Stress in the Workplace and Stress Management – Key Concepts

Process Model of Stress and Coping

• Stress is the relationship between a person and the environment that is appraised as taxing or exceeding resources and endangering well-being (Cognitive-Transactional theory).

• Key appraisal components:

  • Demand appraisals: physical, task, role, interpersonal demands.

  • Resource appraisals: material, personal, social resources.

  • Perceptual outcomes: \text{challenge},\; \text{threat},\; \text{harm or loss}

• Coping options depend on appraisal; coping strategies include reactive, anticipatory, preventive, and proactive.

• Consequences can be \text{behavioral},\; \text{psychological},\; \text{physiological} (or combinations).

Demand Appraisals and Resources

• Demand types (Table 13-1):

  • Physical: indoor climate, noise, lighting, heat/cold, etc.

  • Task: workload, future ambiguity, task variety.

  • Role: role conflict, role ambiguity, accountability.

  • Interpersonal: social density, abrasive personalities, leadership style, diversity.

• Resource appraisals: material, personal, social resources needed to cope.

Outcomes and Coping in the Process Model

• Appraisal + coping strategies determine outcomes: behavioral, psychological, physiological.

• Figure emphasizes a dynamic link between demands/resources, appraisal, coping, and outcomes.

Work Stress: Forms, Costs, and Prevalence

• Stress in the workplace is common and costly to organizations (NIOSH 1999):

  • 0.40 of workers report jobs very/extremely stressful.

  • 0.25 view their jobs as the #1 stressor.

  • 0.75 believe workers have more on-the-job stress than a generation ago.

  • 0.29 feel quite a bit or extremely stressed at work.

  • 0.26 say they are often or very often burned out or stressed by work.

  • Work stress linked more to health complaints than financial/family problems.

• Workplace violence and disruption: significant costs and safety concerns, with higher risk in health care.

Stressors: External/Internal and Acute/Chronic

• External vs. Internal stressors (Table 13-3):

  • External: environment (noise, lighting, temperatures), other people (discrimination, aggression), organizational factors (policies, structure).

  • Internal: lifestyle (sleep, caffeine, smoking), mental state (pessimism, rigidity), personality (perfectionism, workaholism), major life events, everyday hassles.

• Acute vs. chronic: short-term vs. ongoing stressors.

Individual Differences in Stress

• Personalities: Type A behavior pattern (TABP) linked to higher CHD risk; dimensions like anger/hostility, time urgency, competitiveness.

• Perceived control: Karasek model shows high demands + low decision latitude predict worse well-being; low controllability linked to higher physiological responses.

• Minority groups and gender: discrimination, cultural value differences, assimilation stress; women face gender-specific stressors (discrimination, work-family conflict, harassment).

• Beliefs about stress: perceptions of stress health effects influence outcomes; interventions that reframe stress as manageable can reduce adverse physiological responses.

Burnout and Presenteeism

• Burnout (Maslach & Goldberg): three dimensions – emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, diminished personal accomplishment.

• Golembiewski phases: burnout progresses from depersonalization to reduced personal accomplishment to emotional exhaustion; higher burnout linked to lower job satisfaction and commitment.

• Presenteeism: showing up ill reduces productivity and costs; often greater impact than absenteeism ($/cost examples cited).

Coping with Stress

• Stress management is either targeted at the individual or broader organizational changes; success requires addressing worker, job, and organization.

• Schwarzer’s four coping perspectives (time-related and certainty of demands):

  • Reactive coping

  • Anticipatory coping

  • Preventive coping (primary/organizational prevention)

  • Proactive coping (primary/organizational prevention + growth)

• Organizational coping strategies: shift focus from simply putting out fires to preventive and proactive approaches (e.g., redesigning work, increasing autonomy, better decision participation).

• Example: health care example where zero-tolerance policies and team-building reduce distress and improve outcomes.

Joy in Work and IHI Framework

• “Joy in Work” framework aims to increase happiness, health, and productivity via nine components:

  • Wellness and resilience

  • Daily improvement

  • Camaraderie and teamwork

  • Real-time measurement

  • Physical and psychological safety

  • Choice and autonomy

  • Recognition and rewards

  • Participative management

  • Meaning and purpose

• Real-world application includes better physical work environments, participative leadership, and supportive cultures.

Job Design and Individual Coping

• Job design strategies to reduce stress:

  • Clearly define roles and responsibilities to reduce ambiguity/conflict

  • Increase worker input in how tasks are done

  • Offer learning opportunities and skill development

• Individual coping strategies (Exhibit 13-1): relaxation response as a reactive technique; goal to reset physiological arousal and improve reasoning under stress.

• Learned Optimism (Seligman): shift explanatory style (stability, globality, locus of control) toward optimism to improve resilience; counteracts learned helplessness.

• Benefits of optimism include better immune function and lower perceived stress effects.

Case Studies (Highlights)

• Case Study 13-1 Presenteeism: chronic illness/pressure leads to workers showing up sick; impact on patient safety and costs; emphasize EAP and back-to-work policies.

• Case Study 13-2 Stress in Today’s Workplace: reorganization increases workload and fear; morale and turnover rise; stress management and joy-in-work strategies suggested.

• Case Study 13-3 Why Are All the Employees Leaving?: manager behavior and stress drive turnover; recommends managerial behavior changes and organizational strategies to reduce stress and retain staff.

• Case Study 13-4 Scott's Dilemma: supervisor conflict provokes anxiety, burnout, and alienation; highlights importance of effective conflict resolution and HR interventions.

Summary Takeaways

• Stress is both inevitable and modifiable via preventive and proactive coping at the individual and organizational levels.

• A healthy organization improves both employee well-being and performance (costs of burnout and presenteeism are substantial).

• Use a combination of job design, organizational culture changes, and individual coping skills to minimize distress and promote eustress.

Key Formulas and Numbers

• Prevalence stats (examples):

  • 0.40 of workers find jobs very/extremely stressful

  • 0.25 view their jobs as the top stressor

  • 0.75 believe stress is higher than a generation ago

  • 0.29 feel quite a bit/extremely stressed at work

  • 0.26 feel often burned out or stressed

• Burnout dimensions: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, diminished personal accomplishment.

• Minority stress: discrimination and cultural distance can elevate stress and health risks.

• Approximate ratio in some nurse studies: \tfrac{2}{3} \approx 66.7\% experienced low control and high demands in certain settings.

• GAS stages: alarm, resistance, exhaustion (no numerical stages, but concept is that exhaustion leads to illness).