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Organization Development MGMT 628

Lesson # 41

Developing and Assisting Members

Workforce Diversity Interventions

Several profound trends are shaping the labor markets of modern organizations. Researchers suggest that

contemporary workforce characteristics are radically different from what they were just twenty years ago.

Employees represent every ethnic background and color; range from highly educated to illiterate; vary in

age from eighteen, to eighty; may appear perfectly healthy or may have a terminal illness; may be single

parents or part of dual-income, divorced, same-sex, or traditional families; and may be physically or

mentally challenged.

Workforce diversity is more than a euphemism for cultural or ethnic differences. Such a definition is too

narrow and focuses attention away from the broad range of issues that a diverse workforce poses. Diversity

results from people who bring different resources and perspectives to the workplace and who have distinc-

tive needs, preferences, expectations, and lifestyles.42 Organizations must design human resources systems

that account for these differences if they are to attract and retain a productive workforce and if they want

to turn diversity into a competitive advantage.

Figure 55 presents a general framework for managing diversity in organizations.

Figure 55

First, the model suggests that an organization's diversity approach is a function of internal and external

pressures for and against diversity. Pro-diversity forces argue that organization performance is enhanced

when the workforce's diversity is embraced as an opportunity. But diversity is often discouraged by those

who fear that too many perspectives, beliefs, values, and attitudes dilute concerted action.

Second, management's perspective and priorities with respect to diversity can range from resistance to

active learning and from marginal to strategic. For example, organizations can resist diversity by

implementing only legally mandated policies such as affirmative action, equal employment opportunity, or

Americans with Disabilities Act requirements. On the other hand, a learning and strategic perspective can

lead management to view diversity as a source of competitive advantage. For example, a health-care

organization with a diverse customer base can improve perceptions of service quality with physician

diversity.

Third, within management's priorities, the organization's strategic responses can range from reactive to

proactive. Diversity efforts at Texaco and Denny's had little momentum until a series of embarrassing race-

based events forced a response.

Organization Development MGMT 628

Fourth, the organization's implementation style can range from episodic to systemic. A diversity approach

will be most effective when the strategic responses and implementation style fit with management's intent

and internal and external pressures.

Unfortunately, organizations have tended to address workforce diversity pressures in a piecemeal fashion;

only 5 percent of more than fourteen hundred companies surveyed thought they were doing a "very good

job" of managing diversity. As each trend makes itself felt, the organization influences appropriate practices

and activities. For example, as the percentage of women in the workforce increased, many organizations

simply added maternity leaves to their benefits packages; as the number of physically challenged workers

increased and when Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, organizations changed

their physical settings to accommodate wheelchairs. Demographers warn, however, that these trends are

not only powerful by themselves but will likely interact with each other to force organizational change.

Thus, a growing number of organizations, such as MBNA Corporation, Lockheed Martin, the St. Paul

Companies, Levi Strauss, Procter & Gamble, Monsanto, and Wisconsin Electric, are taking bolder steps.

They are not only adopting learning perspectives with respect to diversity, but systemically weaving

diversity-friendly values and practices into the cultural fabric of the organization.

Many of the QD interventions described in this book can be applied to the strategic responses and

implementation of workforce diversity, as shown in Table 21. It summarizes several of the internal and

external pressures facing organizations, including age, gender, disability, culture and values, and sexual

orientation. The table also reports the major trends characterizing those dimensions, organizational

implications and workforce needs, and specific OD interventions that can address those implications.

Age

The average age of the U.S. workforce is rising and changing the distribution of age groups. Between 1998

and 2008, the category of workers aged twenty-five to fifty-four years will grow 5.5 percent and the fifty-

five and over age category is expected to increase almost 48 percent. This skewed distribution is mostly the

result of the baby boom between 1946 and 1964. As a result, organizations will face a predominantly

middle-aged and older workforce. Even now, many organizations are reporting that the average age of their

workforce is over forty. Such a distribution will place special demands on the organization.

For example, the personal needs and work motivation of the different cohorts will require differentiated

human resources practices. Older workers place heavy demands on health-care services, are less mobile,

and will have fewer career advancement opportunities. This situation will require specialized work designs

that account for physical capabilities of older workers, career development activities that address and use

their experience, and benefit plans that accommodate their medical and psychological needs. Demand for

younger workers, on the other hand, will be intense. To attract and retain this more mobile group, jobs will

have to be more challenging, advancement opportunities more prevalent, and an enriched quality of work

life more common.

Organization development interventions, such as work design, wellness programs (discussed below), career

planning and development, and reward systems must be adapted to these different age groups. For the

older employee, work designs can reduce the physical components or increase the knowledge and experi-

ence components of a job. At Builder's Emporium, a chain of home improvement centers, the store clerk

job was redesigned to eliminate heavy lifting by assigning night crews to replenish shelves and emphasizing

sales ability instead of strength. Younger workers will likely

Organization Development MGMT 628

Table 21

Workforce Diversity Dimensions and Intervention

Work force

Trends

Implications

Interventions

Difference

And Needs

Age

Median

age

up Health care

mobility Wellness program job

distribution of ages security

design

changes

Career planning and

development

reward

system

Gender

Percentage of women

Child Care

Job design

increases Dual income

Maternity/paternity

Fringe benefits Rewards

families

leave single parents

Disability

The number of people

Job challenge

Performance

with disabilities entering

Job skills

management

the workforce increasing

Physical space

Job design

Respect and dignity

Career planning and

development

Culture and Values

Rising proportion of

Flexible organizational Career planning and

immigrant and minority

policies

development

group workers shift in

Autonomy

Employee involvement

Reward system

rewards

Affirmation

Respect

Sexual orientation

Number of single sex

Discrimination

Equal

employment

households up

Opportunities

More liberal Attitude

Fringe benefits

towards

sexual

Education and training

orientation

Require more challenge and autonomy. Wellness programs can be used to address the physical and mental

health of both generations. Career planning and development programs will have to recognize the different

career stages of each cohort and offer resources tailored to that stage. Finally, reward system interventions

may offer increased health benefits, time off, and other perks for the older worker while using promotion,

ownership, and pay to attract and motivate the scarcer, younger workforce.

Gender

Another important trend is the increasing percentage of female workers in the labor force. By the year

2008, almost 48 percent of the U.S. workforce will be women, and they will represent more than half of the

new entrants between 1998 and 2008. The organizational implications of these trends are sobering. Three-

quarters of all working women are in their childbearing years, and more than half of all mothers work.

Health-care costs will likely increase at even faster rates, and costs associated with absenteeism and

turnover will rise. In addition, demands for child care, maternity and paternity leaves, and flexible working

arrangements will place pressure on work systems to maintain productivity and teamwork. From a

management perspective, there will be more men and women working together as peers, more women

entering the executive ranks, greater diversity of management styles, and changing definitions of managerial

success.

Work design, reward systems, and career development are among the more important interventions for

addressing issues arising out of the gender trend. For example, jobs can be modified to accommodate the

special demands of working mothers. A number of organizations, such as Digital Equipment, Steel case,

and Hewlett-Packard, have instituted job sharing, by which two people perform the tasks associated with

one job. The firms have done this to allow their female employees to pursue both family and work careers.

Organization Development MGMT 628

Reward system interventions, especially fringe benefits, can be tailored to offer special leaves to mothers

and fathers, child-care options, flexible working hours, and health and wellness benefits. Career

development interventions help maintain, develop, and retain a competent and diverse workforce.

Organizations such as Polaroid, Hoechst Celanese, and Ameritech have instituted job pathing, challenging

assignments, and mentoring programs to retain key female members.

Disability

A third trend is the increasing number of men and women with disabilities entering the workforce. The

workforce of the twenty-first century will comprise people with a variety of physical and mental disabilities.

For example, the high school dropout rate has remained above 4 percent throughout the 1990s, and

approximately 21 percent of the population over age 16 have only rudimentary reading and writing skills. In

a world of knowledge work, the lack of education or an inability to learn is a profoundly debilitating

condition. More and more organizations will employ physically handicapped people, especially as the

number of younger workers declines, creating a great demand for labor. In 1990, the federal Americans

with Disabilities Act banned all forms of discrimination on the basis of physical or mental disability in the

hiring and promotion process. It also required many organizations to modify physical plants and office

buildings to accommodate people with disabilities.

The organizational implications of the disability trend represent both opportunity and adjustment. The

productivity of physically and mentally disabled workers often surprises managers, and training is required

to increase managers' awareness of this opportunity. Employing disabled workers, however, also means a

need for more comprehensive health care, new physical workplace layouts, new attitudes toward working

with the disabled and challenging jobs that use a variety of skills.

OD interventions, including work design, career planning and development, and performance

management, can be used to integrate the disabled into the workforce. For example, traditional approaches

to job design can simplify work to permit physically handicapped workers to complete an assembly task.

Career planning and development programs need to focus on making disabled workers aware of career

opportunities. Too often, these employees do not know that advancement is possible, and they are left

feeling frustrated. Career tracks need to be developed for these workers.

Performance management interventions, including goal setting, monitoring, and coaching performance,

aligned with the workforce's characteristics are important. At Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, for

example, a supervisor learned sign language to communicate with a deaf employee whose productivity was

low but whose quality of work was high. Two other deaf employees were transferred to that supervisor's

department, and over a two-year period, the performance of the deaf workers improved 1,000 percent with

no loss in quality.

Culture and Values

Cultural diversity has broad organizational implications. Different cultures represent a variety of values,

work ethics, and norms of correct behavior. Not all cultures want the same things from work, and simple,

piecemeal changes in specific organizational practices will be inadequate if the workforce is culturally

diverse. Management practices will have to be aligned with cultural values and support both career and

family orientations. English is a second language for many people, and jobs of all types (processing,

customer contact, production, and so on) will have to be adjusted accordingly. Finally, the organization will

be expected to satisfy both extrinsic and monetary needs, as well as intrinsic and personal growth needs.

Several planned change interventions, including employee involvement, reward systems, and career

planning and development, can be used to adapt to cultural diversity. Employee involvement practices can

be adapted to the needs for participation in decision making. People from certain cultures, such as

Scandinavia, are more likely to expect and respond to high-involvement policies; other cultures, such as

Latin America, view participation with reservation. Participation in an organization can take many forms,

from suggestion systems and attitude surveys to high-involvement work designs and performance

management systems. Organizations can maximize worker productivity by basing the amount of power and

information workers have on cultural and value orientations.

Reward systems can focus on increasing flexibility. For example, flexible working hours that permit

employees to arrive at and leave work within specified periods enable them to meet personal obligations

without sacrificing organizational objectives. Many organizations have implemented this innovation, and

most report that the positive benefits outweigh the costs. Work locations also can be varied. Many

organizations (e.g., Pacific Telesis, Eddie Bauer, and Marriott) allow workers to spend part of their time

telecommuting from home. Other flexible benefits, such as floating holidays, allow people from different

cultures to match important religious and family occasions with work schedules.

Child-care and dependent-care assistance also support different lifestyles. For example, at Stride Rite

Corporation, the Stride Rite Intergenerational Day Care Center houses fifty-five children between the ages

Organization Development MGMT 628

of fifteen months and six years as well as twenty-four elders over sixty years old. The center was established

after an organizational survey determined that 25 percent of employees provided some sort of elder care

and that an additional 13 percent anticipated doing so within five years.

Finally, career planning and development programs can help workers identify advancement opportunities

that are in line with their cultural values. Some cultures value technical skills over hierarchical advancement;

others see promotion as a prime indicator of self-worth and accomplishment. By matching programs with

people, job satisfaction, productivity, and employee retention can be improved.

Sexual Orientation

Finally, diversity in sexual and affectional orientation, including gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals and

couples, increasingly is affecting the way that organizations think about human resources.

The primary organizational implication of sexual orientation diversity is discrimination. People can have

strong emotional reactions to sexual orientation. When these feelings interact with the gender, culture, and

values trends described above, the likelihood of both overt and unconscious discrimination is high.

Interventions aimed at this dimension of workforce diversity are relatively new in OD and are being

developed as organizations encounter sexual orientation issues in the workplace. The most frequent

response is education and training. This intervention increases members' awareness of the facts and

decreases the likelihood of overt discrimination. Human resources practices having to do with Equal

Employment Opportunity (EEO) and fringe benefits also can help to address sexual orientation parity

issues. Some organizations have modified their EEO statements to address sexual orientation. Firms such

as Advanced Micro Devices, Fujitsu, Ben & Jerry's, and Dow Chemical have communicated strongly to

members and outsiders that decisions with respect to hiring, promotion, transfer, and so on cannot (and

will not) be made with respect to a person's sexual orientation. Similarly, organizations are increasingly

offering domestic-partner benefit plans. Companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Lotus Development

Corporation, and Inprise Borland have extended health-care and other benefits to the same-sex partners of

their members. A 1992 Newsweek poll found that 78 percent of the respondents favored extending

employee benefits to the domestic partners of lesbians and gay men.

Workforce diversity interventions are growing rapidly in OD. A national survey revealed that 75 percent of

firms either have, or plan to begin, diversity efforts. Research suggests that diversity interventions are

especially prevalent in large organizations with diversity-friendly senior management and human resources

policies. Although existing evidence shows that diversity interventions are growing in popularity, there is

still ambiguity about the depth of organizational commitment to such practices and their personal and

organizational consequences. A great deal more research is needed to understand these newer interventions

and their outcomes.

Employee Wellness Interventions

In the past decade, organizations have become increasingly aware of the relationship between employee

wellness and productivity. The estimated cost to industry from stress-related ailments is more than $200

billion per year and is an increasingly global phenomenon. In the United Kingdom, stress and stress-related

illness cost industry and taxpayers £12 billion each year. Employee assistance programs (EAPs) and

stress management interventions have grown because organizations are taking more responsibility for the

welfare of their employees. Companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Weyerhaeuser, Federal Express,

Quaker Oats, GTE, and Abbott Laboratories are sponsoring a wide range of fitness and wellness programs.

In this section, we discuss two important wellness interventions--EAPs and stress management. EAPs are

primarily reactive efforts that identify, refer, and treat employee problems (e.g., drug abuse, marital

difficulties, or depression) that affect worker performance. Stress management, both proactive and reactive,

is concerned with helping employees alleviate or cope with the negative consequences of stress at work.

Employee Assistance Programs

Forces affecting psychological and physical problems at the workplace are increasing. The 1992 National

Household Survey on Drug Abuse reported that 66.5 percent of current illicit drug users then 18 years or

older were working full- or part-time. Similarly, alcohol and other drug use costs U.S. business an estimated

$102 billion per year in lost productivity, accidents, and turnover. Britain's Royal College of Psychiatrists

suggested that up to 30 percent of employees in British companies would experience mental health

problems and that 115 million workdays were lost each year as a result of depression. Other factors, too,

have contributed to increased problems: altered family structures, the growth of single-parent households,

the increase in divorce, greater mobility, and changing modes of child rearing are all fairly recent

phenomena that have added to the stress experienced by employees. These trends indicate that an

increasing number of employees need assistance with personal problems, and the research suggests that

EAP use increases during downsizing and restructuring.

Organization Development MGMT 628

EAPs help identify, refer, and treat workers whose personal problems affect their performance. Initially

started in the 1940s to combat alcoholism, these programs have expanded to deal with emotional, family,

marital, and financial problems, and, more recently, drug abuse. EAPs can be either broad programs that

address a full range of issues or more focused programs dealing with specific problems, such as drug or

alcohol abuse.

Central to the philosophy underlying EAPs is the belief that although the organization has no right to

interfere in the private lives of its employees, it does have a right to impose certain standards of work

performance and to establish sanctions when these are not met. Anyone whose work performance is

impaired because of a personal problem is eligible for admission into an EAP program. Successful EAPs

have been implemented at General Motors, Johnson & Johnson, Motorola, Burlington Northern Railroad,

and Dominion Foundries and Steel Company. Although limited, some research has demonstrated that

EAPs can positively affect

Figure 56

Absenteeism, turnover, and job performance. At AT&T, for example, fifty-nine employees who were close

to losing their jobs were enrolled in an EAP and successfully returned to work. Hiring and training

replacements would have been much more costly than the expense of the EAP.

The Employee Assistance Program Model

Figure 56 displays the components of a typical EAP. They include the identification and referral of

employees into the program, management of the EAP process, and problem diagnosis and treatment.

1. Identification and referral. The first step in an EAP is entry into the program, through formal or

informal referral. In the case of formal referrals, the process involves identifying employees who are having

work performance problems and getting them to consider entering the EAP. Identifying these employees is

closely related to the performance management process. Performance records need to be maintained and

corrective action taken whenever performance falls below an acceptable standard. During action planning

to improve performance, managers can point out to appraisers the existence of support services, such as

the EAR. A formal referral takes place if the performance of an employee continues to deteriorate and the

manager decides that EAP services are required. An informal referral occurs when an employee initiates

admission to an EAP even though performance problems may not exist or may not have been detected.

As shown in Figure 56, several organizational activities support this initial step in the EAP process. First, a

written policy with clear procedures regarding the EAP is necessary. Second, top management and the

human resources department must publicly support the EAP, and publicity about the program should be

Organization Development MGMT 628

well distributed. Third, training and development programs should equip supervisors to identify and

document performance problems effectively, to carry out performance improvement action planning, and

to develop appropriate methods for referring employees to the EAP. Finally, the confidentiality of

employees using the program must be safeguarded to gain the support of the workforce.

2. EAP office. The second component of an EAP is the work performed in the program office, where

people with problems are linked with treatment resources. The EAP office accepts an employee into the

program, provides problem evaluation and initial counseling, refers the employee to treatment resources

and agencies, monitors the employee's progress during treatment, and reintegrates the employee into the

workforce. In some EAPs, especially in large organizations, the actual counseling and treatment resources

are located in-house. In most EAPs, however, the employee is referred to outside agencies that contract

with the organization to perform treatment services. In all cases, a clear procedure for helping the employee

return to the workforce is crucial and must be managed to maintain confidentiality.

Good management is required for an effective EAP. For example, the program's relationship to disciplinary

procedures must be clear. In some organizations, corrective actions are suspended if the employee seeks

EAP help; in others, the two processes are not connected. Maintaining confidential records about

treatment also is essential. In-house resources have the disadvantage of appearing to compromise this

important program element, but they may offer some cost savings. If external treatment resources are used,

care must be taken to screen and qualify those resources.

3. Treatment. The third EAP component is the treatment of the employee's problem. Potential resources

include inpatient and outpatient care, social services, and self-help groups. The resources tapped by EAPs

will vary from program to program.

Implementing an Employee Assistance Program

EAPs can be flexible and customized to fit various organizational philosophies and employee problems.

Practitioners have suggested the following seven steps in establishing an EAP:

1. Develop an EAP policy and procedure. Establish specific guidelines concerning the EAP and its

availability to employees and their families. Policies concerning confidentiality, disciplinary procedures,

communication, training, and overall program philosophy should be included. Use senior management and

union involvement (where appropriate) in developing the guidelines to elicit worker commitment.

2. Select and train a program coordinator. A person should be designated by the organization as the

EAP coordinator. This person is responsible for overall coordination of program activities, such as training,

handling program publicity, evaluating program activities, troubleshooting to ensure the quick resolution of

problems, and providing ongoing program support.

3. Obtain employee/union support for the EAR Program effectiveness demands employee or union

support for EAP implementation. Obtaining that support may require meeting with key employee or union

representatives to get their input in defining significant features of the EAP, including office location,

staffing, participation on an EAP advisory committee, and employee/union attendance at EAP training; to

review significant policy and/or procedural components to ensure support; and to share endorsements

from other organizations where EAPs have been implemented.

Publicize the program. Communicating about the EAP's availability and increasing employee

awareness of its procedures, resources, and benefits should be a high priority. Both formal and informal

referrals to the program assume that managers and employees are aware of its existence. If it is not well

publicized or if people do not know how to contact the program office, then participation may be below

expected levels.

5. Establish relationships with health-care providers and insurers. All applicable health insurance

policies should be reviewed to determine coverage for mental health and chemical dependency treatment.

Although most policies include this coverage, reimbursement procedures often vary. This information

needs to be summarized for EAP users so that all parties are aware of potential costs and responsibilities.

EAP staff should be prepared to advise employees seeking treatment about expected insurance coverage

and any personal expenses related to treatment. Potential providers of EAP treatment services should be

interviewed, screened, and selected, and appropriate procedures should be developed for making referrals

and maintaining confidentiality.

6. Schedule EAP training. The legal climate surrounding EAPs, referrals, and employee discipline

requires that EAP training methods and materials be up-to-date and accurate. Training should include role

plays about handling difficult employees as well as methods for referring workers to the program.

7. Continually administer and manage the plan. A plan should be developed for reviewing program

effectiveness. This typically involves auditing procedures, measuring system-user satisfaction, and

determining whether treatment options should be added or deleted. Ongoing training of EAP staff also

should occur, emphasizing the changing legal requirements of EAPs, new counseling or treatment options,

organizational changes that may affect program use, and behaviors that focus on service quality.

Organization Development MGMT 628

Stress Management Programs

Concern has been growing in organizations about managing the dysfunction caused by stress. Stress is

linked to the following illnesses: hypertension, heart attacks, diabetes, asthma, chronic pain, allergies,

headache, backache, various skin disorders, cancer, immune system weakness, and decreases in the number

of white blood cells and changes in their function. It can also lead to alcoholism and drug abuse, two

problems that are reaching epidemic proportions in organizations and society. For organizations, these

personal effects can result in costly health benefits, absenteeism, turnover, and low performance. One study

reported that one in three workers said they have thought about quitting because of stress; one in two

workers said job stress reduced their productivity; and one in five workers said they took sick leave in the

month preceding the survey because of stress. Another study estimates that each employee who suffers

from a stress-related illness loses an average of sixteen days of work per year. Finally, the Research Triangle

Institute estimated the annual cost to the U.S. economy from stress-related disorders at $187 billion. Other

estimates are more conservative, but they invariably run into the billions of dollars.

Like other human resources management interventions, stress management is often facilitated by

practitioners with special skills and knowledge--typically psychologists, physicians, and other health

professionals specializing in work stress. Recently, some OD practitioners have gained competence in this

area, and there has been a growing tendency to include stress management as part of larger OD efforts. The

concept of stress is best understood in terms of a model that describes the organizational and personal

conditions contributing to the dysfunctional consequences of stress. Two key types of stress management

interventions may be used: those aimed at the diagnosis or awareness of stress and its causes, and those

directed at changing the causes and helping people cope with stress.

Definition and Model

Stress refers to the reaction of people to their environments. It involves both physiological and

psychological responses to environmental conditions, causing people to change or adjust their behaviors.

Stress is generally viewed in terms of the fit of people's needs, abilities, and expectations with

environmental demands, changes, and opportunities. A good person-environment fit results in positive

reactions to stress; a poor fit leads to the negative consequences already described. Stress is generally

positive when it occurs at moderate levels and contributes to effective motivation, innovation, and learning.

For example, a promotion is a stressful event that is experienced positively by most employees. On the

other hand, stress can be dysfunctional when it is excessively high (or low) or persists over a long period of

time. It can overpower a person's coping abilities and cause physical and emotional exhaustion. For

example, a boss who is excessively demanding and unsupportive can cause subordinates undue tension,

anxiety, and dissatisfaction. Those factors, in turn, can lead to withdrawal behaviors, such as absenteeism

and turnover; to ailments, such as headaches and high blood pressure; and to lowered performance.

Situations in which there is a poor fit between employees and the organization produce negative stress

consequences.

A tremendous amount of research has been conducted on the causes and consequences of work stress.

Figure 57, a model summarizing stress relationships, identifies specific occupational stressors that may

result in dysfunctional consequences. People's individual differences determine the extent to which the

stressors are perceived negatively. For example, people with strong social support experience the stressors

as less stressful than those who do not have such support. This greater perceived stress can lead to such

negative consequences as anxiety, poor decision making, increased blood pressure, and low productivity.

Figure 57

Consequences

Subjective:

anxiety

apathy

Behavioral

Alcoholism

Drug abuse

Accident proneness

Cognitive

Poor concentration

Mental blocks

burnout

Physiological:

Organization Development MGMT 628

Stress and Work: A Working model

Increased blood pressure

Stress

Increased heart rate

The Appraisal

OCCUPATIONAL STRESSORS

Organizational:

process

Lower

Physical environment

How

the

Light,noise,temperature,polluted air

individual

Individual:

perceives

Role conflict role ambiguity,

occupational

Work

overload,

lack

stressors

control,responsibility,work conditions

INDIVIDUAL

Group:

DIFFERENCES

Poor

relationship

with

peers,subordinates,boss

Organizational:

Poor structural design,

Cognitive/Affective

Politics, no specific policy

Biological/Demographic

. Age

Type A or B

Hardiness

. Gender

Social Support

. Occupation

Negative Affectivity

. Race

The stress model shows that almost any dimension of the organization (e.g., working conditions, structure,

role, or relationships) can cause negative stress. This suggests that much of the material covered so far in

this book provides knowledge about work-related stressors, and implies that virtually all of the OD

interventions included in the book can play a role in stress management. Process consultation, third-party

intervention, survey feedback, inter-group relations, structural design, employee involvement, work design,

goal setting, reward systems, and career planning and development all can help alleviate stressful working

conditions. Thus, to some degree stress management has been under discussion throughout this book.

Here, the focus is on those occupational stressors and stress-management techniques that are unique to the

stress field and that have received the most systematic attention from stress researchers.

Occupational Stressors. Figure 57 identifies several organizational sources of stress, including structure,

role on the job, physical environment, and relationships. Extensive research has been done on three key

organizational sources of stress: the individual items related to work overload, role conflict, and role

ambiguity.

Work overload can be a persistent source of stress, especially among managers and white-collar employees

having to process complex information and make difficult decisions. Quantitative overload consists of

having too much to do in a given time period. Qualitative overload refers to having work that is too

difficult for one's abilities and knowledge. A review of the research suggests that work overload is highly

related to managers' needs for achievement and so it may be partly self-inflicted. Research relating

workload to stress outcomes reveals that both too much and too little work can have negative

consequences. Apparently, when the amount of work is in balance with people's abilities and knowledge,

stress has a positive impact on performance and satisfaction, but when workload either exceeds employees'

abilities (overload) or fails to challenge them (underload), people experience stress negatively. This negative

experience can lead to lowered self-esteem and job dissatisfaction, nervous symptoms, increased

absenteeism, and reduced participation in organizational activities.

People's roles at work also can be a source of stress. A role can be defined as the sum total of expectations

that the individual and significant others have about how the person should perform a specific job. The

employee's relationships with peers, supervisors, vendors, customers, and others can result in diverse

expectations about how a particular role should be performed. The employee must be able to integrate

these expectations into a meaningful whole to perform the role effectively. Problems arise when there is

role ambiguity and the person does not clearly understand what others expect of her or him, or when there

is role conflict and the employee receives contradictory expectations that cannot be satisfied at the same

time.

Organization Development MGMT 628

Extensive studies of role ambiguity and conflict suggest that both conditions are prevalent in organizations,

especially among managerial jobs where clarity often is lacking and job demands often are contradictory.

For example, managerial job descriptions typically are so general that it is difficult to know precisely what is

expected on the job. Similarly, managers spend most of their time interacting with people from other

departments, and opportunities for conflicting demands abound in these lateral relationships. Role

ambiguity and conflict can cause severe stress, resulting in increased tension, dissatisfaction, and

withdrawal, and reduced commitment and trust in others. Some evidence suggests that role ambiguity has a

more negative impact on managers than does role conflict. In terms of individual differences, people with a

low tolerance for ambiguity respond more negatively to role ambiguity than others do; introverts and

people who are more flexible react more negatively to role conflict than others do.

Individual Differences. Figure 57 identifies several individual differences affecting how people respond to

occupational stressors: hardiness, social support, age, education, occupation, race, negative affectivity, and

Type A behavior pattern. Much research has been devoted to the Type A behavior pattern, which is charac-

terized by impatience, competitiveness, and hostility. Type A personalities (in contrast to Type Bs) invest

long hours working under tight deadlines. They put themselves under extreme time pressure by trying to do

more and more work in less and less time. Type B personalities, on the other hand, are less hurried,

aggressive, and hostile than Type As. Extensive research shows that Type A people are especially prone to

stress. For example, a longitudinal study of thirty-five hundred men found that Type As had twice as much

heart disease, five times as many second heart attacks, and twice as many fatal heart attacks as did Type Bs.

Researchers explain Type A susceptibility to stress in terms of an inability to deal with uncertainty, such as

might occur with qualitative overload and role ambiguity. To work rapidly and meet pressing deadlines,

Type As need to be in control of the situation. They do not allocate enough time for unforeseen

disturbances and consequently experience extreme tension and anxiety when faced with unexpected events.

Unfortunately, the proportion of Type A managers in organizations may be quite large. One study showed

that 60 percent of the managers were clearly Type A and only 12 percent were distinctly Type B. In

addition, a short questionnaire measuring Type A behaviors and given to members of several MBA classes

and executive programs has found that Type As outnumber Type Bs by about five to one. These results are

not totally surprising because many organizations (and business schools) reward aggressive, competitive,

workaholic behaviors. Indeed, Type A behaviors can help managers achieve rapid promotion in many

companies. Ironically, however, those same behaviors may be detrimental to effective performance at top

organizational levels where tasks and decision making require the kind of patience, tolerance for ambiguity,

and attention to broad issues often neglected by Type As.

Diagnosis and Awareness of Stress and Its Causes

Stress management is directed at preventing negative stress outcomes either by changing the organizational

conditions causing the stress or by enhancing employees' abilities to cope with them. This preventive

approach starts from a diagnosis of the current situation, including employees' self-awareness of their own

stress and its sources. This diagnosis provides the information needed to develop an appropriate stress

management program. Two methods for diagnosing stress are the following:

Charting Stressors. Such charting involves identifying organizational and personal stressors operating in a

particular situation. It is guided by a conceptual model like that shown in Figure 18.4, and it measures

potential stressors affecting employees negatively. Data can be collected through questionnaires and

interviews about environmental and personal stressors. Researchers at the University of Michigan's Institute

for Social Research have developed standardized instruments for measuring most of the stressors shown in

Figure 57. It is important to obtain perceptual measures because people's cognitive appraisal of the

situation makes a stressor stressful. Most organizational surveys measure dimensions potentially stressful to

employees, such as work overload, role conflict and ambiguity, promotional issues, opportunities for

participation, managerial support, and communication. Similarly, there are specific instruments for

measuring the individual differences, such as hardiness, social support, and Type A or B behavior pattern.

In addition to perceptions of stressors, it is necessary to measure stress consequences, such as subjective

moods, performance, job satisfaction, absenteeism, blood pressure, and cholesterol level. Various

instruments and checklists have been developed for obtaining people's perceptions of negative

consequences, and these can be supplemented with hard measures taken from company records, medical

reports, and physical examinations. Once measures of the stressors and consequences are obtained, the two

sets of data must be related to reveal which stressors contribute most to negative stress in the situation

under study. For example, a relational analysis might show that qualitative overload and role ambiguity are

highly related to employee fatigue, absenteeism, and poor performance, especially for Type A employees.

This kind of information points to specific organizational conditions that must be improved to reduce

Organization Development MGMT 628

stress. Moreover, it identifies the kinds of employees who may need special counseling and training in stress

management.

Health Profiling. This method is aimed at identifying stress symptoms so that corrective action can be

taken. It starts with a questionnaire asking people for their medical history; personal habits; current health;

and vital signs, such as blood pressure, cholesterol level, and triglyceride levels. It also may include a

physical examination if some of the information is not readily available. Information from the questionnaire

and physical examination is then analyzed, usually by a computer that calculates the individual's health

profile. This profile compares the individual's characteristics with those of an average person of the same

gender, age, and race. The profile identifies the person's future health prospect, typically by placing her or

him in a health-risk category with a known probability of fatal disease, such as cardiovascular risk. The

health profile also indicates how the health risks can be reduced by making personal and environmental

changes such as dieting, exercising, or traveling.

Alleviating Stressors and Coping with Stress

After diagnosing the presence and causes of stress, the next step in stress management is to do something

about it. Interventions for reducing negative stress tend to fall into two groups: those aimed at changing the

organizational conditions causing stress and those directed at helping people to cope better with stress.

Because stress results from the interaction between people and the environment, both strategies are needed

for effective stress management.

This section first presents two methods for alleviating stressful organizational conditions: role clarification

and supportive relationships. These efforts are aimed at decreasing role ambiguity and conflict and

improving poor relationships, key sources of managerial stress. Then, two interventions aimed at helping

people to cope more positively with stress are discussed: stress inoculation training and health and fitness

facilities. These can help employees alleviate stress symptoms and prepare themselves for handling stressful

situations.

Role Clarification. This involves helping employees better understand the demands of their work roles. A

manager's role is embedded in a network of relationships with other managers, each of whom has specific

expectations about how the manager should perform the role. Role clarification is a systematic process for

revealing others' expectations and arriving at a consensus about the activities constituting a particular role.

There are several role clarification methods, among them Job Expectation Technique (JET) and Role

Analysis Technique (RAT) and they follow a similar strategy. First, the people relevant to defining a

particular role are identified (e.g., members of a managerial team, a boss and subordinate, and members of

other departments relating to the role holder) and brought together at a meeting, usually in a location away

from the organization.

Second, the role holder discusses her or his perceived job duties and responsibilities and the other

participants are encouraged to comment and to agree or disagree with the role holder's perceptions. An

OD practitioner may act as a process consultant to facilitate interaction and reduce defensiveness. Third,

when everyone has reached consensus on defining the role, the role holder is responsible for writing a

description of the activities that are seen now as constituting the role. A copy of the role description is

distributed to all participants to ensure that they fully understand and agree with the role definition. Fourth,

the participants periodically check to see whether the role is being performed as intended and make

modifications if necessary.

Supportive Relationships. This involves establishing trusting and genuinely positive relationships among

employees, including bosses, subordinates, and peers. Supportive relations have been a hallmark of

organization development and are a major part of such interventions as team building, intergroup relations,

employee involvement, work design, goal setting, and career planning and development. Considerable

research shows that supportive relationships can buffer people from stress. When people feel that relevant

others really care about what happens to them and are willing to help, they can cope with stressful

conditions.

Recent research on the boss-subordinate relationship suggests that a supportive boss can provide

subordinates with a crucial defense against stress. A study of managers at an AT&T subsidiary undergoing

turmoil because of the company's corporate breakup showed that employees who were under considerable

stress but felt that their boss was supportive suffered half as much illness, depression, impaired sexual

performance, and obesity as employees reporting to an unsupportive boss.

This research suggests that organizations must become more aware of the positive value of supportive

relationships in helping employees cope with stress. They may need to build supportive, cohesive work

Organization Development MGMT 628

groups in situations that are particularly stressful, such as introducing new products, solving emergency

problems, and handling customer complaints.

Stress Inoculation Training. Companies have developed programs to help employees acquire the skills

and knowledge to cope more positively with stressors. Participants are first taught to understand stress

warning signals, such as difficulty in making decisions, disruption in sleeping and eating habits, and greater

frequencies of headaches and backaches. Then they are encouraged to admit that they are overstressed (or

understressed) and to develop a concrete plan for coping with the situation. One strategy is to develop and

use a coping self-statement procedure. Participants verbalize a series of questions or statements each time

they experience negative stress. The following sample questions or statements are addressed to the four

stages of the stress-coping cycle:

· Preparation (What am I going to do about these stressors?)

· Confrontation (I must relax and stay in control.)

· Coping (I must focus on the present set of stressors.)

· Self-reinforcement (I handled it well.)

Stress inoculation training is aimed at helping employees cope with stress rather than at changing the

stressors themselves. Its major value is sensitizing people to the presence of stress and preparing them to

take personal action. Self-appraisal and self-regulation of stress can free people from total reliance on

others for stress management. Given the multitude of organizational conditions that can cause stress, such

self-control is a valuable adjunct to interventions aimed at changing the conditions themselves.

Health Facilities. A growing number of organizations are providing facilities for helping employees cope

with stress. Elaborate exercise facilities are maintained by such firms as Xerox, Weyerhaeuser, and PepsiCo.

Similarly, more than five hundred companies (e.g., Exxon, Mobil, and Chase Manhattan Bank) operate

corporate cardiovascular fitness programs.

In addition to exercise facilities, some companies, such as McDonald's and Equitable Life Assurance

Society, provide biofeedback facilities in which managers take relaxation breaks using biofeedback devices

to monitor respiration and heart rate. Feedback of such data helps managers lower their respiration and

heart rates. Some companies provide time for employees to meditate, and other firms have stay-well

programs that encourage healthy diets and lifestyles.

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