EFFECTS OF STRESS:Physical Effects, Behavioural Effects, Individual Strategies

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Organizational Psychology (PSY510)

Lesson 33

EFFECTS OF STRESS

Stress shows itself in a number of ways. For instance, an individual who is experiencing a high level of stress

may develop high blood pressure, ulcers, irritability, difficulty in making routine decisions, loss of appetite,

accident proneness, and the like. Some of these effects can be summed as follows:

Physical Effects

Most of the early concern with stress was directed at physiological symptoms. This was primarily because

the topic was researched by specialists in the health and medical sciences. This research lead to the

conclusion that stress could create changes in metabolism, increase heart and breathing rates, increase blood

pressure, bring on headaches, and induce heart attacks.

The link between stress and particular physiological symptoms is not clear. There are few, if any, consistent

relationships. This is attributed to the complexity of the symptoms and the difficulty of objectively

measuring them.

Psychological Effects

Stress can cause dissatisfaction. Job-related stress can job-related dissatisfaction. Job dissatisfaction, in fact,

is "the simplest and most obvious psychological effect" of stress. But stress shows itself in other

psychological states---for instance, tension, anxiety, irritability, boredom, and procrastination.

The evidence indicated that when people are placed in jobs that make multiple and conflicting demands or

in which there is lack of clarity as to the incumbent's duties, authority, and responsibilities, both stress and

dissatisfaction are increased. Similarly, the less control people have over the pace of their work, the greater

the stress and dissatisfaction. While more research is need to clarify the relationship, the evidence suggests

that jobs providing a low level of variety, significance, autonomy, feedback, and identity to incumbents

create stress and reduce satisfaction and involvement in job. Some of the psychological effects of stress

include, anger, anxiety, depression, irritability, lower self esteem, resentment to supervision, lack of

concentration, etc.

Behavioural Effects

Behaviourally related stress symptoms include changes in productivity, absence, and turnover, as well as

changes in eating habits, increased smoking or consumption of alcohol, rapid speech, fidgeting, sleep

disorders, drug abuse, absenteeism, tardiness, etc.

Coping With Stress

From the organization's point of view, management may not be concerned when employees experience low

to moderate levels of stress. The reason is that such levels of stress may be functional and lead to higher

employee performance. But high levels of stress, or even low levels sustained over long periods of time, can

lead to reduced employee performance and, thus require action by management.

While a limited amount of stress may benefit an employee's performance, don't expect employees to see it

that way. From the individual's standpoint, even low levels of stress are likely to be perceived as undesirable.

It's not unlikely, therefore, for employees and management to have different notions of what constitutes an

acceptable level of stress on the job. What management may consider as "a positive stimulus that keeps the

adrenaline running" is very likely to be seen as "excessive pressure" by the employee. Keep this in mind as

we discuss individual and organizational approaches toward managing stress.

Individual Strategies

An employee can take personal responsibility for reducing his or her stress level. Individual strategies that

have proven effective include implementing time-management techniques, increasing physical exercise,

relaxation training, and expanding the social support network.

Many people manage their time poorly. The things they have to accomplish in any given day or week are

not necessarily beyond completion if they manage their time properly. The well-organized employee, like

the well-organized student, can often accomplish twice as much as the person who is poorly organized. So

an understanding and utilization of time-management principles can help individuals better cope with

tension created by job demands.

Non-competitive physical exercise such as aerobics, walking, jogging, swimming, and riding a bicycle have

long been recommended by physicians as a way to deal with excessive stress levels. These forms of physical

exercise increase heart capacity, lower at-rest heart rate, provide a mental diversion from work pressures,

and offer a means to let off steam.

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Organizational Psychology (PSY510)

Individuals can teach themselves to reduce tension through relaxation techniques such as meditation,

hypnosis, and biofeedback. The objective is to reach a state of deep relaxation, where one feels physically

relaxed, somewhat detached form the immediate environment, and detached from body sensations.

Networking-social support friends, relatives, also help in reducing stress. Having friends, family, or work

colleagues to talk to provides an outlet when stress levels become excessive. Expanding our social network,

therefore, can be a means for tension reduction. It provides you with someone to hear your problems and a

more objective perspective on the situation. Research also demonstrates that social support moderates the

stress-burnout relationships. That is, high support reduces the likelihood that heavy work stress will result in

job burnout.

Organizational Strategies

Several of the factors that cause stress, particularly task and role demands, and organization structure, are

controlled by management. As such, the can be modified or changed. Strategies that management might

want to consider include improved personnel selection and job placement, use of realistic goal setting,

redesigning jobs, increased employee involvement, improved organizational communication, etc.

While certain jobs are more stressful than others, individuals differ in their response to stress situations. We

know, for example, that individual with little experience or an external locus of control tend to be more

stress prone. Selection and placement decisions should take these facts into consideration. Obviously,

although management shouldn't restrict hiring to only experienced individual with an internal locus, such

individuals may adapt better to high-stress jobs and perform those jobs more effectively.

Based on an extensive amount of research it can be concluded that individuals perform better when they

have specific and challenging goals and receive feedback on how well they are progressing toward these

goals. The use of goals can reduce stress as well as provide motivation. Specific goals that are perceived as

attainable clarify performance expectations. Additionally, goal feedback reduces uncertainties as to actual

job performance. The result is less employee frustration, role ambiguity, and stress.

Redesigning jobs to give employees more responsibility, more meaningful work, more autonomy, and

increased feedback can reduce stress because these factors give the employee greater control over work

activities and lessen dependence on others.

Some other measures which could be adopted by organizations to reduce stress levels in employees are

creating supportive organizational climate, i.e. decentralized, participative environment; reducing conflict

and clarifying organizational roles; planning and developing career paths and providing counselling.

Negotiation

Negotiation is something that we do all the time and is not only used for business purposes but for

everyday life as well. For example, we use it in our social lives perhaps for deciding a time to meet, or where

to go on a rainy day. Therefore, negotiation is much more closely related to us than we normally consider it

to be.

Negotiation requires an open mind, good preparation, and a tremendous amount of creativity. If you always

give the same kind of responses, that's not creative and it is not likely to contribute to a solution. If your

response is unexpected, shows imagination, it is likely to bring others up short and make them think more

creatively themselves.

Don't expect that all males/females fall into a single category. Don't assume that a person's ethnicity

determines their behavior. The same person may respond differently on different days: health problems,

issues at home or work, and other factors can make a difference.

Since negotiation is the process we use from infancy until just before we die, the issue is not a matter of

recognizing that negotiation is a fundamental life skill. The real goal should be to understand how to

negotiate effectively to reach wise solutions to all kinds of issues. In ancient times, when two landowners

had a disagreement they would hire knights mercenaries to `wage war' to determine who was right. Then

someone invented lawyers, and for the past thousand years or so, we have been `waging law' to determine

who's right. Negotiation is a means we can use to `wage peace'. It can make all of life more pleasant.

Negotiation is usually considered as a compromise to settle an argument or issue to benefit ourselves as

much as possible. In reality, negotiation is the process where interested parties resolve disputes, agree upon

courses of action, bargain for individual or collective advantage, and/or attempt to craft outcomes which

serve their mutual interests. Negotiation is usually regarded as a form of alternative dispute resolution.

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Organizational Psychology (PSY510)

Communication is always the link that will be used to negotiate the issue/argument whether it is face-to-

face, on the telephone or in writing. Negotiation is not always between two people: it can involve several

members from two parties. Successful negotiation generally results in a Contract between the parties.

In other words, negotiation is the process of two individuals or groups reaching joint agreement about

differing needs or ideas. Oliver (1996) described negotiation as "negotiators jointly searching a

multidimensional space and then agreeing to a single point in the space."

Negotiation applies knowledge from the fields of communications, sales, marketing, psychology, sociology,

politics, and conflict resolution. Whenever an economic transaction takes place or a dispute is settled,

negotiation occurs; for example, when consumers purchase automobiles or businesses negotiate salaries

with employees

Negotiation is a common way to resolve differences and conflicts

Harvard Negotiating Project identified (4) elements of good negotiations

1. Separate people from problem

2. Focus on interest not positions

3. Generate variety of options

4. Insist on objective standards for results

REFERENCES

· Luthans, Fred. (2005). Organizational Behaviour (Tenth Edition). United States: McGraw Hill Irwin.

· Mejia, Gomez. Balkin, David & Cardy, Robert. (2006). Managing Human Resources (Fourth Edition).

India: Dorling Kidersley Pvt. Ltd., licensee of Pearson Education in South Asia.

· Robbins, P., Stephen. (1996). Organizational Behaviour (Seventh Edition). India: Prentice Hall, Delhi.

· Huczynski, Andrzej & Buchanan, David. (1991). Organizational Behaviour: An Introductory Text

(Second Edition). Prentice Hall. New York.

· Vanderbos, G..Knapp, S., & Doe, j. (2001 March 7). U.S. Negotiating Victory: Yahoo News. Retrieved

from http://courses.cs.vt.edu/~cs3604/lib/Copyrights.Patents/Piracy.Ring.html

· Miller, Kevin. (2005 January 28). Professors negotiate with students. Retrieved from:

http://courses.cs.vt.edu/~cs3604/lib/Roanoke.Times/Alarm.html

FURTHER READING

· Spring, Tom. (2000 December 26). Negotiation tactics: Fair Use or Foul Play?:

http://courses.cs.vt.edu/~cs3604/lib/Roanoke.Times/Alarm.html

· Bergman, P.G., (1999 December 10). Negotiating Brings Profits, The National Journal.:

http://www.lawnewsnetwork.com/stories/A11108-1999Dec8.html

· Rohde, Laura, (2000 December 15). "BT [British Telecom] Negotiates new deal with Vodacom":

http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/00/12/15/001215hnbtprodigy.xml?

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