STRESS MANAGEMENT

4.0 INTRODUCTION

4.1. OBJECTIVES

4.2 MEANINGS

4.3 TYPES

4.4 SOURCES

4.5 CONSEQUENSES

4.6 MANAGEMENT OF STRESS

4.7 ORGANIZATIONAL CONFLICT

4.7.1 CONSTRUCTIVE AND DESTRUCTIVE CONFLICT

4.7.2 STRATEGIES TO ENCOURAGE CONSTRUCTIVE CONFLICT

4.7.3 STRATEGIES TO RESOLVE DESTRUCTIVE CONFLICT

4.0 INTRODUCTION

In this unit we are going to understand the basic concepts of stress, the
various conflicts and the strategies to encourage constructive conflicts and destructive conflicts.

4.1 OBJECTIVES:

After reading this lesson you should understand:

• Meaning of stress

• Sources of stress

• Consequences of stress

• Methods of managing stress

4.2 MEANING OF STRESS:

The nature of the job stress has been studied by scholars in a wide range of academic
disciplines. Physicians, psychiatrists, and researchers in management have all studied its causes
and its symptoms, and have defined the term in a variety of different ways. For our purposes,
stress is defined as “the reactions of individuals to new or threatening factors in their work
environments”.

4.3 TYPES OF STRESS:

Stress can be either positive or negative. Some new work situations can bring us positive
challenges and excitement, while others are very threatening and anxiety-arousing. For example,
the depression in the economy can create negative stress for sales personnel, because they will be
much more anxious about making sales commissions and sales quotas. On the other hand,
promotions to new jobs present employees with positive stress. While employees may feel
anxious about their new work assignments, they also anticipate them eagerly and look forward to
the additional challenges, rewards, and excitement. In these cases, the new and uncertain job
situations create positive stress (also called eustress).

For every individual there is a optimum level of stress under which he or she will perform
to full capacity. If the stress experienced is below this optimum level, then the individual gets
bored, the motivational level to work reaches a low point, and apathy sets in. If one operates in a
very low stress environment and constantly experiences boredom, the person is likely to
psychologically or physically withdraw from work. Psychological withdrawal will result in
careless mistakes being frequently made, forgetting to do things, and thinking of things other
than work during work hours. Physical withdrawal will manifest itself in increased rates of
tardiness and absenteeism which may ultimately lead to turnover. Though the optimum stress
level is different for different individuals, each individual can sense and determine how much
stress is functional for him or her to operate in a productive manner.

Research indicates that those who seem to effectively handle a high level of stress
possess one or more of the personality predispositions of high tolerance of ambiguity, internal
locus of control and self-esteem. A high tolerance for ambiguity allows individuals to
experience very little anguish while operating under conditions of insufficient information or in
an uncertain environment. People with an internal locus of control also handle stress well since
they feel they are in control of the situation, rather than feeling controlled by the situation they
are in. This makes it possible for them to manage their environmental stress without
experiencing its noxious effects. Those with high self-esteem also handle stress with ease since a
high self-concept and confidence in their abilities allow them to develop positive attitudes
towards the management of stress and enables them to deal with stressful situations with
calmness and clear thinking. The more successfully one handles a stressful situation without
panicking or getting overwhelmed by it, the more confidently will the individual face further
stressful situations. Thus, it is possible to raise one’s capacity to handle stress with successive
situations.

4.4 SOURCES OF STRESS

Stress is a reality of our everyday life. There are both eustresses and distresses that come
from our work and non-work lives. As pointed out by Near, Rice, and Hunt (1980) and Sekaran
(1986), among others, the work and non-work domains of one’s life are closely intertwined. The
stresses and strains experienced in one domain are carried over to the other. Thus, if one
experienced much distress at work, that stress will be carried over to the home, which will
heighten the sense of awareness of even small distresses experienced in the family sphere.
 One major source of job stress is the job itself. The way the job is designed, the amount
of time pressure an individual faces, and the amount of expectations others have of a person at
work can all lead to job stress. Interpersonal relationships are a second source of job stress.
How much contact an individual has with coworkers and bosses, how much time he or she deals
with clients or consumers, and how pleasant those interactions are all influence how much stress
an individual experiences at work. Third, problems in personal lives can spill over into the work
environment, adding further tension to an already stressful work situation.

Sources of Job Stress

• Job Characteristics

• Role ambiguity

• Role conflict

• Role overload

• Role underload

• Ethical Dilemmas

• Interpersonal Relationships

• Amount of contact with others

• Dealing with people in other departments
• Organizational climate

• Organisational Factors

• Personal Factors

• Career concerns
• Geographical mobility
• Rate of life change

Job Characteristics :

A major source of job stress is a person’s role in the organisation. A role is simply the set
of expectations that other people in the organisation have an individual in his or her job.
Supervisors, coworkers, customers and suppliers – all of these people expect an individual to
behave in certain predictable ways. Often, the expectations others have of an employee are
unclear, in conflict, or too high for the employee to meet within the time allotted, and he or she
experiences stress.

Role Ambiguity :

When there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding job definitions or job expectations, people
experience role ambiguity. With the recent increase in mergers and acquisitions among major
corporations, for instance, more and more employees are experiencing job stress as a result of
role ambiguity. Role ambiguity is anxiety-arousing to employees, and they consequently
experience job stress.

Role Conflict :

Often employees discover that different groups of people in an organisation have widely
varying expectations of them, and that they cannot meet all these expectations. This
inconsistency of expectations associated with a role is called role conflict, which results in stress.

Role Overload :

Role Overload is a situation in which employees feel they are being asked to do more
than time or ability permits. Working under time pressure is especially stressful.

Role Underload :

Role Underload is the condition in which employees have too little work to do or too
little variety in their work. Salespeople in a store with no customer, standing around all day with
nothing to do, could be said to experience role underload.

Ironically, role underload lead to many of the same problems as role overload: low self-
esteem; increased frequency of nervous symptoms and complaints; increased health problems.

Ethical Dilemmas:

Ethical dilemmas such as whether or not one should report the observed unethical
behaviours of another person can cause extreme levels of stress in individuals. This will be
especially true for those who have strong moral values of right and wrong and a deep sense of
personal and corporate social responsibility. Tensions arise because one might have to contend
with whistle blowing against one’s own colleagues who might be close friends, and may fear
reprisal and other undesirable consequences which have to be pitted against one’s sense of duty
and loyalty to the organisation.

Interpersonal Relationships

A second major source of stress in organisations is poor interpersonal relationships with

others, be they supervisors, subordinates, coworkers, or clients. When interpersonal relationships
at work are unpleasant, employees develop a generalised anxiety, a diffuse feeling of dread about
upcoming meetings and interactions. Three aspects of interpersonal relationships at work, in
particular, have a negative impact on job stress:

1. Amount of contact with others: Jobs vary in terms of how much interpersonal contact is
built into them. Too much prolonged contact with other people can cause stress.

2. Amount of contact with people in other departments: Having contacts with people outside
one’s own department creates a special sort of stress. People in other departments do not
always have an adequate understanding of jobs outside their own areas. This causes stress.

3. Organisational climate: The overall psychological climate of the organisation can create
stress. When day-to-day life in an organisation is marked by unfriendly, distant, or hostile
exchanges, employees are continually tense and this causes stress.

Organisational Structural Factors

Work environment factors such as noise, heat, poor lighting, radiation and smoke are
stress-inducing agents. Insufficient resources such as time, budget, raw materials, space or
manpower are additional stressors in the work environment. When one has to produce and
perform with inadequate resources on a long-term basis, this naturally imposes stresses and
strains on the individuals who are responsible for getting the job done. In addition, other
structural factors in the organisational setting such as staff rules and regulations and reward
systems which are not platable to individuals may act as stressors. The lack of career promotion
in organiations may be additional organisational stressors.

Certain types of interactions with significant forces in the external environment of the
organisation can also be sources of stress. These stresses may arise out of the unreasonable
expectations of external agents in the form of unrecorded money or gifts before they would be
willing to cooperate. Other environmental stressors include sudden and unanticipated changes in
the market place, technology, the financial market and so on.

Personal Factors

Frequently, employees’ personal lives have a marked effect on their lives at work. If
things are going well personally, they are more likely to be upbeat and optimistic. They have
more energy and patience for dealing with problems at work. On the other hand, if employees
are having some personal problems, they might be more tense or distracted when they go to
work.

Three factors, in particular, influence how much stress people bring from their personal
lives to the work setting:

1. Career Concerns: One major career concern that can cause stress is lack of job security. A
second career concern that can cause employees stress is status incongruity, i.e., having jobs
with less status (power, prestige) than they think they deserve.

2. Geographical Mobility: Geographical moves create stress because they disrupt the routines
of daily life. When geographical moves are undertaken as part of a job transfer, the moves
can be even more stressful. The transferred employees are likely to feel out of control at
work, too, and experience their new work environments as unpredictable.

4.5 CONSEQUENCES OF JOB STRESS

Distress experienced by individuals has negative consequences for them, their families
and for the organisations they serve.

Consequences for the Individual

The impact of distress on individuals has subjective, cognitive, physiological,

behavioural and health facets to it.

The subjective or intrapersonal effects of stress are feelings of anxiety, boredom, apathy,
nervousness, depression, fatigue, anger, irritability and sometimes aggressive behaviours on the
part of the individual experiencing the stress.

The cognitive effects include poor concentration, short attention span, mental blocks and
inability to make decisions.
 The physiological effects can be seen in increased heart and pulse rate, high blood
pressure, drynessof throat, and excessive sweating.

The behavioural consequences are manifest in such things as accident proneness,

drinking; excessive eating, smoking, impulsive behaviours, depression, and withdrawal
behaviours.

The manifest health effects could be stomach disorders, asthma, ecsema, and other
psychosomatic disorders. In addition, the mental health, i.e. the ability to function effectively in
one’s daily life, will also decline as excessive stress is experienced.

Consequences for the Family

Distress which is handled by individuals in dysfunctional ways, such as reasoning to

drinking or withdrawal behaviours, will have an adverse effect on their home life. Spouse abuse,
child abuse, alienation from family members, and even divorce could result from dysfunctional
coping mechanisms.

Consequences to Organisations

The organisational effects of employee stress are many. The adverse consequences
include low performance and productivity, high rates of absenteeism and turnover, poor
decision-making, lost customers because of poor worker attitudes, increased alienation of the
worker from the job, and even destructive and aggressive behaviours resulting in strikes and
sabotage. The stresses experienced by employees who take on critical roles and are responsible
for safety can sometimes be detrimental to the public. For instance, the stresses experienced by a
train driver or railway guard, or that of an airline pilot, navigator, or air traffic controller may
result in serious accidents. Needless to say that the costs of employee stress to the organisation
in terms of lost profits, poor image and loss of future business are enormous.

4.6 MANAGEMENT OF STRESS:

Stress is a factor that everybody has to contend with on a daily basis both in the work and
non-work spheres of life. Since the body has only a limited capacity to respond to stress, it is
important for individuals to optimally “manage” their stress to operate as fully functioning
human beings.
 There are several ways in which stress can be handled so that the dysfunctional
consequences of stress are dissipated. Some of them are:

Role Analysis Technique (RAT)

The Role Analysis Technique as it is referred to helps both the manager and the
employee to analyse what the job entails and what the expectations are. Breaking down the job
to its various components clarifies the role of the job incumbent for the entire system. This helps
to eliminate imposing overload can thus be considerably reduced through this technique and
stress levels lowered for the individual.

Job Relocation

Job relocation assistance is offered to employees who are transferred, by finding

alternative employment for the spouses of the transferred employees and getting admissions in
schools for their children in the new place. These arrangements help to reduce the anxiety and
stress for the moving family.

Recreational Programme

Providing recreational facilities, arranging group meditation programmes, help to reduce

the stress levels of the employees.

Employee Assistance Programme

Another widely used strategy is the employee assistance programmes which offer a
variety of assistance to employees. These include counselling employees who seek assistance on
how to deal with alcohol and drug abuse, handling conflicts at the work place, dealing with
marital and other family problems, dealing with other kinds of stresses and coping with health
problems.

Career Counselling
 Career Counselling helps the employee to obtain professional advice regarding career
paths that would help the individual to achieve personal goals. It also makes the employees
aware of what additional educational qualifications or specialised technical training, if any, that
they should acquire. By becoming knowledgeable about the possible avenues for advancement,
the employees who consider their careers to be important, can reduce their stress levels by
becoming more realistic about their options and can start preparing themselves for it.

Time Management

Another way of coping with stress is to manage time more effectively. People can learn
to get better organised so that they can do their work more efficiently and fritter away less time
needlessly.

Delegation

Another way of coping with job stress is to delegate some responsibilities to others.
Delegation can directly decrease work demands put upon the manager and helps to reduce the
stress.

Getting more Information and Help

Some new employees work three times longer on a job than necessary rather than admit
they are not sure what they are doing. It is much more efficient, effective, and anxiety-reducing
to get some help before doing the work.

Health Maintenance

Probably the most frequently used organisational stress management program is health
maintenance. Many companies invest large sums of money in gym and sport facilities for
maintaining the health of the employees.

Supervisor Training
 Another type of stress management programme that organisations are experimenting with
is supervisor training. The emphasis on supervisory training programme is how to prevent job
stress. Managers are trained to give better performance appraisals, to listen to employees’
problems more effectively, and to communicate job assignments and instructions more clearly.

Individual Stress Reduction Workshops

Some organisations have also sponsored individual stress reduction workshops for their
employees. These programs have run the gamut from bio-feedback, sensitivity groups and
transcendental meditation to career counselling, time management and interpersonal skills
workshops. In lectures and seminars, participants are given a basic understanding of the causes
of stress and its consequences for their well-being. Then, participants are given materials to help
them identify the major sources of stress in their own lives, and some strategies for dealing with
that stress more effectively.

In the final analysis, then, the management of stress lies by necessity with the individual.
Even if organisations continue to remain active in stress management programmes, ultimately it
is the individual who has to be responsible for his or her own well-being.