Stress and Worker Well-Being

Coping

Efforts which help individuals manage and reduce stress. Effectiveness of coping depends on coping method, type of stressor, one's self vies, and social support.

Family Leave Policies

FMLA-Employees can take a leave up to 12 weeks because of family related issues, that tends to benefit workers between 18-34 (which prominently includes personal health and childbirth). Since it is unpaid, not everyone can afford this. European countries have much stronger programs such as Belgium's Career Break program

Physiological Strains

Illness becomes more frequent, role in development of heart disease (2400 people per day die of heart disease in US)

Job Loss in Organizations

1. Unemployment creates many spillover effects on family 2. It's a precursor to depression 3. Social support is important for coping with job loss 4. Layoffs have detrimental effects on surviving employees with an estimate that 20% leave or checkout.

Elder-Care Assistance

22 million US households provide care to elderly. 50% of the US workforce are care-givers. Typical caregiver is 46 year old employed woman (daughter), spending 18 hours/week caring for mother. Sandwich generation=41% of these caregivers also caring for kids under 18 (baby boomers). Folks over 65 will double between 2000 and 2030. 50% of employers offer some elder care services. Costs billions and billions of dollars to organizations via absenteeism, interruptions, emergencies, and turnover.

Problem Focused Coping

Actions focused towards solving stress inducing problem, such as finding compromises to problem issues.

Stress

Any force that puts a psychological or physical function beyond its range of stability, which leads to strains. Costs US organizations 300 million $/year. 19% of absenteeism and 40% of turnover related to stress.

Work Life Supports

Chid-care benefits, elder-care benefits, flexible work arrangements, leave/time-off policies are traditional but some nontraditional benefits can include convenience benefits, health promotion benefits, education assistance benefits, housing assistance programs, and group purchase programs

Emotion Focused Coping

Cognitive Strategies to minimize effects of stress inducing events, such as rationalizing situations to reduce stress.

Risk Factors for Assault at Work

Contact with the public, exchange of money, delivery of passengers, goods, and services, having mobile workplace, working with unstable people, working alone or in small groups.

New Look at Dual Earner Couples

Conventional Dual-Career Marriage-Femaile maintains primary responsibility for home and children while adding a career. Role-Sharing Dual Career Marriage-both spouses active in careers and home. Women expected a role sharing marriage are more committed to a lifelong career, had higher self esteem, and expect a husband to involve himself in managing the household. Even when women work they do 1.8 times more of the housework than men; with a child, its even more! Recent work on crossover effects; husband's work family enrichment (positive spillover) reduces wife's depression and vice versa.

Work-Family Conflict

Dual Earner Households-54% in US (2003) and 64% with kids 18 and under. 78% of women with kids between 6 and 17 are employed outside the home. 78% of employees surveyed indicate their number one priority is to balance work and family life. 22% of employees think they can't have a good family life and get ahead in their companies.

O'Leary-Kelly Model of OMA

Individual and organizational/environmental characteristics play into organizational motivated aggression which has a relationship with organization motivated violence which is affected by a moderator of organizational action (response to OMA), and then this leads to organizational action (response to OMV and proactive modification of antecedents)

Emotional Strains

Less patiences and increased irritability; Burnout-reflected by emotional exhaustion, cynical views of work, and belief that one is not useful

Twenty-First Century Stressors

Less supervision (develop own responsibilities and seek feedback from others), team culture (accept empowerment and improve communication skills), downsizing (be aware of rumors and work hard to prove your worth), diversity (become aware of your prejudices and consider advantages of diversity)

Job Related Strains

Low satisfaction and less motivation

Family-Freindly Benefits

Now called work life supports. Family Leave Policies (allow employees to take time off to tend to family issues), Child-Care Benefits (Help employees in providing care for their kids) Elder-Care Assistance (Help employees care for their again parents and relatives). Research finds a difference in availability based on employee income.

Work Family Conflict

Occurs when work and family responsibilities interfere with each other. Western biases; study of Latino's in NC showed that they have very little WFC because work is seen as important and in the service of the family.

Child Care Benefits

On site child care has become very prominent in American organizations. Good recruitment tool for employees and seen as very valuable. Lotus Software has 4-5% turnover rate for child care users as opposed to 18% for non users. Linked to higher job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Family Friendly Backlash-Childfree advocates.

Workplace Violence

Over 1 million are assaulted in the workplace every year. 1.7 million Americans are assaulted or threatened with assault at work every year. 20 employes killed while working or on duty every week in the US. 610 people murdered at work in 2007. Patrick Sherrill case in Oklahoma (1986)-killed 14 post office coworkers and himself with his supervisor going first-this sparked interest in workplace violence.

Work Family Conflict Model

Personal and family variables/work variables, personal coping resources/organizational coping resources play into work family conflict and work family enrichment, which leads to work-related outcomes/well-being related outcomes

Workplace Violence Reliable Findings

Reliable findings-The more frustration at work, the more incidents of aggression and violence. Individuals who exhibit aggression and violent behavior have been rewarded for it in the past. Employees who have an external locus are more likely to respond to negative events aggressively.

Dual-Earner Couples

Represent about 78% of the labor force. Only 17% are Brady Bunch families. Work and home have overlapped into one thing and we have faster paced lives now. One non work related variable found to affect career satisfaction of these folks was satisfaction with child care arrangements. Lack of job security, time pressures at work, poor subordinate/supervisor relations all affect marital satisfaction.

Propositions of Workplace Violence

Some aggressive behaviors happen without conscious thought. Individuals who are emotionally susceptible are more likely to perceive workplace events as triggers. Management is often perceived as a cause for negative outcomes in ambiguous situations and subsequently become targets.

Tentative Findings of Workplace Violence

Seemingly minor frustrations at work act as triggers. Individuals high in negative affectivity are more likely to respond to aversive outcomes with aggressive behavior as are more impulsive personalities.

General Stress Model

Sources of stress, leads to organizational stress, with coping strategies, and leads to strains (which are job related, emotion-related, and physiological)

Hindrance-Related Stress

Stress (daily hassles) is due to things that interfere with work and are negatively related to job satisfaction, positively related to job search

Challange-related Stress

Stress has to do with time pressure and responsibility at work; positively related to satisfaction, negatively to job search

Managerial Perspective on Stress

Stress is either challenge or hindrance-related. Different types os stress have differential effects on important outcomes.

Crossover

Stresses of work affect mood or health of the spouse (usually affects women). Can be positive.

Psychological Effects of Job Loss

They are important because of 1.Provides financial means for life, 2. Provides time structure to your day, 3. Provides an opportunity to use learned skills and develop new ones, 4. Provides novel social interaction, 5. Provides purpose to life, 6. Sense of identity and prestige from jobs

Job Loss in Organizations

US corporations have been reducing number of jobs in alarming rates since the 80s. 43 million jobs lost in US from 79-99. Half a million high tech job alone lost in the US in 2002. 80,000 jobs lost per month in 2004. 218,000 employees laid off in third quarter of 2008. Anxiety about job loss continues to rise.

Strain

Undesirable personal outcome that results from stressful experiences.

Work Family Enrichment

When attitudes and moods have a positive effect on the other domain

The Dangerous Employee

White, male from 30-60, social isolate who no one knows very well, experience at least one triggering event within one year of his violent incident, often vocally aggressive and acts out violent behaviors, often exhibits bizarre and unusual behaviors observed by coworkers, will exhibit at least one warning sign like history of violent behavior, psychological disorder, depression, chemical dependence, obsession with individual, chronic frustration, preoccupied with weapons

Work Family Conflict Outcomes

Work Family Conflict related to mood, anxiety, and substance abuse disorders. It affects career satisfaction more for women than men. For men over 40, WFC has more of an effect on career satisfaction than for younger men.