The Causes of Stress in the Contemporary Society

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Introduction

Stress affects various aspects of life, the current generation experiences stress in various fields which include; at home, within learning institutions, employment offices and every social gathering places. Everyone within the society undergoes stress, is has become common experience to people’s daily lives. Those at the various fields of sport, those driving heavy vehicles and doing types of work that involves heavy use of physical and mental energy.

All these people live under constant mental torture and stress. One unique characteristic of these people is that they are capable of handling the situations they find themselves under, because of their capability to identify causal mechanisms. The paper determines the causes of stress in the contemporary society. All the factors leading to certain stresses fully depend on certain conditions and environmental factors.

Theories of motivation and how they are used to motivate employees

Motivation contributes towards productivity and level of activeness of employees. It also contributes towards keenness and gives an individual sense of moral value and dignity. Without motivation, there is loss of morale in performing certain duties and also sense of belonging.

Capability with which an individual perform duties depends on the knowledge he has and the level of training he/she has received. Motivation works so quickly depending on the recipient. There are many options and an uninitiated manager may not even know where to start

“There exists is a gap between an individuals actual state and some desired state and the manager tries to reduce this gap. Motivation is, in effect, a means to reduce and manipulate this gap. It is inducing others in a specific way towards goals specifically stated by the motivator.

Naturally, these goals and also the motivation system must conform to the corporate policy of the organization. The motivation system must be tailored to the situation and to the organization” (Edwards et al, 1998, pp 28). Different views have emerged on the principles of motivating employees at work. There are some commonly known theories that have been used for quite some time (French, Caplan and Harrison, 1982).

Fredrick Taylor

Taylor argued that workers could only be motivated through payment. The theory of scientific management he argued addressed some crucial issues concerning workers. He argued that employees do not naturally enjoy work therefore calling for close supervision for perfect work to be done.

This calls for managers at various capacities to develop process breakdown that entails different tasks performed. He further argued that despite all these employees should be equipped through appropriate training methods and equipments that enable them to perform their duties effectively.

Payment should be made based on the level of performance and time taken to complete a task. This means that all workers get motivated to maximize on their potential. This theory presented organizations with the aspect of realizing high productivity level at lower costs. It helped in the area of delegating duties within an organization.

Mayo

These theorists believed that employees other than money, employees could be motivated by taking care of their social needs at the work place. This theory called for all managers to consider workers as fellow human beings.

The management team should have that heart of focusing on workers deep interests and be ready to understand, recognize their general contributions. Mayo believed that employees could better be motivated through various means such as good communication links, greater manager involvement and working as a team” (Edwards et al, 1998, pp 28-67).

Maslow

Maslow categorized employee needs into five levels, according to him these levels must always receive maximum satisfaction for efficiency to be realised in the work place. The theory argues that unless one need is fully met, it presents some difficulty for the employee to be motivated towards next level.

This call for organizations to offer some kinds of incentives to individuals that enables them fulfils their needs. However, workers are motivated at different levels leading to differences in pace of movement up the hierarchy. This means that different set of incentives could be offered depending on the nature of the employees.

Maslow argued that the highest state of human level is characterized by several human virtues which include integrity of character. “His prescription for human salvation is simple, but not easy: ‘Hard work and total commitment to doing well the job that fate or personal destiny calls you to do or any important job that “calls for” doing” (Edwards et al, 1998, pp 28-67).

Herzberg

Herzberg theory argued that besides every strategy any business lays, there were always certain factors that when applied could lead motivation of employees. Consequently, there were other factors that could lead to employee de-motivation leading to laziness.

He argued that democratic management approach could lead to employee motivation within any business organization. The managers could adopt some several methods which include expansion of jobs, employee empowerment through work delegation and presenting employees with opportunities to perform challenging but interesting tasks that guarantees their growth.

Effects of previous life experiences, different management styles, organizational culture, social culture and family

Some level of stress is considered normal since it at times provides people with the energy and motivation to cope with life’s challenges both within families and work place. This kind of Stress assists individuals to overcome life’s challenges and meet their life and organization targets.

Some view challenges positively, they would not consider it strange and hence receive it with joy. However, frequent stresses have negative impact on an individual’s health. Persistent frustrations reveal negative signs of stress (Cordes and Dougherty, 1993).

Detailed analysis of stress at work and the different causes of stress such as environmental factors, economical factors and individual factors

Work plays a role in people’s lives and brings about crucial influences on their general health. Salaried employment has contributed much to the people’s day to day livelihood. Employment sometimes become very wonderful experience to individuals and at times presents some level of stress.

Stress produced from work, always demand for more energy and time. This means that all employees irrespective of their status are subject to either good or negative aspects of employment. There is a relationship that exists between work, mental and physical health which is an essential part towards career adjustment as well as productivity within organizations (Cohen et al, 1997).

There are several causes of stress some of which include; threats caused by poor working conditions. The fear of dismissal from the work place, the rate and certainty of change. The level of relationships within the organization also causes stress since it can sometimes lead to junior employees being harassed by their seniors.

Stress can also be caused by pressure due to unreasonable deadlines and acquisition of new methods of management or technology. The demands for the employee’s adaptation and acceptance sometimes call for unnecessary conditions. These may further be attributed to compliance with tough proposals from frequent meetings and the means and ways of acting upon performance feedback. Sometimes stress arises from frustrations caused by poor communication links, lack of motivation from the senior employers.

Overlooking employees small improvements and often go without recognition. This may also be as a result of poor training received for a particular position. However, major stress can be caused by emotional losses, fear of some unknown physical danger. Some also through major accidents and loss of employment (Cohen et al, 1986).

Look at different organizational structures and see how they may affect stress at the work place. It is important to look at different views that exist on stress

The manner in which managers handle stress in their employees’ influences the duration of the employees absence and any arising costs. The salaries given to employees act as substitutes to the level of stress they undergo while. Part of the payment is related to time off work and training services.

It is necessary to solve employee related problems to avoid stressful circumstances. Possible agreements and resolutions should be made prior to occurrence of any problem. But most importantly, the effective managers require deep understanding of particular employee activities and link it with the right kind of stressor. This reduces the chances of causing lots of harm to workers. The nature of attention given to employees by their managers determines how successful problems are resolved (Edwards et al, 1998, pp 28-67).

Stressors are responded to by increasing and triggering immediate series of hormonal changes. These changes may either be adaptive, as with increased energy and performance or maladaptive as with increased turnover, increased health-related benefit costs, increased absence, or increased aggression on the part of employees.

Stressors weaken the immune systems, life satisfaction and happiness to decrease, the risk of heart disease to increase, and the rate with which cancer develops to increase (Cohen et al, 1986). For these reasons, we need to better understand how organizational choices influence individual stress (Harrison, 1985).

Research on the effects and causes of stress within work place was considered since it lead to creation of clear roles and duties. Since that time, many current theories have been offered to guide researchers interested in the relationship between organizational or occupational stressors and resulting strains or illnesses, between stressors and coping choices (Lazarus, 1966), the underlying psychological appraisal processes, and the causes of organizational burnout (Harrison, 1985).

There is a relationship between organizational stress and a post-stressor outcome or response. This relationship has enabled slow reaction towards stress preventive measures within an organization leading to strengthening of the issue.

Look at different variables that will influence an individual’s stress levels. These could be a range of factors from personality differences, perception and social support

Stress arises as a result of emotional interference, physical activities, social and economic situations that require rapid responses to change. Some levels of stresses are considered healthy since they enable an individual to discover new things and crucial areas in life. The danger lies when stress comes in magnitude too big to handle. Workplace stress can be attributed to the demands between emotional and physical demand within a specific job. This requires some level of control for which when exceeded leads to individual stress.

These combinations of high demands can sometimes lead to harmful responses both to the individual and the organization at large. An individual’s personality conflict with other people within social set-up contributes to some percentage of workplace stress sometimes leading to mental illness. There are indeed several causes of stress within the workplace which can cause negative effects within working (French, Rogers and Cobb, 1974).

Why it is important to manage the employees stress levels and the possible consequences of having a stressed work force and how it may affect their performance and consequently the performance of the organization

It is important to manage employee stress since it helps the management in identifying and addressing the issue in the workplace. The management helps the employees to come to terms with the reality of facing some unexpected events within the working place. For instance, good number of employees may refuse to accept that they are stressed or fear losing their current positions within the organizations. This leads them to more damage to personal life and even the working environment at large (Driskell and Salas, 1996).

Scheduling training in which multiple sessions are involved is necessary. Organizations should regularly schedule training sessions throughout the year, varying time, location, and format. It may be that women would experience lower overall stress if these training sessions were blocked together in a single time frame in a common environment and followed a common structure.

High level of stress leads to significant health effects. These are also experienced in jobs done on shifts and those done part-time. The kind of job done determines whether the risk one is exposed to either result in short or long illnesses. Research has revealed that taking some rest from work results in high quality of work done.

Those who always perceive their workdays to be stressful take at least frequent one day off within a period of one month. Straining jobs results into poor health conditions which ultimately reduces performance at work place. Majority of the people link active performance with less work and this at times become more insecure in terms of rewards (Chen and Spector, 1991).

High motivation and morale at the work place are affected by the use of drugs. Individuals who use these negative means are often prone to low productivity since they tend to take frequent leaves on the basis of health. The constant short leaves are only appropriate for those with jobs demanding psychological alertness. However, certain aspects of work stress diminish with the increase of protective factors. On the other hand, negative coping behaviours increase the likelihood of taking short-term rests (Edwards et al, 1998, pp 28-67).

Ladies are often prone to stress when they are subjected to vigorous working conditions. This is unlike men who are always highly motivated and have got the ability to contain their situations (Geary, 1998). They should be subjected to some light training on how to manage effectively their working hours without being subjected to unnecessary stress. At the same time they should be discouraged from using drugs as means of lowering stress from work place (French, Caplan, and Harrison, 1982).

References List

Chen, P. Y., & Spector, P. E., 1991. Relationships of Work Stressors with Aggression, Withdrawal, Theft and Substance use: An exploratory study. Journal of Occupational & Organizational Psychology, 65(3), 177-184.

Cohen, S., Evans, G. W., Krantz, D. S., & Stokols, D., 1986. Behaviour, health, and Environmental stress. New York: Plenum Press.

Cohen, S., Kessler, R. C., & Underwood Gordon, L., 1997. Strategies for Measuring

Stress in Studies of Psychiatric and Physical Disorders. In S. Cohen, R. C. Kessler, & L. Underwood Gordon (Eds.), Measuring Stress: A Guide for Health and Social Scientists (pp. 3-28). New York: Oxford University Press.

Cordes, C. L., & Dougherty, T. W., 1993. A review and integration of research on job Burnout. Academy of Management Review, 18(4), 621-656.

Driskell, J. E., & Salas, E., 1996. Stress and Human Performance. Mahwaw, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

Edwards, J. R., Caplan, R. D., & Harrison, R. V., 1998. Person-Environment Fit Theory. n C. L. Cooper (Ed.), Theories of Organizational Stress (pp. 28-67). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

French, J. R. P., Caplan, R. D., & Harrison, R. V., 1982. The Mechanisms of Job Stress and Strain. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

French, J. R. P., Rogers, W., & Cobb, S., 1974. A model of person-environment fit. In G. V. Coelho, Hamburgh, & J. E. Adams (Eds.), Coping and Adaptation. New York: Basic Books.

Geary, D. C., 1998. Male, Female: The evolution of human sex differences. Washington D.C.: American Psychological Association.

Harrison, R. V., 1985. The Person-Environment Fit Model and the Study of Job Stress.

In T. A. Beehr & R. S. Bhagat (Eds.), Human Stress and Cognition in Organizations. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

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