09 - Chapter 3
09 - Chapter 3
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND OF
STRESS MANAGEMENT
3.1. Introduction
3.5. Summary
3.1. Introduction
increasing stresses. People perceive stress when they cannot meet up to the
frustration and dissatisfaction with life in general reflect the high stress
being experienced by the people in the present day world. During last two
increased. The basic reason being the tremendously changed physical and
system have made the life of majority of people highly stressful in modern
societies.
The term stress has been derived from the latin word stringere which
means to draw tight. The term used to refer to hardship, strain, adversity or
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force, pressure, strain, or strong efforts with reference to an object or person.
Various terms have been synonymously used with stress, viz., anxiety,
have responsibilities and demands at work with which they cannot cope, for
Stress is an inherent factor in any type of vocation or career. At its best, the
presence of stress can be a motivator that urges the individual to strive for
1 . Caplan, R.D., Cobb, S., and French, J.R.P. “Relationships of cessation of smoking
with job stress”, personality and social support. Journal of Applied Psychology 60:
1975, pp.211-219.
2 Hart, P.M., "Predicting employee life satisfaction: a coherent model of personality,
work and nonwork experiences, and domain satisfactions". Journal of Applied
Psychology, 1999, pp.564–584.
3 http://www.dealwithstress.com/types-of-stress.html
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3.2.1.1. Eustress
activities like athletics, giving a speech and the like The term eustress was
dividing stress into two major categories eustress and distress. In his article,
eustress. They are able to exert a healthy effect on people. It gives one a
feeling of fulfillment or contentment and also makes one excited about life.
time. Eustress is often called the curative stress because it gives a person the
3.2.1.2. Distress
4 Selye, H., “The stress concept: Past, present and future”. In C.L Cooper (Ed.).
Stress Research: Issues for Eighties. Chiester: Wiley, 1983, pp.45-47
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chronic illnesses and the like Distress can be classified further as acute stress
and chronic stress. Acute stress is the most common type of stress. It comes
from demands and pressures of the recent past and the anticipated demands
and pressures of the near future. Acute stress is thrilling and exciting in
symptoms are recognized by most people. The most common symptoms are
depression and the like. Acute stress can crop up in anyone’s life and is
highly treatable and manageable. While acute stress can be thrilling and
exciting, chronic stress is not. This is the grinding stress that wears people
away day after day, year after year. Chronic stress destroys bodies, minds
and lives. It wreaks havoc through long term attrition. It is the stress of
worst aspect of chronic stress is that people get used to it. They forget it is
there. People are immediately aware of acute stress because it is new; they
stroke and perhaps even cancer. People wear down to a final, fatal
long term attrition, the symptoms of chronic stress are difficult to treat and
management.
3.2.1.3. Hyperstress
When a person is pushed beyond what he or she can handle, they are
being overloaded or overworked. It’s like being stressed out. When someone
People who are most likely to suffer from hyperstress may be working
6 Colquhoum, W.P., “Accidents, injuries, and shift work”, In P.G Rentos and R.D
Shepard (Eds.). Shift Work and Health. Washington, D.C.: U.S Govt. Printing
Office, 1976, pp.22-23
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3.2.1.4. Hypostress
performing the same task over and over will often experience hypostress.
job and its psycho-physical environment, these factors are not inherently
appraisal of the job factors in the framework of his capacity and resources
situation. And that is the reason one can only hypothetically predict the
potency of the job factors or situations for causing stress but cannot
However, some factors like job insecurity, work overload, demotion, loss of
job, extreme heat or cold etc are likely to cause stress to the majority of
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3.2.2.1. Environmental Stressors
Pestonjee in his study concluded that environmental force has a direct and
strong bearing on the level of employees’ stress. Political factors are likely
Iraq and Haiti, for example. New innovations can make an employee’s skill
The phenomenal rate of technological and social change also had its
great impact on people’s lifestyle which is carried over into their jobs.
innovation are a threat to many people and cause stress. Where medical
increasing the life span of people and reducing the life claiming threats of
many dreaded diseases on the one hand, the modern life style caught up in
the rush-rush, urbanized and busy lifestyle have brought forth many
complexities and increased the potential for stress on the job, on the other.8
during the great depression of the 1930’s. Minor recessions also increase
the like. Weak financial position of a person forces him to do extra job or the
spouse has had to join work to meet ever increasing ends. Such situations
The overall effect is more stress on the employees. (Bhagat and Allie
such as excessive noise, poor lighting, safety hazards, poorly designed office
space, lack of privacy and poor air quality also cause stress. (Evans and
9 Bhagat, R.S., and Allie, S.M. Organizational stress, personal life stress and
symptoms of life strains: An examination of the moderating role of sense of
competence. Journals of Vocational Behaviour no.2: 1967, pp.213-218.
10 Evans, G., and Johnson, D. “Stress and open office noise”, Journal of Applied
Psychology no. 85: 2000, pp.779-783.
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3.2.2.2. Organizational Stressors
Stressors exist not only outside the organization, but within it also.
extremely stressful to both employees who lose their jobs and also who
forced to pick up the slack of the workers who have left. In a study (Kivinaki
high blood pressure doubled after the company laid off ten percent of its
work force.
11 Kivinaki, M., Vahtera J., Pentti, and Ferrie, J.E., “Factors underlying the effect of
organizational downsizing on health of employees: Longitudinal Cohort Study”,
British Medical Journal: 2000, pp.971-975.
12 Ivancevich, J.M., and Matteson, M.T., “Stress and work: A managerial
perspective”, Glenview, IL: Scott Foresman. 1980, pp.87-89.
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al. 1964)13 reported that role ambiguity, role conflict, role
inadequacy.
13 Kahn, R.L., and Wolfe, D.M., Quinn, R.R., Sonek, J.D., and Rosenthal, R.A.,
“Organizational stress: Studies in role conflict and Ambiguity”. New York: Wiley,
1964 pp.127-130.
14 Pareek, U., “Organizational role stress: Manual”, Ahmedabad: Navin Publications,
1981, pp.697-699.
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lack enrichment and provide little opportunity to satisfy the
incumbents.
setting.
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iv. Performance feedback and reward system: Performance
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(Kets de Vries 1984)15 had studied three types of interpersonal
15 Ketz de Vries, M.F.R., “Organizational stress management audit”, In A,S Sethi and
R.S Schuler (Eds.), Handbook of Organizational Stress and Coping Strategies.
Cambridge, MA: Ballinger, 1984, pp.453-455.
16 Schuler, R.S., “Organizational stress and coping: A model and overview”, In A.S.
Sethi and R.S Schuler (Eds.), Handbook of Organizational Stress and Coping
Strategies. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger, 1984, pp.987-989.
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personnel having more contact with patients report high level
vi. Organization structure and climate Besides the job role and job
evaluation.
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stressor for the employees. Adjusting oneself with
employees.
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x. Individual Stressors: Apart from the environmental,
conflict.
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c. Workload: In today’s competitive work environment
name Karoshi. Just like over work under work can also
consequent health.
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attributing to the causes they are perception of the
counterparts.
stress19
iv. Stress arising from the physical environment itself (e.g., extreme
the like)
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vi. Stress within the person system which the focal person brings
decisions to make.
delegating responsibilities.
20 Cooper, C.L., and Marshall, J., “Occupational sources of stress: A review of the
literature relating to coronary heart disease and mental ill health”, Journal of
Occupational Psychology No.49, 1976, pp.11-28.
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no sense of belonging and little or no participation in decision
making.
Job stress results from various interactions of the worker and the
environment, and many other factors contribute to the buildup of stress. Job
stress results from the interaction of the worker and the conditions of work.
predicting whether certain job conditions will result in stress. In other words,
what is stressful for one person may not be a problem for someone else. This
reward, and a sense of low control in a job with high demands. Low social
support at work and job insecurity can also increase occupational stress.
conditions as the key source of job stress, and for job redesign as a primary
22 Roberts, Rashaun; Grubb, Paula L.; Grosch, James W., "Alleviating Job Stress in
Nurses". NIOSH: Workplace Safety and Health. Medscape and NIOSH. Retrieved
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupational_stress, 2012, pp.37-57.
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member states of the European Union in 1990, 1995, and 2000.
1990, the percentage of workers reporting that they worked at high speeds at
least one-quarter of their working time was 48%, increasing to 54% in 1995
and to 56% in 2000. Similarly, 50% of workers reported they work against
to 56% in 1995 and 60% in 2000. However, no change was noted from the
3.3.2. Workload
serve as a stressor for employees. There are three aspects of workload that
3.3.4. Underload
23 http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/z-lab-945/default_99101full.html
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physiological reactions such as cortisol, fatigue, backache, headache, and
gastrointestinal problems.
Control Model of Stress. This model suggests that jobs with high demands
can be stressful, especially when the individual has low control over the job.
or workload is high. This model was expanded into the Demand, Control
and Support Model that suggests that the combination of high control and
high social support at work buffers the effects of high demands. As a work
demand, workload is also relevant to the job demands and resources model
of stress that suggests that jobs are stressful when demands (e.g., workload)
estimate, more than 26% of men and more than 11% of women worked 50
increase over the previous three decades, especially for women. According
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working hours among working couples, particularly couples with young
children.24
Economic factors that employees are facing in the 21st century have
have pointed out that the computer and communications revolutions have
made companies more efficient and productive than ever before. This boon
compete globally
24 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupational_stress
25 Sneha Burman, Shailaja Shastri, “Occupational Stress and Organizational
Commitment of Employees in Virtual and Traditional Teams: A Comparative
Study”, International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR) Bangalore, Volume 2
Issue 10, October 2013, pp.984-989.
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iv. The willingness of companies to swiftly lay off workers to
3.3.7. Bullying
iii. Isolation
employees that, which in turn, can affect their work ethic and contribution to
the organization.
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absenteeism and staff turnover. Boddy finds the same dynamic where there
one of the most frequently noted stressors for employees. Conflict has been
relates to other stressors that might co-occur, such as role conflict, role
health than higher occupational groups. This is in part due to adverse work
High demand levels load the person with extra effort and work.
A new time schedule is worked up, and until the period of abnormally high,
personal demand has passed, the normal frequency and duration of former
schedules is limited. Many techniques cope with the stresses life brings.
Some of the following ways induce a lower than usual stress level,
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temporarily, to compensate the biological tissues involved; others face the
i. Autogenic training
vii. Meditation
x. Deep breathing
xii. Nootropics
xiv. Prayer
xviii. Humour
26 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stress_management
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xxi. Spas
philosophical paradigm.
3.5. Summary
the stress.
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