The causes of stress at the workplace come from multiple factors and are called psychosocial hazards or workplace stressors. The ILO defined psychosocial hazards as the interactions between and among work environment, job content, organisational conditions and workers' capacities, needs, culture, personal extra-job considerations that may through perceptions and experience, influence health, work performance and job satisfaction (ILO, 1986, p3)1.
Psychosocial hazards can relate to the content and context of work. Content of work refers to working conditions and work organisation, such as task design, workload, pace of work, work schedule, environment and equipment. On the other hand, context of work refers to the organisation of work and labour relations, such as organisational culture and function, role in organisation, career development, interpersonal relationships at work, and home-work interface2.
Stress reactions are influenced by individual characteristics such as personality, feelings and thoughts, and the ability to cope with stress, which in turn affect the experience of stress and responses to interventions.
