1. Stress and Well-Being At Work
Stress and Well-Being At Work
Chapter 7 Organizational Behavior Nelson & Quick, 6th edition

2. What is Stress?
Stress - the unconscious preparation to fight or flee that a person experiences when faced with any demand
Stressor - the person or event that triggers the stress response
Distress - the adverse psychological, physical, behavioral, and organizational consequences that may arise as a result of stressful events
Strain – distress 2

3. What is Homeostasis?
Homeostasis – a steady state of bodily functioning and equilibrium
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4. 4 Stress Approaches: Homeostatic/Medical Approach
4 Stress Approaches: Homeostatic/Medical Approach
External environmental demand
Homeostasis + =
Flight
STRESS
Fight
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5. 4 Stress Approaches: Cognitive Appraisal Approach
4 Stress Approaches: Cognitive Appraisal Approach
Individuals differ in their appraisal of events & people
What is stressful for one person is not for another
Perception and cognitive appraisal determines what is stressful 4

6. 4 Stress Approaches: Cognitive Appraisal Approach
4 Stress Approaches: Cognitive Appraisal Approach
Coping with Stress
Problem-focused coping
emphasizes managing the stressor
Emotion-focused coping
emphasizes managing your response
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7. 4 Stress Approaches: Person-Environment Fit Approach
No undue stress
Good person-environment fit: a person’s skills & abilities match a clearly defined, consistent set of role expectations
Stress, strain, and depression occur when
Role expectations are confusing and/or conflicting
Person’s skills & abilities do not meet the demands of the social role 5

8. 4 Stress Approaches: Psychoanalytic Approach
4 Stress Approaches: Psychoanalytic Approach
Ego Ideal - the embodiment of a person’s perfect self
Self-Image - how a person sees oneself, both positively & negatively
= the difference between ego ideal and self-image
STRESS ! ?
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9. The Stress Response
Blood redirected from the skin & internal organs to brain and large muscles
Increased alertness: improved vision, hearing, & other sensory responses
Release of glucose & fatty acids for sustenance
Depression of immune system, digestion, & similar restorative processes
Sympathetic nervous system
& the
endocrine (hormone) system
activated
Release of chemical messengers, primarily adrenaline, into the bloodstream 7

10. Sources of Stress at Work8

11. Stress Sources at Work
Workaholism – an imbalanced preoccupation with work at the expense of home and personal life satisfaction 9

12. Stress Benefits and Costs10

13. Yerkes-Dodson Law Performance arousal Stress level High Low Low
Performance arousal
High
Low
Low
(distress)
Optimum
(eustress)
High
(distress)
Stress level
Boredom from
understimulation
Optimum
stress load
Conditions
perceived
as stressful
Distress from
overstimulation 11

14. Positive Stress Stress response itself is neutral
Stress response itself is neutral
Some stressful activities (aerobic exercise, etc.) can provide an energy boost to enhance a person’s ability to manage stressful demands or situations
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15. Negative Stress Negative stress results from
Negative stress results from
a prolonged activation of the stress response
mismanagement of the energy induced by the response
unique personal vulnerabilities
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16. Individual Distress Behavioral problems Medical illness
Behavioral problems
(substance abuse,
violence, accidents)
Medical illness
(heart disease, strokes,
headaches, backaches)
Work-related psychological disorders
(depression, burnout,
psychosomatic disorders) 13

17. Organizational Distress
Organizational Distress
Participative Problems - a cost associated with absenteeism, tardiness, strikes & work stoppages, & turnover
Performance Decrement - a cost resulting from poor quality or low quantity of production, grievances, & unscheduled machine downtime & repair
Compensation Award - an organizational cost resulting from court awards for job distress 14

18. Dealing with Stress
Achilles’ heel phenomenon – a person breaks down at his or her weakest point
Heart Disease
Headaches
Backaches
Depression
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19. Are There Gender-Related Stressors?
Are There Gender-Related Stressors?
Sexual harassment
Early age fatal health problems
Long term disabling
health problems
Violence
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20. Type A Behavior Patterns
Type A Behavior Patterns - a complex of personality and behavior characteristics
Competitiveness
Time urgency
Social status insecurity
Aggression
Hostility
Quest for achievements
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21. Personality Hardiness
Personality Hardiness - a personality resistant to distress & characterized by
commitment (versus alienation)
control (versus powerlessness)
challenge (versus threat)
Transformational Coping - a way of managing stressful events by changing them into subjectively less stressful events (versus regressive coping - passive avoidance of events by decreasing interaction with the environment) 18

22. Self-Reliance
Self-Reliance - a healthy, secure, interdependent pattern of behavior related to how people form and maintain supportive attachments with others
Counterdependence - an unhealthy, insecure pattern of behavior that leads to separation in relationships with other people
Overdependence - an unhealthy, insecure pattern of behavior that leads to preoccupied attempts to achieve security through relationships 19

23. Preventative Stress Management
Preventative Stress Management - an organizational philosophy that holds that people & organizations should take joint responsibility for promoting health and preventing distress & strain
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24. Stages in Preventative Stress Management
Primary Prevention - designed to reduce, modify, or eliminate the demand or stressor causing stress
Secondary Prevention - designed to alter or modify the individual’s or the organization’s response to a demand or stressor
Tertiary Prevention - designed to heal individual or organizational symptoms of distress & strain 20

25. Preventative Stress Maintenance
Organizational Context
Preventive Medicine Context
Organizational stressors
Task demands
Role demands
• Physical demands
Interpersonal demands
Health risk factors
Primary
Prevention:
stressor
directed
Stress responses
Individual
Organizational
Asymptomatic
disease
Secondary
Prevention:
response directed
Distress
Individual problems
Behavioral •Medical
Psychological
Organizational costs
Direct • Indirect
Symptomatic
disease
Tertiary
Prevention:
symptom directed
SOURCE: Based on J. D. Quick, J. C. Quick, and D.L. Nelson. “The Theory of Preventive Stress Management in Organizations,” in C. L. Cooper, ed. Theories of Organizational Stress (Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. 1998), 21

26. Organizational Stress Prevention
Primary prevention
Job redesign
Goal setting
Role negotiation
Career management
Secondary Prevention
Team building
Social support at work 22

27. Job Strain Model Unresolved Workload strain (ill health) Self-
Unresolved
strain
(ill health)
Workload
Low
High
Self-
determination
Passive
job
High-strain job
Low-strain job
Low
High
Active
job
SOURCE: B. Gardell, “Efficiency and Health Hazards in Mechanized Work,” in J. C. Quick, R.S. Bhagat, J. E. Dalton, and J. D. Quick, eds., Work Stress: Health Care Systems in the Workplace. Copyright © Reproduced with permission of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc., Westport, CT. 23

28. Social Support at Work & Home
Organizational
Supervisor
Colleagues
Subordinates
Clients
Family
Spouse Children
Parents In-laws
Individual
Church/ Synagogue/Mosque
Minister/Rabbi/Priest
Friends
Support groups
Professional
Physicians
Psychologists
Counselors
Lawyers
Clubs
Business
Social
Athletic
SOURCE: From J. C. Quick J. D. Quick, D. L. Nelson and J. J. Hurrell, Jr., in Preventive Stress Management in Organizations, 1997, p Copyright© 1997 by The American Psychological Association. Reprinted with permission. 24

29. Individual Preventive Stress Management25

30. What Can Managers Do?
Learn how to create healthy stress without distress
Help employees adjust to new technologies
Be sensitive to early signs of distress
Be aware of gender, personality, and behavioral differences
Use principles and methods of preventive stress management

31. Chapter 7: Reflect & Discuss
Meet the Parents Video Clip
What to Watch for and Ask Yourself
Does Greg experience the stress response during this scene? What evidence appears in the scene?
Does he experience distress or eustress?
Why does Greg respond so harshly to the simple request to check his bag?
Meet the Parents
Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) hopes his weekend visit to his girlfriend Pam’s (Teri Polo) home will leave a positive impression on her parents. Unfortunately, Jack (Robert De Niro), Pam’s father, immediately dislikes him. Jack’s fondness does not improve after Greg accidentally breaks the urn holding Jack’s mother’s ashes. Other factors do not help the developing relationship: Greg is Jewish while Jack is a WASP ex-CIA psychological profiler. These factors blend well to cause the continuous development of stress and stress responses of all parties involved.
The scene from Meet the Parents comes from the “Bomb’s the Word” segment in the last quarter of the film. Greg has boarded his flight to return home after his excruciating weekend visit with Pam’s family. By this time, he has experienced an almost endless stream of stressors: meeting Pam’s parents for the first time, taking a polygraph test administered by Jack, adjusting to Jinx the Himalayan cat’s odd behavior, and … The film continues to a predictable happy ending.
What to Watch for and Ask Yourself
Does Greg experience the stress response during this scene? What evidence appears in the scene?
Does he experience distress or eustress?
Why does Greg respond so harshly to the simple request to check his bag?