Reducing Employee Stress

Views on Job-Related Stress “Fight or flight” response is based on classifications made by Dr. Hans Selye regarding a person’s response to stress Involves three stages –Alarm Stage –Resistance Stage –Exhaustion

Stages of Job-Related Stress Alarm Stage: muscles tense, respiration rate increases, blood pressure and heart rate increase Resisting Stage: causes poor decision making and physical illness Exhaustion: when a person cannot sustain resistance indefinitely, and may cause illnesses such as ulcers or headaches

Views on Job-Related Stress The General Adaptation Syndrome viewpoint suggests that people can only take so much stress before a serious, debilitating condition results To maximize performance, low levels of stress are preferable to stimulate individuals to work harder and accomplish more Eustress: term for “good” stress, level of stress that is productive

Motivation, Efficiency and Stress Effort Motivation Boredom apathy, Impaire d attention Excitement, disorganized behavior, passivity EUSTRESS Acute Attention, Emotional balance, Rational thinking DISTRESS

Causes of Stress Individual Stressors Interpersonal Stressors Organizational Stressors

Individual Stressors Type A personalities –impatient, competitive, aggressive, always feel like they’re under pressure, do lots of things at once, and have a hard time relaxing Type B personalities –more mild-mannered, in less of a hurry, and far less competitive

Individual Stressors Type A people are twice as prone to heart disease and fatal heart attacks as type B individuals Type B have better performance records in top management positions. Hard for type A to change their behavior and adopt a type B style due to the deeply ingrained patterns of behavior

Individual Stressors Changes in one’s life also produce stress, e.g., death of a spouse, or getting fired Demographic attributes: individuals with high income levels report relatively less stress in their lives Job attributes of women and minorities may be responsible for higher stress levels

Interpersonal Stressors Negative emotion at work: employee jealousy and employee envy Employee jealousy: thoughts, emotions and behaviors that result from loss of self-esteem and loss of outcomes associated with a working relationship

Interpersonal Stressors Employee envy: thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that result from loss of self-esteem in response to another individual obtaining outcomes desired by self Studies show: –Males have greater workplace envy –Females have greater workplace jealousy –Greater jealousy and envy result in lower job satisfaction and intentions to quit Envy and jealousy are stress inducers because they arise from the perception of threats in the work environment –

Interpersonal Stressors Workplace Romance: Positive personal emotions –Observers of romantic relationships fear favoritism might occur, or charges of sexual harassment may occur when it turns sour –As more women are in workforce and longer work hours occur, the likelihood of workplace romance increases

Organizational Stressors POLICIES Unfair, inequity in pay, rigid rules and ambiguous procedures, frequent transfers necessitating relocations STRUCTURES –Centralization and formalization, lack of involvement in decision making, little opportunity for career advancement, high degree of specialization, inter departmental conflict, PROCESSES –Poor communication, inadequate feedback on performance, ambiguous and conflict goals, unfair control systems, inadequate information

Organizational Stressors Working conditions: stressful due to employee’s lack of control and pressures to produce work that is not intrinsically rewarding also creates stress Emotional labor: an “occupational mask” donned by employees who must always display a positive demeanor to customers Role conflict: when two or more sets of demands are made on an employee so that compliance with one set of demands makes it more difficult to comply with another

Organizational Stressors Role ambiguity: the absence of clarity regarding how to perform one’s job Role overload: when too many activities are expected of an employee, given the time available and ability level of employee Shift work: 20% of the U.S. workforce, and it causes loss of sleep, appetite, depleted social interaction, etc.

Extra Organizational Stressors Fast pace of social and technological change Economic and financial conditions including inflationary pressures Caste system, ethnic identity, minority issues, Family demands and social obligations Relocation and transfers

Reactions to Stress Physical problems: –Ivancevich and Matteson have developed a model for estimating the annual costs associated with replacing employees lost to heart disease; it is based on: Number of employees Employees in age range of 45 to 65 Estimated deaths due to heart disease per year [.6% of total number of employees]

Reactions to Stress Estimated premature retirement due to heart disease Company’s annual personnel losses Annual replacement costs: cost of hiring and training Alcoholism and drug abuse: affects between 6 and 10 percent of all employees; both are linked to higher levels of stress

Reactions to Stress Absenteeism, turnover, and dissatisfaction are correlated with stress levels Workplace violence: violence and sabotage may result from stress –Involves fairly petty expressions of aggressive behavior characterized as: covert, verbal, involving brief displays of intense anger Mass Psychogenic Illness –Five common symptoms: Headaches, dizziness, n ausea, abdominal cramps and cough –

Reactions to Stress Burnout: a reaction to prolonged and energy- depleting difficulties –Primary symptom is feeling drained or used up –Typically affects people who are highly conscientious and work in helping professions –Employees may feel that they are not being properly rewarded –Frustrations lead to apathy and feelings of failure, with physical symptoms of high blood pressure, ulcers, mental symptoms such as depression

Coping with Stress Organizational strategies Creating a supportive organizational climate-more towards decentralization, free flow of communications and information, participation in decision making process, changes in policies on performance appraisal, equitable distribution of reward, job redesign, role clarity, career planning and development

Coping with Stress Individual strategies Self control, analyzing consequences of one’s own behaviour, increasing an individual’s control over the situations rather than being solely controlled by them, networking and building social support, counseling

Coping with Stress Time management –Time logs –Structuring time –Saying no –Making “to do” lists

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