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Stress and Well-Being at Work

Understanding Job Stress and its Components

Ø Stress response is a mental and physical reaction to a stressor

Ø Eustress is positive stress, it can result from an exciting challenge your boss gives you: i.e. if Joe was asked to head up Maseratti’s North American division

Ø Distress is a negative reaction to stress, both mentally and physically.

The Hans Selye model (AKA) General Adaptation Syndrome:

Alarm The body and mind prepare to fight or to adjust to the stressor by increasing heart rate, respiration, muscle tension and blood sugar level. These rapid reactions are amplified by the endocrine system in preparation for the ‘fight or flight’ response. For example, an executive is told by his boss that he must give a keynote speech to investors at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting and he only has one day to prepare to it.

Resistance The body tries to re-establish a normal state using more resources to adapt to the stressor. The executive prepares for the speech by practicing with a public speaking consultant.

Exhaustion After chronic exposure to a stressor, the body begins to wear down. Stress-related illness may result. The executive experiences severe insomnia for two nights before he gives the speech.

A Model of Causes and Consequences of Stress

1) The three categories of causes of job stress are: environmental, organisational and individual

2) The three categories of consequences of job stress exist: physiological, psychological and behavioural symptoms.

Causes of Stress		Consequences of Stress
Environmental factors Economic uncertainty Political uncertainty Technological uncertainty	Individual differences Perception Job experience		Physiological symptoms Headaches High blood pressure Heart disease
	Locus of control Type A behaviour
Organisational factors Task demands Role demands Interpersonal demands Organisational structure Organisational leadership Organisation’s life-cycle stage	Experienced stress		Psychological symptoms Sleep disturbances Depression, anxiety Declines in job satisfaction
			Behavioural symptoms Productivity level
Individual factors Family problems Financial problems			Attendance pattern Quitting the job Accidents Substance abuse

Causes of Stress

Environmental Factors that Can Induce Stress

Economic uncertainty leads to apprehension, i.e. downsizing, hyper-competition, pay reduction

- Personal bankruptcies

- Traditionally private businesses create jobs in Western Europe and U.S.A. However, employers are burdened with high payroll taxes, UI and other levies

- The result is Western firms pack it up and set up plants in foreign countries due to government ‘involvement in labour markets’.

Political uncertainty:

- Unstable government and political infrastructure, i.e. Iraq, Iran.

Technological uncertainty:

- Includes skills becoming technologically obsolescence

- By-products include:

a) Some employees get motivated and get updated training, i.e. MBA, computer courses

b) Some employees fold and get the pink slip – very stressful.

Organisational Factors that Create Stress

Task demands – Autonomy generally reduces task demands

Role demands – Refers to conflicts between employee’s personal values and supervisory and organizational values. Further, role ambiguity also play a role in this

Interpersonal demands – Includes pressures created by groups and co-workers. Lack of co-operation, trust, collaboration, and support

Organisational structure – Addresses formalized and constraint issues in a firm that facilitates stress

Organisational leadership – is the dominant culture created by the leadership style of top executives

Organisational life-cycle stage – Refers to the stages of establishment, growth, maturity and decline. All stages produce unique stressors.

Personal Lifestyle Factors that Can Aggravate Stress

Family problems – Divorce, ageing parent, useless kids, etc.

Financial problems – Some people get into the credit crunch game.

All these different types of cumulative stresses affect employees at work.

Individual Differences

The model in figure 2.2 allows the mechanism to interpret stress in either Eustress (positive stress), or Distress (negative stress).

Perception – is a moderator because we react less to the reality as opposed to the interpretation of the situation

Job experience – Once it is acquired, it is a powerful stress reducer, lack of experience is a powerful stressor

Locus of control – Internalisers, believe they are in control of their lives, i.e. hard work leads to promotion; externalisers, believe in fate and politicking as a means of success.

Type A behaviour –

a) Work long, hard hours under the conditions of constant deadline pressures and chronic role overload

b) Often take work home and are unable to relax at weekends or on vacations

c) Compete constantly with themselves by setting high standards for performance and productivity to the point of being driven and obsessed

d) Become frustrated by the work situation, are impatient, easily irritated with the work efforts of others and misunderstood by co-workers and superiors.

Consequences of Stress

Physiological symptoms

Ø Include: change in metabolism; wear and tear on the body, headaches, insomnia, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes and even cancer are linked to extended exposure to chronic stressors

Psychological symptoms

Ø can result in low employee performance caused by anger, anxiety, depression, nervousness, irritability, aggressiveness and boredom. And further by-product of all this is ‘job burnout’

Behavioral symptoms

Ø include: absenteeism, job hopping, altered eating habits, exercise patterns, cigarette smoking, rapid speech pattern, nervous fidgeting and withdrawal behaviours.

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