Chapter 14: Personal Productivity and Stress Management

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Chapter 14 Personal Productivity and Stress
Management
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Stress

• The physical, psychological, and behavioral
  reactions experienced by individuals in
  situations where they feel they are in danger of
  being overwhelmed

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Physiological aspects of stress (Seyle)

• Alarm reaction
• Resistance
• Exhaustion

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Stressors

• External events or stimuli that are responsible
  for stress

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Characteristics of stressors

• Produce state of overload
• Evoke incompatible tendencies
• Uncontrollable

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Cognitive factors

• Appraisal of situation

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Work related causes of stress

• Working conditions

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Work related causes of stress (cont.)

• Occupational demands
• Decision making
• Constant monitoring
• Repeated exchange of information
• Unpleasant physical conditions
• Unstructured task performance
• Jobs that cause problems with home life

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Work related causes of stress (cont.)

• Multiple roles
• Family stressors ? women
• Work stressors ? men
• Carry over effects of stress
• Having multiple roles may actually reduce stress

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Work related causes of stress (cont.)

• Overload and underload
• Qualitative and quantitative
• Making decisions that effect others
• Lack of social support
• Unemployment stress

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Personal factors in stress

• Life events and stress
• Death of a spouse 100
• Divorce 73
• Marital separation 65
• Fired from job 57
• Death of close friend 37
• Vacation 13
• Christmas 12

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Personal factors (cont.)

• Daily stressors
• Major impact on physical and psychological health

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Personal factors (cont.)

• Optimistic vs. Pessimistic style
• Optimists ? problem focused
• Pessimists ? ignore, deny

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Personal factors (cont.)

• Hardiness
• ? resilience
• Factors
• Commitment
• Control
• Challenge

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Personal factors (cont.)

• Gender differences
• Women report higher levels of
• Depression and stress
• Happiness and life satisfaction

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Personal factors Attitude toward stress

• Prone to negative effects of stress
• Do not separate what is important from what is
  unimportant
• Pessimistic style
• Easily angered / no tolerance for frustration
• Negative attitude toward others
• See life as meaningless
• Blame self for events beyond their own control
• Have no sense of humor

• Handle stressors well
• Discriminate important from unimportant
• Optimistic
• Slow to anger / tolerant of frustration
• Positive attitude toward others
• See life as meaningful
• Understand that some events are beyond our
  control
• Have a sense of humor

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Effects of stress

• Health
• Mental states
• Behavior at work
• Destructive escape

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Burnout

• Results from prolonged exposure to stress

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Characteristics of burnout

• Extreme dissatisfaction with life
• Physical exhaustion
• Emotional exhaustion
• Depersonalization
• Feelings of low personal accomplishment

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Causes of burnout

• Prolonged exposure to stress
• Work that lacks clear rules and procedures
• Feeling unappreciated
• Poor opportunities for promotion
• Inflexible rules
• Leader insensitivity

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Personal factors

• Those who take their roles more seriously will be
  more likely to experience burnout
• Interpersonal involvement and commitment to other
  individuals

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Countering effects of burnout

• Reorder priorities and goals
• Accentuate the positive
• Get involved in a social support network
• Compartmentalize your life

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Stress management

• Lifestyle

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Stress management (cont.)

• Coping
• Emotional coping ? reduce negative emotions
• Mental coping ? change attitude about stressor
• Behavioral problem solving ? change the situation
  or behavior patterns

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Stress management (cont.)

• Relaxation training
• Breathing
• Meditation
• Biofeedback