Forum (Spotlight Weekly)

Stress management in organization

By Dr. Niranjan Prasad Upadhyay

Stress, in general, is “a physical, chemical, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension and may be a factor in disease causation.” Stress is not always bad. Stress can be a necessary positive force leading to effective work and maintenance of good health. Insufficient stress might lead to “rust out” while over exposure to stressful conditions might lead to “burn out”. The person- environment fit model states that if a person is not able to fit into his or her environment, then it leads to stress and strain. Nepalese researchers have claimed that in Nepalese organizations, employees disclose stresses due to a variety of cause viz. disparity of reward and punishment, poor remuneration, low incentive and poor training facilities, improper job description and assignment, inadequate recognition of performance, excessive political pressures, lack of placement and tendency of sharing undue benefits.

One of the interesting things about stress is that, in small quantities, stress improves performance. However, as the stress increase, performance degradation takes place. To measure the effects of stress on performance, speed, accuracy, number of errors and error tolerance are measured. Workplace violence and industrial accidents are increasing, and are also thought to be due to increasing stress. Stress has also been implicated in the increase in workplace violence, and road rage. Researchers highlight that men often react to stress with a "fight-or-flight" response, but women are more likely to manage their stress with a "tend-and-befriend" response. Stress has become a major concern of modern managers in all types of organizations. Its potential role on health and productivity has become a cause for concern. Studies indicate that almost 80 percent of physical diseases occur due to stress alone.

Management is the process of designing and maintaining an environment in which individuals working together in groups can efficiently accomplish selected aims and task. In organization, the managers are at all times trying to know the overall activities of the personnel in the line of setting goals and objectives of the organization. These days, managing stress in organization seems to be a challenging job to every manager. Predominantly, managers conduct general administration and development activities on the basis of certain assigned jobs and responsibilities.

Men often react to stress with a "fight-or-flight" response, but women are more likely to manage their stress with a "tend-and-befriend" response. Stress has become a major concern of modern managers in all types of organizations. Its potential role on health and productivity has become a cause for concern. Studies indicate that almost 80 percent of physical diseases occur due to stress alone. Stress can cause dissatisfaction. Principally, job related stress could elevate frustration. The management experts focus that when people are placed in jobs that make multiple and conflicting demands, they will be stressed. Psychologically, the lack of clarity of duties, authority, and responsibilities raise acute stress. High level of stress, or even low levels sustained over long periods of time can lead to reduced employee performance. Nepalese researchers claim that in Nepal’s work context, high stress is caused by diversified factors such as deadline pressures, inadequate career development and opportunities and lack of opportunities to travel abroad.

The causes of stress are plenty and can affect any employee, a director or a blue -collar worker –young and old. This kind of stress is triggered by psychological problem in worker and will eventually and directly affect the productivity. Any job condition can produce stress depending on how an employee reacts to the work. Inadequate or excessive levels of stress or conflict can increase absence and could ultimately affect the objective of the organization.

Stresses have made an outstanding contribution to the understanding of the human adjustments within organization. Psychological experiments show that strong unresolved stress makes enduring changes in workers’ personality. If a worker persists in stress over a period of years it makes him inferior, dull and with poor adjustment capacity. It is very probable that such types of effects lessen his or her general ability to adjust within the work place and gradually degrade the efficiency and productivity of the organization. Nepalese management researchers have developed certain techniques of overcoming stress i.e. meditation, consultation with psychiatrists, exercise and being optimistic. At the same time, clinical psychologists have stated that psychological counseling is helpful in resolving stresses of the employees.

Pagers, fax, e-mail and cellular phones make it easy to upset the worker’s free time while at home or during vacation. The dynamics of modern life make it difficult to balance the demands between work and home. Studies have found that serious on-going work stress and job pressure or working for long hours and in many shifts resulted in more negative effects on physical and mental health.

Extreme temperatures, loud noise, or poor lighting or ventilation can be quite stressful. Dangerous jobs that put the workers’ life or health at risk are also stressful. Working late night shifts have been known to lead to poor health and are stressful. Work stress often arises when workers find themselves doing jobs they dislike or jobs for which they are ill suited. A mismatch between a worker’s interests and skills and job requirements can be very stressful. Careful screening, selection and placement of workers at the beginning itself by organizations can play an important role in reducing this type of stress.

The tremendous variety of strategies and techniques designed in recent years to cope with work stress can be put into two general categories: individual strategies and organizational strategies. Individual strategies are those that can be used by individual employees to try to reduce or eliminate personal stress. Organizational strategies are techniques and programs that organizations can implement to try to reduce stress levels for groups of workers of the organization. Systematic relaxation training, meditation, and biofeedback are other useful techniques in the course of coping stress.

In conclusion, stress cannot only be negative or destructive. It can also be positive, encourage people to work hard for their achievement of their targeted or defined objectives. A moderate level of stress may escort better performance by inducing better preparation. It also helps in creating a more positive self-esteem and an equally positive power. Under moderate stress levels performance is high because physical and mental capabilities are challenged.

(Dr. Upadhyay is a joint secretary and psychologist at the Public Service Commission)