Unit-5

Stress
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 What is Stress?
• An adaptive response to a situation that is
perceived as challenging or threatening to the
person’s well-being
• Stressors- an environmental condition or
stimuli that places physical or emotional
demand on a person
• Examples
– Physical
– Emotional

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 Types of stress
• Episodic Stress- pattern of high stress followed
by intervals of relief
• Chronic Stress- constant confrontation of
stressors without relief
• Distress- stress that has a negative
consequence on a person’s well-being
• Eustress: Positive stress

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 Distress vs. Eustress
1. Causes anxiety or concern
2. Can be short- or long-term
3. Is perceived as outside of
our coping abilities
4. Feels unpleasant
5. Decreases performance
6. Can lead to mental and
physical problems
1. Motivates, focuses
energy
2. Is short-term
3. Is perceived as within
our coping abilities
4. Feels exciting
5. Improves performance
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Relationship Between
Stressors and Stress

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 Stressors and Stress Outcomes
Work Individual Consequences
Stressors Differences of Stress

Physical
environment Physiological
Role--related
Role Stress
Behavioral
over time
Interpersonal
Psychological
Organizational

Nonwork
Stressors

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A Model of Occupational Stress Outcomes

Behavioural
Sati sfaction
Performance
Absenteeism
Turnover
Acci dents
Substance Abuse

Outcomes
Cognitive
Poor decision-making
Lack of Concentration
Frogetfulness

Physiological
Increased Blood
Pressure
High Cholesterol
Heart Disease
Burnout

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 Consequences of Stress

Individual Organizational

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 Individual Consequences of Stress
Psychological Physiological
• Anxiety Stress • High blood pressure
• Depression • Muscle tension
• Low self-esteem • Headaches
• Sleeplessness • Ulcers, skin
• Frustration diseases
• Family problems Behavioral • Impaired immune
• Burnout systems
• Excessive smoking
• Heart disease
• Substance abuse
• Accident proneness
• Appetite disorders
• Violence
• Satisfaction
• Performance
• Absenteeism 1-9
 Organizational Consequences of Stress

• Absenteeism
• Diminished productivity • Direct medical
• Employee turnover expenses
• Job dissatisfaction

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 Individual Stress Management
• Exercise regularly
• Practice healthy habits
• Be realistic
• Use systematic relaxation
• Meditate
• Develop and use planning
skills
• Simplify your life – Delegate
• Take one thing at a time
• Avoid unnecessary
competition
• Recognize and accept
personal limits
• Develop social support
networks
• Focus on enjoying what you
do
• Go easy with criticism
• Take time off
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 Advanced Learning Workshop –
How Can You Cope With Stress?
Status (14 June 2013)
1) Time Management can be a huge cause for stress in many
peoples’ lives. Consider taking a class or course or reading
information available online or in magazines or books on how to
better manage your time and tasks.
2) Schedule - You may get more done with less stress if you make a
schedule. Think about which things are most important, and put
those at the top of your schedule/list to do those things first.
3) Take good care of yourself. Exercise, get plenty of rest, try to eat
well, don't smoke and limit how much alcohol you drink.

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 Advanced Learning
How Can You CopeWorkshop
With –
StatusStress (2) 2013)
(14 June
4) Stop negative thoughts. Easier said then done right? Well,
it’s a skill that would be beneficial to develop. Try writing down
your worries and work on letting go of things you cannot
change. Don’t worry about things that have past. Focus on the
positives and the future that you can still impact.

5) Speak up. Assertive communication can help you express how

you feel in a thoughtful, tactful way.

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 Advanced Learning
How Can You CopeWorkshop
With –
StatusStress (3) 2013)
(14 June
6) Ask for help. People who have a strong network of family and
friends manage stress better.

7) Do something you enjoy. A hobby, a bath, meditation, walking, or

volunteering are good, helpful ways to help you feel better and relieve
stress. Listen to relaxing music.

8) Keep a journal. Try including dates, time of day, time of year,

current events in your life, even your food intake and exercise routine
(if any).

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 Advanced Learning Workshop –
How Can You Cope With Stress(4)
Status
9) Focus on the present. (14 June
Try meditation, imagery2013)
exercises, or self-hypnosis.
Don’t keep thinking back to your mistakes and reliving the negative things
that happened. There is nothing you can do about it. Let it go and look
ahead, not behind.

10) Laugh it up! Try to look for the humor in life. Don’t take yourself so
seriously. Everything will pass eventually and keeping a sense of humor will
help lighten the load. Laughter really can be the best medicine!

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Organizational Strategies to Eliminate
Stress
» Improvements in the physical work environment;
» Job redesign to eliminate stressors;
» Changes in workloads and deadlines;
» Structural reorganization;
» Changes in work schedules, more flexible hours
» Management by objectives or other goal-setting
programmes;
» Greater levels of employee participation, particularly in
planning changes that affect them; and
» Workshops dealing with role clarity and role analysis.

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• Increase individuals’ autonomy and control
• Ensure that individuals are compensated properly
• Maintain job demands/requirements at healthy levels
• Ensure that associates have adequate skills to keep up-to-
date with technical changes in the workplace
• Increase associate involvement in important decision making
• Improve physical working conditions
• Provide for job security and career development
• Provide healthy work schedules
• Improve communication to help avoid uncertainty and
ambiguity

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 Individual Differences in Stress
• Perceive the situation differently

• Use different stress coping strategies

• Personality Type

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 Personality Type
• Type A- impatient, restless, competitive,
aggressive, under intense perceived time
pressure, always attempting to accomplish
several things at once
– need job and career control
– have more health problems and shorter careers
• Type B- does not feel pressure, works slowly and
enjoyably on a variety of tasks

• Important to match personality type with

position to avoid stress

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 Types of Coping

© Sam72/Shutterstock
• Problem-focused coping
– Based on one’s capability to think and alter
the environmental event or situation
• Emotion-focused coping
– Based on focusing inward on altering the way
one thinks or feels about a situation or an
event

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 Problem-Focused Coping

• Examples of this strategy at the thought

process level include:
– Utilization of problem-solving skills
– Interpersonal conflict resolution
– Advice seeking
– Time management
– Goal setting
– Gathering information about what is causing
stress
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 Problem-Focused Coping (cont’d)
• Examples of this strategy at the behavioral
or action level include activities such as:
– Compliance with a prescribed medical
treatment
– Adherence to a diabetic diet plan
– Scheduling and prioritizing tasks for managing
time

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 Emotion-Focused Coping
• Examples of this strategy at the thought
process level include:
– Denying the existence of the stressful
situation
– Freely expressing emotions
– Avoiding the stressful situation
– Making social comparisons
– Minimization or looking at the bright side of
things

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 Emotion-Focused Coping (cont’d)
• Examples of this strategy at the behavioral
or action level include:
– Seeking social support
– Use of exercise
– Relaxation
– Meditation
– Support groups

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 Summary
» Stress is one’s response to a disturbing factor in the environment and the
consequences of such reaction.
» Response to stress varies between individuals. How an individual experiences
stress depends on perception, past experience and social support the
individual has.
» Stressors originate at the individual, group, organisational or extra-
organisational level.
» Outcomes of stress are very serious. Individual suffers from stress, so also the
organisation which has to pay in terms of absenteeism, reduced productivity
and claims of damages from affected employees.
» One serious consequence of stress is burnout. Burnout results from
prolonged exposure to stress.
» There are individual as well as organisational strategies to cope with stress.
» Stress is negatively related to performance. Higher the stress, lower the
performance. The earlier belief that moderate level of stress enhances
performance is not held tenable now.

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