Work Stress and Well being in Jobs

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Dr. Surjyasikha Das

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 Module 10.1: The Problem of Stress

• Studying workplace stress

Work stressors
– Task & role stressors

Moderators of the stress process

– Individual differences & social support

Consequences of stress
– Burnout & heart disease

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 Studying Workplace Stress (cont’d)

• Selye – “Father of Stress”

– Defined stress as “the non-specific response of
the human body to any demand made on it”
– Eustress vs. distress
– General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)
• Alarm reaction Resistance Exhaustion
• Response to chronic stress

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 Studying Workplace Stress (cont’d)

• Recent studies
– In addition to physiological reaction to stress,
there is also a cognitive appraisal of situation &
of resources available to handle stressors

• Problem-focused coping
• Managing or altering the problem causing the stress
• Emotion-focused coping
• Reducing the emotional response to the problem
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Framework for Study of Stress
(Kahn & Byosiere, 1992)

Figure 10.1
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 What is a Stressor?

• Stressors
– Physical or psychological demands to which an
individual responds
Heat, cold, noise Situational constraints
Role stressors
Emotional labor Interpersonal conflict
Work schedule Workload
Perceived control Work pace, time pressure
• Strains
– Reaction or response to stressors
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Common Stressors at Work

• Physical/Task
stressors
– Effect of multiple
stressors can be
cumulative
– e.g., Noise, demands
of a given job
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 Psychological Stressors

• Lack of control/predictability
• Individual’s perception of control or predictability
determines his/her response to the situation
• Interpersonal conflict
• Negative interactions w/co-workers, supervisors, clients
• Can occur when resources are scarce, employees have
incompatible interests, or employees feel they are not
being treated fairly

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 Psychological Stressors (cont’d)

• Role stressors: Result from multiple task

requirements or roles of employees
• Role ambiguity
– Employees lack clear knowledge of expected behavior
• Role conflict
– Demands from different sources are incompatible
• Role overload
– An employee is expected to fill to many roles at once

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 Psychological Stressors (cont’d)

• Work-family conflict
– When workers experience conflict between roles
they fulfill at work & roles they fulfill in their
personal lives

– Flexible time schedules & child care becoming

increasingly important

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 Psychological Stressors (cont’d)

• Emotional labor: Regulation of one’s

emotions to meet job or organizational
demands
– Surface acting
– Consists of managing or faking one’s expressions or emotions
– Deep acting
– Consists of managing one’s feelings, including emotions
required by the job

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 Behavioral Consequences of Stress

• Information processing
• Chronic stress has negative effects on memory,
reaction time, accuracy, & task performance
• Performance
• Hypothesis: Performance & stress have an inverted
U relationship
– As arousal increases, performance increases, but only up
to a certain point, & then performance begins to decline

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 Stress & Performance:
Inverted U Relationship

Figure 10.2
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Psychological Consequences of Stress

• Burnout
• Extreme state of psychological strain resulting from
prolonged response to chronic job stressors that
exceed an individual’s resources to cope with them
• 3 components
– Emotional exhaustion
– Depersonalization
– Low personal accomplishment

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Physiological Consequences of Stress

• Stressful situations cause overactivation of

sympathetic nervous system (SNS),
producing several kinds of stress hormones
– Initially, these changes can improve decision
making & physical performance
– Chronic activation of SNS leads to “wear &
tear” on coronary arteries & heart

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 Module 10.2: Theories of Stress

• Demand-Control Model
– 2 factors prominent in producing job stress
• Job demands
– Workload or intellectual requirements
• Control (decision latitude)
– Autonomy & discretion for using different skills

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 Demand-Control Model (cont’d)

Figure 10.3
Demand-Control Model
Source: Adapted from Karasek (1979).

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 Demand-Control Model (cont’d)

• Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ)

– Role overload & role conflict (demands)

– Skill utilization & job decision (control)
– Depression, job dissatisfaction, & sleep
problems (health consequences)

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 Person-Environment Fit Model

• Hypothesis: Fit between person &

environment determines amount of stress
that person perceives

• Considers external influences like social

support from family & work sources

• Person-job fit vs. person-organization fit

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 Individual Differences in
Resistance to Stress

• Moderators of stressor-strain relationship

– Locus of control (LOC)
• Belief of individuals that what happens to them is
under their control
– Hardiness
• Set of personality characteristics that provide
resistance to stress
– Self-esteem
• Positive self-worth that is considered to be an
important resource for coping

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Example of Moderator

Figure 10.4
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 Type A Behavior Pattern (TABP)

• Moderator of stressor-strain relationship

• Individuals displaying TABP characterized by

ambitiousness, impatience, easily aroused
hostility, & time urgency
– Seem to thrive on “life in the fast lane”

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 Type A Behavior Pattern (TABP)

• Compared to Type Bs, Type As more

punctual, work at faster rates, & higher
achievers in college & in professional careers

• Hostility is primary TABP subcomponent

associated with increased risk of heart disease
& other long-term, harmful health outcomes

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 TABP Subcomponents

• Achievement strivings (AS)

– Tendency to be active & work hard in achieving one’s goals
– Positively correlated with academic performance, sales
performance, & job satisfaction

• Impatience/Irritability (II)
– Intolerance, frustration that results from being slowed down
– Associated with health problems like insomnia, headaches,
poor digestion, & respiratory difficulties

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 TABP Subcomponent

Time urgency
• Refers to feeling of being pressured by
inadequate time
• Dimensions include eating behavior,
nervous energy, list making, scheduling,
speech patterns, & deadline control

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 Module 10.3:
Reducing & Managing Stress

• Primary prevention strategies

– Concerned with modifying or eliminating
stressors in work environment
– Most proactive & preventative
approaches to stress management
– Examples:
• Work & job design
• Cognitive restructuring
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 Secondary Prevention Strategies

• Involve modifying responses to inevitable

demands or stressors
• Role is often one of damage control
• Strategies that require no special training
include lifestyle choices such as physical
fitness, healthy eating, & weight control
• Can be proactive or reactive

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 Secondary Prevention Strategies

• Stress management training

– Useful for helping employees deal with
workplace stressors that are difficult to change

– Cognitive-behavioral skills training

• Stress inoculation
– Relaxation & biofeedback techniques
• Progressive muscle relaxation & deep breathing
– Social support: Instrumental, emotional,
informational, & appraisal support
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 Tertiary Prevention Strategies

• Focused on healing negative effects of stressors

• Employee assistance programs (EAPs)

– Counseling provided by an organization to deal
with workplace stress, alcohol/drug difficulties, &
problems stemming from outside the job

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 Summary of Stress Intervention
Strategies

• Combining various stress management interventions

is more effective than using any single approach

• Successful stress management interventions must

accurately identify stressors causing strain &
actively determine ways to reduce those stressors

• Primary stress intervention strategies generally

preferred over other interventions

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 Future Work Trends & Challenges to
Stress & Stress Management
• Workforce is becoming more culturally &
ethnically diverse
– Important for I-O psychologists to determine whether
factors that predict health problems in White males are
same as in other populations

• Influences in the new millennium predicted to be

stressful
– Technological change, global competition, downsizing,
elder & child care, & increased teamwork

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 Module 10.4: Violence at Work

Violent actions carried out by a non-employee

against an employee
Vs.
Violence perpetrated by employees &
directed toward fellow employees

• Many hypotheses for why workplace has

become more violent since the early 1990s
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 3 Levels of Violence

• Level 1
• Spreads rumors & gossip to harm others,
consistently argues with co-workers
• Level 2
• Refuses to obey company policies & procedures,
verbalizes wishes to hurt co-workers or management
• Level 3
• Recurrent physical fights, destruction of property

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Experiential Sequence of
Violence Perpetrators

Figure 10.12
Routine Experiential
Sequence of Violence
Perpetrators
Source: Based on Kinney
(1995).

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 “Typical” Violent Worker

• Most cases of workplace violence involve some

feeling of being treated unfairly, & perpetrator has
some real or imaginary grievance against
organization or a person in the organization

• Characteristics of a violent worker

– May include: Abuses alcohol, has a history of violence,
has difficult accepting authority, is a white male 25-30
years of age

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 Theories of Workplace Violence

• Frustration-aggression hypothesis
– Argues that frustration leads to aggression
– Ultimately found to be too broad
• Not all frustrated individuals act aggressively & not all
aggressive acts are a result of frustration
– Modern view: Frustration leads to stress reaction
& individual expends energy to relieve this stress
– High self-esteem is associated with violence

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 Employee Behavior as a Result of
Frustration & Employee Control

Figure 10.13
Constructive and Destructive Employee
Behavior as a Result of Frustration and
Employee Control
Source: Spector (2000).

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 Theories of Workplace Violence
(cont’d)

• “Justice” hypothesis
– Proposes that some violent acts can be
understood as reactions by an employee
against perceived injustice
– Relevance to the 3 types of justice
• Layoffs & firings
• Performance appraisals

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 Special Type of Violence: Bullying

• Bullying - Harassing, offending, socially excluding, or

assigning humiliating tasks to subordinate repeatedly &
over long period of time
– 4 steps in escalation
• A critical incident
• Bullying & stigmatizing
• Organizational intervention
• Expulsion of the victim

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 Conclusions About Workplace
Violence
• Employees need avenues for communicating
concerns about the fairness of organizational
decisions that affect them

• Managers need to be sensitive to signs of

potential trouble in form of individual
worker behaviors

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