Stress and Conflict

A Definition of Stress
Stress An adaptive response, mediated by individual differences and /or psychological processes, that is a consequence of any external (environmental)action , situation , or event that places excessive psychological and/or physical demands on a person.-Ivancevich and Matteson Stress is thought of as a negative term and is caused by something bad.

 Three critical components of this definition

It refers to a reaction to a situation, or event, not situation or event itself. It emphasises that stress can be impacted by individual differences It highlights the phrase excessive psychological and / or physical demands

 A condition arising from the interaction of people and their jobs and characterised by change within people that force them to deviate from their normal functioning-Beehr and Newman

What Stress is ??
 Not anxiety:  Stress is not simply nervous tension  Stress is not necessarily something damaging, bad or to be avoided.
Eustress is not damaging and is something that people should seek out than avoid.

Causes of stress
    Extra organisational stress Organisational stress Group stress Individual stress

Extra organisational stress

 Extra organisational stress include societal / technology change, globalization, the family, relocation, economic and financial conditions, race and gender, and residential or community conditions.
Phenomenal rate of change and economic turbulence has great effect on peoples lifestyle which is carried over to their jobs. Medical science has increased life span of people; the pace of modern living has increased stress and decreased personal wellness. Their anxiety and wellness deteriorates and potential for stress on the job increases.

Family
 Family has a big impact on ones stress level.
A family situation like either a brief crisis such as a squabble or illness can cause significant stress.

 Relocating the family

 Transfer or a promotion can also lead to stress

 Life changes
 may be slow(getting old) or sudden (death of a spouse) cause stress.

 Sociological demographics variables can also become stressors.  As workforce becomes increasingly diverse, potential stress related issues see an upward trend.

Organisational stressors
 Include Administrative policies and strategies
Downsizing Competitive pressures Merit pay plans Rotating work shifts Bureaucratic rules Advanced technology Centralised and formalisation Line staff conflict Role ambiguity and conflict No opportunity for advancement Restrictive, untrusting culture

 Organisational structure and design

 Organisational processes
Tight control Only downward communication Little performance feedback Centralised decision making Lack of participation in decisions Punitive appraisal systems Crowded work areas Noise, heat or cold Polluted air Strong odour Unsafe , dangerous conditions Poor lighting Physical or mental strain Toxic chemical or radiation

 Working conditions

Group stressors
 The group or team can be potential sources of stress. Group stressors can be categorized into two sets:  Lack of group cohesiveness:
Togetherness is important to employees

 Lack of social support:

Employees greatly affected by the support of one or more members of a cohesive group.

Individual stressors
 Type A characteristics:
It is not impatience that leads that is closely associated with type A that lead to heart problems but rather anger and hostility. Type A are unable and unwilling to make the shift and / or cope with their Type A characteristics.

 Personal control:
Person feeling about their ability to control a situation are important in determining their stress levels. Another study found that job control has impact on stress and strain if employees perception of organisational justice i.e. employees perception of fairness that has the resulting impact on stress. Learned helplessness.

 Psychological Hardiness:
Some people go to pieces at the slightest provocation, whereas others seem unflappable in the face of extreme situations. Those able to cope successfully with extreme stressors seem to have a hardiness disposition.

 Kobasa found that hardy executives had a lower rate of stress related illness and were characteristics as having commitment, welcome challenge and feeling in control(felt they could influence the events around them).

Intra Individual Conflict

 Frustration
occurs when a motivated drive is blocked before a person reaches a desired goal. The barriers can be overt and covert.

 Research found that incidence of workplace aggression are reaction to frustration which can be attributed to individual differences and situational factors.
Withdrawal reaction was an explanation for the motivational problems of employees.. Fixation reaction explains irrational bureaucratic behaviour employee exhibits. Compromise helps explain midcareer changes.

 Frustration may result in positive impact on individual performance and organisational goals.

Barriers Overt Covert

Goal conflict
 Two or more motive block one another. Three types of goal conflict identified:  Approach approach conflict:
individual is motivated to approach two or more positive but mutually exclusive goals.

 Approach avoidance conflict:

individual is motivated to approach a goal and at the same time is motivated to avoid it. The single goal contains both positive and negative characteristics.

 Avoidance avoidance conflict:

individual is motivated to avoid two or more negative but mutually exclusive goals.

Role conflict and ambiguity

 Roles are positions that has expectations evolving around established norms.
Adult of the society fulfils numerous roles at the same time Three major type of role conflict

 Intrarole conflict
created by contradictory expectations about how a given role should be played.

 Interrole conflict
results form the differing requirements of two or more roles that must be played at the same time.

 Interactive conflict
Personal difference Information deficiency Role incompatibility Environmental stress

 Intergroup conflict  Antecedent conditions can be summarised as below:

Competition for resource: Task interdependence Jurisdictional ambiguity Status struggle

Effects of stress and conflicts

 Stress and conflict are not bad for individuals, employees and their organisational performance.
It is recognised that low levels of stress and conflict can even enhance job performance.

 Research indicate that level of difficulty, the nature of the task being performed, personal dispositions, and other psychological dispositions affect relationship between stress and performance and is concluded that:
The performance of many tasks is in fact strongly affected by stress. Performance usually drops off sharply when stress rises to very high levels.

Effects of stress
 The problems due to high level of stress and conflict can be exhibited physically, psychologically, or behaviourally by the individual.  Physical problems:
specific physical health concerns 1) immune system problem 2) cardiovascular system problems 3) musculoskeletal system and 4) gastrointestinal problem.

 Psychological problems
Not much has been given to the impact of stress on mental health. High levels of stress may be accompanied by anger, anxiety, depression, nervousness, irritability, tension and boredom. These problems from stress are in turn especially relevant to poor job performance, lowered self esteem, resentment of supervision, inability to concentrate and make decisions and job dissatisfaction.

 Behavioural problems:
Direct behaviours that may accompany high levels of stress include under eating or overeating, sleeplessness, increased smoking and drinking and drug abuse.

 Evidence indicates relationship between stress and especially absenteeism and turnover. Both of them are costly for organisations in terms of filling in for the absent workers and replacing those who have left.

Strategies for coping with stress

 Individual coping strategies  Self help remedies, do-it-yourself, weight loss clinics and diets, health foods and physical exercise are being given much attention in mass media.
People take responsibility has their own wellness.

 Exercise  Relaxation  Behavioural self control

By deliberately managing antecedents and consequences of their own behaviour, people achieve self control.

 Cognitive therapy
Building self efficacy has also been used.

 Networking

Organisational Coping strategies

 OCS are designed by management to eliminate or control organisational level stressors in order to prevent or reduce job stress for individual employees  Association for fitness in business.  Firm try to reduce stress levels through work family initiatives.  Employee assistance programs  Organisations experiencing downsizing
Even more concern are those suffering from what was described earlier as survivor syndrome. Acknowledge survivors emotion:

 Communication after downsizing:  Clarify new roles

Negotiation skills
A decision making process among interdependent parties who do not share identical preferences. Through negotiation that the parties decide what each will give and take in their relationship. Negotiation can go beyond just resolving conflict and become a managerial skill for personal and organisational success.

 Traditional approaches to negotiation:

Tends to have certain biases and make certain errors

 Distributive bargaining
Assumes a fixed pie and focus on how to get the biggest share , or slice of the pie

 Positional bargaining involves successively taking and then giving up, a sequence of positions.
Positional bargaining can serve a useful purpose : It tells the other side what you want

Contemporary negotiation skills

 Cameron suggests an integrative approach that takes an expanding the pie perspective that uses problem solving technique to find winwin outcomes.
Based on collaborative strategy the integrative approach requires the effective negotiator to use skills such as 1) establishing subordinate goals 2) separating the people from the problem 3) focusing on the interest, not on position 4) inventing options for mutual gain and 5) using objective criteria.

 Practical guidelines for effective negotiation have grouped the technique into degree of risk to the user as follows:  Low risk negotiation techniques
Flattery Addressing the easy points Silence

 Oh poor me  High risk negotiation technique

Unexpected temper losses: High balling Boulwarism (take it or leave it) Waiting until the last moment