The effect of mental workload on job performance with the mediating role of job stress

Technology development, increasing job competition, along with raising employer demands for higher productivity, has increased job stress; and workload; and has affected job performance. This study aimed to investigate the effect of mental workload on job performance of offshore employees of a power plant with the mediating role of job stress.

Our descriptive-analytical study was conducted among 97 workers in a power plant in 2019. The "Job Status" questionnaire was created, and its validity and reliability were estimated. The questionnaire included three parts as mental workload (8 questions), job performance (7 questions), and job stress (9 questions) and was distributed to the case group (47 power generation workers) and the control group (32 administrative staff). Eventually, the relationship between mental workload, job performance, and job stress was investigated by the structural equation method and SPSS22 and AMOS24 software.

According to the results of the Pearson correlation coefficient test, there is a significant relationship between the variables of workload-job stress, job stress-job performance, and workload-job performance (p <0.05). According to the structural equation model, job stress has a mediating role between workload and job performance with a 0.415 mediation percentage; Therefore, a high workload can cause high job stress, which can reduce job performance.

According to our findings, workload increases job stress among employees and reduce job performance.