Managing Pressure in Organizations

Humans have an innate sense for recognizing and responding to pressure. Many outcomes of pressure in organizations have been studied in the personal and organizational improvement literature, including stress, turnover, employee health, and organizational performance. Surprisingly, very little research focuses on the two alternative forces of pressure, tension and compression, and how these forces affect individual, group, and organizational‐level outcomes. Nor has research studied antecedents to the rise of either type of pressure in organizational life. Notwithstanding this void, tension and compression create the social and structural order that allow pressure to have an impact on individual decisions, organizational culture, and performance. This article contributes to our understanding of performance improvement by developing a theory about and providing practical applications for managing pressure in organizations.