Scientists have found out what causes the most stress at work
The main source of work stress may not only be high workload, deadlines or overtime. A major new study has shown that employees are particularly affected by role ambiguity, a situation in which people do not understand what their responsibilities are, what they are being evaluated for and what results are expected of them.
The authors conducted a meta-analysis of studies on role stress at work from 1964 to 2024. The analysis included hundreds of independent studies and data from nearly 800,000 workers. The scientists compared three major sources of stress: role ambiguity, role conflict, and overload.
Role ambiguity
Role ambiguity occurs when an employee doesn't fully understand exactly what they are supposed to do, where their responsibilities end, how their work is evaluated and what tasks are prioritised.
Role conflict occurs when a person is expected to do mutually exclusive things. For example, a supervisor demands faster completion of tasks, but at the same time insists on maximum accuracy and additional approvals.
Overload is a situation when there are too many tasks and not enough time, resources or people to fulfil them.
When analysed, it was role ambiguity that proved to be one of the most disruptive factors overall. When a person is constantly having to guess expectations, it reduces confidence, motivation, job satisfaction and the quality of task completion.
That said, different stressors had their own strongest influences. Role conflict was particularly strongly associated with burnout, psychological distress and the desire to quit. Overload was more often associated with physical and mental health problems.
Why it matters
The research shows that poor tasking is not just a managerial triviality. If an employee doesn't understand what is wanted of them, they waste energy not only on the job, but also on constantly deciphering expectations.
This uncertainty can be particularly damaging in hybrid teams, with frequent process changes, restructurings, new tool launches and blurred job descriptions. A person may not be formally overloaded, but still be under a lot of stress because they don't know what decisions they can make on their own and what would be considered a good result.
For employers, the conclusion is also practical: stress reduction does not only start with reducing workload. Sometimes it's more important to clearly describe roles, priorities, areas of responsibility and success criteria.
Background
Role stress theory has been studied since the 1960s. It explains how expectations, responsibilities and social roles at work can become a source of stress.
In the past, job stress was often linked primarily to the volume of tasks. But the new findings show a more complex picture: people can be stressed not only because there is a lot of work, but also because it is poorly structured.
A simple example: if an employee is told to "take on a project," but is not told what his or her authority is, who makes the final decisions, what deadlines are realistic, and what metrics will be used to evaluate the results, it creates constant tension. Even an experienced professional can burn out faster in such a situation.
Source
Gargi Sawhney et al's study A meta-analytic review of 60 years of role stressor research published in the Journal of Vocational Behaviour in 2026. The authors summarised six decades of data on role stressors at work and their relationship to well-being, performance, job satisfaction and intention to quit.