Chapter 7
Organizational Behavior:
Foundations, Realities, & Challenges
Nelson & Quick, 5th edition
Stress and Well-Being
at Work
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What is Stress?
Stress –
Stressor –
Distress –
Strain –
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What is Homeostasis?
Homeostasis –
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4 Stress Approaches:
Homeostatic/Medical Approach
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+
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4 Stress Approaches:
Cognitive Appraisal Approach
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•
4 Stress Approaches:
Cognitive Appraisal Approach
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4 Stress Approaches:
Person–Environment Fit Approach
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•
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4 Stress Approaches:
Psychoanalytic Approach
Ego Ideal –
Self-Image –
=
The Stress Response
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• 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
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Sources of Stress at Work
Work Demands
Task Demands
Role Demands
Interpersonal Demands
Physical Demands
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Stress Sources at Work
Family Demands
Nonwork Demands
Personal Demands
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Stress Benefits and Costs
Benefits of Healthy, Normal Stress (Eustress)
Performance
Health
Costs of Distress
Individual
Organizational
Yerkes-Dodson Law
Performance arousal
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High
Low
Low
(distress)
Optimum
(eustress)
High
(distress)
Stress level
Boredom from
understimulation
Optimum
stress load
Conditions
Distress from
perceived overstimulation
as stressful
Positive Stress
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•
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Negative Stress
Negative stress results from
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Individual Distress
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Organizational Distress
Participative Problems –
Performance Decrement –
Compensation Award –
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Dealing with Stress
__________________
________________ –
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 –
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Personality Hardiness
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a personality
resistant to distress & characterized by
– challenge (versus threat)
– commitment (versus alienation)
– control (versus powerlessness)
a way of
managing stressful events by changing
them into subjectively less stressful
events (versus
passive avoidance of events by
decreasing interaction with the
environment)
Self-Reliance
Self-Reliance –
Counterdependence –
Overdependence –
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Preventative Stress
Management
Preventative Stress Management –
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Preventative Stress
Management
Primary Prevention –
Secondary Prevention –
Tertiary Prevention –
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Preventative Stress Maintenance
Organizational Context
Organizational stressors
• Task demands
• Role demands
• Physical demands
• Interpersonal demands
Stress responses
• Individual
• Organizational
Distress
Individual problems
• Behavioral
•Medical
• Psychological
Organizational costs
• Direct
• Indirect
Preventive Medicine Context
Health risk factors
Asymptomatic
disease
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.
Organizational Stress
Prevention
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– job redesign
– goal setting
– role negotiation
– social support systems
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Job Strain Model
Workload
Low
Low
Selfdetermination
High
Unresolved
strain
(ill health)
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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
______________
Supervisor
Colleagues
Subordinates
Clients
_______________
Spouse Children
Parents In-laws
_______________
Minister/Rabbi
Friends
Support groups
________________
Individual
Physicians
Psychologists
___________________
Counselors
Business associations
Lawyers
Social clubs
Athletic groups
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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.
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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 & emotional
tensions
Provides information, emotional support, and
therapeutic guidance
What Can Managers Do?
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