Professional Documents
Culture Documents
5.1 - Stress at Workplace
5.1 - Stress at Workplace
Minal Waghchoure
Stress @ work
• “Stress is a physiological abnormality at the
structural or bio-chemical level caused by
overloading experiences.”
• “Stress is an adaptive response to an external
situation that results in physical, psychological
and or behavioural deviations for
organisational participants..”
Is All Stress Bad?
• Moderate levels of stress may actually improve
performance and efficiency
Eustress
This stress is because of the sudden overjoy. Fortunately this type of stress is not
longlasting. Furthermore it is a state of happiness. Eustress, therefore, is not
harmful, being occasional and fleeting.
Distress
This is anti-thesis of eustress. Distress is caused whenever a person is suddenly very sad
or angry. Distress is caused because of the demands of the modern life and anxiety
to cope with them. This results in feelings of inadequacy, anxiety, nervousness, loss
etc. This type of stress is harmful. It is this stress that has caused more havoc in the
executive life. It is this stress that justifies the saying “Ulcer is the surest sight of
executive success”.
Since it is distress that takes a heavy toll of executive efficiency, the organisations
should try to alleviate it. An atmosphere of objectivity and mutual trust would go a
long way in reducing distress.
Hyper Work Stress
This type of stress is caused because of the hyper activity and travails
of life to meet deadlines etc. Target mindedness and the eleventh
hour rush or continuous overwork cause hyper stress. The key
therefore, to deal with hyper stress lies in good planning.
Hypo Stress
This type of stress is the opposite of the hyper stress. This stress is
caused by less than optimum activity. The effects of hypo stress are
slower than other types but are more penetrating and longer lasting.
There are examples when the Organisation have deliberately created
hypo stress by denying legitimate work to their employees. Such
situations, beyond creating stress, deprive a person of the fulfillment
of self-esteem needs. More often the retired persons experience this
stress. For them it is a transition from hyper to hypo stress. This
underlines the necessity of planning the post-retirement period,
doing proper time management by planning activities so that an
individual remains optimally busy.
The Stress Experience
Perception
Past experience
Social Support
Individual Differences
Stressor Stress
Cognitive Restructuring
It involves two steps. First, irrational or
maladaptive thought processes that create stress are identified.
One such thought is entertaining a premonition that something
evil is going to befall on you. The second step consists of
replacing these irrational thoughts with more rational ones. The
fear of evil befalling can be overcome by reasoning and
rationalizing events and their consequences. Cognitive
restructuring would alleviate stress by encouraging a person to
adopt a more reasonable belief about the outcomes associated
with events.
Time Management
Most of us are poor in time
management. The result is feeling of overload,
skipped schedules and attendant tension. The
truth is, if one can manage time effectively, he or
she can accomplish twice as much as the person
who is poorly organized.
Organizational Strategies
• Besides individual practising coping strategies,
organisations too have been developing and
implementing stress-reduction strategies. Some
of these programmes focus on a specific issue or
a problem, such as alcohol or drug abuse, career
counseling, job allocation or burnout.
• Organisational coping strategies help reduce the
harmful effects of stress in three ways:-
1. Identify and then modify or eliminate woer
stressors
2. Help employees modify their perception and
understanding of work stress.
3. Help employees cope more effectively with the
consequences of stress.
Organizational Strategies
Organizational Stress
Management
Programmes
Targeted at
Work Stressors
Work load
Job Conditions Outcomes of Stress
Employee
Role conflict & ambiguity Physiological
perceptions/Experience of
Career development Emotional
Stress
Interpersonal relations Behavioural
Aggressive behaviour
Conflict between work
and other roles
Try keeping a diary for a week, and set out how much time
you spend on each activity, both at work and outside. That
will give you an idea of your current work-life balance. You
may also find it helpful to separate chores, including driving
children to activities, and ‘fun’. Once you can see how your
life separates into work and ‘other’, and into chores and fun,
you can start to work out how to make changes to improve
the balance.
2. Identify the ideal scenario
• In many ways, this process is a bit
like strategic thinking.
• First you need to know where you are, then
where you want to be. Think about how you
would like your life to look.
• What would be the ideal balance between
work and home?
• How would you like to be spending your time?
3. What changes do you need to
make to get from ‘now’ to ‘future’?
Look at your current situation and at your ideal scenario.
• Identify three to five key changes that will help you to move from ‘now’ to ‘future’. For example, if
you have identified that you want to confine weekend overtime to an hour in the evening on Sunday
night, then what do you need to do to achieve that?
If you have enough time outside work, but you feel that it’s all swallowed by chores, then steps to take
might include:
• Working out whether you can afford to have a cleaner;
• Asking your spouse, and if appropriate, children, to do more chores, and agreeing a reasonable split
or rota; and
• Identifying one day per week which is ‘chore-free’.
maintaining a healthy work-life balance
• Play to your strengths
• Prioritise your time
• Are you a morning person?
• Plot some personal time
• Have set work hours – and stick to them
• Find time for your finances
• Manage your time, long term
• Make your workspace work for you
• Tap into technology
• Make exercise a must-do, not a should-do
• Take time to make time
• Know and nurture your network
• Do what you love
• Be realistic
• Step out
• Get a business coach
• Meet clients halfway – literally
• Manage your mind
• Take a break
• Have that holiday
Workplace spirituality or spirituality in the
workplace is a movement that began in the early
1920s.[dubious – discuss] It emerged as a grassroots
movement with individuals seeking to live their
faith and/or spiritual values in the workplace.
Spiritual or spirit-centered leadership is a topic of
inquiry frequently associated with the workplace
spirituality movement (Benefiel, 2005; Biberman,
2000; Fry, 2005; Giacalone & Jurkiewicz, 2003;
Jue, 2006)
Spirituality is shown in a workplace when the
following activities are included:
• Bereavement programs.
• Wellness information displayed and distributed.
• Employee Assistance Programs.
• Programs that integrate work/family.
• Management systems that encourage personal and spiritual
transformation.
• Servant leadership – the desire to serve others first in preference to
self.
• Stewardship – leadership practices that support growth and well-
being of others.
• Diversity programs that create inclusive cultures.
• Integration of core values and core business decisions and practices.
• Leadership practices that support the growth and development of all
employees.
Characteristics of Spiritual Organizations:
• Strong sense of purpose: Organizational members know why the
organization exists and what it values.
• Focus on individual development: Employers are valuable and
need to be nurtured to help them grow. These characteristics also
include a sense of job security.
• Trust and openness: Organizational member relationships are
characterized by mutual trust, honesty and openness.
• Employee empowerment: Employees are allowed to a make work
related decisions that affect them, highlighting a strong sense of
delegation of authority.
• Toleration of employee expression: The organization culture
encourages employees to be themselves and to express their
moods and feelings without guilt or fear of reprimand.
• HRM and Spirituality: Ironically, introducing spirituality into the
organizations is nothing new for HR. In actuality, many of the areas
that HRM addresses, and has done so for many years. There are
many of the same things that support spirituality, For instance
matters such as work / life balances, proper selection of employees,
setting performance goals and rewarding people for the work they
do are all components of making the organization more spiritual. In
fact as you review the characteristics of a spiritual organization, in
every case, HRM is either the leader in making such things happen,
or is the vehicle by which the organization helps employees
understand their responsibilities and offers the requisite training to
make things happen. In the end, it’s HRM that will make the
workplace a supportive work environment, where communication
abounds and employees feel free to express themselves.
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