and their work groups. An employee can perceive a good fit with the organization, job, and
career, but can’t stand working with a certain group of co-workers, customers, or vendors.
This misfit with the group will create stress for the employee.
Maximizing Person-Environment (P-E) Fit (2 of 2)
There are numerous strategies for maximizing P–E fit. Ideally, the process begins before an
Stress Prevention and Management Programs
In addition to the variety of activities that may be undertaken to improve person–environment
fit, an increasing number of organizations have developed very specific stress prevention and/or
Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs)
EAPs have been based on the traditional medical approach to treatment. General program
elements include:
• Diagnosis. An employee with a problem asks for help; EAP staff attempts to diagnose the
problem.
• Treatment. Counseling or supportive therapy is provided. If in-house EAP staff is unable to
help, the employee may be referred to appropriate community-based professionals.
Wellness Programs
Wellness programs, sometimes called health promotion programs, focus on the employee’s
overall physical and mental health. Simply stated, any activity an organization engages in that is
designed to identify and assist in preventing or correcting specific health problems, health
hazards, or negative health habits can be thought of as wellness-related. This includes not only
cessation, physical fitness and exercise, nutrition and diet control, and job and personal stress
management.
Success factors for EAP/Wellness Programs
Simply offering an EAP or wellness program does not guarantee positive results for either
employers or the sponsoring organization. While many factors determine how successful any
particular program will be, a number of recommendations, if followed, will increase the
likelihood of achieving beneficial outcomes. Among the more important are:
1. Top management support, including both philosophical support and support in terms of staff
and facilities, is necessary.
3. The greatest payoff from stress prevention and management comes not from one-shot
activities, but from ongoing and sustained effort; thus, long-term commitment is essential.
4. Extensive and continuing employee involvement would include involvement not only in the
initial planning but in implementation and maintenance as well. This is one of the most
critical factors for ensuring representative employee participation.
Individual Approaches
Organization members do not have to—nor should they—rely on formal organizational
programs to assist in stress prevention and management. There are many individual approaches
to dealing with stressors and stress. A few of the more popularly cited and frequently used
approaches for individual stress prevention and management are discussed below. These
Cognitive Techniques
The basic rationale for some individual approaches to stress management, known collectively as
cognitive techniques, is that a person’s response to stressors is mediated by cognitive processes
or thoughts. The underlying assumption of these techniques is that people’s thoughts, in the
modifying their cognitions.
Relaxing Techniques
The purpose of this approach is to reduce a person’s arousal level and bring about a calmer state
of affairs, both psychologically and physiologically. Psychologically, successful relaxation
results in enhanced feelings of well-being, peacefulness and calm, a clear sense of being in
Meditation
Many of the meditative forms that have achieved some degree of popularity in this country are
derivatives of Eastern philosophies. Included in this category are Zen meditation and Nam
Biofeedback
In biofeedback, small changes occurring in the body or brain are detected, amplified, and
displayed to the person. Sophisticated recording and computer technology make it possible for a
person to attend to subtle changes in heart rate, blood pressure, temperature, and brainwave
potential of biofeedback is its ability to help induce a state of relaxation and restore bodily
functions to a nonstressed state.
In Review, Can You…
Instructors may wish to refer to the learning objectives to facilitate a review of the chapter
concepts.
Slide
Notes
Summary of Key Points
• Stress is an adaptive response moderated by individual differences, that is, a
consequence of any action, situation, or event that places special demands on a
person.
• Stress can have psychological, behavioral, and physiological consequences. The
Chapter 09 – Managing Individual Stress
• Major variables in the model of organizational stress presented in this chapter are:
(1) work stressors (work environment, individual, group, and organizational); (2)
stress itself; (3) stress consequences (organizational and individual); (4) stress
moderators (personality, Type A behavior, and social support); and (5) stress
prevention and management (maximizing person–environment fit, organizational
programs, and individual approaches).
• While some consequences of stress are positive, many are dysfunctional. Negative
individual consequences include accident proneness, poor concentration, drug and
alcohol abuse, and burnout. Organizational consequences may include absentee-
ism, turnover, increased health and medical costs, and quantitative and qualitative
decrements in productivity.
Review and Discussion Questions
1. Describe an instance when you were experiencing “acute stress” at work. What
was the cause of the stress and how did you manage it?
Ans: Student answers will vary but should reflect the content of the chapter for terms.
.
2. Why should managers not even attempt to counsel or provide advice to any
employee suspected of being depressed?
Ans: Managers are not skilled enough to intervene in these cases. Mild and moderate
3. The issue of who should be responsible for dealing with work stress—the
individual or the organization—is an important one. What do you think? What are
your arguments for and against each position?
Ans: Student answers will vary, depending on their viewpoint. Potential arguments follow.
Reasons why stress should be dealt with by the individual:
• Individuals have the clearest understanding of what causes their stress.
• Individuals can take an active approach in developing coping mechanisms to
manage their stress.
Reasons why stress should be dealt with by the organization:
• Organizational leaders are often more able to remove the source of the stress than a
single individual can.
• Organizational managers can take an active approach in reducing stress in the
organizational environments.
4. Do you think some types of jobs or organizations attract Type A individuals? Do
some attract Type B individuals? Why?
Ans: This is a personal opinion question, so student answers will vary. Sample answer
follows.
If Type A is a racehorse and Type B is a turtle, then Type As will be attracted to the
racetrack and Type Bs will be attracted to the water. In other words, yes, there are certain
jobs and organizations that attract Type A individuals and others that attract Type B
5. Why do you think so many companies offer employee assistance programs
(EAPs) to their employees? Explain.
Ans: While student answers will vary, responses may incorporate the stress caused by
6. Work underload may be every bit as dysfunctional as work overload. Can you
think of other work variables where “too little” may be as counterproductive as “too
much”?
Ans: Student answers will vary. Some examples may be (a) performance feedback; too
7. What kinds of things could an organization do to better maximize employee-
environment fit?
Ans: Student answers will vary, depending on the work situation they choose and their
personal stressors. Check for understanding and correct use of the P-E fit concept. Some
ideas for improving P-E fit at a college might be in recruitment and admissions; creating
8. What is the relationship between stress and personality? What aspects of
personality might tend to increase stress? Decrease it?
Ans: Each of the Big Five Model of Personality dimensions has corresponding traits, which
may prompt certain reactions to stress. These relationships are highlighted in the following
chart:
Personality Dimension
Possible Reaction to Stress
Emotional Stability
Individuals with high ES are less likely to be overwhelmed by stress and are
emotional stress because they are sociable and friendly and are more likely to
polite, and sympathetic to others, which leads to a decreased sense that other
conscientiousness are less likely to experience stress with respect to their jobs
9. Why are people in certain occupations more susceptible to burnout? What kinds
of things might organizations do to reduce the likelihood their members will
experience burnout?
Ans: Some occupations need and attract people with high degrees of commitment to their
jobs or professions. When these people are overloaded in their work, face mountains of red
10. Increasingly, some workers are being sent on overseas assignments. What
stressors might be unique to such assignments? What might organizations do to
minimize their impact?
Ans: Workers going overseas experience many significant life events, such as business
readjustment, change in financial state, change to different line of work, change in
EXERCISE 9.1: Behavior Activity Profile—A Type A Measure
Purpose
To provide students the opportunity to determine the degree to which they exhibit Type A tendencies
The Exercise in Class
Expect much student involvement and enjoyment of this self-assessment exercise. After students
have scored themselves, it’s useful to:
2. Pose some interesting questions to students:
1) Does Type A-ness change over time? Some studies indicate yes. What factors may
CASE 9.1: ALLEVIATING EMPLOYEE STRESS THROUGH FINANCIAL EDUCATION
This case presents the negative financial impact the recent economic downturn has had on
employees and presents an educational process that companies that have used to assist
employees.
1. To what degree do companies have an obligation to provide financial education
programs to alleviate employees’ stress? Explain your answer.
Student answers will vary.
2. Referring back to Exhibit 9.2, to what degree do you think an employee who is
experiencing a considerable amount of financial stress might exhibit some of the
behavioral and cognitive outcomes listed in the far-right section of the model?
While student answers will vary, most responses will indicate that these consequences
3. Though not extremely expensive, financial education programs still cost
organizations money and resources to organize and administer to employees. In
your opinion, why do organizations like McLeod Health and Therm-O-Disc offer
these programs? What returns of investment can these two organizations expect
from having employees who become better at managing their finances?
Teaching Hints and Tips
Lecture Ideas
1. The topic of individual stress provides many opportunities to enrich student
understanding of the chapter concepts by drawing on student’s personal experiences.
A. Stressors: Student experiences can do much to illustrate the different types of
stressors (blue collar, role conflict, role ambiguity, quantitative/qualitative
overload, etc.) In each case, ask students to describe the stress they
experienced.
C. Moderators: Introduce the Type A Behavior Pattern by conducting a quick quiz
that measures Type A tendencies (three “yes” responses indicate a Type A):
1. Have you ever been told that you walk too fast?
2. Have your parents frequently asked you to slow down when eating?
2. In class discussion of the Type A Behavior Pattern, students will frequently ask: Do
Type As perform better than Type Bs? Many students will believe so because, after
all, Type As are aggressive, competitive, always working fast to get the job done.
However, the answer is more complex. To date, research on the performance issue
has produced inconclusive results. Type A individuals have outperformed Type Bs in
difficult situations that require endurance, speed, and persistence. Situations are
considered difficult because they:
Chapter 09 – Managing Individual Stress
In sum, the question of Type A-B performance differences is far from resolved, and
findings to date are limited by the studies’ almost exclusive use of white males as
subjects and by the absence of field studies.
3. As a way of demonstrating stress reduction techniques at the individual level, ask
students to go through a stress reduction exercise with you in the classroom. For
example, to illustrate how cognitive techniques work, ask students to think of some
situation at school, home, or work, which they regularly experience, and which they
“The instructor has set me up to fail.”
“I am incapable of taking tests.”
“I have never done well on a test in my life.”
“Test-taking makes me nauseous.”
When the students have completed this part of the exercise, ask them to go back over
the list and rephrase the statements, turning them into positive affirmations, for
example:
Project Ideas and Suggested Class Speakers
1. One way to enhance understanding of stress management programs is to have
students prepare a report on a particular stress management technique (e.g.,
2. As an individual assignment, have students interview someone in a job that they might
someday like to have. The purpose is to write a profile, describing the particular
stressors in that job and how it affects the jobholder. Are they prepared to cope with
these stressors? How could they use what they have learned about the stress in this
job to better plan for their own futures?
3. Invite the college’s director of human resources to class to describe your institution’s
EAP, stress prevention/management programs, or its philosophy about the
prevention/reduction techniques students might use themselves.
4. The class might compare and contrast the stresses that their parents, grandparents
and great-great grandparents had in comparison to the stress in their lives. They could
also discuss what job stressors there might be for the future or present kids.
Term Paper Topics
1. Can Type As Learn To Be Type Bs or Visa Versa?
2. Manifestations of Type A Behavior Among College Students
6. (Selected job): A Profile of Stressors on the Job
7. Designing Jobs for a Type B Organizational Culture
8. The Stress Management Program at (selected organization)