Stress at work is a daily fact of life for most workers, managers, and even psychologists. This book, written in clear, accessible language, shows how to stop job stress before it starts. As the authors say, "stress is inevitable, distress is not." Originally published in 1984, this bestseller has been revised and updated for a new generation of readers. It will be a key resource for managers, human resource professionals, industrial/organizational psychologists, graduate students in industrial/organizational psychology, and business administrators.
Including practical advice on how to conduct a stress audit and how to target stress 'hot spots' within an organization, Organizational Stress Management provides a fresh strategic model for the manager concerned with the negative effects stress can have both on company performance and the quality of life of individuals at work.
Stress is defined as a feeling experienced when a person perceives that demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize. It can occur due to environmental issues, such as a looming work deadline, or psychological, for example, persistent worry about familial problems. While the acute response to life-threatening circumstances can be life-saving, research reveals that the body’s stress response is largely similar when it reacts to less threatening but chronically present stressors such as work overload, deadline pressures and family conflicts. It is proffered that chronic activation of stress response in the body can lead to several pathological changes such as elevated blood pressure, clogging of blood vessels, anxiety, depression, and addiction. Organizational Stress Around the World: Research and Practice aims to present a sound theoretical and empirical basis for understanding the evolving and changing nature of stress in contemporary organizations. It presents research that expands theory and practice by addressing real-world issues, across cultures and by providing multiple perspectives on organizational stress and research relevant to different occupational settings and cultures. Personal, occupational, organizational, and societal issues relevant to stress identification along with management techniques/approach to confront stress and its associated problems at individual and organizational level are also explored. It will be of value to researchers, academics, practitioners, and students interested in stress management research.
Stress has recently overtaken the common cold as the most common cause of sick leave in many European countries and is a major cause of concern for companies worldwide. Why then do most of the 'Coping with Stress' texts to be found in bookshops consider this a problem only to be tackled by the Individual ? Strategic Stress Management is different, it shows how companies can boost performance by adopting integrated organizational strategies to identify and reduce stress in their employees. Including practical advice on how to conduct a stress audit and how to target stress 'hot spots' with an organization, Strategic Stress Management provides a fresh strategic model for the manager concerned with the negative effects stress can have both on company performance and the quality of life of individuals at work. This is the latest book from best-selling stress management author, Cary Cooper, and will be eagerly awaited by HR Directors, Organizational Consultants. Occupational Psychologists, Managing Directors and all managers who wish to work with healthy, stable and productive staff.
To the individual whose health or happiness has been ravaged by an inability to cope with the effects of job-related stress, the costs involved are clear. But what price do organizations and nations pay for a poor fit between people and their work environments? Only recently has stress been seen as a contributory factor to the productivity and health costs of companies and countries but as studies of stress-related illnesses and deaths show, stress imposes a high cost on individual health and well-being as well as organizational productivity. This book examines stress in organizational contexts. The authors review the sources and outcomes of job-related stress, the methods used to assess levels and consequences of occupational stress, along with the strategies that might be used by individuals and organizations to confront stress and its associated problems. One chapter is devoted to examining an extreme form of occupational stress – burnout, which has been found to have severe consequences for individuals and their organizations. The book closes with a discussion of scenarios for jobs and work in the new millennium, and the potential sources of stress that these scenarios may generate The book is a comprehensive, thought-provoking resource for Ph.D. students, academics, and other professionals working to minimize or eliminate the sources of stress in the workplace.
During the past two decades, the nature of work has changed dramatically, as more and more organizations downsize, outsource and move toward short-term contracts, part-time working and teleworking. The costs of stress in the workplace in most of the developed and developing world have risen accordingly in terms of increased sickness absence, labour turnover, burnout, premature death and decreased productivity. This book, in one volume, provides all the major theories of organizational stress from the leading researchers and writers in the field. It is a guide to identifying the sources of pressures in jobs and the workplace so that we may be able to intervene to change and manage the growing problem of organizational stress.
A Survival Guide to the Stress of Organizational Change shows employees how they can avoid 15 basic mistakes that create major stress in the workplace. If your organization is changing (and whose isn't?) you can bet that many of your people are reacting in ways that are dead wrong. The result is unnecessary job stress, and unnecessary costs that damage your bottom line. This easy-to-read handbook explains the sources of stress and provides practical, usable tips for reducing stress like: stop expecting somebody else to reduce your stress; use humor to lighten your emotional load; develop better time management habits; don't try to control the uncontrollable.
The contributions in Creating Healthy Workplaces include a number of interventions that relate the efforts undertaken by researchers and organizations together, to reduce stress and improve the mental and physical health of employees through positive change initiatives. Those working in the field of occupational stress have received criticism that too much emphasis has been placed on negative issues and that positive initiatives have been largely ignored. With the growing influence of the positive movement, this book explores the implications of using a positive approach as opposed to a stress management one and compares the types of interventions they each require. From a positive perspective, there is a need to understand the characteristics of healthy, thriving, and flourishing people and organizations. This book explores the implications of using a positive approach as opposed to a stress management one. Some of the interventions described in Creating Healthy Workplaces target individuals and their attitudes and behaviours, others target workplace relationships, work units and the wider organization. Outcomes such as reduced occurrences of smoking, obesity, depression, elevated blood pressure, accidents and workplace injuries, presenteeism, absence and staff turnover are reported. The factors associated with the success of these interventions are identified and advice is given as to how interested individuals and organizations might proceed to develop worksite interventions on their own.
