The document discusses the concept of worker stress, its sources, effects, and coping strategies within the context of industrial/organizational psychology. It identifies various stressors, including situational and organizational factors, as well as individual traits that contribute to stress levels. The document also emphasizes the importance of understanding stress, measuring it, and implementing both individual and organizational strategies to manage it effectively.

1. Worker Stress
and Negative Employee
Attitudes and Behaviors
Introduction to
Industrial/Organizational
Psychology by Ronald E. Riggio

2. Defining Worker Stress
 A stressor is an environmental event that is
perceived by an individual to be threatening.
 Worker stress involves the physiological
and/or psychological reactions to events
that are perceived to be threatening or
taxing.
 Negative stress (or distress) can cause
stress-related illness and can affect
absenteeism, turnover, and work
performance.

3.  For example, imagine a worker with little
previous experience with computer systems
applying for and being hired as a
communication specialist, only to find out that
the job requires a thorough knowledge of
various computer networking systems.
 Richard Lazarus (1991), in his “transactional”
view of worker stress, saw stress as resulting
from the worker’s perception that a certain
environmental event is a threat or a challenge,
factoring in their perception of how capable they
will be at managing the threat

4.  The physiological reactions to stress include signs of arousal
such as increased heart and respiratory rates, elevated blood
pressure, and profuse sweating.
 The psychological reactions to distress include feeling
anxiety, fear, frustration, and despair, as well as appraising
or evaluating the stressful event and its impact, thinking
about the stressful experience, and mentally preparing to
take steps to try to deal with the stress.
 In many ways, stress is a perceptual process.
 An event that one individual perceives to be stressful may not
be labeled as such by someone else. For example, making a
formal presentation in front of a large audience may be
perceived as extremely stressful for the average college
student, but may be perceived as energizing (and perhaps
fun) by a person who is accustomed to public speaking.
 Because stress may cause a variety of reactions and
feelings, and because perceptions of stress may vary from
person to person, stress has not been particularly easy to
define, and it is very difficult to measure.

5. Sources of Worker Stress
 Situational stress is stress arising from
certain conditions that exist in the work
environment or the worker’s personal life.
 Stressful occupations include air traffic
controller, health care provider, police
officer, and firefighter.
 Characteristics of jobs related to worker
stress include heavy workload, poor
working conditions, physical dangers, and
dealing with difficult clients and coworkers.

6. Sources of Worker Stress
 Organizational sources of worker stress
include work task stressors, such as:
 Work overload, which results when a job
requires excessive speed, output, or
concentration.
 Underutilization, resulting from workers
feeling that their knowledge, skills, or
energy are not being fully used.

7. Sources of Worker Stress
 Organizational sources of worker stress
include work role stressors, such as:
 Job ambiguity, which results from a lack
of clearly defined jobs and/or work tasks.
 Lack of control, a feeling of having little
input or effect on the job and/or work
environment.
 Physical work conditions, including
extreme temperatures, loud/distracting
noises, crowding, poor lighting and
ventilation.
 Interpersonal stress, which results from
difficulties dealing with others (coworkers,
customers, supervisors) in the workplace.

8. Sources of Worker Stress
 Organizational sources of worker stress include
work role stressors, such as:
 Emotional labor, which involves the demands of
regulating and controlling emotions in the
workplace.
 Harassment, including sexual harassment,
harassment due to group membership (e.g.,
gender, race, sexual orientation), and being
singled out by a coworker or supervisor.
 Organizational change, including mergers,
changes in work technology, and
personnel/managerial changes
 Work-family conflict, which results from efforts
to balance competing demands of work and
family.

10. Sources of Worker Stress
 Individual (dispositional) sources of work
stress include:
 The Type A behavior pattern, a
personality characterized by excessive
drive, competitiveness, impatience, and
hostility.
 Susceptibility to stress vs. hardiness,
the notion that some people may be more
resistant to the health-damaging effects of
stress.
 Self-efficacy, an individual’s beliefs in
his/her abilities to engage in courses of
action that will lead to desired outcomes.

11.  This behavior pattern is particularly significant because there is
evidence that persons who possess the Type A personality are slightly
more prone to develop stress-related coronary heart disease, including
fatal heart attacks, than persons who do not have the behavior pattern,
termed Type Bs (Booth-Kewley & Friedman, 1987).
 An important question is, how does the Type A behavior pattern relate
to stress and to stress-related heart disease?
 Early research on Type A behavior hypothesized that it was the Type
A’s hardworking, competitive drive that caused stress and subsequent
heart problems (Rosenman et al., 1964).
 Later research, however, suggested that the Type A’s underlying
hostility, and the lack of appropriate expression of that hostility, is also
partly responsible for increased stress reactions in Type As (Friedman
et al., 1985).
 Other studies suggest that the more global construct of “negative
afectivity”—the expression of negative emotions, such as anger,
hostility, anxiety, impatience, and aggression—is what combines with a
Type A personality to increase stress-related health risks.

12.  Individual (dispositional) sources of
work stress include:
 Susceptibility to stress vs.
hardiness, the notion that some people
may be more resistant to the health-
damaging effects of stress.
 Self-efficacy, an individual’s beliefs in
his/her abilities to engage in courses of
action that will lead to desired
outcomes.

13.  The concept of hardiness was outlined by psychologist Suzanne
Kobasa (1982), who argued that hardy personality types are
resistant to the harmful effects of stress because of their style of
dealing with stressful events.
 A meta-analysis shows that hardy individuals experience less
stress and are better at coping with stress than nonhardy
individuals (Eschleman et al., 2010). Rather than viewing a
stressful situation as a threat, hardy types view it as a challenge
and derive meaning from these challenging experiences (Britt et
al., 2001).
 Moreover, they also believe that they can control and infuence
the course of their lives (a sense of lack of control can contribute
to stress) and are committed to their jobs.
 Conversely, a lack of hardiness is associated with higher levels of
self-perceived stress, and there is evidence that such “unhardy”
or “disease-prone” persons may be more susceptible to stress-
related illnesses and depression (Kobasa & Puccetti, 1983). Thus,
it appears that certain types of workers are more “stress prone.”
Tat is, they are more likely to sufer stress-related physical illness
and psychological symptoms (depression, anxiety, etc.) than are
more hardy workers.

14.  Self-efficacy, an individual’s beliefs in his/her abilities to
engage in courses of action that will lead to desired outcomes.
 In other words, self-efficacy is related to one’s sense of
competence and effectiveness.
 Self-efficacy is a very important concept that not only relates to
one’s ability to cope with stressful situations (i.e., the
possession of coping self-efficacy), but is also an important
factor relating to a worker’s ability to perform his or her job (job-
related self-efficacy), to lead a work team (leadership self-
efficacy), and to deal effectively with relationships at work
(relationship self-efficacy).
 There is evidence that a sense of self-efficacy can have
positive effects in reducing stress in the workplace (Rennesund
& Saksvik, 2010).
 In one study, it was found that having a sense of control over a
stressful work situation only decreased stress if the employees
had a high sense of self-efficacy about their abilities to do their
jobs under stress and mistrain (Jimmieson, 2000).

16. Measurement of Worker Stress
 Physiological measures of stress
include blood pressure monitoring,
EKGs for heart rate, or blood tests for
stress-linked hormones (cortisol) and
cholesterol.
 Difficulties with such measures include
variation of such physiological processes
within each person throughout the day
and variation between individuals.
 Medical personnel are needed to
administer such measures.

17. Measurement of Worker Stress
 Self-report assessments of stress
include reports about organizational
conditions and reports about
psychological and/or physical states.
 Reports on organizational conditions
involve questions about job autonomy,
feedback, task identity, task significance,
skill variety, workload, etc.
 Self-report measures of psychological
/physical stress include the Stress
Diagnostic Survey, the Occupational
Stress Indicator, and the Job Stress
Survey.

18. Measurement of Worker Stress
 Measurement of stressful life events
involves self-reports of significant events in a
person’s recent history that can cause stress.
 One measure is the Social Readjustment
Rating Scale, a checklist where individuals
total the numerical “stress severity” scores
associated with significant life events
experienced in the past year.
 Research suggests that persons with high
personal stress indexes perform more
poorly, have higher absenteeism, and
change jobs more frequently (Bhagat, 1983).

20. Measurement of Worker Stress
 Person-environment fit (P-E fit) refers to
the match between a worker’s abilities, needs,
and values, and organizational demands,
rewards, and values.
 P-E fit is positively related to organizational
commitment and negatively related to
turnover (Hult, 2005).
 Measurement of P-E fit involves assessing
worker skills and abilities, along with job
demands and features of the work
environment.

21. Effects of Worker Stress
 Stress-related illnesses include
ulcers, colitis, high blood pressure,
heart disease, and migraine
headaches. Stress can also worsen
common colds and infections.
 The relationship between stress and
performance is complex, and generally
is curvilinear (involving an inverted U),
where both very low and very high
stress are associated with poor
performance.

23. Effects of Worker Stress
 Job burnout is a syndrome resulting
from prolonged exposure to work
stress that leads to withdrawal from
the organization.
 Burnout is especially high in human
service professions.
 Burnout occurs in three phases:
1. Emotional exhaustion
2. Depersonalization
3. Feelings of low personal accomplishment

24. You May Be On The Road To
Burnout If:

25. Signs of Burnout

28. Difference between stress
and burnout
 Being burned out means feeling empty, devoid of
motivation, and beyond caring.
 People experiencing burnout often don’t see any hope of
positive change in their situations.
 Burnout is being all dried up.
 One other difference between stress and burnout: While
you’re usually aware of being under a lot of stress, you
don’t always notice burnout when it happens.

29. Difference between Stress
and Burnout

31. Coping with Worker Stress
 Individual coping strategies are techniques
such as exercise, meditation, or cognitive
restructuring that can be used to deal with
work stress.
 More efficient work methods, including
time management, may also be used,
although their success depends on
individual commitment.
 Vacation time and voluntary absences may
also be used to reduce stress, although
missed work may increase stress upon the
employee’s return to work.

32. Coping with Worker Stress
 Organizational coping strategies are
techniques that organizations can use to
reduce stress for all or most employees.
 Organizational strategies include:
improving person-job fit and employee
training and orientation; increase
employees’ sense of control; eliminating
punitive management; removing
hazardous work conditions; providing a
supportive work environment; and
improving organizational communication.

33.  Discussion
 How can you design effective work
stress management program as an
industrial psychologist?

34.  According to Matteson and Ivancevich
(1987), most stress management
programs take one of two forms:
 Knowledge acquisition programs or
skill training programs. Knowledge
acquisition programs provide
participants with some information
about stress and a number of coping
techniques.

35.  1) Overview of stress and its potential consequences (3
hours)—This might include a lecture and readings on
facts and myths about stress, the impact of stress on
physical and psychological health and on work
performance, and potential sources of stress.
 2) Self-analysis: Learning about your personal stress (3
hours)—This section can include assessments of
personal stressors using instruments such as the
stressful life events scale or workers’ self-reports.
 3) Methods of coping with work stress (3 hours)—here,
various individual coping strategies are presented and
perhaps demonstrated.
 4) Developing a personalized coping plan (3 hours)— In
this final part, participants work on developing
customized programs for managing stress, including
setting personal stress management goals and finding
means to assess their attainment

36.  An example of a step-by-step problem-solving
skill program developed by Wasik (1984) is
illustrated next:
 1 Identify problem (What is my problem?)
 2 Select goals (What do I want to accomplish
by solving the problem?)
 3 generate alternatives (What else can I do?)
 4 Review the consequences (What might
happen?)
 5 Make a decision (What is my decision?)
 6 Implement the decision (Did I do what I
decided?)
 7 Evaluate the decision (Does it work?)

37. Negative Employee Attitudes
and Behaviors
 Counterproductive work behaviors
(CWBs) are deviant, negative behaviors
that are harmful to an organization and its
workers.
 Meta-analyses suggest that CWBs are more
prevalent in younger employees and those
with lower job satisfaction (Lau et. al., 2003).
 CWBs, and workplace aggression and
violence, are linked to trait negative
affectivity, anger, and other personality
variables (Douglas and Martinko, 2001).
 The incidence of CWBs is negatively related
to the incidence of organizational citizenship
behaviors (Dalal, 2005).

38. Negative Employee Attitudes
and Behaviors
 Alcohol and drug use in the workplace is
related to workplace accidents, decreased
productivity, increased absenteeism and
turnover; it costs billions of dollars
annually.
 Workers who report problems with alcohol
or drugs have greater job instability and
lower job satisfaction.
 Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs)
involve counseling that is provided for a
variety of worker problems, particularly
drug and alcohol abuse.

39. Discussion Questions
 1) List the sources of stress in your own life. Ask a friend
to do the same. Are there implications for defining and
understanding important differences in your two lists, or
are they quite similar? What are the implications for
defining and understanding stress?
 2) Consider how the work world will be changing in the
next several years. What are the implications for worker
stress? Will there be more of it or less?
 3) Based on the material in the chapter, design a stress
management program for use in an organization.

40. 2
 Technological Advancements: Automation, artificial intelligence, and
digitalization are likely to reshape job roles and require workers to adapt
to new technologies. While this can lead to increased efficiency and
productivity, it may also create uncertainty and job insecurity for those
whose roles are affected. Workers may experience stress related to the
need to upskill or reskill to remain competitive in the evolving job
market.
 Remote Work: The rise of remote work, accelerated by the COVID-19
pandemic, is expected to continue as more companies adopt flexible
work arrangements. While remote work offers benefits such as greater
flexibility and work-life balance, it can also blur the boundaries between
work and personal life, leading to increased stress due to feelings of
isolation, difficulties in unplugging from work, and challenges in
maintaining work relationships.

41.  Gig Economy and Freelancing: The gig economy is expanding, with
more workers opting for freelance or contract work instead of traditional
employment. While this provides flexibility and autonomy, it can also
result in irregular income, lack of job security, and the need to
constantly hustle for new opportunities, leading to financial stress and
uncertainty.
 Workplace Culture and Well-being: There is a growing emphasis on
employee well-being and mental health in the workplace. Companies
are recognizing the importance of creating supportive work
environments, promoting work-life balance, and addressing burnout.
However, the pressure to perform, meet deadlines, and achieve targets
can still contribute to worker stress, especially in high-pressure
industries or competitive environments.
 Global Challenges: Economic volatility, geopolitical tensions, climate
change, and public health crises can have profound effects on the work
world. Uncertainty and instability in the external environment can trickle
down to the workplace, leading to anxiety, job insecurity, and
heightened stress levels among workers.

42. 3
 Title: Thrive: A Stress Management Program
 Objective: To equip employees with practical tools and techniques to
effectively manage stress, enhance well-being, and improve overall
performance.
 Program Components:
 Educational Workshops:
 Conduct regular workshops led by trained professionals on stress
management techniques, including mindfulness, time management, and
resilience building.
 Provide education on the physiological and psychological aspects of
stress to help employees understand its impact on health and productivity.
 Stress Assessment:
 Administer stress assessment surveys periodically to identify common
stressors within the organization.
 Analyze the data to pinpoint areas of improvement and tailor interventions
accordingly.

43.  Mindfulness Training:
 Offer mindfulness meditation sessions to employees, either in person
or through digital platforms.
 Teach mindfulness techniques to enhance present-moment
awareness and reduce stress reactions.
 Physical Wellness Initiatives:
 Encourage regular physical activity by organizing group exercise
classes, walking meetings, or providing gym memberships.
 Promote healthy eating habits through educational sessions and
access to nutritious snacks in the workplace.
 Flexible Work Policies:
 Implement flexible work arrangements, such as telecommuting or
flexible hours, to accommodate employees' individual needs and
reduce stress related to commuting or work-life balance.

44.  Time Management Tools:
 Offer training in effective time management techniques to help
employees prioritize tasks, set realistic goals, and manage workload
effectively.
 Provide access to productivity tools and resources that aid in task
organization and time tracking.
 Resilience Building:
 Conduct resilience-building workshops to help employees develop
coping skills and bounce back from adversity.
 Encourage self-care practices, such as relaxation techniques, hobbies,
or activities that promote mental and emotional well-being.
 Leadership Training:
 Provide leadership training for managers to recognize signs of stress in
their teams and effectively support their employees.
 Encourage managers to lead by example and prioritize their own well-
being to create a positive work environment.

45.  Evaluation and Feedback:
 Collect feedback from participants through surveys or
focus groups to assess the effectiveness of the program.
 Monitor key metrics such as absenteeism, turnover rates,
and employee satisfaction scores to gauge the impact of
stress management initiatives.
 Continuously refine and adapt the program based on
feedback and evolving organizational needs.