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

<< INDIVIDUAL STRESSORS:Role Ambiguity/ Role Conflict, Personal Control
POWER AND POLITICS:Coercive Power, Legitimate Power, Referent Power >>
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Organizational Psychology­ (PSY510)
VU
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)
VU
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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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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Table of Contents:
  1. INTRODUCTION TO ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHLOGY:Hawthorne Effect
  2. METHODOLOGIES OF DATA COLLECTION:Observational method, Stability of Measures
  3. GLOBALIZATION:Aspects of Globalization, Industrial Globalization
  4. DEFINING THE CULTURE:Key Components of Culture, Individualism
  5. WHAT IS DIVERSITY?:Recruitment and Retention, Organizational approaches
  6. ETHICS:Sexual Harassment, Pay and Promotion Discrimination, Employee Privacy
  7. NATURE OF ORGANIZATIONS:Flat Organization, Neoclassical Organization Theory
  8. ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE:Academy Culture, Baseball Team Culture, Fortress Culture
  9. CHANGING ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE:Move decisively, defuse resistance
  10. REWARD SYSTEMS: PAY, Methods of Pay, Individual incentive plan, New Pay Techniques
  11. REWARD SYSTEMS: RECOGNITION AND BENEFITS, Efficiency Wage Theory
  12. PERCEPTION:How They Work Together, Gestalt Laws of Grouping, Closure
  13. PERCEPTUAL DEFENCE:Cognitive Dissonance Theory, Stereotyping
  14. ATTRIBUTION:Locus of Control, Fundamental Attribution Error
  15. IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT:Impression Construction, Self-focused IM
  16. PERSONALITY:Classifying Personality Theories, Humanistic/Existential
  17. PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT:Standardized, Basic Categories of Measures
  18. ATTITUDE:Emotional, Informational, Behavioural,Positive and Negative Affectivity
  19. JOB SATISFACTION:The work, Pay, Measurement of Job Satisfaction
  20. MOTIVATION:Extrinsic motive, Theories of work motivation, Safety needs
  21. THEORIES OF MOTIVATION:Instrumentality, Stacy Adams’S Equity theory
  22. MOTIVATION ACROSS CULTURES:Meaning of Work, Role of Religion
  23. POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY:Criticisms of ‘Traditional’ Psychology, Optimism
  24. HOPE:Personality, Our goals, Satisfaction with important domains, Negative affect
  25. EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE:EI IS Related To Emotions and Intelligence
  26. SELF EFFICACY:Motivation, Perseverance, Thoughts, Sources of Self-Efficacy
  27. COMMUNICATION:Historical Background, Informal-Formal, Interpersonal Communication
  28. COMMUNICATION (Part II):Downward Communication, Stereotyping Problems
  29. DECISION MAKING:History, Personal Rationality, Social Model, Conceptual
  30. PARTICIPATIVE DECISION MAKING TECHNIQUES:Expertise, Thinking skills
  31. JOB STRESS:Distress and Eustress, Burnout, General Adaptation Syndrome
  32. INDIVIDUAL STRESSORS:Role Ambiguity/ Role Conflict, Personal Control
  33. EFFECTS OF STRESS:Physical Effects, Behavioural Effects, Individual Strategies
  34. POWER AND POLITICS:Coercive Power, Legitimate Power, Referent Power
  35. POLITICS:Sources of Politics in Organizations, Final Word about Power
  36. GROUPS AND TEAMS:Why Groups Are Formed, Forming, Storming
  37. DYSFUNCTIONS OF GROUPS:Norm Violation, Group Think, Risky Shift
  38. JOB DESIGN:Job Rotation, Job Enlargement, Job Enrichment, Skill Variety
  39. JOB DESIGN:Engagement, Disengagement, Social Information Processing, Motivation
  40. LEARNING:Motor Learning, Verbal Learning, Behaviouristic Theories, Acquisition
  41. OBMOD:Applications of OBMOD, Correcting Group Dysfunctions
  42. LEADERSHIP PROCESS:Managers versus Leaders, Defining Leadership
  43. MODERN THEORIES OF LEADERSHIP PROCESS:Transformational Leaders
  44. GREAT LEADERS: STYLES, ACTIVITIES AND SKILLS:Globalization and Leadership
  45. GREAT LEADERS: STYLES, ACTIVITIES AND SKILLS:Planning, Staffing