Stress Transmission in the Workplace: Examining Managerial Stress, Leadership Effectiveness, and Employee Well-being in the Pharmaceutical Industry
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.69935/df1bhs60Keywords:
Leadership stress, Stress transmission, Employee well-being, Leadership effectiveness, Organizational sustainability, Pharmaceutical industryAbstract
Workplace stress (WPS) is common in high-demanding industries burdened with stringent regulatory compliance and operational constraints. While WPS has been studied from the employee perspective, the role of leadership stress and its subsequent effect on subordinates has received limited attention. The study aims to address this gap in literature by examining how leadership stress permeates down to the subordinates, and affects their professional outcomes and personal wellbeing. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a pharmaceutical company based in Indore, India. A total of 50 people were interviewed comprising 25 managers and 25 employees. Our findings show that operational constraints, stringent regulations and workload intensity were the main factors catalyzing managerial stress. While some leaders transmitted the stress to their employees, others chose to absorb it in order to prevent any spillover effects. Further, stress transmission was not verbal; rather it was implicit and behavioral, manifesting in communication cues guiding everyday interactions. The study contributes to the literature by demonstrating how the manager-employee relational paradigm contributes to workplace stress. Besides, it also shows that both managers and employees adopt coping strategies to deal with stress including spirituality, meditation, planning, prioritizing, and reflection.
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