Industrial Psychology Chapter 10: Worker Stress

transactional

Lazarus view of worker stress; saw stress as resulting from the worker's perception that a certain environmental event is a threat or a challenge, factoring in your perception of how capable you will be at managing the threat; different people may interpret the same event very differently

Conflict

______ between roles can occur ad can become and additional source of stress; worker's job may require excessive overtime that conflicts with the worker's family roles of spouse and parent

Job Stress Survey (JSS)

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

Job burnout

a syndrome resulting from prolonged exposure to work stress that leads to withdrawal from the organization; especially high in human service professions; occurs in 3 phases: 1. emotional exhaustion 2.depersonalization 3.feelings of low personal accomplishment

Leadership self-efficacy

ability for one to lead a work team

Worker and work organization/environment

according to the P-E fit approach, a mismatch between the _______ and the _______ is believed to be a primary cause of worker stress

Distress

also known as negative stress; can cause stress related illness and can affect absenteeism, turnover, and work performance.

Stressor

an environmental event that is perceived by an individual to be threatening; can have both negative and positive effects

Self-efficacy

an individual's beliefs in his/her abilities to engage in courses of action that will lead to desired outcomes; one's sense of effectiveness and competence

Internal

assistance programs offered at a work site; convenient for employees though expensive to maintain.

external

assistance programs that the company contracts with an outside agency to provide counseling for employees

counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs)

deviant, negative behaviors that are harmful to an organization and its workers; Meta-analysis suggest that they are more prevalent in younger employees and those with lower job satisfaction; this and workplace aggression and violence, are linked to trait negative affectivity, anger, and other personality variables; The incidence of these are negatively related to the incidence of organizational citizenship behaviors

Social Readjustment Rating Scale

does not accurately asses the effect of an additional stressful event when an individual is already experiencing other stressful events

lack of control

feeling of having little input or effect on the job and/or work environment; common in lower-level jobs or in highly structured organizations

emotional exhaustion

first phase of job burnout; caused by excessive demands placed on the worker; detachment from coworkers, negative self-evaluations, and lowered self-esteem

Job-related self-efficacy

important factor relating to a worker's ability to perform his or her job.

Alcohol and drug use

in the workplace is related to workplace accidents, decreased productivity, increased absenteeism and turnover, costing billions of dollars annually; Workers who report problems with have greater job instability and lower job satisfaction;Employee assistance programs (EAPs) involve counseling provided for a variety of worker problems, particularly in abuse

individual sources of stress

include a person's history of exposure to stress as well as certain stress-related personality characteristics and behavioral patterns

Individual sources of stress

include a person's history of exposure to stress as well as certain stress-related personality characteristics and behavioral patterns; there is evidence that certain personality traits make people more prone to stress and others seem to make people more resistant to stress and its negative outcomes.

psychological effects of stress

include anxiety, depression, and chronic fatique

physiological measures of stress

include blood pressure monitoring, EKGs for heart rate, or blood tests for stress-linked hormones (cortisol) and cholesterol; Difficulties with such measures include variation of such physiological processes within each person throughout the day and variation between individuals; Medical personnel are needed to administer such measures

stress related illnesses

include ulcers, colitis, high blood pressure, heart disease, migraine headaches, and stress can worse common colds and infections; The relationship between stress and performance is complex, and generally is curvilinear (involving an inverted U), where both very low and very high stress are associated with poor performance.

physical work conditions

includes extreme temperatures, loud/distracting noises, crowding, poor lighting, and ventilation; dangerous work conditions; night shifts

Organizational change

including mergers, changes in work technology, personnel/managerial changes

harassment

including sexual harassment, harassment due to group membership (gender,race,sexual orientation) and being singled out by a coworker or supervisor; increase stress, decrease job satisfaction

Maslach Burnout Inventory Human Services Survey (MBI)

instrument that assesses the three hypothesized components of burnout; emotional exhaustion component related to both voluntary turnover and declines in job performance over a 1 year period

Employee assistance programs (EAP)

involve counseling provided for a variety of worker problems, particularly drug and alcohol abuse; External (company contracts with outside agency) and internal (services provided at work site) programs

Measurement of stressful life events

involves self-reports of significant events in a person's recent history that can cause stress; one measure is the Social Readjustment Rating Scale, a checklist where individuals total the numerical "stress severity" scores experienced in the past year; research suggests that persons with high personal stress indexes perform more poorly, have higher absenteeism, and change jobs more frequently.

emotional labor

involves that demands of regulating and controlling emotions in the workplace; can cause workers to become dissatisfied and cynical about their jobs, reduce job satisfaction, performance, and lead to frequent absenteeism and turnover

worker stress

involves the physiological and/or psychological reactions to evens that are perceived to be threatening or taxing.

subcategories

it is argued that the concept of P-E fit is too broad and that _______ are needed, such as P-E fit, person-job fit, and the extent to which a particular job fits an individual's motivational needs.

job uncertainty

may better refer to the uncertainty caused by a lack of regular performance feedback concerning how well or how poorly workers are doing their jobs

Stress Diagnostic Survey (SDS)

measures worker's perceptions of stress in 15 work-related areas, including time, pressure, workload, role ambiguity, and supervisory style

cognitive reassuring

method of coping the entails changing the way one thinks about stressors; often used to treat PTSD

Stressful occupations

occupations that include air traffic controller, healthcare provider, police officer, and firefighter; characteristics include heavy work load, poor working conditions, physical dangers, and dealing with difficult clients and coworkers

Coping self-efficacy

one's ability to cope with stressful situations

relationship self-efficacy

ones ability to deal effectively with relationships at work

improve communication

organizational coping strategy; better the communication among workers, the lower the stress created because of misunderstandings

improve employee training and orientation programs

organizational coping strategy; companies can help eliminate some stress due to the mismatch between expectations and outcomes by ensuring that new workers receive proper job training and orientation to the new organization

Remove hazardous or dangerous work conditions

organizational coping strategy; elimination or reduction of dangerous situations in the workplace

Eliminate punitive management

organizational coping strategy; if organizations take steps to eliminate company policies that are perceived to be threatening or punitive, a major source of work stress will also be eliminated; training supervisors to minimize the use of punishment as a managerial technique will also help control this common source of stress

improve the person-job fit

organizational coping strategy; maximizing the person-job fit through careful screening, selection, and placement of employees, organizations can alleviate a great deal of stress due to the mismatch between a worker's interests or skills and job requirements

increase employee's sense of control

organizational coping strategy; programs such as job enrichment, participative decision making, and systems of delegating authority all help the lack of sense of control over one's job

provide a supportive, team-oriented, work environment

organizational coping strategy; social support in the workplace reduces perceptions of threat, lessens the perceived strength of the stressors, and helps in coping with work-related stress

type A behavior pattern

personality characterized by excessive drive, competitiveness, impatience, and hostility; dispositional stressor; more likely to develop stress related coronary heart disease, including fatal heart attacks

withdrawal

process of ______ may include such reactions as increased tardiness and absenteeism and decreased work performance and work quality

Person-environment fit (P-E fit)

refers to the match between a worker's abilities, needs, and values, and organizational demands, rewards, and values; positively related to organizational commitment and well being, and negatively related to turnover (Hult, 2005); Measurement involves assessing worker skills and abilities, along with job demands and features of the work environment

self report measurements of stress

reports about organizational conditions and reports about psychological and/or physical states; Reports on organizational conditions involve questions about job autonomy, feedback, task identity, task significance, skill variety, workload, etc.; Self-reports measures of psychological/physical stress include the Stress Diagnostic Survey, the Occupational Stress indicator, and the Job Stress Survey

High

research suggests that people with _____ personal stress indexes tend to perform more poorly, have higher absenteeism, and change jobs more frequently

underutilization

resulting from workers feeling that their knowledge, skills, or energy are not being fully used

interpersonal stress

results from difficulties dealing with others (coworkers, customer, supervisors) in the workplace; can include social isolation; conflict situations; providing good customer service

work family conflict

results from efforts to balance competing demands of work and family

work overload

results when a job requires excessive speed, output, or concentration; also known as role overload; one of the greatest sources of work stress; related to physiological symptoms such as elevated serum cholesterol and increased heart rate; psychological measures, and lower quality of work and job satisfaction; ex: college graduates low-level clerical work

depersonalization

second phase of job burnout; the development of a cynical, insensitive attitude toward people (other workers or customers) in the workplace

Stressful life events

significant evens in a person's recent history that can cause stress; include events such as divorce, death of a loved one, major illness, and financial or legal trouble; positive events such as marriage, birth of a child, and vacations included.

Situational stress

stress arising from certain conditions that exist in the work environment or the worker's personal life; stress of life can carry over to the workplace

Organizational sources of worker stress

stress derived from work environment; two subcategories: stress derived from work tasks and stress resulting form work roles; include work task stressors such as work overload, underutilization, job ambiguity, lack of control physical work conditions, interpersonal stress, emotional labor, harassment, and organizational change.

dispositional stress

stress that arises from an individual's personal characteristics

Individual coping strategies

techniques such as exercise, meditation, or cognitive restructuring that can be used to deal with work stress; More efficient work methods, including time management, may also be used, although their success depends on individual commitment; Vacation time and voluntary absences may also be used to reduce worker stress, although the missed work may increase stress upon the employee's return to work

Organizational coping strategies

techniques that organizations can use to reduce stress for all or most employees; include improving person-job fit and employee training and orientation; increase employees' sense of control; eliminating punitive management; removing hazardous work conditions; providing a supportive work environment; and improving organizational communication.

Negative affectivity

the expression of negative emotions such as anger, hostility, anxiety, impatience, and aggression; combined with Type A behavior can increase stress-related health risks.

negative affectivity

the expression of negative emotions, such as anger, hostility, anxiety, impatience, and aggression, is what combines with type A personality to increase stress-related health risks.

hardiness

the notion that some people may be more resistant to health-damaging effects of stress; individuals view a stressful situation as a challenge rather than a threat

Eustress

the positive kind of stress

feelings of low personal accomplishment

third phase of job burnout; workers feel a sense of frustration and helplessness and begin to believe that their work efforts fail to produce the desired results, and they may quit trying

Coping skills

training for hardiness involves the development of workers' _________ and combination of relaxation training, a program of diet and exercise, and developing supportive networks to help reduce stress; successful in helping college students

Jenkins Activity Survey (JAS) and Framingham Type A Scale (FTAS)

two popular self report instruments designed to assess Type A behavior

bottom line variables

variables such as productivity, absenteeism, and turnover

Job ambiguity

which results from lack of clearly defined jobs and/or work tasks; also known as job uncertainty