Managing Stress.
Because low to moderate levels of stress can be functional and lead to higher performance, management may not be concerned when employees experience them. Employees, however, are likely to perceive even low levels of stress as undesirable. It is not unlikely, therefore, for employees and management to have different notions of what constitutes an acceptable level of stress on the job.
Individual Approaches
An employee can take personal responsibility for reducing stress levels. Individual strategies that have proven effective include:
Time Management. Many people manage their time poorly, the well organized person can often achieve twice as much work done compared to the poorly time-managing one. A few of the best known time-management principles are: 1. Making daily lists of activities to be completed. 2. Prioritizing activities by importance and urgency. 3. Scheduling activities according to the priorities set. 4. Knowing your daily cycle and handling the most demanding parts of your job when you are most alert and productive.
Physical Exercise. Physicians have recommended non-competitive sports, such as aerobics, walking, jogging, swimming etc to deal with excessive stress levels. These forms of physical exercise increase heart capacity, lower the at-rest heart rate, provide a mental diversion from work pressures and even slow the physical and mental effects of aging.
Relaxation Techniques. Meditation, hypnosis and biofeedback can all help release tension. The objective is to reach a deep state of physical relaxation, in which you feel somewhat detached from the immediate environment and from bode sensations.
Social Networks. As we have noted, friends, family, or work colleagues is great to talk to as an outlet when stress levels become excessive. Expanding your social network provides someone to hear your problems and offer a more objective perspective on the situation than your own.
Organizational Approaches
Several factors that cause stress (particularly task and role demands) are controlled by management and this can be modified or changed. Strategies to consider include:
Selection and Placement. Certain jobs are more stressful than others but, as already noted, individuals differ in their response to stressful situations. We know individuals with little experience or an external locus of control tend to be more prone to stress. Selection and placement decisions should take these facts into consideration. Similarly, training can increase an individual’s self-efficacy and thus lessen job strain.
Goal Setting. As discussed in Chapter 6, individuals perform better when they have specific and challenging goals and receive feedback on their progress toward these goals. Goals can reduce stress as well as provide motivation.
Redesigning Jobs. This can give employees more responsibility, more meaningful work, more autonomy and increased feedback can reduce stress because these factors give employees greater control over work activities and lessen dependence on others. But as we noted in our discussion of work design previously, not all employees want enriched jobs.
Increase employee involvement. Role stress is detrimental to a large extent because employees feel uncertain about goals, expectations, how the will be evaluated etc. By giving these employees a voice in the decisions that directly affect their job performance, management can increase employee control and reduce role stress.
Organizational communication. Increasing this with employees reduces uncertainty by lessening role ambiguity and role conflict. Remember that what employees categorize as demands, threats or opportunities is an interpretation and that interpretation can be affected by the symbols and actions communicated by management.
A final suggestion is organizationally supported wellness programs. These typically provide workshops to help people quit smoking, control alcohol abuse, lose weight, eat better and develop a regular exercise program; they focus on the employee’s total physical and mental condition.