Chapter 10 Defining Worker Stress

Job Stress Survey (JSS)

A 30-item instrument that measures the severity and frequency with which workers experience certain stressful working conditions.

Lack of Control

A feeling of having little input or effect on the job and/or work environment; typically results in stress.

Type A behavior pattern

A personality characterized by excessive drive, competitiveness, impatience, and hostility that has been linked to greater incidence of coronary heart disease.

Job Ambiguity

A source of stress resulting from a lack of clearly defined jobs and/or work tasks.

Underutilization

A source of stress resulting from workers feeling that their knowledge, skills, or energy are not being fully used.

Job Burnout

A syndrome resulting from prolonged exposure to work stress that leads to withdrawal from the organization.

Coping Self-Efficacy

Ability to cope with stressful situations.

Relationship Self-Efficacy

Ability to deal effectively with relationships at work.

Leadership Self-Efficacy

Ability to lead a work team.

Job-Related Self-Efficacy

Ability to perform his or her job.

Stressful Occupations

Air traffic controller, physician or other health-care provider, police officer, firefighter, and server.

Increase employees' sense of control

Alleviating stress by giving workers participation in work-related decisions, more responsibility, or increased autonomy and independence.

Self-Efficacy

An individual's beliefs in his or her abilities to engage in courses of action that will lead to desired outcomes.

Worker Stress

At least eight different definitions. The physiological and/or psychological reactions to events that are perceived to be threatening or taxing.

Physiological Measurements of Stress

Blood pressure monitoring, electrocardiogram (EKG) for monitoring heart rate, or blood tests for monitoring levels of certain hormones, such as the stress-linked hormone, cortisol, and cholesterol in the bloodstream.

Drawbacks of Physiological Measurements

Costly equipment and needs highly trained personnel; results vary from hour to hour, day to day, or person to person.

Employee assistance programs (EAPs)

Counseling provided for a variety of worker problems, particularly drug and alcohol abuse.

Work-family conflict

Cumulative stress that results from duties of work and family roles.

Counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs)

Deviant, negative work behaviors that are harmful to an organization and its workers. Include stealing from employers, vandalism, sabotage, harassment of co-workers, deliberately missing work, and using drugs or alcohol on the job.

Alcohol and Drug Use in the Workplace

Directly responsible for decreased productivity and increased absenteeism and turnover. Costs U.S. employers more than $100 billion a year.

Individual Sources of Work Stress

Dispositional Stressors-Type A behavior pattern, Susceptibility/resistance to stress, Self-Efficacy.

Effects of Worker Stress

Emotional exhaustion, detachment from coworkers, negative self-evaluations, and lowered self-esteem. Decreased work performance and increased absenteeism and turnover.

Negative Employee Attitudes and Behaviors

Evidence that workers with high negative affectivity may not respond as well to feedback from supervisors about how to improve work performance.

Remove hazardous or dangerous work conditions

Exposure to hazardous work conditions, mechanical danger of loss of limb or life, health-harming chemicals, excessive fatigue, or extreme temperatures.

Physical work conditions

Extreme temperatures, loud and distracting noise, or poor lighting or ventilation. Jobs that place workers at risk of loss of health, life, or limb. Cramped, crowded, and excessively noisy work environments.

Self-Report Assessments

Favored by psychologists. Ask people directly to report on their own perceived stress through various rating scales. Fall into 1/2 major categories: organizational conditions or psychological and/or physical states.

Psychological Reactions to Stress

Feeling anxiety, fear, frustration, and despair, as well as appraising or evaluating the stressful event and its impact.

Emotional Exhaustion

First phase of burnout, caused by excessive demands placed on the worker.

Provide a supportive, team-oriented work environment

Fostering good interpersonal relationships among coworkers and an integrated, highly functioning work team.

Measurement of stressful life events

Have a greater impact on young than older. Half of the 10 most stressful life events are directly related to work.

Physiological Reactions to Stress

Increased heart and respiratory rates, elevated blood pressure, and profuse sweating.

Coping with Worker Stress

Individual and organizational strategies.

Improve Communication

Lowers the stress created because of misunderstandings.

Improve the person-job fit-

Maximizing through careful screening, selection, and placement of employees.

At psychological level stress can cause...

Mental strain, feelings of fatigue, anxiety, and depression that can reduce worker productivity and quality of work.

Measurement of Worker Stress

Physiological measures, self-report assessments, measurement of stressful life events, measurement of person-environment fit Person-environment (P-E).

Depersonalization

Second phase of burnout, the development of a cynical, insensitive attitude toward people (other workers or customers) in the work site.

Stressful life events

Significant events in a person's recent history that can cause stress.

Organizational Sources of Work Stress

Situational Stressors- Work task stressors: work overload, under-utilization; work role stressors: job amibiguity, lack of control, physical work conditions, interpersonal stress, harassment, organizational change, work-family conflict

Improve employee training and orientation programs

Some can be eliminated by ensuring new workers receive proper training and orientation to the organization.

Interpersonal Stress

Stress arising from difficulties with others in the workplace.

Sources of Worker Stress

Stress can arise from either the environment (situational stress) or from an individual's personal characteristics (dispositional stress). Certain occupations can be particularly stressful.

Individual Coping Strategies

Techniques such as exercise, meditation, or cognitive restructuring that can be used to deal with work stress.

Organizational Coping Strategies

Techniques that organizations can use to reduce stress for all or most employees.

Emotional Labor

The demands of regulating and controlling emotions in the workplace.

Person-environment (P-E) fit

The match between a worker's abilities, needs, and values, and organizational demands, rewards, and values.

Hardiness

The notion that some people may be more resistant to the health-damaging effects of stress.

Eustress

The positive kind of stress.

Eliminate punitive management

The very act of being threatened or punished at work can be very stressful.

Low Personal Accomplishment

Third phase of burnout, here the burned-out workers feel a sense of frustration and helplessness. Begin to believe their work efforts fail to produce desired results, and they may quit trying.

U Relationship to Stress

Too much or too little stress can lead to poorer work performance. A little stress is not a bad thing. May not hold for all types of stressors or all aspects of job performance.

Situational Stress

Two types: work task and work role stressors. Stress arising from certain conditions that exist in the work environment, or in the worker's personal life.

Stress-related Illnesses

Ulcers, hypertension and coronary heart disease, migraines, asthma attacks, and colitis.

Work Task Stressors

Work overload, underutilization.

Work overload

a common source of stress resulting when a job requires excessive speed, output, or concentration.

Work Role Stressors

job ambiguity, lack of control, physical work conditions, interpersonal stress, harassment, organizational change, work-family conflict.