Organizational roles are a method of providing service entitlements to person entities within the system. If person entities are assigned to an organizational role, managed resources available to the role then become available to the person entities in that role. However, before they can access the service, they must be provisioned with an account to the service. In order for a person entity to be provisioned with an account, the organizational role must be a member of a provisioning policy.

Organizational roles can be static or dynamic. Static organizational roles must be manually added to a person entity's detailed personal information.

Static Organizational Roles

Static organizational roles are available globally; any person entity can be added as a member of a static organizational role. Assigning a person entity to a static organizational role is a manual process. Person entities can be added to a static organizational role's membership manually, through the person entity's detailed information, or through the organizational role user list. Person entities can also be added through an HR Feed.

Dynamic Organizational Roles

Dynamic organizational roles allow placement of person entities into specific roles based on valid LDAP filters. As new person entities are added to the system, they are automatically evaluated and added to an organizational role if the role is dynamic and the person entity fits in the LDAP filter parameters. Person entities that are automatically added to organizational roles also have their personal information automatically updated to reflect their new membership.

Dynamic organizational roles are evaluated whenever a new person entity is added to the system or a person entity's personal information changes. If the dynamic organizational role is a member of a provisioning policy, the provisioning policy is then evaluated for the person entity.

Dynamic organizational roles apply to any container at any level depending on the scope of the dynamic organizational role. The scope of the role is relative to the role's location in the organizational tree. For example, if an organizational unit has multiple locations in its branch, the dynamic organizational role only applies to the person entities in the organizational unit, itself, if the scope is Single. If the scope is SubTree, all person entities in the organizational unit and its sub tree are affected by the role.

Organizational conflict

Role Conflict

Organizational conflict is a state of discord caused by the actual or perceived opposition of needs, values and interests between people working together. Conflict takes many forms in organizations. There is the inevitable clash between formal authority and power and those individuals and groups affected. There are disputes over how revenues should be divided, how

the work should be done, and how long and hard people should work. There are jurisdictional disagreements among individuals, departments, and between unions and management. There are subtler forms of conflict involving rivalries, jealousies, personality clashes, role definitions, and struggles for power and favor. There is also conflict within individuals — between competing needs and demands — to which individuals respond in different ways.[1]

Another facet of personal conflict has to do with the multiple roles people play in organizations. Behavioral scientists sometimes describe an organization as a system of position roles. Each member of the organization belongs to a role set, which is an association of individuals who share interdependent tasks and thus perform formally defined roles, which are further influenced both by the expectations of others in the role set and by one's own personality and expectations. For example, in a common form of classroom organization, students are expected to learn from the instructor by listening to them, following their directions for study, taking exams, and maintaining appropriate standards of conduct. The instructor is expected to bring students high-quality learning materials, give lectures, write and conduct tests, and set a scholarly example. Another in this role set would be the dean of the school, who sets standards, hires and supervises faculty, maintains a service staff, readers and graders, and so on. The system of roles to which an individual belongs extends outside the organization as well, and influences their functioning within it. As an example, a person's roles as partner, parent, descendant, and church member are all intertwined with each other and with their set of organizational roles.[3]

As a consequence, there exist opportunities for role conflict as the various roles interact with one another. Other types of role conflict occur when an individual receives inconsistent demands from another person; for example, they are asked' to serve on several time-consuming committees at the same time that they are urged to get out more production in their work unit. Another kind of role strain takes place when the individual finds that they are expected to meet the opposing demands of two or more separate members of the organization. Such a case would be that of a worker who finds himself pressured by their boss to improve the quality of their work while their work group wants more production in order to receive a higher bonus share.

These and other varieties of role conflict tend to increase an individual's anxiety and frustration. Sometimes they motivate him to do more and better work. Other times they can lead to frustration and reduced efficiency.

Conflict resolution

[edit] Counseling

When personal conflict leads to frustration and loss of efficiency, counseling may prove to be a helpful antidote. Although few organizations can afford the luxury of having professional counselors on the staff, given some training, managers may be able to perform this function. Nondirective counseling, or "listening with understanding", is little more than being a good listener — something every manager should be.[4]

ROLE STRESSORRole Stressors as Job DemandsRizzo, House, and Lirtzman (1970) describe role stressors as they relate to theprinciple of chain of command and the principle of unity of command. The chain ofcommand principle states that organizations should have hierarchical relationships with asingle flow of authority from the top going down. The unity of command principle statesthat for each action, an employee should be receiving instructions from one supervisoronly, and that there should be only one plan for any group of activities with a commonobjective. Role ambiguity occurs when it is unclear what actions should be taken to meetthe expectations of the role. Role conflict occurs when there are mixed or incompatiblemessages about how to satisfy expectations for a single role.Ortqvist and Wincent (2006) describe the three facets of role stress as role conflict(incompatible expectations for a role), role ambiguity (uncertainty as to what actions willsatisfy the expectations of a role) and role overload (time or lack of resources will notallow you to meet expectations for a role).25Outcomes of role stressors. Ortqvist and Wincent (2006) in their meta-analyticreview of the consequences of role stress report that the idea that role stress is detrimentalhas been widely supported and has been described in over 300 journal articles. Theyexamined the consequences of role conflict and role ambiguity as distinct facets of rolestress. In regards to role conflict, the meta-analysis found medium effect sizes(relationships) with organizational commitment, job satisfaction, propensity to quit, andtension. Role conflict had small effect sizes with emotional exhaustion,depersonalization, personal accomplishment, and performance. In regard to roleambiguity, the analysis found medium effect sizes with tension, job satisfaction,propensity to quit, and organizational commitment. Role ambiguity had a small effectsize with emotional exhaustion and negligible effect sizes with performance, personalaccomplishment, and depersonalization.Leiter and Maslach (1988) in a cross-sectional study of hospital personnel foundthat role conflict and unpleasant supervisor interactions were both positively related tothe emotional exhaustion element of burnout. Kirk-Brown and Wallace (2004) reportthat role ambiguity is a significant predictor of emotional exhaustion (a component ofburnout), but neither role conflict nor role ambiguity was a significant predictor of jobsatisfaction in a study of counselors. Schuler, Aldag, and Brief (1977) examined theeffect of role stressors on work satisfaction, performance, and job involvement. Theyfound that both role conflict and role ambiguity had negative relationships with thesevariables. They state that their finding was unusual because typically, role ambiguity has26a greater negative effect on outcomes than role conflict. Their findings did not supportthat.Hallberg and Schaufeli (2006) report a negative relationship between role conflictand engagement in a cross-sectional study of white-collar professionals. This studycompared the differences between work engagement, job involvement, andorganizational commitment. Hallberg and Schaufeli’s measure of role conflict is notstandard, as they modified Rizzo et al.’s (1970) measure to include a role questioninvolving conflict between customers and supervisors. Role ambiguity was not examined

in this study.Peiro, Gonzalez-Roma, Tordera, and Manas (2001) conducted a longitudinalstudy of role stressors and burnout with a one-year time lag. They regressed Time 1 roleambiguity and role conflict on the Time 2 burnout factors of emotional exhaustion,depersonalization, and personal accomplishment. In their hierarchical regressionanalysis, they also accounted for the Time 1 burnout factor and included the Time 2 rolestressor to examine the impact of change in stressors over 1 year. They found that neitherrole ambiguity nor role conflict at Time 1 predicted emotional exhaustion at Time 2, butthe change in role ambiguity and the change in role conflict between Time 1 and 2 didpredict exhaustion at Time 2. Neither role ambiguity at Time 1 nor the change in roleambiguity between Time 1 and Time 2 predicted depersonalization at Time 2. Roleconflict at Time 1 predicted depersonalization at Time 2, but change in role conflictbetween Time 1 and Time 2 did not. Only the change in role ambiguity between Time 1and Time 2 predicted personal accomplishment at Time 2.27To summarize, the literature supports the relationship between role conflict andwork engagement, at least in a cross-sectional design (Hallberg & Schaufeli, 2006).Using a longitudinal design, changes in role stressors between time 1 and time 2 wererelated to certain aspects of burnout at time 2 (Peiro et al., 2001). To date, there has onlybeen one study that investigated the longitudinal relationship between role stressors andwork engagement (Prieto et al., 2008), however their study focused only on vigor anddedication.Job stress has been defined as the non-specific response of the body to any demands made uponit (Selye, 1976). Robbins (2001) defines stress as a dynamic condition in which the individual isconfronted with an opportunity, constraint, or demand related to what he or she desires and for whichthe outcome is perceived to be both uncertain and important.Organizational based factors have been known to induce job stress for employees at theworkplace (Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985). These factors are termed as organizational stressors sincethey serve as agents that trigger various stress reactions (Van Onciul, 1996).Factors making General Practitioners (GPs) more vulnerable to stress can be analyzed fromindividual and organizational perspective. In the past studies, at the individual level sources ofpsychosocial stress were mentioned age, gender and marital status. At organizational level – workplace location, type of practice, job demands and decision latitude were considered as sources ofpsychosocial stress.Work related stress has been implicated as a major contributing factor to growing jobdissatisfaction among doctors. It has been found that work stress impacts not only on doctor’s healthbut also their abilities to cope with job demands. This will seriously impair the provision of qualityhealth care and the efficacy of health service delivery.1.1. Conceptual Framework of RoleRole is the position one occupies in the system, and is defined by the functions one performs in

response to the expectations of the significant members of a social system, and one’s own expectations from that position or office.A role is not defined without the expectations of the role senders, including the role occupant.The position of a Human Resource Manager may be created in an organization, but his role will be defined by the expectations (stated or unstated) that different persons have from the Human resource manager, and the expectations that he, in turn, has from the role. In this sense, the role gets defined in each system by the role senders, including the role occupant. The concept of role and the two role systems (Role Space and Role set) have built-in potential for conflict and stress (Pareek, 2002).1.1.1. Role Space ConflictsRole space is the dynamic relationship between the various roles and individual occupies and his self.It has three main variables; self, the role under question and the other roles he occupies. Any conflict among these is referred to as role space conflict or stress. These conflicts may take several forms.

Self Role distance: This stress arises out of the conflict between the self concept and theexpectations from the role, as perceived by the role occupant. If a person occupies a role that he may subsequently find to be conflicting with the self concept, he feels stressed.

Intra-role Conflict: Since an individual learns to develop expectations as a result of hissocializing and identification with significant others, it is quite likely that he sees a certainincompatibility between the different expectations (functions) of his role. For example, a professor may see incompatibility between the expectations of teaching students and of doing research. These may not be inherently conflicting, but the individual may perceive these as incompatible.

Role Stagnation: As an individual grows older, he also grows in the role that he occupies in anorganization. With the individual’s advancement, the role changes; and with his change in role, the need for taking on a new role becomes crucial. This problem of role growth becomes acute especially when an individual who has occupied a role for a long time enters another role in which he feel less secure. The new role demands that an individual outgrows the previous one and takes charge of newthe role effectively. This is bound to produce some stress. In organizations that are fast expanding, and which do not have any systematic strategy of human resource development, managers are likely to experience this stress of role stagnation when they are promoted.

Inter-role distance: When an individual occupies more than one role there are bound to beconflicts between them. For example, a lady executive often faces a conflict between herEuropean Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 9, Number 3 (2009)358 organizational role as an executive and her familial role as a wife and mother. The demands on her time by husband and children may be incompatible with organizational demands. Such inter-role conflicts are quite frequent in a modern society, where an individual is increasingly occupying multiple roles in various organizations and groups.

1.1.2. Role Set Conflicts

The role set consists of important persons who have varying expectations from the role that anindividual occupies. The conflicts which arise as a result of incompatibility among these expectations by the significant others (and by the individual himself) are referred to as role sets.

Role Ambiguity: When an individual is not clear about the various expectations that people havefrom his role he faces role ambiguity. Role ambiguity may be due to lack of information available to a role occupant, or his lack of understanding of the cues available to him. Role ambiguity may be in relation to activities, responsibilities, priorities, norms or general expectations. Generally, role ambiguity is experienced by persons occupying roles that are newly created in organizations, roles that are undergoing change, or process roles (with less clear and less concrete activities). Role expectation Conflict: When there are conflicting expectations or demands by differentroles senders (persons having expectations from the role), the role occupant experiences this type of stress. The conflicting expectations may be from the boss, subordinates, peers or clients.

Role Overload: When a role occupant feels that there are too many expectations from thesignificant others in his role set, he experiences role overload. Role overload has been measured by asking questions about people’s feelings on whether they can finish work given to them during a modified work day and whether the amount of work they do interfere with how well it is done. Most executive role occupants experience role overload. Role overload is more likely to occur where role occupants lack power, where there are large variations in the expected output, and when delegation or assistance cannot procure more time.

Role Erosion: A role occupant may feel that the functions he would like to perform are beingdone by some other role. Role erosion is the individual’s subjective feeling that some importantexpectations that he has from a role are shared by other roles within the role set. Role erosion is likely to be experienced in an organization that is redefining its role and creating new roles. Studies indicate that in several such organizations the stress of role erosion was inevitably felt. In one organization, a particular role was abolished and in its place two were created to cater to executive and planning needs.This led to great erosion, and a feeling that the new roles were less important than the previous role.

Resource Inadequacy: Resource inadequacy stress is experienced when the resources requiredby a role occupant for performing his role is effectively are not available. Resources may includeinformation, people, material, finance or facilities.

Personal Inadequacy: When a role occupant feels that he does not have enough knowledge,skills or training to undertake a role effectively, or that he has not had time to prepare for the assigned role he may experience stress. Persons who are assigned new roles without adequate preparation or orientation are likely to experience feelings of personal inadequacy.

7. Role Isolation: In a role set, the role occupant may feel that certain roles are psychologicallycloser to him, while others are at a much greater distance. The main criterion of distance is the

frequency and ease of interaction. When linkages are strong, the isolation will be low and vice versa. Role isolation can therefore be measured in terms of existing and the desired linkages. The gap between them indicates the amount of role isolation.The present study aims to investigate the factors causing stress among doctors in IGMC; aprominent government hospital in northern region located in Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) India and also examines the stress levels among male and female doctors working in the hospital.To the best of our knowledge, there is a paucity of Indian work in this field which is anothermajor reason to undertake this study.

What is Employee Stress ?

Employees stress is a growing concern for organizations today. Stress can be defined as a lively circumstance in which people face constraints, opportunities, or loss of something they desire and for which the consequence is both unpredictable as well as crucial. Stress is the response of people to the unreasonable/excessive pressure or demands placed on them.

Stress is not always negative. It may also bring out the best in individuals at times. It may induce an individual to discover innovative and smarter way of doing things. This positive dimension of stress is called as enstress. But usually, the term stress has a negative implication and this negative aspect of stress is termed as distress. For instance - When a subordinate is harassed or warned by his superior, unhappiness of unsuitable job, etc. We can say that “Stress causes some people to break, and other to break records.”

Symptoms of Stress

Some of the symptoms of stress at workplace are as follows-

Absenteeism, escaping from work responsibilities, arriving late, leaving early, etc. Deterioration in work performance, more of error prone work, memory loss, etc. Cribbing, over-reacting, arguing, getting irritated, anxiety, etc. Deteriorating health, more of accidents, etc. Improper eating habits (over-eating or under-eating), excessive smoking and drinking,

sleeplessness, etc.

It is thus very essential to have effective stress management strategies in an organization so that the detrimental repercussions of stress on the employees as well as their performance can be reduced and controlled.

Sources/Causes of Stress

The factors leading to stress among individual are called as stressors. Some of the factors/stressors acting on employees are-

1. Organizational factors- With the growth in organizational stress and complexity, there is increase in organizational factors also which cause stress among employees. Some of such factors are-

a. Discrimination in pay/salary structure b. Strict rules and regulations c. Ineffective communication d. Peer pressure e. Goals conflicts/goals ambiguity f. More of centralized and formal organization structure g. Less promotional opportunities h. Lack of employees participation in decision-making i. Excessive control over the employees by the managers

2. Individual factors- There are various expectations which the family members, peer, superior and subordinates have from the employee. Failure to understand such expectations or to convey such expectations lead to role ambiguity/role conflict which in turn causes employee stress. Other individual factors causing stress among employees are inherent personality traits such as being impatient, aggressive, rigid, feeling time pressure always, etc. Similarly, the family issues, personal financial problems, sudden career changes all lead to stress.

3. Job concerning factors- Certain factors related to job which cause stress among employees are as follows-

a. Monotonous nature of job b. Unsafe and unhealthy working conditions c. Lack of confidentiality d. Crowding

4. Extra-organizational factors- There are certain issues outside the organization which lead to stress among employees. In today’s modern and technology savvy world, stress has increased. Inflation, technological change, social responsibilities and rapid social changes are other extra-organizational factors causing stress.

Strategies for Managing Stress

Stress experienced by the employees in their job has negative impact on their health, performance and their behaviour in the organization. Thus, stress needs to be managed effectively so as to set off these harmful consequences. Strategies for managing stress are as follows-

Organizational strategies for managing stress

1. Encouraging more of organizational communication with the employees so that there is no role ambiguity/conflict. Effective communication can also change employee views. Managers can use better signs and symbols which are not misinterpreted by the employees.

2. Encourage employees’ participation in decision-making. This will reduce role stress. 3. Grant the employees greater independence, meaningful and timely feedback, and greater

responsibility. 4. The organizational goals should be realistic, stimulating and particular. The employees must be

given feedback on how well they are heading towards these goals. 5. Encourage decentralization. 6. Have a fair and just distribution of incentives and salary structure. 7. Promote job rotation and job enrichment. 8. Create a just and safe working environment.

9. Have effective hiring and orientation procedure. 10. Appreciate the employees on accomplishing and over-exceeding their targets.

Individual strategies for managing stress

1. The employees should make a “to-do” list daily, prioritize the acts in the list and plan the acts accordingly. Take regular breaks during work to relax you. By effective time management, the employees can achieve their targets timely and can meet work pressures and, thus, avoid stress.

2. Do hard work. Strive to achieve your goals but do not do it to the harm of family, health, or peer.

3. Indulge in physical exercises. It helps in effective blood circulation, keeps you fit, diverts mind from work pressures.

4. Encourage a healthy lifestyle. Take a regular sleep, have plenty of water, have healthy eating habits. Promote relaxation techniques such as yoga, listening music and meditation.

5. The employees should have optimistic approach about their work. They should avoid connections with negative approach employees.

6. The employees should have emotional intelligence at workplace. They should have self-awareness, self-confidence and self-control at workplace.

7. The employees should build social support. They should have close connections with trustworthy peer who can listen to their problems and boost their confidence level. This social network will help the employees to overcome stress.

8. Employee counselling is a very good strategy to overcome employee stress. Through counselling, employees can become aware of their strengths and how to develop those strengths; their weaknesses and how to eliminate them; and they can develop strategies for changing their behaviour. Employees are also given career counselling which helps in reducing their ambiguities with regard to career.

9. Find a fun way to release stress, such as, cracking jokes, playing tennis, golf, etc. 10. Do not remain pre-occupied with yourself. Turn your focus outwards. Help others. This will

release some stress

ROLE CONFLICT

Organizational Bahavior Notes

CONFLICT:Conflict means disagreement, clash, difference of opinion and variance. Conflict can occur at the individual, interpersonal, group and organizational levels. Conflicts create difficulties in management and the working of organizations and groups.Some kinds of conflicts are discussed briefly below.

Organizational Intergroup

Interpersonal

Intra-individual

INTRA-INDIVIDULAL CONFLICT:Intra-individual conflict means the conflicts that occur within one individual. As a person has different goals and needs. So when some times he does not reach those goals due to some factors and difficulties there arise a clash and conflict within the individual which is called intra-individual conflict. Within every one individual there are usually

# A number of competing goals and needs# A variety of ways that those roles and drives can be expressed# Many types of barriers that can occur between the drive and the goal, and# Both positive and negative aspects attached to the desired goals.

 

CONFLICT DUE TO FRUSTRATION: Frustration occurs when a motivated drive is blocked before a person reaches a desired goal. The barrier may be either overt (outward or physical) or covert (inward or mental-socio-psychological). A smooth progression of the need-drive- incentive motivational cycle and fulfillment of one’s expectations do not always occur in reality. There are some difficulties and barriers that do not let a person achieve his goals and so they cause in frustration.

EXAMPLE: An example of frustrating situation might be that of a person who comes against a stuck door which prevents him from reaching a water fountain. The reaction of the person is called his defense-mechanism. The reactions in a frustrating situation can be categorized into four groups; aggression, withdrawal, fixation, and compromise.  

The person will have one of the above four mechanisms like;

 

 

 

GOAL CONFLICT: Another common source of conflict for a person or individual is a goal conflict that has both positive and negative features. Whereas in frustration, motives are blocked before the goal is reached, in goal conflict two or more motives block one another. Three separate types of goal conflict are identified as;

1. Approach-approach conflict, where the person is to motivated to approach two or more positive but mutually exclusive goals.

2. Approach-avoidance conflict, where the individual is motivated to approach a goal and at the same time is motivated to avoid it. The single goal contains both positive and negative characteristics for the person.

3. Avoidance-avoidance conflict, where an individual is motivated to avoid to avoid two or more negative but mutually exclusive goals.

Example: when a person has to avoid two goals when they are not relevant to each other.

ROLE CONFLICT AND AMBIGUITY:A person has many roles to play in a society and the personality of a person has many faces and roles. For example a person at the same time has many roles like a father, a brother, a son, a

husband, a worker and a friend. Every of the roles of the person has expectations and sometimes there arises a conflict among the expectations of these roles and the person faces real pressure and depression in decision making.

Example; in a company a person was working as a labor and now as a supervisor to check and control the working of working of the other workers and to report to the top management. The person observes that one of his closest friends and coworker is not performing the job. The supervisor has two roles to play, as the supervisor to report and his longtime friend may be fired and the second role as a friend and he has to protect his friend by not reporting. Now the person faces role conflict.

STRESS

MEANING OF STRESSPeople usually take the meaning of “stress” in a negative sense. It is thought to be caused by something really bad and unwanted. But it is not always due to some problem or trouble that we feel stress. Stress can also be caused by good things, so, stress can be categorized into two types according to the causes, distress and eustress.

A) DISTRESSWhen we face pressure and strain due to something bad happened it is called distress. For example, a loved one is seriously ill, the boss gives formal warning for a poor performance, or a student has to do his best to pass the examinations.

B) EUSTRESS But there is also a positive, pleasant side of stress called by good things (for example, an employee is offered a job promotion, or a good looking attractive acquaintance asks for a date). This type of stress is called eustress. “Eu” a Greek word meaning good.

So, stress can be defined as an adaptive response to the external situation that results in physical, psychological or behavioral deviations for the participants.

It is important to note here that stress is not:

1. Stress is not anxiety: anxiety operates only in emotional and psychological area but stress has psychological and emotional as well as physiological effects. Thus, stress also accompanies anxiety but the two should not be equated.

2. Stress is not simply nervous tension: Though stress may cause nervous tension like anxiety but the two are not the same. Nervous tension can be a way in which people exhibit and express stress.

3. Stress is not necessarily something damaging, bad, or to be avoided: Eustress is not damaging or bad and is something that people should want rather than avoid it. The real matter is how people handle the stress (whether good or bad). Stress is inevitable but distress can be controlled and prevented effectively.  

STAGES OF STRESSStress can be divided into three different stages namely alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.

A). ALARMIn the alarm stage an outside stressor mobilizes the stress system of the individual. There are a number of psychological and chemical reactions in the body, such as increased pituitary and adrenaline secretions; noticeable increase in respiration, heart rate and blood pressure and a heightening of the senses.  

B). RESISATANCEIf the stress continues beyond the alarm stage it enters a second phase called resistance. During this stage, the body calls upon the corresponding organs to deal with the stressor. When there is a lot of resistance from the body to one stressor, the body becomes vulnerable and weak to other diseases. So, this is the reason why a person also suffers other diseases when having stress. 

C). EXHAUSTIONFinally, if the problem persists over a long period of time, the reserves of the body exhausts and the body becomes weak. And it may return back to the first stage of alarm and a new cycle starts. It can really be very hard on a person and even death occurs.

THE CAUSES OF STRESS Stressors that cause stress and affect the employees can be inside as well as outside the organization. Some of the below are;

Extra-Organizational Stressors+Organizational Stressors+Group Stressors+Individual Stressors=Job Stress.

Categories of stressors affecting occupational stress

1. EXTRAORGANIZATIONAL STRESSORS

It has become very clear that the outside factors have a very important impact on the employees as stressors.

We know that most organizations today are open systems and therefore, it is clear that some external factors also affect the working of the workers and job stress is not limited just to things inside an organization during working hours. Extra-organizational stressors include things such as societal/technological change, the family, relocation, economic and financial conditions, race and class and residential or community conditions.

a. technological stressors:In the last years, science and technology has made great advancements and progresses. Though the medical science has made a lot of advancements but the problems of science has also been many and a man has little peace of mind in this today’s world and people have less wellness. These are some of the external stressors caused by the changes in lifestyle and progresses made in the field of science.

b. family:Family has a great impact as a job stressor on a person. Whether it’s the illness of a family member or the strained relations with the spouse or children, they all affect the working of a person and have many bad consequences.

c. sudden life changes:Life changes may be slow (getting older) or sudden (the death of a person). Sudden changes in life have a dramatic effect on the health and working of a person. For example, divorces have a very stressful effect on the job performance of a person. Similarly, all the other sudden changes make the working of a person bad. The more sudden the changes in the life the more stressful will be the effect.

d. sociological variables:Social variables such as race, class and sex (gender) can also become stressors. Minority group (such as blacks and other minorities face stress in USA) face many stresses in the same way woman have had and still have many job stresses due to their gender in the man dominated societies.

2. ORGANIZATIONAL STRESSORSThere are also some stressors inside the organizations which make life difficult for the workers. Besides the individual and group stressors there are some macro-level organizational stressors that make life difficult for the workers. Some of them can the following;

3. GROUP STRESSORSWe have studied the effect of groups on the individuals and also teams and groups. The group can also be the source of stress. These group stressors can be categorized into three areas:

a. Lack of group cohesiveness: cohesiveness and togetherness is very important for group performances and when there is not enough unity and coordination in the group then the result can be very stress-producing

b. Lack of social support: employees are greatly affected by the support of one or more of their coworkers. By sharing there problems and joys with others they are much better off. So, if a worker does not get support from the others they feel very lonely and stressful.

c. Intraindividual, interpersonal and intergroup conflict: conflict is very closely related to stress. So, any kind of conflict and disagreement can cause real strain and stress.

4. INDIVIDUAL STRESSORSAll the other types of stressors (for example, extraorganizational, organizational and group conflicts) end up in the in the form of individual stressors. For example, role conflict, ambiguity, and individual disposition (nature), personal control, self-efficacy, learned helplessness and psychological hardiness may all affect the level of stress someone experiences.

THE EFFECTS OF STRESSStress is not always harmful and dangerous, sometimes low levels of stress can even be helpful

to enhance job performance. For example, a change in the job or even a change in the supervisor may make the worker perform better and search for the new information. It also noted that mild stress can be very helpful to activate the workers and hence make them do better and perform more than the normal. Though a little bit of stress can be useful but it can strongly be concluded that;

A. The performance of many tasks is in fact strongly affected by stress.B. Performance usually drops off sharply when stress rises to high levels.

PROBLEMS DUE TO STRESSStress can give rise to the following problems.

PHYSICAL PROBLEMS DUE TO STRESSA high level of stress is accompanied by high blood pressure and high levels of cholesterols and may even result in heart diseases, ulcers and arthritis. It is to be noted here that all the heart diseases are not due to the stress and many other factors also cause heart diseases.

PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS DUE TO STRESSThe psychological problems that stress cause are as important as the physical problems. High levels of stress can be accompanied by anger, anxiety, depression, nervousness, irritability, tension, and boredom. One study shows that stress has the strongest impact on aggressive actions, such as sabotage, interpersonal aggression, hostility, and complaints. And the result from the stress is relevant to poor job performance, lowered self-esteem, dislike of supervision, inability to concentrate and make decisions, and job dissatisfaction.

BEHAVIORAL PROBLEMS DUE TO STRESSBeside the physical and psychological problems, stress can also give birth to many behavioral disorders like overeating or under eating, sleeplessness, increased smoking and drinking, and drugs. Stress has also to do with absenteeism and turnovers.

COPING STRATEGIES FOR STRESSTough stress is sometimes impossible to avoid but it is never impossible to manage and fight against stress. Stress can be managed at the individual as well as the organizational level.

INDIVIDUAL COPING STRATEGIESToday people are taking responsibility and they want to help themselves. So, people can make changes in their lives and attitudes to cope with the stress and its problems. Some techniques that people can use to manage stress are;

EXERCISE:    

     

Today many people know the importance of exercise. People of all ages are walking, jogging, swimming, riding bicycles, or playing many different games and sports.  

Exercise can help people manage stress better and take there minds off the problem for sometime.

1. RELAXATION:Relaxing some time and leaving all the work aside is very good for health and it helps approach the problem after a break with a fresh and better approach. It can be done easily by watching something light on Television or reading some light book and there are also some techniques for relaxation like meditation and other mental and physical exercises like yoga.

2. BEHAVIORAL SELF CONTROL:When a person controls his own behavior and attitude it also helps in managing stress better. Having a brave and positive approach towards every problem is very good and it really helps in managing stress to a great extent.

3. COGNITIVE THERAPY:Psychologists have designed many techniques to lessen the pressure of the stress that people feel and it really has proved to be very successful and fruitful. But there is still a lot to be done in this field.

4. NETWORKING:Job stress can be managed by having friends in the working area and coworkers who are experienced and can give good advice and guide the person through the problems

ORGANIZATIONAL COPING STRATEGIES

Organizations and their management can really prove to be very effective in the coping and managing stress. They can design jobs and structure of the organization so that the employees feel very much at home and easy hence, reducing the chances of stress and its effects. Some general strategies for the organizations to cope with stress are:

1. CREATE A SUPPORTIVE ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE:Very formal and inflexible management can really cause some stress for the workers and if organizations can make an environment and climate that is supportive then it is really very helpful for the workers and reduces stress and pressure of the tasks.

2. ENRICH THE DESIGN OF TASK:The management of an organization can enrich the tasks and jobs to be performed by the individuals. If the jobs are design properly and the workers have an understanding of their authorities, responsibilities and roles then it reduces the amount of stress.

3. REDUCE CONFLICT AND CLARIFY ORGANIZATIONAL ROLES:When there is a good understanding of what is a person needed to do in an organization so there is no role conflict and ambiguity. So, when everyone knows what he has to do and what are his responsibilities and authorities there are less chances of stress.

4. PLAN AND DEVELOP CAREER PATHS AND PROVIDE COUNSELING:

Good planning is always the basic thing to be done in an organization, it is always very effective to resolve ambiguities and reduce the stress. When a person in an organization knows about the direction of his tasks and

knows about his career and working duration there is no stress felt and the working productivity of the workers also increases. It is always great to have someone that can give useful advice to the workers and solve their problems. So, what an organization can do is have counselors and mentors to clarify the situations for the workers to reduce the pressure and control stress.

GUIDELINES FOR DOWNSIZED ORGANIZATIONS TO COPE WITH STRESS

Many organizations today are lying off their workers and reducing their sizes to be efficient in the environment. Downsizing can create some problems for the workers that can be drastic and be very stressful for them. Some guidelines for the downsized organizations to manage stress can be the following.

1. Be proactive: The managers can be trained how to outplace people and how to help those who still remain in the organization.

2. Acknowledge the survivors: Workshops and seminars can be held for those who remain in the organization. These workshops and seminars are meant to sharpen the skills of the workers and make them compatible to face changes.

3. Communicate after downsizing:  Employees can be given the permission to communicate with the top mangers after the downsizing and have their questions and ambiguities answered. When their problems are solved then they face less or no job stress.

4. Clarify new roles: After every restructuring occurs the roles that employees have to play change in the organization. Sometimes when the roles are not clarified it creates stress. It is always preferable to clarify all new roles so that there is no ambiguity and stress created.