STRESS MANAGEMENT

Bur out Stress S dro e, the

consequence of a high level of job stress,
personal frustration and inadequate
coping skills have major personal
organisational costs – all these costs are
pro a l i reasi g.
W.S. PAINE
MANAGEMENT PRFEOSSOR
 INTRODUCTION
 Modern life is full of stress
 Stress on individuals ranges from personal day-
to-day life of their organisational activities
 Urbanisation – industrialisation and increase in
scale of operations in the society are causing
increasing stresses
 In the changing environment – participation,
interaction, transaction, planning and
regulations become very key issues – each with
its own frustrations attracted
 People feel stress as they can no longer have
complete control over what happens in life.
 Stress is a costly business expense that
affects both employee health and company
profits .

Our attempt should be to understand STRESS, its

CAUSES and IMPACT and adopting strategies for
MINIMISING ITS IMPACT
 CONCEPT OF STRESS
 STRESS is basically the impact of one object on
another
 There are three terms which are used
synonymously to denote this phenomenon
STRESS-STRAIN-PRESSURE
 Stress is a term basically used in physical
sciences which means pressure of one object on
another
 From physical sciences, the term stress came to
medical sciences and finally to social science
STYLE – who has do e resear h o STRESS No
spe ifi all i du ed ha ges withi a iologi al s ste .

It is non-specific because any adaptation to a problem

faced by the body, irrespective of the nature of the
problem, is included in stress.

In the context, of jobs, Beehr and Newman have defined

job stress as follows:

Jo stress is a o ditio arisi g fro the i tera tio of

people and their jobs and characterised by changes within
people that face them to deviate from their normal
fu tio i g.
 FEATURES OF STRESS
 STRESS may result in any kind of deviation
– physical, psychological or behavioural in
the person
 STRESS is different from anxiety which
operates solely in the emotional and
psychological sphere.
 STRESS may be accompanied by anxiety but
it is more comprehensive than anxiety.
 STRESS may be result of individuals
interaction with environmental stimuli.
 Su h sti uli a e i the for of
interpersonal interaction, event and so on.
 It is not necessary that stress is always
dysfunctional.
 There may be EUSTRESSES, like stress for
creative work, entrepreneurial activities,
keen competition, etc., which stimulates
better productivity. Contd.
 It is only the DYSFUNCTIONAL stress,
called DISTRESS; which is bad and must be
overcome.

 STRESS can be either temporary or long

term, mild or severe, depending mostly
on how long its causes continue, how
powerful they are and how strong
individual powers are.
 CAUSES OF STRESS
Individual stresses
Life and career changes
Personality type
Role characteristics

Organisational stresses Extra organisational stresses

Organisational politics Individual Social changes
Organisational structure stress Technological changes
Organisational processes Community conditions
Physical conditions Economic conditions

Group stresses
Group cohesiveness
Social support
conflict
 INDIVIDUAL STRESSORS
LIFE AND CAREER CHANGES
 Young adults between 20 to 30 years of age have
been found to report twice s many stressful events
compared to older people.
 More stress amongst urban population than rural
population
 Greater in higher educational categories
 Any change in life of an individual puts him in
disequilibrium
 Getting older, sudden death of spouse
 Changes in career – promotion, demotion, transfer,
separation, etc.
 INDIVIDUAL COPING STRATEGIES
 Time management
 Exercise
 Meditation and relaxation

 Keep a pet  Spend time with children

 Say your prayers  Take a walk
 Sing aloud  Make friends
 Laughter  Enjoy the idiot box / TV
 Sleep right  Cultivate interests
 Dare to dream
 ORGANIZATIONAL PROGRAMMES TO
MANAGE STRESS
 Job enrichment
 Employee counselling
 Training and development programmes
 Establishing autonomous work groups
 Establishing variable work schedules
 Setting up health clubs offering health facilities
 Service benefits like marriage gifts, birthday
bonus, transport, long service bonus, family
planning gifts, subsidy, health club membership,
credit cards, housing/car loans, ESOPS, etc.
 PERSONALITY TYPE
PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS such as
authoritarianism, rigidity, masculinity,
femininity, extraversion, supportiveness,
spontaneity, emotionality, tolerance for
ambiguity, locus of control, anxiety and need
for achievement are particularly relevant to
individual stress.
PROFILES OF TYPE `A’ AND TYPE `B’ PERSONALITIES

TYPE `A’ PERSONALITY TYPE `B’ PERSONALITY

Is always moving Is never in hurry

Walks rapidly Is patient
Eats rapidly Does not brag
Talks rapidly Plays for fun, not to win
Is impatient Relaxes without guilt
Does two things at a time Is mild mannered
Measures success by quantity Has no pressing deadlines
Is aggressive
Is competitive
Feels time pressure
People with perso alit `A profile e perie e
considerable stress. They :

 Work long hours, under constant deadline

pressures and conditions for over load
 Take work home at nights or weekends and
unable to relax
 Constantly compete with themselves
 Tend to become frustrated by the work
situation – to be irritated with the work efforts
or others and to be misunderstood by
superiors
THE SOCIAL READJUSTMENT RATING SCALE
LIFE EVENT SCALE VALUE
Death of spouse 100
Divorce 73
Mental separation 65
Jail term 63
Death of close family member 63
Major personal injury or illness 53
Marriage 50
Fired from work 47
Mental reconciliation 45
Retirement 45
Major change in health of family member 44 Contd.
 LIFE EVENT SCALE VALUE
Pregnancy 40
Sex difficulties 39
Gain of new family member 39
Business readjustment 39
Changes in financial state 38
Death of a close friend 37
Change to a different line of work 36
Change in number of arguments with spouse 35
Mortgage over $ 10,000 31
Foreclosure of mortgage or loan 30
Change in responsibilities at work 29
Son or daughter leaving home 29
Trouble with in-laws 29 Contd.
 LIFE EVENT SCALE VALUE
Outstanding person achievement 28
Wife begins or stops work 26
Begin or end school 26
Change in living conditions 25
Revision of personal habits 24
Trouble with boss 23
Change in work hours or conditions 20
Change in residence 20
Change in schools 20
Change in recreation 19
Change in church activities 19
Change in social activities 18
Contd.
 LIFE EVENT SCALE VALUE

Mortgage or loan less than $ 10,000 17

Change in sleeping habits 16

Change in number f family get-togethers 15

Change in eating habits 15

Vacation 13

Christmas 12

Major violations of the law 11

 CONSEQUENCES OF STRESS
SUBJECTIVE EFFECTS: Anxiety, aggression, apathy,
boredom, depression, fatigue, frustration, guilt and
shame, irritability and bad temper, moodiness, low self-
esteem, tension, nervousness and loneliness
BEHAVIOURAL EFFECTS: Accident proneness, drug use,
emotional outbursts, excessive eating or loss of appetite,
excessive drinking and smoking, excitability, impulsive
behaviour, impaired speech, nervous laughter,
restlessness and trembling.
COGNITIVE EFFECTS: Inability to make decisions and
concentrate, frequent forgetfulness, hypersensitivity to
criticism and mental blocks.
Contd.
PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS: Increased blood and urine
catecholamines and corticosteroids, increased blood
glucose levels, increased heart rate and blood pressure,
dryness of the mouth, sweating, dilation of the pupils,
difficulty in breathing, hot and cold spells, lump in the
throat, numbness and tingling in parts of the limbs.

ORGANISATIONAL EFFECTS: Absenteeism, poor

industrial relations and poor productivity, high accident
and labour turnover rates, poor organisational climate,
antagonism at work and job dissatisfaction.

Source: T.Cox, Stress, Baltimore, University Park Press,

1978
 SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT YOU AND YOUR JOB
Yes No
Are you constantly doing more than one thing at a time ?
When travelling do you feel the travel time is wasted ?
Do you get angry when things do not run smoothly ?
Do you feel you never get to really finish one thing before moving on
to the next ?
Are you constantly being told your work too hard ?
Do you work more than 10 hours on a workday ?
Are you too busy to develop a creative hobby like gardening, bird-
watching, painting, etc. ?
Do you take only 10 minutes to finish your meals or skip them ?
Are you too busy to go outside during the day for atleast ½ hour ?
Do you get less than 7 hours of sleep at night ?
(if you have a majority of ` es a swers it is etter to atte d ourses i ti e
management )