Stressful Symphony: Exploring the Role of Work Stress on the Employee Commitment and Job Performance of Sri Lankan IT Professionals

Work-related stress is a natural part of life and is connected to employment. While stress can be negative, it can also be beneficial, as employees need some stress to stay content, inspired, engaged, and productive. IT professionals face higher levels of workplace stress, although it affects all industries. The research aims to explore the role of work stress in determining employees’ commitment and job performance among IT professionals in Sri Lankan private sectors. This quantitative study follows a descriptive cross-sectional survey. The final sample consisted of 328 private sector IT professionals aged between 20- 45. Data was collected through structured questionnaires such as the Work Stress Screener (WOSS-13), TCM employee commitment survey, and the Individual Work Performance Questionnaire to measure work stress, employee commitment (EC), and job performance (JP), respectively. Multiple regression analysis indicates that eustress positively predicts JP (β= .33, p < .001) and EC (β= .24, p < .001), while distress negatively predicts EC (β= -.25, p < .001), but no prediction on JP (β= -.06, p > .001). The Pearson correlation analysis shows that there is a weak positive relationship between EC and JP, which was also statistically significant r (326) = .15, p = .006 p < .05). These findings imply that employees who had high levels of eustress tended to feel more committed and perform better in their organizations. Also, it suggests that high EC increases a worker’s productivity, which benefits the company and organization as well as the individual personally. Keywords: work stress; eustress; distress; employee commitment; job performance