NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

FARIDABAD

ASSIGNMENT ON

JOB

Submitted by:Ms. Rubina Mayanglambam

Sh. A.J. Ekka

Sh. Himanshu Behl

1

Sh. S.T.Gangte

INDEX

Sl.No. Topic Page No.

1 Introduction of Job stress 1

2 Definition of Stress 2

3 Symptoms of stress 3

4 Causes/sources of stress 4-6

Environmental factors 4

Organisational factors 5

Personal factors 6

5 Measurement of stress 7

6 Stress Management 8-10

Individual level 8 & 9

Organisational level 9 & 10

7 Conclusion 11

2

PICTURES OF JOB STRESS

3

JOB STRESS

INTRODUCTION:

The origin of the concept of stress predates antiquity. Derived from the Latin word ‘stringere’ which means ‘to draw tight’, stress is used to mean hardships, strain, adversity or affliction and in recent times it denotes force, pressure, or strong efforts with reference to an object or person. The concept of stress is borrowed from the natural sciences. It was first introduced in life sciences by Hans Selye, a Canadian endocrinologist in 1936.

Stress, in general, is “a physical, chemical, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension and may be a factor in disease causation.” One type of stress is job stress. With job stress, the stressors involved are work-related. Job stress is something we all face as workers -- and we all handle it differently. There is no getting around it.

4

Although, stress is typically in a negative context, it also has a positive value. It is an opportunity when it offers potential gain. Many professionals see the pressure of heavy workload and deadlines as a positive challenge that enhances the quality of their work and the satisfaction they get from their job. So, stress is not necessarily bad in and of itself. This positive side of stress is called eustress or challenge stress. Eustress refers to the healthy, positive, constructive outcome of stressful events which activates and motivates people to achieve their goals. The negative side of stress is called distress or hindrance stress, which may include office politics, confusion of job responsibilities, etc that keeps one from achieving their goals. Stress is an individual's physical and mental reaction to environmental demands or pressures.

DEFINITON OF STRESS:

In general sense, stress is the pressures people feel in life due to their reaction to situation. Different scholars define Stress or Job Stress as illustrated under:

Hans Selye defines stress as, “an adoptive response to the external situation that results in physical, psychological, and/or behavioural deviations for organizational participants”.

Beehr and Newman define Job Stress as, “a condition arising from the interaction of people and their jobs and characterized by changes within people that force them to deviate from their normal functioning”.

Ivancevich and Matteson define stress simply as, “the interaction of the individual with the environment”.

It is important to point out that what stress is not:

5

1. Stress in not simply anxiety: Anxiety operates solely in the emotional and psychological sphere, whereas stress operates there and also in the psychological sphere. Thus stress may be accompanied by anxiety, but the two should not be equated.

2. Stress in not simply nervous tension: Like anxiety, nervous tension may result from stress, but the two are not the same. Unconscious people have exhibited stress, and some people may keep it “bottled up” and not reveal it through nervous tension.

3. Stress is not necessarily something damaging, bad, or to be avoided: Eustress is not damaging or bad and is something people should seek out rather than avoid. The key, of course, is how the person handles the stress. Stress is inevitable; distress may be prevented or can be effectively controlled.

SYMPTOMS OF STRESS:

Stress is a pressure people feel in life. When stress persists and becomes excessive, it culminates to strain and in turn, adversely affects a person’s physique, psychology and behaviour. When stress is experienced by an individual, its symptoms can surfaced as psychosomatic, psychological and behavioural outcomes.

(1) Psychosomatic: The psychosomatic symptoms of stress are bodily or physical for which the causes are mental. Research studies report that a number of physical complaints like ulcer, headaches, chest pains, constipation, bronchial asthma, heart disease etc are emotionally induced.

(2) Psychological: Stress also manifests in various forms of emotional disorders. Researchers have found that stress gets its reflection in the form of anxiety, depression, helplessness, hopelessness and anger. The stressful people with the slightest provocation are easily

6

induced to anger and anxiety and become unable to relax. In his study, Dua reports that the employees suffering from occupational stress generally tend to have low psychological commitment to the organisation.

(3) Behavioural: Job stress also bears behavioural symptoms which are easily observable. There is general agreement that a high degree of job stress drives people adopt certain easily visible behavioural symptoms such as sleeplessness, excessive drinking, smoking, absenteeism, obesity and gluttony. Job stress can also lead to less visible behavioural symptoms in the form of bad decision-making, negative internal politics, reduced creativity, apathy and so on. According to a recent survey, about 25 per cent of Indian executives and 44 per cent of middle level executives report that job stress drives them to high level of alcohol consumption.

CAUSES OR SOURCES OF JOB STRESS

Conditions or things that cause stress are called ‘stressors’ or ‘loads’. Stressors can be defined as the causes or stress, including any environmental conditions that place a physical or emotional demand on the individual. The potential sources of stress can be divided into three broad categories

(1)Environmental factors(2)Organisational factors(3)Personal factors

(1) ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS:

Environmental uncertainties influences the design of an organisation’s structure, it also influences stress level among employees in that organisation. Environmental factors that cause stress are listed below:

7

Economic and Financial uncertainties: When an economy is contracting people become increasingly anxious about their job security.

Political uncertainties: A country which is politically unstable may cause to the people of the country.

Technological change: New innovations can make an employee’s skill and experience obsolete in a very short time and thereby cause stress to the workers.

Terrorism: Terrorism is becoming an increasing source of environmental-induced stress in the 21st century.

The physical environmental conditions such as excessive noise, poor lighting, safety hazards, poorly designed office space, lack of privacy and poor air quality also cause stress.

(2) ORGANISATIONAL FACTORS:

Organised workplaces are going through metamorphic changes under intense economic transformation and consequence pressures. Reorganisations, takeovers, merger, downsizing and other changes have become major stressors for employees, as companies try to live up to the competition to survive.

Organisational policies such as rotation of work, inequality in remuneration and incentives, unfair performance evaluation etc also serves as stressors. The difference between actual leadership style and expected leadership style leads to a conflict and dissonance between the superior and subordinates. This conflict and dissonance serves as a source of stress.

Workload: Unrealistic expectations, puts unhealthy and unreasonable pressure on the employee, causing suffering. Increased

8

workload, extremely long working hours and intense pressure to perform at the peak level all the time for the same pay, can actually leave an employee physically and emotionally drained. Excessive travel and too much time away from family for work also contribute to an employee’s stress.

Lack of Social Support: Lack of social support from colleagues and poor interpersonal relationship can cause stress, especially among employees with a high social need. When individuals believe that they have co-workers and friends to support them at times of sorrow or difficulty, their ability to resist the adverse effects of stress seems to increase.

Role conflict: People play various roles in organisations. They face conflicting demands in discharging their roles; it is called ‘role conflict’. For example, sales staff in the Indian banking industry experience inter conflict role in trying to balance the needs of their bank and needs of customers. Role conflict also occurs when an employee receives contradictory messages from different people about how to perform a job. It is called ‘intrarole conflict’.

Role Ambiguity: Role ambiguity occurs when employees are uncertain about several aspects of their job, such as, duties, performance expectations, level of authority etc. This ambiguity tends to occur when people enter new situations, such as, joining the organisation or taking a foreign assignment, because they are uncertain about their task and expectations and may lead to stress.

(3) PERSONAL FACTORS:

The experiences and problems that employees encounter in the non-working hours, i.e. an employee’s personal issues can spill over to the job. Primarily, these personal factors are family issues,

9

such as, marital difficulties, breaking off of a relationship, problems with children, ill health of a family member, death in the family etc. Personal economic problems, such as, education expenses of the children, repayment of loan, medical expenses etc.

Personality Traits: Personality affects behaviour. Different people possess different kinds of personality. Some people thrive better on stressful situation in comparison to others. This is due the individual’s trait. Some people may have an inherent tendency to accentuate negative aspects of the world and are more stress prone. Some people have a higher threshold for stressors and cope better in the same situation. Self-efficacy has also been found to influence stress outcome. Self efficacy refers to an individual’s belief in that he or she is capable of performing a task. Studies have shown that confidence in one’s ability decreases stress. It is reported that type A employees experience considerable stress than type B employees.

MEASUREMENT OF STRESS

Just as a doctor needs first to measure the intensity of the health problem of his/her patient to prescribe the right treatment for its cure, so does the need is there to measure the level of stress in order to cope or manage with it. Hence, researchers have felt the need for measuring stress and have developed some instruments for its measurement. In India, two instruments of stress measurement namely Organisational Role Stress (ORS) and Occupational Stress Index are wide used to measure stress.

Organisational Role Stress: Popularly known as ORS is developed by Udai Pareek to measure stress in the Indian context. Pareek’s ORS instrument is based on integration of an employee’s job role with overall organisational structure within he/she works. In other words, in his instrument, Pareek assumes that the role

10

assigned to an employee is linked with different parts and persons of an organisation and it is through this role the employee interacts and integrates himself with the entire organisational structure. Here, it is important to mention that the type of organisational structure within which employee work influences the role he/she plays at times producing strain and stress for the role performer/employee. Pareek explains stress with the help of two closely related concepts of ‘role space’ and ‘role set’.

Occupational Stress Index: Occupational Stress Index as an instrument to measure stress was constructed by Srivastava and Singh. The index consists of 46 items relating to all relevant components of a job life causing stress in one way or other. Like Pareek’s ORS, the 46 items of the index measure twelve different types of occupational stresses like role overload, role ambiguity, role conflict, under participation, low status, powerlessness etc.

STRESS MANAGEMENT

Stress has a negative correlation with task performance. Though, stress is helpful, but it is usually harmful as it impinges on employee’s health and his performances. Therefore, stress needs to be managed or coped with to minimize its debilitating effects. The word ‘managing’ or ‘coping’ bears two connotations in stress literature. It has been used to denote the way of dealing with stress. The various strategies to manage or reduce stress can be classified into two broad categories:

1. At individual level2. At organisational level

1. AT INDIVIDUAL LEVEL: Individual strategies are based on self-help approaches. An employee can take personal responsibility for

11

reducing stress levels. Individual strategies that have proven effective include implementing time management techniques, physical exercise, relaxation training, and expanding the social support network.

Time management: Many people manage their time poorly. The well organised employee can often accomplish twice the person who is poorly organised. So an understanding and utilisation of basic time management principles can help individuals better cope with tensions created by job demand. A few of the more well known time management principles are : (a)making daily list of activities to be accomplished, (b)prioritising activities by importance and urgency, (c)knowing your daily cycle and handling the most demanding part of your job during the high part of your cycle when you are most alert and productive.

Physical exercise: Non-competitive physical exercise such as aerobics, walking jogging swimming etc have long been recommended by physicians to deal with excessive stress levels. This form of exercise increases heart capacity, provide a mental diversion from work pressures and offer a means to let off steam and helps in reducing stress.

Relaxation training: Individuals can teach themselves to reduce tension through relaxation techniques such as meditation and yoga. Deep relaxation for 15 to 20 minutes a day releases tension and provides a person with a pronounced sense of peacefulness.

Social support network: Having friends, family or work colleagues to talk to provide an outlet when stress level becomes excessive. Expanding your social network,

12

therefore, can be a means for stress reduction. It provides you with someone to hear your problems and to offer a more objective perspective on the situation.

(2) AT ORGANISATIONAL LEVEL: Like an individual, an organisation can also help manage stress through various proactive interventions. Some of these interventions are listed below:

Setting clear objectives: Organisations should set clear objectives for its members. This helps minimize role ambiguity which usually filters down the organisation in the form of neuoris.

Stress Audit: Pestonjee has suggested stress audit as one of the effective proactive intervention to combat stress. According to him, when an organisation decides to have a scientific peep into mental and physical health status of its backbone group, the exercise is called a stress audit. It involves an attempt that organisations make to study, explore and control various types of stresses which the individual executives experience by virtue of their organisational membership.

Counselling: Counselling is yet another proactive strategy to be used by organisations to deal with stress. Counselling to employees in the matters like career planning to provide them clarity in their job roles, helping them in identifying their strengths and weaknesses help them better cope with stress. Dissemination of information to employees on how to face stressors within the organisation and outside proves useful for employees in dealing with stress.

Spread the message: Spreading the message about the importance of regular habits of work, leisure, proper,

13

proper diet, exercises, and mental peace among the organisational members helps them better cope with stress.

Fit between person and work: Research evidence shows that striking a fit between worker and his/her work environment serves as one of the best strategy to manage stress. This congruence can be attained by linking the worker to the job characteristics, for high internal motivation, high quality performance, high work satisfaction and low absenteeism and turnover.

Clarity in roles: There is enough evidence to show that defining individual roles through role efficacy helps them reduce their role-shared stresses. This is so as a result of an individual’s movement from a reactive i.e. role taking behaviour to a proactive i.e. role-making behaviour. Role efficacy is found negatively related with role stress and it helps in overcoming the experience of role stress.

CONCLUSION

Stress, in general, is “a physical, chemical, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension and may be a factor in disease causation.” Stress is non-specific response to demands from environment that results in physical, psychological and behavioural deviations for people. No one is immune to stress.

Stress is experienced by an individual; its symptoms can surfaced as psychosomatic, psychological and behavioural outcomes.

14

The potential sources of stress can be divided into three broad categories as environmental, organisational and personal factors.

Stress can be managed at both the individual level and the organisational level. Strategies to manage stress include clarity of employee roles, procedures, policies and rules, change in organisational structure, counselling, spread of message of evil effects of stress and so on.

“Managing/coping with stress for job satisfaction”

15