Industrial and organizational psychology/Module 10

Module 10.1 - The Problem of Stress

There are three important factors when looking into workplace stress:

1. Work stressors: Task & role stresstors
2. Moderators of the stress process: Individual differences and social support
3. Consequences of stress: Burnout and heart disease

Hans Selye, otherwise known as the "Father of Stress", defined stress as "the non-specific response of the human body to any demand made on it". There is a difference between eustress (good) vs. distress (bad).

General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) is when an alarm reaction leads to resistance, which leads to exhaustion. This is a typical response to chronic stress.

In addition to physiological reaction to stress, there is also a cognitive appraisal of situation & of resources available to handle these stressors. The 2 coping styles are as follows:

• Problem-focused coping: Managing or altering the problem causing the stress.
• Emotion-focused coping: Reducing the emotional response to the problem.

What is a stressor?

A stressor is a physical/psychological demand to which an individual responds to. This could be a work schedule, the temperature, noise, work pace/time pressure, perceived control [of a situation], workload, etc. Strains are a reaction or response to stressors. For example, a stressor of role conflict being present may strain one's job satisfaction. We can separate common stressors at work in the following categories:

• Physical/Task stressors - examples are noise, demands of the job, etc.
• Psychological stressors - An individuals' perception of control or predictability in a work situation. These perceptions are related to autonomy, which is when employees can control how and/or when they perform their job tasks.
• Interpersonal conflict are negative interactions with co-workers, supervisors, and/or clients. These could take place when resources are scarce, have conflicting interests, or lack of trust in their job's organization.
• Role stressors - Too many task requirements or roles and employee must fulfill. These include role ambiguity (employees don't have an idea of expected behavior at work), role conflict (demands from multiple sources can't be taken care of at one time), or role overload (too many tasks to complete at one time).
• Work-family conflict - When workers are conflicted between roles they do at work and in their personal lives. Flexibility in time schedules, especially when taking care of a kid, are becoming more important in today's world.
• Emotional labor, either by faking one's emotions (surface acting) or managing one's feelings at their job (deep acting), is the regulation of one's emotions to meet their work standards.

What are the behavioral consequences of stress?

• Information processing: chronic stress affects memory, reaction time, and task performance/accuracy.
• Performance: We believe that performance and stress are inversely related - at a certain point. You need a good level of stress for performance, but when too much is done, then performance declines.

What are the psychological consequences of stress?

• Burnout: Extreme, psychological strain from prolonged responses to chronic job stressors that go above an individual's resources to cope with them. This is measured with the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI).

Psychological consequences of stress consist of three components:

1. Emotional exhaustion
2. Depersonalization
3. Low personal accomplishment

What are the physiological consequences of stress?

Stressful situations lead to an overload of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS). These changes actually (initially) improve decision making and physical performance, but chronic activation of the SNS leads to a "wear and tear" on coronary arteries and the heart.

Work Schedules

3 different scheduling formats:

1. Shift work
2. Fixed shift
3. Rotating shift

Scheduling variations include:

1. Flextime
2. Compressed workweek
3. Telecommuting

Module 10.2 - Theories of Stress

Demand-Control Model: 2 factors, job demands (workload) and control (autonomy), are prominent in producing job stress. A Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ) looks at the demands (role overload/conflict), control (skill utilization/job decision), and health consequences (depression, sleep problem, and job dissatisfaction).

Person-Environment Fit Model: Consists of the hypothesis (fit between person and environment determines the amount of stress that person perceives), considers external influences (like social support from those around), and looks at the person-job fit vs. person-organization fit.

The following are moderators of a stressor-strain relationship:

• Locus of control (LOC): Whatever happens to me is under my control.
• Hardiness: Personality characteristics that provide stress resistance.
• Self-esteem: Positive self-worth, good for coping.

TABP

Type A Behavior Pattern (TABP) serves as a moderator of stressor-strain relationship. Individuals displaying TABP are characterized by ambitiousness, impatience, easily aroused hostility and time urgency. Type A's seem to thrive on "life in the fast lane" or "we just do whateva!".

Type As are more punctual, work faster, and achieve higher in their college/professional endeavors. Though, hostility is a weak point for TABP, as it increases the risk of heart disease and harmful health outcomes.

Subcomponents

• Achievement strivings (AS): the tendency to be active, work hard for one's goals. This is a positive correlation when assessing academic/professional performance and job satisfaction.
• Impatience - Frustrated at slowness. Associated with health problems, like poor digestion and insomnia.
• Time urgency - Pressured by a lack of time. This affects eating behavior, causes nervous energy, affects scheduling, speech patterns, and deadline control.

Module 10.3 - Reducing & Managing Stress

Occupational health psychology (OHP) is the application of psychology to improving the quality of work life, and to protecting and promoting the safety, health, and well-being of workers. The Handbook of Occupational Health Psychology is the source for OHP issues, including work-family balance, work design, and stress management interventions.

This field divides into the following 3:

1. Primary
2. Secondary
3. Tertiary

Primary Prevention Strategies

These primary prevention strategies are concerned with modifying or eliminating stressors in work environment. These are the best approaches to stress management, and they include work/job design and cognitive restructuring.

Secondary Prevention Strategies

These secondary prevention strategies involve modifying responses to inevitable demands/stressors. The role is often one of damage control. The strategies that require no special training include lifestyle choices. These can be either proactive or reactive.

Stress management training is useful for helping employees deal with workplace stressors that are difficult to change. These include cognitive-behavioral skills training, relaxation and biofeedback techniques, and social support.

Tertiary Prevention Strategies

These tertiary prevention strategies focus on healing negative effects of stressors.

EAPs, or employee assistance programs, are counseling sessions provided by an organization to deal with workplace stress, alcohol/drug difficulties, and problems stemming from outside the job.

Summary

• Various interventions > one single intervention
• Interventions MUST identify stressors causing strain and deal with them accurately.
• Primary stress interventions > other interventions (usually)

Future Work

Psychology needs to tend to the more culturally and ethnically diverse community & tailor tot he new millenium, such as developments in technology and global competition.

Module 10.4 - Violence at Work

Why is workplace violence becoming more... violent?

Usually takes place after unfair treatment and the perpetrator feels the need to carry out grievances against an organization or people in the organization. Usual characteristics include alcohol abuse, violent history, and white male of 25-30 years.

Theories

• Frustration-aggression hypothesis (frustration --> aggression, though too broad. We now believe that frustration --> stress reaction --> expending energy to relieve this stress). High self-esteem is associated with violence.
• "Justice hypothesis" (some violent acts can be understood as reactions by an employee against what they believe to be injustice, such layoffs, firings, or performance appraisals).
• Bullying (4 steps in escalation: critical incident, bullying, organizational intervention, and explusion of victim).

Conclusion

Employees need to have ways to communicate about the treatment they recieve, and managers need to detect signs of trouble in their employees.