CHAPTER 10

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH

A broad-based concept that refers to the mental, emotional, and physical well-being of employees
in relation to the conduct of their work.

WORK STRESS
 The response to stimuli on the job that lead to negative consequences, physical or psychological,
to the people who are exposed to them.

A MODEL OF STRESS
 Organizational Antecedents to Stress – stress markers, organizational characteristics (size,
work schedule).
 Stressors in Organizational Life – physical (noise, light), psychosocial (role conflict, role
overload)
 Role conflict – the product of perceptual differences regarding the content of a person’s
role or the relative importance of its elements.
 Role overload – the conflict experienced in a role as a necessity to compromise either the
quantity or quality of performance.
 Perception and Cognition: The Appraisal Process – seeks to explain that different people react
to different stressors that are objectively the same.
 Response to Stress – physical (cardiovascular, biochemical, gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal),
psychological (depression, anxiety, job satisfaction), behavioral (turnover, absenteeism)
 Consequences of Stress – health and illness, organizational effectiveness, performance in other
life roles.
 Properties of the Person as Stress Mediators
 Type A Personality – individuals who tend to be aggressive, competitive, and feel under
chronic time pressure.
 Type B Personality – individuals who tend not to be competitive, intense, or feel under
chronic time pressure.
 Locus of Control – a personality construct that places people into one of two types:
internal and external.
 Properties of the Situation as Stress Mediators – supervisor social support, coworker social
support

PREVENTION AND INTERVENTION

Prevention Intervention
 Deep breathing  Counseling
 Progressive muscle relaxation  Social support groups
 Biofeedback  Employee assistance programs
 Yoga

WORK/FAMILY CONFLICT


The dilemma of trying to balance the conflicting demands of work and family responsibilities.

Dual Career Families – a family in which both adults have their own individual careers and are
trying as a family to balance their respective careers.
WORK SCHEDULES
 Shift Work – the period of time a person must perform his or her job; usually an 8-hour period.
  Flexible Working Hours (Flextime) – a schedule of work hours that permits employees’
flexibility in when they arrive at and leave work.
 Compressed Workweek – a schedule of work hours that typically involves more hours per day
and fewer days per week.

PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF UNEMPLOYMENT

 Five Latent Consequences of Employment
 Imposition of a time structure on the waking day
 Regular shared experiences and contacts with people outside the nuclear family
 The linking of individuals to goals and purposes
 The definition of aspects of personal status and identity
 The enforcement of activity