JOB STRESS

A. Siswanto

Life Without Stress Would be

Dull

Stress

Stress is an unavoidable part of

our life and work.
Most psychologists agree that
stress is good for us if we dont
get more than we can handle,
and if learn how to respond to
it.

What Is Stress ?

Stress is an adaptive response to a

situation that is perceived as challenging
or threatening to the persons well being.
We experience stress when something is
perceived to interfere with our well being,
that is, with our need fulfillment.

What Is Stress ?

People are stressed from over work,

job insecurity, information overload,
and the increasing pace of life.
These events produce distress --the degree of physiological,
psychological, and behavioral
deviation from healthy functioning.

What Is Stress ?

There is also a positive side of stress,

called eustress, that refers to the
healthy, positive, constructive
outcome of stressful events and the
stress response.

 Eustress is the stress experience in

moderation, enough to activate and

motivate people so that they can achieve
goal; change their environments, and
succeed in lifes challenges.
In other words, we need some stress to
survive. However, most research focuses
on distress, because it is a significant
concern in organizational settings.

General Adaptation Syndrome

Selye determined that people have a

fairly consistent physiological response to
stressful situations. This response, called
the general adaptation syndrome, provide
an automatic defense system to help us
cope with environmental demands.
The three stages of the general adaptation
syndrome are alarm reaction,
resistance, and exhaustion.

GENERAL ADAPTATION SYNDROME

1. Alarm Reaction. In the alarm reaction
stage, the perception of a threatening or
challenging situation causes the brain to
send a biochemical massage to various
parts of the body, resulting in increased
respiration rate, blood pressure,
heartbeat, and muscle tension, as well as
other physiological responses.

General Adaptation Sydrome

1. Alarm Reaction (contd)
At first, the individuals energy
level and coping effectiveness
decrease in response to initial
shock. Extreme shock, however,
may result in incapacity or death
because the body is unable to
generate energy quickly enough.

General Adaptation Syndrome

2. Resistance
The persons ability to cope with the
environmental demand rises above
the normal state during the resistance
stage because the body has activated
various biochemical, psychological,
and behavioral mechanisms.

General Adaptation Syndrome

2. Resistance (contd)
For example, we have a higher than
normal level of adrenalin during this
stage, which gives us more energy to
overcome or remove the source of stress.
However, our resistance is directed to
only one or two environmental demands,
so we become more vulnerable to other
sources of stress.

General Adaptation Syndrome

2. Resistance (continued)
For example, we have a higher than normal
level of adrenalin during this stage, which
gives us more energy to overcome or
remove the source of stress. However, our
resistance is directed to only one or two
environmental demands, so we become
more vulnerable to other sources of stress.
This situation explains with people are
more likely to catch a cold or other illness
when they have been under pressure.

General Adaptation Syndrome

3. Exhaustion
People have a limited resistance
capacity, and if the source of stress
persists, they will eventually move
into the exhaustion stage as this
capacity diminishes.

GENERAL ADAPTATION SYNDROME

3. Exhaustion (contd)
In most work situations, the general adaptation
syndrome process ends long before total
exhaustion. Employees resolve tense situations
before the destructive consequences of stress
become manifest, or they withdraw from the
stressful situation, rebuilt their survival
capabilities, and return later to the stressful
environment with renewed energy.

GENERAL ADAPTATION SYNDROME

Exhaustion (continued)

However, people who frequently experience

the general adaptation syndrome have
increased risk of long-term physiological and
psychological damage. The general
adaptation syndrome describes the stress
experience, but this is only part of the picture.
To effectively manage work-related stress, we
must understand its causes and
consequences as well as individual
differences in the stress experience.

What Is Stress ?
The term stress was introduced by
the Canadian Selye after World War
II in the field of medicine.
He defined stress as the reaction of
the organism to a threatening
situation, and distinguished
between the stressor as the
external cause and stress as the
reaction of the human body.

What Is Stress ?
Selye had discovered that stress was
essentially a change of neuroendocrine
mechanisms, beginning with an excitation in
the brain stem, followed by an increased
secretion of some hormones from the
adrenal gland, especially of adrenalin and
noradrenalin, known as performance
hormones, since they keep the whole
organism in a state of heightened alertness.

What Is Stress ?
These performance hormones, also called
catecholamines, can be determine in the
urine, and this is still a possible way of
determining stress.
It was said that an increase in stimulation of
the reticular formation is accompanied by an
increase in heart rate and blood pressure as
well as by an increased sugar level and
metabolism.
This reaction is called the ergotropic tuningup and is essentially identical with the basic
mechanisms of the stress reaction.

What Is Stress
?
They reflect an intensified readiness to

defend life, including fighting, fleeing or

other physical achievements.
But Selye also observed that this
emotional state, resulting from the
feeling of being threatened, was
responsible for the adverse effects of
stress.

What Is Stress ?

In fact, long-lasting or recurrent

stress situations can be
detrimental to health by inducing
functional troubles, particularly in
the gastro-intestinal or in the
cardiovascular systems.
These effects are psychosomatic
disturbances which, in the long
run, can turn into organic illnesses.

Ivancevich and Matteson define stress

simply as the interaction of the
individual with the environment, but
then they go on to give a more detailed
working definitions, as follows : an
adaptive response, mediated by individual
differences and/or psychological processes,
that is a consequence of any external
(environmental) action, situation, or event
that places excessive psychological and/or
physical demands upon a person.

Stress is not simply nervous tension.

Like anxiety, nervous tension may result
from stress, but the two are not the same.
Unconscious people have exhibited stress,
and some people may keep it bottled up
and not reveal it through nervous tension.
Stress is not simply anxiety.
Stress is not necessarily something
damaging, bad, or to be avoided. Eustress
is not damaging or bad and is something
people should seek out rather than avoid.

The Causes of Stress

Extraorganizational stressors
Extraorganizational stressors include
things such as societal/technological
change, the family relocation,
economic and financial conditions,
race and class, and residential or
community conditions.

Extraorganizational Stressors
1. Extra-organizational stressors are factors that
are related to work but extend beyond the
specific job or organization.
2. These stressors include factors related to
career and commuting.
3. Several conditions associated with career
development or job future (lack of job security,
under promotion, over promotion, and fear of
job obsolescence) have been related to
adverse behavioral problems, psychological
effects, and poor physical health.

Organizational Stressors
a. Policies
1. Unfair, arbitrary performance
reviews
2. Pay inequities, inflexible rules
3. Ambiguous procedures
4. Frequent relocation
5. Unrealistic job descriptions

Organizational Stressors
b. Structures
1. Centralization, lack of participation in
decision making;
2. Little opportunity for advancement;
3. A great amount of formalization;
4. High degree of specialization;
5. Interdependence of departments
6. Line staff conflicts

Organizational Stressors
c. Physical conditions
1. Crowding and lack of privacy
2. Excessive noise, heat or cold
3. Presence of toxic chemicals or
radiation
4. Air pollution
5. Safety hazards
6. Inadequate lighting

Organizational Stressors
d. Processes
1. Poor/inadequate feedback about
performance
2. Ambiguous /conflicting goals
3. Poor communication
4. Inaccurate/ambiguous
measurement of performance
5. Unfair control system
6. Inadequate information

Group Stressors
1. Lack of group cohesiveness
2. Lack of social support
3. Intraindividual, interpersonal,
and intergroup conflict

Individual Stressors

Role conflict
Ambiguity
Individual dispositions (such as
type A personality pattern)
Personal control
Learned helplessness
Self - efficacy
Psychological hardiness may all
affect the level of stress someone
experiences.

Role Conflict and

Ambiguity

Individual employees have multiple roles

(family, work professional, recreational, club,

community and so on), and these often make
conflicting demands and create conflicting
expectations.
After a recent extensive search of the
empirical research it was concluded that work
schedule, work orientation, marriage, children,
and spouse employment pattern may all
produce pressures to participate extensively in
the work role of the family role.

Role Conflict and

Ambiguity

Stress results when the time demands

for the work role are incompatible with
the time pressures of the family role or
vice versa.
Role ambiguity results from inadequate
information or knowledge to do a job.
This ambiguity may be due to
inadequate training, poor
communication, or the deliberate
withholding or distortion of information
by a coworker of supervisor.

Profiles of Type A
Personality

Is always moving
Walks rapidly
Eats rapidly
Talks rapidly
Is impatient
Does two things at once
Cant cope with leisure time
Is obsessed with numbers
Measure success by quantity
Is aggressive
Is competitive
Constantly feels under time pressure

Profiles of Type B
Personality

Is not concerned about time

Is patient
Does not brag (membual)
Plays for fun, not to win
Relaxes without guilt
Has no pressing deadlines
Is mild-mannered
Is never in a hurry

Type A Personality
Type A employees (managers, sales
persons,
staff, specialists, secretaries, or rank-andfile
operating employees) experience
considerable
stress. They are the ones who :
1. Work long, hard hours under constant
deadline pressures and conditions for
overload.
2. Often take work home at night or on
weekends and are enable to relax.

Type A Personality
3. Constantly compete with
themselves, setting high standards
of productivity that they seem
driven to maintain.
4. Tend to become frustrated by the
work situations, to be irritated with
the work efforts of others, and to be
misunderstood by superiors.

Components Of The Stress

Process
1. Stressors
Job structure --- overtime, shift
work,
machinepacing, pace work.
Job content ---- Quantitative
overload,
qualitative underload, lack of
control.
Physical conditions --unpleasant,

Components Of The Stress

Process
Stressors (continued)

Organization ---- role ambiguity, role

conflict, competition and rivalry.

Extra-organizational ---- Job insecurity,

career development, commuting.

Other sources ---- personal, family,

community.

OUTCOMES
Physiologic :
Short-term ---- catecholamines, cortisol,
blood pressure increases.
Long-term ----- hypertension, heart
disease, ulcers, asthma.
Psychologic (cognitive and affective)
Short-term ---- anxiety, dissatisfaction,
mass
psychogenic illness.
Long-term ---- depression, burnout,
mental

OUTCOMES
Behavioral

:
Short-term --- job (absenteeism,
reduced productivity and
participation), community
(decreased friendships and
participation), personal (excessive
use of alcohol and drugs, smoking)
Long-term --- learned
helplessness.

OUTCOMES
Individual

--- behavioral style

and personal resources.
Social support --- emotional,
value or self esteem, and
informational.

Psychological Hardiness
Some

people seem to go to pieces

at the slightest provocation while
others seem unflappable (tidak
terganggu) in the face of
extremely stressful situations.
Those able to successfully cope
with extreme stressors seem to
have hardiness disposition.

Psychological Hardiness
Kobasa

and her colleagues studied

executives under considerable stress
who were both hardy and nonhardy.
She found that the hardy executives
had a lower rate of stress-related illness
and were characterized with as having
commitment (they become very
involved in what they were doing);
challenge (they believed that change
rather than stability was normal); and
control (they felt that they could
influence the events around them).

The Effects of Job Stress

Stress is not automatically bad for

individual employee or their

organizational performance.
In fact, it is generally recognized
that at least low levels of stress
can even enhance job
performance.

The Effects of Job Stress

For

example, one recent study

found that mild stress, such as
getting a new supervisor or being
involuntarily transferred, may
result in an increased search of
information in the job.
This may lead employees to new
and better ways of doing their
jobs.

The Effects of Job Stress

Research is also emerging that

indicates that the level of difficulty
and nature of the task being
performed and personal dispositions
such as type A, personal control and
learned helplessness, self efficacy
and psychological hardiness, may
affect the relationship between stress
and performance.

The Effects of Job Stress

Continued .
However, it is still safe to conclude
that :
1. The performance of many tasks is
in fact strongly affected by stress.
2. Performance usually drops off
sharply when stress rises to high
levels.

Behavioral Problems

Research is also emerging that indicates

that the level of difficulty and nature of
the task being performed and personal
dispositions such as type A, personal
control and learned helplessness, self
efficacy and psychological hardiness,
may affect the relationship between
stress and performance.

Stressors In The Work

Environment

The following conditions may become

stressors in work environments :
1. Job control, is the workers participation
in determining the job routine,
including control over temporal aspects
and supervising work processes.
2. Social support, means assistance
through supervisors and peers (teman
sebaya). A lack of social support
increases the load of stressors.

Stressors In The Work

Environment
3. Job distress or dissatisfaction is mainly

related to job content and work load. It is

the perceived stress in job and career.
4. Task and performance demands are
characterized by the workload, including
demands upon attention. Deadlines may be
a major stressor, too.
5. Job security --- today refers mainly to the
threat of unemployment.
6. Responsibility for the lives and the well
being of other people may be a heavy
mental burden.

Stressors In The Work Environment

7. Physical environmental problems include noise,
poor lighting, indoor climate or small, enclosed
offices.
8. Complexity is defined as the number of different
demands involved in a job. Repetitive and
monotonous work is often characterized by a
lack of complexity, which seems to be an
important predictor of job dissatisfaction. On the
other hand, two high complexity can arouse feelings
of incompetence and lead to emotional strain.

Physiological Consequences
Studies have found that medical

students who are anxious about their

exams are more susceptible to colds
and other illnesses.
Many people experience tension
headaches due to stress. Others get
muscle pain and related back
problems. These physiological ailments
are attributed to muscle contractions
that occur when people are exposed to
stressors.

Physiological Consequences
Cardiovascular disease represents
one of the most disturbing effects
of stress in modern society.
Stroke and heart attacks were
rare a century ago but are now
the leading causes of death
among American adults.

Physiological Consequences
Stress also influences
hypertension. Hypertension has
decreased in recent years as a
result of better lifestyles and
medical treatment. Still, nearly
one-quarter of all American adults
are treated for this condition.

Physiological Consequences
Medical researchers believe that

the long-term effects of stress on

the heart goes something like
this : whenever people are
stressed, their blood pressure
goes up and down.
That frequent pressure change
causes injury to the blood vessel
walls, which eventually makes
them constrict and function
abnormally.

Physiological Consequences
Over time, this sequence leads to

heart disease. Unfortunately, we often

can not tell when we are
physiologically stressed. For example,
researchers have found that people
think they are in a low-stress state
when, in fact, their palms are sweating
and their blood pressure has risen.

Physiological Consequences
Stress produces various psychological
consequences, including job
dissatisfaction, moodiness (murung)
and
depression. Emotional fatigue is
another
psychological consequence of stress
and is related to job burnout.

TERIMA KASIH