1. Chapter 11
Managing Stress
and
Employee
Job
Satisfaction

2. General Adaptation Syndrome
“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

3. Three Stages
Alarm Stage: muscles tense, respiration rate increases, blood pressure and heart rate increase
Resisting Stage: causes poor decision making and physical illness

4. Three Stages (cont.)
Exhaustion: when a person cannot sustain resistance indefinitely, and may cause illnesses such as ulcers or headaches

5. General Adaptation Syndrome (cont.)
The General Adaptation Syndrome viewpoint suggests that people can only take so much stress before a serious, debilitating condition results

6. Benefits of Stress
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

7. Causes of Stress Personal Factors Interpersonal Factors
Organizational Factors

8. Personal Factors
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

9. Personal Factors (cont.)
Type A men are twice as prone to heart disease and fatal heart attacks as type B individuals

10. Personal Factors (cont.)
Type A’s are predisposed to be managers, yet their climb through the ranks may be made at the expense of the company because a type A’s job performance in upper level management is not as good as a type B’s

11. Personal Factors (cont.)
It’s very hard for someone who is a type A to change their behavior and adopt a type B style due to the deeply ingrained patterns of behavior

12. Personal Factors (cont.)
Changes in one’s life also produce stress, e.g., death of a spouse, or getting fired
Demographic attributes: Men, whites, and 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

13. Interpersonal Factors
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

14. Interpersonal Factors (cont.)
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

15. Interpersonal Factors (cont.)
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

16. Interpersonal Factors (cont.)
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

17. Interpersonal Factors (cont.)
Known to stimulate gossip and potential fear of exploitation

18. Organizational Factors
Responsibility, particularly for other people, is a common organizational cause of stress
Working conditions:
Assembly lines and piece-rate systems are stressful due to employee’s lack of control and pressures to produce

19. Organizational Factors (cont.)
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, for example, flight attendants

20. Organizational Factors (cont.)
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
Role ambiguity: the absence of clarity regarding how to perform one’s job

21. Organizational Factors (cont.)
Role overload: when too many activities are expected of an employee, given the time available and ability level of employee
Shift work: involves 20% of the U.S. workforce, and it causes loss of sleep, appetite, depleted social interaction, etc.

22. 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]

23. Reactions to Stress (cont.)
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

24. Reactions to Stress (cont.)
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

25. Reactions to Stress (cont.)
Characterized as: covert, verbal, involving brief displays of intense anger
Mass Psychogenic Illness
Five common symptoms:
Headaches
Dizziness
Nausea
Abdominal cramps
Cough

26. Reactions to Stress (cont.)
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

27. Coping with Stress Flight or fight Exercise Social support
Job redesign
Relaxation techniques

28. Coping with Stress (cont.)
Time management
Time logs
Structuring time
Saying no
Making “to do” lists

29. Job Satisfaction
Refers to one’s thinking, feeling, and action tendencies toward work
Managers realize that an organization’s performance should be measured in human dimensions as well as financial

30. Job Satisfaction (cont.)
Reasons why concern about job is so important to managers:
Moral obligation to make job personally rewarding
Physical and mental well-being correlated with job satisfaction
Affects company’s ability to attract and retain qualified workers

31. Job Satisfaction (cont.)
Low levels of job satisfaction are related to:
Turnover
Absenteeism
Union-organizing activity
Filing of grievances

32. Sources of Job Satisfaction
Variables consistently correlated with job satisfaction include job level, length of service, and race
Intrinsic sources: come from within individual, self-administered, e.g., autonomy, sense of challenge, feelings of recognition

33. Sources of Job Satisfaction (cont.)
Extrinsic sources: come from outside the individual from the external environment, e.g., working conditions, job security, opportunities to interact with co-workers
Dual purpose sources: relate to both intrinsic and extrinsic sources, e.g., high salary, rapid career progress

34. Sources of Job Satisfaction (cont.)
Expectations often influence satisfaction
New employees have particularly high expectations
Job-orientation programs that present a realistic point of view

35. Sources of Job Satisfaction (cont.)
Dispositional Influences
Individuals may be predisposed to feel good or bad about their employment situation, regardless of actual specifics of situation
Negative affectivity: describes the predisposition to feel dissatisfied with one’s job or life

36. Consequences of Job Dissatisfaction
Withdrawal behaviors
Absenteeism
Tardiness
Turnover
Union activity
Hostile Actions

37. Job Satisfaction and Productivity
Most people believe, intuitively, that people who are satisfied with their jobs are more productive
Research does not support the above statement

38. Job Satisfaction and Productivity (cont.)
Factors that influence productivity include: informal work norms, task interdependence, and machine pacing of production process
The extent to which satisfaction and performance are positively correlated indicates the degree to which an organization is “healthy”