Human Resource Management
UniSA – MBA
Hong Kong Intake 23
Assignment 2
Do you agree that a certain degree of stress is necessary to induce high energy and motivation?
Martin Glaser
20. Dec.1999
Table of Content
Human Resource Management 1
Table of Content 2
1. Introduction 3
2. What is stress? 3
2.1 Stressors at work 3
2.2 Individual and Life stressors 4
3. Stress, effects and consequences 4
3.1 Type A and B personality Profiles 4
3.1 Individual effects and consequences of stress 4
3.2 Organisational effects and consequences of stress 5
4. Coping with stress in the workplace 5
6. Conclusion 7
7. References 8
1. Introduction
Stress at work is a major factor contributing to ill-health, to human suffering, and to productivity loss (Rosch and Pelletier, 1989).
Theorists have proposed that coping with stress can lead to the production of more psychological resources in the future (Schonplug and Battmann, 1988)
These two theories are showing how contrary experts argue about the complex and spacious topic stress.
Stress is a universal human experience. Unpleasant as well as pleasant experiences can bring along stress. The common element among these experiences, pleasant and unpleasant alike, is that they require some kind of adjustment or adaptation.
2. What is stress?
As mentioned under point 1 (Introduction) stress is caused by a stimulus, this stimulus can be either physical or psychological, and the individual responses in some way. Stress is both, environmental demands and the persons reactions to them.
Let’s take a look at the causes of stress.
2.1 Stressors at work
In organisations we expected to
perform well but this may lead to
stress.
Work is interesting because it can
contribute not only to well-being
but also to ill-health.
As evident in Table 1.1 there are
various stress factors at work.
In order to handle stress at work
special attention and observation has
to be paid to all these different
stressors.
2.2 Individual and Life stressors
At the work place as well as in
private life we need to cope with certain
stress causing challenges.
Life events, both positive and negative,
require substantial readjustments in
behaviour, and these readjustments can
be quite stressful (Holmes & Rahe, 1967).
3. Stress, effects and consequences
Certain people react badly to certain kinds of stresses but cope well with other kinds; other people have different coping patterns.
Psychosomatic or stress diseases are sometimes referred to as diseases of adaptation (Zimbardo, 1988).
3.1 Type A and B personality Profiles
These two personality profiles were first observed and documented by Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman (Type A behaviour and your heart, 1974).
· Type A or coronary-prone behaviour pattern (Friedman, 1969)
Type A personalities tend to be impatient, aggressive competitive persons who are always in a hurry or filled with a sense of urgency.
· Type B behaviour pattern
In contrast to the type A personalities, type B personalities are more relaxed, less competitive and show more acceptance for annoying events.
3.1 Individual effects and consequences of stress
The individual consequences of stress affects mainly the individual which is effected by stress.
The GAS (General adaptation syndrome by Selye, 1956) describes the personal response to stress in three stages.
· Alarm reaction (increased heard rate, respiratory activity ....)
· Resistance stage (try to cope with stressful situation, blood pressure returns to normal, ....)
· Exhaustion (maintain no longer resistance, ....)
· Behavioural effects and consequences of stress
Behavioural effects may harm the person under stress or others. Like smoking, alcohol and drug abuse, violence and appetite disorders.
· Psychological effects and consequences of stress
Depression and insomnia are the most common psychological effects. But there are other psychosomatic illnesses like high blood pressure and ulcers which have been linked to stress.
Type A individuals over respond to stress, and in particular, to loss of control (Glass, 1977)
· Health effects and consequences of stress
These consequences effect the physical well-being. Like different illnesses and other medical problems.
Investigations have shown that the type A characteristics are most potentially damaging to health (Taylor, 1990)
3.2 Organisational effects and consequences of stress
It is obvious that any of the individual consequences can also affect the organisation or workplace.
· Performance
About 35% of the European employees said that they were working at high speed, 40 % that they were carrying out repetitive tasks, and 27 % said that they are working in painful positions; 39 % said that they could not change the work speed by themselves (Paoli, 1992).
· Withdrawal
Withdrawal means that an individual which has not much “hardiness” to sustain stress, will most likely withdraw himself from the work. That can be done by calling in sick or by leaving the organisation for good.
· Attitudes
Attitudes of the individual in terms of job satisfaction, moral and organisational commitment may change because of overdose of stress. This is directly resulting into an organisational consequence.
4. Coping with stress in the workplace
Stress is caused by a stimulus, this stimulus can be either physical or psychological, and the individual responses in some way (C. Quick and Jonathan D, Quick, 1984).
The way the individual copes with stress varies generally, but a study showed also that people typically use several coping responses to handle each stressor (Folkman & Lazarus, 1980)
Response highly depends on the individuals personality. The following seems to be important:
· Is the individual a type A or type B person
· Is the person’s ability to cope with stress high or low (hardiness)
· How is the individual response to stress generally, emotion-focused or problem focused (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984).
· What causes the stress
Several studies have demonstrated that perception of control over avoidance responses can reduce stress responses (Glass & Singer, 1972).
The “weapons” companies used against stress are constantly under observation. In industrial high developed countries there is constantly a demand to find new and efficient ways to cope with stress.
Several ways are used by organisations to fight the stress cloud on individuals:
Figure 1.1
6. Conclusion
The phenomenon of stress does have a positive and a negative side. Everything highly depends on the individual, his personality and the source of stress.
When stress occurs the individual prepares himself to react with either “flight“ or “fight“ (Selye, 1976). Therefore stress at the workplace is for the worker most complicated to handle. The employee cannot attack their boss (fight) or get away (flight). If an person is “trapped” in a stressful situation it seems the psychological system to handle stress becomes useless (exhausted) in the work environment.
Generally we assume that high stress means high health risk. And in the most cases it is like this.
But there is also a paradox.
Managers have stressful jobs. They work long hours and they have to make complex decisions at high speed. Nevertheless, their psychological illness rate or the degree of stress-related diseases are much lower than those of blue-collar workers (Karasek and Theorell, 1991; Schaefer and Blohmke, 1977).
It seems that the key to handle stress is control. If the individual has control over the source of stress it can handle it more efficiently.
Resources are conditions and personal characteristics that can be used to attain goals (Hobfoll, 1989; Schönpflug, 1985).
Both internal- ( qualification and knowledge ) and external qualification (control and social support) are much higher on a manager. That would explain why there is less ill-health in managers than in blue collar workers.
Figure 1.2
7. References
Karasek, R. A. and Theorell, T. (1990) Health work: Stress, productivity, and the reconstruction of working life. New York: Basic Books.
Rosch, P.J. and Pelletier, K.R. (1998) Designing worksite stress – management programs, in L.R. Murphy and T.F. Schoenborn (eds) Stress Management in Work Settings. New York: Praeger.
Schaefer, H. and Blohmke, M. (1977) Herzkrank durch psychosozialem Stress, Heidelberg: Huethig.
Selye, H. (1976) Stress in Health and Disease. Boston, MA: Butterworths.
Lazarus, R. S., and Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping. New York: Springer.
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