Chapter 11

Stress and Safety

Major Topics

• Workplace stress

• Sources of workplace stress

• Measurement of workplace stress

• Improving safety by reducing workplace stress

• Stress in safety managers

• Stress and workers compensation

Stress

• Stress is defined as the reaction of a human body to a threatening situation.

Workplace Stress

• Job stress is the harmful physical and emotional response that occurs when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources or needs of the worker.

• Corporations see stress as an individual problem based on the employees lifestyle, psychological makeup, and personality.

• Unions see stress as excessive demands, poor supervision, or conflicting demands.

• Almost 15% of occupational disease claims are stress related.

Sources of Workplace Stress• May involve physical working conditions, work overload, role ambiguity, lack of

feedback, personality, personal and family problems, or role conflict. Other sources:

• Task Complexity: too many demands may cause a feeling of inadequacy and result in emotional stress. Repetitive and monotonous work may lack complexity and worker becomes stressed by boredom and dissatisfaction.

• Control: less stress when worker participates in determining work routine, schedule, and selection of tasks. Electronic monitored workers suffer greater health problems than those who are not.

• A feeling of responsibility (to family or general public): may cause a worker to feel that the options to take employment risks are limited – “trapped in the job.” e.g. Air traffic controllers.

• Job Security: A worker who believes his job is at risk will experience anxiety. Availability of other jobs and feeling that one’s professional skills are needed reduces stress related to job security.

• An organizational culture: feeling left out, out of the loop, and ill-informed. Organizations need to communicate frequently with all employees.

Lack of Job Autonomy May Cause Workplace Stress

• Less stress when worker participates in determining work routine, schedule, and selection of tasks.

• A manager can help employees realize their full potential by helping them match their career goals with the company’s goals and giving them more control over their jobs.

Five Categories of Human Reaction to Workplace Stress

• Subjective or emotional: anxiety, aggression, guilt.

• Behavioral: being prone to accidents, trembling.• Cognitive: inability to concentrate or make

decisions.• Physiological: increased heart rate and blood

pressure.• Organizational: absenteeism and poor

productivity.

Relationship between Psychosomatic Reactions to Workplace Stress and Physiological Illness

• The human response to workplace stress can be compared to a rubber band being stretched. As the stress continues to be applied, the rubber band stretches until a limit is reached when the rubber band breaks.

• For humans, various physiological and psychological changes are observed with the repetition of stress. Until the limit is reached the harmful effects can be reversed. With an increase in intensity or duration of the stress beyond the individual’s limit the effects on the human become pathological.

Autoimmune Diseases and Workplace Stress Relationship

• When the body fails to adapt to continued stress autoimmune disorders may begin (immune system breaks down).

• The tendency to develop specific stress related disease may be partially predetermined by heredity, personal habits such as smoking, and personality.

Three stages of Human Reaction to Stress

• Stage of Alarm: characterized by sweating and increased heart rate.

• Stage of Resistance: alarm symptoms dissipate, and body develops adaptation to stress.

• Stage of exhaustion: Body fails to adapt to continuous stress. Psychosomatic diseases such as gastric ulcers, colitis, rashes, and autoimmune disorders may begin during this stage. The stress related disease may be determined by heredity, personal habits such as smoking and personality.

Three ways in which mental workload can be measured

• Subjective ratings: The workers are asked to rate their perceived level of workload. The perceived workload is viewed as a direct reflection of workplace stress.

• Behavioral time sharing: require the simultaneous performance of two tasks – one task is more important (primary task). The decrease in performance of the second task is considered an index of workload.

• Psychophysiological technique: require simultaneous measurement of heart rate and brain waves which are then interpreted as indexes of mental workload and workplace stress.

Efforts to rid the workplace of all causes of workplace stress

• Adverse effects of stress on health may be considered to be a maladaptation of humans to stress.

• So we need to do away with stress (unlikely), avoid all stressful situations (unequally unlikely), learn to adapt to being sick (undesirable), or learn to adapt to workplace stress( the optimal choice).

Data provided by psychological questionnaires and bias of data

• Psychological questionnaires evaluate workers emotions about their jobs. Workers may be asked about their job satisfaction, workload, pace, opportunities for advancement, management style, and organizational climate.

• Psychological questionnaires are another form of subjective rating and are also subject to state dependent (feel good/bad the day you fill out the form) bias of the data.

How shift work causes workplace stress and ways of minimization

• Shift work requires rotating between two or three different starting times which may vary by eight hours or more. The body perceives a change in work shift as being stressful.

• To reduce stress associated with shift work: exercise regularly – improves sleep and relieves pent up stress; avoid caffeine, alcohol or other drugs that can affect sleep; food supplement melatonin or other natural sleep inducers should be used rather than sleeping pills that contain synthetic chemicals that may cause stress.

Reducing workplace stress by managers

• Managers can help design jobs in ways that lead to worker satisfaction thereby lessening workplace stress.

• Physical stress can be reduced by improving the work environment and establishing a sound safety and health program.

• Avoid jobs that do not make use of worker’s knowledge and initiative.

Reducing workplace stress by management

• Mental health benefits are provided in employee health insurance coverage.

• Employer has formal employee communication program• Workers have current, accurate, and clear job descriptions.• Management and employees talk openly with one another.• Employees are free to talk to each other during work.• Employer offers exercise and other stress reduction classes.• Employers are recognized and rewarded for their contributions.• Work rules are published and are the same for everyone.• Child care programs are available.• Employees can work flexible hours.

How individuals can reduce workplace stress

• Individuals can respond to a stressful workload by delegating responsibility instead of carrying the entire load.

• Relaxation techniques can also help reduce the effects of stress – meditation, music and exercise.

Summary• Stress is the harmful physical and emotional response that occurs

when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources, or needs of the worker.

• Sources of workplace stress include environmental conditions, work overload, role ambiguity, personal and family problems, and role conflict.

• Until an individual’s limit is reached, the effects of stress may be reversed.

• Stages of human reaction to stress are alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.

• Managers can reduce workplace stress by reducing role ambiguity and increasing feedback and job autonomy.

• Individuals can respond to a stressful workload by delegating responsibility and learning how to relax to include meditation, music, and/or exercise.

Home work

• Do questions 2, 3, 10, and 13 on pages 242-243.

• 2. How is workplace stress different from general stress?

• 3. List 5 sources of workplace stress and give an on the job example for each source.

• 10. Discuss the efforts to rid the workplace of all causes of workplace stress.

• 13. Give specific steps that can be taken by managers to help reduce workplace stress.