This document discusses job stress and its causes and effects. It begins by defining stress as a state of tension from extraordinary demands or opportunities. There are two types of stress - eustress, which is positive stress from challenges and excitement, and distress, which is negative stress that is disturbing and anxiety-arousing. Stress can come from organizational factors like role conflicts or personal factors like life changes. Consequences of stress include subjective effects like anxiety, behavioral effects like excessive drinking, cognitive effects like inability to concentrate, and physiological effects like increased heart rate. The document provides strategies for managing stress individually through hobbies and relaxation, and organizationally through role clarity and support. It defines burnout as total depletion from unrealistic work goals and

1. Job Stress

2. At the end of the session, you will be able to:
 Understand what is Job Stress
 The two Faces of Job Stress
 Nature of Stress
 Sources of Stress & Consequences of stress
 Stress Questionnaire
 Management of Stress
 Burnout
Agenda

3. What is Stress?

4. Organisational life is quite stressful. Work
pressures, tight schedules, meetings that
never seem to end on time, unhelpful
colleagues, critical bosses, incompetent
subordinates and a host of other irritating
factors may all have a cumulative effect in
making the lives of modern-day executives
quite miserable
Stress may be understood as a state of
tension experienced by individuals facing
extraordinary demands, constraints or
opportunities.
Job Stress

5. Two Faces of Stress
There are actually two faces to stress, as depicted through Figure.
Optimum Level of Stress
The concept of an appropriate dosage of stress is highly important. Stress
literature indicates that the ultimate goal is to reduce stress. It may be, but not
necessarily. For some people, the level of stimulation is very low; they are bored
and need more excitement and challenge. If stress is a neutral concept, then the
goal is to reduce distress and maintain eustress. Thus, we are concerned with
maintaining balance and equilibrium, realising that it is a dynamic process.
Two Faces of Stress
Constructive stress Destructive stress
High
Rustout Burnout
Low
Low Moderate High

6. As pointed out previously, stress is a state of tension
experienced by individuals facing extraordinary demands,
constraints or opportunities.
Stress can be either positive or negative. For example,
some new work situations can bring us positive
challenges and excitement, while others are very
disturbing and anxiety-arousing.
Nature of Stress- Positive or
Negative

7. Selye considered stress a non-specific response to any demand made upon an
organism. He called the three phases of the defense reaction that a person
establishes when stressed as the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS). Selye called
the defense reaction, general because stressors had effects on several parts of the
body The three stages to syndrome evolution
1. Alarm
2. Resistance
3. Exhaustion
The General Adaptation Syndrome

8. Manifestations of Stress
• Physical
• Mental
• Physiological
8

9. Stress has organizational and personal factors
Causes for Stress
Organisational Factors
1. Occupational demands
2. Role conflict
3. Role ambiguity
4. Role overload
5. Role underload
6. Interpersonal relationships
7. Ineffective communication
8. Responsibility
9. Job chang
10. Climate within a company

10. Personal Factors
1. The impact of life change
2. Type-A and Type-B personalities
3. Externals vs. internals and the belief
in external locus of control
4. Other reasons
Causes for Stress

11. Consequences of Stress
 Subjective effects: Anxiety, aggression, apathy, boredom, depression, fatigue, frustration, guilt
and shame, irritability and bad temper, moodiness, low self-esteem, tension, nervousness, and
loneliness.
 Behavioural effects: Accident proneness, drug use, emotional outbursts, excessive eating or
loss of appetite, excessive drinking and smoking, excitability, impulsive behaviour, impaired
speech, nervous laughter, restlessness and trembling.
 Cognitive effects: Inability to make decisions and concentrate, frequent forgetfulness,
hypersensitivity to criticism and mental blocks.
 Physiological effects: Increased blood and urine catecholamines and corticosteroids, increased
blood glucose levels, increased heart rate and blood pressure, dryness of the mouth, sweating,
dilation of the pupils, difficulty in breathing, hot and cold spells, lump in the throat, numbness and
tingling in parts of the limbs.
 Organisational effects: Absenteeism, poor industrial relations and poor productivity, high accident
and labour turnover rates, poor organisational climate, antagonism at work and job dissatisfaction.
(Source: T.Cox, Stress, Baltimore, University Park Press, 1978)

12. Some Questions about You and your Job
Yes No
 Are you constantly doing more than one thing at a time?
 When travelling do you feel the travel time is wasted?
 Do you get angry when things do not run smoothly?
 Do you feel you never get to really finish one thing before moving on to the next?
 Are you constantly being told you work too hard?
 Do you work more than 10 hours on a workday?
 Are you too busy to develop a creative hobby like gardening, bird-watching, painting etc.?
 Do you take only 10 minutes to finish your meals or skip them?
 Are you too busy to go outside during the day for at least ½ an hour?
 Do you get less than 7 hours of sleep at night?
(if you have a majority of ‘yes’ as answers then it is recommended that you attend courses in
time management)

13.  Keep a Pet
 Say your Prayers
 Sing Aloud
 Laughter, The Elixir!
 Sleep Right
 Be Good at Loving
 Spend Time with Children
 Take a Walk
 Make Friends
 Enjoy the Idiot Box
 Cultivate Interests
 Dare to Dream
Management of Stress- Individual

14. 1. Role clarity
2. Supportive climate
3. Clear career paths
4. Company-wide programmes
Management of Stress- Organisational

15. Stress At the Workplace

16. Stress At the Workplace- BMW SA

17. It may be defined as the total depletion
of physical and mental resources
caused by excessive striving to
reach an unrealistic work-related
goal.
Burnout

18. 1. Chronic fatigue
2. Anger at those making demands,
3. Self-criticism
4. Negativism and irritability
5. A sense of being besieged
6. A hair-trigger display of emotions.
Symptoms of Burnout

19. W.S Paine suggested four technique to reduce burnout. These are:
 Identification
 Prevention
 Mediation
 Remediation
Burnout- Remedy