ABSTRACT
The multidimensional effects of occupational stress on job performance and the development of stress-related symptoms during prolonged work in a demanding work environment were investigated in a longitudinal study of operator managers of a complex automated system. Thirty-one highly educated and experienced specialists were followed for 6 years, using a widespread-netting research paradigm. Measures of job performance, job satisfaction and well-being, emotional strain, chronic negative states, and psychosomatic symptoms and disorders were obtained at three different stages of adaptation to technological innovations in the workplace. Following automatization, the parameters of job performance improved significantly as compared with the initial semiautomated working conditions. Technical modernization also reduced manifestations of a fatigue-boredom syndrome, but resulted in cognitive and emotional overstrain. Progressive development of occupational stress was reflected in acute and chronic stress-related manifestations of negative states, and in psychosomatic symptoms and disorders. Mobilization of the resources required for efficient job performance to meet the increased cognitive demands of the more complex, automated work environment resulted in emotional overstrain, fatigue, and other cumulative negative effects of occupational stress.
