1. Coping with Organizational Life: Stress and Careers
Chapter Four
Coping with Organizational Life: Stress and Careers

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Stress Concepts
Stress: The pattern of emotional and physiological reactions occurring in response to perceived demands from within or outside an organization
Process: Alarm, Resistance, Exhaustion
Stressor: Any demand, either physical or psychological in nature, encountered during the course of living
Acute stressors bring some form of sudden change that threatens us either physically or psychologically, requiring people to make unwanted adjustments
Episodic stressors are the result of experiencing lots of acute stressors in a short period of time
Chronic stressors are the most extreme type of stressor because they are constant and unrelenting, having a long-term effect on the body, mind, and spirit
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3. Common Episodic Stressors
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Stress Concepts
Cognitive Appraisal: The process of judging the extent to which an environmental event is a potential source of stress
Strain: Deviations from normal states of human functioning resulting from prolonged exposure to stressful events
Burnout: A syndrome of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion coupled with feelings of low self-esteem or low-self efficacy, resulting from prolonged exposure to intense stress and the strain reactions following from them
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5. Tips for Assessing Stressors
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6. The Body’s Reaction to Stress
Immediate Responses: (to build strength and escape danger)
Hear rate and blood pressure increase
Muscles tense
Lungs take in more oxygen
Delayed Response: (a few minutes after perceiving sensor)
Diminished immune system
Adrenal glands secrete cortisol to regulate metabolism
Chronic Response: (harms the body if activated too often)
Decreased blood flow resulting in ulcers
Elevated blood pressure
Diabetes (?) increase in insulin
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Symptoms of Burnout
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Stress
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Causes of Stress
Occupational demands
Conflict between work and nonwork
Stress from uncertainty
Overload
Responsibility for others
Lack of social support
Personality
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Occupational Demands
Making decisions
Constantly monitoring devices or materials
Repeatedly exchanging information with others
Working in unpleasant physical conditions
Performing unstructured rather than structured tasks
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Work versus Nonwork
Role Conflict: Incompatibilities between the various sets of obligations people face
Rule Juggling: The need to switch back and forth between the demands of work and family
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12. Stress from Uncertainty
Role Ambiguity:
Uncertainty about what one is expected to do on a job
Tolerance for Ambiguity:
Ability to deal with uncertain situation in a calm and confident fashion
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Overload
Quantitative Overload: The belief that one is required to do more work than possibly can be completed in a specific period
Qualitative Overload: The belief that one lacks the required skills or abilities to perform a given job
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Information Anxiety
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15. Responsibility for Others
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Social Support
The friendship and support of others, which help minimize reactions to stress
Sources:
Cultural norms
Social institutions
Friends and family
Benefits:
Boosting self esteem
Sharing information
Providing diversion
Giving needed resources
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17. Statistics about Stress
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Stress Effects
Task Performance:
Some individuals perform at higher levels in times of high stress (some stress is good)
For most people, however, higher levels of stress lead to lower levels of job performance
Desk Rage: Lashing out at others in response to stressful encounters on the job
Stress and Health: The silent killer
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Stress and Health
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Physiological Systems (influences immune system through emotions, stress and pain)
PAC- pituitary-adrenocortical: Distress or ‘conservation/withdrawal’ system, activated by chronic stress, anxiety, unable to cope with release of cortisol
SAM- sympathetic-adrenomedullary : Effort or ‘fight or flight’ system activated by fear, anger, with release of epinephrine
NK cells- natural killer cells: white blood cells part of immune system
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Physiological Systems and Personality (influences immune system through emotions, stress and pain)
Type A: Threat activates SAM (decreases PAC), elicits emotion of fear/anger, increases risk of CHD. Epinephrine increases NK cells.
Type C: Inescapable situation activates PAC (decreases SAM), elicits feelings of depression, hopelessness, inability to cope, increases risk of cancer. Cortisol suppresses NK cells.
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Reducing Stress
Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs): Plans that provide employees with assistance for various personal problems (e.g., substance abuse, career planning, and financial and legal problems)
Wellness Programs: Company-wide programs in which employees receive training regarding things they can do to promote healthy lifestyles
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Reducing Stress
Stress Management Programs: Systematic efforts to train employees in a variety of techniques that they can use to become less adversely affected by stress
Increase self-efficacy: lowers adrenaline
Cognitive Therapy: think positive thoughts-’I can do the job’
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Managing Stress
Manage your time
Eat a healthy diet and be physically fit
Relax and meditate
Get a good night’s sleep
Avoid inappropriate self-talk
Control your reactions
Think happy thoughts
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25. Organizational Coping Strategies
Create supportive climate:
Enrich tasks: Job enrichment vs. job enlargement
Role clarity:
Procedural Justice:
Develop Career Paths:
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Career Concepts
Career Dynamics: The wide variety of factors that influence the nature of people’s career choices, the directions their careers take, and their ultimate success and satisfaction over the course of their working lives
Career: The evolving sequences of work experience over time
Job: A predetermined set of activities a worker is expected to perform
Occupation: A coherent set of jobs
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27. Holland’s Theory of Occupational Choice
Person-Job Fit: The degree to which a particular job matches an individual’s skills, abilities, and interests
Holland’s theory claims that people will perform best at occupations that match their traits and personalities
Holland’s Hexagon: A conceptualization specifying the occupations for which people are best suited based on which of six personality types most closely describes them
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28. Succession Planning and Mentoring
Succession Planning: The systematic attempt to identify possible holders of particular positions ahead of time as preparation for top executives’ departure
Mentoring: The process by which a more experienced employee advises, counsels, and otherwise enhances the professional development of a new employee
Mentor: A more experienced employee who guides a newer employee in learning about the job and organization
Protégé: An inexperienced employee who receives assistance from a more experienced employee in learning about a new job and/or organization
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Successful Mentoring
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