Partial notes on BBA 205 course for students of IP University (Delhi) and anyone who wants a beginner's level knowledge. Citations are reflected in the slides.

1. Stress Management
BBA 205
Business Ethics & CSR
Dr. Sudhir Bisht
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2. What is Stress?
• Stress can be defined as a response of the body to any demand
placed on it. Stress can be influenced by both external or internal
factors.
• It can also be defined as a demand situation (internal or external)
placed on our physical and psychological functioning that threatens
an individual adaptation to a given situation.
• Individuals behave differently during stress.
• The individual’s judgement that a stressful situation exists, initiates
a stress response.
• Double edged sword. We rely on stress in order to survive
• But excessive, unmanaged stress can be unhealthy.
• When positive, it propels us into action
• When negative it can lead to fear, anxiety, distrust, rejection, anger,
depression.
• It can lead to negative impact on health. Insomnia, rashes, ulcers,
high BP. Even psychosomatic disease.
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3. Stress can cause or enhance
Psychosomatic disorder.
• Psychosomatic means mind (psyche) and body
(soma). A psychosomatic disorder is a disease
which involves both mind and body.
• Some physical diseases are thought to be
particularly prone to be made worse by mental
factors such as stress and anxiety.
• Your current mental state can affect how bad a
physical disease is at any given time
• Psychosomatic limp example
• Psoriasis, eczema also are some pschosomatic
disorders
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4. The Stress Process
The environmental factor
•Home
•Work conditions
•Personal life characteristics
• Physical condition
•Time deadlines
The Individual factor
• Personality
• Attitude
• Demographics
• Mood
• Deadlines
Judgement of Threat
State of Stress
Coping
Successful Approach
style like adaptive
Unsuccessful
avoidance style 4

5. Studies in stress: Flight or Fight Response
• Adverse life events and illness. From the days of
Ramayana
• Walter Canon, an American Psychologist (1932)
talked about “Fight or Flight response”
• If walking in a dimly lit street, confronted by a
strong man with a club can lead to gush in
adrenalin. This can further lead to increased
heartbeat, tension of muscle, increasing blood
flow, pupil dilation and even increased blood
sugar level.
• You can stand your ground, fight or run away. Or
any other action.
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6. What are Stressors
• A stressor is a chemical or biological agent, environmental
condition, external stimulus or an event that causes stress to an
organism.
An event that triggers the stress response may include:
• environmental stressors (hypo or hyper-thermic temperatures,
elevated sound levels, over-illumination, overcrowding)
• daily stress events (e.g., traffic, lost keys, money, quality and
quantity of physical activity)
• life changes (e.g., divorce, bereavement)
• workplace stressors (e.g., high job demand vs. low job control,
repeated or sustained exertions, forceful exertions, extreme
postures)
• chemical stressors (e.g., tobacco, alcohol, drugs[specify])
• social stressor (e.g., societal and family demands)
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7. General adaptation syndrome (GAS
• Hans Selye (1956) a Hungarian- Canadian endocrinologist .
• The general adaptation syndrome (GAS), developed by Hans Selye, is
a profile of how organisms respond to stress. Stress reactivity process.
• GAS is characterized by three phases: He gave stressors to bunch of
rats
• a nonspecific mobilization phase, which promotes sympathetic
nervous system activity; Alarm and shock phase. Body identifies
stressful stimulus.
• a resistance phase, during which the organism makes efforts to cope
with the threat. Fight the situation or try to get adapted to the
situation.
• and an exhaustion phase, which occurs if the organism fails to
overcome the threat and depletes its physiological resources. Or
recovery phase (Recovery stage follows when the system's
compensation mechanisms have successfully overcome the stressor
effect (or have completely eliminated the factor which caused the
stress)
• What happens when a man from village goes to a Disco for the first
time? 7

8. Eustress and Distress
• Hans Selye defined stress as “the nonspecific
response of the body to any demand made
upon it.
• That means good things (e.g., job promotion)
to which we must adapt (termed eustress) and
bad things (e.g., bereavement in the family) to
which we must adapt (termed distress); both
are experienced the same physiologically
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9. Symbolic stressor V Biological stressor
• ATW Simones (1961) said that human brain
has failed to develop at a pace needed to
respond to symbolic stressors of 20th Century.
• Symbolic threat is a threat that is not a threat
to our biological survival. For example fear of
being ridiculed is a symbolic threat but brain
doesn’t differentiate between symbolic threat
and survival threat immediately
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10. Event Stressor V Chronic Stress
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11. Major Causes of Stress
Organizational Individual causes Group causes Extra organizational
causes
1) Restructuring
2) Change in
operations, work
place or working
conditions
3) New work culture
4) Occupational
demands (HR
manager who has to
retrench )
5) Role conflict
6) Role ambiguity
7) Poor leadership or
poor work culture or
Organizational
environment as a
whole
1) Life and career
changes, job
changes
2) Personality type.
Job profile profile
and mismatch.
3) Attitude towards
competition,
success and
happiness on the
job
4) Cultural
differences
5) Coping with
events like
changing house,
health etc
French and Caplan
(1973) showed that
low trust, low
support, low interest
and large power
differences often
cause stress
1) Lack of group
cohesiveness
2) Lack of social
support
3) Intra group
conflicts
1) Incraesing
urbanisation
2) Ageing
population.
Increasing life
expectancy.
Ageing parents at
home
3) Changing gender
roles
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12. Stress and Performance relationship
Yerkes Dodson law modelled as U-shaped curve.
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Yerkes-Dodson-Law-modeled-as-U-shaped-Curve-When-the-stress-level-is-low-
the_fig1_221586428
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13. Consequences of Stress
Stress Management
&
Detached Involvement
Stress Management
Unit II
Dr Sudhir Bisht
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14. Stress Management
• Identify sources of stress
• Stress highly individualistic
• Some people thrive in Stress
• Some have low threshold level
• Objective is to perform at optimum capacity
• Example of Allahabad depot Lube plant
• Dad’s report card
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15. Source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI7wzyFmtL0&t=1625s
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16. How Stress impacts Organizations
• Health impact: Stress causes a variety of health problems,
including high blood pressure, upset stomach, ulcers,
headaches, palpitations, fatigue, sweating, weight changes,
diarrhea, nausea, dizziness, dry mouth, appetite changes,
sexual problems, stiff neck, muscle aches and back pain
• Absenteeism
• Low employee morale, conflicts
• Poor Performance and productivity
• Employee turnover
• Production Targets impacted
• Customer interface negative as employees stressed
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17. 17

18. Fight or Flight concept of Stress
management
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19. Managing Stress: Company
perspective & Individual perspective
Source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI7wzyFmtL0&t=1625s
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20. Source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI7wzyFmtL0&t=1625s 20

21. Source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI7wzyFmtL0&t=1625s 21

22. Source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI7wzyFmtL0&t=1625s
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23. Source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI7wzyFmtL0&t=1625s
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24. Baba Ramdev on Stress Management
by Yoga
......VideosOne Click DownloadsBaba
Ramdev on Stress management.mp4
(saved in Dr Sudhir Bisht PC)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBNyIsPS_
0s
(Web link for students)
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25. How Organizations can reduce Stress
• Stress free working environment
• Good working conditions
• Work as per capacity
Type A and Type B personalities
Thomas Profiling DISC profile (Dominance, Influence,
Steadiness and Compliance )
• Transparent systems of work. Well defined SOPs
• Respect for private space and personal time
• Clearly defined goals and incentive/ reward system
• Clear communication
• Ethical environment
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26. How Organizations can reduce Stress
• Clear Role profile:
Also known as job evaluation is a systematic
approach used to determine the relative value (or
size) of roles within an organization by measuring the
demands and responsibilities of the role (but not the
performance of the individual undertaking the role).
• Clear Job profile and Job description:
A job profile is an outline, a high-level overview of a
position.
A job description is a written statement which
includes the working conditions, scope, purpose,
duties and responsibilities of a job along with the
title of the individual to whom the position reports.
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27. Detached Involvement/ Attachment
One of the most powerful personal and professional tools for successful living is the
consistent practice of detached involvement.
Focusing on the process, and not on the outcome, is difficult for many of us. That’s
because we tend to be future-focused rather than presently involved.
Whatever it is we’re trying to accomplish and achieve, we’re often hurrying to see the
results, and we want them quickly and our way.
Control, however, is illusory. Detached involvement means doing our best and letting
go.
If you’ve proposed a plan at the office, started a project with your team, offered your
services to a prospective client, applied for a position, etc., know that there are many
factors at work and give them time and space to materialize.
While seemingly contradictory, the practice of detached involvement produces harmony
and balance. If we look to nature, plants and animals don’t try to rush the seasons and
accelerate their growth. At the same time, they’re not careless and complacent. They’re
highly involved in nesting, charging, lumbering, fluttering, swinging, flying, swimming,
blooming, blossoming, rooting, germinating, sprouting, yielding, etc. They’re busily and
presently involved with activities that produce important survival outcomes, but are
completely detached from fretting and worrying about future results.
By freeing ourselves from the futile task of controlling how things will turn out, we can
tap into greater energy reserves and resources that will bring out our best efforts in the
moment. And that is one of the greatest secrets to achieving success.
Sourc: https://www.organiccomm.com/success-secret-detached-involvement/
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28. Detached Attachment is when you let go of control and
allow your possessions to come and pass. You are not the
owner but a caretaker. Appreciate, while it belongs to you
and when the time comes; let go as if it was never meant
for you.
Like in The Bhagwad Gita Krishna tells Arjuna that acting
with detachment means doing the right thing for its own
sake, because it needs to be done, without worrying about
success or failure.
Detachment takes practice. You need to work on it day by
day to instill it in your life. As someone who is been
practising this for quite some time now, I have listed a few
points that can help you through the process.
Understanding your true self:
Understanding the true nature of things:
Changing your perspective:
No need for renunciation
Source: https://thriveglobal.com/stories/practising-the-art-of-
detached-
attachment/#targetText=What%20is%20Detached%20attachme
nt%3F,the%20owner%20but%20a%20caretaker.
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