CHAPTER SIX- STRESS MANAGEMENT

1.1. What is Stress?

Hans Selye1, a medical researcher first used term “Stress” to describe the body’s biological
response mechanism which means “the nonspecific response of the body to any demand”. He
views that stress is the spice of life, the absence of stress is death which is usually considered to
be negative and caused due to something bad. Thus stress refers to distress.
Ivancevich and Matterson define stress as “the interaction of the individual with the
environment”
According to Beehr and Newman, stress is a condition arising from the interaction of people
and their jobs and characterized by changes within people that force them to deviate from their
normal functioning.
Stress is a dynamic condition in which a person is faced with lot of constraints while functioning
in the organization. Stress causes discomfort, which leads to disequilibrium in the individual’s
mind set. Stress is not always negative in nature. Stress is also a source of inspiration. When
there is a stress for any work it leads to higher performance. When stress is gravest, it reduces
employee productivity.

John M. Ivancevich and Michael T. Matterson have defined stress as “adoptive response,
mediated by individual characteristics and/ or psychological processes, which are a
consequence of any external action, situation or event that places special physical and/or
psychological demands upon a person”.

As it is clear from the definition, that stress is caused due to external factors, situations or
events. These have adverse impact on the individual characteristics and psychological processes.
External factors may include social setting, work ethics in the organization, leadership styles,
availability of resources, workload, level of technology and the work environment. The internal
factors that are affected are psychological in nature and include emotions, ego state, attitude,
perception, motivational factors, need and demographics.

Stress should not be confused with anxiety or nervous tension and damaging. They occur as
regular features in many cases and have no long – lasting impact on the working capacities of the
employees. Mishra (2003) has appropriately explained that anxiety may remain purely
psychological and may not cause any physical impact. Similarly, only physical impacts will not
be stress unless it is felt by the mind and heart. The psychological and physical impacts are
visible in the form of stress. Anxiety is the cause of stress but not stress it.
 1.2. Understanding sources of stress and its consequences
Sources of job stress
Organization, Group and individual have impact on the performance of a job. Environment also
effects adversely on the efficiency of the individual. The common sources of job stresses are:
1. Environment Factors
There are innumerable environmental factors that have caused a great deal of work stress on the
employees.
Ivancevich and Matterson have identified societal, economic, financial, cultural, familial and
technological factors which have tremendous influence on mental health of the employees.
Societal factors have forced both husband and wife to do the job to maintain a high level of life
style.
Government, NGOs and other voluntary organizations have introduced various schemes for the
welfare of the people. Though the life span in general has increased but the immunity in the body
has decreased to a great level and large number of people are suffering from various disease
caused by work stress.
Environmental stressors like family demands and obligation, economic and financial conditions,
race, caste, creed, ethnic identity, relocation due to transfer cause adverse effect on individuals.
2. Organizational Stressors
Organizational stressors can be classified into mission statement, strategies, policies,
organizational structure and design, reporting channels, communication, various processes,
systems and last but not the least the working conditions.
Organization mission and subsequent departmental goals have a long lasting impact on
the employees. Over ambitions goals leave employees more stretched for attaining the
same.
Good organizational polices, procedures, rules, regulations keep employees in high spirit.
On the contrary, adhockism, inadequate compensation, rigid rules, ambiguous
organizational policies and faulty job design cause tremendous amount of stress. Job
related policies must be sound and updated.
Task design should include job autonomy, task variety so that employee derives pleasure
while at work.
Work place, and work environment are two very important factors. Poor hygiene in work
place, inadequate space, light, lack of physical security at work place are stressors.
Stress is caused by inadequate support from subordinates, conflicting job requirements,
inadequate and poor performance measurement, and lack of empowerment.
3. Group Stressors
Hawthorne studies have established the impact of group cohesiveness, group norms and
importance of group objective for attainment of organizational goals. Lack of cohesiveness
creates conflict. Employees must be given full opportunities to develop themselves. People join
group for social security that should be provided. Managers must ensure that job well done is
recognized, omission on this account creates stress like situation in the minds of the
employees .Employee morale must be kept high to avoid group stress.
4. Individual Stressors
Personal life and events of official life cannot be separated. Events of marriage, divorce, death in
the family has a remarkable impact on work situation. Personal life difficulties are highly
stressful.
(a) Job Security
Job security is one of the major reasons for an employee. Insecurity increases during times of
recession. The prospect of losing job, especially when an employee is the sole bread earner for
the entire family is very stressful. Another reason for job related stress is promotion or
enhancement of appointment. A person must have a job commensurate with his qualification.
Promotion must be related to efficiency and due care should be exercised in this regard.
(b) Relocation: - Relocation is related to transfer of a person to a different place. A transfer
upsets the daily routine of individuals. The fear of working at new location with different people
itself is stressful. Unpredictability about new working environment and creating new relationship
cause anxiety. Transfer also creates problems for family members. It may be admission in
schools, adjustment to social environment, house and may even be language.
Consequences of Stress
Stress shows itself in a number of ways—physiological, psychological, and behavioral
symptoms.
1. Physiological symptoms:
• Most of the early concern with stress was directed at physiological symptoms due to the fact
that specialists in the health and medical sciences researched the topic.
• Physiological symptoms have the least direct relevance to students of OB.
2. Psychological symptoms:
Job-related stress can cause job-related dissatisfaction.
• Job dissatisfaction is “the simplest and most obvious psychological effect” of stress.
• Multiple and conflicting demands—lack of clarity as to the incumbent’s duties, authority, and
responsibilities—increase stress and dissatisfaction.
• The less control people have over the pace of their work, the greater the stress and
dissatisfaction.
3. Behavioral symptoms:
• Behaviorally related stress symptoms include changes in productivity, absence, and turnover, as
well as changes in eating habits, increased smoking or consumption of alcohol, rapid speech,
fidgeting, and sleep disorders.
• The stress-performance relationship indicates that:
a. The logic underlying the inverted U is that low to moderate levels of stress stimulate the body
and increase its ability to react.
b. Individuals then often perform their tasks better, more intensely, or more rapidly.
c. But too much stress places unattainable demands or constraints on a person, which result in
lower performance.
d. Even moderate levels of stress can have a negative influence on performance over the long
term as the continued intensity of the stress wears down the individual and saps his/her energy
resources.
• In spite of the popularity and intuitive appeal of the inverted-U model, it doesn’t get a lot of
empirical support.

1.3. Stress Management Strategies

“Stress Management Procedures for helping people cope with or reduce stress already being
experienced” .High or low levels of stress sustained over long periods of time, can lead to
reduced employee performance and, thus, require action by management.

1. Individual approaches:
• Effective individual strategies include implementing time management techniques, increasing
physical exercise, relaxation training, and expanding the social support network.
• Practicing time management principles such as:
A. Making daily lists of activities to be accomplished
B. Prioritizing activities by importance and urgency
C. Scheduling activities according to the priorities set
D. Knowing your daily cycle and handling the most demanding parts of your job during
The high part of your cycle when you are most alert and productive
• Noncompetitive physical exercise has long been recommended as a way to deal with excessive
Stress levels.
• Individuals can teach themselves to reduce tension through relaxation techniques such as
meditation, hypnosis, and biofeedback.
• Having friends, family, or work colleagues to talk to provides an outlet for excessive stress.

2. Organizational approaches
• Strategies that management might want to consider include:
A. Improved personnel selection and job placement
B. Use of realistic goal setting, redesigning of jobs
C. Training
D. Increased employee involvement
E. Improved organizational communication
F. Establishment of corporate wellness programs.

1.4. Implications for performance and satisfaction

Frustration
Frustration is a form of behavior which occurs when a person is prevented from achieving a goal
or objective. It refers to obstruction or impediment to goal oriented behavior. Frustration is
caused
Firstly due to delay in getting advancement or recognition through a promotion is insight. One
even gets frustrated waiting for some one to meet at a scheduled time and date.
Secondly, it is caused by non availability of various resources. A faculty member may not be
able to carryout research work because he is over burdened with other responsibilities. He may
get frustrated due to non – availability of time resource.
The third cause of frustration is non attainment of goal. For example failure in the examination,
non attainment of production or sales target, failure to get promotion are some of the causes of
frustration which are manifested in stress.
Anxiety
Jit.S.Chandan explains “anxiety” as a feeling of inability and helplessness in formulating
appropriate responses for dealing with the anticipated negative outcome. It occurs when a
decision has to be made but the outcome of the decision could have positive as well as negative
consequences. Anxiety also occurs when there is situation when one does not know as to what is
right. For example, an employee is serving in an organization for over ten years and fully
satisfied with the organizational culture but asked to move on promotion to a different
organization and to a far away place.

BURNOUT
Burnout is a type of existential crisis in which work is no longer a meaningful function.
Workers who experience burnout may no longer view their job as meaningful. They feel work as
tedious, redundant, and insignificant. They experience total fatigue which may show itself in the
form of boredom, depression and a powerful sense of alienation.

Morely and Katherine (1982) in their work on the subject have identified the pattern of behavior
burned out executives. They concluded that predictable behavior is as under:
(A) tendency to balance others in the organization for their burnout.
(b) To complain bitterly about aspects of work which in the past were not areas of concern?

(c) To miss work because of non-specific and increasingly prevalent illness.

(d) To daydream and sleep on the job.
(e) To be last to come and the first to leave.
(f) To bicker with co-workers or appear uncooperative and to become increasingly isolated from
others.

Organizational Productivity
When executive are not able to meet organizational objective due to external environmental
factors like shortage of raw material, government rules, market demand etc., they experience a
burnout. They feel a sense of helplessness. Burnout may also be noticed where there is a strict
bureaucratic way of doing things and very little scope for exploitation of personal skills,
innovation and creativity.