-: PREPARED BY :VISHAL V. DHANANI VIVEK R.

THAKER 59 60

MBA :- 1ST SEM SEC. - C ACADEMIC YEAR :- 2011-12 -: GUIDED BY :PROF.KRUTI BHATT & KOSHA NAIR -: SUBMITTED TO :DR.J.K.PATEL INSTUITION Of MANAGEMENT

PREFACE

Management ideas are widely tested in actual proactive with rapid, industrialization the management of business enterprise has acquired great theoretical as well as practical significance. As a result a formal study of MBA has become essential. Management is increasingly being re-organization. Many institution are engaged in providing management studies with practical training.

Being a student of MBA, we get knowledge of management theoretical as well as practical. However the study of management together with some practical study such as study of Functional Area will enhance the value of subject even more.

Stress: - Definition and Concept

What is Stress?
Stress is a dynamic condition in which an individual is confronted with an opportunity ,demand or resources related to what the individual desires and for which the outcomes is perceived to be both uncertain and important. This is a complicated definition. Here are some definitions of stress.

Definitions: Given by Beehr and Newman:

Stress is a condition arising from interection of people and their job and characterized bychanges within people that force them to deviate from their normal functioning

According to Fred Luthans,

Stress is an adaptive responds to an external situation that result in physical, psychological and or behavioural deviation for organizational participants. In simple word stress can by define as the pressure up on a person psychological system which arises out of complexity through stress. Basically up on a person psychological set up. It also term affect his/her physical behavioral system. The sources of stress can be individual, organizational and social. Although stress is typically discussed in a negative context it is not necessarily bad in and of itself; it also has a positive value. Its an opportunity when it offers potential gain. Consider, for example the superior performance an athlete or stage performer gives in a clutch situation. Such individuals often use stress positively to rise to the occasion and perform at their maximum. Similarly, many professional see the pressures of heavy workloads and deadline as positive challenges that enhance the quality of their work and the satisfaction they get from their job. Recently, researchers have argued that challenge stressors or stressors associated with workload, pressure to complete task, and time urgency operate quite differently from hindrance stressors or stressors that keep you from reaching your goals(for example- Red Tape, Office Politics, Confusion over job responsibilities). Researchers have sought to clarify the conditions under which each type of stress exists. It appears that employees who have a stronger affective commitment to
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their organization can transfer psychological stress into greater focus on higher sales performance, where as with low levels of commitment perform worse under stress. And when challenge stress increase those with high levels of organizational support heave higher role based performance, but those with low levels of organizational support do not . More typically, stress is associated with demands and resources. Demands are responsibility, pressures, obligations, and uncertainties individuals face in the workplace. Resources are things within an individuals control that he or she can use to resolve the demands. Lets discuss what this demands- resources models means.

LEVELS OF STRESS EUSTRESS:

Eustress or positive stress occurs when your level of stress is high enough to motivate you to move into action to get things accomplished.

DISTRESS:
Distress or negative stress occurs when your level of stress is either too high or too low and your body and/or mind begin to respond negatively to the stressors.

STAGES OF STRESS ALARM STAGE:

As you begin to experience a stressful event or perceive something to be stressful psychological changes occur in your body. This experience or perception disrupts your bodys normal balance and immediately your body begins to respond to the stressor(s) as effectively as possible.

RESISTANCE STAGE:
During this stage your body tries to cope or adapt to the stressors by beginning a process of repairing any damage the stressor has caused. Your friends, family or co-workers may notice changes in you before you do so it is important to examine their feedback to make sure you do not reach overload.

EXHAUSTION STAGE:
During this stage the stressor is not beingmanaged effectively and the body and mind are not able to repair the damage.
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Model of Stress

Potential Source of Stress

(1) Environmental Factors:

Just as environmental uncertainty influences the design of an organizations structure, it also influences stress level among employees in the organization. Indeed, uncertainty is the biggest reason people have trouble coping with organizational changes. There are three types of environmental uncertainty: Economic, Political, and Technological. Changes in the business cycle create economic uncertainties. When the economy is contracting, for example: people become increasingly anxious about their job security. Political uncertainties tend to create stress for entrepreneurs and CEOs in India. When political parties change, business priorities may have to change. Threats by Quebec to separate from Canada, or the difficulties of East Germany reintegrating with West Germany, lead to political uncertainty that become stressful to people in the countries. Because innovations can make an employees skills and experience obsolete in a very short time, computers, robotics, automation, and similar forms of technological change are a threat to many people and causes them stress.

(2)

Organizational Factors:

There is no shortage of factors within an organization that can cause stress. Pressure to avoid errors or complete tasks in limited time, work overload, a demanding and incentives boss, and unpleasant co-workers are a few examples: We have categorized these factors around tasks, role, and interpersonal demands. Task demands relate to a persons job. They include the design of the job (its degrees of autonomy, task variety, degree of automation), working conditions, and the physical work layout. Assembly lines can put pressure on people when they perceive the lines speed to be excessive. Working in an overcrowded room or a visible location where noise and interruptions are constant can increase anxiety and stress. As customer service grows ever more important, emotional labour becomes a source of stress. Imagine being a flight attendant for Kingfisher Airlines or a cashier at Caf Coffee Day. Do you think you could put on a happy face when
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youre having a bad day? Role demand relates to pressure placed on a person as a function of the particular role he or she plays in the organization. Role conflicts create expectations that may be hard to reconcile or satisfy. Role overload occurs when the employee is expected to do more than the time permits. Role ambiguity means role expectation is not clearly understood and the employee is not sure what to do. Individuals who face high situational constraints (Such as fixed work hours or demanding job responsibilities) are also less able to engage in the proactive coping behaviours that reduces stress levels. When faced with hassles at work they will not only have higher levels of distress at the time, but they will also be less likely to take steps to eliminate stressors in the future. Interpersonal demands are pressure created by other employees. Lack of Social support from colleagues and poor interpersonal relationships can cause stress especially among employees with a high social need. A rapidly growing body of research has also shown that negative coworker and supervisor behaviours, including flights, bullying, incivility, racial harassment, and sexual harassment, are especially strongly related to stress at work.

(3) Personal Factors:

The typical individuals works about 40 to 50 hours a week. But the experiences and problems people encounter in the other 120-plus can spill over to the job. Our final category, then, is factor in the employees personal life: family issues, personal economic problems, and inherent personality characteristics. National Surveys consistently show people hold family and personal relationships dear. Marital difficulties, the breaking of a close relationship, and discipline troubles with children create stresses employees often cant leave at the front door when they arrive at work. Regardless of income level-people who make Rs.40 lakh per year seem to have as much trouble handling their finances as those who earn Rs.2 lakh some people are poor money managers or have wants that exceed their earning capacity. The economic problems of overextended financial resources create stress and siphon attention away from work. Studies in three diverse organization found that participants who reported stress symptoms before beginning a job accounted for most of the variance in stress symptoms reported nine months later. The researchers concluded that some people may have an inherent tendency to accentuate negative aspect of the world. If this is true, then a significant individual factor that influences stress is a persons basic disposition. That is, stress symptoms expressed on the job may actually originate in the persons personality.
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Individual Differences:
Some people thrive on stressful situations, while others are overwhelmed by them. What is it that differentiates people in terms of their ability to handle stress? What individual difference variables moderate the relationship between Potential stressors and experienced stress? Four variables have been found to be relevant moderators that are as follows:

Perception:
It will moderate the relationship between a potential stress condition and an employees reaction to it. For example, one persons fear that he will lose his job because his company is laying off personnel may be perceived by another as an opportunity to get a large severance allowance and start his own business. So stress potential doesnt lie in objective conditions; it lies in an employees interpretation of those conditions.

Job Experience:
The evidence indicates that experience on the job tends to be negatively related to work stress. It can be clear with two explanations First is the idea of selective withdrawal. Voluntary turnover is more probable among people who experience more stress. Therefore, people who remain with an organization longer are those with more stress-resistant traits or those who are more resistant to the stress characteristics of their organization. Secondly, People eventually develop coping mechanisms to deal with stress. Because this takes time, senior members of the organization are more likely to be fully adapted and should experience less stress.

Social Support:
Collegial relationship with co-workers or supervisors-can buffer the impact of stress. The logic underlying this moderating variable is that social support act as a palliative, mitigating the negative effects of even high- strain jobs.

 Personality
Personality also affects the degree to which people experience stress and how they cope with it. Perhaps the most widely studied personality trait in stress is Type A personality particularly that aspect of Type A that manifests itself in hostility and anger is associated with increased levels of stress and risk for heart disease. More specifically, people who are quick to anger, maintain a persistently hostile outlook, and project a cynical mistrust of others are at increased risk of experiencing stress in situations.

Consequences of Stress
Stress shows itself in number of ways, such as high blood pressure, ulcers, irritability, difficulty making routine decisions, loss of appetite accident proneness and the like. These symptoms fit fewer than three general categories: 1. Physiological symptoms 2. Psychological symptoms 3. Behavioural symptoms

1. Physiological symptoms :Most early concern with stress was directed at Physiological Symptoms because most researchers were specialists in the health and medical science. Their work led to the conclusion that stress could create change in metabolism, increase heart and breathing rates and blood pressure, bring on headaches, and induce heart attacks. Because symptoms are complex and difficult to measure objectivity, the link between particular Physiological effects is not clear. Traditionally, researchers conclude there were few, if any, consistent relationship. More recently, some evidence suggests stress may have Physiological effect. One study linked stressful job demand increase susceptibility to upper respiratory illnesses and poor immune system functioning, especially for individuals with low self efficiency.

2. Psychological symptoms:
Job dissatisfaction is the simplest and most obvious Psychological effect of stress. But stress shows itself in other Psychological states- for instance, tension
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anxiety, irritability, boredom, and procrastination. Jobs that make multiple and conflicting demand or that lack clarity about the incumbents duties, authority, and responsibilities. Increase both stress and dissatisfaction. Similarly, the less control people have over the pace of their work, the greater the stress and dissatisfaction, although more research in needed to clarify the relationship, job that provide low level of variety, significance, autonomy feedback, and identity appear to create stress and reduce satisfaction and involvement in job. Not everyone react to autonomy in the same way, however. For those who have an external locus of control, increased job control increases the tendency to experience stress and exhaustion.

3. Behavioural symptoms:Behaviour related stress symptoms include change in productivity, absence, and turnover, as well as change in eating habits, increased smoking or consumption of alcohol, rapid speech, fidgeting and sleep disorders. A significance amount of research has investigated the stress-performance relationship. The most widely studied pattern of this relationship is the inverted U. Inverted-U Relationship between Stress and Job Performance The logic underlying the inverted U is that low to moderate levels of stress stimulate the body and increase its ability to react. Individuals then often perform their task better, more intensely. But too much stress places unattainable demand on a person, which result in lower performance. The inverted U may also describe our relationship to stress overtime as well as to change in stress intensity. That is, even moderate level of d=stress can have a negative influence on performance over the long term as continued intensity of the stress wears down the individual and saps energy resources. And athlete may be able to use positive effect of stress to obtain higher performance during every Saturday game in the fall season, or a sales executive may be able to psych herself up for her presentation at the annual nation meeting. But moderate level of stress experienced continually over long period, such by the emergency room staff in a large urban hospital, can result in lower performance. This may explain why emergency room staffs are frequently rotated, and why it is unusual for individuals to spend the bulk of their career in such an environment, exposed to the risk of career burnout .In spite of popularity and an intuitive
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appeal of the inverted U model, it does not get a lot of empirical support. We should be careful of assuming it accurately depicts the stress performance.

Managing stress
From the organizations point of view management may not be concerned when employees experience low to moderate levels of stress. High level of stress or even low level of stress sustained over long periods, can lead to reduce employee performance and, it require action by management. Although a limited amount of stress may benefit an employees performance, but it is not necessary that employee is always think like them. Managers and employees have different perception towards the level of stress. Following are two approaches towards managing stress. 1) Individual Approach, 2) Organizational Approach

1) Individual Approach
By individual approach we come to know that an employee can take personal responsibility for reducing stress levels. Individual strategies that have proven effective include implementing time management techniques, increasing physical exercise, relaxation training, and expanding the social support network. Many people manage their time poorly. So an understanding and utilization of basic time management principle help an individual to reduce the stress created by jod demands. Following are several time management principles: 1) Making daily lists of activities to complete the work. 2) Give priority according to the work urgency. 3) Scheduling activities according to the activities priorities. Also some physician recommended noncompetitive physical exercise for reducing the stress such as, aerobics, walking, jogging, swimming, and riding a bicycle. These forms of physical exercise increase heart capacity, lower at-rest heart rate, provide a mental diversion from work pressures. Relaxation techniques as meditation, hypnosis, and biofeedback also help employee to reduce the level of stress.
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2) Organizational Approach
Several of the factors that cause stress-particularly task and role demands-are controlled by management. As such employees can be modified and changed. Strategies that management might want to include improved personnel selection and job placement, training, use of realistic goal setting, redesigning of jobs, increased employee involvement. Certain jobs are more stressful than others but, individuals differ in their response to stressful situation. Selection and placement decisions should take above into consideration. Also training can increase an individuals self efficiency of doing the work. Goal setting is also be helpful in reducing stress. Also provide motivation to the employees. Goal feedback reduces uncertainties about the actual job performance. It results less employee frustration, role ambiguity and stress. Redesigning jobs help to give employees more responsibility, more meaningful work, more autonomy, and increased feedback can reduce stress because these factors give the employees greater control over work activities and lesser dependence on others. If individuals prefer structure and routine, reducing skill variety should also reduce uncertainties levels. Role stress is also important because employees feel insecure about the goals; expectations etc., management can increase employee control and reduce this role stress. So managers should consider increasing employee involvement in decision making. Also formal increasing organizational communication with employees reduces uncertainty by lessening role ambiguity and role conflict. An effective communication by management also shapes employees perceptions. Organization should also allow employees to travel, relax, or pursue projects that consume time beyond normal vacation weeks -all these called sabbaticals. Organization should give or organize some wellness programme for the employees. These programs only focus on employees total physical and mental conditions. The organization is merely a vehicle to facilitate this all.

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CONCLUSION:
Problem to all solution is maintaining a balance of everything that is Work Life Balance. It means a harmonious balance of work and domestic life. It allows an employee to fulfil all the roles in his/her life effectively and efficiently. Researches have proved that employees are at their best when they are contended and motivated both at work and at home. Achieving a work-life balance is not as easy as it seems. In the corporate world, change is constant and imminent. The impact of globalization has further fuelled these changes. The corporate world signifies uncertainties, too many responsibilities, and long work hours. These changes in the environment disturb the balance between domestic and work-life of employees. The increasing competition and demands of society further aggravate the situation. All this adds up to stress. Companies are realizing the importance of the work-life balance of employees has a direct effect on the productivity of their organization. Here are few examples of some of the renowned companies who follow various practices:
1: Tata consultancy Services (TCS):

TCS has come up with the Matree, serve as a platform for sharing information, exchanging knowledge, and reaching out to help others. It provides information about education, holidays etc of a new country or location. This organization has set up a website exclusively accessible only to the spouses of TCS employees.
2: Max New York Life Insurance:

To break away from the monotony of work, the company has a life fun and youth club (Lyfun) which regularly organizes various recreational programs for its employees. The company also provides their employees with healthy salads daily. Lyfun is includes seminar indoor games, out door games, quizzes, seminar etc

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3: Google Inc.s work place has very informal furniture like beanbags, sofas, couches etc it also has recreation facilities like gymnasium. Massage rooms, video game parlor etc

Steps To Achieve Work-Life Balance:

To build up an awareness of the importance of work-life balance in employees, companies should conduct regular workshops and programs on work-life balance. The following measures have to be taken by employers Discourage employees from working late. Take a regular employee satisfaction survey that can identify the pitfalls in the work pattern Provide vacations and encourage employees to take breaks Provide opportunities like work from home, flexible timing.

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BIBILOGRAPHY

Book Reference
ORGANISATION BEHAVIOUR 13th and 14TH EDITION o STEPHEN . P. ROBBINS o TIMOTHY A. JADGE o NEHARIKA VOHRA Managerial Effectiveness (Managing the Self and Others) : The ICFAI Centre for Management Research

Website References
http//www.teachhealth.com https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dcxfxw6d_3121g8684 zg3

Power Point Presentations Refereed

Stress management ppt by Nisha Gupta Stress management ppt by Aayu

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