What are the potential causes of stress one might encounter at work? With reference to relevant theory, describe what organisations could do to alleviate stress?

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Samiul Ali                Organisational Behaviour

Stress – write 2,000 words maximum - 25% of mark:

What are the potential causes of stress one might encounter at work? With reference to relevant theory, describe what organisations could do to alleviate stress?

According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health 2002 job stress can be defined as “the harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources, or needs of the worker”1.  Stress cannot be easily defined as there is an ongoing extensive debate on what the word stress actually refers to.  The common sense view is that stress is a combination of external stressors i.e. the cause, and the damage we experience as a result of it.  Selye (1936) formed the concept of stress as a response as a result of his highly influential early research.  However some researchers don’t agree with Seyle in saying that stress is a response, one major group argue that stress has to be seen as “a function of an individuals appraisal of a situation” (Fincham and Rhodes, 2001)2.  Saying that the surrounding events aren’t stressful themselves but they have to be seen as stressful by the person before the concept of stress can be applied.  Basically saying that it is the individual’s perception of the situation and what needs to be done with what resources, so a certain situation can be seen as stressful by one person but not by another.  Current researchers widely follow the Beehr hypothesis (1995) which is that stress is the relationship between the cause (stressor) and the person’s reaction to it.  This research says that stress is caused by an individual’s inability to cope properly in a particular environment.  

The risks of stress affect people differently.  In 1959 Friedman and Rosenmann made a controversial theory about the relationship between stress and heart disease.  They said that there are two categories of people and most people fall into one of these two.  According to Glass (1977) 40 % of us are Type A and 60% of us are Type B.  There is Type A and Type B people.  The most extreme Type A people will have a desire for recognition and promotion, they will be very competitive, they will tend to be involved in various activities involving deadlines, and they will also have high levels of mental alertness among others.  People in this category tend to carry a risk getting coronary heart disease (CHD).  This is caused by these people being always involved in things that cause a strain on the body, they prefer to feel threatened, challenged and under pressure which changes a person’s blood pressure causing the CHD.  Whereas Type B people tend to be less aggressive, less competitive, less hostility towards others and over all tend to be more relaxed.  

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Although the importance of people’s differences can’t be ignored, scientific evidence suggests that certain working conditions are stressful to most people.  The role a person has in an organisation dictates the amount of stress they will face.  Such evidence argues that certain working conditions are the key source of job stress.  A role can be defined as “the set of expectations that others have of a role incumbent’s behaviour”2 (Fincham and Rhodes, 2001).  Here are some situations in which roles in organisations become stressful:

  1. Role ambiguity: This is where a person doesn’t receive enough information, and therefore can’t ...

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