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Stress has been called “the invisible”. It is a disease that may affect
you, your organization, and any of the people in it, so you cannot afford to
ignore it.
EVOLUATION OF STRESS:
The Garden of Eden began as a tranquil stress environment. However
when Adam was given the tantalizing chance to eat the forbidden fruit, he
was trust into mankind’s first stressful situation. Adam was offered a choice
and, as we know, decision-making is the breeding ground for conflict,
frustration and distress.
DEFINITION:
Stress in individual is defined as any
interference that disturbs a persons’ healthy
mental and physical well being. It occurs when
the body is required to perform beyond its
normal range of capabilities.
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within people that force them to deviate from
their normal functioning”.
• Alarm Reaction: The first is the alarm phases. Here the individual
mobilizes to meet the threat. The alarm reaction has two phases. The
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first phases includes in initial “stock shock phase” in which defensive
mechanism become active. Alarm reaction is characterized by
autonomous excitability; adrenaline discharges; increase heart rate,
ulceration. Depending on the nature & intensity of the threat and the
condition of the organization the period of resistance varies and the
severity of symptoms may differ from “mild invigoration” to “disease
of adaptation”.
• Resistance: The second is the phase of resistance. The individual
attempts to resist or cope with the threat. Maximum adaptation occurs
during this stage. The bodily signs characteristic of the alarm reaction
disappear. It the stress persist, or the defensive reaction proves
ineffective, it may overwhelm the body resources. Depleted of energy,
the body enters the phase of third.
• Exhaustion: Adaptation energy is exhausted. Sings of the alarm
reaction reappear, and the resistance level begins to define
irreversibly. The organism collapses.
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abilities and health. It is contended that stress can originate in any of these
sectors or in combinations thereof.
ORGANIZATION-INDIVIDUAL NORMAL
INTERACTION PATTERN
S.T.L – STRESS TOLERANCE LEVEL
In the figure we find that job and organization loads have increased
and have made a dent in the personality. In this stage, we find minor surface
changes taking place, which are quite manageable.
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c) Worries
d) Anxiety
In the stage three and the figure below, we find that job and
organizational loads have become unmanageable and interact with
intrapsychic loads. This is the stage at which he negative
consequences of the stress become apparent. Most of the stress related
diseases emerge at this point. When the situation persists we move
into the next stage in which we start operating beyond the “stress
tolerance limit”.
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BREAKDOWNS AND CRACKS: FAILURE IN COPING
B. Physiological symptoms
Headache / Migraine
Insomnia
Lack of appetite
Digestive disorders
Sexual disorders
Temperamental changes.
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BORNOUT STRESS SYNDROME (BOSS):-
Boss can lead to at least four types of stress related consequences such
as, depletion of energy reverses, lowered resistance to illness, increased
dissatisfaction and pessimism and increased absenteeism and inefficiency at
work.
Veningle and spradley have identified five distinct stages of BOSS.
HONEYMOON STAGE:-
This stage can be describe as accounting for the euphoric feeling of
encounter with the new job such as excitement, enthusiasm, challenge and
pride. Dysfunctional features emerge in two ways first; the energy reverses
are gradually depleted in coping with the demands of a challenging
environment. Second, habits and strategies for coping with stress are formed
in this stage which is often not useful in coping with later challenges.
CRISIS STAGE:-
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When these feelings and physiological symptoms persist over period
of time, the individual enters the stage of crisis. At this stage he develops
“escape mentality” and feels oppressed. Heightened pessimism, self-
doubling tendencies, peptic ulcers, tension headaches, chronic backaches,
blood pressure.
TYPES OF STRESS:-
• It the stress for the day to day adaptability of man to his
environment and results in the maintenance of internal steady
state (homeostasis) it is know as neustress. For example, one
produces neustress in order to breath, work.
• Stress is through of in negative terms. It is thought to be caused
by something bad (for example the boss gives a formal
reprimand for poor performance). It the stress response is
unfavorable and potentially disease producing, this is known as
distress. Constant worry in a susceptible individual can lead to
ulcers.
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DEFINING STRESS AT WORK
ORGANIZATIONAL STRESS:-
Stress affects as well as the individual within them. An organization
with a high level of absenteeism, rapid staff turnover, deteriorating industrial
and customer relations, a worsening safety record, or poor quality control is
suffering from organizational stress.
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Causes that are affecting individuals. Stress is contagious; anyone who is not
performing well due to increases the amount of pressure on their colleagues,
superiors, and subordinates.
Environmental factors:
Just as environmental uncertainty influences the design of an
organization. Changes in business cycle create economic uncertainties.
Political uncertainties:
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If the political system in a country is implemented in an orderly
manner, there would not be any type of stress.
Technological uncertainties:
New innovations can make an employee’s skills and experiences
obsolete in a very short period of time. Technological uncertainty therefore
is a third type of environmental factor that can cause stress. Computers,
robotics, automation and other forms of technological innovations are threat
to many people and cause them stress.
Organization factors:
There are no storages of factors within the organization that can cause
stress; pressures to avoid error or complete tasks in a limited time period,
work overload are few examples.
Task demands are factors related to a person’s job. They include the
design of the individual’s job working conditions, and the physical work
layout.
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Organizational leadership represents the managerial style of the
organizations senior executive. Some executive officers create a culture
characterized by tension, fear, and anxiety. They establish unrealistic
pressures to perform in the short-run impose excessively tight controls and
routinely fire employees who don’t measure up. This creates a fear in their
hearts, which lead to stress.
Individual factors:
The typical individual only works about 40 hrs a week. The
experience and problems that people encounter in those other 128 non-work
hrs each week can spell over to the job.
Family problems:
National surveys consistently show that people hold family and
discipline, troubles with children are examples of relationship problems that
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create stress for employee and that aren’t at the front door when they arrive
at work.
Economic problems:
Economic problems created by individuals overextending their
financial resources are another set of personal troubles that can create stress
for employees and distract their attention from their work.
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CAUSES OF STRESS
Society the working world and daily life have changed almost beyond
recognition in the past 50 years. These changes have contributed to a major
increase in stress.
Stress is caused from both outside & inside the organization & from
groups that employees are influenced by & from employees themselves.
Stressors:
The agents or demands that evoke the potential response are referred
to as stressors. According to Syele a stressors is “Whatever produces stress
with or without functioning hormonal or nervous systems”.
Organizational stressors:
Besides the potential stressors that occur outside the organization,
there are also those associated with the organization itself. Although the
organization is made up of groups & individuals, there are also more macro-
level dimensions unique to the organization that contains potential stressors.
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MACRO-LEVEL ORGANIZATIONAL STRESSORS:
POLICIES
Unfair, arbitrary performance reviews.
Rotating works shifts.
Inflexible rules.
Unrealistic job descriptions.
STRUCTURES
Centralization; Lack of participation in decision making.
Little opportunity for advancement.
A great amount of formalization. JOB
Interdependence of departments. STRESS
Line-Staff conflicts.
PHYSICAL CONDITIONS
Crowding & lack of privacy.
Air pollution.
Safety hazards.
Inadequate lighting.
Excessive, heat or cold.
PROCESS
Poor communication.
Poor / inadequate feedback about performance.
Inaccurate / ambiguous measurement of performance.
Unfair control systems.
Inadequate information.
GROUP STRESSORS:
The group can also be a potential source of stress. Group stressors can
be categorized into three areas.
1. Lack of groups cohesiveness:-
“Cohesiveness” or “togetherness” is a very important to employees,
especially at the lower levels of the organizations. If the employee is
denied the opportunity for this cohesiveness because of the task
design, because the supervisor does things to prohibit or limit it, or
because the other members of the group shut the person out, this can
be very stress producing.
2. Lack of social support:-
Employees are greatly affected by the support of one or more member
of a cohesive group. By sharing their problems & joys with others,
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they are much better off. It this type of social support is lacking for an
individual, it can be very stressful.
3. Intra-Individual, interpersonal & inter-group
conflict:-
Conflict is very closely conceptually or hostile acts between
associated with in compatible or hostile acts between intra-individual
dimensions, such as personal goals or motivational needs / values,
between individuals within a group, & between groups.
INDIVIDUAL STRESSORS:
In a sense, the other stressors (Extra organizational, organizational, &
Group stressors) all eventually get down to the individual level. For
example, role conflict, ambiguity, self-efficacy & psychological hardiness
may all affect the level of stress someone experiences.
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CONSEQUENCES OF STRESS
The effect of stress is closely linked to individual personality. The
same level of stress affects different people in different ways & each person
has different ways of coping. Recognizing these personality types means
that more focused help can be given.
Stress shows itself number of ways. For instance, individual who is
experiencing high level of stress may develop high blood pressure, ulcers,
irritability, difficulty in making routine decisions, loss of appetite, accident
proneness, and the like. These can be subsumed under three categories:
Individual consequences
Organizational consequence
Burnout
Individual consequences:
Individual consequences of stress are those, which affect the
individual directly. Due to this the organization may suffer directly or
indirectly, but it is the individual who has to pays for it. Individual
consequences of stress are broadly divided into behavioral, psychological
and medical.
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Organizational consequences:
Organizational consequences of stress have direct affect on the
organizations. These include decline in performance, withdrawal and
negative changes in attitude.
Burnout:-
A final consequence of stress has implementation for both people and
organizations. Burnout is a general feeling of exhaustion that develops when
an individual simultaneously experiences too much pressure and few sources
of satisfaction.
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Managing stress in the work place
Every responds to stress in a different way, it is only by understanding
the nature of individual responses that you can start fighting stress yourself
and others.
Reduction or elimination of stress is necessary for psychological and
physical well being of an individual. Efficiency in stress management
enables the individual to deal or cope with the stressful situations instead of
avoidance. Strategies like tie management, body-mind and mind-body
relaxation exercise, seeking social support help individual improve their
physical and mental resources to deal with stress successfully.
Apart from helping employees adopt certain coping strategies to deal
with stress providing them with the service of counselor is also useful.
Many strategies have been developed to help manage stress in the
work place. Some are strategies for individuals, and other is geared toward
organizations.
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relationship with co-workers, absenteeism alcoholism and the like.
Employees under stress require help in overcoming its negative effects. The
strategies used are:
Exercise:-
One method by which individual can manage their stress is through
exercise. People who exercise regularly are known to less likely to have
heart attacks than inactive people are. Research also has suggested that
people who exercise regularly feel less tension and stress are more conflict
and slow greater optimism.
Relaxation:-
A related method individual can manage stress is relaxation. Copying
with stress require adaptation. Proper relaxation is an effective way to adopt.
Relaxation can take many forms. One way to relax is to take regular
vacations; people can also relax while on the job (i.e. take regular breaks
during their normal workday). A popular way of resting is to sit quietly with
closed eyes for ten minutes every afternoon.
Time management:-
Time management is an often recommended method for managing
stress, the idea is that many daily pressures can be eased or eliminated if a
person does a better job of managing time. One popular approach to time
management is to make a list, every morning or the thins to be done that
day. Then you group the items on the list into three categories: critical
activities that must be performed, important activities that should be
performed, and optimal or trivial things that can be delegated or postponed,
then of more of the important things done every day.
ROLE MANAGEMENT:-
Some what related to time management in which the individual
actively works to avoid overload, ambiguity and conflict.
SUPPORT GROUPS:-
This method of managing stress is to develop and maintain support
group. A support group is simply a group of family member or friends with
whom a person can spend time. Supportive family and friends can help
people deal with normal stress on an ongoing basis. Support groups can be
particularly useful during times of crisis.
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BEHAVIORAL SELF-CONTROL:-
In ultimate analysis, effective management if stress presupposes
exercise of self-control on the part of an employee. By consciously
analyzing the cause and consequences of their own behavior, the employees
can achieve self-control. They can further develop awareness of their own
limits of tolerance and learn to anticipate their own responses to various
stressful situations. The strategy involves increasing an individuals control
over the situations rather than being solely controlled by them.
COGNITIVE THERAPY:-
The cognitive therapy techniques such as Elli’s rational emotive
model and Meichenbaum’s cognitive strategy fir modification have been
used as an individual strategy for reducing job stress.
COUNSELING:
Personal counseling help employees understand and appreciate a
diverse workforce, the holistic approach adopted by the counselor gives him
a comprehensive view of the employee as client and enable him to deal the
issues of work related problems in a larger context with his awareness of the
inter-relationship among problems in adjustment with self, other and
environment and that a work concern will effect personal life and vice-versa,
the employee would receive help regarding the problem in all life.
ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGIES:-
The most effective way of managing stress calls for adopting stressors
and prevent occurrence of potential stressors.’
Two basic organizational strategies for helping employees manage
stress are institutional programs and collateral programs.
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Work Design Stress Management programs
Work schedules Health promotions programs
Culture Other programs
Supervision
Institutional programs:-
Institutional programs for managing stress are undertaken to
established organizational mechanism for example, a properly designed job
and word schedules can help ease stress. Shift work in particular can
constantly have to adjust their sleep and relaxation patterns. Thus, the design
of work schedules should be a focused of organizational efforts to reduce
stress.
The organization’s culture can also used to help to manage stress. The
organization should strive to foster a culture that reinforces a healthy mix of
work and nonworking activities.
COLLATERAL PROGRAMS:
In addition to their institutional efforts aimed at reducing stress, many
organizations are turning to collateral programs. A collateral stress program
in an organizational program specifically created to help employees deal
with stress. The organizations have adopted stress management programs,
health promotion programs and other kinds of programs for this purpose.
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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
RESEARCH DESIGN:
A research design is an arrangement of conditions for collection and
analysis of data in a manner that aims to combine relevance to the research.
SOURCE OF DATA:
The relevant data has been collected from the primary sources and
secondary sources. The primary data is collected by a questionnaire from the
employees. For this purpose of data collection, the questionnaire was
circulated among the employees to collect information. The secondary data
is collected by news paper company journals, magazines websites etc.
QUESTIONNAIRE ADMINISTRATION:
The questionnaire was prepared after counseling with the officer.
Employee relations of the HR department of NTPC. The researcher prepared
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a set of questionnaire. A four point scale “strongly agree to strongly
disagree” was used for this purpose.
SAMPLE DESIGN:
A sample of 50 respondents was taken using random sampling. The
researcher contacted the executive personally and brief summary of the
nature of the study and details in the questionnaire were narrated to them.
PERIOD OF STUDY:
The present study had been undertaken for period of 6 weeks, in
which it had divided into three stages as such. Stage I is of research problem
and collection the literature of the topic chosen. Stage II is of analysis and
interpretations by using different statistical tools, findings and
recommendations.
LIMITATIONS OF STUDY:
1. The sample size chosen is covered only a small portion of the whole
population of PSUs.
2. The study is confined to limited period i.e. Four weeks.
3. Accuracy of the study is purely based on the information as given by
the respondents.
4. Data collected cannot be asserted to the free from crores, as the
sample size restricted to the employees.
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