Introduction

Job-related stress is a major risk for many employees and workers. Work capacity, poor quality of business, over time, violent relationships in the workplace, and shift work are just a few of the many causes of high workload. Human body normally has a natural reaction to a threat or request, such as escape or war, the response to which triggers the release of adrenaline. When the threat is over, the human body can return to its natural state. A stressor is an event or state set that triggers a stress response. Prolonged injury is a chronic bodily reaction. Job stress can affect your health. Also, stressors in the workplace can outgrow the workforce, which can have some effect on their situation. Workers who have overworked remain at low ranks regardless of their effort, so overwork is a stressful factor. Employees feel anxious and their heart rate goes up and down because they cannot control their work capacity, which can lead to burnout. Public Employees Federation (P.E.F) members have experienced painful dramatic changes [1-6]. The state budget is delayed, a budget deficit is created, and contract negotiations are protracted. These changes develop the environment that increases the number of sources of stress and includes the role burden and the underlying cause of burnout. In the last decade, the issue of stress and its effects in the organization has been one of the main topics in managing organizational behavior and analyzes and eliminates stress in the organization as a pest of activities [7-10]. Paying attention to the work environment and working conditions of the employees is something that raises the quality of work, maintains the health and well-being of the employees, and has been considered for more and better use during the working years. Considering the effect of job stress on employees 'lives and work, those involved in such systems should find the factors related to satisfaction and pay attention to the improvement and promotion of employees' efficiency. In 1992, the United Nations declared job stress a disease of the twentieth century; shortly afterward, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared occupational stress to be a worldwide problem [11-14]. Job stress as one of the most important characteristics of the work environment is physical or emotional burnout that arises as a result of real or mental problems. The word stress is derived directly from Latin and means to impose, pressure and fatigue. The word has quickly become widespread and has become one of the common terms of the last five decades. Stress is defined as a non-specific response of the organism to any demand or change in physical condition. According to the definition of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), a person faces job stress when there is no coordination between job needs and his abilities, capabilities, and desires. In this definition, while emphasizing the lack of coordination with the abilities and capabilities of the individual, attention is also paid to individual desires [15-19]. Kendall and colleagues have described stress as a natural and predictable experience in life and work, emphasizing that not all stress outcomes are negative, and that stress is sometimes negative and sometimes has positive consequences. Symptoms of job stress appear in three areas: Mental, physical, and behavioral. The psychological realm of job stress is associated with job dissatisfaction. This dissatisfaction is one of the most common consequences of job stress that causes depression, anxiety, boredom, sexual disorders, feelings of failure, isolation, and disgust [20-23].

Role Characteristics

The structure of psychological factors in the workplace is a way to gain a proper understanding of job stress. In this regard, researchers, especially using role theory, have tried to identify and understand issues related to stress. To what extent do role-playing pressures affect the occurrence of job stress?

According to the results of these studies, there are three types of characteristics for the role [24-27]: a) Role ambiguity, which is one of the factors in the work environment that may lead to job stress. Role ambiguity has been defined as one of the characteristics of a role, a job situation in which some information is incomplete, inaccurate, or misleading to perform the job, so one does not know what to expect from him or her. Doing their job, ambiguity of role leads to stress when it prevents a person from productivity and career advancement [28-31], b) role overload, which is considered to be another source of job stress, meaning that if a person cannot cope with a job that is part of a certain job, he will suffer from stress [32]. It causes stress in employees in certain jobs, i.e. a situation in which personal skills are not fully used. In other words, the skills and abilities of the individual can be used as little as possible, while overload plays a role in many accidents (imposed on employees). Rarely has the role of limiting and deterrent. In general, it can be said that a low workload has an unpleasant consequence when the ability of employees is more than necessary for the job assigned to them [33-35], and c) role incompatibility, which is also recognized as a stressor. Role incompatibility occurs when giving in to a set of job requirements by accepting the set. Other job requirements may not be generally possible, such as the accountant of a company being asked to create false accounts or so-called accounting to reduce the tax owed to the company.

Symptoms of Job Stress

Physical symptoms of job stress include cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, allergies and skin diseases, sleep disturbances, headaches and respiratory disorders. Behavioral symptoms also include individual behaviors such as abstinence from work, alcohol consumption, smoking, coffee and drugs, overeating or anorexia, militant behaviors towards co-workers or family members, and organizational behaviors such as absenteeism, leaving work, increasing accidents and reduced productivity and performance. Symptoms of job stress are divided into three main groups: a) Psychological symptoms such as emotional and cognitive problems, depression, anxiety, feelings of inadequacy, isolation, and group mental illness, b) Physical symptoms such as increased heart rate, hypertension, heart disease, gastrointestinal disorders, headache, musculoskeletal disorders, immune system disorders, as well as contradictory information about the increased incidence of various cancers, and c) behavioral symptoms such as absenteeism Drug, alcohol, drug, and tobacco abuse [36-38].

Consequences of Job Stress

One of the consequences of job stress is the effect on job performance. Job stress to the extent that it does not exceed the abilities and capacities of the individual can improve performance by increasing motivation, but if it exceeds the coping capacity of individuals, it can have a debilitating effect on individual and organizational performance [39-41]. The results of most studies show a negative relationship between job stress and performance and this is if the job stress of key employees or a large number of the organization's workforce under it can affect the health and performance of the organization, and in this case, the organization not only does not receive the best from its employees, but its performance in a competitive market may be increasingly affected. The effect of organizational stress is associated with the increased workload, early staff turnover, inappropriate communication with the client, reduced job security, unhealthy work environment, and poor quality control of products. In other words, the higher the level of organizational stress, the more frequent the mentioned factors are. Cardiovascular diseases, gastrointestinal disorders, physical injuries, physical fatigue, headache, increases referrals to the clinic, loss of appetite and weight loss, increased risky behaviors, disruption of family and friends’ relationships, aggression, suicide, or attempted stress for work. Neuer et al., found that factors related to the work environment affect marital satisfaction and there is a close relationship between needs, conflicts, and job stress, and marital and family conflicts [42-44]. In other words, increasing marital problems and differences significantly reduces job satisfaction and increasing marital satisfaction is significantly associated with increased job satisfaction. The results of Roberts and Lonson (2019) also showed that job stress and burnout affect couples' interactions at the end of a working day and job stress is far more dangerous for marital interactions than physical burnout. They also concluded that the job stress of each couple creates an emotional and physiological atmosphere in which both spouses experience many of the symptoms associated with marital distress and the possibility of future separation [45-47].

In other words, stress caused by the characteristics and working conditions of individuals can affect other areas of life, including the quality of their relationships and marital satisfaction. In other words, job stressors, such as overwork, lack of support, and negative interactions with co-workers, cause a person to feel irritated, stressed, and frustrated. Following this situation and after a stressful workday, the remaining employee transmits these feelings to the home with him/her, and finally, this issue increases the possibility of engaging in maladaptive interactions with the spouse. On the other hand, job stress also makes a person susceptible to various physical and mental illnesses. In other words, in today's complex world, stress is both one of the characteristics of human life inseparable from his life and as a serious threat to physical, psychological, family, and social actions. However, with proper knowledge and understanding, through studies and research, it can be controlled and its side effects can be reduced as much as possible [48]. In this case, the time and opportunity that could have been used to find new ways of dealing with the reality and the problem are wasted [49-51].

Types of Inefficient and Useless Confrontations

It includes a set of coping techniques that although used to change the source of stress and improve the feelings of a stressful situation, unfortunately, they can make this situation worse; therefore, they cannot be interpreted as coping skills as follows:

1. a) Irrational thinking: In this case, the person unrealistically emphasizes the negative aspects of the problem and evaluates the problems more than what is and is unsolvable.
2. b) Dealing with painful feelings through wishful thinking: This confrontation is a way to neutralize what has happened. These thoughts typically begin with a phrase such as: If only or I wish it were not true that sometimes these thoughts happen in the way they should, if only it is a way of coping with the temporary evasion of suffering from the truth, the disadvantage of which is that no amount of wish will replace the truth and it will be too late. Or soon the reality will show its face. In this case, the time and opportunity that could have been used to find new ways of dealing with the reality and the problem that has occurred are wasted [49-51].
3. c) Using drugs to escape suffering: Sometimes people use drugs such as alcohol, nicotine, opium, heroin, and sleeping pills, and antidepressants to relieve the pain caused by stress and crises without a doctor's prescription. The use of these drugs and the ones that have recently been added to these factors and are marketed under different names, such as ecstasy, brings many risks and while complicating the process of psychological reconstruction, they often become a new source of increased suffering for the user, for example. Alcohol causes a loss of inner self-control or self-control, and the person becomes violent when angry [52-54]. Misuse of substances also adversely affects our mental processes, which have already been inadequate by stress and excitement, and the skills such as judgment, planning, reasoning, and concentration needed to solve a problem are doubly damaged [55].
4. d) Impulsive behaviors: They refer to a special way of coping during which a person without thinking, thinking, and evaluating correctly what has happened or will happen immediately take action and action and typically leads to a worsening of the situation [56].
5. e) No mental and behavioral involvement: In this confrontation, the person engages in various behaviors with different behaviors and thus tries not to think about the problem, for example, having fun with another person, taking refuge in daily dreams, escaping from the problem of sleeping or watching TV and watching movies [56].

Research Planning

Is research planning about thinking about how to deal with the crisis? Planning processes are based on the percentage of practical action in planning what practical action to take and how best to deal with the problem. In many ways, the search for social and emotional support seems to be a functional phenomenon. On the other hand, sources of empathy are sometimes used to express their feelings and there is evidence that social support through this may not always be adaptable. According to some findings, people who focus on problem-solving skills are more likely to adapt to difficult situations than those who use emotional coping, and are more likely to adapt to difficult situations.

Coping responses may be problematic in nature or have emotional consequences, but usually, a set of two methods is used. Coping responses are divided into three categories: a) Cognitive active responses, b) Active behavioral responses, and c) avoidance responses. Cognitively active coping responses are responses that assess stress with the resulting emotional outcomes. Active cognitive coping helps to deal with stress more calmly, logically, and in an organized manner, and even if there is no basic plan for controlling or relieving it, the stress persists. In these responses, active behavioral coping is introduced. Behavioral coping is when a person reorganizes the environment to minimize stress in this way. Some form of stress avoidance is called avoidance response. In general, people use all of these answers, but depending on gender, age, level of education, etc., people's coping responses vary. Experiences gained in different types of coping responses show the extent to which a person uses different coping skills. Lazarus (2019) also argues that in dealing with a stressful situation, one usually combines coping strategies focused on task and emotion, and uses strategies for emotional situations to satisfy one's life. Many people are unable to resolve, minimize, or tolerate stress, and usually do not use the suggested methods and use the methods that Carver and his colleagues (2019) use as a response, called ineffective coping strategies, which in turn cause more stress.

Conclusion

Considering the research on job variables, mental health, and coping strategies, it has been observed that most of the researches have examined the relationship between two variables, while it seems that coping methods have a mediating role in the effect of job stress on mental health and the study of this type of mediating role has been done less in the scope of research literature, so the present study seeks to increase awareness and increase existing knowledge in the field of relationship between research variables and this research can be an effective step in enriching more information in this regard. On the other hand, it seems that conducting more and more in-depth studies to better understand the relationships between important variables such as job stress, coping strategies and mental health in employees can provide a clearer picture of how the relationships between these variables to use them to reduce job dissatisfaction and ultimately improve the quality of service delivery. On the other hand, Jihad Keshavarzi has large missions in the field of food security and self-sufficiency in the production of basic products and development of export of agricultural products, protection of natural resources, and providing opportunities for growth of 6.5% in the agricultural sector; therefore, research in this organization, in the field of job stress and mental health of employees and elimination of possible shortcomings, can provide the country with progress in the field of agriculture and natural resources.

Citation M. Alphin. The Effectiveness of Creative Thinking Training on Self-regulated Learning Strategies and Students' Academic Achievement Motivation. Int. J. Adv. Stu. Hum. Soc. Sci. 2022, 11(2):104-110.

       https://doi.org/10.22034/IJASHSS.2022.2.4

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