Chapter 7 Work-Related Stress and Stress Management

Chapter 7 Work-Related Stress and Stress Management

7

Work-Related Stress
and Stress Management

Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, students should be able to:

Define stress and describe the stress experience.

Outline the stress process from stressors to consequences.

Identify the different types of stressors in the workplace.

Explain why a stressor might produce different stress levels in two people.

Discuss the physiological, psychological, and behavioural effects of stress.

Identify five ways to manage workplace stress.

Chapter Glossary

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Chapter 7 Work-Related Stress and Stress Management

employee assistance programs (EAPs) Counselling services that help employees overcome personal or organizational stressors and adopt more effective coping mechanisms.

general adaptation syndrome A model of the stress experience, consisting of three stages: alarm reaction, resistance, and exhaustion.

job burnout The process of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment resulting from prolonged exposure to stress.

role ambiguity Uncertainty about job duties, performance expectations, level of authority, and other job conditions.

role conflict Conflict that occurs when people face competing demands.

sexual harassment Unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature that detrimentally affects the work environment or leads to adverse job-related consequences for its victims.

stress An individual’s adaptive response to a situation that is perceived as challenging or threatening to the person’s well-being.

stressors The causes of stress, including any environmental conditions that place a physical or emotional demand on the person.

type A behaviour pattern A behaviour pattern associated with people having premature coronary heart disease; type As tend to be impatient, lose their temper, talk rapidly, and interrupt others.

type B behaviour pattern A behaviour pattern associated with people having a low risk of coronary heart disease; type Bs tend to work steadily, take a relaxed approach to life, and be even-tempered.

workaholic A person who is highly involved in work, feels compelled to work, and has a low enjoyment of work.

workplace bullying Offensive, intimidating, or humiliating behaviour that degrades, ridicules, or insults another person at work.

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Chapter 7 Work-Related Stress and Stress Management

Chapter Synopsis

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Chapter 7 Work-Related Stress and Stress Management

Stress is an adaptive response to a situation that is perceived as challenging or threatening to the person’s well-being. Distress represents high stress levels that have negative consequences, whereas eustress represents the moderately low stress levels needed to activate people. The stress experience, called the general adaptation syndrome, involves moving through three stages: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion. The stress model shows that stress is caused by stressors. However, the effect of these stressors depends on individual characteristics. Stress affects a person’s physiological and psychological well-being, and is associated with several work-related behaviours.

Stressors are the causes of stress and include any environmental conditions that place a physical or emotional demand on the person. Stressors are found in the physical work environment, the employee’s various life roles, interpersonal relations, and organizational activities and conditions. Conflicts between work and nonwork obligations represent a frequent source of employee stress.

Two people exposed to the same stressor may experience different stress levels because they perceive the situation differently, they have different threshold stress levels, or they use different coping strategies. Workaholics and employees with Type A behaviour patterns tend to experience more stress than do other employees.

High levels or prolonged stress can cause physiological symptoms, such as high blood pressure, ulcers, sexual dysfunction, headaches, and coronary heart disease. Behavioural symptoms of stress include lower job performance, poorer decisions, more workplace accidents, higher absenteeism, and more workplace aggression. Psychologically, stress reduces job satisfaction and increases moodiness, depression, and job burnout. Job burnout refers to the process of emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced efficacy resulting from prolonged exposure to stress. It is mainly due to interpersonal and role-related stressors and is most common in helping occupations.

Many interventions are available to manage work-related stress. Some directly remove unnecessary stressors or remove employees from the stressful environment. Others help employees alter their interpretation of the environment so that it is not viewed as a serious stressor. Wellness programs encourage employees to build better physical defences against stress experiences. Social support provides emotional, informational, and material resource support to buffer the stress experience.

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Chapter 7 Work-Related Stress and Stress Management

PowerPoint® Slides

Canadian Organizational Behaviour includes a complete set of Microsoft PowerPoint® files for each chapter. (Please contact your McGraw-Hill Ryerson representative to find out how instructors can receive these files.) In the lecture outline that follows, a thumbnail illustration of each PowerPoint slide for this chapter is placed beside the corresponding lecture material. The slide number helps you to see your location in the slide show sequence and to skip slides that you don’t want to show to the class. (To jump ahead or back to a particular slide, just type the slide number and hit the Enter or Return key.) The transparency masters for this chapter are very similar to the PowerPoint files.

Lecture Outline (with PowerPoint® slides)

Work-Related Stress and Stress Management
Slide 1
Stress Among Canadian Nurses
Slide 2
What is Stress?
Slide 3 /

Work-Related Stress and stress Management

Opening Vignette: Stress Among Canadian Nurses

Amanda Coffin (shown) in Charlottetown and other nurses across Canada are experiencing high stress levels due to budget cuts and staff shortages.

Stress -- adaptive response to a situation perceived as challenging or threatening to the person’s well-being

• Nearly half of Canadian employees feel moderate to high stress levels – nearly double the rate reported a decade ago.

• Almost one-third of employees regularly have difficulty coping with the demands of their jobs

• Also a problem in U.S.A., Japan, India

Eustress vs. distress

• Eustress -- low levels of stress necessary for life

-- activates and motivates people to achieve goals

• Distress -- the degree of physiological, psychological, and behavioural deviation from healthy functioning

General Adaptation Syndrome
Slide 4 /

General Adaptation Syndrome

Describes the stress experience

1. Alarm reaction

• Perceived threat/challenge -- higher respiration rate, blood pressure, heart beat, and muscle tension

• Energy level and coping effectiveness initially lower

2. Resistance

• Dealing with the stress/stressor

-- adrenaline increases; try to remove the stressor

• More vulnerable to illness with energy focused on stress

3. Exhaustion

• Limited store of energy is depleted

• Increased long-term risks if exhaustion continues

Stressors and Stress Outcomes
Slide 5
Interpersonal Stressor: Sexual Harassment
Slide 6 /

Stressors: The Causes of Stress

Stressors -- any environmental conditions that place a physical or emotional demand on the person

1. Interpersonal Stressors

• Conflict with others--e.g. office politics

-- increased with emphasis on team work

• Diversity stress -- lack of personal resources to work effectively in a multicultural workforce

1a. Sexual harassment

• Unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature -- detrimental effect on work environment or job performance

• Quid pro quo -- employment or job performance is conditional on unwanted sexual relations

• Hostile work environment -- an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment

• Canadian corporate leaders increasingly recognize that sexual harassment (and other forms of harassment) is a serious concern.

Interpersonal Stressor: Workplace Violence
Slide 7
Interpersonal Stressor:
Workplace Bullying
Slide 8
Role-related Stressors
Slide 9
Task-Control Stressors
Slide 10 /

1b. Workplace violence

• In the United States, 1,000 murdered at work and 2 million experience lesser violence at work each year

• But Canadians (particularly women) have a higher incidence of workplace violence

• Severe distress after experiencing or observing violence

• Also stress from working in high-risk jobs

1c. Workplace bullying

• Women are more likely than men to be targets of bullying

• Employers have an obligation to treat employees with civility, decency, respect and dignity

• 12% of public and service sector employees recently surveyed experienced workplace incivility including rude behaviour, name calling and yelling

2. Role-related stressors

• problems understanding, reconciling, or performing various roles

a. Role conflict -- facing competing demands

-- interrole conflict -- conflicting roles in life

-- intrarole conflict -- contradictory messages

-- person-role conflict -- incompatible values

b. Role ambiguity -- uncertain job duties, authority

c. Work overload – working more hours and more intensely during those hours. Also, working more unofficial hours beyond paid hours of work

3. Task-Control Stressors

• Task control – lack of control over how and when to perform tasks as well as lack control over the pace of work activity

-- machine-paced work, employee monitoring, work schedule is controlled by someone else

Stressors in BC Logging Industry
Slide 11
Additional Work Stressors
Slide 12 /

4. Organizational and Physical Environment

Ken Wiley (shown) and other logging workers in British Columbia have faced the physical environment stressors of dangerous work for many years. Now, they also face the organizational stressors of change and job insecurity.

a. Organizational stressors from downsizing, restructuring, mergers, etc.

-- Altering psychological contract

-- Increased interpersonal conflict, reduction in customer service

b.  Physical environment stressors

-- e.g. noise, poor lighting, safety hazards

Work-Nonwork Stressors
Slide 13
Stress and Occupations
Slide 14 /

5. Nonwork Stressors

a. Time-based conflict -- no time for work and family

- affected by rotating/inflexible work schedule, commuting time, travel

- for women -- still do most household chores

b. Strain-based conflict

-- work stress affects home, and vice versa

c. Role behaviour conflict

-- incompatible work and family roles

e.g. police officers continue work role at home

Stress and Occupations

• Low stress jobs -- artist, auto mechanic, accountant, forester

• High stress jobs -- police officer, Prime Minister, telephone operator, waiter/waitress

Problems with labelling jobs stressful

1. Jobs vary from one organization to the next

2. High-stress jobs have more stressors -- actual stress levels depend on individual differences

Individual Differences in Stress
Slide 15
Type A/B and Workaholism
Slide 16 /

Individual Differences in Stress

People have different stress reactions to same stressors

1. Perceive the situation differently

- e.g. high self-efficacy people have less stress because they perceive fewer threats

2. Different threshold levels of resistance to a stressor

- threshold decreases with age

3.  Some people use better stress coping strategies

Type A/Type B Behaviour Patterns

• Type As may experience more stress than Type Bs

• Type As -- competitive, impatient, lose temper --work faster, choose more challenging tasks, more self-motivated, more effective in time pressure jobs

• Type Bs -- less competitive, more casual/systematic

-- better interpersonal skills -- more senior executives

-- more productive in jobs requiring patience, cooperation, and thoughtful judgment

Workaholism

l  Different types of workaholics

-- Stereotypic workaholic – Highly involved in work, inner pressure, feels driven to work, low enjoyment

-- Enthusiastic workaholic – High involvement, drive to succeed, high enjoyment

-- Work enthusiasts – high work involvement & enjoyment, low drive to succeed

Consequences of Distress
Slide 17 /

Consequences of Distress

1. Physiological consequences

• Cardiovascular diseases -- high blood pressure, coronary heart disease (strokes, heart attacks)

• Ulcers, hypertension, headaches, muscle pain

2. Psychological consequences

• Job dissatisfaction, moodiness, depression and emotional fatigue

Job Burnout
Slide 18 /

2a. Job burnout

• Caused by excessive demands from serving or frequently interacting with others

• Three main elements in a sequence

1. emotional exhaustion -- feeling of lack of energy

2. cynicism or depersonalization – indifferent attitude toward work, treating others like objects, emotionally detached, cynical about the organization

3. reduced personal efficacy or accomplishment -- feelings of lower competency

• Burnout most common in helping occupations (e.g. nurses, teachers)

3. Behavioural consequences

• Work performance, accidents, decisions, conflict

• Absenteeism increases because:

-- stress makes people sick

-- absence is a form of flight -- coping mechanism

• Workplace aggression

-- a consequence of extreme stress, not just the temperament of certain individuals

-- represents the “fight” reaction to stress

verbal abuse, harassment and assault

Family-Friendly and Work/Life Initiatives
Slide 19 /

Managing Work-Related Stress

1. Remove the stressor

• Empowerment -- give employees more control over their work and work environment

• Better selection --improves person-job matching

• Provide a safer/healthier workplace

• Work breaks, days off, vacation

• Employees need to actively remove stressors themselves

1a. Family-friendly and work/life initiatives

a. Flexible work time -- let employees decide when to begin and end their work day

b. Job sharing -- splitting a job between two people

c. Telecommuting -- working from home, usually with a computer connection to the office

d. Personal leave -- paid or unpaid time off

e. Childcare facilities -- less time and worry for parents -- allows time with children during breaks

Other Stress Mgt. Practices
Slide 20 /

2. Change stress perceptions

• Improving self-efficacy, use of humour

• Self-leadership practices

-- positive self-talk and mental imagery increase confidence

-- personal goal setting and self-reinforcement also reduce the stress

3. Control the consequences of stress

• Fitness and wellness programs

-- physical exercise -- reduces respiration, muscle tension, heartbeat, and stomach acidity

-- wellness programs -- better nutrition, fitness, sleep

• Relaxation and meditation

-- muscle relaxation, breathing exercises, visualization

-- adjusts physiological response and stress perception

• Employee counselling (employee assistance programs)

-- help cope with stressful life experiences

-- help overcome ineffective coping mechanisms such as alcoholism

4. Social support

• e.g. supportive leadership, mentoring, social gatherings

• Reduces stress in three ways:

a. improves self-esteem -- makes stressor less threatening

b. provides information -- helps remove the stressor

c. perception of not facing the stressor alone

Transparency Masters

Transparency 5.1: What is Stress?

Transparency 5.2: General Adaptation Syndrome

Transparency 5.3: Stressors and Stress Outcomes