The Process Model of Anxiety: A Framework and Review of Anxiety in the Workplace

Anxiety is an extremely common and consequential affective experience in organizational life, yet workplace anxiety research remains fragmented across theories, methods, and domains. In this review, we argue that anxiety is best understood not as a static or uniformly maladaptive state but as a dynamic process with identifiable stages. To organize research on workplace anxiety, we introduce the process model of anxiety (PMA), which specifies appraisal, activation, processing, fatigue, and behavior stages, while emphasizing feedback, regulation, recovery, and the role of contextual factors in modulating the process. We integrate research from organizational psychology, affective science, stress, cognition, and health to explain when anxiety undermines performance, well-being, and relationships, and when it may support vigilance, preparation, safety, or compensatory action. We conclude by identifying future directions for dynamic, multilevel, and intervention-oriented research on anxiety in organizations.