Negative aspects of project-based work: The impact of stress and burnout on workers performance : A quantitative study of the impact of subjective stress, burnout and social support on individual performance in project-based work

Abstract

Project-based work is said to foster dynamic environments for innovation and learning, but it can also make the employees vulnerable, exhausted and reduce their performance. Some haveeven stated that it can cause more harm than good. This study aims to investigate the impact of social support, stress and burnout on the individual’s performance in project-based work. Existing studies have explored how stress and burnout in general impact an individual, but few have assessed the impact in a project-based work environment and looked at how it effects the individual performance. This research also differentiate itself with previous research in project-based work by focusing on subjective stress, rather than objective stress or a combination of both. As project-based work is rapidly increasing and much of the focus in previous research have been on the Project Managers it is highly relevant and interesting to explore how it impacts all the project members. By using the MBI-GS and the inverted-U model as the starting point of the study, the aim is to explore the research gap of how subjective stress and burnout in project work impact employee’s individual performance using a quantitative approach. While the main hypothesis considers the impact of subjective stress and burnout on employees’ individual performance, the direct and potential moderating effects of social support arealso included.Further, correlation analysis and structural equation modelling are employed to uncover the relationship between different types of stress (i.e., subjective stress and burnout) and the individual performance of project members. The questionnaire was distributed by nine leading project management associations in Scandinavia and answered by 119 respondents. Our findings demonstrate that all our independent variables, except for one,had a significant impact on individual performance, while all the moderating variables did not have any significant impact. Nevertheless, the results in this paper contributes to a better understanding of the relationship between social support, subjective stress and burnout in project work and its influence on individual performance.