Stress Management
Stress Management
Stress Management
Definition
Stress may be defined as "a state of psychological and / or physiological imbalance
resulting from the disparity between situational demand and the individual's ability
and / or motivation to meet those demands."
Stress can be positive or negative. Stress can be positive when the situation offers
an opportunity for a person to gain something. It acts as a motivator for peak
performance. Stress can be negative when a person faces social, physical,
organisational and emotional problems. Stress can cause headaches, eating
disorder, allergies, insomnia, backaches, frequent cold and fatigue to diseases such
as hypertension, asthma, diabetes, heart ailments and even cancer.
It all depends on how you take it. The stress of failure, humiliation,
is detrimental; but that of exhilarating, creative, successful work is
beneficial. The stress reaction, like energy consumption, may have good
or bad effects.
Stress cannot and should not be avoided:
Everybody is always under some degree of stress. The statement
"He is under stress" is just as meaningless as "He is running a
temperature. What we actually refer to by means of such phrases is an
excess of stress or of body temperature.
If we consider these points, we may easily be led to conclude that stress cannot be
defined, and that perhaps the concept itself is just not sufficiently clear to serve as
the object of scientific study. Nevertheless, stress has a very clear, tangible form.
Countless people have actually suffered or benefited from it. Stress is very real and
concrete indeed, and is manifested in precisely measurable changes within the body.
LEVELS OF STRESS
Stress can be both positive and negative. It is our response to stresshow we
manage stressthat makes a difference in terms of how it affects us.
Types of Levels:
EUSTRESS
Stress resulting from pleasant events or conditions is called eustress.Eustress can
be defined as a pleasant or curative stress. We can't always avoid stress, in fact,
sometimes we don't want to. Often, it is controlled stress that gives us our
competitive edge in performance related activities like athletics, giving a speech, or
acting.
DISTRESS
Bad stress
Acute stress
Acute stress is usually for short time and may be due to work pressure,
meeting deadlines pressure or minor accident, over exertion, increased physical
activity, searching something but you misplaced it, or similar things.
Chronic stress
Chronic stress is a prolonged stress that exists for weeks, months, or even
years. This stress is due to poverty, broken or stressed families and marriages,
chronic illness and successive failures in life. People suffering from this type of
stress get used to it and may even not realize that they are under chronic stress. It is
very harmful to their health.
HYPERSTRESS
Hyperstress is the type of Negative stress that comes when a person is forced to
undertake more than he/she can take. A stressful job that overworks an individual will
cause that individual to face hyperstress. A person who is experiencing hyperstress
will often responds to even little stressors with huge emotional outbreaks. it is
important for a person who think they might be experiencing hyperstress to take
measure to reduce the stress in their lives, because hyperstress can lead to serious
emotional and physical repercussion.
STRESS MANAGEMENT
HYPOSTRESS
The final of the four types of stress is hypostress. Hypostress stands in direct
opposite of hyperstress. That is because hypostress is the right type of stress
experienced by a person who is constantly bored. Someone in an unchallenging
job, such as a factory worker performing the same takes over and over, will often
experience hypothesis. The effect of hypostress is feeling of rest lessness and a
lack of inspiration.
Both distress and eustress elicit the same physiological responses in the body. While
stress may not always be negative, our responses to it can be problematic or
unhealthy. Both positive and negative stressful situations place extra demands on
the bodyyour body reacts to an unexpected change or a highly emotional
experience, regardless of whether this change is good or bad. If the duration of
stress is relatively short, the overall effect is minimal and your body will rest, renew
itself, and return to normal.
POTENTIAL STRESSORS
Factors that cause stress are called "Stressors." The following are the sources or
causes of an organisational and non-organisational stress.
1) Career Changes: When a person suddenly switches over a new job, he is under
stress to shoulder new responsibilities properly. Under promotion, over
promotion, demotion and transfers can also cause stress.
STRESS MANAGEMENT
3) Role Ambiguity: It occurs when the person does not known what he is supposed
to do on the job. His tasks and responsibilities are not clear. The employee is not
sure what he is expected to do. This creates confusion in the minds of the worker
and results in stress.
4) Role Conflict: It takes place when different people have different expectations
from a person performing a particular role. It can also occur if the job is not as per
the expectation or when a job demands a certain type of behaviour that is against
the person's moral values.
5) Role Overload: Stress may occur to those individuals who work in different
shifts. Employees may be expected to work in day shift for some days and then in
the night shift. This may create problems in adjusting to the shift timings, and it
can affect not only personal life but also family life of the employee.
7) Life Changes: Life changes can bring stress to a person. Life changes can be
slow or sudden. Slow life changes include getting older and sudden life changes
include death or accident of a loved one. Sudden life changes are highly stressful
and very difficult to cope.
8) Personality: People are broadly classified as 'Type A' and 'Type B'.
While the 'Type B' people are exactly opposite and hence are less affected by
stress due to above mentioned factors.
5) Occupational Demands: Some jobs are more stressful than others. Jobs that
involve risk and danger are more stressful. Research findings indicate that jobs
that are more stressful usually requires constant monitoring of equipments and
devices, unpleasant physical conditions, making decisions, etc.
6) Work Overload: Excessive work load leads to stress as it puts a person under
tremendous pressure. Work overload may take two different forms :-
7) Work Under load: In this case, very little work or too simple work is expected on
the part of the employee. Doing less work or jobs of routine and simple nature
would lead to monotony and boredom, which can lead to stress.
2) Civic Amenities: Poor civic amenities in the area in which one lives can be a
cause of stress. Inadequate or lack of civic facilities like improper water supply,
excessive noise or air pollution, lack of proper transport facility can be quite
stressful.
3) Caste and Religion Conflicts: Employees living in areas which are subject to
caste and religious conflicts do suffer from stress. In case of religion, the
minorities and lower-caste people (seen especially in India) are subject to more
stress.
MODERATORS
Variables that cause the relationships between stressors, perceived stress and
outcomes to be weaker for some and stronger for others. An awareness of
moderators helps managers identify those who are more likely to experience
stress and negative outcomes.
OUTCOMES
Physiological consequences
o 50%-75% of all illnesses
o Lower for women
o cardiovascular diseases
o ulcers, sexual dysfunction, headaches
o Burnout
Behavioral consequences
o work performance, accidents, decisions
o absenteeism -- due to sickness and flight
o workplace aggression
Cognitive Consequences
o Poor concentration
o inability to make sound decisions or any decisions at all
o mental blocks
Psychological Consequences
o Anxiety
o Frustration
o Apathy
o Lowered self-esteem
o Aggression
o Depression
o Moodiness
o emotional fatigue
Burnout
A psychological process resulting from work stress that results in:
o Emotional exhaustion
o Depersonalization
STRESS MANAGEMENT
INDICATORS OF BURNOUT:
Feel drained by work Have become calloused by job Cannot deal with problems effectively
Feel fatigued in the Treat others like objects Do not have a positive influence on
morning others
Do not want to work Feel other people blame you No longer feel exhilarated by your job
with other people
STRESS MANAGEMENT
Strategies may be categorised as:
INDIVIDUAL STRATERGIES:
1)
Biofeedback: Biofeedback is the process of gaining greater awareness of many
physiological functions primarily using instruments that provide information on the
activity of those same systems, with a goal of being able to manipulate them at
will. Some of the processes that can be controlled include brainwaves, muscle
tone, skin conductance, heart rate and pain perception. Biofeedback may be
used to improve health, performance, and the physiological changes which often
occur in conjunction with changes to thoughts, emotions, and behaviour.
Eventually, these changes may be maintained without the use of extra
equipment, even though no equipment is necessarily required to practice
biofeedback actually. Biofeedback has been found to be effective for the
treatment of headaches and migraines.
2) Time management: Time management is the act or process of planning and
exercising conscious control over the amount of time spent on specific activities,
especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency or productivity. Time management
STRESS MANAGEMENT
may be aided by a range of skills, tools, and techniques used to manage time
when accomplishing specific tasks, projects and goals complying with a due date.
This set encompasses a wide scope of activities, and these include planning,
allocating, setting goals, delegation, analysis of time spent, monitoring,
organizing, scheduling, and prioritizing. Initially, time management referred to just
business or work activities, but eventually the term broadened to include personal
activities as well. A time management system is a designed combination of
processes, tools, techniques, and methods. Usually time management is a
necessity in any project development as it determines the project completion time
and scope.
ORGANISATIONAL STRATEGIES:
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 level
to operate as fully functioning human beings.
STRESS MANAGEMENT
There are several ways in which stress can be handled so that the
dysfunctional consequences of stress can be reduced. Some of them are:
1) Role Analysis Technique (RAT): The Role Analysis Technique helps both the
manager and the employee to analyze the requirements and expectations from
the job. Breaking-down the job into various components clarifies the role of the
job for the entire system. This also helps to eliminate reduction of work and thus
lowering down the stress level.
2) Employee Assistance Program: Another widely used strategy is the employee
assistance Programs, 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. It includes:
Diagnosis. An employee with a problem asks for help; EAP staff attempts
to diagnose the problem
Treatment. Counseling or support therapy is provided either by internal
staff or outside referral
Screening. Periodic examination of employees in highly stressful jobs for
early detection of problems
Prevention. Education and persuasion used to convince high risk
employees to seek help to change
Targeted at:
It includes: