Page 1 of 9
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at
http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/
ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 02Issue 12
December 2016
201
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 201
Work Related Stress in the Hospitality Industry
SHIKHA
Assistant Professor
Department of Tourism and Hotel Management
Central University of Haryana, Mahendargarh
Abstract: Employees are one of the major
contributors in the hospitality sector.
Therefore, the concerns of the workers are
the concerns for the industry itself. In the
recent years, there has been a significant
rise in the stress of employees in the
hospitality sector. Stress affects the
performance of employees hence affecting
the growth of the hospitality industry. The
efforts towards tackling stress in employees
are beneficial for both, the employees as
well as the company. A stress free worker
will lead a better quality of life which will
increase his/her performance by many a
folds. The reasons behind the stress could
be interpersonal for instance workloads,
machine not working etc. It has been often
observed that in order to get larger
turnovers, the employees are burdened
with more and more work which leads to
stress. This stress than affects the
performance of the employee and
ironically, a negative growth is seen in the
company. In order to enhance the
performance of the employees, it is
necessary to promote a positive work
environment. Other factors like disease,
family issues etc leads to stress in the
employees working in the hospitality sector.
Employees who are working in hospitality
industry are facing various types stress due
to the nature of the hotel industry, where
employees directly interact with their
customers and play a vital role within the
production and consumption of a service.
Keywords: Stress, Stressors, Work
Environment, Customers, Occupational
Hazards.
Introduction: Most of the scholars agree to
the fact that in certain professions, stress
stands out to be an occupational hazard.
Page 2 of 9
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at
http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/
ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 02Issue 12
December 2016
202
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 202
Especially in the hospitality sector, where
the employees have to be warm and nice
with every kind of customer, stress may
emerge out as an occupational hazard.
Moreover, the hotels often run 24X7 which
is also a major contributing factor in stress
of the employees. It has been previously
stated that addressing the problem of stress
in the hospitality sector is not only
productive for the company but is
necessary on the humanitarian basis too.
The type and frequency of stress in the
employees varies from company to
company but the large unaddressed
problem of stress looms over the future of
the hospitality sector. It is a well known fact
that job demands are a major cause of the
physiological stress in the people. These job
demands then lead to growth in
productivity of the employee. Therefore,
sometimes job demands do more harm
than good. Therefore, there is a need of
continuous evaluation and feedback from
the employees regarding job demands in
the hospitality sector. Moreover, married
women employees are more prone to stress
as compared to male employees. Although,
stress cannot be completely eliminated in
the hospitality sector but a few necessary
steps can lower it down to significant level.
There is no specific target for stress as the
managers as well as the housekeeping staff
are all prone to work related stress.
Research Methodology: The present
research paper is based on the secondary
sources of data collection. Most of the
research material has been taken from the
various journals and reference books
including some official websites related to
the research problem. However, the
research is exploratory in nature,
nevertheless, to pace the study; the
researcher has also used some
observational facts.
Research Objectives: This research paper
aims at the following research objectives:
To analyse the work related stress in
hospitality sector.
Top point out the cause of stress in
hospitality sector.
Page 3 of 9
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at
http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/
ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 02Issue 12
December 2016
203
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 203
Review of Literature: There is a lot of
literature on stress management in
hospitality sector. Some of them have been
cited as under:
M. L. Fox & Others (1993) in their
study have stated that stress at work
is a long term effect. Stress not only
hampers the work capabilities of the
employee but its ill effects continue
after his/her resignation. This is a
huge occupational hazard and its
devastating effects continue for the
rest of life. This not only weakens
the employee’s financial conditions
but harms the society as a whole.
Therefore, the long term effects of
stress are quite serious.
G. F. Ross (1995) in his study has
stated that managers suffer a lot
within the hospitality industry when
it comes to managing stress.
Managers find it difficult to de-stress
the employees and as a result the
whole company suffers. The
performance of the employees is
deteriorated due to stress. Recent
studies have shown that employee
stress in the hospitality industry is
important because it can result in
workers becoming exhausted and
cynical which can have negative
effects on service delivery.
Moreover, stress in the hotel
industry has a deep equation with
the mental health of employee
which includes fatigue, headaches,
ulcers, blood pressure, heart
attacks, indigestion, and strokes.
The overall negative effect of this is
that it will decrease the productivity
and increased the expenditure on
health for the hospitality employer
thus draining him financially.
P. E. Varca (1999) in his study has
shown that as the stress in the life of
employee increases, there is a
decrease in his/her performance
which leads to overall poor service
quality of the hotel. The
performance of the employee
degrades regularly and stress is a
chronic disease which might even
