Stress at Work And Its Management Free Essay Example

ORIGIN

Dr. Hans Selye is Founder of Stress Theory and was the first person to coin the term STRESS’.

WHAT IS STRESS

It is a dynamic condition in which an individual encounters with an opportunity, demand, or resource related to what the individual desires and for which the outcome is observed to be both uncertain and important.’

OPPORTUNITY

The Stress when seems good and positive is recognized as an opportunity also known as Eustress. In contrast when it is taken as bad and negative it’s anticipated as Distress.

Opportunities come for a defined time and when missed triggers negative thoughts and actions. E.g. you are having a presentation for which marks will be given. If you take the stress of preparing presentation as positive it brings opportunity with good outcome but when you take it as burden you miss the opportunity to get marks.

• DEMAND: Responsibilities, workload, commitment and unpredictability a person observes in workplace is called demand.
• RESOURCES: Tools that can be used to work out all the elements of demand.
• STRESSORS:A stimulus that causes strain and tension is known as Stressor.

KINDS OF STRESSORS

1. Challenge stressors: Stressors that are possibly stressful related to work pressure and limited time but are associated with potential gains.
2. Hindrance stressors: Stressors that acts as a barrier or hindrance in attaining a particular objective.

DEMAND-RESOURCE THEORY

Having sufficient amount of resources to cope with demands result in satisfactory or high motivation. The less the amount of resource the less will be the motivation level as resources minimizes work load, responsibilities and uncertainties.

POTENTIAL SOURCES OF STRESS

The three categories of potential stressors are namely:

1. Personal factors
2. Organizational factors
3. Environmental factors

PERSONAL FACTORS

The factors that relate to the personal life of an individual, which directly or indirectly affects job performance, are:

• Family issues: Challenges, objections and threats with family or friends stirs up negative stressors leading to poor job performance and poor relationships. These include unsuccessful marital life, insincerity, child tantrums etc.
• Economic issues: The lack of economic resources, that is low income or any incident due to which money is lost, causes failure to fulfill basic necessities and less productivity in workplace ultimately leading an individual into anxiety and depression.
• Inherent Personality:An individual who has resisting personality and always looks at the negative aspect of every situation accentuates level of stress as he does not seek for opportunity but turns it into misfortune. In contrast, if an individual has optimistic view towards facing challenges, he turns the opportunity into attainment of goals as he does not let anxiety cage him.

ORGANIZATIONAL FACTORS

The organizational structure of an organization includes policies, rules and responsibilities for each employee in an organization. Several factors affect this organizational structure which is called organizational factors.

These factors are categorized as under; Task demands, Role demands, Role conflicts, Role overload, Role ambiguity, Interpersonal demandsi.

• Task Demands: It refers to the demands which are needed to complete a particular task. Task demand means how hard and how long people will need to work to complete it.
• Role Demands: It relates to a pressure placed on a person as a function of the particular role he plays in the organization. It can be stressful to people in organization.
• Role Conflicts: It creates expectations from employees that may be hard to satisfy for example two or more expectations or separate roles for them or confusion about their experiences in relation to the expectations of others.
• Role Overload: Role overload means when an employee is expected to do more work in a short period of time.v. Role Ambiguity: When role, expectations and tasks are not clear to the employees, it creates ambiguity. They got confused as the target or goals are not clearly defined by the managers.
• Interpersonal Demands: It is the pressure created by other employees. It occurs due to lack of support from colleagues and poor relationships with colleagues which result in stress.

Organizational Structure

It is a framework within which managerial tasks are performed. In this structure job positions, responsibilities of employees, coordination and supervision, behavior of employees etc are described for the achievement of organizational goals. It also determines how information flows between the levels within the organization.

Organizational Leadership

It is a field of work that includes setting goals for individuals and groups of people. It means to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the company’s workforce, business plans, daily operations etc. A leader use his skills, abilities and knowledge to manage and strengthen the elements of an organization by implementing change, solving problems and creating a positive, productive workplace. He set goals for organization and make strategies to motivate employees within organization. The company CEO, school principal, department head and team coach are some examples representing the leaders. Organizational LifecycleOrganization goes through different phases. Following are the five phases of organizational lifecycle; Startup Growth Decline Renewal Death.

• Startup: This phase is the beginning of business lifecycle. In this phase a team is formed to work efficiently and energetically in order to lift the organization towards growth phase.
• Growth: In this phase a person expects to see revenues climb, development of new services and products, more employees are hired.
• Decline: It is a fall in the product lifecycle. It represents similar behavior for products. In this phase a product dissolves as a result of decreased or negative growth. If senior leaders can detect the symptoms of decline early, they can easily deal with it.
• Renewal: Decline does not have to continue. It is the phase of restlessness. The managers try to put all of their efforts to get back the progress and development of an organization through proper planning and strategies.
• Death: It is the final phase of organizational life cycle. When the organization fails to meet the demands of customers and continuously suffers from losses due to lack of efficient leadership, the organization comes to an end.

Environmental Factors of Stress

Environmental factors are the key of stress especially at work place. If the work place of a person is not satisfactory for his or her then it can cause a stress. Here are some Environmental factors that can cause stress: Economic Uncertainties Political Uncertainties Technological Uncertaintiesi.

Economic Uncertainty: Contraction of economy causes job loss, pay cuts, prolonged hours of work, loss of social network and social support which consequently arouses stress.ii. Political Uncertainty: When a country faces political threats and changes it activates anxiety and fearfulness. Political situation is stable only when there is proper orderly system of change that has to be introduced.iii. Technological Uncertainty: Innovations in technology makes employees expertise outmoded after little span of time. Technological updates in computers, robotics and other such advancements stress out employees if they are not properly encountered by change.

Consequences of Stress

Stress creates number of problem related to physical and mental health if it is viewed as negative. Stress results in: Physiological symptoms, Psychological symptoms, Behavioral symptoms.

1. Physiological symptoms:Stress could create changes in metabolism, increase heart and breathing rates, increase blood pressure, bring on headaches and cause heart attack.Some other Physiological symptoms of stress are: Low energy. Upset stomach, including diarrhea, constipation, and nausea Aches, pains, and tense muscles. Chest pain and rapid heartbeat Insomnia Frequent colds and infections.
2. Psychological symptoms:Psychological symptoms of stress are all about dissatisfaction. Here are some of symptoms that you can relate with stress management: Depression or Anxiety Anger, Irritability or Restlessness Feeling confused Sleeping too much or cannot sleep properly Problems with memory or concentration Making bad decision If a person is dealing with these symptoms, it means that he or she need stress management
3. Behavioral symptoms:The symptoms under it includes turnover, fluctuations in productivity and efficiency plus increased consumption level of alcohol and smoking. Stress when is at normal level makes an individual to perform his task in a specific time span and efficiently but when number of stressors keep adding on an individual constantly sees the negative side of the picture. There’s an Inverted-U relationship between stress and job performance, the lower the stress level the lower the performance as the person is not confined to certain opportunities, demands and resources but when the stress reaches at optimum level neither lower or higher the job performance of the employee is maximum. As stress is above optimum level performance declines.

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get a custom paper by one of our expert writers.

Get your custom essay

Helping students since 2015