STRESS: AN INTRODUCTION

Stress in individual is defined as any interference that

disturbs a persons’ healthy mental and physical well being. It
occurs when the body is required to perform beyond its normal
range of capabilities.

Stress is the way that you react physically, mentally and

emotionally to various conditions, changes and demands in your
life. High levels of stress can affect your physical and mental well
being and performance.

The results of stress are harmful to individuals, families,

society and organizations, which can suffer from “organization
stress”. Ivancevich and Matteson define stress as individual with
the environment.

Behr and Newman define job stress as “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, which an individual is

confronted with an opportunity, constraint or demand related to
what he or she desires and for which the outcome is perceived to
be both uncertain and important. Stress is associated with
constraints and demands. The former prevent you from doing
what you desire, the latter refers to the loss of something
desired.

Stress is highest for those individuals who perceive that they are
uncertain as to whether they will win or lose and lowest for those
individuals who think that winning or losing is certainty.
 Canadian physician Hans Selye (1907-1982) in his book the
stress of life 1956 popularized the idea of stress. According to
Selye, the General Adaptation Syndrome consists of three phases.

Ce level begins to decline irreversibly. The organism

collapses.

TYPES OF STRESS
 It the stress for the day to day adaptability of man to his environment
and results in the maintenance of internal steady state (homeostasis) it
is know as Neustress. For example, one produces neustress in order to
breath, work.
 Stress is through of in negative terms. It is thought to be caused by
something bad (for example the boss gives a formal reprimand for
poor performance). It the stress response is unfavorable and
potentially disease producing, this is known as Distress. Constant
worry in a susceptible individual can lead to ulcers.

If the stress response is favorable and results is favorable and results in

improvement in physical and / or mental functioning, it is called Estruses. This is
the positive, pleasant side of stress caused by stress caused by good things. For
examples an employee is offered a job promotion at another I.

DEFINING STRESS AT WORK

Change in working practices, such as the introduction of new technology or

the alternation of new technology or the alternative of targets, my cause stress, or
stress may be built into an organizations’ structure. Organizational stress can be
measured by absenteeism and quality or work.

ORGANIZATIONAL STRESS:-
Stress affects as well as the individual within them. An organization with a
high level of absenteeism, rapid staff turnover, deteriorating industrial and
customer relations, a worsening safety record, or poor quality control is suffering
from organizational stress.
FOLLOWING THE PATH OF STRESS THROUGH IN ORGANIZATION:-
The below chart shows one example of the structure of a department in an
organization, indicating typical causes of stress that may effect stress at certain
levels in the structure, and particular.

Causes that are affecting individuals. Stress is contagious; anyone who is not
performing well due to increases the amount of pressure on their colleagues,
superiors, and subordinates.

The cause may range from unclear or overlapping job descriptions, to lack of
communication, to poor working conditions, including “sick building syndrome”.

POTENTIAL SOURCES OF STRESS:

There are three categories of potential stressors:
 Environmental factor
 Organization factor
 Individual factors
Environmental factors:
Just as environmental uncertainty influences the design of an organization.
Changes in business cycle create economic uncertainties.

Political uncertainties:
If the political system in a country is implemented in an orderly manner,
there would not be any type of stress.

Technological uncertainties:
New innovations can make an employee’s skills and experiences obsolete in
a very short period of time. Technological uncertainty therefore is a third type of
environmental factor that can cause stress.

Organization factors:
There are no storages of factors within the organization that can cause stress;
pressures to avoid error or complete tasks in a limited time period, work overload
are few examples.

Task demands are factors related to a person’s job. They include the design
of the individual’s job working conditions, and the physical work layout.

Role demands relate to pressures placed on a person as a function of the

particular role he or she plays in the organization. Role overhead is experienced
when the employees is expected to do more than time permits.

Role ambiguity is created when role expectations are not clearly understood
and employee is not sure what he / she is to do.

Interpersonal demands are pressures created by other employees. Lack of

social support from colleagues and poor.

Interpersonal relationships can cause considerable stress, especially among

employed with a high social need.
Potential sources Consequences

Organizational leadership represents the managerial style of the organizations

senior executive. Some executive officers create a culture characterized by tension,
fear, and anxiety. They establish unrealistic pressures to perform in the short-run
impose excessively tight controls and routinely fire employees who don’t measure
up. This creates a fear in their hearts, which lead to stress.

Organizations go through a cycle. They are established; they grow, become

mature, and eventually decline. An organization’s life stage - i.e.
Where it is in four stage cycle-creates different problems and pressures for
employees. The establishment and decline stage are particularly stressful.

Individual factors:
 The typical individual only works about 40 hrs a week. The experience and
problems that people encounter in those other 128 non-work hrs each week can
spell over to the job.

Family problems:
National surveys consistently show that people hold family and discipline,
troubles with children are examples of relationship problems that create stress for
employee and that aren’t at the front door when they arrive at work.

Economic problems:
Economic problems created by individuals overextending their
financial resources are another set of personal troubles that can create stress for
employees and distract their attention from their work

CAUSES OF STRESS
Society the working world and daily life have changed almost beyond
recognition in the past 50 years. These changes have contributed to a major
increase in stress.
Stress is caused from both outside & inside the organization & from groups
that employees are influenced by & from employees themselves.

MACRO-LEVEL ORGANIZATIONAL STRESSORS:

POLICIES
 Unfair, arbitrary performance reviews.
 Rotating works shifts.
 Inflexible rules.
 Unrealistic job descriptions.
STRUCTURES
 Centralization; Lack of participation in decision making.
 Little opportunity for advancement.
 A great amount of formalization. JOB
 Interdependence of departments. STRESS
 Line-Staff conflicts.
PHYSICAL CONDITIONS
 Crowding & lack of privacy.
 Air pollution.
 Safety hazards.
 Inadequate lighting.
 Excessive, heat or cold.
PROCESS
 Poor communication.
 Poor / inadequate feedback about performance.
 Inaccurate / ambiguous measurement of performance.
 Unfair control systems.
 Inadequate information.

GROUP STRESSORS:
The group can also be a potential source of stress. Group stressors can be
categorized into three areas.
1. Lack of groups cohesiveness:-
“Cohesiveness” or “togetherness” is a very important to employees,
especially at the lower levels of the organizations. If the employee is denied
the opportunity for this cohesiveness because of the task design, because the
supervisor does things to prohibit or limit it, or because the other members
of the group shut the person out, this can be very stress producing.
2. Lack of social support:-
Employees are greatly affected by the support of one or more member of a
cohesive group. By sharing their problems & joys with others, they are much
better off. It this type of social support is lacking for an individual, it can be
very stressful.
3. Intra-Individual, interpersonal & inter-group conflict:-
Conflict is very closely conceptually or hostile acts between associated with
in compatible or hostile acts between intra-individual dimensions, such as
personal goals or motivational needs / values, between individuals within a
group, & between groups.

INDIVIDUAL STRESSORS:
 In a sense, the other stressors (Extra organizational, organizational, & Group
stressors) all eventually get down to the individual level. For example, role
conflict, ambiguity, self-efficacy & psychological hardiness may all affect the level
of stress someone experiences.

Managing stress in the work place

Every responds to stress in a different way, it is only by understanding the
nature of individual responses that you can start fighting stress yourself and others.
Reduction or elimination of stress is necessary for psychological and
physical well being of an individual. Efficiency in stress management enables the
individual to deal or cope with the stressful situations instead of avoidance.
Strategies like tie management, body-mind and mind-body relaxation exercise,
seeking social support help individual improve their physical and mental resources
to deal with stress successfully.
Apart from helping employees adopt certain coping strategies to deal with
stress providing them with the service of counselor is also useful.
Many strategies have been developed to help manage stress in the work
place. Some are strategies for individuals, and other is geared toward
organizations.

Individual coping strategies:

Many strategies for helping individuals manage stress have been proposed.

Individual coping strategies are used when an employee under stress exhibits
undesirable behavior on the jobs such as performance, strained relationship with
co-workers, absenteeism alcoholism and the like. Employees under stress require
help in overcoming its negative effects. The strategies used are:

Exercise:-
One method by which individual can manage their stress is through exercise.
People who exercise regularly are known to less likely to have heart attacks than
inactive people are. Research also has suggested that people who exercise regularly
feel less tension and stress are more conflict and slow greater optimism.

Relaxation:-
A related method individual can manage stress is relaxation. Copying with
stress require adaptation. Proper relaxation is an effective way to adopt.
Relaxation can take many forms. One way to relax is to take regular vacations;
people can also relax while on the job (i.e. take regular breaks during their normal
workday). A popular way of resting is to sit quietly with closed eyes for ten
minutes every afternoon.

Time management:-
Time management is an often recommended method for managing stress, the
idea is that many daily pressures can be eased or eliminated if a person does a
better job of managing time. One popular approach to time management is to make
a list, every morning or the thins to be done that day. Then you group the items on
the list into three categories: critical activities that must be performed, important
activities that should be performed, and optimal or trivial things that can be
delegated or postponed, then of more of the important things done every day.

ROLE MANAGEMENT:-
Some what related to time management in which the individual actively
works to avoid overload, ambiguity and conflict.

SUPPORT GROUPS:-
This method of managing stress is to develop and maintain support group. A
support group is simply a group of family member or friends with whom a person
can spend time. Supportive family and friends can help people deal with normal
stress on an ongoing basis. Support groups can be particularly useful during times
of crisis.
BEHAVIORAL SELF-CONTROL:-
In ultimate analysis, effective management if stress presupposes exercise of
self-control on the part of an employee. By consciously analyzing the cause and
consequences of their own behavior, the employees can achieve self-control. They
can further develop awareness of their own limits of tolerance and learn to
anticipate their own responses to various stressful situations. The strategy involves
increasing an individuals control over the situations rather than being solely
controlled by them.

COGNITIVE THERAPY:-
The cognitive therapy techniques such as Elli’s rational emotive model and
Meichenbaum’s cognitive strategy fir modification have been used as an individual
strategy for reducing job stress.

COUNSELING:
Personal counseling help employees understand and appreciate a diverse
workforce, the holistic approach adopted by the counselor gives him a
comprehensive view of the employee as client and enable him to deal the issues of
work related problems in a larger context with his awareness of the inter-
relationship among problems in adjustment with self, other and environment and
that a work concern will effect personal life and vice-versa, the employee would
receive help regarding the problem in all life.
ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGIES:-
The most effective way of managing stress calls for adopting stressors and
prevent occurrence of potential stressors.’
Two basic organizational strategies for helping employees manage stress are
institutional programs and collateral programs.

Work Design Stress Management programs

Work schedules Health promotions programs
Culture Other programs
Supervision
 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Discuss the research design, research problems, important of the study,
scope and significance of the study, source of data, questionnaire, sample design
statistically techniques used, and objective of the study and limitations of the
study.

RESEARCH DESIGN:
A research design is an arrangement of conditions for collection and analysis
of data in a manner that aims to combine relevance to the research.

Purpose with economy in procedure. It is the conceptual structure within

which research is conducted and it constitutes the blueprint for the collection,
measurement and analysis of data. It includes an outline of what the researcher will
do from within the hypothesis and its operational implications to the final analysis
of data.
The research design used for the study is descriptive design. Descriptive
research design includes surveys and fact finding enquires of different kinds. The
major purpose of descriptive research is description of the state of affairs, as it
exists at present.

SOURCE OF DATA:
Primary sources :-The data include survey about title .the data shall be
collected directly from respondent.
Secondary sources;- Library and Internet.

SAMPLE DESIGN:
A sample of 150 respondents was taken using random sampling. The
researcher contacted the executive personally and brief summary of the nature of
the study and details in the questionnaire were narrated to them.
STATISTICAL TOOLS USED:
For the purpose of present study percentage analysis was used.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books for reference:

Fred Luthans : “Organization Behavior”

Mc Graw Hill International
Edition.

Stephen P. Robin : “Organization Behavior – concept

Controversies & Applications”

V. Ashwatha Ramaiah : “A celebration called Life”

Unique consultants (P) Ltd.

V. K. Jain : “The management journal of power

professionals”