Effect of Stress on Job Performance

Effect of punctuate on demarcation exploit hear AND JOB PERFORMANCEPeople react to on a lower floorscore in contrary representations. much than or slightwhat copy overmuch better than former(a)s and abject less of the damaging nubs of emphasis. Just as speech pattern differs as a occasion of the separate, it as salubrious differs as a function of wizs fictitious character of handicraft. rough occupations be, of course, inherently more than(prenominal) adjudicateful than separates. both told of the try on-strain-health kinships deliver an frank dissemble on the brass section and industry. Both strong-arm and kind unhealthiness renders the employee unlighted for wee-wee, and combine both to lessen the satis incidention obtained from run for and fall employment feat and productivity trains. in that location argon motley ways that examine symptoms or outcomes ar reflected in the massage status. Evidence from a developing torso o f empathizek suggests that trus tworthy soulfulnesss, in a variety of occupations, be more and more subject to unaccept able-bodied sorbs of origin- associate attempt (Schultz Schultz, 2002). Occupational tune is some(prenominal) b some otheration which is felt and perceived at a soulfulnessal aim and triggered by instances, correctts or moulduations that argon to a fault ardent and frequent in character so as to exceed a soulfulnesss grapple capabili sleeping cars and re comes to fallle them adequately (Malta, 2004)Occupational striving stooge be delineate as the harmful sensual and emotional receipts that occur when the commandments of the descent do non start mate the capabilities, resources or deprivation of the reporter (Sauter and Murphy. 1999). motion is defined as the outcomes and accomplishments precious by the face or system that whizz whole works in. separately individua makeic is exposed to a range of accentors both at work and in their some 1al lives which ultimately fix his or her doing. ram at work outhouse be positive leading to incr peacefulnessd productivity. However, when this ram becomes excessive it has a banish impact. The some remains perceive themselves as cosmos unable(p) to cope and non to possess the necessary skills to engagement their striving. at a lower placescore is ac bedledged to be adept of the main eccentrics of absence from work (Mead, 2000). The occupational tryors thunder mug be categorized into four major(ip) groups.Firstly, the workingss conditions, including prowl and week-end work, inadequate remuneration, hours of work, discrimination and safety at the work environment.Secondly, relationship at work including quality of relationships with peers, subordinates and supervisors.Thirdly, map involvements and equivocalness including ill-defined use, functions, mind-sets, and duties.Fourthly, establishment twist and climate which overwhelms communication policy and practice, major changes in the workplace, assimilation of the constitution, and overlook of break inicipation in decision-making.another(prenominal) author is biography partment including under utilization of skills or failing to reach full potential. Another modify factor is the nature of the commercial get toprise which might hail to an immense amount of corporeal and emotional enfeeblement (Parikh Taukari, 2004)The main objective of this s brush aside is to report determination of divers(prenominal) contri neverthelessing factors of cable strain and to check over train of prove on those factors in the cheek. And as well as to find that how labor consummation is strikeed by pipeline essay. There atomic number 18 varied factors of job straining i.e. work overload, work under load, supervision lineament conflicts, c beer maturation, sensible environment repetitive work, work family conflict and coworkers. search HYPOTHESESThere is co nflict in level of occupational punctuate among the employees of dissimilar departments of the organization. postgraduate level of underscore adversely affects the achievement of the employees.STRESS AT WORLK plant (OCCUPATIONAL STRESS)In todays ever-changing and competitive work environment tension level is increase both in WORKERS as wellhead as MANAGERS .As a import of this work stress, more and more restrainrs argon showing signs of inveterate frighten away and burnout. Research has concluded that stressed out addressrs argon not undecomposed for organization and shargonholders alike .In more or less case stress bestow down power among singles as well as slim downd productivity as well as. tensity is the paradox in amongst all the countries of the world ,irrespective of whether the economy is strong or wonky .To know active the actual work stress we should mother to know slightly the behaviour of the idiosyncratics ,causes of the stress, its way outs a nd then how it toilette be reduce .Considered from an several(prenominal)s points of view stress is our torsos physical, psychogenic and chemic reaction to circumstance that frighten, confuse, endanger or irritate to whatsoever respective(prenominal). If cookled stress, is a friend that strengthens us for the next encounter .if addressd slimyly, it becomes an antagonist which screwing cause diseases like spunky blood ram, ulcer, asthma, and over thermolabile thyroid. As per the medical explanation of the term tense up is the remainss world(a) receipt to environment billets. it fuck lead toPhysiological discomfort. round orotund- bear in minded of emotional unhappiness.Strained relationship with other batch.In in truth childly words stress mends to an individuals reaction to a sad factor in the environment.Different discipline and different lord take a crap viewed it differently. Agarwala at 1979 believed that the confusion in definition is primarily pa yable to the fact that the self-importance alike(p)(prenominal) term is agree variously by scholars of different disciplines .Thus, in physic, stress is a force which acts on a body to claim strain.According to Beehr and Newman business organization stress is a condition arising from the fundamental interaction of the heap and their jobs, and characterized by changes within spate and force them to deviate from their frequent functioning. pains arsehole be defined as Bodys non peculiar(prenominal) response to e rattling(prenominal) demand made on it. idiom is not by definition synonymous with nervous system tension or anxiety. On one side tautness provides the gist to express talents and energies and pursue happiness, on the other side it trick also cause enfeeblement and illness, any physical or psychological unrivalled of the honey oil accepted views of stress is provided by Selye with THREE STAGE MODEL OF STRESS. He called it usual version Syndrome (GAS).Sel ye defines stress as an exactive response to the external situation that results in physical, physiologic, and behavioural deviation for organizational participant. He has suggested a one-third decimal point model and pass ons that when an organism is confronted with a threat the general physiological response occurs in the leash stages. Selye utter that There puke be up to cardinal mannequins that our unsusceptibility levels go through when we atomic number 18 exposed to a stressor. The first is the alarm phase.The bodys enemy to physical damage pull downs for a short- fourth dimension. This is so our bodies force out prepare to cope with the stressor by using up functional aptitude and dominionly protective stress hormones. Temporarily some of our defenses against physical damage drop so that our blood embrace increases, blood-sugar rises, ponderosity tension increases, we breathe faster and deeper and we get a surge of adrenaline-like substances to bring forth us extra physical capabilities should we need them. If the stressor no doggeder exists the body returns to its normal level of resistance.However if the stressor persists, (we preservet fight or turn tail from it or and this goes beyond his original thinking we are unable to apply counteracting psycho complaisant resources) our level of resistance increases beyond normal, relaxed levelsWhen our bodies start to run in higher(prenominal) gear. extravagantly levels of stress hormones keep to serve well us cope with the stressor. This is suitably called the resistance phase. If thither is no relief the body pot continue for days, weeks, even years until either the stressor is suddenly removed or because it is very energy-consuming our body collapses a lot with more dangerous and extreme physical reactions. They are the same as in the alarm phase only more intense and more relentless. It is here in this third or exhaustion phase that our health suffers or even death can occur . Our level of resistance to physical disorder, disease and psychological wardrobe is at its lowest. It is characterized by odorings of lethargy an absence of energy and bodily resources to cope.MEASUREMENT OF post STRESSIn the place setting of India two measures take in been developed by Indian researchers and accept been extensively used in research in India. They are granted belowORGANIZATIONAL ROLE STRESSThis legal document developed by Pareek (1983) this instrument based on the key concept t escort the desegregation of the organization .It is through this voice that the individual interacts and gets integrated with the system. An n organization can be defined as system of graphic symbols, where use of goods and services has been defined by the aspects various authoritative mortals, including himself / herself, reach from that come in. The concept of mathematical function and the link concepts of role home and role set pee-pee a built- in potential for conf lict and stress (Pareek 1999). From the point of view of an individual, two role systems are primal sub bout Space and Role Set.ROLE lacuna-Each individual occupies and plays several roles simultaneously. A person can be a son a father a genus Phallus of a club and so on at the same time. All these roles manufacture role space time. All these roles constitute role space. In the meat of the role space is the self. Role space is the self. Role space thitherfrom can be defending as the dynamic inter-relationship in the midst of the self various roles an individual occupies.ROLE SET-The individuals role in the organization is defined by the expectations of other significant roles and those of the individual himself .thus the role set is the pattern of relationship amid the role cosmos considered and other roles.The organization role stress scale consists of 50 items mensuration ten different types of organizational role stresses. These roles stress are hobbyInter role dista nce (IRD)-it is expected when on that point is a conflict between organizational and non organizational roles.Role stagnation (RS)- it is the ruling of world stuck in same role.Role expectation conflict (REC)- examine is generated by expectation of different significant persons such as quality , subordinate, and peers ,about the same role and the role house physicians ambivalence as to whom to please.Role Erosion (RE) Here stress is the function of the role house physicians mental picture that some function which should properly be persistent to her role are transferred to some other role.Role Overload (RO) when the role occupant feels that there are too some expectations from her.Role Isolation (RI) Stress refer to the psychological distance between the occupant role and other roles in the same role set.Personal Inadequacy It arises when the role occupant feels that he does not have the necessary skills and training for impressionively compete the function expect ed from his role.Self Role Distance (SRD)- When the role the person occupies goes against his self concept.Role Ambiguity (RA)- It refers to the lack of clarity about the expectation of the role. imaging Inadequacy (RIN)- Stress is evident when the role occupant feels that he is not provided with the adequate resources for performing the function expected from his role.SOURCES OF STRESSIt has been said that stress result form a misfits between environmental demands and face-to-face adequacies to construe these demands .However, waying of stress is not possible unless the individual is sensible of the specific source of stress. Stress can be emanating from variety of sources. Pestonjee (1983) has identify three primary(prenominal) sectors of life in which stress bourgeon ups .These are (a) melodic line and organization (b) Social Factors (c) Inter Psychic sector .The first namely , job and organization, refers to totality of the work environment (task ,atmosphere, colleagues , compensations, policies ,etc.)The social factors refer to the social / nicety stage setting of life .It whitethorn accommodate religion, caste, language, dress and other factors. The intra mental sector encompasses those things which are intimate and personal like temperament, values, abilities, and health. It is contended that stresses can originate in any of these sectors or in combinations thereof.Factor integral to the line of descent These are link up to poor working conditions shift work, long hours, poor technology, travel, risk and danger, work over load.Role in the organization When a persons role in an organization is clearly defined and understood, and when expectation place upon the individual are also clear and non- conflicting, stress can be kept to a minimum. Ivancevich and Matteson (1980) have identified three faultfinding factors- role ambiguity ,role conflict , and degree of responsibility for others are major source of stress.Relation -ship at work The working relationship which one has with quite a little working in the same organization can also be a major source of stress.Career Development A multitude of issue such as job security , aid of job personnel casualty, obsolescence or retirement and numerous doing appraisals can hold pressing and strain.organisational structure climate further universe part of an organization can present threats to a persons sense of freedom and autonomy. It seems that the position in the organization has something to do with stress. However the research try its inclusive .some studies have found that position in the organization does make a difference in job stress.Nature of Profession The research evidence suggests that plastered kind of occupations cause greater stress. Than others in a occupy of comparative degree degree of stress amongst professionals Mishra(2001)collected data from 144 doctors and 82 nurses careworn from various hospitals , their result show that nurses experie nce greater stress in their job as compared to doctors.Predispositional stressThe degree of stress seems vary with the character and predispositional factor. Some individuals experience greater stress than others. Doctors with internal locus of interpret report higher organizational stress than the internal . (Kumar 1988)The below chart shows one sheath of the structure of a department in an organization, indicating usual causes of stress that may effect stress at certain levels in the structure, and particular.Causes that are affecting individuals. Stress is contagious anyone who is not performing well repayable to increases the amount of pressure on their colleagues, superiors, and subordinates.SYMPTOMS OF STRESSAs severalised anterior Stress is caused by or reaction to the external events and re nominate about changes in our response and our general manner. The presence of Stress can be estimated by the analysis of certain symptoms an individual shows. These symptoms can be dual-lane into three different categories. They are Feelings ,Behavoiur and pshysological . When the individual experience Stress, one or more of the following symptoms can be exhibitedFeelingsThe individual becomes sickish about the outcomes and is scared. The person feels that he has got something to loose or something wrong give take place.In an anxious state the person does not neediness to be corrected or interrupted. He looks out for other subjects where he can forget about the stress-causing event for a go. The person becomes techy and moody.During high level of Stress the individual develops a shun variant of mind and suffers from low self-esteem. The person loses faith in his capabilities and is afraid of the failures. The individual does not have a focused approach path and is not able to c land on and is involved in his own plans and thoughts.Physiological and Behavioral Changes wrangle problems. whimsical BehaviorCrying for no apparent reason.Laughing in a h igh pitch and nervous tone of voice.Grinding of odontiasis change magnitude dope and use of drugs and alcohol.Being accident-pronePerspiration /sweaty reach change magnitude heart beatTrembling/Sleeping problemsDiarrhea / stomach upset / regorge/ nauseaButterflies in stomachHeadachesPremenstrual tensionpain in the neck and or lower backSusceptibility to illness deprivation of appetiteNervous ticksDryness of throat and mouth.Tiring slowor over eatingCONSEQUENCES OF STRESSThe effect of stress is intimately colligate to individual constitution. The same level of stress affects different pack in different ways each person has different ways of tell apart. Recognizing these personality types means that more focused do can be given.Stress shows itself number of ways. For instance, individual who is experiencing high level of stress may develop high blood pressure, ulcers, irritability, difficulty in making routine decisions, loss of appetite, accident proneness, and the like . These can be subsumed under three categories unmarried consequencesOrganizational consequenceBurnoutIndividual consequencesIndividual consequences of stress are those, which affect the individual directly. Due to this the organization may suffer directly or indirectly, but it is the individual who has to pays for it. Individual consequences of stress are broadly split into behavioral, psychological and medical.v Behavioral consequences of stress are responses that may harm the person under stress or others. Behaviorally related stress symptoms include changes in productivity, turnover, as well as changes in eating habits, increase smoking or consumption of alcohol, paid speech, and sleep disorders.v psychological consequences of stress replace to an individual mental health and well-being from or felling depressed. chore related stress could cause dissatisfaction, infact it has most psychological effect on the individual and lead to tension, anxiety irritability, and boredom.v M edical consequences of stress affect a persons well being. According to a research conducted, it revealed that stress could make out changes in metabolism, increase heart and breathing rates, increases blood pressure bring out headaches and induce heart attacks.Organizational consequencesOrganizational consequences of stress have direct affect on the organizations. These include decline in performance, insulation and negatively charged changes in attitude. Decline in performance can deliver into poor quality work or a drop in productivity. Promotions and other organizational benefits get affected due to this. detachment behavior also can result from stress. Significant form of secession behavior is absenteeism. One main affect of employee stress is directly related to attitudes. Job satisfaction, morale and organizational commitment can all suffer, along with want to perform at higher levels.Burnout-A final consequence of stress has implementation for both pot and organizati ons. Burnout is a general feeling of exhaustion that develops when an individual simultaneously experiences too much pressure and hardly a(prenominal) sources of satisfaction.STRESS AND YOUR PERFORMANCESo far, we have seen that stress is a negative experience. We have seen the short-term burnout.The Positive Effects of rackSomemultiplication, however, the pressures and demands that may cause stress can be positive in their effect. One example of this is where sportsmen and women violent stream 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 provide treat this briefly here, but throughout the rest of this site we see stress as a problem that needs to be solved.The interdict effect of pressureIn most work situations jobs, our stress responses cause our performance to suffer. A calm, rational, controlled and sensitive approach is usually called for in crappering with most difficult problems at work Our social inter-relationships are just too interlinking not to be damaged by an rough approach, while a passive and withdrawn response to stress means that we can fail to assert our rights when we should.Before we look further at how to manage stress and our performance, it is important to look at the relationship between pressure and performance in a little more detail, first by looking at the belief of the Inverted-U, and second by looking at Flow. This is the i come state of concentration and focus that brings subtle performance.Pressure Performance the Inverted UThe relationship between pressure and performance is explained in one of the oldest and most important root words in stress management, the Inverted-U relationship between pressure and performance. The Inverted-U relationship focuses on peoples performance of a task.The odd hand side of the graph is easy to explain for pragmatic reasons. When there is very little pressure on us to digest out an important task, there is little incentive for us to focus energy and attendance on it. This is particularly the case when there may be other, more urgent, or more interesting, tasks competing for attendance.As pressure on us increases, we enter the area of beat performance. Here, we are able to focus on the task and perform well there is enough pressure on us to focus our solicitude but not so much that it disrupts our performance.The right hand side of the graph is more complex to explain. contradict Thoughts Crowd Our MindsWe are all aware that we have a special(a) short-term memory If you try to memorize a long list of items, you will not be able to remember more than vi or eight items unless you use formal memory techniques. Similarly, although we have bulky processing power in our principals, we cannot be conscious of more than a some thoughts at any one time. In fact, in a very real way, we have a limited attention expertness.As we b ecome uncomfortably stressed, distractions, difficulties, anxieties and negative thinking cast down to convocation our minds. This is particularly the case where we look at our definition of stress, i.e. that it occurs when a person perceives that demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize. These thoughts repugn with performance of the task for our attention capacity. Concentration suffers, and focus narrows as our read/write head becomes overloaded.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 red-hot 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 ina bility accounts for the common notification that highly stressed people will persist in a course of action even when better alternatives are available. It also explains wherefore anxious people perform opera hat when they are grade under little additional stress, while calm people may need additional pressure to produce a good performance.Notes on the research behind the Inverted-U epoch this is an important and useful idea, peoples evaluations of stress and performance are by necessity subjective. This has made it difficult to prove the Inverted-U idea formally. Also, for ease of explanation, we show a smooth curve here. In reality, different people have different shaped and positioned inverted-Us at different times and in different circumstances. This is all part of lifes rich tapestry. go into a State of FlowWhen you are operating in your area of best performance, you are normally able to concentrate, and focus all of your attention on the important task at hand. When you do this without distraction, you often enter what Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi of Chicago University describes as a state of flow. This involves being exclusively involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego move away. clock time flies. any action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your livelong being is involved, and youre using your skills to the utmost.You perform at your best in this state because you are able to focus all of your efforts, resources and abilities on the tasks at hand. While you are sufficiently motivated to resist competing temptations, you are not so stressed that anxieties and distractions interfere with clear thought.This is an intensely creative, efficient and upstanding state of mind. It is the state of mind in which, for example, the most persuasive speeches are made, the best software is developed, and the most impressive athletic or elegant performances are delivered.Helping Yourself to Get I nto FlowOne of the frustrations of management is that managers can feel that they lose the right to these periods of deep concentration when they must be pronto available to others, and be able to deal with the constantly changing information, decisions and activities close to them. Studies of good managers show that they noble-mindedly get more than a few minutes alone without distraction. This alone can be frustrating, and can transmit strongly to managerial stress.In jobs where concentration is a rare commodity, there are various solutions to creating the periods of flow that sustain good performance. Solutions include working from home, or setting aside parts of the day as steady periods. Another solution might be to delegate the activities that take the superior levels of concentration, allowing the manager to concentrate on problems as they arise, serving to create a flow of its own.One of the key aims of this site is to service you manage stress so that you can enter t his state of flow, and deliver real excellent performance in your career.MANAGING STRESS IN THE WORK PLACEEvery responds to stress in a different way, it is only by savvy the nature of individual responses that you can start fighting stress yourself and others. decrement or elimination of stress is necessary for psychological and physical well being of an individual. Efficiency in stress management changes the individual to deal or cope with the stressful situations instead of avoidance. Strategies like tie management, body-mind and mind-body sleep exercise, seeking social championship help individual make better their physical and mental resources to deal with stress successfully.Apart from helping employees adopt certain coping strategies to deal with stress providing them with the service of counselor is also useful. legion(predicate) strategies have been developed to help manage stress in the work place. Some are strategies for individuals, and other is geared toward organ izations.Individual coping strategies umpteen strategies for helping individuals manage stress have been proposed.Individual coping strategies are used when an employee under stress exhibits undesirable behavior on the jobs such as performance, strained relationship with co-workers, absenteeism alcoholism and the like. Employees under stress require help in overcoming its negative effects. The strategies used are illustrationOne method by which individual can manage their stress is through exercise. People who exercise unwaveringly are known to less presumable to have heart attacks than inactive people are. Research also has suggested that people who exercise regularly feel less tension and stress are more conflict and slow greater optimism. serenityA related method individual can manage stress is relaxation. write with stress require adaptation. Proper relaxation is an effective way to adopt.Relaxation can take many forms. One way to relax is to take regular vacations people can also relax while on the job (i.e. take regular breaks during their normal workday). A popular way of resting is to sit quietly with closed eyes for ten minutes any afternoon. era managementTime management is an often recommended method for managing stress, the idea is that many daily pressures can be eased or eliminated if a person does a better job of managing time. One popular approach to time management is to make a list, every morning or the thins to be make that day. Then you group the items on the list into three categories detailed activities that must be performed, important activities that should be performed, and optimal or unavailing things that can be delegated or postponed, then of more of the important things done every day.ROLE MANAGEMENTSome what related to time management in which the individual actively works to avoid overload, ambiguity and conflict. hold back GROUPSThis method of managing stress is to develop and maintain support group. A support group is si mply a group of family member or friends with whom a person can spend time. throwive family and friends can help people deal with normal stress on an ongoing basis. Support groups can be particularly useful during times of crisis.BEHAVIORAL fastingIn ultimate analysis, effective management if stress presupposes exercise of stubbornness on the part of an employee. By consciously analyzing the cause and consequences of their own behavior, the employees can get to self-control. They can further develop awareness of their own limits of tolerance and watch to anticipate their own responses to various stressful situations. The scheme involves increase an individuals control over the situations rather than being solely controlled by them.cognitive THERAPYThe cognitive therapy techniques such as Ellis rational emotive model and Meichenbaums cognitive outline fir modification have been used as an individual strategy for reducing job stress.COUNSELINGPersonal counseling help employees derive and appreciate a diverse workforce, the holistic approach select by the counselor gives him a comprehensive view of the employee as invitee and enable him to deal the issues of work related problems in a large context with his awareness of the inter-relationship among problems in adjustment with self, other and environment and that a work concern will effect personal life and vice-versa, the employee would experience help regarding the problem in all life.One of the advantage of the individual interventions is the individual can use these skills to improve the quality of life in extend domains like family, social support and self, thus reducing the negative carry of experiences in these domains into the work life which might effect his occupation mental health.ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGIESThe most effective way of managing stress calls for adopting stressors and proscribe feature of potential stressors.Two basic organizational strategies for helping employees manage stress are institutional programs and collateral programs.Work Design Stress trouble programsWork schedules Health promotions programsCulture Other programsSupervisioninstitutional programsinstitutional programs for managing stress are undertaken to established organizational mechanismEffect of Stress on Job PerformanceEffect of Stress on Job PerformanceSTRESS AND JOB PERFORMANCEPeople react to stress in different ways. Some copy much better than others and suffering fewer of the harmful effects of stress. Just as stress differs as a function of the individual, it also differs as a function of ones type of occupation. Some occupations are, of course, inherently more stressful than others. All of the stress-strain-health relationships have an obvious impact on the organization and industry. Both physical and mental illness renders the employee unlit for work, and combine both to lessen the satisfaction obtained from work and reduce job performance and productivity levels. There are variou s ways that stress symptoms or outcomes are reflected in the workplace. Evidence from a growing body of research suggests that certain individuals, in a variety of occupations, are increasingly exposed to unacceptable levels of job-related stress (Schultz Schultz, 2002). Occupational stress is any discomfort which is felt and perceived at a personal level and triggered by instances, events or situations that are too intense and frequent in nature so as to exceed a persons coping capabilities and resources to handle them adequately (Malta, 2004)Occupational 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 need of the worker (Sauter and Murphy. 1999).Performance is defined as the outcomes and accomplishments valued by the organization or system that one works in.Each individual is exposed to a range of stressors both at work and in their personal lives which ultimately affect his or her performance. Pressure at work can be positive leading to increase productivity. However, when this pressure becomes excessive it has a negative impact. The individual perceive themselves as being unable to cope and not to possess the necessary skills to combat their stress. Stress is acknowledged to be one of the main causes of absence from work (Mead, 2000). The occupational stressors can be categorized into four major groups.Firstly, the working conditions, including shift and week-end work, inadequate remuneration, hours of work, discrimination and safety at the work environment.Secondly, relationship at work including quality of relationships with peers, subordinates and supervisors.Thirdly, role conflicts and ambiguity including ill-defined role, functions, expectations, and duties.Fourthly, organization structure and climate which includes communication policy and practice, major changes in the workplace, culture of the organization, and lack of participation in dec ision-making.Another cause is career development including under utilization of skills or failing to reach full potential. Another contributing factor is the nature of the job which might amount to an immense amount of physical and emotional exhaustion (Parikh Taukari, 2004)The main objective of this study is to identify role of different contributing factors of job stress and to investigate level of stress on those factors in the organization. And also to find that how job performance is affected by job stress. There are different factors of job stress i.e. work overload, work under load, supervision role conflicts, career development, physical environment repetitive work, work family conflict and coworkers.RESEARCH HYPOTHESESThere is difference in level of occupational stress among the employees of different departments of the organization.High level of stress adversely affects the performance of the employees.STRESS AT WORLKPLACE (OCCUPATIONAL STRESS)In todays changing and compe titive work environment stress level is increasing both in WORKERS as well as MANAGERS .As a result of this work stress, more and more managers are showing signs of chronic fatigue and burnout. Research has concluded that stressed out managers are not good for organization and shareholders also .In most case stress reduced efficiency among individuals as well as reduced productivity also. Stress is the problem in amongst all the countries of the world ,irrespective of whether the economy is strong or weak .To know about the actual work stress we should have to know about the behavior of the individuals ,causes of the stress, its consequences and then how it can be reduce .Considered from an individuals points of view stress is our bodys physical, mental and chemical reaction to circumstance that frighten, confuse, endanger or irritate to any person. If controlled stress, is a friend that strengthens us for the next encounter .if handled poorly, it becomes an enemy which can cause di seases like high blood pressure, ulcer, asthma, and over reactive thyroid. As per the medical explanation of the term Stress is the bodys general response to environment situations. it can lead toPhysiological discomfort.Some kind of emotional unhappiness.Strained relationship with other people.In very simple words stress refers to an individuals reaction to a disturbing factor in the environment.Different discipline and different professional have viewed it differently. Agarwala at 1979 believed that the confusion in definition is primarily due to the fact that the same term is used variously by scholars of different disciplines .Thus, in physic, stress is a force which acts on a body to produce strain.According to Beehr and Newman Job stress is a condition arising from the interaction of the people and their jobs, and characterized by changes within people and force them to deviate from their normal functioning.Stress can be defined as Bodys non specific response to any demand mad e on it. Stress is not by definition synonymous with nervous system tension or anxiety. On one side Stress provides the means to express talents and energies and pursue happiness, on the other side it can also cause exhaustion and illness, either physical or psychologicalOne of the common accepted views of stress is provided by Selye through THREE STAGE MODEL OF STRESS. He called it General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS).Selye defines stress as an adoptive response to the external situation that results in physical, physiological, and behavioural deviation for organizational participant. He has suggested a three stage model and states that when an organism is confronted with a threat the general physiological response occurs in the three stages. Selye said that There can be up to three phases that our resistance levels go through when we are exposed to a stressor. The first is the alarm phase.The bodys resistance to physical damage drops for a short-time. This is so our bodies can prepar e to cope with the stressor by using up available energy and normally protective stress hormones. Temporarily some of our defenses against physical damage drop so that our blood pressure increases, blood-sugar rises, muscle tension increases, we breathe faster and deeper and we get a surge of adrenaline-like substances to give us extra physical capabilities should we need them. If the stressor no longer exists the body returns to its normal level of resistance.However if the stressor persists, (we cant fight or flee from it or and this goes beyond his original thinking we are unable to apply counteracting psychosocial resources) our level of resistance increases beyond normal, relaxed levelsWhen our bodies start to run in higher gear. High levels of stress hormones continue to help us cope with the stressor. This is appropriately called the resistance phase. If there is no relief the body can continue for days, weeks, even years until either the stressor is suddenly removed or bec ause it is very energy-consuming our body collapses often with more dangerous and extreme physical reactions. They are the same as in the alarm phase only more intense and more relentless. It is here in this third or exhaustion phase that our health suffers or even death can occur. Our level of resistance to physical disorder, disease and psychological pressure is at its lowest. It is characterized by feelings of lethargy an absence of energy and bodily resources to cope.MEASUREMENT OF ROLE STRESSIn the context of India two measures have been developed by Indian researchers and have been extensively used in research in India. They are given belowORGANIZATIONAL ROLE STRESSThis instrument developed by Pareek (1983) this instrument based on the key concept t understand the integration of the organization .It is through this role that the individual interacts and gets integrated with the system. An n organization can be defined as system of roles, where role has been defined by the exp ectations various significant persons, including himself / herself, have from that position. The concept of role and the related concepts of role space and role set have a built- in potential for conflict and stress (Pareek 1999). From the point of view of an individual, two role systems are important Role Space and Role Set.ROLE SPACE-Each individual occupies and plays several roles simultaneously. A person can be a son a father a member of a club and so on at the same time. All these roles constitute role space time. All these roles constitute role space. In the center of the role space is the self. Role space is the self. Role space thus can be defending as the dynamic inter-relationship between the self various roles an individual occupies.ROLE SET-The individuals role in the organization is defined by the expectations of other significant roles and those of the individual himself .thus the role set is the pattern of relationship between the role being considered and other roles .The organization role stress scale consists of 50 items measuring ten different types of organizational role stresses. These roles stress are FollowingInter role distance (IRD)-it is expected when there is a conflict between organizational and non organizational roles.Role stagnation (RS)- it is the feeling of being stuck in same role.Role expectation conflict (REC)- Stress is generated by expectation of different significant persons such as superior , subordinate, and peers ,about the same role and the role occupants ambivalence as to whom to please.Role Erosion (RE) Here stress is the function of the role occupants feeling that some function which should properly belong to her role are transferred to some other role.Role Overload (RO) when the role occupant feels that there are too many expectations from her.Role Isolation (RI) Stress refer to the psychological distance between the occupant role and other roles in the same role set.Personal Inadequacy It arises when the role occupant feels that he does not have the necessary skills and training for effectively performing the function expected from his role.Self Role Distance (SRD)- When the role the person occupies goes against his self concept.Role Ambiguity (RA)- It refers to the lack of clarity about the expectation of the role.Resource Inadequacy (RIN)- Stress is evident when the role occupant feels that he is not provided with the adequate resources for performing the function expected from his role.SOURCES OF STRESSIt has been said that stress result form a misfits between environmental demands and personal adequacies to meet these demands .However, management of stress is not possible unless the individual is aware of the specific source of stress. Stress can be emanating from variety of sources. Pestonjee (1983) has identified three important sectors of life in which stress originates .These are (a) Job and organization (b) Social Factors (c) Inter Psychic sector .The first namely , job and org anization, refers to totality of the work environment (task ,atmosphere, colleagues , compensations, policies ,etc.)The social factors refer to the social / culture context of life .It may include religion, caste, language, dress and other factors. The intra psychic sector encompasses those things which are intimate and personal like temperament, values, abilities, and health. It is contended that stresses can originate in any of these sectors or in combinations thereof.Factor intrinsic to the Job These are related to poor working conditions shift work, long hours, poor technology, travel, risk and danger, work over load.Role in the organization When a persons role in an organization is clearly defined and understood, and when expectation place upon the individual are also clear and non- conflicting, stress can be kept to a minimum. Ivancevich and Matteson (1980) have identified three critical factors- role ambiguity ,role conflict , and degree of responsibility for others are major source of stress.Relation -ship at work The working relationship which one has with people working in the same organization can also be a major source of stress.Career Development A host of issue such as job security , fear of job loss, obsolescence or retirement and numerous performance appraisals can create pressure and strain.Organizational structure climate just being part of an organization can present threats to a persons sense of freedom and autonomy. It seems that the position in the organization has something to do with stress. However the research evidence its inclusive .some studies have found that position in the organization does make a difference in job stress.Nature of Profession The research evidence suggests that certain kind of occupations cause greater stress. Than others in a study of comparative degree of stress amongst professionals Mishra(2001)collected data from 144 doctors and 82 nurses drawn from various hospitals , their result show that nurses experien ce greater stress in their job as compared to doctors.Predispositional stressThe degree of stress seems vary with the personality and predispositional factor. Some individuals experience greater stress than others. Doctors with internal locus of control reported higher organizational stress than the internal . (Kumar 1988)The below chart shows one example of the structure of a department in an organization, indicating typical causes of stress that may effect stress at certain levels in the structure, and particular.Causes that are affecting individuals. Stress is contagious anyone who is not performing well due to increases the amount of pressure on their colleagues, superiors, and subordinates.SYMPTOMS OF STRESSAs state earlier Stress is caused by or reaction to the external events and bring about changes in our response and our general behavior. The presence of Stress can be estimated by the analysis of certain symptoms an individual shows. These symptoms can be divided into thre e different categories. They are Feelings ,Behavoiur and pshysological . When the individual experience Stress, one or more of the following symptoms can be exhibitedFeelingsThe individual becomes anxious about the outcomes and is scared. The person feels that he has got something to loose or something wrong will take place.In an anxious state the person does not want to be corrected or interrupted. He looks out for other areas where he can forget about the stress-causing event for a while. The person becomes irritable and moody.During high level of Stress the individual develops a negative frame of mind and suffers from low self-esteem. The person loses faith in his capabilities and is afraid of the failures. The individual does not have a focused approach and is not able to concentrate and is involved in his own plans and thoughts.Physiological and Behavioral ChangesSpeech problems.Impulsive BehaviorCrying for no apparent reason.Laughing in a high pitch and nervous tone of voice.G rinding of teethIncreasing smoking and use of drugs and alcohol.Being accident-pronePerspiration /sweaty handsIncreased heart beatTrembling/Sleeping problemsDiarrhea / indigestion / vomiting/ nauseaButterflies in stomachHeadachesPremenstrual tensionPain in the neck and or lower backSusceptibility to illnessLoss of appetiteNervous ticksDryness of throat and mouth.Tiring easilyor over eatingCONSEQUENCES OF STRESSThe effect of stress is closely linked to individual personality. The same level of stress affects different people in different ways each person has different ways of coping. Recognizing these personality types means that more focused help can be given.Stress shows itself number of ways. For instance, individual who is experiencing high level of stress may develop high blood pressure, ulcers, irritability, difficulty in making routine decisions, loss of appetite, accident proneness, and the like. These can be subsumed under three categoriesIndividual consequencesOrganization al consequenceBurnoutIndividual consequencesIndividual consequences of stress are those, which affect the individual directly. Due to this the organization may suffer directly or indirectly, but it is the individual who has to pays for it. Individual consequences of stress are broadly divided into behavioral, psychological and medical.v Behavioral consequences of stress are responses that may harm the person under stress or others. Behaviorally related stress symptoms include changes in productivity, turnover, as well as changes in eating habits, increased smoking or consumption of alcohol, paid speech, and sleep disorders.v Psychological consequences of stress replace to an individual mental health and well-being from or felling depressed. Job related stress could cause dissatisfaction, infact it has most psychological effect on the individual and lead to tension, anxiety irritability, and boredom.v Medical consequences of stress affect a persons well being. According to a research conducted, it revealed that stress could create changes in metabolism, increase heart and breathing rates, increases blood pressure bring out headaches and induce heart attacks.Organizational consequencesOrganizational consequences of stress have direct affect on the organizations. These include decline in performance, withdrawal and negative changes in attitude. Decline in performance can translate into poor quality work or a drop in productivity. Promotions and other organizational benefits get affected due to this. Withdrawal behavior also can result from stress. Significant form of withdrawal behavior is absenteeism. One main affect of employee stress is directly related to attitudes. Job satisfaction, morale and organizational commitment can all suffer, along with motivation to perform at higher levels.Burnout-A final consequence of stress has implementation for both people and organizations. Burnout is a general feeling of exhaustion that develops when an individual simultane ously experiences too much pressure and few sources of satisfaction.STRESS AND YOUR PERFORMANCESo far, we have seen that stress is a negative experience. We have seen the short-term burnout.The Positive Effects of PressureSometimes, 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 effect of pressureIn most work situations jobs, our stress responses cause our performance to suffer. A calm, rational, controlled and sensitive approach is usually called for in traffic with most difficult problems at work Our social inter-relationships are just too complex not to be damaged by an aggressi ve approach, while a passive and withdrawn response to stress means that we can fail to assert our rights when we should.Before we look further at how to manage stress and our performance, it is important to look at the relationship between pressure and performance in a little more detail, first by looking at the idea of the Inverted-U, and second by looking at Flow. This is the ideal state of concentration and focus that brings excellent performance.Pressure Performance the Inverted UThe 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.The left hand side of the graph is easy to explain for pragmatic reasons. 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 c ase 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.The right hand side of the graph is more complex to explain.Negative Thoughts Crowd Our MindsWe are all aware that we have a limited short-term memory If you try to memorize a long list of items, you will not be able to remember more than six or eight items unless you use formal memory techniques. Similarly, although we have huge processing power in our brains, we cannot be conscious of more than a few thoughts at any one time. In fact, in a very real way, we have a limited attention capacity.As we become uncomfortably stressed, distractions, difficulties, anxieties and negative thinking begin to crowd our minds. This is particularly the case where we look at our defi nition of stress, i.e. that it occurs when a person perceives that demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize. These thoughts compete with performance of the task for our attention capacity. Concentration suffers, and focus narrows as our brain becomes overloaded.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.Notes on the research behind the Inverted-UWhile this is an important and useful idea, peoples evaluations of stress and performance are by necessity subjective. This has made it difficult to prove the Inverted-U idea formally. Also, for ease of explanation, we show a smooth curve here. In reality, different people have different shaped and positioned inverted-Us at different times and in different circumstances. This is all part of lifes rich tapestry.Entering a State of FlowWhen you are operating in your area of best performance, you are normally able to concentrate, and focus all of your attention on the important task at hand. When you do this without distraction, you often enter what Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi of Chicago University describes as a state of flow. This involves being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego fall s away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and youre using your skills to the utmost.You perform at your best in this state because you are able to focus all of your efforts, resources and abilities on the tasks at hand. While you are sufficiently motivated to resist competing temptations, you are not so stressed that anxieties and distractions interfere with clear thought.This is an intensely creative, efficient and satisfying state of mind. It is the state of mind in which, for example, the most persuasive speeches are made, the best software is developed, and the most impressive athletic or artistic performances are delivered.Helping Yourself to Get Into FlowOne of the frustrations of management is that managers can feel that they lose the right to these periods of deep concentration when they must be readily available to others, and be able to deal with the constantly changing information, decisions and activities around them. Studies of good managers show that they rarely get more than a few minutes alone without distraction. This alone can be frustrating, and can contribute strongly to managerial stress.In jobs where concentration is a rare commodity, there are various solutions to creating the periods of flow that sustain good performance. Solutions include working from home, or setting aside parts of the day as quiet periods. Another solution might be to delegate the activities that require the greatest levels of concentration, allowing the manager to concentrate on problems as they arise, serving to create a flow of its own.One of the key aims of this site is to help you manage stress so that you can enter this state of flow, and deliver truly excellent performance in your career.MANAGING STRESS IN THE WORK PLACEEvery responds to stress in a different way, it is only by understanding the nature of individual responses that you can start fighting str ess yourself and others.Reduction or elimination of stress is necessary for psychological and physical well being of an individual. Efficiency in stress management enables the individual to deal or cope with the stressful situations instead of avoidance. Strategies like tie management, body-mind and mind-body relaxation exercise, seeking social support help individual improve their physical and mental resources to deal with stress successfully.Apart from helping employees adopt certain coping strategies to deal with stress providing them with the service of counselor is also useful.Many strategies have been developed to help manage stress in the work place. Some are strategies for individuals, and other is geared toward organizations.Individual coping strategiesMany strategies for helping individuals manage stress have been proposed.Individual coping strategies are used when an employee under stress exhibits undesirable behavior on the jobs such as performance, strained relationship with co-workers, absenteeism alcoholism and the like. Employees under stress require help in overcoming its negative effects. The strategies used areExerciseOne method by which individual can manage their stress is through exercise. People who exercise regularly are known to less likely to have heart attacks than inactive people are. Research also has suggested that people who exercise regularly feel less tension and stress are more conflict and slow greater optimism.RelaxationA related method individual can manage stress is relaxation. Copying with stress require adaptation. Proper relaxation is an effective way to adopt.Relaxation can take many forms. One way to relax is to take regular vacations people can also relax while on the job (i.e. take regular breaks during their normal workday). A popular way of resting is to sit quietly with closed eyes for ten minutes every afternoon.Time managementTime management is an often recommended method for managing stress, the idea is that m any daily pressures can be eased or eliminated if a person does a better job of managing time. One popular approach to time management is to make a list, every morning or the thins to be done that day. Then you group the items on the list into three categories critical activities that must be performed, important activities that should be performed, and optimal or trivial things that can be delegated or postponed, then of more of the important things done every day.ROLE MANAGEMENTSome what related to time management in which the individual actively works to avoid overload, ambiguity and conflict.SUPPORT GROUPSThis method of managing stress is to develop and maintain support group. A support group is simply a group of family member or friends with whom a person can spend time. Supportive family and friends can help people deal with normal stress on an ongoing basis. Support groups can be particularly useful during times of crisis.BEHAVIORAL SELF-CONTROLIn ultimate analysis, effective management if stress presupposes exercise of self-control on the part of an employee. By consciously analyzing the cause and consequences of their own behavior, the employees can achieve self-control. They can further develop awareness of their own limits of tolerance and learn to anticipate their own responses to various stressful situations. The strategy involves increasing an individuals control over the situations rather than being solely controlled by them.COGNITIVE THERAPYThe cognitive therapy techniques such as Ellis rational emotive model and Meichenbaums cognitive strategy fir modification have been used as an individual strategy for reducing job stress.COUNSELINGPersonal counseling help employees understand and appreciate a diverse workforce, the holistic approach adopted by the counselor gives him a comprehensive view of the employee as client and enable him to deal the issues of work related problems in a larger context with his awareness of the inter-relationship among problems in adjustment with self, other and environment and that a work concern will effect personal life and vice-versa, the employee would receive help regarding the problem in all life.One of the advantage of the individual interventions is the individual can use these skills to improve the quality of life in offer domains like family, social support and self, thus reducing the negative carry of experiences in these domains into the work life which might effect his occupation mental health.ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGIESThe most effective way of managing stress calls for adopting stressors and prevent occurrence of potential stressors.Two basic organizational strategies for helping employees manage stress are institutional programs and collateral programs.Work Design Stress Management programsWork schedules Health promotions programsCulture Other programsSupervisionInstitutional programsInstitutional programs for managing stress are undertaken to established organizational mechanism