to the way it is perceived and dealt with, therefore, a factor like emotional intelligence that relates to that perception may play a role; this role is studied on 55 employees of the human resource department of NAFTAL. Results of the quantitative study indicate that occupational stress has a positive impact on the performance of employees; results also show that emotional intelligence has a significant positive influence on both occupational stress and employee performance. In this context, employees with a higher level of emotional intelligence are more likely to perceive and transform the potential negative effects of job stress on job performance into positive ones.