Workplace stress Flashcards
Type A behaviour
Defined by competitiveness behaviour patterns such as trying to do many things at once and need for control. This can increase vulnerability to heart disease.
The effects of workload and control
Workload- the amount and difficulty of work to be completed.
Control refers to the extent to which workers can influence and make decisions in the workplace.
This idea was made popular by Julia Porter (1966) who introduced the theory of locus of control.
People with a strong internal LoC feel that they are in control of events around them and that their behaviour will lead to predictable consequences.
Those with a strong external LoC feel that they have little control of what happens to them and that they are controlled by a force.
Research has associated a strong internal LoC with better psychological and physical health and with greater resistance to stress.
Control and workload can interact. Karasek’s model shows that most stressful jobs have low demand and high control, whereas the least stressful jobs have low demand and high control.
LoC and position
In the workplace, the level of control an employee has is determined by the nature of the job and their place in the organisational structure.
A person may have a strong internal LoC but the amount of control they have depends on external factors such as their job position.
It would however, be expected for a senior manager to face more stress than a cashier who’s job may be a routine and relatively undemanding.
Job demands-resources model
Demerouti et al (2001) introduced this model. The two key concepts are:
Job demands- aspects of the job which require physical and/or mental effort. May lead to physiological and psychological costs such as work overload, time pressure, job security, problems with relationships at work.
Job resources- factors which help workers meet job demands such as training, social support, feedback. They reduce job demands and the costs linked to them. They are also essential in the personal growth and development of the worker.
There are also personal resources such as- LoC, resilience, anxiety, empathy, extraversion
According to the J D-R model, the most important factors leading to employee burnout and health problems are related to job demands.
Evaluation of J D-R model
Strengths:
Flexible and dynamic- it can be applied to any work environment and is able to deal with the changing relationships between job demands and job resources, as work patterns change rapidly.
Provides a range of potential interventions to reduce strain and burnout in the workplace. Helps employers reduce high levels of stress and absenteeism. Either job resources could be improved or job demand reduced.
Limitations:
More complex than Karasek’s model and can be difficult to test and operationalise all variables in one trial/ time consuming.
Flexibility means that it can be difficult to analyse findings across studies as it will involve a range of different job demands and resources which would act as extraneous variables.
