stress management

1. Stress management
SUBMITTED TO:
DR. R.K BHARTI
SENIOR FACULTY
SUBMITTED BY:
RISHAV
MSW 4TH SEMESTER
ROLLNO : 28
Department of Social Work
Institute of social sciences
Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar university, Agra

2. What is Stress?
Stress is experienced whenever a person is
confronted with a demand or challenge that
threatens his or her ability to attain valued
outcomes.
Stressful events-events that place demands on us
are called stressors. Example of stressors includes
noise, extreme cold, and excessive time pressures.
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3. • People often think of stress in negative terms
and believe that it is caused by something bad
in the environment. For example, a family
member becomes ill.
• However, there is a positive side of stress caused
by good things like a student securing admission
into medicine or an employee getting promoted
as a manager. This is called eustress. The Greek
word eu means good.
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4. Types of stress
• Acute stress is most often caused by reactive
thinking. Negative thoughts predominate about
situations or events that have recently occurred,
or upcoming situations, events, or demands in
the near future.
• Chronic stress is the most harmful type of
stress. If chronic stress is left untreated over a
long period of time, it can significantly and often
irreversibly damage your physical health and
deteriorate your mental health.
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5. Causes of Stress
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6. • External Stressors
In the analysis of job stress, we tend to ignore outside
forces or events. In fact, they have a greater impact on
stress. Quite often, we experience plenty of stress
situations outside the organizational settings.
External stressors stem from societal changes,
globalization, family economic conditions, relocation,
race, religion and community conditions. You have to
remember that when employees join the
organizations, the stressors are also carried over
which affect their behavior.
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7. • Organizational Stressors
Organizational stressors are many and manifest
themselves in different forms. You may note that
any change in organization is stressful.
Technological changes and structural changes
happen too frequently. Mergers and acquisitions
are increasingly resorted to.
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8. • Group Stressors
As you are aware, within an organization, there are several groups that
function at different levels. A number of stressors arise at group levels .
 Lack of group cohesiveness
 Lack of group supports
 Interpersonal supports
• Individual Stressors
At individual level, there are many factors that contribute to stress,
most of which are role related. Role related stressors include conditions
where employees have difficulty in understanding, reconciling, or
performing the various roles in their lives. The four main role-related
stressors are role conflict, role ambiguity, workload, and task control.
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9. • Consequences of Stress
Stress has serious consequences on health as well as job
performance. Stress results in a variety of physiological,
psychological, and behavioral consequences.
• Physiological Consequences
Stress takes its toll on the human body. Studies have found
that students who are anxious about their exams are more
susceptible to colds and other illnesses. As you are aware,
many people experience tension or headache due to stress.
Others get muscle pain and related back problems. These
physiological ailments are attributed to muscle contractions
that occur when people are exposed to stressors.
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10. • Psychological Consequences
Stress results in various psychological consequences like job
dissatisfaction, moodiness, and depression. Emotional fatigue is
another psychological consequence of stress which is called job
burnout.
• Job Burnout
Burnout is the process of emotional exhaustion,
depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment
resulting from prolonged exposure to stress. The term “job burnout”
was not known 50 years ago; but it’s a much talked about phenomenon
these days. Job burnout is a complex process that includes the
dynamics of stress, coping strategies, and stress consequences. Burnout
is caused by excessive demands made on people who serve or
frequently interact with others. Interpersonal and role- related
stressors cause burnout.
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11. • Behavioral Consequences
When stress becomes distress, job performance
comes down and workplace accidents increase.
High stress levels impair your ability to remember
information, make effective decisions, and take
appropriate actions. You probably experience this
kind of distress in exams. You are likely to forget
important information and commit mistakes.
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12. Managing Work-Related Stress
• Remove the Stressor
An important way companies can effectively manage stress is by
removing the stressors that cause unnecessary tension and job
burnout. Other stress management strategies may keep
employees. “Stress-fit”, but they don’t solve the fundamental
causes of stress.
• Family-Friendly and Work-Life initiatives
The most common work-life balance initiatives are flexible work
time, job sharing, telecommuting, personal leave programs, and
childcare support. Many firms have flexible timings with regard
to the hours, days, and amount of time employees want to work.
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13. • Withdraw from the stressor
Removing the stressor may be an ideal solution, but that is
not always possible. An alternative strategy is to
permanently or temporarily take employees away from the
stressor. Permanent withdrawal occurs when employees
are transferred to other jobs.
• Change stress perceptions
You have earlier learnt that employees experience different
levels of stress in the same situation because of their
perceptual differences. Therefore, changing perceptions of
the situation can minimize stress.
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14. • Control the consequences of stress
Managing workplace stress also involves controlling its
consequences. Research studies show that physical
exercise reduces the physiological consequences of
stress by helping employees lower their respiration,
muscle tension, heartbeat and stomach acidity.
Beyond fitness programs, some companies offer
wellness programs that educate and support
employees in terms of better nutrition and fitness,
regular sleep, and other healthy habits. Another way to
control the physiological consequences of stress is
through relaxation and meditation.
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15. THANK YOU