Hawassa University School of Management and Accounting Department of Management

CHAPTER SIX
WORK STRESS AND ITS MANAGEMENT
6.1 Introduction
Most of us are aware that employee stress is an increasing problem in organizations. We hear
about postal workers killing co-workers and supervisors and then we learn job-related tensions
were a major cause. Friends tells us they’re stressed out from greater workloads and having to
work longer hours because of downsizing at their company. We read surveys where employees
complain about the stress created in trying to balance work and family responsibilities. In this
chapter we’ll look at the causes and consequences of stress, and then consider what individuals
and organizations can do to reduce it.
6.2 What is Stress?
Stress is a dynamic condition in which an individual is confronted with an opportunity,
constraint, or demand related to what he or she desires and for which the outcome is perceived
to be both uncertain and important. This is a complicated definition. Let’s look at its
components more closely. Stress is not necessarily bad in and of itself. While stress is typically
discussed in a negative context, it also has a positive value. It is an opportunity when it offers
potential gain. Consider, for example, the superior performance that an athlete or stage performer
gives in “clutch” situations. Such individuals often use stress positively to rise to the occasion
and perform at or near their maximum.
6.3 Understanding Potential Sources of Stress
There are three categories of potential sources of stress: environmental, organizational, and
individual factors.
1. Environmental Factors
Just as environmental uncertainty influences the design of an organization’s structure, it also
influences stress levels among employees in that organization.
Economic Uncertainties: Changes in the business cycle create economic uncertainties. When
the economy is contracting, for example, people become increasingly anxious about their
security. Political Uncertainties: Political uncertainties don’t tend to create stress among North
Americans as they do for employees in countries like Haiti or Iraq. The obvious reason is that the
United States and Canada have stable political systems where change is typically implemented in

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an orderly manner. Yet political threats and changes, even in countries like the United States and
Canada, can be stress inducing. For instance, threats by Quebec to separate from Canada and
become a distinct, French-speaking country increase stress among many Canadians, especially
among Quebecers with little or no skills in the French language.
Technological Uncertainty: It is a third type of environmental factor that can cause stress.
Because new innovations can make an employee’s skills and experience obsolete in a very short
period of time, computers, robotics, automation, and similar forms of technological innovation
are a threat to many people and cause them stress.
2. Organizational Factors
There are no shortages of factors within the organization that can cause stress. Pressures to avoid
errors or complete tasks in a limited time period, work overload, a demanding and insensitive
boss, and unpleasant co-workers are a few examples. We’ve categorized these factors around
task, role, and interpersonal demands; organizational structure; organizational leadership; and the
organization’s life stage.
Task demands: are factors related to a person’s job. They include the design of the individual’s
job (autonomy, task variety, degree of automation), working conditions, and the physical work
layout. Assembly lines can put pressure on people when their speed is perceived as excessive.
The more interdependence between a person’s tasks and the tasks of others, the more potential
stress there is. Autonomy, on the other hand, tends to lessen stress. Jobs where temperatures,
noise, or other working conditions are dangerous or undesirable can increase anxiety. So, too,
can working in an overcrowded room or in a visible location where interruptions are constant.
Role demands: relate to pressures placed on a person as a function of the particular role he or she
plays in the organization.
 Role conflicts create expectations that may be hard to reconcile or satisfy.
 Role overload is experienced when the employee is expected to do more than time permits.
 Role ambiguity is created when role expectations are not clearly understood and the
employee is not sure what he or she is to do.
Interpersonal demands: These are pressures created by other employees. Lack of social support
from colleagues and poor interpersonal relationships can cause considerable stress, especially
among employees with a high social need.

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Organizational structure: It defines the level of differentiation in the organization, the degree of
rules and regulations, and where decisions are made. Excessive rules and lack of participation in
decisions that affect an employee are examples of structural variables that might be potential
sources of stress.
Organizational leadership: Represents the managerial style of the organization’s senior
executives. Some chief 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.” Organizations go through a
cycle. They’re established; they grow, become mature, and eventually decline.
An organization’s life stage: Where it is in this four-stage cycle creates different problems and
pressures for employees. The establishment and decline stages are particularly stressful. The
former is characterized by a great deal of excitement and uncertainty, while the latter typically
requires cutbacks, layoffs, and a different set of uncertainties. Stress tends to be least in maturity
where marketing uncertainties are at their lowest level.
3. Individual Factors
Our final category, then, encompasses factors in the employee’s personal life. Primarily, these
factors are family issues, personal economic problems, and inherent personality characteristics.
National surveys consistently show that people hold family and personal relationships dear.
Marital difficulties, the breaking off of a relationship, and discipline troubles with children are
examples of relationship problems that create stress for employees that aren’t left at the front
door when they arrive at work.
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. Regardless of income level people who make Br. 80,000 a year seem to have as much
trouble handling their finances as those who earn Br. 18,000 some people are poor money
managers or have wants that always seem to exceed their earning capacity.
Studies found that some people may have an inherent tendency to accentuate negative aspects of
the world in general. If true, then a significant individual factor influencing stress is a person’s
basic dispositional nature. That is, stress symptoms expressed on the job may actually originate
in the person’s personality.
6.4 Consequences of Stress

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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. These can be subsumed under three
general categories: physiological, psychological, and behavioral symptoms.

1. Physiological Symptoms
Most of the early concern with stress was directed at physiological symptoms. This was
predominately due to the fact that the topic was researched by specialists in the health and
medical sciences. This research led 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. But of greater relevance is the fact that physiological symptoms
have the least direct relevance to students of OB. Our concern is with behaviors and attitudes.
Therefore, the two other categories of symptoms are more important to us.
2. Psychological Symptoms
Stress can cause dissatisfaction. Job related stress can cause 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 indicates that when people are placed in jobs that make multiple and conflicting
demands or in which there is a 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 needed to clarify the relationship, the evidence suggests that jobs that
provide a low level of variety, significance, autonomy, feedback, and identity to incumbents
create stress and reduce satisfaction and involvement in the job.
3. Behavioral Symptoms

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Behaviorally 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, and sleep disorders.
There has been a significant amount of research investigating the stress – performance
relationship. The most widely studied pattern in the stress – performance literature is the
inverted-U relationship. The logic underlying the inverted U is that low to moderate levels of
stress stimulate the body and increase its ability to react.
Individuals then often perform their tasks better, more intensely, or more rapidly. But too much
stress places unattainable demands or constraints on a person, which result in lower performance.
This inverted-U pattern may also describe the reaction to stress over time, as well as to changes
in stress intensity. That is, even moderate levels of stress can have a negative influence on
performance.
6.5 Stress Management Strategies
From the organization’s standpoint, management may not be concerned when employees
experience low to moderate levels of stress.
The reason, as we showed earlier, 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 adrenalin 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.
1. Individual Approaches
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.

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Implementing time management techniques: 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 basic time management principles can help individuals better cope with tensions
created by job demands. A few of the more well-known time management principles are:
Making daily lists of activities to be accomplished
Prioritizing activities by importance and urgency
Scheduling activities according to the priorities set and
Knowing your daily cycle and handling the most demanding parts of your job during the
high part of your cycle when you are most alert and productive.
Increasing physical exercise: Noncompetitive 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.”
Relaxation training: 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 from the immediate
environment, and detached from body sensations. Fifteen or twenty minutes a day of deep
relaxation releases tension and provides a person with a pronounced sense of peacefulness.
Importantly, significant changes in heart rate, blood pressure, and other physiological factors
result from achieving the deep relaxation condition.
Social support network: As we noted earlier in this chapter, having friends, family, or work
colleagues to talk to provide an outlet when stress levels become excessive. Expanding your
social support network, therefore, can be a means for tension reduction. It provides you with
someone to hear your problems and to offer a more objective perspective on the situation.
Research also demonstrates that social support moderates the stress – burnout relationship. That
is, high support reduces the likelihood that heavy work stress will result in job burnout.
2. Organizational Approaches

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Several of the factors that cause stress particularly task and role demands and organizational
structure are controlled by management. As such, they 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 of jobs, increased employee involvement,
improved organizational communication, and establishment of corporate wellness programs.
Improve personnel selection and job placement: While certain jobs are more stressful than
others, we learned earlier in this chapter that individuals differ in their response to stress
situations. We know, for example, that individuals with little experience or an external locus of
control tend to be more prone to stress. Selection and placement decisions should take these facts
into consideration. Obviously, while management shouldn’t restrict hiring to only experienced
individuals with an internal locus, such individuals may adapt better to high-stress jobs and
perform those jobs more effectively.
Use of realistic goal setting: Based on an extensive amount of research, we 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: 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. But as we noted
in our discussion of work design, not all employees want enriched jobs. The right redesign, then,
for employees with a low need for growth might be less responsibility and increased
specialization. If individuals prefer structure and routine, reducing skill variety should also
reduce uncertainties and stress levels. Role stress is detrimental to a large extent because
employees feel uncertain about goals, expectations, how they’ll be evaluated, and the like. By
giving these employees a voice in those decisions that directly affect their job performances,
management can increase employee control and reduce this role stress. So managers should
consider increasing employee involvement in decision making.
Improved organizational communication: Increasing formal organizational communication
with employees reduces uncertainty by lessening role ambiguity and role conflict. Given the

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importance that perceptions play in moderating the stress– response relationship, management
can also use effective communications as a means to shape employee perceptions. Remember
that what employees categorize as demands, threats, or opportunities are merely an
interpretation, and that interpretation can be affected by the symbols and actions communicated
by management.
Establishment of corporate wellness programs: Our final suggestion is to offer organizationally
supported wellness programs. These programs focus on the employee’s total physical and mental
condition. For example, they typically provide workshops to help people quit smoking, control
alcohol use, lose weight, eat better, and develop a regular exercise program. The assumption
underlying most wellness programs is that employees need to take personal responsibility for
their physical and mental health. The organization is merely a vehicle to facilitate this end.
Organizations, of course, aren’t altruistic. They expect a payoff from their investment in wellness
programs. And most of those firms that have introduced wellness programs have found
significant benefits.

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