The Effects of Occupational Stress and Stress Management on the Performance of Frontline Healthcare Service Workers

Background: Managing occupational stress in healthcare services is critical because frontline workers operate under multiple job demands. Objective: We extend the literature on health psychology and organizational behavior by examining how two types of occupational stress—eustress and psychological distress—impact the performance of frontline healthcare service workers. We also investigate the interactive influence of stress management strategies—savoring and avoidance coping—on the performance effects of occupational stress. Methods: We surveyed 400 frontline healthcare service workers across the globe using MTurk. We used Smart PLS4 to assess our measures and test our hypotheses. Results: Job demands—a higher-order construct comprising workload, role conflict, and work complexity—had a non-significant effect on eustress (β = 0.037, p = 0.596) but a significant positive effect on psychological distress (β = 0.566, p < 0.001). Eustress had a positive effect on employee engagement (β = 0.229, p < 0.001) and savoring (β = 0.437, p < 0.001). Psychological distress had a positive effect on turnover intention (β = 0.275, p < 0.001) and avoidance coping (β = 0.525, p < 0.001). The interaction between savoring and eustress had a negative effect on employee engagement (β = −0.162, p = 0.003). The interaction between avoidance coping and psychological distress had a negative effect on turnover intention (β = −0.058, p = 0.054). Conclusions: Job demands in frontline healthcare services manifest as hindrance stressors that increase workers’ psychological distress. Avoidance coping is an effective strategy for managing psychological distress and reducing workers’ turnover intention.