STRESS

STRESS

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 What is stress?

Is a state of tension experienced by

individuals facing extraordinary
demands, constraints, or
opportunities

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 Other definitions:

• Stimulus
• Response
• Response - stimulus
• Working

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 Stress and Performance
• Constructive stress (eustress): is
stress that acts in a possitive way for
the individual and/or the organisation.

• Destructive stress (distress):is stress

that acts in a dysfuctional way for the
individual and/or the organisation.

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• Constructive stress Destructive stress
High

Individual Performance

Low High
Stress Intensity

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 Sources of stress
• Stressors: are things that cause stress ( for example:work, non-
work and personal factors)
Work Factors:
•task demands
•role dynamics
•interpersonal relationships
•career progress

Personal Factors:
Non-Work factors : •Needs
•Family Job STRESS •Capabilitues
•Economics •Personality
•Personal affairs

Potential consequences
For the organisation:
For the individual:
•decrease performance,
•behavioral
morale and motivation
•psychological
•increased turnover
•medical problems
and absenteeism

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 The General Adaptation
Syndrome (GAS)
• Selye:
– general: because stressors had an effects on several
areas of the body
– adaptation: stimulation of defenses designed to help
the body adjust to or deal with stressors
– syndrome; indicates that individual pieces of the
reaction occur more or less together

• alarm - resistance - exhaustion

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 Stress and Work:A working
Model
Demografic/ Consequences or effect
Stressors at Work behavioral
Subjective:
anxienty
Physical Environment Behavioral:
stressors accident proneness
Psychological or
physical
experience or Cognitive:
Individual inability to make sound decisions
Stressors stressors
at Work perception
of excessive
demand on the
person Physiological:
increased blood pressures
Group stressors
Health-physical and mental:
coronary heart disease
Organisational Cognitive/
stressors affective Organisational:
lower productivity

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Effective Stress Management
• Stress management: is the ability to prevent or
cope with stress and maintain wellness

• Preventing or coping with stress:

– Stress prevention involves taking action to prevent the
emergence of stress that becomes destructive.

• Organisational programs:
• empowerment and participation
• job re-design
• goal setting
• communication
• selection, placement, and training

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Personal wellness and stress management
• Personal wellness:is the pursuit of your physical and mental
potential through a personal health promotion program.
– smoking
– weight
– diet
– alcohol use
– physical fitness
• Clinical programs:
– diagnosis
– treatment
– screening
– prevention

• Individual approach to Stress:

– cognitive techniques:thought, expectations, beliefs, assumptions
– Relaxation: peacefulness
– Meditation
– Biofeedback:using computer

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