Stress is inevitable in today's complex life.

Right from the time of birth till death, an

individual is invariably exposed to various stressful situations. The threat of political and
economic imbalances and uncertainties, unemployment, poverty, urbanisation and increased
socio-economic complexities and innumerable other factors contribute to stress. In fact,
modern times have been called the age of anxiety and stress (Coleman, 1976). Stress is
caused by the internal or external demands that upset the balance of an individual and affect
his/her physical and psychological well being(Lazarus and Cohen,1977). Stress can arise
from an opportunity, demand, constraint, threat or challenge when the outcome of the event
is both important and uncertain (Robbins, 2003)
Selye (1936) defines stress as a dynamic condition in which an individual is confronted
with an opportunity, constraint, or demand related to what he or she desires and for which
the outcome is perceived to be both uncertain and important.
Definitions of Stress

There have been many different definitions of what stress is, whether used by psychologists,
medics, management consultants or others. One problem with a single definition is that stress
is made up of many things: It is a family of related experiences, pathways, responses and
outcomes caused by a range of different events or circumstances. Different people experience
different aspects and identify with different definitions.
Selye (1956) discovered and documented that stress differs from other physical responses in
that stress is stressful whether the one receives good or bad news, whether the impulse is
positive or negative. Arnold (1960) defined stress as any condition that disturbs normal
functioning.
Cofer and Appley (1964) defined atress as the state of an organism where it perceives its
well-bienfg is endangered and that it must divert all his energies to its protection.

Wolff, (1968) said that stress is a dynamic state within an organism in response to a demand
for adaptations.

Caplan(1964) and Marshall and Cooper (1979) gave that stress is a stimulus or situation to
which man reacts with learned coping mechanism activated by homeostasis principle and
fuelled by energies which are in finite supply.

According to Richard S Lazarus (1966), stress is a feeling experienced when a person thinks
that "the demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to
mobilize."
Mc Grath (1974) defined stress in terms of tolerance, stressful environment which are those
that are outside the normal tolerance limit of daily function at extreme level; stimulation
might be perceive as pain.

Human body tries to adjust to different circumstances or continually changing environment
around us. In this process, the body is put to extra work resulting in "wear and tear". In other
words, the body is stressed. Stress disturbs the body's normal way of functioning.

Stephen Robbins(1995),defined stress as a dynamic condition in which an individual is
confronted with an opportunity, constraint, or demand related to what he/she desires and for
which the outcome is perceived to be both uncertain and important.

In the medical world (NIOSH), stress is defined as one of the following:
An applied force or system of forces that tends to strain or deform a body,
The resisting force set up in a body as a result of an externally applied force, or
A physical or psychological stimulus that can produce mental tension or physiological
reactions that may lead to illness.
There are two types of instinctive stress response that are important to how we understand
stress and stress management: the short-term Fight-or-Flight response and the long-term
General Adaptation Syndrome. The first is a basic survival instinct, while the second is a
long-term effect of exposure to stress. A third mechanism comes from the way that we think
and interpret the situations in which we find ourselves.

1. Fight-or-Flight

Some of the early work on stress (conducted by Walter Cannon in 1932) established the
existence of the well-known fight-or-flight response. His work showed that when an animal
experiences a shock or perceives a threat, it quickly releases hormones that help it to
survive. These hormones help us to run faster and fight harder. They increase heart rate and
blood pressure, delivering more oxygen and blood sugar to power important muscles. They
increase sweating in an effort to cool these muscles, and help them stay efficient. They
divert blood away from the skin to the core of our bodies, reducing blood loss if we are
damaged. And as well as this, these hormones focus our attention on the threat, to the
exclusion of everything else. All of this significantly improves our ability to survive life-
threatening events.

Unfortunately, this mobilization of the body for survival also has negative consequences. In
this state, we are excitable, anxious, jumpy and irritable. This reduces our ability to work
effectively with other people.

2. General Adaptation Syndrome
Hans Selye took a different approach from Cannon. Starting with the observation that
different diseases and injuries to the body seemed to cause the same symptoms in patients,
he identified a general response (the General Adaptation Syndrome) with which the body
reacts to a major stimulus. While the Fight-or-Flight response works in the very short term,
the General Adaptation Syndrome operates in response to longer-term exposure to causes of
stress.

Selye identified that when pushed to extremes, animals reacted in three stages:

i. Alarm reaction: the organisms reaction when it is suddenly exposed to diverse stimuli to
which it is not adapted. The reaction has two phases: shock phase and counter shock
phase. When we are surprised or threatened, we have an immediate physical reaction,
often called the Fight-or-Flight reaction. This prepares the body for life-threatening
situations, channeling away resources from such as the digestive and immune system to
more immediate muscular and emotional needs. This leads to the immune system being
depressed, making us susceptible to disease.

ii. Resistance: As we become used to the stress levels, we initially become more resistance
to disease, which leads us to believe we can easily adapt to these more stressful situations.
However, this is only the immune system fighting to keep up with demands and
expectations, but requires it to work at abnormally high levels.

iii. Exhaustion: Eventually reality kicks in and our bodies give up on trying to maintain a
high level of stress. Parts of the body literally start to break down and we become very
unwell. If we continue to fight this situation, we may even die.


Selye established this with many hundreds of experiments performed on laboratory rats.
However, he also quoted research during World War II with bomber pilots. Once they had
completed a few missions over enemy territory, these pilots usually settled down and
performed well. After many missions, however, pilot fatigue would set in as they began to
show neurotic manifestations.

In the business environment, this exhaustion is seen in burnout. The classic example
comes from the Wall Street trading floor: by most peoples standards,
life on a trading floor is stressful. Traders learn to adapt to the daily stressors of making big
financial decisions, and of winning and losing large sums of money. In many cases,
however, these stresses increase and fatigue starts to set in.

At the same time, as traders become successful and earn more and more money, their
financial motivation to succeed can diminish. Ultimately, many traders experience burnout.
We look at this in more detail in our section on burnout.

3 Stress and the way we think

Particularly in normal working life, much of the stress is subtle and occurs without obvious
threat to survival. Most comes from things like work overload, conflicting priorities,
inconsistent values, over-challenging deadlines, conflict with co-workers, unpleasant
environments and so on. Not only do these reduce the performance as one diverts mental
effort into handling them, they can also cause a great deal of unhappiness.
How stressed someone feels depends on how much damage they think the situation can do
them, and how closely their resources meet the demands of the situation. This sense of
threat is rarely physical. It may, for example, involve perceived threats to our social
standing, to other peoples opinions of us, to our career prospects or to our own deeply held
values.
Just as with real threats to our survival, these perceived threats trigger the hormonal fight-
or-flight response, with all of its negative consequences.

Types of Stress

Selye (1976) made the distinction between two different types of stress:

Eu-Stress which is pleasant and provides a sense of satisfaction and a sense of
achievement. You can be busy at work, working long hours and under a great deal of
pressure, but still not experience any of the negative effects often associated with stress.
Dis-stress which is unpleasant. This can involve such things as losing a job, death of
a partner, loss of a friend. This dis-stress is responsible for the negative effects on the
individual and, if continuing, ultimately upon their ability to function properly.

Stressors

Events that provoke stress are called stressors, of which there are two types. There are
internal (systematic) stressors and external (processive) stressors.

Internal stressors can either be physical (e.g. presence of infections or inflammation which
may cause an imbalance in an individual's state of health) or psychological (as in worrying
about an event that may or may not occur).

External stressors can be defined as elements in the environment that may be perceived by
an individual as potential threats. These may be in the form of adverse physical conditions
such as extremely hot or cold temperatures, pain, extremely loud noises or excessively
bright lights. Or it may also be the presence of stressful psychological environments such as
poor working conditions or abusive and problematic relationships.

Environmental Stress.
Environmental stress is defined as the minor irritations and frustrations of every day life
that we all experience. Examples of environmental stress include trying to get things done
amongst clutter and disorganization, being late for work or an appointment and then getting
caught in a traffic jam, being interrupted when trying to concentrate or aches and pains from
sitting all day in an uncomfortable chair. In addition, environmental stress can include such
things as the quality of the air we breathe, the type of lighting that we have to work in, and
the level of noise in the environment.
The Positive Effects of Pressure

Sometimes, however, the pressures and demands that may cause stress can be positive in
their effect. One example of this is where sportsmen and women flood their bodies with
fight-or-flight adrenaline to power an explosive performance. Another example is where
deadlines are used to motivate people who seem bored or unmotivated. We will discuss this
briefly here, but throughout the rest of this site we see stress as a problem that needs to be
solved.

The Negative Effects of Pressure

In most work situations jobs, the stress responses causes the performance to suffer. A calm,
rational, controlled and sensitive approach is usually called for in dealing with most
difficult problems at work: Peoples social inter-relationships are just too complex not to be
damaged by an aggressive approach, while a passive and withdrawn response to stress
means that they can fail to assert their rights when they should


Pressure & Performance the Inverted U
The relationship between pressure and performance is explained in one of the oldest and
most important ideas in stress management, the Inverted-U relationship between pressure
and performance. The Inverted-U relationship focuses on peoples performance of a task.

When there is very little pressure on us to carry out an important task, there is little
incentive for us to focus energy and attention on it. This is particularly the case when there
may be other, more urgent, or more interesting, tasks competing for attention.

As pressure on us increases, we enter the area of best performance. Here, we are able to
focus on the task and perform well there is enough pressure on us to focus our attention
but not so much that it disrupts our performance.

As shown in the figure, this is something of a slippery slope: the more our brain is
overloaded, the more our performance can suffer. The more our performance suffers, the
more new distractions, difficulties, anxieties and negative thoughts crowd our minds.

Other research has shown that stress reduces peoples ability to deal with large amounts of
information. Both decision-making and creativity are impaired because people are unable to
take account of all the information available. This inability accounts for the common
observation that highly stressed people will persist in a course of action even when better
alternatives are available. It also explains why anxious people perform best when they are
put under little additional stress, while calm people may need additional pressure to produce
a good performance.
Organizational stress can be of many forms, it could be due to Task demands, as
globalization is creating changes at work, causing on the job pressure and stress (Friedman,
2000). This Change leads to uncertainty, a lack of predictability in a persons daily tasks and
activities and may cause job insecurity leading to stress (McHugh, 1995). Another important
stressor is the lack of control over ones activities especially in work environments that are
difficult and psychologically demanding. A study by Theorell and Karasek (1996) found that
workers in occupations with low job autonomy (lack of control) and high job demands (heavy
workloads) experienced more stress and heart attacks than other workers.
We will look at the related studies on job stress
Job stress can be caused by the organizational climate, although not many studies have been
undertaken in this regard. Gani and Shah
16
(1998) studied the relationship between perceived
organizational climate and job stress. They report that there is a negative relationship between
organizational climate and stress at work. In their review of literature, they report that
organizational membership, one of the vital components of a social system, is a potential
source of stress.
One of the sources of job stress can is the power struggles and office politics, a construct of
organizational culture and climate.
Organisations operate in the social milieu and therefore the socio-cultural factors greatly
influence the organizational culture. Asian societies are patriarchal in nature that gives
superior position to a man as compared to women. This stereotype is sometimes seen in the
structural role perception of men and women in organisations too. Singh (2006) found that
spill over of cultural values into organizational situations. The managerial behaviour seems to
be culturally influenced causing stress in women employees.
Williams, Manwell, Konrad and Linzer (2007) report that overall results reveal that culture
played a minimal role than expected. However, cultural emphasis on quality is found to play
a key role in both quality outcomes. On the other hand, Srivasatav (1997) says that
organizational climate plays the most significant role for attainment of organizational goals
and it influences behaviour of organizational members causing stress.

Lansisalmi, Peiro and Kivimaki
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(2000) found that collective stress emerged as a response
to two types of signals: (1) adaptation to the environment of the division or work unit was
imperfect (fluctuation, risk of unemployment, continuously changing customer needs, poor
client satisfaction, multinational game, group bonus, culture shock due to a merger, work
overload, and pressure toward more extensive autonomy), or (2) friction inside the
community (undervaluation of a group of employees, and the penal colony reputation).
Supervisory support
Cummins
15
(1990) found that there is a buffering effect of social support with respect to the
moderating effect of supervisory support on the relationship between job stress and job
satisfaction. He found that supervisory support acts as a stress buffer only for individuals who
are relationship oriented as measured by the Fiedlers LPC scale.
Structure

Organization Role stress.
Role Stress, coping strategy
Another source of stress is Role Stress. Role space is the dynamic relationship between
various roles an individual occupies and his self. It has three main variables: self, the role
under question and the other roles he occupies Any conflict between these is referred to as
role space conflict or stress. These conflicts may take several forms. Pareek, (2002) Identified
the following ten forms of role conflict:
self role distance: This stress arises out of the conflict between the self concept and the
expectations from the role, as perceived by the role occupant. If a person occupies a role
which he may subsequently find to be conflicting with the self concept, he feels stressed.
Intra role conflict: Since an individual learns to develop expectations as a result of his
socializing and identification with significant others, it is quite likely that he sees a certain
incompatibility between different expectations (functions) of his role.
Role Stagnation: As an individual grows older, he also grows in the role that he occupies in
an organization.. With the individuals advancements, the role changes and with his change in
role, the need for taking on a new role becomes crucial. This problem of role growth becomes
acute especially when an individual who has occupied a role for a long time enters another
role in which he feels less secure, therefore becoming more demanding and thus causing
stress.

Inter role distance: When an individual occupies more than one role there are bound to be
conflicts between them.
Role ambiguity: When an individual is not clear about various expectations that people have
from his role, he faces role ambiguity. It may be due to lack of information available to a role
occupant, or his lack of understanding of the cues available to him. Role ambiguity may be in
relation to the activities, responsibilities, priorities, expectations.
Role expectation conflict: When there are conflicting expectations or demands by different
roles senders (persons having expectations from the role), the role occupant experiences this
type of stress.
Role overload: When the role occupant feels there are too many expectations from the
significant others from this role set, he experiences role overload.
Role erosion: A role occupant may feel that the functions he would like to perform are being
done by some other role. Role erosion is the individuals subjevtive feeling that some
important expectations that he has from a role are shared by other roles within the role set.
Resource inadequacy: Resource inadequacy stress is experienced when the resources required
by the role occupant for performing his role are effectively are not available.
Personal inadequacy When a role occupant feels that he does not have enough knowledge,
skills or training to undertake a role effectively, or that he has not had time to prepare for the
assigned role, he may experience stress.
Role Isolation: In a role set, the role occupant may feel that certain roles are psychologically
closer to him, while others are at a much greater distance.
Srivastsva
6
(2006)in another study finds that Role stress depends on how role occupant feels about
situations, constraints, opportunities or threats encountered during role performance. Stress and
impact of ageing thereupon are influenced by individual perceptions, which in turn is dependent on
individuals learning from the past. He found that role stress increases with age in R&D while it
reduces in quality, productivity and miscellaneous functions.
In a study conducted by Poonam Mital
3
(1995) to explore the beliefs of the Indian managers
regarding the desirability of the alternative modes of conflict resolution when under role stress
showed that Indian managers showed a well defined value hierarchy of conflict resolution strategies
of which confrontation and forcing were most or least desirable modes. Also the kind of role stress
that the managers face is independent of conflict resolution strategy they adopt. Thus there are no
desirable or actual modes of conflict resolution which are used consistently in a particular kind of
Role Stress situation. Stress management approach in organizations would therefore have to focus
on stress as an individual phenomenon- peculiar to the individual and his environment.

In another study by Aziz (2004)
4
investigates the intensity of organizational role stress among women
information technology professionals in the Indian private sector.
ORS scale was used to explore the level of role stress. Resource inadequacy emerged as the most
potent role stressor, followed by role overload and personal inadequacy. The research found
differences in level of stress between married and unmarried employees on several role stressors.
However, level of education did not emerge as a significant differentiator of stressors.
Boles, Wood and Johnson
5
(2003) studied the interrelationships of work related Role stress and work
family conflict were different for the various facets of job satisfaction. There were also significant
differences among these relationships between male and female salespeople.

Peterson, et al
26
(1995) in their study examined the extent of role conflict, role ambiguity, and role
overload reported by middle managers from 21 nations was related to national scores on power
distance, individualism, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity. Earlier role stress scales were
adapted and the equivalence was assessed using multigroup confirmatory factor analysis. Role
stresses varied more by country than by personal and organizational characteristics. Data were
aggregated to the national level. Power distance and collectivism were negatively related to role
ambiguity and positively related to role overload. The role overload finding is consistent with theory
suggesting that overload arises from either work events or role structure stresses best resolved
through multiple-source discussions.
Chassie and Bhagat
27
(1980) examined the role stress experienced by women in terms of
commitment to the organization, overall job satisfaction and personal life satisfaction. Role stress
was negatively related to organizational commitment, overall job satisfaction, satisfaction with pay,
work, coworkers and supervision, and personal life satisfaction.
Lim and Teo
7
(1996) examine the gender differences in occupational stress and coping strategies
among IT personnel in Singapore. Analysis indicated that female IT personnel reported significantly
higher scores on sources of stress originating from factor intrinsic to the job, managerial role,
career and achievement, organizational structure and climate and relationship with other.
Contrary to initial prediction, no significant gender difference was found for stress originating from
home work interface. With respect to coping strategies, female IT professionals tend to seek social
support and talk to others when they experience stress, while men tend to suppress their emotions
and deal with problems in a logical and unemotional manner.

Singh
8
(1989) explored the different forms of stress experiences of the executives in public and
private sector organisations. He found that there are many more forms of stress other than role
conflict, role ambiguity and role overload. Amongst the identified forms of stress, inadequacy of role
authority and experience of inequality were relatively more prevalent as compared to role conflict
and job requirement- capability mismatch. The overall stress experience were qualitatively similar
across all subgroups irrespective of public or private sector., although they differed quantitatively on
some dimensions of stress.
Sahgal and Singh
9
(1995) did a study on gender differences in experiences of stress and strain and
management of stress by working women. They found that men experience greater role erosion
than women, single career husbands have a higher well-being, and working women display higher
irritability, anxiety and depression.

Jain, Mishra and Kothari
10
(2002)studied the effect of Type A/B behavior pattern among doctors and
engineers. They found that engineers experience greater Organizational role stress than doctors and
type A personalities experienced higher Organizational Role stress than Type B personalities. In
doctors the role of personality type was found to be significant but in engineers, it was neutral.
A study by Micheal R. Frone
36
(1990) found that the individuals with High Intolerence for ambiguity
suffered from higher role stress due to role ambiguity as compared to individuals with low
Intolerance for ambiguity. He commented that since this trait is enduring and does not change easily
over time, coping strategies need to be adapted to these individuals.

Fieldon and Cooper
14
(2001) did a critical appraisal of research relating to the sources of stress and
stress reactions experienced by women managers. They found that the existing modes of stress
were based on the studies of male managers and their environment substantially differs from female
managers. Thus the results are conflicting and the current knowledge pertaining to women and
managerial stress raise a number of questions for which currently there are no answers.
Stress and Women Executives
Puff and Moekel
36
(1979) found that women in the middle and top management face the same
stresses as men but are also victims of additional stressors like new role of women and personal
factors such as breaking the mold of being gentle, other directed, pleasing others first, and being
success and conflict avoiders. Women managers they found were also prone to experience role
conflicts with their careers, family and social roles. Co-workers were also found to contribute to their
stress. Davidson and Cooper
40
(1985) reported that in their study of male and female managers,
females were found to be under more pressures at work and at home compared to males. The
majority of additional pressures were stressors beyond their control and based largely on prejudice
and discrimination from both organizational policy and other people at work and at home.
Broadbridge
38
(2003) in her study of retail managers, found similar results. She found that although
there was no significant difference in the job pressures between men and women retail managers,
but women faced additional pressures caused by sex discrimination and prejudice.
In contrast, a study by Collins,
39
(1993) on the women certified Public Accountants, found that
women CPAs experienced more stress as compared to their male counterparts. The accumulated
pressure from both inside and outside the firm was causing them to leave the profession in favour of
other employment.
Rout
37
(1999) found that among the women general practitioners and practice managers, the
general sources of stress which was causing dissatisfaction was lack of mutual communication
among them. She found no significant difference between the two on the mental wellbeing, though
the women general practitioners experienced less stress with regard to working hours and amount
of work as compared to practice managers.