Study of the Effects of Performance Stress on Employee Work Engagement

Performance stress, as a common source of work stress, can have both negative effects and positive outcomes, which has been widely recognized by scholars. Based on the cognitive appraisal theory of stress, this paper argues that performance stress affects employees' work engagement through two paths - work-initiative behavior and work-retreat behavior - and that self-efficacy plays a mediating role in the process of two diametrically opposed behaviors produced by performance stress. The results of the study show that performance stress positively and negatively affects work engagement through work-initiative and work-retreat behaviors, respectively, and that self-efficacy positively regulates the process of work-initiative behaviors generated by performance stress and negatively regulates the process of work-retreat behaviors generated by performance stress.