Employees Perception of Job Stress according to Leadership Styles in Engineering Firms: A Qualitative Research Approach

The research reported workers perception of job stress in relation to various styles of leadership among engineering firms in Nigeria. Stress has turned out to be a major worry not just to the individual workers, but also to the organizations. Managers can either arouse or avert stress by their behaviors towards employees. The researchers adopted a qualitative research approach using the phenomenological research design using a sample of 15 engineering firm staff in selected firms in Nigeria. Semi-structured interview guide was used to collect data. The collected data were analysed using thematic data analysis. Findings showed that most of the workers interviewed reported that transformational leadership style, most often than not, encouraged better working conditions and wellbeing generally. Again, it was found that most workers interviewed reported that transactional leadership style oftentimes set off job-related stress among employees.