In the last 40 years, there have been transformations in organizations that have gone beyond the different transitions to which they were accustomed. The launch of Robert Blake & Jane Mouton's matrix organization “The Managerial Grid III” (Gulf Publishing - 1985) had strong consequences for organizational members who appeared to be able to functionally operate technologically but paid a heavy price from the biological and psychological point of view.
The companies were committed to having to develop more and more new products and services that would have a more limited duration in time, which would shorten the cycle from their development, production, market launch, logistics, marketing, and subsequent collection.
This reduction of the cycles of products and services in the different organizations, companies and institutions in general, represents an additional effort to which neither the organizations, nor the groups that compose it, nor the different organizational participants were used to. From now on, everything would have to be done in less time, and, as far as possible, at a lower cost.
Products and services now have a much more limited life span, and within that short life span organizations have to be able to repay investment, launch and marketing costs. Furthermore, many organizations can no longer wait for their competitor or competitor to develop a similar product or service; as a Director of a major marketing company told us: "Now we have to kill our own product before the competition does." Alvin Toffler ("The shock of the future") popularized the death of the products and services themselves by mentioning the "peremptoriness" and "disposability" of them.
Michael T. Hannan & John H. Freeman ("Organizational Ecology"; Harvard University Pres - 1988) establish a relationship between organizations and animal life, in this case, with rabbits. As is known, many rabbits are born… and many rabbits also die.
All those who have raised rabbits have happily seen as more than a couple of them become a crowd in a very short time - and in the case of not developing certain processes of strengthening the species - they themselves appreciate how they also die a great number of rabbits, in some cases until the total extinction of the group. According to the mentioned authors, what happens to rabbits is now happening to organizations.
Since organizations are not abstract beings but are made up of people, their extinction leads to the disappearance of their ranks of all the people who have formed them. And today, already entered the first decade of the 21st century, we are in the presence of the greatest unemployment of all time. Being busy and belonging to an organization was practically "a reasonable route" for professionals who received Diplomas in Universities.
This chain of relations between formal educational institutions and “work” organizations has begun to be discontinued, and for those who are still inserted in it, they learn very early that a successful career is quite improbable within a single organization.
Professionals go through various companies and organizations throughout their career development; Usually in the first few years where they tentatively explore work, it's common for them to have about 4 jobs before they turn 23, which averages just over a year at one site. Later this period usually lengthens but it is common that they do not belong to the same company beyond three years; and in the case of belonging to it more than three years they must change positions within that time.
Many of these new positions when they occur within the same organization may occur in departments with different objectives than the organizational participant was used to and there are also many cases where they must move with their families to other countries where the corporation has another subsidiary. And in addition, their “permanence” within the same organization also entails its cost; Many professionals spend a lot of their time on the plane and in airports.
All these "transfers", with their consequent departures and new income, have a very high cost for the organizational members. Some people have begun to refer to this phenomenon under the name of "stress". And we could say that "stress" in organizations represents an adaptive response of different organizational members to one or more stimuli that place many psychological and physical demands on the same person (James Quick & Jonathan Quick: "Organizational Stress and Preventive Management ”; Mc Graw-Hill - 1984). For Selye (1936:
"A syndrome produced by diverse noxious agents"; Nature - and 1982: “History and present status of the stress concept”; In Handbook of stress), "stress is the result of any requirement on a body, regardless of whether the effect was mental or somatic". Manis () points out that although the term "psychological stress" is frequently used by psychologists and also by psychiatrists, there is as yet no definition that is accepted by all ".
One of the most comprehensive works on "stress" and how it impacts executives, executives, managers and professionals in companies is that carried out by Dr. Donald W. Cole ("Professional Suicide or Organizational murder"; McGraw Hill - 1981) in a high-tech company. In this work that has been carried out in approximately five years, Dr. Donald W. Cole shows how young, brilliant executives, committed to the organization, who join it and enjoy a first stage of "honeymoon" over the course of of time there is a clash of values between "what the professional has in his mind" and "what he lives" which, in the face of non-resolution when trying to share it with his superior,he is subsequently transferred to his peers and to his subordinates, where a similar fate of non-resolution must be faced.
As a consequence, it is heading towards a dilemma that Dr. Donald Cole calls “professional suicide or organizational murder” where the physical separation of the person from the organization occurs.
The implications of this phenomenon within the different Latin American cultures and in the corporations that operate in them can be found in the Spanish book "Professional Suicide or Organizational Development" by Dr. Donald W. Cole and Eric Gaynor Butterfield, edited by The Organization Development Institute International, Latin America - 2003 and an expansion of the same in the book "Executive Development and Organizational Development" by Eric Gaynor Butterfield; edited by The Organization Development Institute International, Latin America - 2005).
Eric Gaynor Butterfield (Workshop on "Stress and Organizational Development"; The Organization Development Institute International, Latin America - 2005) developed an investigation trying to distinguish the different intensities of stress of the organizational participants in relation to different organizational types, having differentiated three main categories: Government entities, subsidiary corporations of multinationals and national private companies.
In the seventies of the last century, government companies showed a very low degree of stress on the part of the organizational members, high on the members of affiliated corporations of multinationals and intermediate on the part of those members corresponding to national private companies.
Some 30 years later the stress level of the different participants in the three different categories had increased considerably to the point that the stress of many members within some government entities and of many who participated in national private companies was already approaching the stress of organizational participants that belonged to subsidiaries of multinational corporations thirty years ago.
During the last 30 to 40 years, the mix of members and organizational participants has increasingly found a greater participation of the female gender. Today in many Latin American cultures women represent almost 50% of the workforce, compared to about 20% a generation ago. We also know that stress affects women differently than men.
The former are more likely to experience the effects of psychological stress (see Todd Jick & Linda MItz: “Sex differences in work stress”; Academy of Management Review - 1985) while in men there is a propensity for the consequences to be rather physical.
Most of us believe that we know what stress is, what it represents, and also the consequences that they have on our organisms and that of our families.
However this is not so simple. Companies are increasingly a source of stress in the lives of their staff, and both the organization and its people experience constant pressure to produce more, with better quality, with lower costs and in less time. Gregory Moorhead & Ricky Griffin (“Organizational Behavior: managing people in organizations”; Houghton Mifflin Co. - 1995) highlight that “workers in general want to retain their jobs and at the same time be good citizens, while also being respected and respected. work with dignity.
In order to meet the competitive pressures that are present in the world today, companies must achieve higher levels of productivity and quality, and at the same time reduce their costs. And this produces a series of consequences that are not always pleasant, such as conflicts, stress, burnout, staff turnover, among others ”.
One of the pioneering works on stress has been carried out by Hans Selye ("The stress of life"; McGraw Hill - 1976) who identified what we can call a general adaptation syndrome distinguishing two different types of stress: " eustress ”and“ distress ”. According to Selye (already mentioned) one of the two types of stress - eustress - is positive, such as when, for example, a person receives a promotion within the company or is recognized for successful work.
In contrast, distress is negative, and most people tend to confuse meaning by associating it with stress. Distress has negative consequences on people - all to a different degree - and is manifested by situations where there is excessive pressure, demands beyond all reasonableness regarding compliance, and in general all the news that we can categorize as “bad”.
From now on, we hope that our readers take into account that when we talk about stress, it is neither good nor bad, which can stimulate and motivate us towards improvements or eventually lead us to a series of dysfunctional consequences for our body.
Hans Seyle's General Adaptation Syndrome (SAG) (already cited) is based on the fact that each of us has a normal level of resistance to stressful events, that is, not all of us react equally since some of us have a greater or lower tolerance level than other people, although we must recognize that we all reach a level where stimuli produce distress in our bodies.
The general adaptation syndrome begins to work from the moment we are faced with a stressor and this first phase is called "alarm". We all know that one of the characteristics of species in their fight for survival is characterized by being sensitive to some signal. Deer are in the presence of lions; and zebras are too when they decide to cross a stream in a group to reduce their chances of being eaten by crocodiles.
Not paying attention to signs can be very expensive for people. We will see later on how there is a tendency to adopt striking signs such as "common signs" and pay little attention to them; the low sensitivity to these signals greatly increases our level of vulnerability.
One of the most important advantages that US executives have is that they have been adapting to profound changes from some two generations before in relation to Latin American executives.
Consultations and transfer requirements for personnel from different Latin American cultures, even within their own country, usually encounter a certain degree of resistance that is even greater than that offered by US executives when they are required to be transferred outside their country (Eric Gaynor Butterfield: "Organizational Development Congress" - Argentina - 1999).
There are also different origins of distress, eustress, and stress depending on the different cultures and nationalities of people. Carol Kleiman (“The Chicago tribune” - 1988) shows that in Sweden one of the causes of stress has to do with how working life interferes with private life while in Germany one of the stressors has to do with compliance within certain time limits. On the other hand in South Africa one of the main reasons for stress has to do with excessive working hours in terms of hours spent.
Psychology Today - 1987 shows that people who perceive themselves to be more complex tend to cope better with stress than those who perceive themselves to be simpler. Eric Gaynor Butterfield found that this is not necessarily true within Latin American cultures.
A very interesting experiment had its origin in the "site of wear of some chairs in the office of two cardiologists".
From there it was learned that many (heart) patients who went to cardiologists for heart treatments were anxious and showed some difficulties in keeping still while sitting. Cardiologists were Meyer Friedman and Ray Roseman ("Type A behavior and your Heart"; Knopf - 1974) who developed as a consequence of their discovery two different types of person profiles: type A and type B.
The Type A personality is extremely competitive, highly work oriented and with a great sense of urgency in terms of time, it is usual for the person to act aggressively, impatiently showing strong impulses in order to achieve many achievements in the shortest time. possible.
On the other hand, personality type B according to the two authors aims to be less competitive, showing less devotion to work and not feeling a strong pressure towards compliance in terms of time. According to Meyer Friedman and Ray Roseman (“Type A behavior and your Heart”; Knopf - 1974) people with the Type A personality profile are more likely to experience coronary heart attacks, something that in recent years has not been as clear according to the works of Joshua Fischman ("Type A on trial"; Psychology Today - 1987).
Apparently there are other factors that complement each other and that should also be taken into account, such as personality type A is much more complex than originally anticipated.
Gregory Moorhead & Ricky Griffin ("Organizational Behavior: managing people in organizations"; Houghton Mifflin Co. - 1995) includes a work by Girdano, Everlky, Dusek "Controlling stress and tension"; Allyn & Bacon - 1990 for those interested in knowing your type of profile in order to develop managerial skills more efficiently. It is reproduced below, literally and in English:
"Type A or Type B"
“This test will help you develop insights into your own tendencies toward Type A or Type B behavior patterns. Answer the questions honestly and accurately about either your job or your school, whichever requires the most time each week. Then calculate your score according to the instructions that follow the questions. Discuss your results with a classmate. Critique each other´s answers and see if you can help each other develop a strategy for reducing Type A trends. Choose from the following responses to answer the questions below:
Almost always true
Usually true
Seldom true
Never true
I do not like to wait for other people to complete their work before I can proceed with mine.
I hate to wait in most lines.
People tell me that I tend to get irritated too easily.
Whenever possible I try to make activities competitive.
I have a tendency to rush into work that needs to be done before knowing the procedure I will use to complete the job.
Even when I go on vacation, I usually take some work along.
When I make a mistake, it is usually because I have rushed into the job before completely planning it through.
I feel guilty for taking time off from work.
People tell me I have a bad temper when it comes to competitive situations.
I tend to lose my temper when I am under a lot of pressure at work.
Whenever possible, I will attempt to complete two or more tasks at once.
I tend to race against the clock
I have no patience for lateness.
I catch myself rushing when there is no need.
Score your responses according to the following key:
An intense sense of time urgency is a tendency to race against the clock, even when there is little reason to. The person feels a need to hurry for hurry´s sake alone, and this tendency has appropriately been called “hurry sickness”. Time urgency is measured by items, 1, 2, 8, 12, 13, and 14. Every “a” or “b” answer to these six questions scores one point.
Inappropriate aggression and hostility reveals themselves in a person who is excessively competitive and who cannot do anything for fun. This inappropriately aggressive behavior easily evolves into frequent displays of hostility, usually at the slightest provocation or frustration. Competitiveness and hostility are measured by items 3, 4, 9 and 10. Every “a” or “b” answer scores one point.
Polyphasi behavior refers to the tendency to undertake two or more tasks simultaneously at inappropriate times. It usually results in wasted time from an inability to complete the tasks. This behavior is measure by items 6 and 11. Every “a” or “b” answer scores one point.
Goal directedness without proper planning refers to the tendency of an individual to rush into work without really knowing how to accomplish the desired result. This usually results in incomplete work or work with many errors, which in turn leads to wasted time, energy, and money. Lack of planning is measured by items 5 and 7. Every “a” or “b” response scores one point. ”
Possibly one of the best stress papers is found in “Stress in Organizations” by Robert L. Kahn & Philippe Byoserie (in Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology; Consulting Psychologists Press, Inc. - 1992) who suggest going to Lazarus' work (1974), Mason (1975), Hinckle (1974), or Selye (1982) to learn more about the history of the concept of stress and its different uses and applications.
The origin of the word stress is Latin and its meaning is related to the concepts of hurt or injury, discomfort or limit and during the 18th and 19th centuries the word stress was used to relate the force or pressure that was exerted on a material object or about a person, who had a lot of application in the hard sciences and particularly in engineering. Robert L. Kahn & Philippe Byoserie (already quoted) point out “that within physics the concept of stress was considered in mechanics, in the study of solid bodies, where researchers remained mainly interested in the effects of external forces on the size and shape of the objects on which the pressure was applied. ”
"The distortion and stress produced by pressure was the change that occurred in the object, the rate of change being both in size and shape with respect to its original size and shape."
Like many other terms that were taken from the hard sciences and applied to biology and the behavioral sciences - entropy, synergy, resilience, among others - stress was taken by Osler (1910), Cannon (1935) and Selye (1936).
As some of the experiences and discoveries in the behavioral sciences took place as a consequence of the Second World War, also the stress and much of what has been learned about it has taken place during that same period. The works of Grincker and Spiegel ("Men Under stress" -1945), Janis ("Air war and emotional stress" - 1951) and Kardiner & Spiegel ("War stress and neurotic illness" - 1947) are some of the many findings during that period.
Just as Selye (1936) has been a pioneer in the term, definition and concept of "stress", we can say that he was the first to identify General Adaptation Syndrome under his name, as well as being the driving force behind the term "stressors" To all the multitude of stimuli that are capable of evoking this common response, we refer to SAG.
Gregory Moorhead & Ricky Griffin in "Organizational Behavior: managing people in organizations" (already quoted) point out that there are many factors that are present in companies and that can be a cause of stress. The authors identify four sets that are generally organizational stressors, they are:
The job requirements; They are those stressors that are associated with the specific work that a person must do and, of course, there is a big difference between them. An air traffic controller and surgeon surely have a much more stressful job than that of a typical administrative employee.
Stress can be both psychological and physical, such as the stress to which workers in a coal mine or a police officer are subjected. The possibility of job loss is also a stressful factor and, as we have seen previously, the organizational participant of the corporate world is subject to greater pressure than those who work in public organizations. The phase or stage through which the organization transits also strongly influences.
In their beginnings, organizations are faced with a certain degree of stress since they have to survive anyway, which is not very common, given that in many sectors they only survive beyond the first 5 years, only 1 of 3 Business.
Having passed the first stage, organizations tend to stabilize but it is very possible that after a couple of years of maintenance and stabilization the organization will have to participate in some re-engineering program or strategic change that will affect the permanence of the organizational members..
This organizational surgery usually raises the stress level of its members, who often even hold contests to guess who must survive and stay and who must be expelled from the company.
This year 2005 has been the year with the largest commitment of Mergers and Acquisitions (New York Times of January 2, 2005) and it is known that "mergers and acquisitions" are a factor that increases the level of stress both before the same as after having been concluded.
We must bear in mind that just as excessive stressors can produce dysfunctional consequences both in people and in the organization itself, boredom and apathy typical of a job with minimal requirements can negatively affect productivity at work.
Physical requirements; which is everything that is related to the environment at work such as ambient temperature and lighting. Extremely heavy body jobs, lack of support for equipment and machinery, and inappropriate logistics coordination can all be stressors.
Office designs often do not even take into account whether the person is right-handed or not, which sometimes negatively influences the performance of the task. The works of Frederick Taylor and his followers (Galbraith & others) should be taken into account again. Just because their data dates back many years does not mean they are irrelevant (see Robert Sutton & Anat Rafaeli: “Characteristics of work stations as potential occupational stressors”; Academy of Management Journal - 1987).
requirements that are specific to the role; that is to say, of the position that people occupy within organizations. D. Katz & R. Kahn in "The social psychology of organizations" (John Wiley & Sons - 1978) show that the expectations of others greatly influence our own behaviors. The roles that people occupy within organizations can be formal or informal and can also be linked to line, service or staff activities.
The situation that is characterized by “ambiguity at work” can occur when a person is not completely sure about the exact nature of their particular role.
In the book that we have previously mentioned by Dr. Donald Cole and Eric Gaynor (“Professional Suicide or Organizational Murder”) it is highlighted that the ambiguity in the task, a lack of definition of the role to be played and a charter that is not consistent with what happens within the organization are causes that can precipitate the process of professional suicide.
Too heavy a load regarding the amount of work negatively influences the productivity of the personnel and it is the job of the superior to be able to appreciate what is the appropriate load that each of its different organizational members can assume along with its projection over time.
The negative consequences of work overload have been exposed in “Dr. Donald Cole and Eric Gaynor: "Professional Suicide or Organizational Murder" as well as in Daniel Katz and Robert Kahn: "The social psychology of organizations"; Wiley - 1978).
In addition to the ambiguity phenomenon at work, there may be a “role conflict” that is characterized by the fact that the requirements are not completely clear and also by the fact that instructions are presented that are in conflict with each other.
Many times people develop more than a single role, as in the case of an organizational member who is an instructor in their company and also has line authority within their own business unit.
And we should not leave out the situation where the conflict arises where the organizational participant has an “Intra-role” conflict, that is, within their own role. Sellers are usually in this situation, since the company generally lets them know that the highest consideration and best possible service to the Client must be offered and rendered, but nevertheless the line supervisor places many requirements on those who report them (see Anat Rafaeli: “When cashiers meet customers: an analysis of the role of supermarket cashiers”; Academy of Management Journal - 1989).
Also present within organizations is what the authors have called an “intrasender” conflict, that is, that conflict that originates when the same person sends messages that are contradictory to each other. It is quite common for many people to complain about their remuneration in the sense of wanting a raise which sometimes precipitates their superior from getting him overtime to help him, but by offering this type of reward the subordinate may reject it.
There is an additional type of conflict, which is the one that arises between the person and the role they play. Many times superiors are exposed to the task of "firing" personnel with whom they have developed a strong friendship. In these cases, organizations tend to find different mechanisms so that superiors can overcome these demands, as is the case of out-placement programs where managers perceive that their company has an interest in their subordinate beyond having fired her.
Among the most common we have to mention those that arise as a result of group work where there may be some pressure to restrict production. Newcomers - despite not having the expertise of those who have been around for many years - are often able to quickly reach those and even exceed their productivity levels.
In this case, it is very likely that the group will let you know that the levels of productivity “within that group” should not be altered upwards by the newcomer, who sometimes experiences the conflict of having to exhibit higher production to achieve assert yourself in your position. Restricting production and conforming to group production are two of the main tasks that every good manager must overcome (see: Edward Kemery, Arthur Bedeian, Kevin Mossholder, John Tuliatos "Outcomes of role stress: a multisample constructive replication"; Academy of Management Journal - 1985).
It is common for managers to complain about these two problems and we suggest that you do not. In reality, managers are hired just to solve problems and difficulties and their work would not be necessary when everything is on track. The ability to manage implies the responsibility and responsibility regarding hiring, promoting, demoting and firing; Who delegates these tasks does not manage and not manage is very similar to leaving a ship adrift. The manager exists because things cannot work remotely; If so, the presence and existence of the manager would not be necessary (Eric Gaynor Butterfield: "Organizational Development Congress; Buenos Aires - 1997).
Moorhead & Griffin (already cited) suggest that the reader complement their knowledge regarding what we have been sharing in the last paragraphs with the work of Selye (“The stress of life”) and J. Motowidlo, John Packard, and Michael Manning: "Occupational stress: its causes and consequences for job performance"; Journal of Applied Psychology - 1986).
The authors Henry Tosi, John Rizzo & Stephen Carroll (“Managing organizational behavior”; Blackwell business - 1995) have developed a model that allows stress to be conceptualized. The authors adopt the definition of RS Lazarus. "The stress and doping paradigm" in Models for Clinical psycho pathology - 1980 who points out "that stress is a psychological state that has been induced in a non-specific way regarding an individual that develops as the person is confronted with situations where it is taxed with taxes that exceed the resources (both internal and external) that it has at its disposal ”. It is clear then that among other things in stress there is a requirement that its resolution is at the same time uncertain and important (RS Schuler::“Definition and conceptualization of stress in organizations”; Organizational behavior and human performance - 1980).
Two cognitive evaluations are presented in the model by Henry Tosi et al. (Already cited); one that is called primary and another that is called secondary and that according to the authors is carried out at different times or times.
The first cognitive evaluation takes into account two main aspects; they are:
The objective context, within which there is a social component composed mainly of family, work and community, and a physical component within which noise, pollution, and climate are included, among others. See: RS Lazarus "The stress and coping paradigm"; Paper - 1978; and SJ Motowidlo, J. Packard, MR Manning: "Occupational stress: its causes and consequences for job performance"; Journal of Applied Psychology - 1986.
The psychological context that includes the complexity of perceptions and interpretations that are related to working conditions, work relationships and a series of factors that are not directly related to work. We must bear in mind here that organizational participants are subject to different degrees of stress; for example, those who relate to and link with “others” outside the organization have to deal with a higher level of stress, as is the case with sellers and buyers in the company, as highlighted by Katz and Kahn in “The social psychology of organizations ”.
According to Henry Tosi et al. (1995), primary cognitive evaluation must give rise to different manifestations of stress in organizational participants that have to do with:
to. the physiological; This means that the different functions of our body change when a person is stressed, which can happen immediately as a response to stressors or if not much later. Once a stressor is identified, a biochemical reaction immediately occurs in the body that is initiated in the brain and results in an increased flow of adrenaline. It is quite common that in response to stressors various phenomena occur in the body such as more adrenaline, the beating of the heart is increased, the hands and other parts of which perspire to a greater extent, many muscles become tense and in In general we can say that all the senses become more alert.
Many times these reactions go unnoticed by oneself and it is unfortunate that people tend to learn many things but we do not know much about how we react to stressors and why we react in a particular way. We are struck by the fact that the cat raises its back and stands on end in the presence of a strange enemy such as the dog, but we pay little attention to the large number of times we cross our arms when someone is sharing information with us.
Reactions that do not occur immediately but rather in the long term are perhaps more significant problems since when a person experiences stress for a prolonged period of time, the body begins to show signs of tiredness and tearing, with many problems being health, such as coronary heart disease and cardiovascular disease, which has been alerted by various scholars (C. Cooper and J. Marshall: “Occupational sources of stress: a review of the literature relating to coronary heart disease and mental ill health "; Journal of Occupational Psychology - 1976 / D. Ganster & J. Schaubroeck:" Work stress and employee health "; Journal of Management - 1991 / RA Krasek, D. Baker, A. Marxer, A. Ahlbom & T. Theorell: "Job decision latitude, job demands, and cardiovascular disease:A prospective study of Swedish men ”; American Journal of Public Health - 1981 / L. Schmeid, K. Lawler, "Hardiness, Type A behavior, and the stress illness relationships in working women"; Journal of Personality and social psychology - 1986)
b. the psychological; which are the factors that common people associate with stress. Henry Tosi & others (already cited) highlights that psychological responses include those thoughts and feelings that may be specific in relation to work as well as those that are not necessarily work-oriented. In an interesting research paper by Motowidlo, Packard and Manning (already quoted), it was found that nurses who experienced more frequent and intense stressors became more depressed, also showed more anxiety at work, and were more hostile towards their colleagues. at work.
c. lo comportamental que tiene que ver con que las personas nos comportamos distinto cuando estamos en presencia de estrés, como es el caso de diversas manifestaciones que tienen que ver con aumentos desmedidos en el consumo de bebidas alcohólicas, en los hábitos de frecuencia y cantidad de alimentos, y en incrementos en las dosis de fumar.
Los estresantes que provienen del contexto son una prueba adicional de una peor performance en el trabajo como lo han probado los trabajos de T. Beehr y J. Newman: “Job stress, employee health, and organizational effectiveness: a facet analysis, model and literatura review”; Personnel Psychology – 1978; S. Cohen: “Alter-effects of strewss on human performance and social behavior”; Psychological bulletin – 1980; y Motowidlo, Packard y Manning (ya citados).
And now we touch on a very important point to which Henry Tosi and Others (1995) refers. There is a first cognitive evaluation that is of a “rather general nature” where a person perceives and interprets reality in their own way, which, of course, does not have much in common as it is perceived and interpreted by another person. This first cognitive evaluation is determines the intensity and quality of the emotional response of the person involved as highlighted by RS Lazarus (1980 - already cited).
The different manifestations of stress mentioned above (physiological, psychological and behavioral) together with the individual differences of people lead to a "secondary cognitive evaluation". The individual differences within Henry Tosi's model include different factors, such as:
- Needs and Personality Level of Tolerance to Ambiguity "Locus of control" that can be both internal and external depending on whether it is monitored by the person or if it is mobilized externally Level of Self-esteem Degree of Competence
People tend to perceive signals like all animals, which helps them in survival. Unlike the animal world, the survival of people can have with manifestations of an abstract type, such as the fact of having money (today financial globalization has dismissed many people from their jobs in companies and has also removed them of the planet; some authors call this phenomenon that has occurred in Latin America as those disappeared in democracy or financial globalization).
When certain types of stressors are presented that are intense and also that are repeated with a certain frequency, people tend to react what is known under the name of "reaction as a result of an alarm" (H. Selye: "The stress of life ”; Mc Graw-Hill - 1974).
Just as there are stressors at work / organization, there are also stressors in the lives of people outside the business context. These stressors that also affect organizational participants can be placed in two main categories, depending on:
Changes in people's lives, a concept that was originally developed by Thomas Colmes and Richard Rahe (“The social readjustment rating scale”; Journal of Psychosomatic Research - 1967). The change in people's lives has to do with any significant change in relation to the person himself or a situation at work. These authors have developed a scale that is included below, literally and in English, according to the source mentioned above that includes Life change units to compare the impact of different stressors, which are listed in order of importance and they are assigned in relative weight to the right of them:
1 Death of spouse - 100
2 Divorce - 73
3 Marital separation - 65
4 Jail term - 63
5 Death of close family member - 63
6 Personal injury or illness - 53
7 Marriage - 50
8 Fired at work - 47
9 Marital reconciliation - 45
10 Retirement - 45
11 Change in health of family member - 44
12 Pregnancy - 40
13 Sex difficulties - 39
14 Gain of new family member - 39
15 Business readjustment - 39
16 Change in financial state - 38
17 Death of close family friend - 37
18 Change to different line of work - 36
19 Change in number of arguments with spouse - 35
20 Mortgage over $ 200,000.00 - 31
21 Foreclosure of mortgage or loan - 30
22 Change in responsibilities of work - 29
23 Son or daughter leaving home - 29
24 Trouble with in-laws - 29
25 Outstanding personal achievement - 28
26 Spouse beginning or ending school - 26
27 Beginning or ending school - 26
28 Change in living conditions - 25
29 Revision of personal habits - 24
30 Trouble with boss - 23
31 Change in work hours or conditions - 20
32 Change in residence - 20
33 Change in schools - 20
34 Change in recreation - 19
35 Change in church activities - 19
36 Change in social activities - 18
37 Mortgage or loan less than $ 200,000.00 - 17
38 Change in sleeping habits - 16
39 Change in the number of family get-togethers - 15
40 Change in eating habits - 15
41 Vacation - 13
42 Christmas - 12
43 Minor violations of the law - 11
The authors highlight that: “The amount of life stress that a person has experienced in a given period of time, say one year, is measured by the total number of life change units (LCU`s). These units result from the addition of the values (shown in the right-hand column) associated with events that the person has experienced during the target time period. ”
Holmes and Rahe suggest that a person who manages more than 150 points during a year must see his own health decline during the following year and in those cases where they give results between 150 and 300 points they have a 50% probability of contracting a disease important, and this same chance has to increase up to 70 percent in those eventualities where the store is above 300 points.
Trauma in Life
It bears some resemblances to change in life but is differentiated by the fact that trauma in life has a narrower and more direct perspective with a short-term focus and we can say that trauma in life has to do with unusual events that alter people's attitudes, emotions and behaviors. For example, and within this perspective, a divorce must have an impact on the health of the person the year after their divorce. E. Bromet, M. Dew, D. Parkinson, H. Schulberg “Predictive effects of occupational and marital stress on the mental health of a male workforce”; Journal of Organizational Behavior - 1988, refers to this type of stressor in the lives of people that interrelates how what is lived in the family mutually impacts what has been lived in the work environment.
Moorhead & Griffin (already cited) refer to a series of mechanisms that are available to deal with stress, some of which are available to organizational participants while others can be managed by the same organization.
Among those who can be manipulated by organizational members, both authors point to the following:
Exercises are one of the most practical ways to manage stress, and it has been shown that people who do not exercise regularly feel a higher level of stress and are also more likely to get depressed as shown by C. Folkins' work: “Effects of physical training in mood ”; JOurnal of Clinical Psychology - 1976. Some senior executives highlight how through exercises performed regularly they feel better and allow them to deal more appropriately with the tasks they face during the day (F. Rice: “How executives get fit”; Fortune - 1990).
Relaxation has been shown to be an excellent way of managing stress and being in some measure in control of it. Current vacations are insufficient since about 15 days off do not always allow people in corporations to return to 100 percent of their fullness, as stated by Dr. Donald Cole and Eric Gaynor ("Professional Suicide and Organizational Murder"; already quoted - 2003). Still, they present an extraordinary opportunity for people to relax and J. Lounsbury and L. Hopes “A vacation from work: changes in work and nonwork outcomes”; Journal of applied psychology - 1986 show how vacations improve the attitudes that organizational participants have towards their companies.
"Time Management" is a highly recommended best practice that is available to people but that people do not always take into account. Eric Gaynor Butterfield ("Time Management" Workshop; Ecuador - 2005) shows that the term "Time Management" is inappropriate since what one should do is not to manage it but rather to Manage it.
4. Management of our Role which is a term strongly related to that of Management of our Time and which has to do with the possibilities that professionals, executives, directors and managers have to reduce the ambiguity that is implicit in the roles and that in turn, it must allow reducing the degree of uncertainty of what is expected of the person. Also through the role, people are able to evaluate the workload of their department and confront it with the resources it has.
In his book "Executive Development and Organizational Development" Eric Gaynor Butterfield mentions that it is unfortunate that newly transferred managers and executives within his own company do not always require from their new subordinates a description of their duties and responsibilities, their participation in the different processes in which they intervene and the objectives that they have predetermined until the arrival of the new successor.
If you carry out these tasks, your subsequent work would be greatly simplified while achieving a higher level of commitment from your staff. Knowing what to do and what is not expected of him and even saying NO to certain tasks can be extremely beneficial ("Eight ways to help you reduce the stress in your life"; Business week careers - 1986).
Support and assistance groups are other mechanisms to which the different organizational members can turn in their efforts to reduce the level of stress. D. Ganster, M. Fusilier, & B. Mayes “Role of social support in the experiences of stress at work”; They show that having someone to share and ask for help - and sometimes just to be heard - can significantly reduce your stress level.
On the other hand, organizations have various mechanisms at their disposal which are not used as often as required. Institutional-type programs and collateral programs (Moorhead & Griffin - already cited) are examples of these. Dr. Donald Cole and Eric Gaynor Butterfield detail an extensive list of mechanisms organizations can go to in their effort to reduce the level of distress in their staff. The latter refers to options available to professionals, executives and managers within the particular Latin American culture.
We have to rest for about 15 minutes and then I have to ask them to meet at tables of five people each to carry out some dynamics related to the concepts shared so far. And tomorrow afternoon we have to delve deeply into Cole and Gaynor's book "Professional Suicide and Organizational Murder" - 2003.
Thank you all very much for sharing!
