The "corporate athlete approach" to stress is

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Chapter 7 Managing Stress and Emotions

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After reading this chapter, you should be able to do the following:

1. Understand the stress cycle.

2. Recognize the sources of stress for employees.

3. Recognize the outcomes of stress.

4. Understand how to manage stress in organizational contexts.

5. Understand the role emotions play for attitudes and behaviors at work.

6. Learn about emotional labor and how to manage it.

7. Understand how emotions can affect perceptions of what is ethical.

8. Understand cross-cultural differences in stressors.

Getting Emotional at American Express Death and money can be emotional topics. Sales reps at American Express

Company’s life insurance division had to deal with both these issues when

selling life insurance, and they were starting to feel the strain of working with

such volatile emotional materials every day. Part of the problem

representatives faced seemed like an unavoidable side effect of selling life

insurance. Many potential clients were responding fearfully to the sales

representatives’ calls. Others turned their fears into anger. They replied to the

representatives’ questions suspiciously or treated them as untrustworthy.

The sales force at American Express believed in the value of their work, but

over time, customers’ negative emotions began to erode employee morale.

Sales of policies slowed. Management insisted that the representatives ignore

their customers’ feelings and focus on making sales. The representatives’ more

aggressive sales tactics seemed only to increase their clients’ negative

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emotional responses, which kicked off the cycle of suffering again. It was

apparent something had to change.

In an effort to understand the barriers between customers and sales

representatives, a team led by Kate Cannon, a former American Express

staffer and mental-health administrator, used a technique called emotional

resonance to identify employees’ feelings about their work. Looking at the

problem from an emotional point of view yielded dramatic insights about

clients, sales representatives, and managers alike.

The first step she took was to acknowledge that the clients’ negative emotions

were barriers to life insurance sales. Cannon explained, “People reported all

kinds of emotional issues—fear, suspicion, powerlessness, and distrust—

involved in buying life insurance.” Clients’ negative emotions, in turn, had

sparked negative feelings among some American Express life insurance sales

representatives, including feelings of incompetence, dread, untruthfulness,

shame, and even humiliation. Management’s focus on sales had created an

emotional disconnect between the sales reps’ work and their true

personalities. Cannon discovered that sales representatives who did not

acknowledge their clients’ distress felt dishonest. The emotional gap between

their words and their true feelings only increased their distress.

Cannon also found some good news. Sales representatives who looked at their

job from the customer’s point of view were flourishing. Their feelings and their

words were in harmony. Clients trusted them. The trust between these more

openly emotional sales representatives and their clients led to greater sales

and job satisfaction. To see if emotional skills training could increase job

satisfaction and sales among other members of the team, Cannon instituted a

course in emotional awareness for a test group of American Express life

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insurance sales representatives. The goal of the course was to help employees

recognize and manage their feelings. The results of the study proved the value

of emotional clarity. Coping skills, as measured on standardized psychological

tests, improved for the representatives who took Cannon’s course.

The emotional awareness training program had significant impact on

American Express’s bottom line. Over time, as Cannon’s team expanded their

emotion-based program, American Express life insurance sales rose by tens of

millions of dollars. American Express’s exercise in emotional awareness shows

that companies can profit when feelings are recognized and consciously

managed. Employees whose work aligns with their true emotions make more

believable corporate ambassadors. The positive use of emotion can benefit a

company internally as well. According to a Gallup poll of over 2 million

employees, the majority of workers rated a caring boss higher than increased

salary or benefits. In the words of career expert and columnist Maureen

Moriarity, “Good moods are good for business.”

Sources: Schwartz, T. (2008, September 11). How do you feel? Fast

Company. Retrieved January 28, 2009,

fromhttp://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/35/emotion.html?page=0%2C2

; Kirkwood, G., & Ward, C. (2002, May 5). Ch…Ch…Ch…Changes. Paper

presented at FMA Ideation; Moriarty, M. (2007, June 7). Workplace coach:

Don’t underestimate emotional intelligence. Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Retrieved July 1, 2008, from

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/318345_workcoach04.html

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/35/emotion.html?page=0%2C2

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/35/emotion.html?page=0%2C2

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/318345_workcoach04.html

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7.1 What Is Stress?

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Learn about the General Adaptation Syndrome.

2. Learn what stressors are.

3. Understand the outcomes of stress.

4. Understand individual differences in experienced stress.

Gravity. Mass. Magnetism. These words come from the physical sciences.

And so does the term stress. In its original form, the word stress relates to the

amount of force applied to a given area. A steel bar stacked with bricks is being

stressed in ways that can be measured using mathematical formulas. In

human terms, psychiatrist Peter Panzarino notes, “Stress is simply a fact of

nature—forces from the outside world affecting the individual.” [1] The

professional, personal, and environmental pressures of modern life exert their

forces on us every day. Some of these pressures are good. Others can wear us

down over time.

Stress is defined by psychologists as the body’s reaction to a change that

requires a physical, mental, or emotional adjustment or response. [2] Stress is

an inevitable feature of life. It is the force that gets us out of bed in the

morning, motivates us at the gym, and inspires us to work.

As you will see in the sections below, stress is a given factor in our lives. We

may not be able to avoid stress completely, but we can change how we respond

to stress, which is a major benefit. Our ability to recognize, manage, and

maximize our response to stress can turn an emotional or physical problem

into a resource.

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Researchers use polling to measure the effects of stress at work. The results

have been eye-opening. According to a 2001 Gallup poll, 80% of American

workers report that they feel workplace stress at least some of the

time. [3] Another survey found that 65% of workers reported job stress as an

issue for them, and almost as many employees ended the day exhibiting

physical effects of stress, including neck pain, aching muscles, and insomnia.

It is clear that many individuals are stressed at work.

The Stress Process

Our basic human functions, breathing, blinking, heartbeat, digestion, and

other unconscious actions, are controlled by our lower brains. Just outside

this portion of the brain is the semiconscious limbic system, which plays a

large part in human emotions. Within this system is an area known as the

amygdala. The amygdala is responsible for, among other things, stimulating

fear responses. Unfortunately, the amygdala cannot distinguish between

meeting a 10:00 a.m. marketing deadline and escaping a burning building.

Human brains respond to outside threats to our safety with a message to our

bodies to engage in a “fight-or-flight” response. [4] Our bodies prepare for these

scenarios with an increased heart rate, shallow breathing, and wide-eyed

focus. Even digestion and other functions are stopped in preparation for the

fight-or-flight response. While these traits allowed our ancestors to flee the

scene of their impending doom or engage in a physical battle for survival, most

crises at work are not as dramatic as this.

Hans Selye, one of the founders of the American Institute of Stress, spent his

life examining the human body’s response to stress. As an endocrinologist who

studied the effects of adrenaline and other hormones on the body, Selye

believed that unmanaged stress could create physical diseases such as ulcers

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and high blood pressure, and psychological illnesses such as depression. He

hypothesized that stress played a general role in disease by exhausting the

body’s immune system and termed this the

General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS). [5]

Figure 7.2

In Selye’s GAS model, stress affects an individual in three steps: alarm,

resistance, and exhaustion.

In the alarm phase of stress, an outside stressor jolts the individual, insisting

that something must be done. It may help to think of this as the fight-or-flight

moment in the individual’s experience. If the response is sufficient, the body

will return to its resting state after having successfully dealt with the source of

stress.

In the resistance phase, the body begins to release cortisol and draws on

reserves of fats and sugars to find a way to adjust to the demands of stress.

This reaction works well for short periods of time, but it is only a temporary

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fix. Individuals forced to endure the stress of cold and hunger may find a way

to adjust to lower temperatures and less food. While it is possible for the body

to “adapt” to such stresses, the situation cannot continue. The body is drawing

on its reserves, like a hospital using backup generators after a power failure. It

can continue to function by shutting down unnecessary items like large

overhead lights, elevators, televisions, and most computers, but it cannot

proceed in that state forever.

In the exhaustion phase, the body has depleted its stores of sugars and fats,

and the prolonged release of cortisol has caused the stressor to significantly

weaken the individual. Disease results from the body’s weakened state, leading

to death in the most extreme cases. This eventual depletion is why we’re more

likely to reach for foods rich in fat or sugar, caffeine, or other quick fixes that

give us energy when we are stressed. Selye referred to stress that led to disease

as distress and stress that was enjoyable or healing as eustress.

Workplace Stressors

Stressors are events or contexts that cause a stress reaction by elevating levels

of adrenaline and forcing a physical or mental response. The key to remember

about stressors is that they aren’t necessarily a bad thing. The saying “the

straw that broke the camel’s back” applies to stressors. Having a few stressors

in our lives may not be a problem, but because stress is cumulative, having

many stressors day after day can cause a buildup that becomes a problem. The

American Psychological Association surveys American adults about their

stresses annually. Topping the list of stressful issues are money, work, and

housing. [6] But in essence, we could say that all three issues come back to the

workplace. How much we earn determines the kind of housing we can afford,

and when job security is questionable, home life is generally affected as well.

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Understanding what can potentially cause stress can help avoid negative

consequences. Now we will examine the major stressors in the workplace. A

major category of workplace stressors are role demands. In other words, some

jobs and some work contexts are more potentially stressful than others.

Role Demands

Role ambiguity refers to vagueness in relation to what our responsibilities are.

If you have started a new job and felt unclear about what you were expected to

do, you have experienced role ambiguity. Having high role ambiguity is related

to higher emotional exhaustion, more thoughts of leaving an organization, and

lowered job attitudes and performance. [7] Role conflict refers to facing

contradictory demands at work. For example, your manager may want you to

increase customer satisfaction and cut costs, while you feel that satisfying

customers inevitably increases costs. In this case, you are experiencing role

conflict because satisfying one demand makes it unlikely to satisfy the

other. Role overload is defined as having insufficient time and resources to

complete a job. When an organization downsizes, the remaining employees

will have to complete the tasks that were previously performed by the laid-off

workers, which often leads to role overload. Like role ambiguity, both role

conflict and role overload have been shown to hurt performance and lower job

attitudes; however, research shows that role ambiguity is the strongest

predictor of poor performance. [8] Research on new employees also shows that

role ambiguity is a key aspect of their adjustment, and that when role

ambiguity is high, new employees struggle to fit into the new organization. [9]

Information Overload

Messages reach us in countless ways every day. Some are societal—

advertisements that we may hear or see in the course of our day. Others are

professional—e-mails, memos, voice mails, and conversations from our

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colleagues. Others are personal—messages and conversations from our loved

ones and friends. Add these together and it’s easy to see how we may be

receiving more information than we can take in. This state of imbalance is

known as information overload, which can be defined as “occurring when the

information processing demands on an individual’s time to perform

interactions and internal calculations exceed the supply or capacity of time

available for such processing.”[10] Role overload has been made much more

salient because of the ease at which we can get abundant information from

Web search engines and the numerous e-mail and text messages we receive

each day. [11] Other research shows that working in such a fragmented fashion

significantly impacts efficiency, creativity, and mental acuity. [12]

Top 10 Stressful Jobs As you can see, some of these jobs are stressful due to high emotional labor

(customer service), physical demands (miner), time pressures (journalist), or

all three (police officer).

1. Inner city high school teacher

2. Police officer

3. Miner

4. Air traffic controller

5. Medical intern

6. Stockbroker

7. Journalist

8. Customer service or complaint worker

9. Secretary

10. Waiter

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Source: Tolison, B. (2008, April 7). Top ten most stressful jobs. Health.

Retrieved January 28, 2009, from the WCTV News Web

site:http://www.wctv.tv/news/headlines/17373899.html.

Work–Family Conflict

Work–family conflict occurs when the demands from work and family are

negatively affecting one another. [13] Specifically, work and family demands on

a person may be incompatible with each other such that work interferes with

family life and family demands interfere with work life. This stressor has

steadily increased in prevalence, as work has become more demanding and

technology has allowed employees to work from home and be connected to the

job around the clock. In fact, a recent census showed that 28% of the

American workforce works more than 40 hours per week, creating an

unavoidable spillover from work to family life. [14] Moreover, the fact that more

households have dual-earning families in which both adults work means

household and childcare duties are no longer the sole responsibility of a stay-

at-home parent. This trend only compounds stress from the workplace by

leading to the spillover of family responsibilities (such as a sick child or elderly

parent) to work life. Research shows that individuals who have stress in one

area of their life tend to have greater stress in other parts of their lives, which

can create a situation of escalating stressors. [15]

Work–family conflict has been shown to be related to lower job and life

satisfaction. Interestingly, it seems that work–family conflict is slightly more

problematic for women than men. [16] Organizations that are able to help their

employees achieve greater work–life balance are seen as more attractive than

those that do not. [17] Organizations can help employees maintain work–life

balance by using organizational practices such as flexibility in scheduling as

http://www.wctv.tv/news/headlines/17373899.html

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well as individual practices such as having supervisors who are supportive and

considerate of employees’ family life. [18]

Life Changes

Stress can result from positive and negative life changes. The Holmes-Rahe

scale ascribes different stress values to life events ranging from the death of

one’s spouse to receiving a ticket for a minor traffic violation. The values are

based on incidences of illness and death in the 12 months after each event. On

the Holmes-Rahe scale, the death of a spouse receives a stress rating of 100,

getting married is seen as a midway stressful event, with a rating of 50, and

losing one’s job is rated as 47. These numbers are relative values that allow us

to understand the impact of different life events on our stress levels and their

ability to impact our health and well-being. [19] Again, because stressors are

cumulative, higher scores on the stress inventory mean you are more prone to

suffering negative consequences of stress than someone with a lower score.

OB Toolbox: How Stressed Are You? Read each of the events listed below. Give yourself the number of points next

to any event that has occurred in your life in the last 2 years. There are no

right or wrong answers. The aim is just to identify which of these events you

have experienced.

Table 7.1 Sample Items: Life Events Stress Inventory

Life event Stress points Life event

Stress points

Death of spouse 100 Foreclosure of mortgage or loan 30

Divorce 73 Change in responsibilities at work 29

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Life event Stress points Life event

Stress points

Marital separation 65 Son or daughter leaving home 29

Jail term 63 Trouble with in-laws 29

Death of close family member 63

Outstanding personal achievement 28

Personal injury or illness 53 Begin or end school 26

Marriage 50 Change in living location/condition 25

Fired or laid off at work 47 Trouble with supervisor 23

Marital reconciliation 45 Change in work hours or conditions 20

Retirement 45 Change in schools 20

Pregnancy 40 Change in social activities 18

Change in financial state 38 Change in eating habits 15

Death of close friend 37 Vacation 13

Change to different line of work 36 Minor violations of the law 11

Scoring:

 If you scored fewer than 150 stress points, you have a 30% chance of

developing a stress-related illness in the near future.

 If you scored between 150 and 299 stress points, you have a 50% chance of

developing a stress-related illness in the near future.

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 If you scored over 300 stress points, you have an 80% chance of developing a

stress-related illness in the near future.

The happy events in this list such as getting married or an outstanding

personal achievement illustrate how eustress, or “good stress,” can also tax a

body as much as the stressors that constitute the traditionally negative

category of distress. (The prefixeu- in the word eustress means “good” or

“well,” much like the eu- in euphoria.) Stressors can also occur in trends. For

example, during 2007, nearly 1.3 million U.S. housing properties were subject

to foreclosure activity, up 79% from 2006.

Source: Adapted from Holmes, T. H., & Rahe, R. H. (1967). The social

readjustment rating scale. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 11, 213–218.

Downsizing

A study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Labor to examine over

3,600 companies from 1980 to 1994 found that manufacturing firms

accounted for the greatest incidence of major downsizings. The average

percentage of firms by industry that downsized more than 5% of their

workforces across the 15-year period of the study was manufacturing (25%),

retail (17%), and service (15%). A total of 59% of the companies studied fired

at least 5% of their employees at least once during the 15-year period, and 33%

of the companies downsized more than 15% of their workforce at least once

during the period. Furthermore, during the recessions in 1985 to 1986 and

1990 to 1991, more than 25% of all firms, regardless of size, cut their

workforce by more than 5%. [20] In the United States, major layoffs in many

sectors in 2008 and 2009 were stressful even for those who retained their

jobs.

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The loss of a job can be a particularly stressful event, as you can see by its high

score on the life stressors scale. It can also lead to other stressful events, such

as financial problems, which can add to a person’s stress score. Research

shows that downsizing and job insecurity (worrying about downsizing) is

related to greater stress, alcohol use, and lower performance and

creativity. [21] For example, a study of over 1,200 Finnish workers found that

past downsizing or expectations of future downsizing was related to greater

psychological strain and absence. [22] In another study of creativity and

downsizing, researchers found that creativity and most creativity-supporting

aspects of the perceived work environment declined significantly during the

downsizing. [23] Those who experience layoffs but have their self-integrity

affirmed through other means are less susceptible to negative outcomes. [24]

Outcomes of Stress

The outcomes of stress are categorized into physiological and psychological

and work outcomes.

Physiological

Stress manifests itself internally as nervousness, tension, headaches, anger,

irritability, and fatigue. Stress can also have outward manifestations. Dr. Dean

Ornish, author of Stress, Diet and Your Heart, says that stress is related to

aging. [25] Chronic stress causes the body to secrete hormones such as cortisol,

which tend to make our complexion blemished and cause wrinkles. Harvard

psychologist Ted Grossbart, author of Skin Deep, says, “Tens of millions of

Americans suffer from skin diseases that flare up only when they’re

upset.” [26] These skin problems include itching, profuse sweating, warts, hives,

acne, and psoriasis. For example, Roger Smith, the former CEO of General

Motors Corporation, was featured in a Fortune article that began, “His

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normally ruddy face is covered with a red rash, a painless but disfiguring

problem which Smith says his doctor attributes 99% to stress.” [27]

The human body responds to outside calls to action by pumping more blood

through our system, breathing in a more shallow fashion, and gazing wide-

eyed at the world. To accomplish this feat, our bodies shut down our immune

systems. From a biological point of view, it’s a smart strategic move—but only

in the short term. The idea can be seen as your body wanting to escape an

imminent threat, so that there is still some kind of body around to get sick

later. But in the long term, a body under constant stress can suppress its

immune system too much, leading to health problems such as high blood

pressure, ulcers, and being overly susceptible to illnesses such as the common

cold.

The link between heart attacks and stress, while easy to assume, has been

harder to prove. The American Heart Association notes that research has yet

to link the two conclusively. Regardless, it is clear that individuals under stress

engage in behaviors that can lead to heart disease such as eating fatty foods,

smoking, or failing to exercise.

Psychological

Depression and anxiety are two psychological outcomes of unchecked stress,

which are as dangerous to our mental health and welfare as heart disease, high

blood pressure, and strokes. The Harris poll found that 11% of respondents

said their stress was accompanied by a sense of depression. “Persistent or

chronic stress has the potential to put vulnerable individuals at a substantially

increased risk of depression, anxiety, and many other emotional difficulties,”

notes Mayo Clinic psychiatrist Daniel Hall-Flavin. Scientists have noted that

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changes in brain function—especially in the areas of the hypothalamus and the

pituitary gland—may play a key role in stress-induced emotional problems. [28]

Work Outcomes

Stress is related to worse job attitudes, higher turnover, and decreases in job

performance in terms of both in-role performance and organizational

citizenship behaviors. [29]Research also shows that stressed individuals have

lower organizational commitment than those who are less

stressed. [30] Interestingly, job challenge has been found to be related to higher

performance, perhaps with some individuals rising to the challenge. [31]The key

is to keep challenges in the optimal zone for stress—the activation stage—and

to avoid the exhaustion stage. [32]

Figure 7.4

Individuals who are able to find the right balance between work that is too

challenging and work that is not challenging enough see increases in

performance.

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Individual Differences in Experienced Stress

How we handle stress varies by individual, and part of that issue has to do

with our personality type. Type A personalities, as defined by the Jenkins

Activity Survey, [33]display high levels of speed/impatience, job involvement,

and hard-driving competitiveness. If you think back to Selye’s General

Adaptation Syndrome, in which unchecked stress can lead to illness over time,

it’s easy to see how the fast-paced, adrenaline-pumping lifestyle of a Type A

person can lead to increased stress, and research supports this

view. [34] Studies show that the hostility and hyper-reactive portion of the Type

A personality is a major concern in terms of stress and negative organizational

outcomes. [35]

Type B personalities, by contrast, are calmer by nature. They think through

situations as opposed to reacting emotionally. Their fight-or-flight and stress

levels are lower as a result. Our personalities are the outcome of our life

experiences and, to some degree, our genetics. Some researchers believe that

mothers who experience a great deal of stress during pregnancy introduce

their unborn babies to high levels of the stress-related hormone cortisol in

utero, predisposing their babies to a stressful life from birth. [36]

Men and women also handle stress differently. Researchers at Yale University

discovered estrogen may heighten women’s response to stress and their

tendency to depression as a result. [37] Still, others believe that women’s

stronger social networks allow them to process stress more effectively than

men. [38] So while women may become depressed more often than men,

women may also have better tools for countering emotion-related stress than

their male counterparts.

OB Toolbox: To Cry or Not to Cry? That Is the Question…

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As we all know, stress can build up. Advice that’s often given is to "let it all

out" with something like a cathartic "good cry." But research shows that crying

may not be as helpful as the adage would lead us to believe. In reviewing

scientific studies done on crying and health, Ad Vingerhoets and Jan Scheirs

found that the studies “yielded little evidence in support of the hypothesis that

shedding tears improves mood or health directly, be it in the short or in the

long run.” Another study found that venting actually increased the negative

effects of negative emotion. [39]

Instead, laughter may be the better remedy. Crying may actually intensify the

negative feelings, because crying is a social signal not only to others but to

yourself. “You might think, ‘I didn’t think it was bothering me that much, but

look at how I’m crying—I must really be upset,’” says Susan Labott of the

University of Toledo. The crying may make the feelings more intense. Labott

and Randall Martin of Northern Illinois University at Dekalb surveyed 715

men and women and found that at comparable stress levels, criers were more

depressed, anxious, hostile, and tired than those who wept less. Those who

used humor were the most successful at combating stress. So, if you’re looking

for a cathartic release, opt for humor instead: Try to find something funny in

your stressful predicament.

Sources: Vingerhoets, A. J. J. M., & Scheirs, J. G. M. (2001). Crying and

health. In A. J. J. M. Vingerhoets & R. R. Cornelius (Eds.), Adult crying: A

biopsychosocial approach (pp. 227–247). East Sussex, UK: Brunner-

Routledge; Martin, R., & Susan L. (1991). Mood following emotional crying:

Effects of the situation. Journal of Research in Personality, 25(2), 218–233;

Bostad, R. The crying game. Anchor Point, 1–8. Retrieved June 19, 2008, from

http://www.nlpanchorpoint.com/BolstadCrying1481.pdf

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