MADM701 - M5
Type A Profile
• Is always moving • Walks rapidly • Eats rapidly • Talks rapidly • Is impatient • Does two things at once • Can't cope with leisure time • Is obsessed with numbers • Measures success by quantity • Is aggressive • Is competitive • Constantly feels under time pressure
Specific physical health concerns that have been linked to stress include the following:
(1) immune system problems, where there is a lessened ability to fight off illness and infection; (2) cardiovascular system problems, such as high blood pressure and heart disease; (3) musculoskeletal system problems, such as tension headaches and back pain; and (4) gastrointestinal system problems, such as diarrhea and constipation Heart disease: Obviously, not all heart disease can be directly linked to stress; environmental conditions and the person's general state of health, heredity, and medical history also certainly contribute. However, there seems to be enough evidence that stress can and does contribute to this dreaded disease and to other physical problems as well.
Conditions for Intergroup Conflict:
1. Competition for resources; vie for budget funds, space, etc. 2. Task Interdependence; depending on other groups for tasks or organizational processes. 3. Jurisdictional Ambiguity; "turf" problems or overlapping responsibilities. 4. Status Struggles; when one group attempts to improve its status and another group views this as a threat to its place in the status hierarchy.
It is also important to point out what stress is not:
1. Stress is not simply anxiety. Anxiety operates solely in the emotional and psychological sphere, whereas stress operates there and also in the physiological sphere. Thus, stress may be accompanied by anxiety, but the two should not be equated. 2. Stress is not simply nervous tension. Like anxiety, nervous tension may result from stress, but the two are not the same. Unconscious people have exhibited stress, and some people may keep it "bottled up" and not reveal it through nervous tension. 3. Stress is not necessarily something damaging, bad, or to be avoided. Eustress is not damaging or bad and is something people should seek out rather than avoid. The key, of course, is how the person handles the stress. Stress is inevitable; distress may be prevented or can be effectively controlled.
Performance and Stress
1. The performance of many tasks is in fact strongly affected by stress. 2. Performance usually drops off sharply when stress rises to very high levels. Research is also emerging that indicates that the level of difficulty, the nature of the task being performed, personal dispositions (such as Type A, personal control and learned helplessness, and psychological hardiness, and psychological capital, discussed in previous sections), other psychological dispositions (such as negative affectivity, and neuroticism may affect the relationship between stress and performance.
People are most apt to experience helplessness when they perceive the causes of the lack of control:
1. To be related to something about their own personal characteristics (as opposed to outside, environmental forces). 2. As stable and enduring (rather than just temporary). 3. To be global and universal (cutting across many situations, rather than in just one sphere of life).
Survivor Syndrome
A condition that can occur when certain employees who survive a downsizing become narrow-minded, self-absorbed, resentful, or risk-averse. The key issue is not only whether these survivors are stressed-out, but also whether stress is affecting their performance.
Learned Helplessness
A condition that occurs after a period of negative consequences where the person begins to believe they have no control. In conducting experiments on dogs who could not escape shock, Seligman found that they eventually accepted it and did not even try to escape. Later, when the dogs could learn to escape easily, they did not—they had learned to be helpless. Other studies found that people, too, can learn to be helpless, which helps explain why some employees just seem to have given up and seem to accept stressors in their work environment, even when a change for the better is possible.
Negotiation
A decision-making process among interdependent parties who do not share identical preferences. It is through negotiation that the parties decide what each will give and take in their relationship." It can be more than just resolving conflict. Negotiation can go beyond just resolving conflict and become a managerial skill for personal and organizational success. For example, a manager can successfully negotiate a salary raise or a good price for supplies.
Wellness
A harmonious and productive balance of physical, mental, and social well-being brought about by the acceptance of one's personal responsibility for developing and adhering to a health promotion program.
Blood Pressure and Stress
A large study by Cornell University medical researchers found that those workers who experience a loss of control, especially in relatively low-level jobs, have triple the risk of developing high blood pressure. The researchers concluded that lack of control turns stress into physical problems. They also found that if a high-stress job included latitude to control the situation, there was no increase in blood pressure. They also found that if a high-stress job included latitude to control the situation, there was no increase in blood pressure.
Psychological Hardiness
A personality trait characterized by control, commitment, and the embrace of challenge. Kobasa and her colleagues studied executives under considerable stress who were both measurably hardy and nonhardy. She found that the hardy executives had a lower rate of stress-related illness and were characterized as having commitment (they became very involved in what they were doing); welcoming challenge (they believed that change rather than stability was normal); and feeling in control (they felt they could influence the events around them). She suggests that the predisposition of psychological hardiness helps those with it to resist stress by providing buffers between themselves and stressors.
Eustress
A positive stress that energizes a person and helps a person reach a goal.
Downsizing Guidelines - Be Proactive
Before Compaq Computer in Houston laid off 2,000 employees, the corporate human resources department developed a comprehensive communication campaign and trained all managers not only in how to outplace people but also in how to help survivors.
Behavioral Self-Control - Individual Coping Strategies
By deliberately managing the antecedents and the consequences of their own behavior, people can achieve self-control. They could also manage the consequences by rewarding themselves with an extra break when they remain calm and collected after interacting with a particularly angry customer. Besides managing their own behavior to reduce stress, people can also become more aware of their limits and of "red flags" that signal trouble ahead. Control the situation, not allowing the situation to control you.
Macrolevel Organizational Stressors : Organizational Structure and Design
Centralization and formalization Line-staff conflicts Specialization Role ambiguity and conflict No opportunity for advancement Restrictive, untrusting culture
Simplistic "Hard" Negotiation Strategies
Characteristics of the "hard" strategy include the following: the goal is victory, distrust others, dig in to your position, make threats, try to win a contest of will, and apply pressure. The hard bargainer typically dominates and has intuitive appeal. However, both research and everyday practice are beginning to reveal that more effective negotiation approaches than these traditional strategies are possible.
Stress
Defined as an adaptive response to an external situation that results in physical, psychological, and/or behavioral deviations for organizational participants. Ivancevich and Matteson: An adaptive response, mediated by individual differences and/or psychological processes, that is a consequence of any external (environmental) action, situation, or event that places excessive psychological and/or physical demands on a person. Beehr and Newman: Job Stress : A condition arising from the interaction of people and their jobs and characterized by changes within people that force them to deviate from their normal functioning. Note the three critical components of this definition: (1) it refers to a reaction to a situation or event, not the situation or event itself; (2) it emphasizes that stress can be impacted by individual differences; (3) it highlights the phrase "excessive psychological and/or physical demands," because only special or unusual situations (as opposed to minor life adjustments) can really be said to produce stress.
Source of Interpersonal Conflict : Role Incompatibility
Draws from both interpersonal and intrapersonal conflict. A resulting conflict from role incompatibility may have to be resolved by higher-level management or systems development through advanced information technology. Specifically, in today's horizontal organizations, managers have functions and tasks that are highly interdependent. However, the individual roles of these managers may be incompatible. E.G. A major role of the production manager is to cut costs, and one way to do this is to keep inventories low. The sales manager, on the other hand, has a dominant role of increasing revenues through increased sales.
EAPs
Employee Assistance Programs; EAPs are currently implemented in over half of U.S. organizations with 50 or more employees and have been found to consistently reduce absenteeism, health care costs, and disciplinary action. Often, the mere presence of mind that EAPs provide—knowing that there is support available—can help ease some of the stress that employees face in today's environment.
Lack of Social Support - Group Stressor
Employees are greatly affected by the support of one or more members of a cohesive group. By sharing their problems and joys with others, they are much better off. If this type of social support is lacking for an individual, the situation can be very stressful. There is even research evidence indicating that the lack of social support is so stressful that it accounts for some health care costs.
Source of Interpersonal Conflict : Personal Differences
Everyone has a unique background because of his or her upbringing, cultural and family traditions, and socialization processes. Because no one has the same family background, education, and values, the differences can be a major source of conflict. Disagreements stemming from the differences "often become highly emotional and take on moral overtones. A disagreement about who is factually correct easily turns into a bitter argument over who is morally right."
True or False: A completely stress-free workplace is the ideal.
False; Challenge stressors can manifest growth and can serve as motivation for employees in the workplace.
"Living Outside the Job"
Frustrated employees cannot achieve motivated goals on the job, so they seek fulfillment outside the job. Reactions to frustration often cost organizations a great deal because of the dysfunctions associated with aggression, withdrawal, and fixation.
Source of Interpersonal Conflict : Environmental Stress
In environments characterized by scarce or shrinking resources, downsizing, competitive pressures, or high degrees of uncertainty, conflict of all kinds will be more probable. E.G. For example, when a major pet-food manufacturing facility announced that one-third of its managers would have to support a new third shift, the feared disruption of personal and family routines prompted many managers to think about sending out their résumés. In addition, the uncertainty of who was going to be required to work at night was so great that even routine management work was disrupted by posturing and infighting.
Frustration Producing Positive Outcomes
In some cases frustration may actually result in a positive impact on individual performance and organizational goals. An example is the worker or manager who has high needs for competence and achievement and/or who has high self-efficacy (see Chapter 7's discussion) in being able to do a job well. A person of this type who is frustrated on the job may react in a traditional defensive manner, but the frustration may result in improved performance. The person may try harder to overcome the barrier or may overcompensate, or the new direction or goal sought may be more compatible with the organization's goals. In addition, one research study found stress and strain levels were lower for participants with high self-efficacy than for those with lower self-efficacy.
Compromise Reaction to Frustration
In the case of compromise, the employee's motivation is forced outside the organization. Compromise can help explain midcareer changes (frustrated employees go around the barriers) or "living outside the job" (frustrated employees cannot achieve motivated goals on the job, so they seek fulfillment outside the job).
Individual Stressors: The Role of Dispositions
Individual dispositions such as Type A personality patterns, personal control, learned helplessness, and psychological hardiness may all affect the level of stress someone experiences. In addition, the intraindividual level of conflict stemming from frustration, goals, and roles, definitely has implications as individual stressors.
Intergroup Behavior
Intergroup behavior occurs whenever individuals belonging to one group interact, collectively or individually, with another group or its members in terms of their reference group identification.
Heart Attacks - Type A Personalities
It is now accepted that Type As per se do not predict heart problems, and in fact Type As may release and better cope with their stress than do Type Bs. The more recent studies indicate that it is not so much the impatience that is closely associated with Type As that leads to heart problems, but rather anger and hostility. However, before the relationship of Type A to severe physical outcomes is completely dismissed, it should be noted that anger, hostility, and aggression sometimes go along with a Type A personality. A leading medical researcher noted that the term "Type A" probably has outlived its usefulness. How workers handle their own aggression is the key factor in determining whether they will experience the kind of stress that can lead to heart attacks, high blood pressure and other health problems.
Type As vs. Type Bs as Successful Managers
It is pretty clear that Type As perform better and are typically on a "fast track" to the top. They are more successful than Type Bs. However, at the very top they do not tend to be as successful as Type Bs, who are not overly ambitious, are more patient, and take a broader view of things. The key may be to shift from Type A to Type B behavior, but, of course, most Type As are unable and unwilling to make the shift and/or to cope with their Type A characteristics.
PsyCap & Stress
It was mentioned that Avey, Luthans, and Jensen recently found that there was a significant negative relationship between employees' psychological capital and their reported levels of stress. In other words, employees may be able to draw from their positive psychological resources (i.e., efficacy, hope, optimism, resiliency, and overall psychological capital) in order to combat the stressors that they face at work.
Hardy Executives
Kobasa and her colleagues studied executives under considerable stress who were both measurably hardy and nonhardy. She found that the hardy executives had a lower rate of stress-related illness and were characterized as having commitment (they became very involved in what they were doing); welcoming challenge (they believed that change rather than stability was normal); and feeling in control (they felt they could influence the events around them). She suggests that the predisposition of psychological hardiness helps those with it to resist stress by providing buffers between themselves and stressors. As concluded by the closely related "toughness" researchers in positive psychology, "once an individual becomes tough and thereby experiences the sustained energy (with minimal tension) necessary for successful coping, that person is likely to experience a greater variety of situations as challenging rather than threatening."
Basic research in psychology suggests that the positive aspects of a given organizational goal are stronger and more salient at a distance (in time and/or space) than the negative aspects.
On the other hand, as a person gets nearer to the goal, the negative aspects become more pronounced, and at some point the individual may hesitate or fail to progress any further at the point where approach equals avoidance. For example, managers engaged in long-range planning typically are very confident of a goal (a strategic plan) they have developed for the future. Yet, as the time gets near to commit resources and implement the plan, the negative consequences seem to appear much greater than they did in the developing stage. Managers in such a situation may reach the point where approach equals avoidance. The result is a great deal of internal conflict and stress, which may cause indecision, physical reactions, or even depression.
Defense Mechanisms
Once again, it should be remembered that defense mechanisms per se are not bad for the individual. They play an important role in the psychological adjustment process and are unhealthy only when they dominate the individual's personality. Also, those who have successfully overcome frustration in the past by learning that it is possible to surmount barriers or find substitute goals are more tolerant of frustration than those who have never experienced it, or than those who have experienced excesses in frustration.
Networking - Individual Coping Strategies
One clear finding that has come out of social psychology research over the years is that people need and will benefit from social support.148 Applied as a strategy to reduce job stress, this would entail forming close associations with trusted empathetic coworkers and colleagues who are good listeners and confidence builders. Today, such alliances, especially if deliberately sought out and developed, are called networks and now social capital. Although the specific relationship between social support and stress reduction appears complicated,there is some research evidence that a networking strategy may be able to help people cope better with job stress and be more effective and successful managers.
Downsizing and Procedural Justice
One stream of research has examined the role that procedural justice (perceptions of fairness) plays on those affected by downsizing. In three studies (of those already laid off, survivors of a firm that had downsized, and those scheduled to be laid off), it was found that fair procedural justice had a positive impact. All three studies showed that the negative effects of layoffs can be blunted by the way company managers deal with the downsizing. Employees were more hostile when they thought procedures leading to the layoffs were not handled fairly, with sufficient notice and fair treatment of employees during downsizing. When procedures were seen as fair, employees still supported and trusted their firms even after the layoffs had occurred.
Dynamics of Individuals Interacting With Each Other
One way to analyze their confronting others is through the response categories of: TWO VARIABLES: Assertiveness, Cooperativeness. (1) forcing (assertive, uncooperative); (2) accommodating (unassertive, cooperative); (3) avoiding (uncooperative, unassertive); (4) compromising (between assertiveness and cooperativeness); and (5) collaborating (cooperative, assertive). High-profile teams: 1. Low but increasing levels of process conflict. 2. Low levels of relationship conflict, with a rise near project deadlines. 3. Moderate levels of task conflict at the midpoint of group interaction.
Sociological Differences in Stressors
Researchers have noted over the years that minorities may have more stressors than whites. Although a review of evidence concluded that women experience more stress than men, an earlier meta-analysis performed on 15 studies found no significant sex differences in experienced and perceived work stress. There continues to be evidence that women perceive more job demands than men in both the male-dominated and female-dominated occupations. Also, people in the middle and upper classes may have particular or common stressors. The same is true of the local community or region that one comes from. For example, one researcher identified the condition of housing, convenience of services and shopping, neighborliness, and degree of noise and air pollution as likely stressors. With globalization adding to the cultural diversity of recent times, there is also recent research evidence suggesting that identical conflict episodes are perceived differently across cultures (in this case the United States and Japan). Thus, not only must race and gender be considered in analyzing extraorganizational stressors, but also the country culture and economic system.
Lack of Group Cohesiveness - Group Stressor
Since the historically famous Hawthorne studies, discussed in Chapter 1, it has become very clear that cohesiveness, or "togetherness," is very important to employees, especially at the lower levels of organizations. If an employee is denied the opportunity for this cohesiveness because of the task design, because the supervisor things to prohibit or limit it, or because the other members of the group shut the person out, the resulting lack of cohesiveness can be very stress producing.
Hindrance Stressors
Stressors that tend to be appraised as thwarting progress toward growth and achievement. A meta-analysis found that hindrance stressors (organizational politics, red tape, role ambiguity, and in general those demands unnecessarily thwarting personal growth and goal attainment) had a negative effect on motivation and performance.
Cognitive Therapy - Individual Coping Strategies
Techniques such as Ellis's rational emotive model and cognitive behavior modification have been used as an individual strategy for reducing job stress. Building self-efficacy through Bandura's social cognitive theory has also been used. Thus, the goal is to gain or enhance one's sense of efficacy over stressful situations, as an individual coping strategy for stress reduction, through successful performance experience, vicarious experience, social persuasion, and/or controlling physiological and emotional states.
Norms
The "oughts" of behavior. Groups in conflict behave differently from smoothly cooperating groups.
Simplistic "Soft" Negotiation Strategies
The "soft" strategy includes these characteristics: the goal is agreement, trust others, change your position easily, make offers, try to avoid a contest of will, and yield to pressure. The hard bargainer typically dominates and has intuitive appeal. However, both research and everyday practice are beginning to reveal that more effective negotiation approaches than these traditional strategies are possible.
Fixation Reaction to Frustration
The fixation reaction to frustration may be used to explain irrational bureaucratic behavior. (The rules become the ends in themselves, and the frustrated employee pathetically adapts to the barriers.) Reactions to frustration often cost organizations a great deal because of the dysfunctions associated with aggression, withdrawal, and fixation.
Relaxation - Individual Coping Strategies
The intent is to eliminate the immediately stressful situation or manage a prolonged stressful situation more effectively. There is growing research evidence that such meditation can have a desirable physical and mental impact on people.
Downsizing Guidelines - Acknowledge Survivors' Emotions
The state of Oregon, which had cut back 1,000 employees, held workshops for survivors that allowed them to vent their frustrations and develop skills that would allow them to think of change as an opportunity for growth.
Withdrawal Reaction to Frustration
The withdrawal reaction to frustration may be a major explanation for the "motivational problem" of employees. They may be apathetic or have "retired on the job" because they are frustrated, not because they have no motivation. Many employees' motives have been blocked by dead-end jobs, high degrees of job specialization, or supervisors who put up barriers. Similar to aggression there is research evidence that both perceived organizational support and personality variables affect what manner and what type of withdrawal behaviors employees exhibit. Reactions to frustration often cost organizations a great deal because of the dysfunctions associated with aggression, withdrawal, and fixation.
Absenteeism and Turnover
There is research evidence over the years indicating a relationship between stress and especially absenteeism and turnover. For example, workers may experience stress and react by getting drunk and staying home from work the next day with a hangover. They then feel bad about this drinking. They may feel that they are letting everyone down "the morning after" and eventually quit or are fired from the job. Staying away from a job that is causing stress or quitting the job is a "flight" reaction to the situation. Actually, this may be a healthier reaction than a "fight" reaction, in which the person may stay on the stress-producing job and become angry and/or aggressive.
Extraorganizational Stressors
Things such as societal/technological change, globalization, the family, relocation, economic and financial conditions, race and gender, and residential or community conditions. It is clear that job stress is not limited just to things that happen inside the organization, during working hours. In fact, one research study found that stressors outside the workplace were related to negative affect and feelings on the job.
Health Problems associated with Personality Types
This conclusion was supported by an organizational psychiatrist who, after extensive study of the causes of stress in Japanese, German, and American workers, concluded that "how workers handle their own aggression is the key factor in determining whether they will experience the kind of stress that can lead to heart attacks, high blood pressure and other health problems."
Conditions for Intergroup Conflict: Jurisdictional Ambiguity
This may involve "turf" problems or overlapping responsibilities. For example, conflict might occur when one group attempts to assume more control or take credit for desirable activities, or give up its part and any responsibility for undesirable activities.
Source of Interpersonal Conflict : Information Deficiency
This source of conflict results from communication breakdown in the organization. It may be that the two people in conflict are using different information or that one or both have misinformation. Unlike personal differences, this source of conflict is not emotionally charged and once corrected, there is little resentment.
Macrolevel Organizational Stressors : Organizational Processes
Tight controls Only downward communication Little performance feedback Centralized decision making Lack of participation in decisions Punitive appraisal systems Programs such as reengineering, restructuring, and downsizing have become commonplace as the result of intense pressures to outperform the competition. Downsizing, in particular, has taken and continues to take its toll on employees. The actual loss of jobs, or even the mere threat of being laid off, can be extremely stressful for employees. Additionally, the "survivors" of downsizing "often experience tremendous pressure from the fear of future cuts, the loss of friends and colleagues, and an increase in work-load."
Expatriate Managers
Under globalization, expatriate managers (those with an assignment outside their home country) may undergo cultural shock and then when repatriated (relocated to the home country) may experience isolation; both are significant stressors.
Negotiations - Integrative Approach
Uses a problem-solving, collaborative strategy. Goes beyond hard versus soft strategies and change the game, leading to a win-win, wise agreement. Whetten and Cameron suggest an integrative approach that takes an "expanding the pie" perspective that uses problem-solving techniques to find win-win outcomes. Based on a collaborating (rather than a compromising, forcing, accommodating, or avoiding) strategy, the integrative approach requires the effective negotiator to use skills such as: (1) establishing superordinate goals; (2) separating the people from the problem; (3) focusing on interests, not on positions; (4) inventing options for mutual gain; and (5) using objective criteria.
Approach-avoidance conflict
Where the individual is motivated to approach a goal and at the same time is motivated to avoid it. The single goal contains both positive and negative characteristics for the individual. Each forms of goal conflict exists in the modern organization, but approach-avoidance is most relevant to the analysis of conflict.
Type B Profile
• Is not concerned about time • Is patient • Doesn't brag • Plays for fun, not to win • Relaxes without guilt • Has no pressing deadlines • Is mild-mannered • Is never in a hurry
Bullying
Group Stressor - Interpersonal Conflicts. Repeated, health-harming mistreatment that could involve verbal abuse, threatening, humiliating, or offensive behavior or actions; or work interference.
Offers - Principled Negotiations
In the soft approach negotiators make offers, in the hard approach they make threats, but in the principled approach they explore common interests.
Approach-approach conflict
A situation involving a choice between two equally desirable but incompatible alternatives. Also called double-approach conflict. E.G. Marriage has both advantages and disadvantages associated with it.
Venting
"Venting" (an emotional reaction of expressing one's negative feelings to others) has an adverse affect on performance and amplified the negativity.
Frustration
Frustration occurs when a motivated drive is blocked before a person reaches a desired goal. The barrier may be either overt (outward, or physical) or covert (inward, or mental-sociopsychological).
Individual Coping Strategies
1. Exercise. 2. Relaxation. 3. Behavioral Self-Control. 4. Cognitive Therapy. 5. Networking.
Categories of Stressors Affecting Occupational Stress
1. Individual Stressors. 2. Group Stressors. 3. Organizational Stressors. 4. Extraorganizational Stressors.
What are the 2 types of group stressors (Occupational Stressors)?
1. Lack of group cohesiveness; "togetherness" 2. Lack of social support; sharing joys/problems
Common Mistakes of Traditional Negotiation Approaches:
1. Negotiators tend to be overly affected by the frame, or form of presentation, of information in a negotiation. 2. Negotiators tend to nonrationally escalate commitment to a previously selected course of action when it is no longer the most reasonable alternative. 3. Negotiators tend to assume that their gain must come at the expense of the other party and thereby miss opportunities for mutually beneficial trade-offs between the parties. 4. Negotiator judgments tend to be anchored on irrelevant information, such as an initial offer. 5. Negotiators tend to rely on readily available information. 6. Negotiators tend to fail to consider information that is available by focusing on the opponent's perspective. 7. Negotiators tend to be overconfident concerning the likelihood of attaining outcomes that favor the individual(s) involved.
4 Major Sources of Interpersonal Conflict
1. Personal Differences. 2. Information Deficiency. 3. Role Incompatibility. 4. Environmental Stress.
Some guidelines to help downsized organizations combat the problems of survivor syndrome include the following:
1. Be proactive. 2. Acknowledge survivors' emotions. 3. Communicating after the downsizing. 4. Clarifying new roles.
3 Major Types of Role Conflict
1. The person and the role. 2. Intrarole. 3. Interrrole.
Distributive Bargaining
A competitive bargaining strategy in which one party gains only if the other party loses something. Distributive bargaining assumes a "fixed pie" and focuses on how to get the biggest share, or "slice of the pie."
Downsizing Guidelines - Communicating After the Downsizing
After laying off 20% of its workforce, Patagonia Inc., an outdoor apparel manufacturer in California, implemented a monthly (then twice-monthly) open forum during which employees can meet with the CEO during work hours to have their questions answered and hear about the firm's progress. In the jobholders' meetings at Pitney Bowes Inc., management gives an employee $50 for the toughest question asked.
Mild Stress and Profession
Also, mild stress may get employees' "juices" flowing and lead to increased activity, change, and overall better performance. People in certain jobs, such as in sales or creative fields (for example, newspaper journalists and television announcers who work under time pressures), would seem to benefit from a mild level of stress. People in other jobs, such as police officers or physicians, may not benefit from constant mild stress.
Type A Personalities
An action-emotion complex that can be observed in any person who is aggressively involved in a chronic, incessant struggle to achieve more and more in less and less time, and if required to do so, against the opposing efforts of other things or other persons. Obviously Type A employees (managers, salespersons, staff specialists, secretaries, or rank-and-file operating employees) experience considerable stress. They are the ones who: 1. Work long, hard hours under constant deadline pressures and conditions for overload. 2. Often take work home at night or on weekends and are unable to relax. 3. Constantly compete with themselves, setting high standards of productivity that they seem driven to maintain. 4. Tend to become frustrated by the work situation, to be irritated with the work efforts of others, and to be misunderstood by supervisors.
Tense Energy vs. Calm Energy
Another interesting delineation involves two types of energy—"tense energy," which is a stress-driven state characterized by a constant sense of pressure and anxiety, and "calm energy," which is a stress-free "flow" state characterized by low muscle tension, an alert presence of mind, peaceful body feelings, increased creative intelligence, physical vitality, and a deep sense of well-being.1
Which goal conflict is most relevant to conflicts in the modern organization?
Approach-avoidance is most relevant to the analysis of conflict.
Which is the only goal conflict involving one goal?
Approach-avoidance; The single goal contains both positive and negative characteristics for the individual.
Intraindividual
Being or occurring within the individual.
Interrole
Conflict resulting from the differing requirements of two or more roles that must be played at the same time. Work roles and nonwork roles are often in such conflict. For example, a successful executive and a mother of 3.
Intrarole
Created by contradictory expectations about how a specific role should be played. E.G. Should the new team leader be autocratic or democratic in dealing with the team members? A lack of consensus surrounding a role and its demands.
Macrolevel Organizational Stressors : Working Conditions
Crowded working area Noise, heat, or cold Polluted Air Strong Odor Unsafe, Dangerous Conditions Poor Lighting Physical or Mental Strain Toxic Chemicals or Radiation
When does frustration occur?
Frustration occurs when a motivated drive is blocked before a person reaches a desired goal. The barrier may be either overt (outward, or physical) or covert (inward, or mental-sociopsychological).
Macrolevel Organizational Stressors : Administrative Policies and Strategies
Downsizing Competitive pressures Merit pay plans Rotating work shifts Bureaucratic rules Advanced technology
Positional Bargaining
Each side takes a position, argues for it, and makes concessions to reach a compromise.
Group-Level Dynamics
Group-level dynamics may become stressors. For example, one study found that organizational politics was a potential source of stress in the work environment and another study found social stressors such as conflicts with coworkers and supervisors and social dislikes or ill will of all kinds, over time, can lead to depressive symptoms for the employees involved.
Conditions for Intergroup Conflict: Task Interdependence
If two groups in the organization depend on one another in a mutual way or even a one-way direction (as in a sequential technological process), there tends to be more conflict than if groups are independent of one another. The more diverse the objectives, priorities, and personnel of the interdependent groups (for example, research and operations), the more conflict there tends to be.
Personal Control and Stress
In particular, if employees feel that they have little control over the work environment and over their own job, they will experience stress. Studies have shown that if employees are given a sense of control over their work environment, such as being given a chance to be involved in the decision-making process that affects them, this will reduce their work stress. It may not be job control per se, but the employee's perception of fairness/control that has the resulting impact on stress.
Burnout
Losing a sense of the basic purpose and fulfillment of your work. Getting more balance or getting more personal time will help you with stress—but it will often not help you with burnout. Research in this area shows that burnout is not necessarily the result of individual problems such as character or behavior flaws in which organizations can simply change people or get rid of them. As a result of extensive study, it is believed that burnout is not a problem of the people themselves but of the social environment in which people work.
Level of Conflict in Organizational Behavior
Macro to Micro, Respectively: Organizational. Intergroup. Interpersonal. Intraindividual. CONFLICT.
Conditions for Intergroup Conflict: Competition for resources
Most organizations today have very limited resources. Groups within the organization vie for budget funds, space, supplies, personnel, and support services.
A Model of Frustration
Need (deficiency) ----> Drive (deficiency with direction) ----> Barrier (1) Overt, (2) Covert to Goal/Incentive (reduction of the drives and fulfillment of deficiencies) Frustration ---> Defense Mechanisms (1) Aggression (2) Withdrawal (3) Fixation (4) Compromise
Downsizing Guidelines - Clarifying new roles
Not only is there a need for communication of the big picture; it also is important to explain how each employee's job has changed, if at all, and relate how each individual contributes to the new big picture in the downsized organization.
The Person and the Role
Occurs when the expected behaviors of an individual clash with his or her personal values. There may be conflict between the person's personality and the expectations of the role. For example, a production worker and member of the union is appointed to head up a new production team. This new team leader may not really believe in keeping close control over the workers, and it goes against this individual's personality to be hardnosed, but that is what the head of production expects.
Exercise - Individual Coping Strategies
Physical activity can boost mood and enhance our work performance in a number of other ways as well, by improving motivation and feelings of mastery, reducing stress and anxiety, and helping us get into flow--that "locked in" feeling of total engagement that we usually get when we're at our most productive. Although this seems to make a great deal of sense and many laypeople and physicians swear by it, there still is no conclusive evidence that exercise will always reduce the chances of heart disease or stroke. But there seems little doubt that it can help people better cope with the pressures of life.
Power
Power itself can be defined as the ability to get an individual or group to do something—to get the person or group to change in some way. The individual who possesses power has the ability to manipulate or change others. Such a definition of power distinguishes it from authority and influence. The power theorists stress the positive sum of power, suggesting it is the raw ability to mobilize resources to accomplish some end without reference to any organized opposition. Pfeffer, the organizational behavior theorist perhaps most closely associated with the study of power, simply defined power as a potential force and in more detail "as the potential ability to influence behavior, to change the course of events, to overcome resistance, and to get people to do things that they would not otherwise do. Usually definitions of power are intertwined with the concepts of authority and influence.
Avoidance-avoidance Conflict
Refers to making a decision between two equally undesirable choices. E.G. Between going to work at a job you hate or quitting and being stuck without work. E.G. Between doing homework you dislike or having to sit down and do taxes which you don't enjoy.
Challenge Stressors
Stressors that tend to be appraised as opportunities for growth and achievement. So-called challenge stressors (high workload, time pressure, high responsibility, and in general those demands that are viewed as obstacles to be overcome in order to learn and achieve) were found to have a positive effect on motivation and performance.
Conditions for Intergroup Conflict: Status Struggles
This conflict occurs when one group attempts to improve its status and another group views this as a threat to its place in the status hierarchy. One group may also feel it is being inequitably treated in comparison with another group of equal status in terms of rewards, job assignments, working conditions, privileges, or status symbols. Human resources departments justifiably often feel they are treated inequitably in relation to marketing, finance, and operations departments.
Goal Conflict
Two more mutually exclusive goals blocking progress. Occurs when a subsystem's goals are inconsistent with the goals of another subsystem or with the system as a whole.
Low-risk negotiation techniques
a. Flattery—subtle flattery usually works best, but the standards may differ by age, sex, and cultural factors. b. Addressing the easy point first—this helps build trust and momentum for the tougher issues. c. Silence—this can be effective in gaining concessions, but one must be careful not to provoke anger or frustration in opponents. d. Inflated opening position—this may elicit a counteroffer that shows the opponent's position or may shift the point of compromise. e. "Oh, poor me"—this may lead to sympathy but could also bring out the killer instinct in opponents.
