Managing Stress and Work

life Balance
 Chapter Learning Objectives
After studying this chapter you should be able to:

1. Define and describe the nature of stress.

2. Identify basic individual differences related to stress.
3. Identify and describe common causes of stress.
4. Discuss the central consequences of stress.
5. Describe various ways that stress can be managed.
6. Discuss work-life linkages and their relation to stress.

© 2014 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as
permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 7–2
 Mental Health Issues at Work

● An estimated 12 billion workdays are lost annually due to depression

and anxiety costing the global economy nearly US$ 1 trillion.

● WHO’s World Mental Health Report, published in June 2022, showed

Loading…
that of one billion people living with a mental disorder in 2019, 15% of
working-age adults experienced a mental disorder.
 The Nature of Stress

• Stress Defined
– A person’s adaptive response to a stimulus that places
excessive psychological or physical demands on that
person
• The Stress Process (Selye)
– General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)
• Identifies three stages of response to a stressor: alarm,
resistance, exhaustion
• Sources of stress:
– Eustress: pleasurable stress accompanying positive events
– Distress: unpleasant stress accompanying negative events

© 2014 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as
permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 7–4
FIGURE 7.1 The General Adaptation Syndrome

Loading…

© 2014 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as
permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 7–5
 Individual Differences and Stress

• Type A Personality Profile

– Extremely competitive, highly committed to work, have
a strong sense of time urgency
• Type B Personality Profile
– Less competitive, less committed to work, have a
weaker sense of time urgency
• Hardiness
– A person’s ability to cope with stress
• Optimism
– The extent to which a person sees life in relatively
positive or negative terms

© 2014 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as
permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 7–6
 Causes and Consequences of Stress

• Most Common Causes of Stress

– Organizational stressors
– Life stressors
• Most Common Consequences of Stress
– Individual consequences
– Organizational consequences
– Burnout

© 2014 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as
permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 7–7
FIGURE 7.2
Causes and
Consequences
of Stress

© 2014 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as
permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 7–8
 Organizational Stressors: The Workplace

• Workplace Stress Factors

– Task Demands
• Associated with the specific job a person performs
– Physical Demands
• Associated with the job’s physical setting and requirements
– Role Demands
• Associated with the expected behaviors of a particular position
in a group or organization
– Interpersonal Demands
• Group pressures, leadership, personality conflicts

© 2014 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as
permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 7–9
 Organizational Stressors: Role Demands
• Role
– A set of expected behaviors associated with a
particular position in a group or organization.
• Role Stress
– Role ambiguity due to unclear roles
– Role conflict due to:
• Interrole conflict
• Intrarole conflict
• Intersender conflict
– Role overload due to role expectations exceeding an
individual’s capabilities

© 2014 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as
permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 7–10
Table 7.1 Most and Least Stressful Jobs
Top Most Stressful Jobs Top Least Stressful Jobs
1. Surgeon 1. Actuary

2. Commercial airline pilot 2. Dietitian

3. Photojournalist 3. Computer systems analyst
4. Advertising account executive 4. Statistician
5. Real estate agent 5. Astronomer
6. Physician (general practice) Loading… 6. Mathematician
7. Reporter (newspaper) 7. Historian

8. Physician Assistant 8. Software engineer

© 2014 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as
permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 7–11
What personal privacy issues for workers could arise from the use of increasingly pervasive
and “always-on” communication networks by employers?

Right to disconnect: Employees should have the right to disconnect from work communication channels
outside of working hours. This helps maintain a healthy work-life balance
FIGURE 7.3 Workload, Stress, and Performance

© 2014 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as
permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 7–12
 External Causes of Stress
• Life Stressors
– Events that take place outside the organization
•Life change
– Any meaningful change in a person’s personal or work situation
•Life trauma
– Any upheaval in an individual’s life that alters his or her attitudes,
emotions or behaviors

© 2014 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as
permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 7–13
Table 7.2 Life Changes and Life Change Units

© 2014 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as
permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 7–14
 Consequences of Stress

• Individual • Organizational
Consequences Consequences
– Behavioral – Performance
– Psychological – Withdrawal
– Medical – Attitudes
– Burnout

© 2014 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as
permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 7–15
FIGURE 7.4 Individual and Organizational Coping Strategies

© 2014 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as
permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 7–16
 Managing Stress in the Workplace:
Individual Coping Strategies

Exercise

Time
Relaxation
Management

Role Support
Management Groups

© 2014 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as
permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 7–17
 Managing Stress in the Workplace (cont’d)

• Organizational Coping Strategies

– Institutional Programs
• Design of jobs and work schedules
• Fostering a healthy work culture
• Supervision
– Collateral Programs
• Organizational programs specifically created to help
employees deal with stress
– Stress management, health promotion, employee fitness programs,
career development

© 2014 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as
permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 7–18
 Work-Life Linkages
• Fundamental Work-Life Relationships
– Interrelationships between a person’s work life and
personal life
• Balancing Work-Life Linkages
– Importance of long-term versus
short-term perspectives
– Significance of evaluating tradeoffs between values

– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKjgta8RDeQ

© 2014 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as
permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 7–19
 Organizational Behavior in Action
• After reading the chapter:
– Which stressors are typical of college students?
– Which of these sources of stress are bad for students?
Which are beneficial?

© 2014 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as
permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 7–20