Traditionally, medical treatment in this country has focused on treatment of

problems and illness after they’ve reached the point of crisis and pain.
But now, managers are beginning to realize that preventive health
and stress management can save money for the organization
while improving the quality of worklife for employees.

Optimizing Human
Resources: A Case for
Preventive Health and
Stress Management

John M. Ivancevich
Michael T. Matteson

!3
he poet W. H. Auden has called ours the Age
of Anxiety. Actually, he fixed that label on
our times more than 30 years ago; since then
inflation, shortages, urban chaos, and soci-
etal revolutions-among other changes and
crises-have compounded the anxieties we
experience in our personal lives and on the
job. The events ushered in with the 1980s
suggest that these and other anxieties will
continue to have their impact on industrial
societies. Consequently, the current era has
appropriately been called the Age of Stress.
What is stress? Dr. Jane Templeton
calls it “the Purple Heart of an eventful life.”
More specifically, it is your body’s physical,
mental, and chemical reactions to all the
things around you. It can be good for
you-for example, stress is what makes you
complete a report on time or produce more
creative ideas-and it can be harmful. Psy-

Organizational Dynamics, Autumn 1980. 0 1980, AMACOM, a division of

American Management Associations. AI1 rights reserved. 0090-2616/80/0015-0005/$02.00/O 5
 chologists and physicians report that a vast
array of ailments from simple tension head-
aches to heart attacks are often the by-prod-
ucts of negative stress.
Recently, job-related stress has
come to the particular attention of medical
specialists, behavioral scientists, and organi-
zation managers. Studies show that stress
can be as disruptive as any accident to an
employee; it can be the root cause of poor at-
tendance, excessive drinking, poor perform-
ance, irritability, increased turnover rate,
poor health, even boredom. One executive John M. Ivancevich is the Cullen Professor of
recently took his company’s management to Organizational Behavior and Management at
court, charging that his work caused him the University of Houston, where he has also
psychological ailments, physiological ail- served as Departmental Chairperson and
Associate Dean for Research. He received his
ments and, finally, a heart attack. The man
doctorate and master’s degree from the
won his case, and the company was ordered
University of Maryland and his B.S. from
to pay him a cash settlement. If this is the Purdue University. He is a fellow and member
beginning of a trend, management has still of the Academy of Management and a member
another reason to monitor, protect, and pro- of the American Psychological Association and
mote the creation of a healthy work environ- the Society for Behavioral Medicine. The
author of ouer 90 articles, chapters, and
ment .
proceedings papers in the areas of stress
The purpose of this paper is to dis-
management, performance appraisal, goal
cuss the role of organizational management setting, and organizational change, Professor
in reducing the negative effects of stress on Ivanceuich has also written a number of books,
employees and thus improving quality of the most recent being Stress and Work: A
worklife. Managers around the world are be- Managerial Perspective (Scott, Foresman.
1980), Managing For Performance (Business
coming more aware of their responsibility
Publications, 1980), and Organizations:
for promoting a healthy person/work envi- Behavior, Swucture, Processes (Business
ronment fit. A healthy fit is defined as a sit- Publications, 1979).
uation that contains the proper amount of
stress to stimulate optimal employee per-
formance and self-fulfillment. In this article
A THEORY OF WORK
we will discuss how the screening and moni-
toring of human resources through the use of Working in an organization should be, at a
preventive health procedures and the imple- minimum, free from physical dangers. Work
mentation of stress management practices itself should respect the worker’s life and
can help create a healthier work environ- health, leave him or her enough time for rest
ment -a major goal of the preventive health and recreation,, and allow the achievement
and stress management (PHSM) techniques of a sense of self-worth. While this is good,
and methods described. To highlight PHSM, sensible theory, many workers the world
we will present selected examples of organi- over would sneer at this conceptualization of
zationally initiated programs that address work. Instead, they would claim that such
6 work stress and promote improved health. features of the job as work environment, su-
pervisory style, responsibility for people,
and other aspects of working in organiza-
tions create excessive occupational stress. In
this article we will focus on monitoring and
correcting, where possible, this level of nega-
tive stress or distress (as opposed to eustress,
or “good” stress). Certainly, most job condi-
tions are man-made and can, if monitored
properly, be adapted by management. To
conduct the proper monitoring of stress-pro-
voking job conditions (stressors), working
life must be considered in terms of health,
not just economics, efficiency, output, or Michael T. Matteson is Director of the Center
profit. Health has been defined not only as for Health Management and Professor of
an “absence of disease or infirmity,” but also Organizational Behavior and Management at
as “a state of physical, mental, and social the University of Houston. His Ph.D. from the
well-being.” The promotion of health-and, University of Houston is in Organizational
Psychology. Dr. Matteson has authored several
in a broad sense, the quality of working dozen articles and papers, which have appeared
life-is being accepted by more people as a in II variety of ucudemic and professional
responsibility of both management and em- journals. His most recent book, Stress and
ployees themselves. Work: A Managerial Perspective (Scott,
Foresman, 1980). was coauthored with John
lvancevich. He is currently working on a book
on stress and health. Professionul memberships
MANAGEMENT RESPONSIBILITY include the American Psychologicul Association
and the Academy of Management. He is a
Managers play a number of major roles in charter member of the Society of Behuuiorul
any work organization. They must commu- Medicine.
nicate and coordinate, make decisions,
encourage subordinates to perform effective-
ly, and plan and control work activities.
These and similar tasks suggest that man- costs. It is virtually impossible to pinpoint
agers have the major responsibility not only the cost to the organization of excessive
for the subordinates’ performance, but also stress that causes poor employee health. It
for employees’ entire quality of worklife. has been estimated that $18-25 billion is lost
And since the quality of worklife should in- each year through managers‘ absence, hospi-
clude employees’ health status, managers are talization, or death. The United States Clear-
responsible for this as well. ing House for Mental Health information
From an organizational point of points to a $17 billion annual decrease in the
view, management should take responsibil- productive capacity of U.S. industry over
ity for employee health for several reasons. the last few years because of stress-induced
The first is humanitarian: If the organization mental dysfunctions.
can contribute to workers’ health and The truth of the matter is that no
longevity through management awareness one knows the precise cost of stress-induced
and action, it has a humanitarian responsi- poor health. Judging from a variety of esti-
bility to do so. The second reason involves mates and projections from industry, gov- 7
 ernment, and health groups, we would esti-
mate the cost to be approximately $75-90
billion annually. This estimate, which repre-
sents nearly 10 percent of the gross national
product of the United States, is probably a
conservative one. Poor health is costly to the
organization, the family, the employee, and
the country.
A third reason for management
concern is employee performance. There is a
growing belief that those who are physically
fit are better performers. Some, in fact,
claim that the best predictor of managerial
job performance may be their physical fit-
ness. Certainly, there is no question that
healthier employees are absent less, make
fewer errors, and have to be replaced less
frequently than their less healthy counter-
parts.
A fourth reason focuses on the op-
portunities lost because of poor health
caused by excessive stress. A person in poor
health because of stress is less creative and
less inclined to take reasonable risks. The
number of opportunities lost is impossible to
calculate. Who can really say how much an
organization might gain by a 3 percent to 6
percent increase in creativity in decision
making, goal setting, performance appraisal,
or job redesign?
A fifth reason involves the risk a
corporation is exposed to when experienced,
talented, and loyal employees become seri-
ously ill or die. In such cases it is difficult, if
not impossible, to shift the job responsibil-
ities of the ill or deceased person to other in-
dividuals
Another, but allied, reason in-
volves the preservation of corporate-level
benchstrength. When individuals who have
climbed the managerial hierarchy die prema-
turely-before they’ve made their most sig-
nificant contributions-it’s a waste of hu-
man resources. The personal tragedy in such
a situation is obvious, but the corporate
8 tragedy can also be significant. Think of the
investment not only in terms of development
time and money, but in terms of the skills,
abilities, and knowledge that are lost for-
ever _
An emerging concept in healthcare
-preventive medicine-focuses on preserv-
ing health and improving the quality of life.
Through the use of preventive medicine phi-
losophy and practice, people-the organiza-
tion’s most important resource-can be pro-
tected. The organization that fails to accept
some of the responsibility for employee
health will eventually pay the price of its
negligence-increased costs, lost productiv-
ity, dulled creativeness, increased risk expos-
ure, and reduced benchstrength.
PREVENTIVEMEDICINE:
AN IDEA WHOSETIME HAS COME
There is increasing evidence to suggest a re-
lationship between undue stress and the on-
set of major health problems. In the early
1900s the infectious diseases of children and
young adults were the leading causes of
death. Last year the chronic, stress-related
diseases of adulthood (for example, coro-
nary heart disease, stroke, hypertension,
cancer, emphysema, diabetes, cirrhosis, and
suicide) were the leading causes of death. In-
creasing evidence that diseases appear more
related to lifestyle, life and work environ-
ment, standard of living, and personal
health practices creates quite a dilemma. The
medical profession seems to have reached
the point of diminishing returns in its efforts
to cure or ameliorate illnesses that result
from poor personal habits, personality char-
acteristics, or environmental conditions.
The staggering increase in death
and disability from stress-related disorders
calls for new preventive approaches and
creative ideas that can be combined with tra-
ditional approaches. The medical communi-
ty generally accepts the fact that a disease
 Figure 1
STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT IN THE STRESS-RELATED DISEASES

Stage 7 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5 Stage 6 Stage 7

No Risk
At Risk
Excessive
Stress
Early
Clinical
Signs
Symptoms _____
Disease or
Disability
Death
Wellness Orientation
f ----m-_----- -+
Predictive
and < l
Preventive Medicine
+-------
Traditional Medical Care
Stages

1. Individuals operate at a level of tolerable nonpathological stress.

2. A baseline of tolerable stress is escalated to a level of excessive stress.
3. Prolonged and persistent high stress levels produce alteration in neurophysiological functioning.
4. This creates preconditions for the development of stress-related disorders. Early identification of risk
factors makes it possible to view stages2 and 3 before the clinical signs of a disorder to intiate preventive
techniques.
5.
6. The onset and advancement of stress-related diseases-the area of traditional medical care.
7. t _- ---
Source: Pelletier, K. Mind as Healer. Mind as Slayer (Dell Publishing Co., 1977) p. 158.

progresses through a number of stages. If it opment of a pathological state; the tendency

were possible to recognize the manifestations
of stress, it would be possible to intervene
early and to avoid the excessive stress that
culminates in neurophysiological alterations
leading to disease development. Figure 1
illustrates the stages of development of
stress-related diseases. It also illustrates how
preventive medicine and traditional medi-
cine differ in orientation.
Many definitions of preventive med-
icine have been proposed. In its narrowest
sense, prevention means averting the devel-
today, however, is to broaden the scope of
preventive medicine beyond the mere pre-
vention of specific diseases. A broader defi-
nition implies the inclusion of all measures
that promote wellness or that halt the pro-
gression of disease to disability or death.
Preventive medicine includes any
activity that protects the individual from ex-
posure to the causes of disease, disability, or
injury, or that enhances a person’s physical
and mental ability to withstand the onslaught
of specific causative agents. The current ap-
 preach of preventive medicine in the United
States and Canada can be divided into two
main subdivisions: controlling the environ-
ment to render it relatively innocuous, and
improving individual resistance to unfavor-
able environmental influences.
Although preventive medicine seems
appealing and logical, in the Western world
we still practice “disease medicine.” That is,
you visit a physician only when you don’t
feel well or when something is painful. This
is a reactive approach to treatment. The pro-
active approach is to identify potential prob-
lems before they cause damage or become
difficult to treat. Thus preventive medicine is
proactive, while disease medicine is reactive.
Ever since the first physician treated the first
patient, the reactive approach has dominated
medicine. In the current “Age of Stress,”
many things place a demand on the individ-
ual for change, adaptation, or readjustment.
These work environment stressors pose a
serious threat to the health and well-being of
the individual and to the quality of worklife.
Using a proactive PHSM program can be an
important step in promoting physical, men-
tal, and social health among employees.
THE PERSON/ENVIRONMENTFIT
Changes in the work and personal environ-
ment of employees are inevitable. Elizabeth
Kubler-Ross, in Death: The Final Stage of
Growth, collected and discussed evidence to
show that most people experience five dis-
tinct stages of emotion after a significant
change. She identified these stages as denial
(shock), anger, bargaining, depression, and
acceptance. Her model can be applied to sig-
nificant personnel, equipment, structural,
and resource changes in organizations. Too
often, the impact of change and other envi-
ronmental stressors on the person is dis-
counted.
10 Therefore, in order to promote
good health in organizations, one must con-
sider the discrepancies that exist between in-
dividuals’ abilities, needs, and expectations
and environmental changes, demands, and
opportunities as perceived by the worker.
The fit between the person and his or her en-
vironment is important when one considers
the possible consequences of person/envi-
ronment discrepancies. The price of person/
environment discrepancies can be expressed
in terms of five possible levels. The first are
the subjective effects: For example, when
they are squeezed into compartments where
they do not fit, or when change around them
is extremely intense or frequent, people may
experience moodiness, fatigue, anxiety, frus-
tration, and guilt.
The second level of discrepancy may
be behavioral. Accident proneness, drug
abuse, excessive overeating, excessive drink-
ing and smoking, and impaired speech often
result in various combinations from person/
environment discrepancies. The third level
concerns cognitive effects. The inability to
make decisions and concentrate, frequent
forgetfulness, and mental blocks are exam-
ples of these very costly effects.
Physiological effects make up the
fourth level. A number of studies indicate
that stressful discrepancies are often associ-
ated with increases in blood pressure, urine
catecholamines, blood lipids, and cortico-
steroids. These physiological effects can be
precursors of cardiovascular, gastrointes-
tinal, and mental disorders, as well as other
diseases of adaptation.
Finally, person/environment dis-
crepancies can have effects on the organiza-
tion. Absenteeism, turnover, performance
decrements, high accident rates, job dissatis-
faction, and less commitment to the job,
team, or organization can result from these
discrepancies.
Research studies point out that
each of these five levels of effects is asso-
ciated with stress resulting from person/en-
vironment discrepancies. However, it should
not be presumed that stress always acts as a
precursor of these symptoms. Job dissatis-
faction, absenteeism, and turnover may of
course be totally unrelated to stress arising
from a misfit between worker and environ-
ment. However, the possibility that stress
may be a causative or contributing factor in
these effects cannot be ignored.
PREVENTIVE HEALTH MANAGEMENT:
HUMAN RESOURCES
The cost and tragedy that result from the
five levels of stress associated with person/
environment discrepancies can be signifi-
cant. Unfortunately, not enough executives
have recognized that preventive health man-
agement is just as essential as preventive
equipment maintenance. The value of pre-
ventive maintenance for a firm’s equipment,
buildings, and other physical resources has
been well established. Managers agree that a
proactive maintenance strategy will mini-
mize the possibility of unanticipated produc-
tion interruptions or major breakdowns.
Shouldn’t the human resources of a company
receive as much attention as a computer,
an automated assembly line, or an automo-
tive pool of vehicles? Developing a preven-
tive health and stress management program
doesn’t require the adoption of any new, so-
phisticated model. In fact, preventive equip-
ment maintenance principles and strategy
can be easily converted into, and applied to,
preventive health and stress management
programs.
Figure 2 presents some theoretical
guidelines that form the basis for preventive
equipment maintenance and preventive
health management. Thinking in terms of
preventive health management can be a step
in the direction of conserving, utilizing, and
developing human resources. Of course, the
preventive approach will require time,
money, and commitment before it has any
chance of showing short- or long-run results.
The preventive health management
approach shown in Figure 2 represents a for-
mal program. Traditionally, most organiza-
tions pay only scant attention to the human
costs of poor health or premature death. The
problems, costs, and insensitivity of such an
approach are too startling to continue
treating them informally. A new wave of
government and private industry programs
is designed to formally address preventive
health and stress management in organiza-
tions .
Proactive Prevention:
Selected Examples
Known for their progressive business prac-
tices and for their high rate of worker pro-
ductivity, the Japanese have begun to pay
formal attention to human stress and its dis-
abling impact on worker performance. To-
kyo’s Japan Productivity Center, a nonprofit
foundation supported by businesses, trade
unions, and universities, is in the midst of a
two-phase program to develop procedures
that industry can use to cope with stress
problems.
Joji Arai, managing director of the
center’s United States office in Washington,
D.C., notes that analysts are now reviewing
and interpreting data from a massive survey
of Japanese employees “designed to find the
impact stress is having on job performance
and personal behavior.” Once the data are
interpreted completely, advisory committees
composed of management, labor, and aca-
demic experts, as well as specialists from the
health sciences, will attempt to come up with
programs that industry can use to deal con-
structively with stress.
In the United States, a number of
organizations have developed preventive
health management programs to help reduce
job stress. At the Kimberly-Clark Corpora- 11

GUIDELINES APPLIED TO PREVENTIVE
PREVENTIVE
Preventive Maintenance
Protecting Physical Resources
1. Equipment should not be overworked
mistreated.
2. Regular lubrication and checkup of parts is
necessary to maintain high-level efficiency.
3. When work parts are worn or defective, some
corrective action must be taken.
4. Older equipment needs more careful
monitoring.
5. Operators should assume some responsibility
for maintaining equipment.
6. Operators should be made aware of the risks
and costs of downtime or failure.
7. Operators should be trained to determine
symptoms of equipment malfunctions or
when action must be taken.
8. Vibration, friction, or corrosion should be
immediately checked by the operator and
management and some action taken before
major breakdown occurs.
9. Effective preventive maintenance
but it is dollars well spent.
10. Preventive maintenance programs are more
effective when supported by top management.
tion in Neenah, Wisconsin, some 1,200 em-
ployees have signed up to participate in the
company’s health management program.
The program is administered by a staff of 23
full-time healthcare personnel at a $2.5 mil-
lion facility. Dr. Robert Dedmon, staff vice-
president of medical affairs, said that before
participating in the program, each employee
12 must undergo a rigorous physical
Figure 2
MAINTENANCE (PHYSICAL RESOURCES) AND
HEALTH MANAGEMENT (HUMAN RESOURCES)
Preventive Health Management Protecting
and Preserving Humun Resources
or 1. Workers should not be manipulated, over-
loaded with work, or ignored.
2. Regular exercise and periodic checkups are
necessary to keep workers healthy.
3. Through physical exams future problems or
weaknesses can be detected and programs to
minimize or eliminate the risks can be directed
by physician
4. Older workers need to be monitored more
frequently than younger workers.
5. Each individual worker must assume some re-
sponsibility to maintain good physical and
mental health.
6. Workers should understand the risks and
costs of becoming or being ill.
7. Workers need to identify symptoms of stress
or person-environment discrepancies. Self-
awareness is an important step.
8. Constant tension, insomnia, headaches, or irrita-
bility are symptoms that the worker and his/
her manager must both be on the lookout for
before a health breakdown occurs.
costs money, 9. Although effective preventive health manage-
ment will cost money, the dollars spent may
reduce the expenses involved in recruitment,
selection, training, and replacement of pre-
mature personnel losses.
10. Preventive health management programs are
more effective when supported by top
management.
ical history examination to determine indi-
vidual “health risks.” After the examina-
tions, each worker receives an individualized
health prescription.
Dedmon reports that Kimberly-
Clark’s commitment to preventive health
management was the result of a decision by
senior management to cut healthcare costs
and med- and absenteeism. He believes the program
has already had three positive organizational
effects: It has generated good public interest,
helped recruiting efforts, and provided bet-
ter all-around physical fitness for partici-
pants in the program. Individual health
screening has uncovered six cases of early-
stage cancer and a number of cases of high
blood pressure and heart disease.
HEALTI~ IMPROVEMENT AND STRESS REDUCTION:
THE BEGINNING
Many organizations may not be willing to
commit themselves to a full-fledged preven-
tive health and stress management program
or to a massive survey like that conducted
by the Japan Productivity Center. The ques-
tion then becomes: How should the com-
pany go about improving overall employee
health and reducing stress? There are a num-
ber of steps that organizations can take.
The first step in promoting preven-
tive health and stress management is to enlist
top management in the cause. (Unacceptable
alternatives include turning teams of psy-
chologists or consultants loose to ask work-
ers if they’re stressed about anything, or
making all line managers into amateur psy-
chiatrists.) Top managers must demonstrate
their concern about PHSM through their ac-
tions and interest. They need to participate
fully and to display commitment to the
PHSM program.
At the second step, workers should
be encouraged to talk about job stress, per-
son/environment discrepancies, and them-
selves. If workers feel they can tell their
managers that they feel stress without label-
ing themselves as neurotic, that in itself
might alleviate some of the problem-some
stress is reduced just by talking about it.
Other forms of stress require more specific
help. The right balance is to make all man-
agers from the top-level executive to first-line
supervisors aware of preventive medicine,
preventive health management, potential
stressors, the costs of ill health and prema-
ture death, and management’s total commit-
ment to improving the health of employees.
At the third step, self-awareness
and its importance in managing stress must
be emphasized. To recognize the existence of
stress in others, you must first recognize it in
yourself. Most of us have a low degree of
personal awareness. A simple exercise can
show you how well you know yourself. Try
to answer the following questions about
your condition accurately.
l What is your resting pulse rate?
l What is your blood pressure?
l When is your energy level at its
peak during the day?
l What are your biggest time wast-
ers during the day?
l What job conditions create stress
for you?
l What is your present state of
overall physical health?
Most people are so out of touch
with themselves and their physical and men-
tal condition that they are unable to answer
most of these personal questions. Instead of
relying on a major corporate preventive
health and stress management program,
medical counseling, or prescription drugs, it
is helpful to do some self-analysis. This
could reveal personal signals of excessive
stress such as these: rapid pulse rate, in-
creased perspiration, tightening of the fore-
head and jaw, inability to sit still, increased
frequency of tension headaches, insomnia,
indigestion, fatigue, and an increase in alco-
hol intake.
These and similar signals can be
matched with job situations or events. By
conducting his or her self-analysis on a reg-
ular basis, a person may find that one or
more of these symptoms occurs at specific
times-for example, when a deadline ap-
proaches, during committee meetings, or
when discussing merit increases with subor- 13
 dinates. The idea is to look at yourself care-
fully and on a regular basis. Before widespread
programs can be implemented, managers
who will be involved must be aware of their
own conditions and environment.
Thus, if you get top management
involved, if you encourage workers to talk
about stress, if you make your managers
aware of their own situations, you have taken
the three basic steps towards implementing a
PHSM program. These steps aren’t expen-
sive, and they can be initiated by a com-
mitted team of managers. However, they
don’t go far enough toward keeping stress to
an acceptable level-awareness is only a
start toward developing managerial skills
needed to conduct specific organizationally
supervised PHSM programs.
PREVENTIVE HEALTH AND STRESSMANAGEMENT
AT THE ORGANIZATIONAL LEVEL
As noted earlier, the preventive medicine
emphasis is on keeping people healthy, not
just on making them well. Therefore, an
organization’s preventive management strat-
egy should seek to identify and correct envi-
ronmental and/or job problems that are
potential stressors before they become orga-
nizationally and individually pathological.
Such a strategy is a sound investment. Im-
provement in the health and job effectiveness
profile of employees is possible if prevention
or proaction is the focus for management
action, rather than the traditional reactive
strategy. Dealing with a problem after it has
become disruptive is crisis management and
is the managerial equivalent of the disease
approach in medicine. It may cure the prob-
lem, but how much better off would the indi-
vidual and the organization have been if the
problem had been defused before it became
disruptive?
New, healthier, and more produc-
tive ways of working in organizations are
14 possible through PHSM. Central to this ap-
proach is the early diagnosis of health prob-
lems, stressors, and stress. This is the aware-
ness part of PHSM and is a necessary but not
sufficient step in the process. Action to im-
prove health and to eliminate or minimize
stressors is the necessary second step. Health
profiling, redesigning jobs, altering reward
systems, changing workflows and schedules,
identifying career paths, clarifying roles, al-
tering organizational structures, and provid-
ing development opportunities are some ex-
amples of potential courses for preventive
management action or intervention. These
and other forms of intervention can mini-
mize the negative effects associated with job
and organizational stressors.
Awareness of Others
Managers who know themselves and are
able to identify stress in themselves have tak-
en a step toward successful preventive health
and stress management, but they must also
know their own employees. An employee
who is feeling stressed will frequently exhibit
a change in personality, work habits, or gen-
eral behavior. By knowing the employees’
customary behavior patterns, the manager
can spot changes, some of which may be
very subtle. Changes that may indicate stress
overload include:
Working late more often than usu-
l
al-or the opposite (increased tardiness or
absenteeism).
Difficulty in making decisions.
l
lIncreases in the number of care-
less mistakes.
lMissing deadlines or forgetting
appointments.
lProblems of interacting and get-
ting along with others.
lFocusing on mistakes and per-
sonal failures.
Not every behavioral change is
stress-related, of course. And even many
that are may be the result of a highly tran-
sient, nonrecurring condition or event. We
all display some of these behaviors at some
time. However, when several occur at the
same time or when they occur with great
intensity, we have a signal that we should be
concerned about. Some of these signs may
be very obvious; others may be so subtle
that only the very alert manager will detect
them. In any event, when an employee’s
good habits become poor or sloppy, when
good performance becomes spotty or poor,
or when friendliness becomes irritability and
short-temperedness, something is wrong that
requires management’s attention and action.
There are various techniques and
methods for practicing PHSM in organiza-
tions. No one technique or method is a pan-
acea for improving the quality of life and
worklife for employees. The concept of
stress is too complex and individualized for
one approach. Each technique has potential
value for some individuals and organiza-
tions, but not for everyone. The secret lies in
selecting the technique(s) that would be most
effective for accomplishing the desired goal
-improvement in performance or quality of
worklife, cost containment, or some human-
itarian purpose. Figure 3 illustrates two ma-
jor categories of techniques and methods for
enhancing PHSM. The individual-level ap-
proaches are very popular but won’t be cov-
ered in this paper. We will focus only on a
select few of the possible organizational ap-
proaches to PHSM.
Charting the Stressors:
Moving Closer to Taking Action
Each organization exerts its own set of
unique stressors on the individual. Almost
every possible situation or event is a source
of stress to someone at some time. Often a
situation and its direct opposite are both po-
tential sources of stress-overload and un-
derload; underutilization and overutiliza-
tion; underpromotion and overpromotion.
Figure 4 shows some major stressors that
may create a stress response.
The model for charting out stres-
sors is meant to be illustrative, not exhaus-
tive. However, it does present some of the
major environmental and person-based stres-
sors. More important, it shows that stress is
not simply a characteristic of either the envi-
ronment or the individual, but results from
an interaction between the two. Richard Laz-
arus has emphasized that it is a person’s per-
ception of a situation, the “cognitive ap-
praisal,” that makes a stressor stressful. Role
conflict may not be perceived as a stressor
by one person in a particular situation, but
the same situation may be seen as upsetting
and stressful by another person.
Thus, the manager who is embark-
ing on a PHSM program may find some
value in using a conceptual map. Such a
framework is presented in Figure 4 to point
out areas where managers can intervene in
order to manage the dysfunctional stress that
affects all of us at one time or another.
Health Profiling:
Organizationally Sponsored
Not all organizations have the financial re-
sources or the inclination to build a spa-
cious, well-equipped gymnasium for em-
ployees. However, one less expensive device
that can be used to prevent premature devel-
opment of disease and to identify stress
symptoms so corrective action can be taken
is called health profiling. Any organization
can introduce the techniques of health profil-
ing at minimum expense.
Health profiling starts with a ques-
tionnaire asking for details of your past and
current health, your personal habits, your
family medical history, and your vital statis-
tics-blood pressure, cholesterol level, tri-
glyceride levels. The vital statistics may have
to be collected by a medical team if the re-
sults of a recent physical examination aren’t
available. Physical exams that provide the
data needed for the health profiling may cost
as much as $125 per person for a thorough 15
 Figure 3
APPROACHES USED TO IMPROVE HEALTH AND REDUCE STRESS

Individual Level Organrzationai Level

/ Assertiveness \

Selection \ lnnoculation
/ A I

Role
/ Analysis \
and
-rercise
/ rilities
Clarification

Kinesiologyhomatic
Guided Imagery /--- \ Altering \
Chanaina \/ \I the \
Biofeedback Modification
 Figure 4
A MANAGERIAL MODEL FOR EXAMINING JOB STRESS
-

Consequences of
Dysfunctional
Environmental Stressors Stress

Role on Job
Job Moodiness
Role conflict
Quantitative overload
Role ambiguity
Qualitative overload
Responsibility for
Unexplained
people
changes Lack of managerial
Schedules
Poor equipment support Person Stressors
Lack of status

Impaired speech

Needs
Career Progress Aspirations/achievement I/ I 1
Structure and Cognif ive
Climate Underpromotion Emotional stability I/ Poor decision
Overpromotion Experience -Stress
Poor communication making
Inequity Poor concentration
Lack of Flexibility
Lack of adequate Forgetfulness
participation Tolerance of ambiguity \\ i
preparation I
ill-defined Lack of career \\’
Self-esteem
hierarchy opportunities
Type A behavior pattern

Extraorganizational
Relationships
Factors
With superiors
Family With subordinates
Economy With co-workers
Community With clients Absenteelsm
Life events With operating
Low productivity
Crime employees Less commitment
value changes Job dissatisfaction
 one- to two-hour examination, or as much as
$400 per person for a rigorous five-hour
series of tests and consultations. A number
of organizations have reduced the cost per
employee by contracting with a health in-
stitution to conduct the exams en masse.
Information from the questionnaire
and physical examination is then processed,
usually by computer. However, each person
can calculate his or her own score by paper
and pencil. (See Walter McQuade and Ann
Aikman’s The Longevity Factor, Simon and
Schuster, 1980.) This calculation provides
individual health profiles that compare the
person’s characteristics with those of an
average person of the same sex, age, and
race-for example, male, white, 43 years
old, or female, black, 39 years old. The pro-
file spells out the individual’s health prospect
for the next ten years, with particular atten-
tion to fatal disease probabilities.
In addition, the health profile in-
formation indicates how the prospects can
be improved by making changes in the envi-
ronment . For example, increasing exercise
may be a way of bringing blood pressure
down, or reducing the intake of fatty foods
may reduce cholesterol levels. In short, a de-
tailed health profile can provide answers to
two important questions: How am I? and
How am I really? It also points out some
ways to improve health age. A man who is
40 years old can actually be much older in
terms of ‘health age”-say, 51. But through
improved awareness, preventive practices,
and improved personal habits, he may
achieve a health age of 35 years. The health
profile technique is a feasible action step for
organizations that want to prevent prema-
ture disabilities, incapacities, and even death
among that most important corporate asset,
employees.
Although the health profile could
be considered an individual method of
PHSM, we prefer to place it in the organiza-
tional level category. Good health, quality
18 of worklife, and reduction of dysfunctional
stress is, in our opinion, a job for the organi-
zation and each employee. In many cases
this emphasis on organizational responsibil-
ity will require a change in attitude in corpo-
rate circles. Conventional practices of trying
to improve health and reduce damaging stress
after a disease of adaptation (such as coron-
ary heart disease, peptic ulcer, or migraine)
occurs will at best be painful and usually too
late. Organizations can encourage interven-
tion at early stages if they are committed to a
more preventive philosophy and practice.
These diseases can be postponed-perhaps
indefinitely-if a preventive orientation to
health is taken instead of the conventional
disease medicine approach.
Stress inoculation Training
Obviously, stressors in organizational set-
tings do not always lead to disease, illness,
behavioral dysfunction, or performance dec-
rements. How a person perceives the stres-
sors and what emotion he or she feels can
drastically affect the outcome of the event.
The “cognitive appraisal” one makes of the
stressors can increase or limit their autonom-
ic impact.
Adequate preparation for stressful
events can be a valuable step in managing
stress. However, research clearly indicates
that warnings of danger are not always ac-
cepted and acted on. Even when they are
believed, as in lung cancer’s relation to
smoking, cirrhosis’s relation to drinking,
and obesity’s relation to excessive eating,
they sometimes only increase an individual’s
emotional arousal. An increase in emotional
arousal may not, necessarily, increase the
likelihood of the person’s initiating preven-
tive behavior. Stress inoculation training
can help the person translate emotional
arousal into personal action.
Stress inoculation training within
organizations should focus on developing
the skills of participants to cope with stres-
sors. Participants must first learn to (1) un-
derstand stress warning signals, (2) admit
that they are under- or overstressed, and (3)
develop concrete action steps for coping
with their specific work situation, personal-
ity, and goals.
One strategy for stress inocula-
tion training is to develop the skills of par-
ticipants to use a coping self-statement pro-
cedure. Trainees would be instructed to use a
verbal series of questions each time they per-
ceive or feel a stress under- or overload situ-
ation. The four-stage series of questions in-
volves preparation, confrontation, coping
with feelings, and self-reinforcement. In-
struction in preparing the self-statements
and their use would be the core of an organi-
zational stress inoculation training pro-
gram. Examples of the stages and some cop-
ing self-statements are listed below:
Preparation for Stressors
I need a plan to deal with the fol-
l
lowing stressors . . .
What am I going to do about
l
these stressors?
8 Why are these organizational
stressors causing or going to cause prob-
lems for me?
Confrontation
What image do I have of the
l Most of these questions depend for
stressors and my involvement with them?
I can handle this very easily by
l the role occupant needs about the nature,
remaining calm.
I must relax and stay in control.
l the manager needs about employee’s percep-
Coping
l I must focus on the present set of
stressors.
l This is not the worst thing in the
world.
Fear is natural when faced with
l you? What do you expect of me (your man-
stressors. This is a part of facing the situa-
tion as it now exists.
Self-reinforcement
l I handled it well.
. I was able to work my way
through the stressors.
l It wasn’t as bad as I expected: I
was prepared.
lI’m pleased with myself.
The value of stress innoculation
training has potential for PHSM if the par-
ticipants acquire coping skills through self-
analysis procedures. Managers cannot force
employees to manage their stressors more ef-
fectively. However, a sound stress innocula-
tion training program in an organization can
point out the value and importance of the
self-regulation of stress. Whether stress leads
to decreased or increased performance large-
ly depends upon how the employee responds
to stressors. Learning to live and deal with
organizational stressors (see Figure 3) re-
quires self-appraisal, introspection, and a
recognition of one’s own reaction to stress.
Role Analysis and Clarification
Most individual-level stressors in organiza-
tions are related to how the employee sees
his or her job with respect to how others see
it: Is it clear7 Does trying to do it cause con-
flict? Is it manageable? Is it consistent with
his or her own expectations and career strat-
egies?
their answer on information-information
scope, and place of the job, and information
tions. If role problems are suspect as a source
of stress in an organization, what better
place to begin gathering information than
from the role occupants themselves? Ques-
tions managers can ask subordinates to un-
cover information to help reduce stress in-
clude: What do you think is expected of
ager)? What information do you need in or-
der to do your job well? What areas, if any, 19
 trouble you about the nature and scope of
your job?
Information from answers to these
and similar questions can be assembled to
help the employee know more about the
job and thus help reduce conflict and ambi-
guity. Or, in some cases, the answers will
reveal that changes need to be made in job
descriptions, divisions of labor, structural
reporting relationships, or similar aspects of
the job and its environment. A manager, for
example, is responsible for establishing an
unambiguous division of labor that is under-
stood. As manager, you can’t be certain it’s
understood unless you ask and observe.
Another vehicle for addressing role
problems has to do with overload. Frequent-
ly, the overloaded individual knows about
the overload better than anyone else. There
may be a natural reluctance on the part of
employees to communicate that informa-
tion, however, for fear of looking bad or be-
ing labeled a complainer. The kind of infor-
mation exchange necessary to facilitate role
analysis and clarification should also help
create an environment that will reduce
employee reluctance to discuss over-
load problems with managers. In fact, it
should be standard operating procedure that
when a person is overloaded, he or she has
both the right and responsibility to say so
and to work out an acceptable solution with
management. This practice can be initiated
by top-level managers to set an example for
others.
From an ongoing process of role
analysis can come strategies for maximizing
the fit between a role occupant and the job
or organizational environment. The idea of
maximizing fit has grown out of the job
stress research at the University of Mich-
igan’s Institute for Social Research. According
to the Michigan researchers, fit can be opti-
mized and stressors reduced by redefining the
jobholder’s role, reducing overload condi-
tions through a system for work reassign-
20 ment, and institutionalizing procedures for
reducing stress when it occurs (such as delega-
tion of work during conditions of overload).
One approach to recasting roles
that has generated interest over the last dec-
ade is job enrichment. Job enrichment in-
volves redefining and restructuring a job to
make it more meaningful, challenging, and
intrinsically rewarding to the jobholder. In
the context of job stress, the impact of job
enrichment would be on rewards, participa-
tion, utilization of skills, role overload, and
time. The logic of enrichment holds that re-
structuring or ‘leading” a job would make it
more intrinsically rewarding and challeng-
ing. Therefore, the jobholders would partici-
pate more in doing things that are challeng-
ing and that utilize their skills, yet that
wouldn’t overload them with trivia or rou-
tine activities.
It is necessary to keep in mind,
however, that restructuring a job to make it
more challenging may be very stressful to
some people. Many employees are comfort-
able and distress-free in their present jobs;
they don’t want to change. Once again, the
manager must be aware of each employee’s
situation and act accordingly.
Altering Organizational Climate
Organizational climate is a somewhat am-
biguous term that describes a set of proper-
ties in the work environment that relate to
employees’ perceptions of how the organiza-
tion deals with them. Everything from lead-
ership styles to retirement policies may be
viewed as climate. The rationale that altera-
tions in climate may be an effective stress
management strategy is based on the as-
sumption that a “good” climate contributes
to satisfaction and feelings of being in a sup-
portive environment, both of which are
usually associated with reduced levels of
stress.
Chief contributors to the type of
climate prevailing in an organization are the
day-today practices and philosophies of its
managers. Structural imperfections, too
much red tape, not being able to participate
in decision making, poor or inefficient com-
munications, and impersonal relationships
are also examples of variables that contrib-
ute to climate and that, in varying degrees,
are a function of company management.
Let us look briefly at one climate
variable that has received a fair amount of
attention as a stress reducer: increased par-
ticipation in decision making. Studies have
shown that, for some, low participation is
related to job dissatisfaction and job threat.
The implication would seem to be that by al-
tering climate through increased participa-
tion, positive results may be achieved. The
key word is may. There are some possible
problems that should be kept in mind. Trying
to encourage participation while remaining
autocratic will, in reality, result in confusion
and increased stress-as will encouraging
participation and then, upon its arrival, ig-
noring it. If a manager invites participation
and then does nothing about it, feelings of
distrust and manipulation will take over and
lead to increased stress.
The meaningfulness of the deci-
sions employees participate in is another
consideration. Most people are not particu-
larly interested in, nor do they feel better
from, participating in decisions about where
to locate the water cooler or how many
wastebaskets to purchase. Before trying to
alter climate through a program of increased
participation, the manager should ask: What
benefits to the participators and organiza-
tion are likely to result? In what areas can
my subordinates be permitted to participate?
How meaningful and relevant are the deci-
sions subordinates will help make? Is partici-
pation something that will be viewed posi-
tively by those involved?
The last question raises another po-
tential problem. Some people do not want
increased participation. Every situation is
different. Examine yourself, your em-
ployees, and the potential stressors that may
be operating. From these data, and from an-
swers to the above questions, carefully de-
cide whether participation is a possible stress
reducer.
Management by Objectivas
Management by objectives (MBO) is one of
the more widely used and discussed manage-
ment techniques. Pioneered by Peter Druck-
er, MB0 is both a philosophy of manage-
ment and a management process that focuses
on the setting of goals, action planning to
achieve these goals, and periodic review of
the degree of goal attainment obtained.
As a philosophy and a process, it’s
worthy of discussion as a preventive health
and stress management strategy because it
and similar goal-setting programs are de-
signed to improve or correct many of the
variables we have identified as organization-
al stressors. For example, by jointly deter-
mining a subordinate’s area of responsibility
and setting goals, managers and subordi-
nates are supposed to improve their commu-
nications, role expectations, respect for each
other, and so forth. Supposedly, everyone is
in for some benefits: the individual, the man-
ager, and the organization. Although the ac-
tual implementation of MB0 is frequently
not as free from problems as the theory, it
can be an effective contribution to reduced
stress.
Managers can minimize the chances
of failure and increase the chances for suc-
cess of MB0 with good front-end diagnosis
and work. From a stress management per-
spective, finding out what the stressors are
and whether MB0 may contribute to doing
the job necessary to correct them is an im-
portant first step. Training employees and
preparing them for things that are likely to
happen (more paperwork, more meetings
between supervisor and subordinates, more
openness) are also necessary steps. MB0 ef-
forts that are successful in reducing stress
seem to meet a number of criteria: 21
 l They pay attention to the needs
not only of the organization, but also of the
people.
They involve an extensive train-
l Usually, these variables are stressors when
ing and preparation phase that prepares peo-
ple through the use of extensive communi-
cating and question answering.
l They are not designed as cure-
alls for everything. (Zero in on the stressors
that you’re going after; all stressors can’t be
eliminated or reduced by a single method.)
l They don’t bite off too much at
the start.
This last point is an important one.
One of the reasons that MB0 itself becomes
a stressor (and it frequently does) is that
some programs involve covering too many
objectives, too many manager-subordinate
meetings, and a tremendous amount of pa-
perwork. We have found “the lot of every-
thing syndrome” to be very stressful. The
employee experiences “MB0 overload.” In-
stead of attempting to solve everything at
once, use a more gradual strategy. Suppose,
for example, that role ambiguity, conflict,
and overload are the major stressors with
which you, as the manager, are concerned.
The initial MB0 effort then should be di-
rected at minimizing or reducing these stres-
sors. Starting small will pay off in less confu-
sion, more enthusiasm, and less stress.
The Organization’s Physical Environment
There’s an old story about a husband who
unexpectedly returns home, much to the
chagrin of his wife and her lover. The lover
quickly hides in the closet, but is found by
the husband, who yells, “What are you do-
ing in my closet?!” The lover, shivering in
his underwear, shrugs and says, “Everyone
has to be somewhere.”
The lover’s retort is hard to argue
with. We all are indeed somewhere. If that
somewhere is work and if it is physically
22 comfortable, the work environment is not
likely to create stress. There are a number of
potential environmental stressors: light,
noise, temperature, vibration, and motion.
physical facilities are old or when they are
part of an operation, such as manufacturing,
where noise or heat or other environmental
levels are elevated because of the process go-
ing on.
Basically, there are only two ways
to deal with physical environmental stres-
sors, and frequently neither is completely
satisfactory. Either the environment must be
altered (the noise lessened, the glare reduced,
and so on), or the people in the environment
must be protected from the stressors (wear-
ing ear plugs or using tinted glasses, for ex-
ample). In most problem environments,
employees use protective equipment because
of management and union interest and gov-
ernment requirements. Frequently the envi-
ronment has been altered to the extent that
it’s physically, economically, and/or techni-
cally feasible.
Short of modifying the environ-
ment or the people, management may be
able to minimize negative stressor effects by
judicious changes in usual operating proce-
dures. Providing shorter but more frequent
breaks, waiving customary dress require-
ments, changing work schedules, and pro-
viding a facility where the employee can
temporarily escape the stress are all exam-
ples of ways to reduce physical environment
stressor effects even if they’re not totally
eliminated.
One other aspect of the work envi-
ronment may produce stress. The physical
layout of the work area may either facilitate
or hinder the accomplishment of work objec-
tives and, in the latter situation particularly,
create stress-for example, a workflow
that’s inefficient because of poor arrange-
ment of people and/or equipment puts an
unnecessary physical strain on employees.
Those who are affected day in and day out
can provide the best insight on needed
changes. The smart manager will combine
his or her own observations with the experi-
ence of those performing the job to make sure
that the physical layout doesn’t create any
problems.
Providing Employee Facilities
A small but growing number of companies
are providing a variety of facilities that em-
ployees can use to reduce stress. As an ex-
ample, in 1979 U.S. firms spent over $3.5
billion on fitness and recreational programs
for employees. Companies like Xerox, Rock-
well International, Weyerhaeuser, and Pepsi
Cola spent tens of thousands of dollars for
gyms equipped with treadmills, exercycles,
and jogging tracks-and full-time staffs.
Exercise facilities are not the only
thing companies can provide. Some compa-
nies-for example, McDonald’s Hamburger,
Inc. at its Chicago headquarters-provide
biofeedback facilities. At McDonald’s, exec-
utives take relaxation breaks using biofeed-
back devices to lower respiration and heart
rate. Equitable Life Assurance Company has
a biofeedback facility available for use by
employees when they feel tense. (The com-
pany has informally estimated that every
$5.51 spent on treatment alleviates symp-
toms that would have cost three times that
amount in lost productivity.) Other compa-
nies like Connecticut General Life Insurance
and Sunny Dale Farms are encouraging (and
providing time for) employees to meditate.
Organizational efforts do not have
to be elaborate and involve significant
amounts of capital. They may involve noth-
ing more than arranging for employee dis-
counts at the YM/YWC4 or the use of a
nearby school or gymnasium. What is im-
portant is that the organization is helping
employees take preventive approaches to
health and stress reduction, a process in
which everyone gains.
Other Organizational Approaches
A variety of other managerial actions and
strategies may be useful in stress reduction
and control. In the career area, for example,
a manager has the opportunity (if not the re-
sponsibility) to help subordinates examine
their careers realistically. Subordinates
should be encouraged to do some self-anal-
ysis about strengths and weaknesses. Some
organizations are equipped to provide expert
career counseling and career pathing discus-
sions, but this is a relatively sophisticated
area in which most managers aren’t trained.
Another organizational method
that may be valuable in reducing stress is im-
proved selection and placement. Some indi-
viduals are more susceptible to certain stres-
sors than others. The traditional approach to
selection and placement is to find the person
with the skills and ability to handle the job.
It seems reasonable to extend these criteria to
include consideration of the person’s toler-
ance for ambiguity, ability to handle role
conflict, and other individual differences
that may moderate the stressor/stress/out-
come relationship.
Awareness training is another course
worth consideration. Managers can benefit
from training in the management of stress
awareness, and more and more companies
are beginning to view such training as a
sound investment. Employees may profit
from training in how to improve their own
self-awareness and how to decide on appro-
priate personal stress management strategies.
Employees can learn about meditation, yoga,
exercise, biofeedback, and relaxation re-
sponse techniques for improving health and
reducing stress. These techniques are more
oriented to individuals than those mentioned
as possible organizational level strategies
(see Figure 3). In addition, it seems reason-
able to conclude that any training that helps
employees perform their jobs more efficient-
ly, or that reduces conflict, improves com- 23
 munications, or improves subordinate and
superior relations would have a positive ef-
fect on stress reduction.
It is obvious that no single method
can be recommended for preventive health
and stress management in all organizations.
There are many approaches that could, if
used wisely, reduce stress that results from
the stressors identified in Figure 4. If the em-
ployee’s role or the organization’s structure
can’t be changed, or if additional informa-
tion or better placement isn’t the answer, it
may be best to encourage employees to ex-
amine the methods oriented toward individ-
uals. Dealing with potential stressors re-
quires time and patience on the part of the
manager. It requires careful and judicious
use of diagnosis, awareness, and action.
SOME CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
The use of preventive health and stress man-
agement as a humanitarian approach to
longevity has become popular and has even
acquired a certain chic. Stress has been re-
garded as the “Purple Heart” of life. In keep-
ing with this view, industries and products
have been created to improve health and re-
duce stress: stress clinics, antistress vitamins,
books to help you perform your own physi-
cal examination, and drugs to gobble down.
As often happens to hyped approaches, the
good techniques, the important ideas, and
the valid procedures are swept into a sea of
con-artistry, fuzziness, and rhetoric.
The intelligent manager in the
1980s must separate the wheat from the chaff
when considering the importance of preven-
tive health and stress management. All insti-
tutions have a legitimate interest in the ad-
vancement of health. Nowhere is this concept
any more important than it is in the work en-
vironment. And within the work sector, it is
important not only because of its desirable
24 social consequences, but because it is an in-
escapable part of the matrix of conditions
that determine worker and organizational ef-
fectiveness and efficiency. This is not some
fuzzy idea or a hyped-up theory: It is a fact
of organizational existence.
Organizational theorists and prac-
ticing managers have long been aware that a
host of factors may detract from optimal
performance: dissatisfaction with the job,
poor physical working conditions, strained
interpersonal relationships, lack of job se-
curity, pay dissatisfaction, insufficient chal-
lenge, too much work, not enough work,
too much supervision, too little supervision,
ineffective communications, lack of ad-
vancement opportunities, disinterest in as-
signed tasks, leadership style problems, dis-
agreements over policy, and on and on. The
list is practically endless-or at least it seems
that way. The one aspect that these factors
or problems have in common is that all of
them represent a divergence between what is
and what should be from the standpoint of
individual employee perceptions and expec-
tations. To resolve such differences, the indi-
viduals must expend effort. In other words,
all of these situations or conditions require
an employee to take an adaptive response,
mediated by individual characteristics and/’
or psychological processes.
In one sense then (and we realize it
is in only one sense), the common denomina-
tor for all of these organizational problems is
that they can produce stress. Eliminate or re-
duce the stress associated with them and you
have eliminated or reduced their capacity to
produce dysfunctional organizational conse-
quences. Viewed from this perspective,
stress management becomes an essential
requirement for achieving optimal organiza-
tional functioning. Ideally, stress management
should focus on prevention-eliminating
stressors and thus removing the conditions
that cause negative stress responses. But
since total prevention is not practical (nor
perhaps even desirable), a focus on relieuing
stress must also be an integral part of the of the organization. We expect that in the
total stress management program. 1980s an increasing number of proactive or-
An important point is that the ganizations in the United States, Canada,
management of stress isn’t a responsibility and the Western world will become signifi-
that’s added to the manager’s many other cantly involved with optimizing their human
concerns-we are not saying, “O.K., in ad- resources through preventive health and
dition to your other duties you have to con- stress management programs.
trol stress levels or conditions that may lead
to stress among your employees.” What we
are saying is that many of the responsibilities
a manager already has and many of the
problems a manager already deals with can
be effectively recast or redefined as preven-
CD
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
tive health and stress management concerns.
It has been said that genius is nothing more
An examination of stress from an organizational
than the ability to look at old things in new perspective appears in J. M. Ivancevich and M. T.
ways. Preventive health and stress manage- Matteson’s Stress At Work: A Managerial Per-
ment represents the application of a new per- spective (Scott, Foresman, 1980). Some other ex-
spective to old concerns. The seriousness of cellent books that cover health, stress, and work
the stress and health linkage is emphasized in are H. Seyle’s The Stress of Life (McGraw-Hill,
the newer perspective. It is time to realize 1978) and I’. Goldberg’s Executive Health (Mc-
that work, life, stress, and death are inextri- Graw-Hill, 1978).
cably woven together in a network for all of An article that examines preventive
us. health and preventive maintenance in an interest-
Preventive health instead of disease ing manner is W. R. Boxx and J. R. Chambless’s
“Preventive Health Maintenance for Executives”
medicine; managing stress instead of non-
(California Management Review, Fall 1975). An
management of stress; responsibility instead
excellent article that presents a preventive medi-
of nonresponsibility; awareness instead of
cine program for monitoring human resources is
ignorance; quality of worklife instead of
J. H. Howard, I’. A. Rechnitzer, and D. A. Cun-
overload, frustration, anxiety, and person/ ingham’s “Stress Inoculation: For Managers and
environment discrepancies. These are the Organizations” (The Business Quarterly, Winter
messages to management. This isn’t a call to 1975).
self-flagellation or pessimism. But if preven- Other articles that discuss health and
tive health and stress management are not on stress are R. L. Pyle’s “Corporate Fitness Programs
the organization‘s human resources agenda, -How Do They Shape Up?” (Personnel, January-
you might consider today as the first day in a February 1979), L. Levi’s “Occupational Mental
committed effort to really improve effective- Health: Its Monitoring, Protection, and Promo-
ness, humane responsibilities, and the over- tion” (journal of Occupational Medicine, January
1979), and S. C. Kobasa, R. J. Hilker, and S. R.
all quality of employees’ worklife.
Maddi’s “Who Stays Healthy Under Stress?”
Fortunately, it is never too late to
(]ournul of Occupational Medicine, September
consider preventive health and stress man- 1979).
agement programs for organizational use. Two interesting books that indicate the
We believe the place to start is with top man- importance of awareness and prevention are W.
agement. It is the leaders at the top of the McQuade and A. Alkman’s The Longevity Factor
hierarchy who can chart the way for paying (Simon & Schuster, 1979) and J. Arehart-l‘rei-
increased attention to the human resources chel’s BioTypes (Time Books, 1980). 25