Chapter 7
Stress and Well-Being at
Work
Learning Outcomes
1 Define stress, distress, and strain.
2 Compare four different approaches to stress.
3 Explain the psychophysiology of the stress response.
4 Identify work and nonwork causes of stress.
5 Describe the consequences of stress.
6 Discuss individual factors that influence a person’s response
to stress and strain.
7 Identify the stages and elements of preventive stress
management for individuals and organizations.
© 2009 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
1
Learning Outcome
Define stress, distress, and strain.
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What Is Stress?
[Stress] – the unconscious preparation
to fight or flee that a person
experiences when faced with any
demand
[Stressor ] – the person or event that
triggers the stress response
[Distress ] – the adverse psychological,
physical, behavioral, and
organizational consequences that
may arise as a result of stressful
events
[Strain] – distress
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2
Learning Outcome
Compare four different approaches to
stress.
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Homeostasis
a steady state of bodily functioning and
equilibrium
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Homeostasis
+
External environmental
demand
=
Fight
Flight
1 OF 4 APPROACHES
HOMEOSTATIC/MEDICAL
COGNITIVE APPRAISAL
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2 OF 4 APPROACHES
• Individuals differ in
their appraisal of
events and people
• What is stressful for
one person is not for
another
• Perception and
cognitive appraisal
determines what is
stressful
COGNITIVE APPRAISAL
Problem-focused coping
emphasizes managing
the stressor
Emotion-focused coping
emphasizes managing
your response
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• No undue stress
Good person-environment fit: a
person’s skills and abilities match a
clearly defined, consistent set of
role expectations
• Stress, strain, and depression
occur when role expectations are
confusing and/or conflicting, or
when the person’s skills and
abilities do not meet the demands
of the social role
3 OF 4 APPROACHES
PERSON-ENVIRONMENT FIT
Ego Ideal – the
embodiment of a
person’s perfect self
Self-Image – how a
person sees oneself,
both positively &
negatively
= the difference
between ego ideal and
self-image
4 OF 4 APPROACHES
PSYCHOANALYTIC
3
Learning Outcome
Explain the psychophysiology of the
stress response.
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The Stress Response
Release of
Sympathetic
chemical
nervous system
messengers,
and the
primarily
endocrine
adrenaline, (hormone) system
into the
activated
bloodstream
• Blood redirected from the
skin and internal organs
to brain and large
muscles
• Increased alertness:
improved vision, hearing,
and other sensory
responses
• Release of glucose and
fatty acids for sustenance
• Depression of immune
system, digestion, and
similar restorative
processes
Beyond the Book:
Stress Check
How often do the following happen to you? Always (3), often (2), sometimes
(1), or never (0)? Rate each statement on a scale from 0 to 3, as honestly
as you can and without spending too much time on any one statement.
Am I Overstressed?
1. I have to make important snap judgments and decisions.
2. I am not consulted about what happens on my job or in my classes.
3. I feel I am underpaid.
4. I feel that no matter how hard I work, the system will mess it up.
5. I do not get along with some of my coworkers or fellow students.
6. I do not trust my superiors at work or my professors at school.
7. The paperwork burden on my job or at school is getting to me.
8. I feel people outside the job or the university do not respect what I do.
Record your score as the sum of your responses.
© 2009 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Beyond the Book:
Stress Check
How often do the following happen to you? Always (3), often (2), sometimes (1),
or never (0)? Rate each statement on a scale from 0 to 3, as honestly as you can
and without spending too much time on any one statement.
Am I Angry?
1. I feel that people around me make too many irritating mistakes.
2. I feel annoyed because I do good work or perform well in school, but no one
appreciates it.
3. When people make me angry, I tell them off.
4. When I am angry, I say things I know will hurt people.
5. I lose my temper easily.
6. I feel like striking out at someone who angers me.
7. When a coworker or fellow student makes a mistake, I tell him or her about it.
8. I cannot stand being criticized in public.
Record your score as the sum of your responses, and add it to your score from
the previous section.
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Beyond the Book:
Stress Check
To find your level of anger and potential for aggressive behavior, add your scores
from both quiz parts.
40–48: The red flag is waving, and you had better pay attention. You are in the
danger zone. You need guidance from a counselor or mental health
professional, and you should be getting it now.
30–39: The yellow flag is up. Your stress and anger levels are too high, and you
are feeling increasingly hostile. You are still in control, but it would not
take much to trigger a violent flare of temper.
10–29: Relax, you are in the broad normal range. Like most people, you get
angry occasionally, but usually with some justification. Sometimes you
take overt action, but you are not likely to be unreasonably or
excessively aggressive.
0–9:
Congratulations! You are in great shape. Your stress and anger are well
under control, giving you a laid-back personality not prone to violence.
© 2009 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
4
Learning Outcome
Identify work and nonwork causes of
stress.
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[Sources of Stress]
Stress in the work place –
comes from either
WORK DEMANDS
OR
NONWORK DEMANDS
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Sources of Stress at Work
Work Demands
Task Demands
Change & uncertainty
Lack of control
Career progress
New technologies
Work overload/underload
Interpersonal Demands
Abrasive personalities
Sexual harassment
Leadership styles
Role Demands
Role conflict:
 Interrole
 Intrarole
 Person–role
Role ambiguity
Physical Demands
Extreme environments
Strenuous activities
Hazardous substances
Stress Sources at Work
Nonwork Demands
Family Demands
Personal Demands
Marital expectations
Religious activities
Child-rearing/day care
Self-improvement
arrangements
tasks
Parental care
Traumatic events
Stress Benefits and Costs
Benefits of Healthy, Normal Stress (Eustress)
Performance
Health
Increased arousal
Cardiovascular
efficiency
Bursts of physical strength
Enhanced focus in an
emergency
Costs of Distress
Individual
Organizational
Psychological disorders
Participation problems
Medical illnesses
Performance
decrements
Behavioral problems
Compensation awards
5
Learning Outcome
Describe the consequences of stress.
© 2009 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Positive Stress
• Stress response itself is neutral
• Some stressful activities (aerobic
exercise, etc.) can enhance a person’s
ability to manage stressful demands or
situations
• Stress can provide a needed energy
boost
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Yerkes-Dodson Law
Performance arousal
High
Low
Low
(distress)
Optimum
(eustress)
High
(distress)
Stress level
Boredom from
understimulation
Optimum
stress load
Conditions
Distress from
perceived overstimulation
as stressful
Negative Stress
Negative stress results from
– a prolonged activation of the stress
response
– mismanagement of the energy induced
by the response
– unique personal vulnerabilities
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Beyond the Book:
Friends with the Boss
Columnist Jared Sandberg often addresses the
absurdities resulting from employer-friend inter-role
conflict in his Wall Street Journal column “Cubicle
Culture”.
Informal or “friendly” behavior from bosses (e.g.
sharing strange hobbies, or friend requests on
social-networking websites) can result in uncertain,
unusual, and potentially stressful social dynamics
at work.
What do you do when your boss strikes up a casual conversation about
information from your Facebook profile?
© 2009 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Individual Distress
Work-related psychological disorders
(depression, burnout,
psychosomatic disorders)
Copyright ©2006
by South-Western,
a division of
Thomson Learning.
All rights reserved
Organizational Distress
Participative Problems – a cost
associated with absenteeism,
tardiness, strikes and work
stoppages, and turnover
Performance Decrement – a cost
resulting from poor quality or low
quantity of production, grievances,
and unscheduled machine downtime
and repair
Compensation Award – an
organizational cost resulting from
court awards for job distress
© 2009 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
6
Learning Outcome
Discuss individual factors that influence
a person’s response to stress and
strain.
© 2009 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Individual Differences
in the Stress–Strain Relationship
Achilles’ heel
phenomenon –
a person breaks down
at his or her weakest
point
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Are There Gender-Related Stressors?
Sexual harassment
Early age fatal health problems
Long term disabling health problems
Violence
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Type A Behavior Patterns
Type A Behavior Patterns – a
complex of personality and
behavior characteristics
– sense of time urgency
“hurry sickness”
– quest for numbers (of
achievements)
– status insecurity
– aggression & hostility
expressed in response to
frustration & conflict
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Personality Hardiness
[Personality Hardiness] – a personality
resistant to distress and characterized by
– challenge (versus threat)
– commitment (versus alienation)
– control (versus powerlessness)
[Transformational Coping] – a way of
managing stressful events by changing
them into subjectively less stressful events
(versus regressive coping – passive
avoidance of events by decreasing
interaction with the environment)
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Self-Reliance
Self-Reliance – a healthy, secure,
interdependent pattern of behavior related to
how people form and maintain supportive
attachments with others
Counterdependence – an unhealthy,
insecure pattern of behavior that leads to
separation in relationships with other people
Overdependence – an unhealthy, insecure
pattern of behavior that leads to preoccupied
attempts to achieve security through
relationships.
© 2009 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
7
Learning Outcome
Identify the stages and elements of
preventive stress management for
individuals and organizations.
© 2009 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Preventative Stress
Management
an organizational philosophy that holds that
people & organizations should take joint
responsibility for promoting health and preventing
distress and strain
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Preventative Stress Management
Primary Prevention – designed to reduce,
modify, or eliminate the demand or
stressor causing stress
Secondary Prevention – designed to alter
or modify the individual’s or the
organization’s response to a demand or
stressor
Tertiary Prevention – designed to heal
individual or organizational symptoms of
distress and strain
© 2009 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Preventative Stress Maintenance
Organizational Context
Organizational stressors
• Task demands
• Role demands
• Physical demands
• Interpersonal demands
Preventive Medicine Context
Primary
prevention
Health risk factors
stressor
directed
Stress responses
• Individual
• Organizational
Secondary
prevention
response
directed
Asymptomatic
disease
Distress
Individual problems
• Behavioral
•Medical
• Psychological
Organizational costs
• Direct
• Indirect
Tertiary
prevention
symptom
directed
Symptomatic
disease
SOURCE: Based on J. D. Quick, J. C. Quick, and D.L. Nelson. “The Theory of Preventive Stress Management in Organizations,” in C. L. Cooper, ed. Theories of Organizational Stress (Oxford, England: Oxford
University Press. 1998), 246-268.
Beyond the Book:
Political Skill and Role-Conflict
Recent studies suggest that employees with
greater political skill are able to moderate
physical and mental effects of stress from role
conflict.
Does the use of political skill enable workers to
reconcile conflicting roles and eliminate
discrepancies in expectations?
© 2009 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Organizational Stress
Prevention
• Focuses on people’s work demands
• Focuses on ways to reduce distress
at work
• Most organizational prevention is
primary
– job redesign
– goal setting
– role negotiation
– social support systems
© 2009 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Job Strain Model
Workload
Low
High
Low
Selfdetermination
Unresolved
strain
(ill health)
Passive
job
Active
job
SOURCE: B. Gardell, “Efficiency and Health Hazards in Mechanized Work,” in J. C. Quick, R.S. Bhagat, J. E. Dalton, and J. D. Quick, eds., Work Stress: Health Care
Systems in the Workplace. Copyright © 1987. Reproduced with permission of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc., Westport, CT.
Social Support at Work and Home
Organizational
Supervisor
Colleagues
Subordinates
Clients
Professional
Physicians
Psychologists
Counselors
Lawyers
Family
Spouse Children
Parents In-laws
Individual
Clubs
Business associations
Social clubs
Athletic groups
Church
Minister/Rabbi
Friends
Support groups
Copyright ©2006
by South-Western,
a division of
Thomson Learning.
All rights reserved
SOURCE: From J. C. Quick J. D. Quick, D. L. Nelson and J. J. Hurrell, Jr., in Preventive Stress Management in Organizations, 1997, p. 198. Copyright© 1997 by The American
Psychological Association. Reprinted with permission.
Individual Preventive
Stress Management
Primary Prevention
Alters the person’s internal self-talk and
reduces depression
Time management:
Improves planning and prioritizes activities
Leisure time activities: Balance work and non-work activities
Learned optimism:
Secondary Prevention
Physical exercise:
Relaxation training:
Diet:
Improves cardiovascular function and muscular
flexibility
Lowers all indicators of the stress response
Lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease and
improves overall physical health
Tertiary Prevention
Opening up:
Professional help:
Releases internalized traumas and emotional
tensions
Provides information, emotional support, and
therapeutic guidance
What Can Managers Do?
• Learn how to create healthy stress
without distress
• Help employees adjust to new
technologies
• Be sensitive to early signs of distress
• Be aware of gender, personality, and
behavioral differences
• Use principles and methods of preventive
stress management
© 2009 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.