RUNNING HEAD: STRESS AND WORKPLACE 1

Artifact of Issues in Organizational Leadership

Stress and Workplace

Magali Garza

South Texas College

INTRODUCTION

Stress is something individuals all around the world talk about and it is mentioned

everyday by someone close to us or even ourselves. “I’m so stressed!” and “You’re stressing me

out!” are very common phrases that many individuals use in order to let people or themselves

that they are in a lot of stress. So, the question is: Who can be victim from stress? Everyone can

be susceptible to stress, from a new born to a very elderly individual. This occurs due to the large

variety of factors that cause or can lead to stress. A baby can have stress whenever they are not

given the proper care that they need and that is the reason they cry; the parents of the baby will

then feel stressed because they might not know why the baby is crying. Therefore, they are

stressed out because they do not know why the baby is stressed out. there are many connections

with stress, but there is one specific connection that makes me very concerned and it is very

common. This specific connection is between stress and the workplace. There are many types of

jobs and I can assure you that they all have many factors that lead to a lot of stress. There is not

one job that does not carry any type of stress. There is a very strong relationship between the

workplace and stress among workers all around the world. However, there are various amounts

of stress levels and it is known that the higher the responsibility the higher the stress level. This

research will allow me to investigate the depth of the relationship between stress and the

workplace.

HYPOTHESIS

Everyone is susceptible to stress, however the bigger the amount of responsibility given

to an individual at the workplace, the larger amounts of stress levels are given to that individual.
I want to research this topic because it is very popular amongst workers and yet it is still seen as

normal, therefore I want to find ways to cope with stress.

STRESS?

It is very important to be aware of what the word stress means and what it brings to

individuals lives before stating information. So, what does the word ‘stress’ mean? Why is it a

very popular term used? Do people really know what it means? According to the class textbook,

stress is considered a word that comes from the science field. This is a very important fact that

must be known in order for many individuals to understand that it is a serious topic. Stress relates

to the amount of force that is applied to a certain area. This is the science definition, but it applies

the same with real life situations such as the workplace. Stress is filled with all types of forces

from the outside that consume the individual and can build up making the force very strong and

that is when the individuals do not know how to cope with it and feel like their world is falling

down or when they are blocked with no solutions. Others believe that stress is a word with no

real value, and it is only used to confuse the thoughts (Charlton, 156). They believe this because

of the fact that stress is used by a wide variety of people with a wide variety of factors. The idea

that there is not one specific situation, or one specific type of person, makes the word stress

nonvaluable.

Stress is an imbalance between the individuals and the outside environment (Eskelinen,

82). Whenever an individual lacks the strength to overcome those adversities small or big from

the external environment that is when they are most likely to have stress. Not being able to know

what to do or the idea of knowing that if something does not go some type of way can consume

individuals and mostly when they are workers. The external environment does not always go the
way we want it to go, sometimes it takes the wrong turn and that is where we as individuals must

be prepared and ready to cope with a tremendous imbalance. Everyone will face imbalance with

the external environment no matter how good their life is because that is the nature of life. Stress

can go a long way when it is not attended. Many individuals think that it is normal to have it and

they do nothing to try to lower it down. The thing is that if the individual does not take care of it

one way or another it can lead to health issues and other complications such as social, personal

and professional life. It can severely affect every aspect of an individual’s life. There is a large

number of things that cause stress and I decided to investigate the ones specifically directed from

the workplace because it is a very important thing that leaders must cope with.

CAUSES OF STRESS: AT WORKPLACE

Everyone with a job has experienced stress at some point in their experience and they all

have a specific stressor. A stressor according to the class textbook is an event or a type of context

that causes a stress reaction by elevating levels of adrenaline and forcing a physical or mental

response. Which is basically just what we call that factors that make stress appear in an

individual’s life. Not all stressors are negative, sometimes they boost up an individual’s

performance because it acts as a stimulus to get something done. The situation gets negative

whenever the number of stressors increase in size and the force that they each have also

increases. That is when stress becomes too much and affects the individual’s performance at

work and their leadership is at stake. The top stressors that affect an average person are money,

work and housing. All those issues come back to the workplace that is why work is a very

stressful issue to many individuals. Whether it is not having a job, to having to many jobs. An

individual must have a job to have money in order to afford a place to live. Some jobs are more
potential to stress than others, it all depends on their roles and responsibilities and that is called

role demands.

Role demands on the workplace are what cause the amount of stress an individual has

from their job. Depending on what the role is for that individual on the job it means what their

job demands from them. Some roles are less stressful than others and by that, I mean that there

are certain roles that do not demand as much as important roles as others. There are some roles

that are just superficially done while others that are more in depth and more difficult. This job

roles differences are what cause the different levels of stress. For example, a manager has a lot of

pressure, however the CEO of that company has more pressure and maybe a regular average

worker from the company has very little pressure. To explain this more into detail we can say

that the CEO of that big company needs to save the entire company from going bankrupt, the

lives of thousands of people are in their hands therefore it is tons of force against them leading to

tons of stress. The CEO now puts tons of pressure on the supervisors and managers to try to save

the company with small changes. The managers are now left with the pressure of meeting certain

criteria in order to sustain their specific store. Now the manager puts pressure on the worker to

do things right, pressure is now given to the average worker, but their role demand is just to do

their average work better and more efficient. This does not mean that the average worker is free

from intense stress, because now the average worker gains stress from being afraid of losing the

job due to the economic situation that the company is going through, then causing pressure

because the average worker might have a family that needs the money from the job in order to

have food and a place to live. It somehow all start at the workplace.

Role ambiguity, role conflict and role overload are all causes of stress at work. They all

consist on the force and pressure that are given to certain individuals and that they have to
complete certain tasks in order to be considered efficient in the job. A leader suffers from stress

because their plan is to lead others into a successful path and when they feel that they are not

doing so they will feel down and very stressed. Like I mentioned before a CEO is the leader or

the entire company therefore they have potential to have a lot of stress, the manager is also

considered a leader because they are in charge of that specific store and therefore must lead them

to efficient results and the average worker is the leader of their family, so they must have a job to

keep their family safe and with a place to live.

Information overload according to the course textbook is when an individual is not

caught up with all of the information that is supposed to be received by them and not only

received but comprehended and must make a reply to it. For example, an email to a coworker, a

meeting with clients, a meeting with the staff, a call from family or anything that needs the

attention. Stress is not only caused by only one type of thing such as mental work, but it consists

of high emotional labor, physical demand, time pressures, a mix of all three or mix of two of

them. A job that can cause a ton of high emotional labor can be customer service because it is

important to be nice to customers even if they are not so nice. A job that has a ton of physical

demand could be a miner, construction worker, or an athlete. A job that has a lot of time pressure

could be journalists because they are given specific time and dates to turn in their written work

and sometimes, they might have a case of writer’s block that adds a lot of stress to their situation.

A job that has a mix of all three could be a cop because they must be nice to individuals that they

are trying to help while trying to help on the cases they are given or whenever they have to be in

one place to another they have time pressure as well. Plus there are specific small stressors that

can trigger stress very quick such as noise, overtime, poor posture, temperature, fear, anger, and
many more; all these stressors are additive and can build up causing the individual to fall victim

under intense stress at work (Von, 745).

CONFLICTS DUE TO STRESS AT WORK

Family is very important to almost every individual therefore it is most likely that the

stress from work transfers to the relationship with the family. That is where more conflict is

made leading to more stress and very traumatic fights. If an individual brings home all the stress

and issues from work, it is most likely that they will be annoyed by almost everything at home

and that will not be pleasant to the rest of the family which will lead to arguments and

unnecessary fights. The relationship at home will be disrupted therefore it is important to leave

those problems at work and come home to deal will the family and vice versa.

Stress can cause life changes and sadly it is not only good ones. An individual who

suffers from stress is most likely to get sick and bring out health conditions to act up on their

bodies. Depression is a health condition that can occur due to stress. Whenever an individual feel

that they have too much things to do, that they feel they have a lot of pressure on them or a lot of

force, they might fall into depression due to the amount of stress they have (Virtanen, 433). The

lack of rewards from job and the fear of losing a job may cause depression amongst workers as

well (Virtanen, 433). The work outcomes that must be done might be bad due to the stress.

There are many conflicts that are psychological or physiological that are effects from stress and

they all still cause more stress to that certain individual and even the people surrounding them.

There are various ways to overlook at the stress and manage it without having it take over your

entire life.
COPING WITH STRESS AT THE WORKPLACE

The idea that stress is a normal feeling or word might allow individuals to think that it is

totally normal to feel that way, however it is not normal because it only gets worse with time.

Therefore, individuals must learn to cope with stress, not remove it because it is impossible to

remove something natural that must be caused by external environmental forces, but it is still

important to work around it. According to the course textbook there are many ways that can help

with avoiding stress or things that help managing it. They are very simple things, yet they are

super important such as exercise, a nice diet, sleep and social life. Another way of dealing with

stress is asking to yourself where it is coming from and how you can overcome it one by one.

Just by thinking back and analyzing the situation calmly (Workplace Tips, 2019). Asking for help

is also a way to tackling down stress because it releases the pressure of feeling alone. Becoming

aware of the causes of the stress is a very important start when managing. Also, by trying to not

let the stress to gradually build because it will cause too much of it therefore it is important to

keep the stress level on a place where it only increases the positive efficiency of the job (Michie,

70). By doing all these simple things, there will be a great amount of change in the stress levels,

and by lowering those stress levels the individuals stay healthy physically and mentally and with

a healthy relationship with family and friends.

CONCLUSION

Based on my research I was able to prove my hypothesis right by stating that the

leadership that is involved at work leads to the amount and type of stress. No matter what type of

leadership the individual has it will automatically make them susceptible to stress. I really

enjoyed conducting this research and I was able to learn very good ways with coping with stress
which is not normal to have tons of it. Whenever it starts affecting us negatively that is where the

line must be drawn and be able to be aware of what it is causing it, so that we can tackle it and

make it smaller that it could just make us efficient not inefficient. A research that could be done

following this one could be a more in-depth investigation of the ways to cope with stress or a

more in-depth investigations of the conflicts from stress itself. Another good research could be

the similarities and differences of the stress levels of a CEO or an average worker? All these

investigations would help prove my hypothesis more.

 References

Charlton, B. (1992). Stress. Journal of Medical Ethics, 18(3), 156-159. Retrieved from

http://www.jstor.org/stable/27717198

Coping with Stress: Workplace Tips. (2019, February 20). Retrieved from

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/coping-with-

stress/art-20048369

Eskelinen, L., Toikkanen, J., Tuomi, K., Mauno, I., Nygård, C., & Ilmarinen, J. (1991).

Symptoms of mental and physical stress in different categories of municipal

work. Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, 17, 82-86. Retrieved from

http://www.jstor.org/stable/40965947

Michie, S. (2002). Education: Causes and Management of Stress at Work. Occupational and

Environmental Medicine, 59(1), 67-72. Retrieved from

http://www.jstor.org/stable/27731622

Virtanen, M. (2010). Stress at work - a risk factor for depression? Scandinavian Journal of

Work, Environment & Health, 36(6), 433-434. Retrieved from

http://www.jstor.org/stable/41151513

Von Onciul, J. (1996). Stress At Work. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 313(7059), 745-748.

Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/29732917