Stress is a prevalent and costly problem in today's work environment. Today’s one-third of workers report high levels of Job stress. One-quarter of employees view their work as the main reason stressor in their professional & personal lives. As per popular believes as comparison to a generation back, today’s Three-quarters of employees believe the worker has more on-the-job stress. Evidence also suggests that stress is the major cause of turnover in organizations has been mentioned in numerous researches, those can be the evidence of this.
People keep coming across stressful events or potential stressors and they try to deal with them. The process of managing a stressful event or potential stressor for minimizing their harmful consequences is known as Coping. Coping depends on the cognitive appraisal of the potential stressor, the stressful event and the concerned individual’s coping resources. A potential stressor gets dissipated, not resulting in stress when coping is effective (Igodan and Newcomb, 1986). Coping strategy (Taylor et al, 1998) represents different ways of coping with stress or potential stressors. It is clear therefore that stress and coping strategy depends upon each other and both of them depends on individual learning and perception (Srivastav, 2007).
Organizational role is defined by the expectations of the significant people (e.g. the boss, the subordinates, the peers and the role occupant) in the organization. The role occupant performs in the organization to satisfy his / her role expectations (Pareek, 2004). Organizational roles have been built-in potential for stress. Stress Experienced due to occupation of an organizational role is known as organizational role Stress (ORS).
Individual Performance may degrade when he is stressed beyond a limit. (Robbins and Sanghi, 2006).
Evolution of Stress
Stress is existed throughout the evolution. The potential causes of stress are numerous. Stress may be linked to outside factors such as environment around us, in which we live, work etc. Stress is derived from the Latin word “Stringer”- to draw tight and was popularly used in the 17th century to mean Hardship, adversity, straits, affliction. In Physical Science, the term stress refers to the internal forces generated within a solid body by the action of any external force.
In Modern World, The term stress was first employed in a biological context by the endocrinologist Hans Selye in the 1930s. He later broadened and popularized the concept to include inappropriate physiological response to any demand. He started to use the term to refer not just to the agent but to the state of the organism as it responded and adapted to the environment. His theories of a universal non-specific stress response attracted great interest and contention in academic physiology and he undertook extensive research Programmes and publication efforts. In his usage stress refers to a condition and stressor to the stimulus causing it. It covers a wide range of phenomena, from mild irritation to drastic dysfunction that may cause severe health breakdown.
Stress: The Concept & Definition
Stress is a term in psychology and biology, first coined in the biological context in the 1930s, which has in more recent decades become a commonplace of popular parlance. Stress is tension, Strain, or pressure from a situation that requires us to use, adapt or develop new coping skills. It refers to the consequence of the failure of an organism – human or animal – to respond appropriately to emotional or physical threats, whether actual or imagined.
John M. Ivancevich and Michael T. Matteson (1950) defined stress as, “An adoptive Response mediated by individual characteristics and psychological processes that is a consequence of any external situation, or event that places special physical or psychological demands upon a person”. As Harrison (1976) puts it, “Stress is the result of a disbalance between an individual and his / her environment and the perceived inability to manage the hurdles and resultant demands”. Beehr and Newman (1978) define Occupational Stress as “A condition Arising from the interaction of people and their jobs and characterized by changes within people that force them to deviate from their normal functioning”. Oxford Dictionary of HRM Defines Occupational Stress as, “A condition where an aspect of work is causing physical or mental problems for an employee.”
Job Stress can be defined as the harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources or needs of the worker. Job Stress can lead to poor health and even Injury.
(Stress at work, US National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Cincinnati, 1999)
Stress Response
The Process of stress elicits three types of response. These are i) Physiological ii) Psychological and iii) Behavioral Response.
Physiological Reponses
As soon as stress appears, the brain reacts and immediate biochemical changes take place in heart beat and heightening of practically all the senses. The Long term physiological effects are more disturbing. A serious health problem occurs as body confronts stress over a long period of time. The stress could lead to breakdowns in the body’s immune systems and may result in serious health problems such as high blood pressure, ulcers and heart attack. In general according to Baron, “taking all evidence into account though, it seems reasonable to conclude that high level of stress can result in physical changes that threaten our health and well-being.
Psychological Response
There are some people who can handle stress better than others, people who tend to be highly affected by stress tend to be depressed and lack self-confidence and self –esteem. They tend to believe that they are helpless and elicit sympathy from others. They have greater fear of the unknown and increased sense of futility, tension and neurotic tendencies. They become irritated quickly, are impatient and tend to blame everybody else for their own problems. They are more worried about their job Security and their job commitment is very low.
Behavioral Response
According to Cohen, people under constant stress behave differently as compared to people who are emotionally well balanced. Stress is usually associated with increased use of alcohol, smoking, eating and sometimes drugs. People under stress may gain weight and thus behave differently. Stress induces irritation and lack of patience and these elements are exhibited in behavioural patterns. The person may become an introvert, may withdraw from social situations and may avoid communication with others resulting in social isolation.