Management of Stress

What is Stress?

Stress is an adaptive response to an external situation that results in physical, psychological and/or behavioural deviations.

Definitions of Stress

Dr. Seyles, an expert in stress management, defines stress as a “non-specific response of the body to situation”.

It is important to remember that the body chemistry does not distinguish between the anxiety causing, pleasant or unpleasant situations. In any of these situations, the body response is the same, resulting in fight or fly mechanism.

“Stress is a physiological abnormality at the structural or bio-chemical level caused by overloading experiences.”

---

Types of Stress and Stressors

According to Dr. Pestonjee of IIM, Ahmedabad, stress can be categorised as under:

• Eustress
• Distress
• Hyper stress
• Hypostress

Eustress

This stress happens because of sudden overjoy. Fortunately, this type of stress is not long-lasting. Furthermore, it is a state of happiness. Eustress, therefore, is not harmful, being occasional and fleeting.

Distress

This is the anti-thesis of eustress. Distress is caused whenever a person is suddenly very sad or angry. Distress is caused because of the demands of the modern life and anxiety to cope with them. This results in feelings of inadequacy, anxiety, nervousness, loss, etc. This type of stress is harmful. This stress has caused more havoc in the executives’ life.

This stress justifies the saying “Ulcer is the surest sight of executive success”. Since distress takes a heavy toll of executive efficiency, organisations should try to alleviate it. An atmosphere of objectivity and mutual trust would go a long way in reducing distress.

Hyper stress

This type of stress is caused because of hyperactivity and travails of life to meet deadlines, etc. Targets and eleventh hour rush or continuous overwork cause hyperstress. The key, therefore, to deal with hyperstress lies in good planning.

Hypostress

This type of stress is the opposite of the hyperstress. This stress is caused by less than optimum activity. The effects of hypostress are slower than other types but are more penetrating and longer lasting. There are examples when the organisation has deliberately created hypostress by denying legitimate work to their employees. Such situations, beyond creating stress, deprive a person of the fulfillment of self-esteem needs.

More often the retired persons experience this stress. For them it is a transition from hyper to hypostress. This underlines the necessity of planning the post-retirement period, doing proper time management by planning activities so that an individual remains optimally busy.

The above discussion shows that whatever an individual does or does not do, there is always some sort and some amount of stress on him. This is why stress is known as a “non-specific” response of the body to the situation.

A stressor is any event, experience or environmental stimulus that causes stress in an individual. These events or experiences are perceived as threats or challenges to the individual and can be either physical or psychological. Researchers have found that stressors can make individuals more prone to both physical and psychological problems, including heart disease and anxiety.

Stressors are more likely to affect an individual’s health when they are “chronic, highly disruptive, or perceived as uncontrollable”. The more stressors, the more severe they are and the longer the exposure to them, the more demands are placed upon the person to cope.

---

Categories of Stressors

• Organisational stressors
• Life stressors
• Personal stressors

Organisational stressors

Organisational membership is a dominant source of stress. The concept of organisational stress was first evolved in the classic work of Kahn et al. They were the earliest to draw attention to organisational stress in general and role stress in particular.

Some of the organisational stressors are intrinsic to the job. They are boredom, time pressures and deadliness, exorbitant work demands and technical problems. Some organisational stressors relate to the role in the organisation. They are role ambiguity, role conflict, role overload, etc.

Some organisational stressors relate to the organisational structure and the climate. They are lack of participation in decision-making, lack of responsiveness and appreciation, pressure to conform, etc.

Life stressors

Life stressors can be categorised in three classes:

• Life changes
• Daily stressors
• Life trauma

Human beings have a tendency to maintain equilibrium. Any change occurring in life is a reason to get stressed. Research shows that even the minor or the trivial occurrences in life create stress.

Personal stressors

Personal stressors relate to the personal health and the familial life of an individual. They are like menopause or male menopause, commuting problems, reduced self- confidence because of aging, etc.

According to ancient Indian wisdom, ignorance, ego, i.e., attachment to self, temptations, envy or hate or jealousy and a state of helplessness are the main personal stressors. If one applies one’s mind to the reasons one will find that it is impossible to be away from stress.

The consequences of personal stress result in an individual finding it difficult to adjust with others. In extreme cases it results in divorce too. Stress at the individual level also results in medical problems. Most of all it affects an individual’s decision-making capacity.

At the organisational level, the stress of the employees may have negative effect on the job satisfaction, morale, motivation to perform at high levels.

Even though stress has multifarious deleterious effects on individual and the organisation, stress cannot be done away with. Every success has its roots in stress. Stress propels a man to do something that ultimately results in success.

Stress is like the voltage on an electric bulb. High voltage fuses the bulb; at the same time less voltage dims the bulb. Stress is a necessary evil. However, it has bad effects. Therefore, the only thing a man can do is to keep the stress from harming him. One must manage stress.

---

Management of Stress

Since stress affects an individual’s body and mind, that individual must do something about his stress.

Know your personality type

Stress can affect different people in different ways. Two types of personalities can be identified in relation to coping stress. Type A people are the people who create unnecessary stress for themselves.

On the contrary, type B people are the ones who are mild mannered and take life as it comes. Type B persons are not stress-prone individuals. However, people are not purely type A or type B; instead people tend toward one or the other type. Also the relationship between personality and health problems (such as heart disease) is unclear.

Recognition is half the solution

One must remember an important facet of stress. Most of the time a person does not understand that he is under stress. How do you recognise that you are under stress? Self-report measure provides clear indication that people who know us closely and observe us frequently can say with certain degree of accuracy, whether we are under stress or not.

To the question, “Did anyone tell you that you are under stress?” Most of the executives would agree that it is their wives, friends and colleauges who told them that they are under stress. Correct detection is possible by these people because of some specific symptoms when stress still operates at behavioural and psychosomatic level. Awareness of these symptoms will help us to recognise when we are under stress.

Some behavioural symptoms of stress are:

• Low productivity, decreased work performance
• Tendency to remain absent from work
• Interpersonal conflict
• Tendency to remain isolated
• Sudden change in habit (clothing, eating, drinking)
• Talking around a subject
• Poor eye contact while talking
• Making others look ridiculous
• Brooding, feeling worthless
• Frequent references to death, suicide, etc.

Some psychosomatic symptoms of stress are:

• Sleep disturbance
• High blood pressure
• Stress diabetes
• Bowel irritation
• Backache
• High blood pressure
• Sexual dysfunction

---

Ways to Overcome Stress

Love your body

Our body is the vehicle that enables us to perceive, understand the world. It is through our body that we experience the world. It is only when we love our body that we will take proper care of it. Loving is not pampering. The following are some tips to deal with stress by making our body strong.

• Have a regular medical checkup: A regular medical checkup is a preventive measure, especially when one is beyond 40s. It is advisable that if a person is below 40 he must have a medical checkup at least once a year. Beyond 45 years of age, the health checkup should be at least twice a year.
  
  
• Exercise regularly: To effectively cope with stress, a healthy body is a must. One can raise defenses against stress by regular exercise. One may take any type of exercise, for example, walking, jogging, swimming, cycling, etc.
  
  
• Don’t touch tobacco: Medical research has amply demonstrated that tobacco is a carcinogenic substance. Research also says that passive smoking is more harmful than active smoking.
  
  
• Mind what you eat: One must be careful about what one eats. What we are largely depends on what we eat. As far as possible, oily and pungent food should be avoided. This has tendency to cause more secretion of digestive acids, which erode the mucus membrane of the stomach. This results in ulceration. It is also better if one avoids eating non-vegetarian food which is rich in calories and cholesterol and lack fibre.
  
  
• Drink adequate water: Drink minimum three to four litres of water daily. Avoid alcoholic beverages. Alcohol contains calories but has no food value. Especially the use of tobacco with alcohol is injurious to health.

Love your mind

We have already said that the happy as well as unhappy situations cause secretion of adrenaline. The remedy is to keep the mind tranquil. It is realised that keeping the mind tranquil is easier said than done. The Indian tradition has always been stressing on the importance of meditation. The idea is that in meditation a person takes away his mind for some time from the usual surroundings, which serves as a respite.

In modern times, many new methods of meditation have come into existence Transcendental meditation, Siddha Samadhi Yoga, Sahaj Marg, etc. to name a few. All are intended to initiate a person into the art of meditation, which results in a peaceful and strong mind.

Western countries are so convinced of the utility of meditation as a way of keeping the mind tranquil that some firms have reserved separate rooms for meditation for their executives. In India, organisations are slow to catch up with this. Nonetheless, it can be practiced at the individual levels.

Organisational strategies for managing employee stress are:

• Creating supportive organizational climate.
  
  
• Convincing employees that their contributions are significant.
  
  
• Rotating employees out of potentially stressful positions and not allowing them to overwork.
  
  
• Organising training programmes to help employees cope with stress and providing employee counselling.

Remember one who “DARES” stress conquers it. DARES stands for:

D − Diet
A − Activity
R − Relaxation
E −Empathy
S – Spirituality