The world service industry has had a psychological strain on it due to economic unpredictability, technological growth and the augmented performance standards. The banking, information technology and healthcare industries are some of the high-pressure sectors where cases of burnout and high employee turnover have been reported, posing serious organisational and economic problems. This study has reviewed how strategic management of stress influences retention of employees in these industries using a comparative cross-national study. By assuming an interpretivist and an inductive philosophical approach, the research has employed secondary qualitative data in order to draw comparisons among the prevalence of stress, turnover patterns, and organisational reactions to these patterns in the various national settings. The results have shown that there is a close correlation between stress at work and turnover. It has been demonstrated that emotional exhaustion, heavy workload and lack of managerial support have decreased organisational commitment and out-of-organisation intentions. Nevertheless, organized stress management solutions such as supportive leadership behaviour and workload modification have resulted in a positive change in short-term retention. The cross-national differences have also brought out the fact that organisational design, economic stress and sectoral characteristics determine the intensity of burnout and workforce stability. The analysis has found that sustainable management of human resources should consider including mental health strategies as an organisational priority and not a response welfare intervention. Some policy implications are stress audits, inclusion of mental health performance indicators and creation of crisis responsive HR structures. Strategic stress management has hence gained prominence as an economic stability mechanism and a sustainability tool to the workforce that is in the global service industries.