FRUSTRATION

1. Introduction:

Human beings are compiled with tons of emotions. These Emotions can be of happiness, of depression,
of sorrow, of anxiety, of love, of frustration and of various other kinds of mental states. Employees of
any organization are human beings who work to contribute in the economic system of the nation, of the
world and to improve individual lifestyle, living standards. In a word, employees of any organization are
considered as working tools by the organization.

Human beings being working tools cannot avoid emotions and therefore, employees deal with
their emotions in their working life as well, influenced by individual perceptions, ideologies,
believes and concepts. Variations of these thoughts often lead employees to various conflicts. And
conflict can result in internal anxiety, peer tension, unhealthy working atmosphere and ultimately
frustration. There are several conflicts that arise in any organization either in an Inter personal level or in
an intrapersonal level. An employee struggles to survive in an organization to go through these
conflicts, handle these in a professional manner to get rid of any sort of conflicts as well as to keep the
working environment conflict-free and healthy.

Many factors and reasons are related to this employee frustration. These factors are important to be

chalked out at first, to be understood properly and to be minimized or effaced gradually from
the working atmosphere. When percentage of frustrated employees arises in an organization, the

organization takes measure to minimize the intensity because it is an alarming situation for any
organization.

What is Frustration?

Frustration is a state of mind which leads one to such a blockage that is captured by all
negative vibrations of emotion. Any individual experiencing something completely opposite to her/his
wants or desires can get into deep frustration. Frustration also occurs whenever an individual is forced
to response to something that the individual wishes to avoid.

Frustration is one with which each of us has had personal, and perhaps agonizing, experience. Anyone
who has ever been beset by needless anxiety and has been prevented by perceived
psychological barriers from fulfilling the promise of his or her personal dignity and integrity should
read this book. Frustration, a complex emotional state, erupts when we face an impediment. (1
Dr. Knaus, How to Conquer your frustration)

Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines frustration as "a deep chronic sense or state of insecurity and
dissatisfaction arising from unresolved problems." However, to define frustration adequately requires
expanding the meaning of this concept through the use of a process definition.
Frustration versus Humane Values:

In today’s world, most of the organizations treat employees only as working machines rather
than evaluating human beings as human beings. Frustration occurs when human values are not valued,
when humans are only treated as revenue earning tools, when humans are considered only as
resources.

Reasons of Frustration:

a. Frustrations, Irritations, and Annoyances:

Human beings get annoyed when something noxious recurs or someone behaves offensively. (Dr.
Knaus, How to Conquer your frustration) In the organization arena, employees’ behavior can be a core
reason of being irritated and frustrated. In an organization a difficult boss, non-supporting co-workers
and obligatory rules may frustrate the employees because it impedes the wish for freedom from
annoyance. Continuous irritation provokes and anger is generated gradually towards such motivators.
Difficult supervisors who do not want to appreciate by any means, difficult co-workers who wish
to make perilous traps with their behavior, attitude for an individual employee to survive
instigates irritation, annoyances and finally frustration in that individual. If it continues you might
perceive the whole work atmosphere as exasperating. Sometimes recurrent stresses and tensions build
up to a boiling point, and paroxysm is observed a paroxysm (a sudden violent outburst of emotion)
directed at the source of annoyance, irritation, and frustration.

Exp: an employee named ‘Mr.X’ has been working in a team named ‘MIS’ for several years and has been
working really hard to get into a better position, but his supervisor ‘Mr.Y’ is a difficult one, who does not
appreciate Mr.X’s works the way he should have rather Mr. Y demeans his sub-ordinate and acts in a
very difficult manner. This attitude of the supervisor creates an extreme annoyance and irritation in
Mr.X and its continuous approach makes him frustrated at one point.

b. Frustrations: Threat and Conflict:

Frustration arises due to various conflicts in the working atmosphere. Threats and conflicts also get
overlapped with frustration in many cases.

I. In threat conditions, something challenges the individual's integrity or basic drives.

Exp: If an employee named ‘Mr. Z’ is questioned with her/his skills at work, it is a major insult or
challenge to individual’s core integrity.

II. In conflict, the person faces opposing forces. Whichever way he moves, he risks unwanted
consequences. Exp: If an employee named ‘Ms.T’ has to deal with a biased supervisor on one hand
and on the other hand peers are not even supporting kind, the employee gets into a suffocation
feeling and gets frustrated.

Conflict Conditions: Psychological theorist Kurt Lewin described several conflict conditions. These are:

1. Conflicts between two desirable alternatives

A capable candidate can only choose one job among two alluring job offers, whereas the candidate has
got aspiration for both. Exp: Mr. X got offer from Grameenphone as well as from BAT with same salary,
position and package, here Mr.X needs to decide which one to choose.

2. Conflicts between two undesirable alternatives

An employee has to join the one to one session with her/ his supervisor whereas she/he hates to be in
the session for the discussion again she/he cringes at the thought that his supervisor would
score her/him negatively if she/he doesn’t attend the session). Exp: Mr.X unwillingly attends the one-to-
one session with his supervisor ‘Mr.Y’.

3. Conflicts between simultaneously desirable and undesirable alternatives

An employee wishes for a transfer to the regional office due to an aspiration of getting more authority
and freedom of work however, the feeling of working in a regional office also reduces the
current benefits of her/his working at the head office in the main city. Exp: Mr.X wishes to get a
transfer from Dhaka Office to Rangpur Office in the suburbs in a higher position, knowing that other
benefits will not be available over there. Thus, conflict has the potential for producing frustration
because each conflict situation contains both an obstacle and a choice.

Frustration Processes: (3Dr. Knaus, How to Conquer your frustration)

1. Frustrations exist when our wants, wishes, and desires get thwarted or interrupted. The
feeling results from disparities between what we want and what we find available. For example, when
our level of aspiration exceeds our level of achievement we will likely experience frustration.

2. Frustrations can range from imperceptible to powerful.

3. Frustration starts from a feeling of discomfort

4. Frustrations start within oneself because of the thought of what and how impediments can arise.

5. Strong frustrations result in mixed emotional states that have a disorganizing effect on memory and
behavior.

6. Depending upon interpreting the feelings of frustration, stimulation occur of positive change,
aggression, regression, complacency, or compulsive behavior

Development of Frustration:

Few minor dissatisfaction issues, disagreements, anxieties, assault and various negative factors arises
before the conflict situation turns out to be in a frustrated situation.

Whenever Latent Conflict gets prominent conflict awareness arises and whenever conflict
awareness gets important frustration occurs. Latent Conflict arises when individuals (employees) keep
the conflict issues inside her/him, avoidance, isolation, denial and self-centered behavior gets
prominent. In the maximum point of Latent conflict, conflict awareness arises where employees
complain, gets stressed, provides negative opinions and gets in a mode of accomplishing the
awareness against conflicts. And when, this stage also reaches its maximum point, frustration
occurs, where we can see severe negativism, over sensitivity and severe withdrawal. When severe
frustration occurs employees start disagreeing and if disagreement becomes prominent, assault can
even occur.

Exp: In a very reputed Telco company of Bangladesh, the drivers & third party employees once
protested for their rights regarding salary and increments. They have been deprived of a proper salary
for quite a long time and therefore frustration caught them in core and gradually, they started opposing,
disagreeing with the views of top management and finally during their protest, the drivers assaulted few
top managers of the company for their ruthless and irrational behavior.

Categories of Frustration:

Frustration can be segmented into two new categories: process and episode

1. Process Frustration: A process frustration occurs when a person continuously feels blocked in a major
area of life, such as learning, work, or love. Exp: Not enough salary and benefits at work creates the
frustration in Mr. X.

2. Episode Frustration: An episode frustration consists of a temporary impeding problem or

condition. (3Dr. Knaus, How to Conquer your frustration) Exp: Initially Mr. X was happy at work, but
gradually his supervisor’s inconsistent, irrational and biased behavior made him unhappy and gradually
frustration caught him in the process.

Levels of Frustrations: Frustration has 5 basic dimensions and layers.

1. Aggression: Whenever, the frustration gets into the psychological core sphere and it becomes quite
impossible to get rid of it rather it over powers everything else, the individual may be in an aggressive
mode of frustration.

Frustration and Aggression: In early 1960s, psychology researchers and clinicians actively studied the
relationship between frustration and aggression. It is believed that frustration leads to aggression.
However, the frustration-aggression model is both too sweeping and too simple. Leonard Berkowitz,
proposed some focus points to understand this model.

The focus Points Are:

1. Aggressor’s Intentions

2. Attitude

3. Learning

4. Interpretation of emotional reaction

Exp: Mr. X, horribly annoyed and frustrated on his supervisor’s behavior and speeches thus he starts
arguing with him on every topic.

2. Withdrawal: If the frustration gets into a phase of irritation of extreme repugnance then it may turn
into a withdrawal state. Exp: Mr. X, horribly upset with his supervisor’s biased behavior feels a sheer
hatred towards him and thus withdraws to take any sort of input from him and tries to stay reluctant at
work.

3. Rationalization: When the individual is aware of thy frustration and looks for an alternative path for
way out of this frustration, it gets lead to a positive mode and it is called rationalization. Exp:
Mr.X looking for a new job.

4. Compromise: However, when individuals think of rationally to deal with it in a positive or negative or
in a reluctant manner the frustration modes can be of rationalization or compromise. Exp: Mr. X stays
negative but attends work by compromising with self-realization and tries to cope up with the
supervisor’s demand but with less effort.

5. Fixation: Finally, if an individual wants to fix or solve the frustration issue then it is said to be that the
frustration layers have already been crossed and it is in a state of completion or getting over with it. Exp:
Mr. X wishes to quit the job, even if he cannot find another one at the moment.

Frustration Model:

1. Need: (Desire to Have a Promising Career with a good salary in the beginning)

2. Drive: (Wish to receive a good salary along with increments, get a promotion)

3. Barrier: (Frequent Policy Change in the Organization)

4. Goal: (CEO of Grameenphone Company)

Behavioral Pattern of the employees

According to The Frustration Model, the behavioral patterns of the employees of any organization can
be explained during their inter-personal conflicts. By this Model we have known that there are five basic
behavioral patterns of the employees that can be detected during their different level of frustrations
during these conflicts.

Frustration occurs whenever the smooth mental or psychological thoughts flow is blocked in such a way
that the person instead of staying motivated gets annoyed and completely unenthusiastic about
the entire matter. These barriers that create blockage and obstructions can be in various ways – both in
physical and in psychological or mental way.

Here in terms of any Organization & its various polices, I want to present a case where an employee can
be demotivated to severe level and finally can get frustrated in various ways.
Handling Anger and Frustration at Work: Recommendations

Malcolm Forbes said, “Work without conflict is a hobby.” There can be effective ways of minimizing
conflict and managing work relationships then employees would have a healthy relationship inside the
organization. The main objective of this module is to help organizations, managers and
employees handle anger and frustration at work.

Anger and frustration at work can be handled by:

• Increasing understanding of the basic causes of anger and frustration in the workplace

• Providing tools for dealing effectively with them

• Managing work relations to minimize the occurrence of anger and frustration in the workplace

• Treating employees as human beings and maintaining humane values

My recommendations are of handling anger & frustration of the employees can be divided into two
main sectors:

1. Pre Frustration or Prevention

2. Post Frustration of Conflict Management

Anger and frustration at work can be handled by:

• Increasing understanding of the basic causes of anger and frustration in the workplace

• Providing tools for dealing effectively with them

• Managing work relations to minimize the occurrence of anger and frustration in the workplace

• Treating employees as human beings and maintaining humane values

My recommendations are of handling anger & frustration of the employees can be divided into two
main sectors:

1. Pre Frustration or Prevention

2. Post Frustration of Conflict Management

1. Pre Frustration or Prevention: Management should take measures beforehand to keep the conflicts
in a minimized format so that employees do not get de-motivated or frustrated. There are three ways:
I. Aligning Human resource policies with Human rights UDHR and ILO

a. Re-furnish the Human resource management policies

b. Inclusion of UDHR & ILO to secure Human rights at work

Exp: Company ABC revises the Human Resource policies and gives priority to employees’ mental state
and needs.

II. Building up Human relationships by healthy communication

a. No job overlapping should exist at work place

b. Freedom of ownership must be given

c. Free flow of information exchanging must exist

d. Proper scope for career growth should be provided

Exp: Company ABC designs the job descriptions carefully, provides employees the necessary flexibility
and freedom to grow individual’s career.

III. Assigning appropriate managers with humane quality and analytical thinking capability

a. Do not appoint selfish managers

b. Do not appoint managers with less confidence or superior confidence in thyself

c. Do not appoint managers who can be biased

d. Do not appoint managers who doesn’t have enough knowledge about the job

e. Appoint managers with soft-skills and good communication skill mainly

f. Appoint managers who can protect sub-ordinate’s rights

g. Appoint managers who create the work place ‘like home environment’

Exp: Company ABC has discarded the managers who cannot deal with human relationships
properly.

2. Post Frustration or Conflict Management: Management should manage conflict in a positive and
effective manner. Conflict management can be done in three ways:

I. Categorizing the conflicts

a. Task oriented

b. Supervisor / Co-workers oriented

c. Personal Emotion oriented

Exp: Company ABC and its Management identifies the conflict issues and resolves those.
II. Appointing Counselor or Psychologist

a. Sessions to ventilate the anger /frustration

b. Suggestions of employees taken into account

Exp: Company ABC hires experts like psychologists or counselors to deal with the conflict situation
instead of going to hard line.

III. Manage frustrations at individual level (when controlling the outside environment becomes
difficult it’s better to apply these principles on self.)

a. Build the body to withstand the stress of multiple frustrations.

b. Liberate the mind so that we can remain alert to opportunities and utilize resources

c. Change the pattern(s) that promote needless frustrations.

d. Don't stay stuck in a rut or repeat counterproductive actions.

Exp: Mr. X keeps all the frustrations and agony regarding work to a separate side of his brain and works
on his self-developments, desires, dreams to overlook and manage his frustration at work.

Meaning of frustration

Frustration is a negative behavior which arises when a motivated drive is blocked due to various
reasons. It is one of the causes of stress. When a motivated drive is constrained by obstacles or barriers
before it reaches the desired goal, the situation is called employee frustration. Frustration occurs due to
internal conflict in individual goal and objectives. Hence, it results from the condition internal to the
individual rather than external influences. It prevents an employee to achieve a desired level of
outcome. Frustration is an obstacle to goal achievement; hence, it may result in the wastage of
resources and efforts. It arises when one’s motivation to achieve the desired goal is blocked. For
example, an employee wants to finish a report before the end of the day but finds that something or the
others keep interrupting him at work. This can lead to his frustration.

More precisely, frustration is a consequence of interpersonal interactions. Everyone has some sorts of
wants or desires. They are motivated towards the achievement of those wants/desires through
organizational processes. But all of their wants and desires are not fulfilled at a time. Because some are
irrelevant, whereas other may contradict each other. Hence, a tension full environment is created with
individuals. As a result of which frustration takes place within them
Types of Reactions to Frustration

The reactions to frustration are also known as Defense Mechanisms. These defense mechanisms are so
called as they try to defend individuals from the psychological effects of a blocked goal. When some
employees get frustrated, they become tensed and irritable. They experience an uneasy feeling in their
stomach and also show various other reactions of frustration.

Following are the various types of reactions to frustration:-

1. Withdrawal: Behaviours such as asking for a transfer or quitting a job.

2. Fixation: An employee blames others and superiors for his problems, without knowing complete
facts.

3. Aggression: Acting in a threatening manner.

4. Regression: Behaving in an immature and childish manner and may self-pity (to feel sorry for
oneself).

5. Physical Disorder: Physical ailments such as fever, upset stomach, vomiting, etc.

6. Apathy: Becoming irresponsive and disinterested in the job and his co-workers.

7. Compromise: Some employees are unwilling to accept failure as an option, and will instead find
a compromise that involves achieving at least part of their goal, to help them to feel like they
have still done something good, and to save themselves from any expected embarrassment.

Sources or Causes of Frustration

Following are the main sources or causes of frustration:-

1. Environment: The workplace environment and natural environment both may frustrate the
employees. For example, there may be break down in machinery, no canteen facilities, a wet
rainy day or a hot sunny day may prevent the employees to perform their duties efficiently.

2. Co-workers: Co-workers may be a major source of frustration. They may place barriers in the
way of goal attainment by delaying work, withholding work inputs, poor presentation of work,
affecting its quality, etc.

3. Employee Himself: The employee himself is rarely recognized as a source of frustration. The
employee may set higher goals than his abilities.

4. Management: Management may act as the source of frustration, they may block the promotion
of an employee due to change in organization’s promotional policies.

5. Communication problems. People aren’t communicating effectively in your team, or with other
teams, resulting in misunderstandings and wasted effort.
 6. Limited career progression. Sometimes people become frustrated by the limited opportunity
for career development in their team.

7. Process problems. Inefficient, slow processes can be a cause of frustration. “This is a waste of
my time, there is an easier way!”

Solution to frustration

1. Create a safe and trusting environment—the number one job of a leader is to build trust with his/her
followers. Fostering a culture of safety is essential for trust to not only survive, but thrive. People need
to know they can count on their leaders to look out for their best interests, protect them when
necessary (even from themselves sometimes), and to genuinely care about them as people and not just
worker drones showing up to do a job.

2. Ask people for their opinions—One of the most tangible ways leaders can combat frustration and
insecurity in the workplace is to ask people for their opinions. But asking is just the first step; you have
to do something with what they tell you. The higher up a leader rises in the organization, the easier it is
to lose touch with the daily frustrations and battles your employees face. It’s easy to oversimplify the
problems and solutions our people face and dismiss their expressions of frustration as whining or
griping. Listen with the intent of being influenced and be willing to take action on what you learn.

3. Start, stop, continue—as you consider your next round of corporate restructuring, job modification,
or process improvements, ask yourself these three questions: What do we need to start doing? What do
we need to stop doing? What do we need to continue doing? I’ve found it’s easy to keep adding new
tasks while continuing to do the old tasks. It’s much, much harder to identify those things we should
stop doing. We can’t continue to pile more and more work on people and expect them to perform at
consistently high levels. There is only so much time to accomplish the work at hand. As an addition to
the start, stop, continue strategy, I’m seriously considering adopting a strategy from the simplicity
movement: for every new task I add for my team, we have to eliminate one task. Enough of task
saturation!

4. Manage change, don’t just announce it—Managing a change initiative involves more than just
announcing a new strategy. That’s the easy part! The hard part is actually implementing and managing
the change well. People go through specific stages of concern when faced with a major change and
leaders need to be equipped to address those concerns throughout the process. By addressing the
information, personal, and implementation concerns of employees, leaders can be much more
successful in helping their people adapt and endorse the change initiative.

5. Focus on development of boss/employee relationship—One of the primary factors in an employee’s

success, satisfaction, and engagement on the job is the quality of the relationship with their boss.
Intentional effort needs to be placed on cultivating high-quality boss/employee relationships founded on
trust and mutual respect. Frequent and quality conversations need to occur regularly between the boss
and employee so the boss is aware of the daily challenges faced by the employee and can work to
remove obstacles.
6. Foster empowerment, control, and autonomy—People don’t resist change; they resist being
controlled. Much of today’s workplace frustrations are caused by workers having a lack of
empowerment in their role, little control over what effects them at work, and scant autonomy in how
they perform their tasks. Leaders can build engagement by focusing on the development of these three
qualities in the work people do.

Workplace frustration and insecurity is like organizational high blood pressure—it’s a silent killer. This
silent killer is not always evident through outward symptoms, but it’s always lurking underneath causing
damage day after day. We have a choice…will we do anything about it?