THE EFFECTS OF STRESS ON PERFORMANCE OF WORKERS IN GHANA HEALTH SERVICE IN WA MUNICIPAL

In today’s competitive global environment, employee performance is an essential element of a company’s success. Employee performance can be significantly hindered by high levels of stress experienced in the work environment. Stress is a universal element and persons from nearly every walk of life have to face it. Employers today are critically analyzing the stress management issues that contribute to lower job performance of employees. The main aim of the study was to evaluate stress and its effect on employees’ performance. The study was conducted at Ghana Health Service, Wa Municipal. Descriptive survey was adopted as the research design. Purposive and simple random sampling techniques were used in selecting a sample size of 50 out of a population of 100. Questionnaires were used as data collection instrument. From the results obtained, it was evident that there were many stress factors that the respondents endured, and the enquiry proved that stress has an effect on performance. Majority of the respondents reported to work under pressure and that they feel uncared for by the organization. The fact that majority of respondents thought of leaving their job, and felt that the organization did not care about them was a reflection of huge dissatisfaction that undoubtedly lowered performance. It was recommended that Management must conduct an analysis of the organizational mood and climate by assessing the reasons why the employees think Ghana Health Service does not care about its employees and what they can do to change it. It was also suggested that an Employee Assistance Programme be introduced for early identification and intervention on problems so that performance levels do not decrease.Keywords: Stress, Performance, Ghana Health Service Workers, Wa Municipal.