Chapter 5 Stress

Which of the following is an example of a Type A Behavior Pattern?

During weekly meetings, Sharona talks over other people and is always in a hurry to get back to her desk and get back to work.

Alejandro hires Leona as a new sales coordinator at Rainproof Outdoor Gear after the previous coordinator quit unexpectedly. After Leona completes orientation, Alejandro needs her to quickly plan an upcoming sales meeting for all of the company's field sales representatives, who will be gathering at the office in a week to go over the new product line. Despite the fact that her predecessor did little planning for the meeting before she left, Leona wants to make a good impression and begins to prepare the meeting even though she has never planned one before. Three days before the meeting, Alejandro observes Leona in a conference room pacing back and forth and wearing a slightly dazed expression as she shuffles papers around on the table. It is obvious to Alejandro that she is trying to block out meeting rooms for each sales group, determine the duration of each presentation, and figure out what kinds of equipment and materials will be needed in each room. When he asks if she needs help, Leona smiles and says, "Nope! I've got it all under control." However, Alejandro can tell she is struggling to get things right. Based on what you know about the different types of work hindrance stressors

Explain to Leona the basic requirements for the meetings and provide her with the expected times and locations needed for each group presentation.

Which of the following situations demonstrates the connection between hindrance stressors and organizational commitment?

Hilary's manager constantly makes unreasonable demands that force her to work long hours, and as a result she is looking for another job.

Which of the following is an example of instrumental support?

Jenny offers to answer phones to give the receptionist a chance to get caught up on his filing.

Due to time pressure and heavy workload, Dan has developed high blood pressure and has started to show forgetfulness at work and home. These are examples of _________blank strains.

physiological and psychological

As an alternative to managing stressors, many organizations teach employees to use _________blank to counteract the effects of stressors by engaging in activities that slow their heart rate, breathing rate, and blood pressure.

relaxation techniques

Instrumental and emotional describe two major types of

social support

Ajani works as a sales assistant for an office furniture dealer. His daily job duties include data entry, sending invoices, and scheduling appointments for sales representatives. This suite of tasks, when they are not overly taxing or exceeding his capacity, are called

benign job demands

Hindrance stressors have a _________blank relationship with organizational commitment.

strong negative

Which of these techniques attempt(s) to help people appraise and cope with stressors in a rational manner?

cognitive-behavioral techniques

Indira manages a team of people in the accounting department at Financial Partners, LLP. The company has been in buyout talks with a large competitor for the past few months. As the merger deal nears completion, Indira started noticing a change in her team's conduct. One of the collection agents, Malcolm, is taking longer lunches and often returns reeking of alcohol. She observed Akobo, the accounts receivable supervisor, uncharacteristically lashing out at vendors on the phone. Her own assistant, Marjorie, started nervously tapping her feet and pulling at her hair during meetings. Indira is worried about her team members and their well-being. According to the protocols of assessment, which of the following actions will help Indira best understand her team members' issues?

considering what might be causing the issues and surveying team members about the sources of their anxieties

First, the network went down, then the person in the next cubicle would not stop clearing their throat, and now Delia cannot find a sticky note when she needs one. Delia's head hurts, her shoulders are tense, and her back aches. Which of the following statements is true?

the network going down represents a stressor, while Delia's backache is a strain.

Which of the following stressors is likely to trigger negative emotions such as anxiety and anger?

daily hassies

Hector works as an office assistant for a small, five-person software development start-up. Because it is a relatively new company without extensive resources, Hector is constantly having to deal with a lack of supplies and faulty office equipment. While these problems sometimes get him down, the co-owners of the fledgling company are his friends from college, and he looks forward to seeing them every day. In order to offset his frustration with the sometimes inadequate equipment, Hector instead celebrates the fact that he gets to work in a casual environment with friends. Hector's approach is an example of

emotion-focused cognitive coping

Oliver owns a furniture moving company. During late spring, especially when the local colleges go on summer break and students move out of the dorms, he finds himself overloaded with work, which often makes him feel irritable and anxious. To calm himself, he often takes time out to go swimming. In this example, the coping strategy that Oliver uses can be classified as

emotion-focused coping

Attempts to reduce stressors in the workplace are most beneficial when focused on _________blank stressors.

hindrance

Which of the following statement concerning the four main types of stressors is true?

hindrance stressors trigger negative emotions

benign jobs

job demands that tend not to be appraised as stressful are called benign job demands

Which of the following is an example of problem-focused coping?

to meet a pending deadline, Ava puts on noise-canceling headphones and sets her phone to ring through to voicemail while she focuses on achieving her goal.

Zahra has just started a new job stocking shelves at Home Mart. It is her first job after graduating from high school, and she hopes to save enough money in the first year to be able to move in with her partner. In her first week, she befriends two other new employees and finds the atmosphere of the store to be polite and sociable. At the end of her first week on the job, she checks the upcoming week's work schedule only to discover that she is scheduled to have Monday and Thursday off instead of Tuesday and Friday as she had requested. She is disappointed because her partner has Tuesdays and Fridays off from her job as a bartender, and their conflicting schedules means she will not be able to see her much. The next week, she finds that she has Thursday and Saturday off, despite once again requesting Tuesday and Friday off. The week after that, she finds herself feeling anxious about going into the break room because she is reluctant to find out if her days off are again different from what she requested. According to what you know about the transactional theory of stress, what will be the next step Zahra takes?

to realize the importance of spending time with her partner and understand that a variable work schedule will negatively impact her personal life

Which of the following is a work challenge stressor?

work complexity