UNIT – I Lesson 1 HRM – AN OVERVIEW Lesson Outline Nature of ...

• By aggravating an existing illness such as increased arthritic pain or flare up of
psoriasis.
• By precipitating unhealthy or illness-generating coping habits like smoking,
alcohol abuse, over-eating and sleep deprivation.
4.12.2. Concern over stress in Organizations: Stress has been taking the toll of a
sizeable segment of valuable human resources in organizations every year. Health
authorities estimate that stress plays a role in at least 50% of all forms of physical illness.
A Gallup poll as early as 1994 reported that 71% of the respondents viewed their jobs as
the most frequent cause of negative stress. Effects of stress include some of the most
serious and life-threatening ailments known in the field of medicine. Therefore,
organizations have begun concerted efforts to enable employees to effectively handle the
inevitable stress.
Stress management programs are systematic efforts by organizations designed to
help employees reduce harmful stress. These programs include extensive in-house as well
as external training concentrating on techniques of busting stress like transcendental and
other forms of meditation, deep breathing, self-relaxation, physical exercises, developing
positive attitudes, anger management, time management and lifestyle modification. Some
organizations rely on help from their comprehensive Employee Assistance Programs
(EAP) and counselors in meeting various psychosocial problems of their employees like
drug and alcohol abuse, sickness and disability, indebtedness and family breakdowns.
People vary in their relation with stress. One style of relating is being stressseekers
who thrive on challenge, risk and sensation. Stress-avoiders thrive on security,
familiarity and avoiding challenges and risk. Distress seekers thrive on misery, illness,
crises and martyrdom. Distress avoidance is a style of thriving on health, contentment,
involvement. Distress-provokers thrive intentionally or unintentionally on creating misery,
disharmony, illness or upsetting others. Distress reducers tend to thrive on doing
everything possible to promote growth in those whose lives they touch.
According to Schafer (2004), good managers of individual stress tend to practice
the following habits in their lives:
1. Anticipate, monitor and regulate stressors as far as possible.
2. Become aware of and control their interpretation of stressors
3. Believe that they can influence events and their own reactions to those events.
4. Practice daily deep relaxation to balance positive and negative stress
5. Use mental and physical on-the-spot tension reducers to control arousal