Human Resources Chapter 9 Homework A personality trait that appears to buffer an individual’s response to stress. The hardy person assumes that he or she is in control, is highly committed to lively activities, and treats change as a challenge

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Chapter Nine: Managing Individual Stress

Chapter Synopsis

This chapter addresses the issue of employee stress by focusing on six topics:

• The definition of stress

• The general adaptation syndrome

Learning Objectives

After completing this chapter, students should be able to:

1. Summarize what is meant by “stress”

2. Describe the major components of the organizational stress model

3. Compare individual, group, and organizational work stressors

Key Terms

stress—An adaptive response, moderated by individual differences, that is a consequence

of any action, situation, or event and that places special demands on a person.

stressor—An external event or situation that is potentially harmful to a person.

role conflict—Arises when a person receives incompatible messages regarding

appropriate role behavior.

emotion-focused coping—The actions taken by a person to alleviate stressful emotions.

The actions center on avoidance or escape from a person, problem, or event.

burnout—A psychological process brought about by unrelieved work stress, resulting in

emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and feelings of decreased accomplishment.

Type A behavior pattern—Associated with research conducted on coronary heart

disease. The Type A person is an aggressive driver who is ambitious, competitive, task–

oriented, and always on the move.

Lecture Outline

The Chapter outline is organized to correspond with the PowerPoint slides.

The chapter title slide may be used as a background to introduce the class.

Learning objectives

Review the chapter learning objectives. These will be reviewed on the last slide of the pack.

What is Stress? (1 of 4)

Stress is seen partially as a response to some stimulus, called a stressor. A stressor is a

What is Stress? (2 of 4)

Stress can be triggered by a number of sources.

What is Stress? (3 of 4)

We think it is useful to view stress as the response of a person to certain stimulus conditions

(actions, situations, events) or stressors .This allows us to focus attention on aspects of the

organizational environment that are potential stress producers. Whether stress is actually felt or

What is Stress? (4 of 4)

For an action, situation, or event to result in stress, it must be perceived by the individual to be a

there is no potential for stress. Three key factors determine whether an experience is likely to

result in stress: importance, uncertainty, and duration.

These factors are further discussed in Exhibit 9.1 Three Factors That Make an Event Stressful.

Exhibit 9.1 Three Factors That Make an Event Stressful

Importance relates to how significant the event is to the individual. For example, suppose you

are facing a job layoff. The more significant that layoff is to you, the more likely you are to find

it stressful. If you expect the layoff to be followed by a period of prolonged unemployment, you

will probably view it as a more important event than if immediate reemployment is assured.

places more demands on people than does knowing, even if the known result is perceived as

negative. Finally, duration is a significant factor. Generally, the longer special demands are

placed on us, the more stressful they are. Being given a distasteful job assignment that lasts

only a day or two may be mildly upsetting, while the same assignment lasting for six months

EXHIBIT 9.2 A Model of Stressors, Stress and Outcomes

The model shown in Exhibit 9.2 is designed to help illustrate the link among organizational

stressors, stress, and outcomes. Recall from our earlier definition that stress is a response to an

action, situation, or event that places special demands on an individual. These occurrences are

Moderators

The model in Exhibit 9.2 suggests that the relationship between stress and outcomes (individual

and organizational) is not necessarily direct; similarly, neither is the relationship between the

Individual Stressors

An increasingly prevalent type of role conflict occurs when work and nonwork roles interfere

with one another. The most common nonwork roles involved in this form of conflict are those

of spouse and parent. Balancing the demands of work and family roles is a significant daily task

Work Overload

Virtually everyone has experienced work overload, another common individual stressor, and the

incidence rate is increasing. Overload may be of two types: qualitative or quantitative.

EXHIBIT 9.3 The Underload-Overload Continuum

From a health standpoint, numerous studies have established that quantitative overload can

cause biochemical changes, specifically, elevations in blood cholesterol levels. One study

examined the relationship of overload, underload, and stress among 1,540 executives. Those

The Hardiness Factor

Many people who experience a great deal of change at work or in life show absolutely no

negative effects or health problems. For some reason, these people can withstand the negative

consequences of large doses of change that others cannot. Why this is so is an intriguing

question. One organizational researcher, Suzanne Kobasa, has proposed that individuals who

experience high rates of change without consequently suffering health problems might differ in

terms of personality from those who are negatively affected. She refers to the personality

characteristic in question as hardiness. People with the hardiness personality trait seem to

Recognizing Stress in Employees

How can we tell if our employees are stressed? Some indicators include:

New pattern of tardiness or absences

Gregarious employee becomes withdrawn

Significant Stressors

The list of potential group and organizational stressors is a long one. In the next chapter, a

number of group characteristics are discussed, including group norms, leadership, and the status

Nonwork Stressors

Stress is also caused by factors outside the organization. Although the emphasis in this chapter

is on work, nonwork stressors should not be ignored because they affect work. Raising children,

Chapter 09 – Managing Individual Stress

caring for elders, volunteering in the community, taking college courses, and balancing family

and work life are stressful for numerous people. The stress produced outside work is likely to

impact a person’s work behavior and performance. The distinction between work and nonwork

is blurred, and overlapping stressors are significant in any discussion or analysis of stress.

Cognitive Appraisal

As presented earlier in the model of stress in Exhibit 9.2, individuals using their own view of

Coping With Stress

Through the primary and secondary appraisal, a coping approach is decided upon and applied.

The two types of coping are: problem-focused and emotion-focused. Problem-focused coping is

the actions taken to deal directly with the source of the stress. For example, workers facing a

disrespectful manager may deal with his harassing style by being absent from work. This

absenteeism enables the workers to be removed, some of the time, from the disrespectful

manager. Emotion-focused coping is the steps a person takes to address or alleviate stressful

Stress Outcomes

In one study, conducted at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, a

sample of 2,010 employees was chosen from 23 occupations to examine the relationship

between stress and stress consequences. The occupations were combined into four specific

groups—blue-collar workers (skilled and unskilled) and white-collar workers (professional and

nonprofessional). Blue-collar workers reported the highest subjective effects, including job

dissatisfaction; white-collar workers, the lowest. The unskilled workers reported the most

boredom and apathy with their job conditions. They specifically identified a number of major

stress is clearly an individual outcome; it is the individual’s performance that is being affected.

Just as clearly, however, the organization experiences important consequences from stress–

related performance decrements.

Individual Outcomes of Stress

Depression: Key Facts

With respect to depression, a comprehensive survey of American workers concluded that a third

of them experienced job stress–related depression.

There is a stigma associated with depression. Part of the stigma comes because most people

lack an understanding of depression and its frequency. Unfortunately, most managers are not

aware of these facts:

•According to Mental Health America, the cost of depression is $51 billion a year in medical

bills, lost productivity, and absenteeism.

Stress Outcomes

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) is the diagnostic tool

used to detect depression. The DSM-IV indicates that the diagnosis of depression requires the

presence of either a depressed mood or diminished interest in all or most activities, marked

psychomotor retardation, significant appetite or weight change, changes in sleep, fatigue or loss

of energy, problems thinking or concentrating, feelings of worthlessness, excessive feelings of

guilt, or thoughts of suicide or death. These signs must be persistent over the course of two

weeks. Managerial understanding of these symptoms can help the organization, especially when

the manager asks professional counselors to intervene. It would be unwise for managers to

Burnout (1 of 3)

Burnout is a psychological process, brought about by unrelieved work stress, that results in

emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and feelings of decreased accomplishment. Exhibit 9.4

displays some indicators of these three burnout outcomes. A recent research study found that

burnout is linked to several aspects of ill health, including sleep disturbances, systematic

inflammation, impaired immunity functions, and blood coagulation. Burnout tends to be a

particular problem among people whose jobs require extensive contact with and/or

responsibility for other people. Indeed, much of the research that has been conducted on

Burnout (2 of 3)

Exhibit 9.3 shares some of the indicators that someone is suffering from burnout.

Burnout (3 of 3)

A very important idea implicit in this conceptualization of burnout relates to job involvement. A

high degree of involvement in, identification with, or commitment to one’s job or profession is

a necessary prerequisite for burnout. It is unlikely that one would be-come exhausted without

Factors that Contribute to Burnout

Organizations contribute to employee job burnout in a variety of ways. Research identifies four

Myths About Burnout

This slide highlights the OB matters block.

Organizational Consequences of Stress

Although precise figures are lacking, based on a variety of estimates and projections from

government, industry, and health groups, we place the costs of stress at about $300 billion

annually in the United States. This estimate considers the reductions in operating effectiveness

resulting from stress. The effects include poorer decision making and decreases in creativity.

Stress Moderators

Stressors evoke different responses from different people. Some people are better able to cope

with a stressor than others. They can adapt their behavior in such a way as to meet the stressor

head-on. On the other hand, some people are predisposed to stress; that is, they are not able to

adapt to the stressor. The model presented in Exhibit 9.2 suggests that various factors can

Chapter 09 – Managing Individual Stress

moderate the relationships among stressor, stress, and consequences. A moderator is a

condition, behavior, or characteristic that qualifies the relationship between two variables. The

effect may be to intensify or weaken the relationship. The relationship between the number of

gallons of gasoline used and total miles driven, for example, is moderated by driving speed. At

Big 5 Model of Personality

As discussed in Chapter 3, the term personality refers to a relatively stable set of characteristics,

temperaments, and tendencies that shape the similarities and differences in people’s behavior.

The number of aspects of personality that could serve as stress moderators is quite large. We

will confine our attention to those aspects of personality previously identified in Chapter 3: the

Big Five model, locus of control, and self-efficacy. As you may recall from Chapter 3, the Big

Five model of personality is made up of five dimensions: extroversion, emotional stability,

it. To a somewhat lesser degree, those high on extroversion are also more predisposed to

experience positive emotional states. Because they are sociable and friendly, they are more

likely to have a wider network of friends than their introverted counterparts; consequently, they

have more resources to draw upon in times of distress. If you are low on agreeableness you tend

to be antagonistic, unsympathetic, and even rude, toward others. You are also probably

somewhat mistrusting of others. These attributes increase the likelihood you will find other

people to be a source of stress, and since others are more likely to find interacting with you

stressful as well, an interpersonal relationship environment full of stressful situations is created.

Conscientiousness is the Big Five dimension most consistently related to job performance and

success. To the extent that good performance leads to satisfaction and other rewards, those high

Type A Behavior Pattern

In the 1950s, two medical cardiologists and researchers, Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman,

discovered what they called the Type A behavior pattern. They searched the medical literature

and found that traditional coronary risk factors such as dietary cholesterol, blood pressure, and

pattern of behavior or traits. They eventually called this the Type A behavior pattern (TABP).

Type B Behavior Pattern

In contrast, the Type B behavior pattern individual mainly is free of the TABP characteristics

and generally feels no pressing conflict with either time or persons. The Type B may have

Social Support

Both the quantity and quality of the social relationships individuals have with others appear to

Social Support

Social support may take the form of emotional support (expressing concern, indicating trust,

boosting esteem, listening); appraisal support (providing feedback and affirmation); or

informational support (giving advice, making suggestions, providing direction). People who can

Stress Prevention and Management (1 of 4)

An astute manager never ignores a turnover or absenteeism problem, workplace drug abuse, a

decline in performance, hostile and belligerent employees, reduced quality of production, or any

other sign that the organization’s performance goals are not being met. The effective manager,

organizational stress are available

Stress Prevention and Management (2 of 4)

Exhibit 9.5 presents how organizational stress management programs can be targeted. Programs

are targeted to (1) identify and modify work stressors, (2) educate employees in modifying and

understanding stress and its impact, and (3) provide employees support to cope with the

negative impact of stress.

In a rapidly changing work environment, this type of targeting is difficult to accomplish.

However, a trained, educated, and knowledgeable workforce can make modifications with the

help of management in how work is performed.

Stress Prevention and Management (3 of 4)

Some of the targeted, corrective programs include:

•Training programs for managing and coping with stress.

•Redesigning work to minimize stressors.

•Changes in management style to one of more support and coaching to help workers achieve

Stress Prevention and Management (4 of 4)

The potential for success of any prevention or management-of-stress program is good if there is

a true commitment to understanding how stressors, stress, and outcomes are linked. There is a

very important distinction between preventing stress and managing it. Stress prevention focuses

Stress Management Program Targets

These and other efforts are targeted to prevent and/or manage stress. First, however, we will

look at a way of thinking about organizational stress prevention.

Maximizing Person-Environment (P-E) Fit (1 of 2)

In defining stress earlier in the chapter, we emphasized that stress is the consequence of the

interaction between an environmental stimulus (a stressor) and the individual’s response. From

this perspective, stress may be viewed as a consequence of the relationship between the

individual and the work environment. While there are many ways of thinking about individual–

organizational relationships and stress, the concept of person–environment fit is the most

widely used. Person–environment fit occurs when there is compatibility between individuals

and their work environments. When an employee perceives that he or she fits well with the

organization, the employee is more likely to have higher levels of organizational commitment,

job satisfaction, and adjustment, while experiencing lower levels of stress. Although originally

thought of as a single dimension, researchers have identified several different types of P–E fit,

including:

1. Person–organization fit: Degree to which employees/applicants and organizations are

compatible and meet each others’ needs. An employee who doesn’t fit with the

organizational culture will experience stress and may end up leaving the organization.