chapter 11
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Chapter 11. Managing Stress and Employee Job Satisfaction. General Adaptation Syndrome. “Fight or flight” response is based on classifications made by Dr. Hans Selye regarding a person’s response to stress Involves three stages: Alarm Stage Resistance Stage Exhaustion. Three Stages. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Chapter 11
Managing Stress and
Employee Job
Satisfaction
General Adaptation Syndrome
• “Fight or flight” response is based on classifications made by Dr. Hans Selye regarding a person’s response to stress
• Involves three stages:– Alarm Stage– Resistance Stage– Exhaustion
Three Stages
• Alarm Stage: muscles tense, respiration rate increases, blood pressure and heart rate increase
• Resisting Stage: causes poor decision making and physical illness
Three Stages (cont.)
• Exhaustion: when a person cannot sustain resistance indefinitely, and may cause illnesses such as ulcers or headaches
General Adaptation Syndrome (cont.)
• The General Adaptation Syndrome viewpoint suggests that people can only take so much stress before a serious, debilitating condition results
Benefits of Stress
• To maximize performance, low levels of stress are preferable to stimulate individuals to work harder and accomplish more
• Eustress: term for “good” stress, level of stress that is productive
Causes of Stress
• Personal Factors
• Interpersonal Factors
• Organizational Factors
Personal Factors
• Type A personalities: impatient, competitive, aggressive, always feel like they’re under pressure, do lots of things at once, and have a hard time relaxing
• Type B personalities: more mild-mannered, in less of a hurry, and far less competitive
Personal Factors (cont.)
• Type A men are twice as prone to heart disease and fatal heart attacks as type B individuals
Personal Factors (cont.)
• Type A’s are predisposed to be managers, yet their climb through the ranks may be made at the expense of the company because a type A’s job performance in upper level management is not as good as a type B’s
Personal Factors (cont.)
• It’s very hard for someone who is a type A to change their behavior and adopt a type B style due to the deeply ingrained patterns of behavior
Personal Factors (cont.)
• Changes in one’s life also produce stress, e.g., death of a spouse, or getting fired
• Demographic attributes: Men, whites, and individuals with high income levels report relatively less stress in their lives.
• Job attributes of women and minorities may be responsible for higher stress levels
Interpersonal Factors
• Negative emotion at work: employee jealousy and employee envy
• Employee jealousy: thoughts, emotions,and behaviors that result from loss of self-esteem and loss of outcomes associated with a working relationship
Interpersonal Factors (cont.)
• Employee envy: thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that result from loss of self-esteem in response to another individual obtaining outcomes desired by self
• Studies show:– Males have greater workplace envy– Females have greater workplace jealousy
Interpersonal Factors (cont.)
– Greater jealousy and envy result in lower job satisfaction and intentions to quit
• Envy and jealousy are stress inducers because they arise from the perception of threats in the work environment
Interpersonal Factors (cont.)
• Workplace Romance: Positive personal emotions– Observers of romantic relationships fear
favoritism might occur, or charges of sexual harassment may occur when it turns sour
– As more women are in workforce and longer work hours occur, the likelihood of workplace romance increases
Interpersonal Factors (cont.)
– Known to stimulate gossip and potential fear of exploitation
Organizational Factors
• Responsibility, particularly for other people, is a common organizational cause of stress
• Working conditions: – Assembly lines and piece-rate systems are
stressful due to employee’s lack of control and pressures to produce
Organizational Factors (cont.)
– Work that is not intrinsically rewarding also creates stress
• Emotional labor: an “occupational mask” donned by employees who must always display a positive demeanor to customers, for example, flight attendants
Organizational Factors (cont.)
• Role conflict: when two or more sets of demands are made on an employee so that compliance with one set of demands makes it more difficult to comply with another
• Role ambiguity: the absence of clarity regarding how to perform one’s job
Organizational Factors (cont.)
• Role overload: when too many activities are expected of an employee, given the time available and ability level of employee
• Shift work: involves 20% of the U.S. workforce, and it causes loss of sleep, appetite, depleted social interaction, etc.
Reactions to Stress
• Physical problems:– Ivancevich and Matteson have developed a
model for estimating the annual costs associated with replacing employees lost to heart disease; it is based on:
– Number of employees• Employees in age range of 45 to 65
• Estimated deaths due to heart disease per year, [.6% of total number of employees]
Reactions to Stress (cont.)
• Estimated premature retirement due to heart disease
• Company’s annual personnel losses
• Annual replacement costs: cost of hiring and training
• Alcoholism and drug abuse: affects between 6 and 10 percent of all employees; both are linked to higher levels of stress
Reactions to Stress (cont.)
• Absenteeism, turnover, and dissatisfaction are correlated with stress levels
• Workplace violence: violence and sabotage may result from stress– Involves fairly petty expressions of
aggressive behavior
Reactions to Stress (cont.)
– Characterized as: covert, verbal, involving brief displays of intense anger
• Mass Psychogenic Illness– Five common symptoms:
• Headaches
• Dizziness
• Nausea
• Abdominal cramps
• Cough
Reactions to Stress (cont.)
• Burnout: a reaction to prolonged and energy-depleting difficulties– Primary symptom is feeling drained or used up
– Typically affects people who are highly conscientious and work in helping professions
– Employees may feel that they are not being properly rewarded
– Frustrations lead to apathy and feelings of failure, with physical symptoms of high blood pressure, ulcers, mental symptoms such as depression
Coping with Stress
• Flight or fight• Exercise• Social support• Job redesign• Relaxation
techniques
Coping with Stress (cont.)
• Time management– Time logs– Structuring time– Saying no– Making “to do”
lists
Job Satisfaction
• Refers to one’s thinking, feeling, and action tendencies toward work
• Managers realize that an organization’s performance should be measured in human dimensions as well as financial
Job Satisfaction (cont.)
• Reasons why concern about job is so important to managers: – Moral obligation to make job personally
rewarding– Physical and mental well-being correlated
with job satisfaction– Affects company’s ability to attract and
retain qualified workers
Job Satisfaction (cont.)
• Low levels of job satisfaction are related to:– Turnover– Absenteeism– Union-organizing activity– Filing of grievances
Sources of Job Satisfaction
• Variables consistently correlated with job satisfaction include job level, length of service, and race
• Intrinsic sources: come from within individual, self-administered, e.g., autonomy, sense of challenge, feelings of recognition
Sources of Job Satisfaction (cont.)
• Extrinsic sources: come from outside the individual from the external environment, e.g., working conditions, job security, opportunities to interact with co-workers
• Dual purpose sources: relate to both intrinsic and extrinsic sources, e.g., high salary, rapid career progress
Sources of Job Satisfaction (cont.)
• Expectations often influence satisfaction– New employees have particularly high
expectations– Job-orientation programs that present a
realistic point of view
Sources of Job Satisfaction (cont.)
• Dispositional Influences– Individuals may be predisposed to feel good
or bad about their employment situation, regardless of actual specifics of situation
– Negative affectivity: describes the predisposition to feel dissatisfied with one’s job or life
Consequences of Job Dissatisfaction
• Withdrawal behaviors
• Absenteeism
• Tardiness
• Turnover
• Union activity
• Hostile Actions
Job Satisfaction and Productivity
• Most people believe, intuitively, that people who are satisfied with their jobs are more productive
• Research does not support the above statement
Job Satisfaction and Productivity (cont.)
• Factors that influence productivity include: informal work norms, task interdependence, and machine pacing of production process
• The extent to which satisfaction and performance are positively correlated indicates the degree to which an organization is “healthy”