Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Managing Stress and

Employee Job

Satisfaction

General Adaptation Syndrome

• “Fight or flight” response is based on classifications made by Dr. Hans Selye regarding a person’s response to stress

• Involves three stages:– Alarm Stage– Resistance Stage– Exhaustion

Three Stages

• Alarm Stage: muscles tense, respiration rate increases, blood pressure and heart rate increase

• Resisting Stage: causes poor decision making and physical illness

Three Stages (cont.)

• Exhaustion: when a person cannot sustain resistance indefinitely, and may cause illnesses such as ulcers or headaches

General Adaptation Syndrome (cont.)

• The General Adaptation Syndrome viewpoint suggests that people can only take so much stress before a serious, debilitating condition results

Benefits of Stress

• To maximize performance, low levels of stress are preferable to stimulate individuals to work harder and accomplish more

• Eustress: term for “good” stress, level of stress that is productive

Causes of Stress

• Personal Factors

• Interpersonal Factors

• Organizational Factors

Personal Factors

• Type A personalities: impatient, competitive, aggressive, always feel like they’re under pressure, do lots of things at once, and have a hard time relaxing

• Type B personalities: more mild-mannered, in less of a hurry, and far less competitive

Personal Factors (cont.)

• Type A men are twice as prone to heart disease and fatal heart attacks as type B individuals

Personal Factors (cont.)

• Type A’s are predisposed to be managers, yet their climb through the ranks may be made at the expense of the company because a type A’s job performance in upper level management is not as good as a type B’s

Personal Factors (cont.)

• It’s very hard for someone who is a type A to change their behavior and adopt a type B style due to the deeply ingrained patterns of behavior

Personal Factors (cont.)

• Changes in one’s life also produce stress, e.g., death of a spouse, or getting fired

• Demographic attributes: Men, whites, and individuals with high income levels report relatively less stress in their lives.

• Job attributes of women and minorities may be responsible for higher stress levels

Interpersonal Factors

• Negative emotion at work: employee jealousy and employee envy

• Employee jealousy: thoughts, emotions,and behaviors that result from loss of self-esteem and loss of outcomes associated with a working relationship

Interpersonal Factors (cont.)

• Employee envy: thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that result from loss of self-esteem in response to another individual obtaining outcomes desired by self

• Studies show:– Males have greater workplace envy– Females have greater workplace jealousy

Interpersonal Factors (cont.)

– Greater jealousy and envy result in lower job satisfaction and intentions to quit

• Envy and jealousy are stress inducers because they arise from the perception of threats in the work environment

Interpersonal Factors (cont.)

• Workplace Romance: Positive personal emotions– Observers of romantic relationships fear

favoritism might occur, or charges of sexual harassment may occur when it turns sour

– As more women are in workforce and longer work hours occur, the likelihood of workplace romance increases

Interpersonal Factors (cont.)

– Known to stimulate gossip and potential fear of exploitation

Organizational Factors

• Responsibility, particularly for other people, is a common organizational cause of stress

• Working conditions: – Assembly lines and piece-rate systems are

stressful due to employee’s lack of control and pressures to produce

Organizational Factors (cont.)

– Work that is not intrinsically rewarding also creates stress

• Emotional labor: an “occupational mask” donned by employees who must always display a positive demeanor to customers, for example, flight attendants

Organizational Factors (cont.)

• Role conflict: when two or more sets of demands are made on an employee so that compliance with one set of demands makes it more difficult to comply with another

• Role ambiguity: the absence of clarity regarding how to perform one’s job

Organizational Factors (cont.)

• Role overload: when too many activities are expected of an employee, given the time available and ability level of employee

• Shift work: involves 20% of the U.S. workforce, and it causes loss of sleep, appetite, depleted social interaction, etc.

Reactions to Stress

• Physical problems:– Ivancevich and Matteson have developed a

model for estimating the annual costs associated with replacing employees lost to heart disease; it is based on:

– Number of employees• Employees in age range of 45 to 65

• Estimated deaths due to heart disease per year, [.6% of total number of employees]

Reactions to Stress (cont.)

• Estimated premature retirement due to heart disease

• Company’s annual personnel losses

• Annual replacement costs: cost of hiring and training

• Alcoholism and drug abuse: affects between 6 and 10 percent of all employees; both are linked to higher levels of stress

Reactions to Stress (cont.)

• Absenteeism, turnover, and dissatisfaction are correlated with stress levels

• Workplace violence: violence and sabotage may result from stress– Involves fairly petty expressions of

aggressive behavior

Reactions to Stress (cont.)

– Characterized as: covert, verbal, involving brief displays of intense anger

• Mass Psychogenic Illness– Five common symptoms:

• Headaches

• Dizziness

• Nausea

• Abdominal cramps

• Cough

Reactions to Stress (cont.)

• Burnout: a reaction to prolonged and energy-depleting difficulties– Primary symptom is feeling drained or used up

– Typically affects people who are highly conscientious and work in helping professions

– Employees may feel that they are not being properly rewarded

– Frustrations lead to apathy and feelings of failure, with physical symptoms of high blood pressure, ulcers, mental symptoms such as depression

Coping with Stress

• Flight or fight• Exercise• Social support• Job redesign• Relaxation

techniques

Coping with Stress (cont.)

• Time management– Time logs– Structuring time– Saying no– Making “to do”

lists

Job Satisfaction

• Refers to one’s thinking, feeling, and action tendencies toward work

• Managers realize that an organization’s performance should be measured in human dimensions as well as financial

Job Satisfaction (cont.)

• Reasons why concern about job is so important to managers: – Moral obligation to make job personally

rewarding– Physical and mental well-being correlated

with job satisfaction– Affects company’s ability to attract and

retain qualified workers

Job Satisfaction (cont.)

• Low levels of job satisfaction are related to:– Turnover– Absenteeism– Union-organizing activity– Filing of grievances

Sources of Job Satisfaction

• Variables consistently correlated with job satisfaction include job level, length of service, and race

• Intrinsic sources: come from within individual, self-administered, e.g., autonomy, sense of challenge, feelings of recognition

Sources of Job Satisfaction (cont.)

• Extrinsic sources: come from outside the individual from the external environment, e.g., working conditions, job security, opportunities to interact with co-workers

• Dual purpose sources: relate to both intrinsic and extrinsic sources, e.g., high salary, rapid career progress

Sources of Job Satisfaction (cont.)

• Expectations often influence satisfaction– New employees have particularly high

expectations– Job-orientation programs that present a

realistic point of view

Sources of Job Satisfaction (cont.)

• Dispositional Influences– Individuals may be predisposed to feel good

or bad about their employment situation, regardless of actual specifics of situation

– Negative affectivity: describes the predisposition to feel dissatisfied with one’s job or life

Consequences of Job Dissatisfaction

• Withdrawal behaviors

• Absenteeism

• Tardiness

• Turnover

• Union activity

• Hostile Actions

Job Satisfaction and Productivity

• Most people believe, intuitively, that people who are satisfied with their jobs are more productive

• Research does not support the above statement

Job Satisfaction and Productivity (cont.)

• Factors that influence productivity include: informal work norms, task interdependence, and machine pacing of production process

• The extent to which satisfaction and performance are positively correlated indicates the degree to which an organization is “healthy”