Factors affecting occupational stress: Identification, classification and determination of importance

Backgroundoccupational stress is one of the problems that exists in almost all jobs and positions. In the related studies, researchers have considered various and numerous factors to be involved in causing occupational stress.ObjectiveThe purpose of this study is to identify, categorize and determine the importance of factors related to occupational stress.MethodA variety of databases were searched and reviewed from 2000 to 2022. In the first stage, 8702 articles were found. One-hundred articles were kept for review after careful screening and factors associated with occupational stress were identified. Fuzzy Dematel method was used for the relationship between identified factors and AHP fuzzy method was used for pairwise comparison of factors. The obtained network was modeled using Bayesian network to determine the importance of factors.ResultsFinally, 89 factors that causing stress in the workforce were identified and extracted. The factors were divided into 7 main categories: individual, occupational, organizational, work environmental, political and cultural, economic, and social. Among all the factors influencing occupational stress, job-related factors have the greatest impact, accounting for 23.1%, while cultural and political factors have the least influence at 6.2%. In a Bayesian network, if all factors are at a very weak level, occupational stress will be severe, with a proportion of 66.5%.ConclusionUsing the findings of this research, it is possible to prioritize the factors affecting the occurrence of occupational stress and try to eliminate or reduce them.