BSM532 Resilience and Change Management

Employee Wellbeing : Stress

 Agenda

 Discuss what is stress and why it important.

 Consider what causes stress and the effect it can
have.
 Determine how can we help minimise it in the
workplace.
 Consider this within the context of Resilience.

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 Setting the Scene
 Workers in an organisation are a key factor in
achieving and maintaining resilience.
 The world we work in today is fast moving, ever
changing and uncertain – all these factors can
have a detrimental impact on workers
 Resilient organisations need their workers to be
performing well on an ongoing basis.
 It is therefore important we understand the
concept of ‘stress’ – to recognise it in workers, to
mitigate its effect and to put measures in place to
avoid it if possible.

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 Setting the Scene
“Organizational Resilience is the ability of an
organization to anticipate, prepare for, respond
and adapt to incremental change and sudden
disruptions in order to survive and prosper”

……… all of the above could be an obvious cause

of stress for workers

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 What is Stress? HSE's formal definition of work related
stress is: "The adverse reaction people
have to excessive pressures or other
types of demand placed on them at
work.“

 Not an illness – it is a state but, if stress becomes too excessive and

prolonged, mental and physical illness may develop.

 Result of too much or too little pressure.

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 Why Tackle Stress?
• Socially responsible and ethics
• Causes Illness
• Inability to cope with job
• Reduces effectiveness
• Legal responsibility
• To enhance resilience in the organisation

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 Effect on Performance

• Cognitive Changes

• Emotional Changes

• Physical Changes

• Behavioural Changes

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 Cognitive Changes/Memory problems

 Poor Judgement
 Inability to Concentrate
 ‘Brain Fog’
 Indecision
 Starting many tasks but achieving little
 Self doubt

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 Emotional Changes / Depression
• Moodiness
• Irritability
• Panic
• Cynicism
• Anxiety
• Feeling Overwhelmed
• Frustration

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 Physical Changes/Health problems

Rapid Heartbeat

Aches and Pains

Frequent Colds

Skin Complaints

Digestive problems

High Blood Pressure

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 Behavioural Changes

Isolating Yourself from Others

Sleeping too Little or too Much

Demotivated

Loss of sense of humour

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 Balancing Demands and Resources:
Internal: Internal:
Being perfect, liked, respected Self confidence, skills, experience

External: External:
Tasks, targets, responsibilities Money, people, time

Demands Resources

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 Transactional View of Stress

Primary Secondary
appraisal appraisal
• Is this situation • If it is important,
threatening to can I cope?
me? • What resources
• Is it important? do I have?

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 Model of Stress
Stressors Outcomes
Environmental Physiological
Economic factors Minor illness
Political and social Heart disease
Technological Ulcers
Work-family divide cancer
Psychological
Organisational Frustration, aggression
Structure Anxiety
Culture and climate Depression
politics burnout
Immediate Social Experienced Stress
Context Cognitive
Relations with Poor concentration
supervisor Poor memory
Nature of workgroup Decreased attention
Moderators Thought disorders
Relations with peers Personal characteristics
Individual Lifestyle Behavioural
Physical conditions Social support
Impaired performance
Job design Appraisal of stressors
Life events Absenteeism
Role overload Turnover
Biographic and occupational
Role conflict variables Alcohol or substance
Role ambiguity abuse

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 Individual Stressors

Family Financial
issues issues

Individual
personality

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 Organisational Stressors

Task and Role Organisational

demands Structure

Interpersonal
Leadership
demands

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 Environmental Stressors

Economic Political
Environment Environment

Technology

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 Signs of stress in a group
• Disputes
• Staff turnover
• Absence
• Attracting and retaining
• Performance
• Customer dissatisfaction

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 Causes of stress: Individuals
• Bullying • Incorrect tools for the job
• Harassment • Environment (noise etc)
• Incompetent boss • Colleagues
• Incompetent self • Type of work
• Too much work
• Not enough work
• Insufficient time

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 Causes of Stress -Work Relationships
• Inconsistent instructions
• No support
• Lack of concern
• Productivity above all things
• Picking up only on negative examples
of performance
• Lack of praise
(Rollinson 2008)

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 Causes of Stress: Organisational Factors
• Increased competitiveness
• Desire to decrease costs
• Decreased workforce
• Work intensification
• Long hours culture
• Unreasonable deadlines
• Excessive rules and bureaucracy
• ICT – never ‘unreachable’
• Poor communication
• Office politics
• Organisational structure
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 Personality and stress

Traits Affecting Stress:

• Types A’s more at risk
• Negative affectivity
• Locus of control if feel in control less prone to stress
• Self Esteem – if high protected from stress

https://www.simplypsychology.org/personality-a.html

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 Stress Management
Level of Stress
Individual Organisation

Aim: to equip, (on request),

Aim: to equip specific
any individual in the
individuals to cope with, or
Reactive organisation to be able to cope
recover from, the effects of
with, or recover from, the
Timing of Strategy

stressful conditions after stress

effects of stressful conditions
has occurred
as and when encountered
Example: Stress management
Example: Employee assistance
techniques
programmes

Aim: individuals take action to

Aim: redesign of the working
resist the effects of stressors,
environment to reduce or
or remove stressors from their
Proactive eradicate stressors
working environments
Example: structural,
Example: negotiate change to
operational and role redesign Rollinson 2008.
working environment or quit

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 Individual –Stress Management
• Healthy lifestyle – diet, exercise
• Use stress management techniques – relaxation,
breathing
• Cognitive thought techniques
• Social Support – build up networks. Internal support
within the organisation is more effective.
• Raise concerns promptly
• If already stressed – psychotherapy, counselling

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 Organisational Level - Stress Management

• Redesigning tasks
• Redesigning work environments
• More flexible work schedules
• Participative management style
• Career development plans
• Social support and feedback
• Building strong teams
• Fair employment and reward practices
(Rollinson 2008).

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 Resilience -Indirect Impacts of Stress
• Health - anyone suffering from psychological distress such as
anxiety or depression are more prone to making errors
• Negative attitudes
• Job dissatisfaction
• Low morale
• High turnover
• Errors
• None of these are features of a resilient organisation

(Glendon 2006).

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 Stress and Injury/Accidents

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 HSE Management Standards

According to HSE Management standards the

pathway to tackling stress includes:
Demands

 Identify the risk factors Relatio

Control
nships
Occupational Stress Indicator
Attitude survey
 Who can be harmed and how
Suppor
 Evaluate the risks Change
t
 Record your findings
 Monitor and review, (HSE 2009). Role

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 Conclusion
• Stress has an impact on the resilience of an organisation.
• Psychologically distressed individual /employees are unable to respond
appropriately to crises.
• An organisation should provide direct or practical support to individuals
to cope better with stress.
• Effects of stress can be short or long term. Long term stress usually
have health implications.
• It is important to tackle stress because resilient organisations need their
workers to be performing well on a regular basis.

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 References
ROLLINSON, D. 2008. Organisational Behaviour and Analysis: An Integrated Approach, 4th Edition, Prentice Hall:
Essex.

LEUNG et al (2010) Impacts of Stressors and Stress on the Injury Incidents of Construction Workers in Hong Kong.
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management. Volume 136, Issue 10.

GLENDON, I et al. 2006. Human Safety and Risk Management. 2nd Edition. Taylor and Francis: Boca Raton

C.I.P.D. (2017) Stress Factsheet

CIPD (2011) Developing Resilience: a practitioners guide for practitioners CIPD:London

HSE. 2009. How to tackle work-related stress: A guide for employers on making the Management Standards work.
INDG430, www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg430.pdf, [Accessed 8 November 2010]

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