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7 STRESS AND WELL-BEING AT WORK
CHAPTER SCAN
Stress can be beneficial or harmful. While some harmful stress is inevitable, the techniques and
approaches available for dealing with that stress are increasing. Some individuals and some
circumstances are more at risk for high stress than are others. This chapter has five major
sections, each of which addresses one aspect of stress, including a wide range of stress
management methods.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
137
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138 Chapter 7: Stress and Well-Being at Work
KEY TERMS
I. THINKING AHEAD: TIMBERLAND COMPANY – When the Going Gets Tough, Kick
It Up a Notch
Stress is the unconscious preparation to fight or flee that a person experiences when faced
with any demand. Stress does not necessarily have to be destructive. A stressor is the
person or the event that triggers the stress response. Distress refers to the adverse
psychological, physical, behavioral, and organizational consequences that may arise as a
result of stressful events.
Walter Cannon was the physiologist who discovered the stress response, and he
initially named it "the emergency response,” or "the militaristic response."
Homeostasis is a steady-state balance, or equilibrium, which when upset by external
demands results in stress. Cannon believed the body has natural processes to keep it
in homeostasis.
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Chapter 7: Stress and Well-Being at Work 139
Robert Kahn determined that there is a person-environment fit when skills and
abilities match role expectations. Stress occurs when expectations are conflicting or
confusing, or when a person's resources are unable to meet the expectations of the
social role.
The stress response produces a predictable sequence of mind and body changes that prepare
the mind and body for fight-or-flight. These changes can be very helpful in response to
emergencies and in preparing people to achieve peak performance.
Sources of stress for people at work include task demands, role demands, interpersonal demands,
and physical demands. Nonwork demands can also be a source of stress.
A. Work Demands
1. Task Demands
Uncertainty and lack of control are two of the most stressful demands people face at
work. Laid-off employees have referred to the day after being laid off as the day they
regained control of their lives. Underemployment, monotony, and boredom may
create stress for those who do not lose their jobs. Similarly, one study found that
heart attacks are more common when individuals have little control and heavy work
demands. Other task demands include career progress, work overload, and new
technologies.
2. Role Demands
Stress related to role demands arises from role conflict, ethical violations, and role
ambiguity. Role conflict can result from conflicting demands between two different
roles (interrole) or within a single role (intrarole). Individuals who experience
confusion regarding the expectations of others experience role ambiguity.
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140 Chapter 7: Stress and Well-Being at Work
3. Interpersonal Demands
Individuals typically experience stress in situations where they must work with
abrasive personalities. Sexual harassment and poor leadership can also create
stressful environments.
4. Physical Demands
The environment in which an individual works can be a very stressful situation based
on physical demands. Most people can list extreme conditions; yet, uncomfortably
cool or warm environments can provoke irritability among employees, leading to
mistakes. Even working with computer equipment can be physically demanding if it
is not designed ergonomically.
B. Nonwork Demands
1. Home Demands
Many workers also face demands from home that create stress. These demands are
often related to marriage, parenting, and caring for aging parents.
2. Personal Demands
The benefits of stress are captured with the term eustress, which stands for healthy, normal
stress. Eustress is positive for organizations and individuals.
The Yerkes-Dodson law tracks the benefits of stress that lead to improved performance up
to an optimum point, after which benefits decrease and stress eventually becomes
detrimental. McGrath mentions that performance falls as the difficulty of the task increases
beyond a certain point.
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Chapter 7: Stress and Well-Being at Work 141
B. Individual Distress
Individual distress can be seen in psychological symptoms such as depression, burnout, and
psychosomatic disorders. The word burnout is probably overused, particularly in regard to
individuals who are simply malingering to rationalize failure or boredom. Stress is directly
related to medical symptoms, particularly heart disease and strokes, backaches, peptic
ulcers, and headaches. Behavioral problems are another form of distress that is manifested
in violence, substance abuse, and accidents.
C. Organizational Distress
Predictors of harmful stress for one individual may have beneficial effects for another. The
Achilles heel phenomenon suggests that people break down at their weakest point.
A. Gender Effects
Women and men have different life span expectations, with women typically living seven
years longer than do men. Furthermore, it appears that different stressors affect men and
women, and that important differences exist in the vulnerabilities of women and men to
stress.
One of the ways to determine the likelihood of stress and coping ability is to examine the
Type A behavior pattern. Type A behavior pattern is a complex of personality and
behavioral characteristics, including competitiveness, time urgency, social status insecurity,
aggression, hostility, and a quest for achievements. Type A behavior pattern is also
referred to as coronary-prone behavior.
C. Personality Hardiness
Personality hardiness describes individuals who resist distress and are characterized by
commitment, control, and challenge. Hardy individuals appear to engage in
transformational coping. Transformational coping is actively changing an event into
something less subjectively stressful by viewing it in a broader life perspective. It is useful
to point out to students that this is not the same as exhibiting an "I don't care" attitude.
D. Self-Reliance
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142 Chapter 7: Stress and Well-Being at Work
The growing awareness of the affects of stress on organizational performance has led to
increased concern with preventing stress. A preventive stress management approach involves
individuals and organizations taking joint responsibility for promoting health and preventing
distress and strain. A critical factor in this approach is the stage in which the stress is managed.
The three levels of prevention are the primary prevention stage, (designed to reduce or
eliminate the stressor), the secondary prevention stage (designed to modify the response to
stress), or the tertiary prevention stage (designed to heal symptoms of distress).
1. Job Redesign
High job demands and restricted decision latitude are characteristics of high strain
jobs. Job redesign is a core characteristic of the job strain model for motivation. The
goal is to enhance worker control.
2. Goal Setting
Goal setting increases task motivation by reducing role conflict and ambiguity while
focusing attention on the task.
3. Role Negotiation
Role negotiation reduces stress by allowing individuals to modify their work roles.
Studies have determined that the support of coworkers and supervisors may be one of
the most important factors in managing stress in the workplace.
B. Individual Prevention
1. Positive Thinking
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Chapter 7: Stress and Well-Being at Work 143
2. Time Management
Leisure is more than just not being on the job. Many people simply work at other
things during their leisure time. Effective use of leisure time centers on enjoyment.
4. Physical Exercise
5. Relaxation Training
6. Diet
7. Opening Up
8. Professional Help
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144 Chapter 7: Stress and Well-Being at Work
YOU
A good follow-up to this challenge is to have students develop an action plan for overcoming
their stress and/or anger. The action plan should focus on specific, concrete steps the students
can take to improve in each of these areas.
The Self-Reliance Inventory consists of 15 statements. The respondent completes the instrument
by evaluating each statement according to a 5-point scale, ranging from 0 (strongly disagree) to 5
(strongly agree). Then the respondent records responses on the scoring sheet resulting in two
scores, one in the overdependence dimension and another in the counterdependence dimension.
Healthy life adjustment is linked primarily to the presence of two factors, self-reliance and a
secure support network. People who are self-reliant and yet are able to depend on others when
appropriate are better equipped to manage the challenges they meet than are those without self-
reliance and support. An absence of self-reliance may be expressed as either overdependence or
counterdependence. The overdependent person strives for too much togetherness in
relationships, clinging to others out of fear of being incomplete. The counterdependent person
strives for too much separateness, avoiding relationships with others and denying the necessity or
importance of such relationships.
On the other hand, the person who has not experienced or has overcome the effects of repeated
separation anxiety has a strong chance of becoming self-reliant. The attribute of self-reliance
means accepting responsibility for one’s own well-being and, at the same time, knowing that
someone will be available and willing to help in times of need. Self-reliant individuals have
resolved the conflict between their separateness in the world and their need for union with
others; they can work comfortably and naturally either with others or alone, depending on which
is more appropriate to the circumstances at hand. They are able to discern when their limitations
have been reached in terms of time, energy, knowledge, or abilities; by turning to others in these
circumstances, they overcome their own limitations, thus enhancing their effectiveness and well-
being.
Self-Reliance/Counterdependence Norms:
Student/Managers: Mean = 16.81 (n = 310)
Military (Officers/Enlisted): Mean = 20.79 (n = 163)
Self-Reliance/Overdependence Norms:
Student/Managers: Mean = 15.43 (n = 310)
Military (Officers/Enlisted): Mean = 14.95 (n = 163)
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Chapter 7: Stress and Well-Being at Work 145
DIVERSITY DIALOGUE
Students should be directed to discuss domestic violence as a workplace issue, highlighting the
effects of missed absences on individual stressors that affect individual performance and
subsequent organizational performance.
It is difficult for employers to pinpoint if domestic violence is the source of employee stress. It
is the employee’s choice to ask for help which may make it difficult for employers to approach
someone they assume is being victimized. According to Betty Taylor, the author of a leading
training manual on domestic violence, employers should be supportive and maintain boundaries
and provide support options to all employees (e.g., putting posters in the break room that outline
what employees should do or who they can contact in the event they become a victim of
workplace violence). Taylor also suggests that employers look out for men who behave in overly
suspicious ways or continually visit the workplace to prevent potential victimization of workers.
CHAPTER SUMMARY
• Stress is the unconscious preparation to fight or flee when faced with any demand. Distress
is the adverse consequence of stress.
• Four approaches to understanding stress are the homeostatic/medical approach, the
cognitive appraisal approach, the person-environment fit approach, and the psychoanalytic
approach.
• The stress response is a natural mind-body response characterized by four basic mind-body
changes.
• Employees face task, role, interpersonal, and physical demands at work, along with
nonwork demands. Globalization, international competition, and advanced technologies
create new stresses at work.
• Nonwork stressors, such as family problems and work-home conflicts, can affect an
individual's work life and home life.
• Stress has health benefits, including enhanced performance.
• Distress is costly to both individuals and organizations.
• Individual diversity requires attention to gender, Type A behavior, personality hardiness,
and self-reliance in determining the links between stress and strain.
• Preventive stress management aims to enhance health and reduce distress or strain.
Primary prevention focuses on the stressor, secondary prevention focuses on the response
to the stressor, and tertiary prevention focuses on symptoms of distress.
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146 Chapter 7: Stress and Well-Being at Work
Stress is the unconscious preparation to fight or flee that a person experiences when faced with
any demand. Distress is the adverse psychological, physical, behavioral, and organizational
consequences that may arise as a result of stressful events. Strain is the same as distress.
2. Describe four approaches to understanding stress. How does each add something new to
our understanding of stress?
(1) The homeostatic/medical model explains the fight-or-flight response that we use to define
stress. (2) The cognitive appraisal approach describes how we classify events as stressful or not.
(3) The person-environment fit approach argues that stress results when the role expectations are
confusing and/or conflicting. (4) The psychoanalytic approach is based on Freudian theory and
involves the ego-ideal and the self-image, and the comparison between the two.
3. What are the four changes associated with the stress response?
The physical changes are: (1) the redirection of the blood to the brain, (2) increased alertness by
way of improved vision, hearing, and other sensory processes, (3) the release of glucose and fatty
acids into the bloodstream to sustain the body during the stressful event, and (4) depression of
the immune system, as well as emergent processes.
4. List three demands of each type: task, role, interpersonal, and physical.
Task demands related to stress are lack of control, uncertainty, career progress, overload, and
new technologies. Role demands include interrole expectations, intrarole expectations, and
person−role expectations. Interpersonal demands are abrasive personalities, sexual harassment,
and leadership styles. Physical demands include extreme environments, strenuous activities, and
hazardous substances.
Nonwork demands are personal life stressors that carry into the workplace. Marital expectations,
childcare and elder care are all demands that may take individuals away from their focus at work,
either physically or mentally.
Moderate stress has been found to have a positive effect on performance. The Yerkes-Dodson
law indicates that there is an optimum point of positive effect from stress. After this point is
reached, the curve turns downward and has negative ramifications on performance. The
optimum point will vary from individual to individual.
7. What are the major medical consequences of distress? The behavioral consequences? The
psychological consequences?
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Chapter 7: Stress and Well-Being at Work 147
The most significant medical illnesses of stress are heart disease and strokes, backaches, peptic
ulcers, and headaches. Behavioral problems include violence, substance abuse of various kinds,
and accidents. Psychological consequences include depression, burnout, and psychosomatic
disorders.
8. Why should organizations be concerned about stress at work? What are the costs of distress
to organizations?
There are a variety of direct and indirect costs to organizations because of distress. Reduced
attentiveness may result in accidents for persons distracted by stress. Stress can also increase
absenteeism and turnover. Participation problems, performance decrements, and compensation
awards all involve costs to organizations.
9. How do individual differences such as gender, Type A behavior, personality hardiness, and
self-reliance moderate the relationship between stress and strain?
These are individual factors that affect the connection between the stressors and strains. Type A
personality individuals are prone to difficulties because their personalities make them more
susceptible to stress. Personality hardiness enhances one's ability to cope with stress. Self-
reliance helps individuals manage stress through healthy relationships with others.
10. What is primary prevention? Secondary prevention? Tertiary prevention? Describe major
organizational stress prevention methods.
All three of these preventions are steps in which organizations attempt interventions to reduce
stress. Primary prevention is focused reduction of stress by reducing, modifying, or eliminating
the cause(s) of stress. Secondary prevention attempts to alter or modify the stress response.
Tertiary prevention is reactive, and is designed to heal individuals after the stress has had an
impact on the individual. Job redesign is effective because it increases workers’ control over
their situation. Goal setting increases task motivation, and reduces role conflict and ambiguity.
Role negotiation allows individuals to modify their work expectations. Social support systems
build a community and socioemotional approach to help support individuals.
Individuals can practice learned optimism, which is a positive way of perceiving actions and
events. Time management is a technique to control schedules that cause stress. Leisure
activities help one maintain a balanced lifestyle. Secondary prevention methods for individuals
include physical exercise, relaxation training, and diet. Opening up to individuals through self-
disclosure can reduce the burden of stressful situations. Professional help may be warranted if
the stress exceeds an individual’s ability to cope.
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148 Chapter 7: Stress and Well-Being at Work
The emphasis of the programs is to build "strong and resistant hosts" by aiding individual
prevention and lifestyle change. Some programs include risk assessments, education, diet and
exercise assistance, and smoking cessation.
1. Why should organizations help individuals manage stress? Isn’t stress basically the
individual’s responsibility?
On a practical side, it is in their best interest to do so. Benefit coverage for individuals with
controllable illnesses is exorbitant. A more altruistic reason is that individuals who are in control
of their stress are better performers on the job, making individual health a worthy pursuit. While
individuals do share responsibility for managing their stress, many lack appropriate knowledge
and/or resources to do so.
2. Is there more stress today than in past generations? What evidence is available concerning
this question?
Students will vary on this question. It is interesting to challenge them to compare their lives with
frontier America, the medieval era, or even the first portion of the 20th century.
3. Discuss the following statement: Employers should be expected to provide stress-free work
environments.
To some degree, this is legally true. Employers need to eliminate dysfunctional situations from
the work environment. If employers can assist individuals with their stress control, they should
do so. The only truly stress-free environment is a coffin.
The courts have been tossing this issue around more frequently. Supervisors should make
reasonable inquiries and provide reasonable assistance. Have students debate this question in
opposing teams.
5. Do you use any stress prevention methods that are not discussed in the chapter? If so, what
are they?
These are often very interesting lists. Students are often surprised that instructors have stress and
that we practice stress reduction techniques.
6. Write a memo describing the most challenging demands and/or stressors at your workplace
(or university). Be specific in fully describing the details of these demands and/or stressors.
How might you go about changing them?
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Chapter 7: Stress and Well-Being at Work 149
This memo could be assigned prior to the class period(s) in which stress is discussed. Then,
during the class students can be encouraged to consider what categories of demands and/or
stressors they are experiencing and whether or not they have chosen the most effective means for
managing those demands and/or stressors.
7. Interview a medical doctor, a psychologist, or another health care professional about the
most common forms of health problems and distress seen in their work. Summarize your
interview and compare the results to the categories of distress discussed in the chapter.
This is a great exercise to give students a broader perspective of stress than they get from the
textbook. Encourage students to share in class the responses they obtained from the medical
professionals and to discuss the similarities and differences among the responses.
8. Do research on social support and diaries as ways to manage stressful and/or traumatic
events. Develop an oral presentation for class that explains the benefits of each of these
approaches for preventive stress management. Include guidelines on how to practice each.
If students have also completed Question 6 above, they could consider how social support and/or
diaries could help them deal with the specific stressors and/or demands they are experiencing.
ETHICAL DILEMMA
Most people would say that Josh has, at a minimum, a responsibility to question if it is fair for
him to commit himself to even more work at the expense of time with his children and his
promise to his wife. There are others that would say he has every right to be successful in his
career.
2. Evaluate Josh’s alternatives using rule, virtue, rights, and justice theories.
Rule – In this situation, it seems rather clear that the greatest good is for Josh to not take on this
new project. Some may argue that his increased earning potential is good and should not be
overlooked. Others would conclude that his current earnings are such that the additional money
is not needed but more desired by Josh along with the additional power and prestige.
Virtue – In this situation, most would argue that Josh needs to make a decision that considers
everyone’s needs equally. If he takes on this new project, he is putting his needs before his
family’s.
Rights – Most people would argue that once someone had made a commitment to a spouse and
children they should live up to those commitments, and that society would not want everyone
breaking those commitments regularly to suit their own personal needs.
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150 Chapter 7: Stress and Well-Being at Work
Justice – Here again, justice theory says that Josh should not accept this new project. The outcome
of his working more and not supporting his wife’s return to work would make the outcome unfair.
EXPERIENTIAL EXERCISES
This exercise allows students to examine the differences in the stressors based on gender roles
and expectations. If time allows, you might want to have two groups, one all males and another
all females, exchange their lists after Step 3. Instead of a full class discussion, have students
reverse roles and have the males discuss the female pressures, and then the females discuss the
male pressures.
This activity encourages students to consider the impact of different work environments on the
type and degree of stressors experienced. Push students to consider why certain work
environments are more or less stressful. The optional Step 5 is an excellent opportunity for
students to apply the material covered in the chapter. Particularly useful in this step is the
development of measures of effectiveness for stress management strategies. Students often do
not consider the need to evaluate the effectiveness of strategies, or they do not know how to
evaluate strategies’ effectiveness.
Instructor's Notes:
Self-reliant individuals are masters at developing good social support networks. They prefer
interdependence, and they are also good providers of support to others. This exercise, designed
for use in class, will help students develop an understanding of the types and sources of social
support needed to develop an effective network.
1. Students complete the analysis by filling in the blanks with the names of people from whom
they receive social support. Next to each name, they are to write the type of support they
receive: E = emotional caring and nurturance
I = informational support
A = appraisal and evaluative feedback
M = role modeling and guidance
S = instrumental support, providing resources or acting on behalf
of a person
2. Students gather in groups of five or six to discuss the questions provided on their worksheets.
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Chapter 7: Stress and Well-Being at Work 151
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152 Chapter 7: Stress and Well-Being at Work
Self-reliant individuals are masters at developing good social support networks. They prefer
interdependence, and they are also good providers of support to others. This exercise, designed
for use in class, will help you develop an understanding of the types and sources of social
support needed to develop an effective network.
Manager ( )
Co-workers ( )
( )
( )
Employees ( )
( )
( )
Others ( )
( )
Family members ( )
( )
( )
( )
Friends ( )
( )
( )
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Chapter 7: Stress and Well-Being at Work 153
Instructor’s Notes:
People who go to work under the influence of drugs or alcohol eventually become pariahs, losing
themselves and their jobs as they go. But too many work-addicted people are being mightily
rewarded, even though workaholism is, in the long run, the root cause of tremendous physical,
emotional and economic pain.
1. Ask students how they know if their boss with the nonstop demands, their spouse
who seldom makes it home to dinner, their coworker—or even themselves—are
work-addicted.
2. Have students take this quiz to see how many of the characteristics often associated
with work addiction apply to them or someone they know. Students should mark yes
next to each description that sounds familiar.
3. Have students show this quiz to their partner, coworker, or friend and see how
someone who knows them well answers about them. And assume that, in this case,
the person has truer answers for them than they do for themselves.
4. Give students the results of the quiz: If you score between 10 and 15, you need to take
a hard look at how much of your life has been taken over by work. Unless you score
less than three, don't consider yourself home free. You, too, have tendencies to let
your work overgrow your garden.
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154 Chapter 7: Stress and Well-Being at Work
Yes No 3. Perfectionism.
4. A fast pace, irritability with anyone who
Yes No
isn't "working hard enough."
5. Inability to take time off when sick,
Yes No
unused vacation days.
6. Lack of boundaries, work spills over into
Yes No
everything else.
7. Difficulty putting things in perspective,
Yes No
can't tell what's important.
8. Diminished relationships, people at home
Yes No
are mad or distant.
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Chapter 7: Stress and Well-Being at Work 155
MBTI® EXERCISE
Exercise Overview:
1. Students should have taken the MBTI instrument or short version in Chapter 3.
5. The instructor should review the concepts of stress and time and how the J and P dynamic of
the MBTI instrument relates to time and stress.
Exercise Description:
a. J groups generally believe that time is to be scheduled and controlled. Traditional time
management—specific periods of time (to the minute) to specific task and the task completion
needs to be done within the time allocated.
b. P groups generally believe that time can be adapted and added to. Nontraditional time
management—time is relative to the task and time allocation would be expanded without stress
to accomplish the task.
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156 Chapter 7: Stress and Well-Being at Work
c. J groups get stressed and give stress when they lack closure and/or control. Leaving issues
open for further discussion can be disconcerting especially if nothing is completed.
Additionally, reopening "closed" issues is stressful.
d. P groups get stressed and give stress when the number of options gets smaller or the nature
of the task becomes too routine for too long. Closing the issue too quickly can be
disconcerting because not all of the data has been collected yet. Additionally, keeping an issue
"closed" when new data becomes available is stressful.
Instructor's Summary:
In our country, most everything is "run by the clock." We schedule our activities around the
clock. For some people, it is very important that things stay on schedule as scheduled.
Additionally, it is very important to these people that something be accomplished within the
time allotted.
For other people, time is much more relative. These people are not as concerned about
deadlines and schedules as they are about making sure the issues are fully explored. It is
important to these people that the issue be discussed and that time allocated can be expanded.
We have a similar issue in the area of stress. It is as bipolar as the time management issues
we've just discussed. Some people are stressed when issues are not settled, when things are not
orderly, and when things are not where they are supposed to be. Whereas, other people are
stressed when things are settled too quickly, when things are too structured, and when things
are too organized.
The following alternative exercises to supplement the material in the textbook can be obtained
from:
Marcic, Dorothy, Seltzer, Joseph, & Vaill, Peter. Organizational Behavior: Experiences and
Cases, 6th Ed. South-Western College Publishing Company, 2001.
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6th of September, when the fire began to abate.[56] Nine tenths of
the city became the prey of the flames, and pillage completed the
calamities that overtook the inhabitants who had remained in it.
It was only on the 7th of September that the emperor Alexander
received through Iaroslav a short despatch from Count Rostoptchin
to the effect that Kutuzov had decided to abandon Moscow. The next
day, the 8th of September, the fatal news of Napoleon’s occupation
of the capital of the empire was confirmed by a despatch from the
field-marshal dated the 4th of September and brought in by Colonel
Michaud. Kutuzov wrote from the village of Jilin (on the march to the
Borovsk bridge) as follows:
“After the battle of the 26th of August, which in spite of so much
bloodshed resulted in a victory for our side, I was obliged to abandon
the position near Borodino for reasons of which I had the honour to
inform your imperial majesty. The army was completely exhausted
after the combat. In this condition we drew nearer to Moscow, having
daily greatly to do with the advance guard of the enemy; besides this
there was no near prospect of a position presenting itself from which
I could successfully engage the enemy. The troops which we had
hoped to join could not yet come; the enemy had set two fresh
columns, one upon the Borovsk route and the other on the
Zvenigorod route, striving to act upon my rear from Moscow:
therefore I could not venture to risk a battle, the disadvantages of
which might have as consequences not only the destruction of the
army but the most sanguinary losses and the conversion of Moscow
itself to ashes.
“In this most uncertain position, after taking counsel with our first
generals, of whom some were of contrary opinion, I was forced to
decide to allow the enemy to enter Moscow, whence all the
treasures, the arsenal, and nearly all property belonging to the state
or private individuals had been removed, and in which hardly a
single inhabitant remained. I venture most humbly to submit to your
most gracious majesty that the entry of the enemy into Moscow is
not the subjection of Russia. On the contrary, I am now moving with
the army on the route to Tula, which will place me in a position to
avail myself of the help abundantly prepared in our governments.
Although I do not deny that the occupation of the capital is a most
painful wound, yet I could not waver in my decision.
“I am now entering upon operations with all the strength of the line,
by means of which, beginning with the Tula and Kaluga routes, my
detachments will cut off the whole line of the enemy, stretching from
Smolensk to Moscow, and thus avert any assistance which the
enemy’s army might possibly receive from its rear; by turning the
attention of the enemy upon us, I hope to force him to leave Moscow
and change the whole line of his operations. I have enjoined General
Vinzengerode to hold himself on the Tver route, having meanwhile a
regiment of Cossacks on the Iaroslav route in order to protect the
inhabitants against attacks from the enemy’s detachments. Having
now assembled my forces at no great distance from Moscow I can
await the enemy with a firm front, and as long as the army of your
imperial majesty is whole and animated by its known bravery and our
zeal, the yet retrievable loss of Moscow cannot be regarded as the
loss of the fatherland. Besides this, your imperial majesty will
graciously deign to agree that these consequences are indivisibly
connected with the loss of Smolensk and with the condition of
complete disorder in which I found the troops.”
This despatch from Prince Kutuzov was printed in the Northern
Post of the 18th of September, with the exception of the concluding
words of the report: “and with the condition of complete disorder in
which I found the troops.” The sorrowful news brought by Colonel
Michaud did not, however, shake the emperor Alexander in his
decision to continue the war and not to enter into negotiations with
the enemy. When he had finished listening to Michaud’s report, he
turned to him with the following memorable words: “Go back to the
army, and tell our brave soldiers, tell all my faithful subjects,
wherever you pass by, that even if I have not one soldier left, I will
put myself at the head of my dear nobles, of my good peasants, and
will thus employ the last resources of my empire; it offers more to me
than my enemies think for, but if ever it were written in the decrees of
divine providence that my dynasty should cease to reign upon the
throne of my ancestors, then, after having exhausted every means in
my power, I would let my beard grow and go to eat potatoes with the
last of my peasants, rather than sign the shame of my country and of
my beloved people whose sacrifices I know how to prize. Napoleon
or I—I or he; for he and I can no longer reign together. I have learned
to know him; he will no longer deceive me.”
“The loss of Moscow,” wrote Alexander to the crown prince of
Sweden on the 19th of September, “gives me at least the opportunity
of presenting to the whole of Europe the greatest proof I can offer of
my perseverance in continuing the struggle against her oppressor,
for after such a wound all the rest are but scratches. Now more than
ever I and the nation at the head of which I have the honour to be,
are decided to persevere. We should rather be buried beneath the
ruins of the empire than make terms with the modern Attila.”
The letter that Napoleon addressed to the emperor from Moscow,
dated the 8th of September, in which he disclaimed the responsibility
of the burning of the capital, was left unanswered. In informing the
crown prince of it, the emperor Alexander added: “It contains,
however, nothing but bragging.”
At that time the fate of the grande armée was already definitively
decided. Having lost all hope of the peace he so desired, Napoleon
began to prepare for retreat. The defeat of his vanguard at Tarontin
on the 6th of October hastened the departure of the French from
Moscow; it began in the evening of the same day. Napoleon’s
intention was first to move along the old Kaluga road, to join Murat’s
vanguard, and then go on to the new Kaluga road; the emperor thus
hoped to go round the Russian army and open a free access for
himself to Kaluga. But the partisan Seslavin, who had boldly made
his way through on to the Borovsk route discovered Napoleon’s
movements. Standing behind a tree in the road, he saw the carriage
in which was the emperor himself, surrounded by his marshals and
his guards. Not satisfied with this exploit, Seslavin besides caught a
non-commissioned officer of the Old Guard, who had got separated
from the others in the thickness of the wood, bound him, and
throwing him across his saddle, galloped off with him.
The intelligence obtained by Seslavin had for consequences the
immediate move of Dokhtorov’s corps to Malo-Iaroslavetz; at the
same time Kutuzov decided to follow from Tarontin with the whole
army, and these arrangements led, on the 12th of October, to the
battle near Malo-Iaroslavetz. The town passed from the hands of one
side to the other eight times, and although after a conflict of eighteen
hours it was finally given up to the French, yet Kutuzov succeeded in
opportunely concentrating the whole army to the south of it, at a
distance of two and one-half versts.
Here, as Ségur justly remarks, was stopped the conquest of the
universe, here vanished the fruits of twenty years of victory and
began the destruction of all that Napoleon had hoped to create. The
author of this success, Seslavin, writes: “The enemy was forestalled
at Malo-Iaroslavetz; the French were exterminated, Russia was
saved, Europe set free, and universal peace established: such are
the consequences of this great discovery.”
The field-marshal had now to decide the question whether a
general battle should be attempted for the annihilation of the French
army, or whether endeavours should be made to attain this object by
more cautious means. The leader stopped at the latter decision. “It
will all fall through without me,” said Kutuzov, in reply to the impatient
partisans of decisive action. He expressed his idea more definitely
on this occasion to the English general Wilson, who was then at the
Russian headquarters: “I prefer to build a ‘golden bridge,’ as you call
it, for my adversary, than to put myself in such a position that I might
receive a ‘blow on the neck’ from him. Besides this, I again repeat to
you what I have already several times told you—I am not at all sure
that the complete annihilation of the emperor Napoleon and his army
would be such a great benefit to the universe. His inheritance would
give the continent not to Russia or any other power, but to that power
which now already rules the seas; and then her predominance would
be unbearable.” Wilson replied: “Do what you ought, come what
may.” The Russian army began to depart on the night between the
13th and 14th of October for Detchina.g
Kutuzov’s Policy