This document discusses stress and its effects in the workplace. It defines stress as the unconscious fight or flight response triggered by demands. There are various approaches to understanding stress, such as the homeostatic view that stress disrupts equilibrium, and the cognitive view that individual appraisal determines what is stressful. Stress can have negative health, behavioral, and work-related impacts but also some benefits in limited amounts. The document outlines strategies for managing and preventing stress at the individual and organizational level.

1. 4e
Nelson/Quick
Chapter 7
Stress and
Well-Being at
Work
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2. What Is Stress?
 Unconscious preparation to fight or flee that a
person experiences when faced with any demand
 Stressor: Person or event that triggers the stress
response
 Distress or strain: Adverse psychological, physical,
behavioral, and organizational consequences that
may arise as a result of stressful events
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3. 4 Approaches to Stress
 Homeostatic/medical approach
 Stress occurs when an external, environmental
demand upsets an individual’s natural steady-state
balance
 Homeostasis: Steady state of bodily functioning and
equilibrium
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4. Cognitive Appraisal
 Individuals differ in their appraisal of events and
people
 Perception and cognitive appraisal determines what
is stressful
 Culture affects the perception of stress
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5. Cognitive Appraisal
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Problem-focused coping emphasizes managing
the stressor
Emotion-focused coping emphasizes managing
your response

6. Person-Environment Fit
 Confusing and conflicting expectations of a person
in a social role create stress
 Person-environment fit occurs when one’s skills and
abilities match a clearly defined set of role
expectations
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7. Psychoanalytic
 Stress results from the discrepancy between the
idealized self (ego-ideal) and the real self-image
 Ego-ideal: Embodiment of a person’s perfect self
 Self-image: How a person sees himself or herself,
both positively and negatively
 Discrepancy between the two elements of
personality is directly proportional to the amount of
stress experienced
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8. The Stress Response
Release of chemical messengers
Activation of sympathetic nervous
and endocrine system
Triggering of mind-body changes that
prepare the person for fight or flight
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9. Beyond the Book:
Stress Check
 How often do the following happen to you? Always (3), often (2), sometimes
(1), or never (0)? Rate each statement on a scale from 0 to 3, as honestly as
you can and without spending too much time on any one statement.
 Am I Overstressed?
1. I have to make important snap judgments and decisions.
2. I am not consulted about what happens on my job or in my classes.
3. I feel I am underpaid.
4. I feel that no matter how hard I work, the system will mess it up.
5. I do not get along with some of my coworkers or fellow students.
6. I do not trust my superiors at work or my professors at school.
7. The paperwork burden on my job or at school is getting to me.
8. I feel people outside the job or the university do not respect what I do.
 Record your score as the sum of your responses.
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10. Beyond the Book:
Stress Check
 How often do the following happen to you? Always (3), often (2), sometimes (1), or
never (0)? Rate each statement on a scale from 0 to 3, as honestly as you can and
without spending too much time on any one statement.
 Am I Angry?
1. I feel that people around me make too many irritating mistakes.
2. I feel annoyed because I do good work or perform well in school, but no one appreciates it.
3. When people make me angry, I tell them off.
4. When I am angry, I say things I know will hurt people.
5. I lose my temper easily.
6. I feel like striking out at someone who angers me.
7. When a coworker or fellow student makes a mistake, I tell him or her about it.
8. I cannot stand being criticized in public.
 Record your score as the sum of your responses, and add it to your score from the
previous section.
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11. Beyond the Book:
Stress Check
 To find your level of anger and potential for aggressive behavior, add your
scores from both quiz parts.
 40–48: The red flag is waving, and you had better pay attention. You are in
the danger zone. You need guidance from a counselor or mental health
professional, and you should be getting it now.
 30–39: The yellow flag is up. Your stress and anger levels are too high, and
you are feeling increasingly hostile. You are still in control, but it would not
take much to trigger a violent flare of temper.
 10–29: Relax, you are in the broad normal range. Like most people, you get
angry occasionally, but usually with some justification. Sometimes you
take overt action, but you are not likely to be unreasonably or
excessively aggressive.
 0–9: Congratulations! You are in great shape. Your stress and anger are well
under control, giving you a laid-back personality not prone to violence.
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12. Table 7.1 - Work and Nonwork
Demands
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13. Table 7.1 - Work and Nonwork
Demands
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14. Positive Stress
 Some stressful activities enhance a person’s ability
to manage stressful situations
 Stress can provide a needed energy boost
 Yerkes-Dodson law - Indicates that stress leads to
improved performance up to an optimum point
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15. Figure 7.1 - Yerkes-Dodson Law
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16. Individual Distress
Medical illness
• Heart disease, strokes, peptic ulcers, headaches, and
backaches
Behavioral problems
• Substance abuse, violence, accidents
Work-related psychological disorders
• Depression, burnout, psychosomatic disorders
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17. Organizational Distress
 Participation problem: Cost associated with
absenteeism, tardiness, strikes and work stoppages,
and turnover
 Performance decrement: Cost resulting from poor
quality or low quantity of production, grievances,
and unscheduled machine downtime and repair
 Compensation award: Organizational cost resulting
from court awards for job distress
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18. Type A Behavior Patterns
 Complex of personality and behavioral
characteristics
 Competitiveness
 Time urgency
 Social status insecurity
 Aggression
 Hostility
 Quest for achievements
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19. Personality Hardiness
 Personality characterized by challenge,
commitment, and control
 Is resistant to distress
 Coping strategies
 Transformational coping: Way of managing stressful
events by changing them into less subjectively
stressful events
 Regressive coping - Passive avoidance of events and
decreased interaction with the environment
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20. Self-Reliance
 Healthy, secure, interdependent pattern of behavior
related to how people form and maintain
supportive attachments with others
 Counterdependence: Unhealthy, insecure pattern
of behavior that leads to separation in relationships
with other people
 Overdependence: Unhealthy, insecure pattern of
behavior that leads to preoccupied attempts to
achieve security through relationships
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21. Figure 7.2 - Framework for
Preventative Stress Maintenance
SOURCE: J. D. Quick, R. S. Horn, and J. C. Quick, “Health Consequences of Stress,” Journal of Organizational Behavior Management 8, No. 2 (Fall
1986): 21. Reprinted by permission of (Taylor & Francis Ltd, http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals).
©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
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22. Organizational Stress Prevention
 Job redesign - Increased worker control reduces
distress and strain without reducing productivity
 Goal setting - Increases task motivation while
reducing role conflict and ambiguity
 Role negotiation - Allows individuals to modify their
work roles
 Social support systems - Team building provides
social support
©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
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23. Figure 7.3 - Job Strain Model
SOURCE: Republished with permission of ABC-CLIO Inc., from Work Stress: Health Care Systems in the Workplace, J. C. Quick, R. S. Bhagat, J. E.
Dalton, and J. D. Quick. © 1987; permission conveyed through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.
©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
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24. Figure 7.4 - Social Support at Work
and Home
SOURCE: J. C. Quick, J. D. Quick, D. L. Nelson, and J. J. Hurrell, Jr., Preventive Stress Management in Organizations (Washington, D.C.:
American Psychological Association, 1997), 198. Reprinted with permission.
©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
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25. Individual Preventive Stress
Management
Primary
prevention
Positive
thinking
Time
management
Leisure time
activities
Secondary
prevention
Physical
exercise
Relaxation
Diet
Tertiary
prevention
Opening up
Professional
help
©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
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