Managing individual stress ch 9 Flashcards
Stress is
An adaptive response moderated by individual differences
A consequence of any action, event, or situation that places special demands on a person
A stressor is
a potentially harmful or threatening external event or situation
For something to cause stress it must be seen as a source of
threat, challenge or harm
Key factor to determine if an experience is likely to cause stress
- importance
- uncertainty
- Duration (acute or chronic?)
Stressors
- Individual
- group level
- organizational
- nonwork
Stress moderators are
A condition, behavior, or characteristic that
intensifies or weakens the relationship
between stressors, stress, and consequences
Stress moderators
Personality
type A behaviour pattern
social support
Type A Behaviour Pattern (TABP)
- Chronic struggle to get as much done as possible in
the shortest time period - Speaks explosively, rushes others to finish
- Preoccupied with deadlines
- Always in a struggle with people, things, events
- Aggressive, ambitious, competitive, forceful
- Impatient, hates to wait
- Work-oriented
- Anger and hostility toward others
Ex of moderators
age and gender
social support mechanism
Personality
Heredity
work overload
qualitative
quantitative
work underload consequences
- Boredom
- decrease in motivation
- Absenteeism
- apathy
Optimal stress consequences
- High motivation
- High energy
- Sharp perception
- Calmness
Work overload consequences
- Insomnia
- Irritability
- Increased errors
- Indecisiveness
Signs of stress in employees
- New pattern of tardiness or absences
- Normally neat, accurate work becomes messy, incomplete, or sloppy
- Easygoing employee who gets along well with others becomes irritable and discourteous
- social employee becomes withdrawn
- Good decision maker starts making bad decisions or seems unable to make them
- Normally well-groomed employee neglects
his or her appearance
Individual stressors
- Role ambiguity
- role overload
- Role conflict
- Responsibility for people
- Harassment
- Pace of change
Group level stressors
- managerial behaviour
- Lack of cohesiveness
- intragroup conflict
- Status Incongruence (verbal/ nonverbal contradictions)
Organizational level stressors
- culture
- technology
- management style
- Organisational design
- Politics
Non work
- elder and child care
- economy
- Lack of mobility
- volunteer work
- collage classes
- quality of life- work life balance
- health
significant stressors
- participation
- intra and inter group relationships
- Organisational politics
- Organizational culture
- downsizing
- Inadequate career development opportunities
- lack of performance feedback
- Non-work stressors
Cognitive appraisal
perceptual process of evaluating a situation explaining peoples interpretation of stressors differ.
Primary appraisal
categorizing a stressor as positive, negative, or meaningless
secondary appraisal
determination of whether something can be done to reduce the stress
stress coping focuses
- problem focused
- emotion focused
problem-focused coping
The actions taken by an individual to cope with a stressful person, situation, or event.
