Stress Management - An Spice of Life


By

 Mrs. Shilpee Adhikari
Sr. Lecturer
Department of MBA
Saroj Institute of Technology and Management
Lucknow
 


The word Stress is derived from the Latin word " Stringere", stress was popularly
Used in the seventeenth century to mean hard ship, strain, adversity or Affliction. It was used in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to denote force, pressure, strain or strong efforts with reference to an object or person.
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In modern times Stress has become a Buzzword and legitimate concern for people of all walks of life. No one is immune to stress. Straight from the birth till death an individual is exposed to various to stress. Stress is such a field, which can never be avoided.

A Stress acts as a force on body to produce strain. It is an adaptive response to a situation that is challenging or retaining to a person.

The concept of stress was first introduced in Life sciences by Hans Selye in 1936.  There are different views of different persons on the basis of there personal experiences, like for some business man it is an frustration or emotional tension, some suggest that it is an physical or mental pressure, these restrict and act as an hindrance in the performance of an individual.

It is pressure people feel in life due to their reaction to situation. Hans Selye defines stress as " adaptive response to the external situation that results in physical, psychological or behavioral deviation for organizational participants."   

It is an condition arising from the interaction of people from the interaction of people there job and characterized by changed within people that forced them to deviate from there normal functioning.

There are two sides of stress A positive and Negative side. A Force that deviates from the normal functioning is distress, --- a negative side.

A positive side is called a Eutress, which refers to healthy,  positive,  constructive outcome of stressful event .It is an experience that motivates people to achieve goals and attain success in every field of there life.

Out comes of Stress:

There are certain outcomes of stress. The stress results as an hindrance in an individuals performance, his work profile, his ability to work, Migrane, Ftigue,heartdisease,miscarriage and also his personal life .

At the Escorts Heart Institute in Delhi, India, routine cardiac screening indicate that most executives are in the advanced stages."

There are certain results which is shown in the form of diagram below:


 The Stress is a response of an individual to the pressure and anxiety .there are both the Positive and negative occurrences which gives rise to stress. There are generally three stages through which an individual goes namely: Alarm, Resistance, Exhaustion. In Alarm the stress act upon an individual and the defence mechanism is brought into action. The next is the Resistance here the individual adapts to new stressful situations. If the defence mechanism is not successful then the last stage the Exhaustion comes into operation. Here the individual's resistance collapses and the organism do not perform satisfactorily.

High level of stress also impairs ability to remember information, make effective decisions, and take appropriate action.

CAUSES OF STRESS:  It is difficult to manage stress unless the individual experiencing stress is aware of the causes or sources of Stress. There are few common causes of stress namely the working environment, satisfaction through monetary sides, Job profile,  relationship with our seniors,  subordinates,  Family Problems etc.

There are certain major sources or causes of stress which are listed as: 

  • Environmental Causes: These are the factors to which an employee responds includes fast technological change, Family demands economic and financial conditions,etc.
  • Organizational Causes: These comes in the forms of organizational policies, procedures,  structures, etc.
  • Group Causes: These would include the lack of group cohesiveness, lack of social support and interpersonal conflict.
  • Individual Causes: These are the roles played by the individual in an organization. This would include Role plays, WorkLoad. Etc.

It has been surveyed that mostly Indian executives suffer from obesity and 44 percent of middle – level executives report that job stress drives them to high level of alcohol consumption.

Spice of Life ---- STRESS

The research evidence shows that stress is both helpful and harmful to task performance. We can also say,  stress is both a friend and enemy . Absence and too low level of stress does not stimulate the employee to work more or and perform better increasing research evidences show that increase in stress level till its mild level serves as a stimulus to activate employee to respond to the challenges of task and, in turn, facilitates employee's task performance.

At the Escorts Heart Institute in Delhi, India, routine cardiac screening indicate that most executives are in the advanced stages."

Newstrom and Devis "have compared the relationship between stress and performance with that of strings and music on a violin, just as either too little or too much tension on the strings does not produce suitable music and the violin strings need t be readjusted to accommodate the changing conditions, such as increased humidity either too low or too high stress level interferes with employees performance and thus stress needs to be periodically adjusted and moderated.

Reduction in Stress: There is a need for coping with stress. Stress is harmful, as it hinders the employee's health and his or her task performance. There are certain tactics to cope with stress, which depends upon demands and constrains in which it is used. There are different techniques used for Stress reduction like Yoga, Counseling services Training Programmes etc.

Yoga: Yoga and Meditation are an Traditional techniques used in Indian origin, Yoga is a suspension of the functions of mind. There affect the psychological well being of an individual. It is one's willingness to change and self-transformation it is a glorified form of physical exercise and relaxation therapy. Meditation is a psycho spiritual process In meditation both self and external world together.

Employees Counseling : It is proactive approach used by organization, helping them in identifying their strengths and weakness. Counseling helps employees in the matters like career planning, there health planning, vocational guidance questions concerning the company and their job.

Training Program:  The purpose of the Stress Control Training Program is to teach personnel effective coping skills for stress reduction in the classrooms and Office.

Goals of Training

 The goal of the training is to provide personnel with the necessary skills to implement a stress control program in their classrooms and Office. The training is available to employees, teachers, counselors, social workers, administrators, and other staff.

Conclusion:

The concept of Stress is from the natural sciences. Stress is  a force which act  in a  body to produce strain. It is becoming common in organization because of increasing job complexity and economic pressure. There is a need to manage stress, which is both harmful and useful but ultimately affects the performance of an employee. In competitative and complex world implementation of strategies is to manage stress, which is a continuous process and essential aspect in every day life.

References:

Kale Latif Ahmed (June 1998); "Management and Human Resource Development''; Manisha Prakashan, Mumbai.

Sharma AM (2005); " Personal and Human Resource Development"; Himalayan Publishing House, New Delhi.

Mamoria CB and Gankar (2002) ; "Personal Management"; Himalayan Publishing House.

John W. Newstrom and Keith Davis : Organizational Behaviour : Human Behaviour at work, tata Mc Graw-Hill Publishing company Ltd., New Delhi.

Web sites:

www.google.com

www.altavista.com
 


Mrs. Shilpee Adhikari
 Sr. Lecturer
Department of MBA
Saroj Institute of Technology and Management
Lucknow
 

Source: E-mail March 19, 2008

          

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