Stress Management in the Workplace

Identification and Coping Mechanisms

Eric Jodoin

Abstract
Workplace stress is to be expected. Stress is a natural human response to its environment. In fact,
moderate levels of stress are considered essential motivators. However, high levels of stress have
the capacity to greatly impact physical and emotional health. As leaders, it is our responsibility to
assess and manage levels of stress in the workplace to ensure a safe and productive work
environment. While the MGT 421 coursework identifies stress as a major hygiene factor that must be
managed, it stopped short of providing practical advices to help identify and cope with stress. The
aim of this paper is to provide insight that will help the reader further improve his/her management
competencies in managing stress in the workplace.
1. Introduction
Workplace stress is to be expected. Stress itself is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, Hicks &
Caroline (2007) point out that stress is a human response to various aspects in his/her environment
that comes naturally. They further imply that stress can sometimes act as a motivator. However, high
stress levels have the capacity to interfere with an individual's productivity. Besides, it can have a
great impact on their physical and emotional health (Hicks & Caroline, 2007). Excessive stress is
also costly. This is owing to the fact that stress leads to low productivity, encourages absenteeism,
and leads to high turnover, disability pay-outs and an increased worker compensation scheme.
Moreover, stress can make a worker become resentful toward his/her employer apart from
distracting employee engagement (Cooper & Payne, 2008).
Therefore, it is important for employees to identify any signs of stress among their colleagues and
themselves early enough to prevent impacts on the organization's performance levels (Hicks &
Caroline, 2007). This will help individuals recognize the underlying problem and seek measures to
cope with it. Ultimately, it will reduce the impact of stress on organizational performance and
productivity. This paper seeks to identify the sources and types of stress in the workplace and how
the signs and symptoms of stress can be recognized by individuals both in themselves and others.
Furthermore, the paper will discuss ways through which a stressed team member can be
approached to help them realize that their stress is negatively impacting their work and the work
environment. Finally, the paper will broadly discuss coping mechanisms that can assist individuals
deal with stress.
2. Stress Management
2.1. Source and Types of Stress
As noted earlier, stress is a naturally occurring phenomenon. However, there are various factors
both within and outside the workplace setting that lead to excessive stress among employees in an
organization. First and foremost, there is the treadmill syndrome that Nolan (2009) defines as
workers having more work assigned than it is possible to complete in a normal work day. This
usually results in employees working their entire work shift without taking any breaks. According to
Cooper & Payne (2008), overworking is one of the major sources of stress. The second source of
stress among employees is career and job ambiguity. This occurs when there are so many activities
going on in the company with so little communication that it makes them uncertain about company
objectives and their particular role in achieving them.
Nolan, (2009) believes that another source of stress among employees is lack of appreciation. When
employees feel like they have dedicated so much effort to the organization, it is common that they
expect some recognition either in the form of benefit packages or at the very least, some form of
acknowledgment (e.g. Employee of the quarter award). If they feel that their efforts are
underappreciated, their level of dissatisfaction and stress raises. Another factor that contributes to
stress is when individuals feel like they lack control over their role within the organization or the
result of their efforts in the workplace. Mistrust among individuals in the work environment is another
major source of stress. In addition, vicious workplace politics disrupt and negatively affect positive
behavior among workers. This leads to situations where individuals constantly doubt themselves and
are overly concerned about what their colleagues are thinking or saying about them (Nolan, 2009).
An additional source of stress is a situation where there is inconsistency in the performance
management processes. Consider the following two workplace examples. First; an employee
receives a raise but no corresponding performance reviews. Second; an employee receives a
positive assessment from management and shortly after he gets laid-off. This makes individuals
within such an organization stressed because they cannot perceive their fate (Crandall & Perrewe,
2005). In other words, inconsistency in management leads to situations where individuals feel
insecure about their job performance and security.
These sources of stress come in different degrees and can be broadly categorized into four distinct
types. Understanding the different types of stress is the first step to identifying the signs and
symptoms both in oneself and in others. Dr. Albrecht, in his book titled ''u0098Stress and the
Manager', identifies the four types of stress that occur at the work place. These include:
a. Time Stress: This is where individuals lack enough time to complete all of their assigned duties.
Such individuals agonize and are bothered by the number of things they are supposed to do
(Albrecht, 2010). Hence, they worry and fear that they will, at some point, fail to do something
important. In essence, such workers feel trapped, hopeless and unhappy about their status. Workers
under this type of stress worry about deadlines and most of the time rush to avoid being late (Fried,
2008).
b. Anticipatory Stress: This describes the stress that workers experience regarding the future. The
basic premise is that workers naturally worry about the fact that something might go wrong in the
near future. Albrecht, (2010) asserts that such stress is usually focused on a particular event or
occurrence within the organization which directly impact him/her but for which he/she has no control
or influence over. This type of stress can sometimes be undefined and vague owing to how
individuals foresee their own future. For example, being concerned about a service an individual is
responsible for getting hacked. Or, it can be more specific and based on associations an individual
makes regarding his particular status and one or more historical precedents within the organization.
c. Situational Stress: Situational stress occurs when individuals are in an intimidating situation over
which they have no control. Most of the time, this occurs due to a crisis that happens in the
organization. Such situations may involve a conflict of interest, loss of acceptance or change is
status in an individual's group. For instance, consider a situation where admin staffs are asked by
management to make changes to a system at the expense of security safeguards to enable some
functionality. The staff whose recommendations have been disregarded will experience situational
stress as they execute a task they know is detrimental to the welfare of the organization. Moreover,
when individuals make major mistakes in front of the management and/or their colleagues, it makes
them stressed (Albrecht, 2010).
d. Encounter Stress: This type of stress revolves around individual contacts. People get stressed
when they are anxious about interacting with a particular group of individuals or a particular person
(Albrecht, 2010). It often occurs in a situation where workers interact with clients or customers who
may be in some form of distress. Physicians and social workers are very familiar with this kind of
stress because of the kinds of people they deal with. Equally stressful is an interaction by an
employee with the incident handling team following a compromise or security incident. Especially if
the employee is worried s/he will be held, even if partly, responsible for the incident. On the flip side,
contact overload can also lead to this form of stress. Consider your incident handler having to
continually meet with employees on the defensive, distrusting the incident handling team's intent.
2.2. Recognizing Signs and Symptoms
It is imperative that stress in individuals be identified as early as possible in order to devise the best
possible remedy to the situation (Weiss, 2012). There are various signs and symptoms that can
indicate if an individual is stressed. But, to raise the likelihood of making an accurate assessment, it
is preferable to establish a candid baseline under "normal" conditions to account for the character
traits of each individual. Once you have established a baseline, you can use the indicators provided
below to recognize stressed individuals and devise the most appropriate means of intervention:
a. External Signs & Symptoms: Loss of interest in work is the first sign that can be used to tell that
an employee is too stressed (Weiss, 2012). Such workers feel indifferent and bored at the
workplace. Another symptom is when workers become too anxious, depressed and irritable. This
leads to a situation where the workers become short-tempered and moody. They look worried,
unhappy, miserable and sad away from the normality. Another sign is social withdrawal and trouble
concentrating. Employees who at some point suddenly avoid the company of their colleagues are
usually experiencing too much stress. Finally, they will lose concentration and become inattentive.
b. Self-assessment: In order to determine if you are under excessive stress, you must be able to
conduct a frank introspection. First and foremost, you may feel increased or unusual fatigue (Weiss,
2012). You may feel weary, exhausted, drained and tired. You may have trouble sleeping and exhibit
other physical symptoms such as stomach upsets or even panic attacks. Unexplained muscle
tensions and headache are also signs of too much stress in oneself (Long, 2006). Impatience,
irritability, and nervousness are all common symptoms. Finally, intense desires to withdraw from
friends and co-workers as well as feeling depressed and anxious about nothing are serious
indicators of stress requiring immediate attention.
c. Intervention. There are various ways through which an individual can be approached and informed
on how their stress is impacting their work and their working environment. Predominantly, you
should select the right time depending on the workers state of well-being. This will help ensure it
does not make them feel like they are being subjected to intimidation and humiliation, thus reduce
the risks of increased situational stress brought about by your intervention. Then, you should
arrange for a discreet meeting with the individual in a private setting. A discussion of the problems
could be initiated with the stressed individual by giving insight on how you have been personally
affected. You should then make the worker understand how being stressed is costing him/her. You
could discuss the psychological and physical health hazards that might impact them and eventually
compromise their ability and capacity to perform at the workplace. Then, help them identify the
sources and types of stress they are suffering from. You may be in a position to address sources of
stress. Alternatively, you can offer advice to reduce sources of stress outside of your sphere of
influence. Finally, equip the individual to cope with the residual stress. It is important to let them
understand that given their status (boss, subordinate or worker), their stress reactions negatively
affects the workplace. This is not the end. Follow-up is absolutely essential to ensure that the
individual is overcoming his/her stress. In the unfortunate cases where stress levels fail to recede,
you will need to consider referring the individual to health professionals.
2.3. Coping Mechanisms
Aldana (1996) establishes a direct relationship between personal habits and perceived stress. In
short, it states that healthy habits including regular exercise, healthy nutrition, and regular sleep
directly impact an individual's perception and resistance to stress. Moreover, avoiding unhealthy
lifestyle choices such as alcohol/drug abuse, gambling, and abusive relationships will further
strengthen one's ability to deal with stress. Therefore, the easiest way to deal with all types of stress
is to adopt healthy habits.
Once an individual is adequately equipped to deal with stress in general, it is easier to deal with
specific workplace stressors. Vieet, (2011) offers four different mechanisms through which
individuals can cope with workplace stress:
a. Behavioral coping: This refers to the physical activities that an individual involves in and helps
cope with stress. These actions are meant to address any demands that the individual is subjected
to. For instance, where one has a lot of work and the deadline is approaching, they may decide to
reprioritize their efforts and/or seek additional help (Vieet, 2011). This is especially effective against
time stress.
b. Cognitive coping: This is where the thoughts and perspective of individuals are used to cope with
stress. Here, individuals will apply a mental filter to focus on the positive side of something rather
than the negative side (Krohne, 1993). In essence, they do away with the negative thoughts. Positive
encouragement and self-talk are effective approaches to help individuals reduce their stress levels
(Monat & Lazarus, 2001). This is particularly suited to counter Situational stress.
c. Problem-focused coping: This mechanism is focused on the problem at hand and seeks the most
appropriate solution. Individuals try eliminating the source of stress by seeking the means to address
and correct the problem in the most effective way (Krohne, 2002). This method works well to help
individuals deal with anticipatory stress.
d. Emotion-focused coping: This refers to the various ways that individuals recognize and manage
their own emotional responses to situations they find stressful. It is based on how individuals
channel their feelings into positive results and is highly effective when dealing with encounter stress.
While the above coping mechanisms have been identified to help deal with each of the four types of
stress, the choice of which mechanism to use under a specific circumstance must rest on the
stressed individual. Furthermore, the individual does not need to commit to a single coping
mechanism. A hybrid solution may very well be the best approach under certain circumstances.
Most importantly, the individuals must select an approach that suits their situation and can effectively
reduce their stress levels and that of their colleagues.
3. Conclusion
Stress is a naturally occurring phenomenon which can act as a motivator under the right
circumstances. However, like so many other things in life, an excess of stress will have negative
consequences with repercussions that will transcend personal and professional confines. Left
untreated, excessive stress will ruin an individual's health and productivity.
As leaders and managers, we are uniquely positioned to identify the various sources and types of
stress. Furthermore, we may even have the capacity to take action aimed at stemming these
sources and types of stress. However, we must first be able to recognize the signs and symptoms of
stress in order to effect the appropriate organizational changes. And, in cases where either the
solution resides outside of our sphere of influence or, to help cope with residual stress, is it essential
that we understand the various coping mechanisms available and help individuals select the most
appropriate ones.
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