Stress Is a Fact of Life and Job Stress Is Inevitable in Organizations for Individual Workers

Job Stress

Stress is a fact of life and job stress is inevitable in organizations for individual workers

80% of workers feel stress on the job (Gallup poll, 2000)

A certain amount of stress is healthy and a precondition for growth and achievement in the work setting

Prolonged stress can cause apathy, breakdowns in performance, and withdrawal behavior

25% have felt like screaming or shouting because of job stress, 10% are concerned about an individual at work they fear could become violent (Gallup, 2000)

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)

·  40% report their job was very or extremely stressful

·  25% view their jobs as the number one stressor in their lives

·  3/4th of employees believe that workers have more on-the-job stress than a generation ago

·  Job stress is more strongly associated with health complaints than financial or family problems.

Job stress impacts both the organization and the individual employee

Costs

Very costly with the price tag for U.S. industry estimated at over $300 billion annually

Occupational Health Psychology

Workplace stress has led to the recent field in psychology called “Occupational Health Psychology” in the 1990

Goal: To understand and combat the harmful effects of stress on employee health and safety

NIOSH Definition

Job stress – “the harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources, or needs of the worker.”

Organizational Sources of Worker Stress

Work Task Stressors:

·  Work overload, which results when a job requires excessive speed, output, or concentration.

·  Underutilization, resulting from workers feeling that their knowledge, skills, or energy are not being fully used.

Work Role Stressors

·  Job ambiguity, which results from a lack of clearly defined jobs and/or work tasks.

·  Lack of control, a feeling of having little input or effect on the job and/or work environment.

·  Physical work conditions, including extreme temperatures, loud/distracting noises, crowding, poor lighting and ventilation.

·  Interpersonal stress, which results from difficulties dealing with others (coworkers, customers, supervisors) in the workplace.

·  Emotional labor, which involves the demands of regulating and controlling emotions in the workplace.

·  Harassment, including sexual harassment, harassment due to group membership (e.g., gender, race, sexual orientation), and being singled out by a coworker or supervisor.

·  Organizational change, including mergers, changes in work technology, and personnel/managerial changes

·  Work-family conflict, which results from efforts to balance competing demands of work and family.

Burnout

Burnout is the state of physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion and cynicism caused by long-term job stress

Opposite of Job Engagement – energy, involvement, and sense of efficacy

Who Suffers From Burnout?

·  Originally thought to occur among people in the helping professions

·  Anyone can suffer from burnout.

·  It is not a sign of weakness, mental illness or inability to cope with life.

·  Burnout can be treated, overcome, and prevented in the future.

Multi-dimensional model of Burnout (Christine Maslach)

·  Emotional Exhaustion

·  Depersonalization or cynicism

·  Reduced personal accomplishment or inefficacy

Emotional Exhaustion- The feeling of tiredness and fatigue at work

Basic stress response

Results: Absenteeism, fatigue

Depersonalization- The development of a cynical and callous feeling toward others

Results: Callous and uncaring treatment of clients and other people; hostility

Reduced personal accomplishment - Feeling that the employee is not accomplishing anything worthwhile

Results: low motivation, low performance

Consequences or Symptoms of Burnout

Symptoms are grouped into three categories:

·  Physiological

·  Cognitive/psychological

·  Behavioral

Physiological consequences or Symptoms

·  Loss of appetite/gain of appetite

·  Weight loss/weight gain

·  Trembling

·  Fatigue

·  Insomnia

·  Anger

·  Depression

·  Malaise

Physiological Consequences

·  Colds, headaches, and situations caused by muscle contractions may occur.

·  Cardiovascular disease and hypertension may result.

·  Unexplained weight gain or loss.

Psychological Consequences

·  Depression

·  Anxiety

·  Anger

·  Sleep problems

Behavioral Consequences

·  Job performance falls and workplace accidents are more common.

·  High stress levels impair the ability to remember information, make effective decisions, and take appropriate action.

·  Overstressed employees tend to have higher levels of absenteeism.

Person vs. the Situation

According Maslach (2003), there is not much research that burnout is related to a person’s disposition

Much stronger evidence that burnout is more a function of the situation and the interaction of person/situation

Demographics Burnout tends to be higher for:

·  People who are single

·  Younger workers

·  Men score higher on cynicism than women

·  Neuroticism

·  Lower for hardiness and self-esteem

Key domains of Work Life (Leiter & Maslach)

·  Workload

·  Control

·  Rewards

·  Community

·  Fairness

·  Values

Workload - Amount of work expectedwithin a given timeframe.

Reasonable workloads allow one to pursue career objectives and develop professionally.

Control- Opportunity to make choices and decisions, to solve problems, and to fulfill responsibilities.

Accountability in the absence of control results in frustration and feelings of ineffectiveness.

Reward -The power of positive reinforcements

Reward recognition

Community - Quality of an organization's social environment

Environments characterized by support, collaboration, and positive feelings are more likely to result in successful work.

Fairness - Extent to which organizations have consistent and equitable rules for everyone that communicates the organization’s respect for its members.

Any work policies or procedures that affect people’s sense of equity and social justice

Values- The fit betweenwhat is important to the organization and to its members.

Job goals and expectations are the same

Interventions for Burnout - Research on interventions to deal with burnout is limited

Individual-centered approaches

·  Training the individual to change work behaviors or strengthen his or her internal resources

·  May help reduce exhaustion but not the other dimensions

Organizational-centered approaches

·  Positive focus on job engagement (energy, involvement, and sense of efficacy)

·  Focus on improving the six areas of work life

·  Focus on a model of person-job fit