Organizational Behavior: An Introduction to Your Life in Organizations

Preview • What is your image of a healthy work environment ? • Do you really need to be concerned about stress at work? • How does stress affect on-the-job performance? • What are some common stressors at work? • How might stress affect your health? • Do you have a predisposition to stress? • How can you cope with stress at work? • What do companies do about employee stress? ©2007 Prentice Hall

What is your image of a healthy work environment? • Healthy work environments are those that promote healthy behavior patterns, leading to a sound body and mind and the prevention of disease and sickness • Questions from Richard Bolles to consider: • What’s happening around here? • How do I survive? • What is my meaning or mission? • How can I be effective? ©2007 Prentice Hall

Do you really need to be concerned about stress at work? • Stress is a state of tension you experience when your usual modes of coping are insufficient • A stressor is any event that causes you to feel stress • Eustress: when stress is experienced as positive • Job stress is the harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the requirements of the job do not match a worker’s capabilities, resources, or needs ©2007 Prentice Hall

Job stressors • Role conflict: inability to satisfy multiple sets of expectations for an individual’s work • Role ambiguity: occurs when people do not know clearly what has to be done in their jobs • Cognitive demands: the responsibilities for a job are beyond your ability to make decisions effectively • Overload: the amount of work in your job is beyond your ability to do it by yourself ©2007 Prentice Hall

Physical factors • Commuting • Repetitive stress injuries • Noise • Biogenic triggers: foods that create a stress response all by themselves • Safety issues • Travel stress • Shift work ©2007 Prentice Hall

Fight or flight; Tend and befriend • Flight or flight: a set of survival responses that have been passed down to modern human beings from their ancestors • Tend and befriend: respond by seeking the nurturing and support of familiar people ©2007 Prentice Hall

The stress response • The stress response is your body’s reaction to a stressor • Your brain activates three response systems: • the motor cortex sends signals directly to the musculoskeletal system • the cerebral cortex signals the hypothalamus, which in turn stimulates the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems • three additional hormones—cortisol, corticosterone, and aldosterone—are released ©2007 Prentice Hall

Physiological effects • Stress and anger both increase your susceptibility to physical illness • Stress influences pain perception, with high anxiety being related to low pain tolerance • Stress is related to coronary heart disease ©2007 Prentice Hall

Personality traits • High internal locus of control perceive their jobs as less stressful • High self-efficacy react less strongly to work overload • Belief as highly effective in coping with stress have better-functioning immune systems ©2007 Prentice Hall

Workaholism • Workaholics: people who rank high on the traits of work involvement and a drive to work • Workaholics report higher levels of stress, exhibit higher levels of perfectionism, and report more health-related problems ©2007 Prentice Hall

Type A – Type B Personality Pattern • Type A behavior pattern: • Physical characteristics include a loud voice, quick speech, psychomotor activity, and facial muscle tension • Related attitudes and emotions are hostility, impatience, anger, and aggressiveness • In terms of motivation, high on achievement motivation, competitiveness, and ambition • Appear alert and hyperactive and have high work involvement • Cognitively, they want control of their environment • Type B is opposite ©2007 Prentice Hall

How can you cope with stress at work? • Recognize the symptoms of stress • Recognize burnout • Identify the stressors in your life • Develop a general coping strategy • Manage • ideas and emotions • physical and behavioral factors • your environment • your time ©2007 Prentice Hall

Identify the stressors in your life • Use Table 6.5 to determine the stress level in your life today • Higher stress levels are associated with greater probability of health problems ©2007 Prentice Hall

Develop a general coping strategy Active coping: You make a plan of action and follow it Distancing: You try to keep away from the situation for a while Seeking social support: You ask people who have had similar experiences for advice Resignation: You decide there is nothing you can do to change the situation Restraint: You try to avoid expressing your feelings ©2007 Prentice Hall

Manage ideas and emotions • Cognitive restructuring is substituting for emotionally-charged ideas about a stressor ideas that are more solution-oriented • Take a long term view of current situations ©2007 Prentice Hall

Manage your time • Measure if time spent is in areas of greatest importance • Basic principles of time management: • Find out how you waste time • Set goals • Plan your time • Stick to your plan ©2007 Prentice Hall

What do companies do about employee stress? • Analyze the costs of stress • Set goals for becoming a healthy organization • Establish company programs: The case of work-life balance. • Coach managers to recognize issues of health and productivity ©2007 Prentice Hall

Analyze the costs of stress • Stress and its related diseases can be costly in terms of both productivity and profits • Stress increases medical costs • Reducing stress lowers error rates ©2007 Prentice Hall

Set goals for becoming a healthy organization • Pay attention to culture and processes • Undertake direct stress interventions: • primary stress interventions are preventive in nature • secondary stress interventions mitigate potential health problems • tertiary interventions treat the problem after it has been manifest ©2007 Prentice Hall

Establish company programs: The case of work-life balance • Often provides counseling, research and referrals on issues like child care and eldercare • Programs for improving physical conditions, offering opportunities during the work day to exercise and eat well, and providing training in ergonomics, worker safety, and relaxation • Addressing employee vacation time ©2007 Prentice Hall

Coach managers to recognize issues of health and productivity • Practical approaches: • improving physical working conditions • redesigning jobs to reduce the incidence of repetitive-strain injuries • maintaining job demands at healthy levels • providing healthy work schedules that include rotating shifts, using flextime, and reducing forced overtime • offering stress management training • encouraging social support from co-workers and supervisors ©2007 Prentice Hall

Summary – Do you really need to be concerned about stress at work? • Stress is a state of tension people feel when their usual modes of coping do not work • Stress will be a factor in your work team and company • Job stress has become a common and costly problem in the American workplace ©2007 Prentice Hall

Summary – How does stress affect on-the-job performance? • Under low stress performance is likely to be low • Under moderate stress performance is likely to be high • Under extreme stress, performance suffers ©2007 Prentice Hall

Summary – How might stress affect your health? • Men and women react to stress somewhat differently • Being constantly under stress without developing the ability to cope with it endangers the health • Stress may impair your immune system and enhance your perception of pain • It is related to the development of coronary heart disease ©2007 Prentice Hall

Summary – How will I know if my company is concerned about stress? • Has it: • analyzed its costs • set goals for becoming a healthy organization • established stress-related programs • taught its managers about stress and its consequences ©2007 Prentice Hall

Summary – How can you cope with stress at work? • Learn to recognize the symptoms of stress, including burnout • Identify the stressors in your life • Create a plan for active coping, and put your plan for self-management into action • Get support from others ©2007 Prentice Hall

Summary – What do companies do about employee stress? • Educate themselves about the costs of stress • Set goals for becoming a healthy organization • Establish programs for their employees • Coach their managers to recognize the links between employee health and productivity ©2007 Prentice Hall

Organizational Behavior: An Introduction to Your Life in Organizations