1. Unit 4: Managing stress at work
Objectives:
What is stress at work?
Importance for managers to understand the causes and consequences of stress
How stressful life events create stress
Describe coping stress
What are the different stress reduction techniques available.

2. Definition of stress:
Stress is defined as “ an adaptive response, mediated by individual characteristics or psychological processes, that is a consequence of any external action, situation or events that places special physical or psychological demands upon a person.

3. Causes of stress: Stressful life events
Stressful life events are non work related changes that disrupt an individual’s lifestyle and social relationships. The Schedule of Recent Experiences (SRE) is the method for accessing an individual’s cumulative stressful life events

4. Some examples of stressful life experiences:
Death of spouse
Divorce
Marital separation
Death of close family member
Personal injury or illness
Problems facing at work
Fired at work
Retirement

5. Coping stress
Coping is the process of managing demands (external or internal) that are appraised as taxing or exceeding the resources of the person.
The coping has 3 major components:
Situational and personal factors
These are environmental characteristics that affect how people interpret stressors. For e.g the ambiguity of a situation.

6. Personal factors are personality traits and personal resources that affect the appraisal of stressors.
Cognitive appraisal of stressors
It reflects an individual’s overall evaluation of a situation. This results in a categorisation of the situation as either harmful, threatening or challenging. These appraisals influence how people cope with stress.

7. Coping strategies
Coping strategies are characterized by the specific behaviours and cognitions used to cope with a situation. People use 3 approaches to cope with stress namely
Control strategy ( use behaviour & cognition to solve problems)
Escape strategy (avoid/escape problem)
Symptom management strategy (relaxation, meditation to manage stress)

8. Stress reduction techniques
Muscle relaxation
Uses slow deep breathing, systematic muscle tension reduction and an altered state of consciousness to reduce stress.
Biofeedback
A machine is used to train people to detect muscular tension.
Meditation
This is activated by redirecting one’s thoughts away from oneself.

9. END