Module in Industrial Psychology

Chapter 10
WORKER STRESS, NEGATIVE EMPLOYEE
ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORS
Defining WORKER STRESS
The construct of stress is quite complex. So much so, in fact, that researchers cannot agree on a single
definition for stress. Consequently, some definitions of stress are as follows:

• Hans Selye - Stress is primarily a physiological reaction to certain threatening environmental

events. From Selye’s perspective, worker stress would simply refer to the stress caused by events
in the work environment.
• John French - worker stress results from a lack of “fit” between a person’s skills and abilities and
the demands of the job and the workplace. In other words, a worker who is totally unqualified for a
particular job should feel a tremendous amount of stress.
• Richard Lazarus - in his “transactional” view of worker stress, saw stress as resulting from the
worker’s perception that a certain environmental event is a threat or a challenge, factoring in your
perception of how capable you will be at managing the threat. From Richard Lazarus’s perspective,
you and I might interpret the same event very differently—I might find it stressful, you might view it
as totally harmless (or perhaps even as pleasantly challenging!).
To arrive at a definition of worker stress for our purposes, we need to look at what these three different
approaches to stress have in common. All three definitions view worker stress as an interaction between
the person and some environmental event, or stressor. In addition, all the definitions emphasize that there
are some important reactions to the stressful event. These reactions can be either physiological or
psychological in nature, or both. Therefore, we will define worker stress as physiological and/or
psychological reactions to an event that is perceived to be threatening or taxing.
Although we most often think of stress as an unpleasant state, it can have both negative and positive
aspects. For example, imagine that you have been working for several years as an assistant manager for a
large company and find out that you have just received a promotion to department manager, a position you
have been trying to obtain for some time. With your new position come feelings of stress. Some of these
are negative, such as the stress that will result from having to work many overtime hours without additional
compensation; being required to make formal presentations regularly to your peers and superiors (and
having your presentations critically evaluated by them); and taking on the responsibility to take the criticism
for any problems occurring in your department. On the other hand, there are many positive reactions
associated with the promotion, including feelings of accomplishment, anticipation, pride, and challenge.
Like the negative aspects, these positive responses also induce physiological and psychological reactions
in the body. Some stress researchers distinguish the negative stress, termed distress, from the positive
kind of stress, calledeustress (see, e.g., Golembiewski, Munzenrider, & Stevenson, 1986; Nelson &
Simmons, 2011).
We are all likely familiar with the physiological reactions to stress. They include signs of arousal such
as increased heart and respiratory rates, elevated blood pressure, and profuse sweating. The psychological
reactions to stress include feeling anxiety, fear, frustration, and despair, as well as appraising or evaluating
the stressful event and its impact, thinking about the stressful experience, and mentally preparing to take
steps to try to deal with the stress.
Managers and workers may also be concerned about stress at a more personal level. Worker stress
can be, in many ways, the flip side of job satisfaction. Whereas job satisfaction represents the “positives”
associated with work, stress is a way of conceptualizing the “negatives” associated with jobs—the
pressures, the strains, the conflicts. No doubt, much of the interest in worker stress results from the fact
that managers, business owners, and all other sorts of workers experience stress on a day-to-day basis.

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SOURCES OF WORKER STRESS

Stressful Occupations
It is generally believed that certain occupations, such as air traffic
controller, physician or other health-care provider, police officer, and
firefighter, are particularly stressful. There has been increased attention
to postal workers’ stress, following highly publicized cases of postal
workers attacking and killing coworkers. Police officers’ and firefighters’
jobs are particularly stressful because of the physical dangers involved

Although they are often seen as having fewer work responsibilities than physicians, nurses often experience
very high levels of work stress.

Rather than focusing only on high-stress occupations, it makes sense to examine those sources of worker
stress that are common to all kinds of jobs, even those that are not typically considered high-stress jobs.
Such sources of stress can be divided into two general categories: organizational and individual.
• Organizational sources of stress come from the work environment and can be broken down into two
subcategories: stress derived from work tasks and stress resulting from work roles.
• Individual sources of stress include a person’s history of exposure to stress as well as certain
stress-related personality characteristics and behavioral patterns. For example, there is evidence
that certain personality traits make people more prone to stress (and stress-related illnesses), and
some characteristics seem to make people more resistant to stress and its negative outcomes.
ORGANIZATIONAL SOURCES OF WORK STRESS:
a. Situational Stressors
A great deal of worker stress is caused by stressors in the environment of the work organization.
Some of this organizational stress is caused by the work tasks themselves—the physical and
psychological demands of performing job. Organizational stress may also be caused by work roles
because work organizations are complex social systems in which a worker must interact with many
people. Therefore, the work relationships of various kinds that must be created and maintained for a
worker to perform the job adequately can also lead to stress. These two types of situational stress—
work task and work role stressors—can often be alleviated by management actions.

 WORK TASK STRESSORS

WORK OVERLOAD - A common work task source of stress is work overload, also known as role overload,
which results when the job requires excessive work speed, output, or concentration.
UNDERUTILIZATION- a source of stress resulting from workers feeling that their knowledge, skills, or
energy are not being fully used.
 WORK ROLE STRESSORS
JOB AMBIGUITY - a source of stress resulting from a lack of clearly defined jobs and/or work tasks.
LACK OF CONTROL - a feeling of having little input or effect on the job and/or work environment; typically
results in stress. PHYSICAL WORK CONDITIONS - Physical conditions in the work environment are
another organizational source contributing to worker stress (Frese & Zapf, 1988). Jobs that must be
performed under extreme temperatures, loud and distracting noise, or poor lighting or ventilation can be
quite stressful. Dangerous jobs that place workers at risk of loss of health, life, or limb are an additional
source of work stress (Booth, 1986). Cramped, crowded, and excessively noisy work environments can
also cause stress.
INTERPERSONAL STRESS - stems from difficulties in developing and maintaining relationships with other
people in the work setting. Having a harsh, critical boss with a punitive management style would likely be
stressful for just about anyone. With the rise of virtual work, some workers feel a lack of social connections

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and support and experience a stressful sense of social isolation. +Emotional Labor - the demands of
regulating and controlling emotions and emotional displays as part of a job requirement.

HARASSMENT - All forms of harassment, including sexual harassment, harassment due to group
membership (e.g., gender, race, sexual orientation), and being singled out by an abusive supervisor or
colleague, are all extremely stressful.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE- A common organizational source of stress is change. Most of us prefer
things to remain stable and predictable. Such stability in our working environments seems comforting and
reassuring. Therefore, it should not be surprising that major changes in a work organization tend to cause
stress. Some common change situations that lead to worker stress include company reorganizations,
mergers of one company with another or acquisitions of one organization by another, changes in work
systems and work technology, changes in company policy, and managerial or personnel changes.
WORK-FAMILY CONFLICT - A very important source of stress, one that extends beyond the boundaries of
the organization, is work– family conflict, which results from efforts to balance the often competing
demands of work roles and requirements and those of family and nonworking life. A great deal of attention
has been devoted to research on work–family conflict and efforts to achieve balance between the world of
work and the world of family (Halpern & Murphy, 2005; Kossek & Lambert, 2005). Importantly, work–family
conflict is a source of stress that is common internationally and is on the rise because of the increased
demands of work.

INDIVIDUAL SOURCES OF WORK STRESS:

b. Dispositional stressors
Although a great deal of worker stress is created by factors in the organization or by features of
jobs and work tasks, some is caused by characteristics of the workers themselves. We will
consider two such individual sources of work stress: The Type A behavior pattern and susceptibility
to stress and to stress effects. It is the individual worker—not management—who must work to
alleviate these sources of stress.
TYPE A BEHAVIOR PATTERN
Type A behavior pattern, or Type A personality, which is characterized by excessive drive and
competitiveness, a sense of urgency and impatience, and underlying hostility (Table 10.2; Friedman
& Rosenman, 1974; Rosenman, 1978). This behavior pattern is particularly significant because there
is evidence that persons who possess the Type A personality are slightly more prone to develop
stress-related coronary heart disease, including fatal heart attacks, than persons who do not have
the behavior pattern, termed Type Bs.
SUSCEPTIBILITY/RESISTANCE TO STRESS
Another dispositional source of stress may stem from the fact that some persons are simply more
susceptible to stress, whereas others have stress resistant, hardy personalities. The concept of
hardiness was outlined by psychologist Suzanne Kobasa (1982; Maddi & Kobasa, 1984), who
argued that hardy personality types are resistant to the harmful effects of stress because of their
style of dealing with stressful events.
SELF-EFFICACY
Research has also identified another characteristic that seems to increase resistance to stress: self-
efficacy. Self-efficacy is defined as an individual’s beliefs in his or her abilities to engage in courses
of action that will lead to desired outcomes
(Bandura, 1997). In other words, self-efficacy is related to one’s sense of competence and
effectiveness. Self-efficacy is a very important concept that not only relates to one’s ability to cope
with stressful situations (i.e., the possession of coping selfefficacy), but it is also an important factor
relating to a worker’s ability to perform his or her job (job-related self-efficacy), to lead a work team
(leadership self-efficacy), and to deal effectively with relationships at work (relationship self-efficacy).
There is evidence that a sense of self-efficacy can have positive effects in reducing stress in the
workplace (Jex & Bliese, 1999; Rennesund & Saksvik, 2010; Saks, 1994; Van Yperen, 1998). In one
study, it was found that having a sense of control over a stressful work situation only decreased
stress if the employees had a high sense of self-efficacy about their abilities to do their jobs under
stress and strain (Jimmieson, 2000).
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EFFECTS OF WORKER STRESS

Much of the growing interest in worker stress (it is one of the most studied areas of I/O psychology)
is due to the very powerful impact that it can have on workers and work behavior, and, most
dramatically, on employee health.
It is believed that more than one half of all physical illnesses are stress related. Some
common stress-related illnesses are ulcers, colitis, high blood pressure, heart disease, respiratory
illnesses, and migraine headaches. Moreover, stress can worsen common colds, flus, and infections,
making recovery time longer. It is estimated that these illnesses, attributed in part to work stress,
cost billions of dollars annually in health-care costs and in employee absenteeism and turnover
(Beehr & Bhagat, 1985; Clark, 2005; Hart & Cooper, 2001). Importantly, polls of workers show that
the majority believes that job stress causes them problems (Clark, 2005).
Worker stress can also have an adverse impact on employees’ psychological states. High
levels of stress are associated with depression, anxiety, and chronic fatigue. Stress may also
contribute to alcoholism and drug abuse in workers and may influence accident rates on the job
(Frone, 2008; Wolf, 1986; we will discuss these in more depth later). Emotional exhaustion,
detachment from coworkers, negative self-evaluations, and lowered self-esteem are also associated
with worker stress (Cordes & Dougherty, 1993).
A great deal of evidence suggests that work stress can lead to increased turnover and
absenteeism (Boswell & Olson-Buchanan, 2004; Cavanaugh, Boswell,Roehling, & Boudreau, 2000;
Mayes & Ganster, 1988). Gupta and Beehr (1979) found this to be true for a variety of occupations in
five organizations. Another study concluded that it was a combination of high levels of work stress
and low levels of organizational commitment that predicted voluntary turnover rates for
workers in a food processing company (Parasuraman & Alutto, 1984). Further, if stress levels are to
blame for certain illnesses, it is a given that stress must be responsible for some absenteeism and
some turnover caused by disabling illness.

Job Burnout
Employees exposed to such things as unresolved interpersonal conflicts, lack of clearly defined work
tasks and responsibilities, extreme overwork, lack of appropriate rewards, or presence of
inappropriate punishment may become victims of burnout, a process by which they become less
committed to their jobs and begin to withdraw from work. The process of withdrawal may include
such reactions as increased tardiness and absenteeism and decreased work performance and work
quality (Gaines & Jermier, 1983; Sutherland & Cooper, 1988; Ybema, Smulders, & Bongers, 2010).
Moreover, work-related burnout can spill over to an individual’s family life.
Burnout usually occurs in three phases.
The first phase is emotional exhaustion caused by excessive demands placed on the worker.
The second phase is depersonalization, or the development of a cynical, insensitive attitude toward
people (other workers or customers) in the work site.
The third phase is marked by feelings of low personal accomplishment. Here the burned-out workers
feel a sense of frustration and helplessness. They begin to believe that their work efforts fail to
produce the desired results, and they may quit trying.
It is important to note that there is some debate among researchers about the definition and the complexity
of the burnout phenomenon. For instance, researchers have disagreed about the number of components
that comprise the burnout syndrome (Demerouti, Bakker, Nachreiner, & Schaufeli, 2001; Evans & Fischer,
1993; Schaufeli & Van Dierendonck, 1993). Yet, burnout is a serious problem and illustrates some of the
long-term psychological and behavioral effects of work-related stress.

COPING WITH WORKER STRESS

Individual Coping Strategies involve techniques such as exercise, meditation, or cognitive restructuring
that can be used to deal with work stress.

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Organizational Coping Strategies - steps that organizations can take to try to reduce stress levels in the
organization for all, or most, employees (Burke, 1993). Because work stress can come from a variety of
organizational sources, there are many things that organizations can do to reduce situational stressors in
the workplace. These strategies include the following: a. Improve the person-job fit
b. Improve employee training and orientation programs
c. Increase employees’ sense of control
d. Eliminate punitive management
e. Remove hazardous and dangerous work conditions
f. Provide a supportive, team-oriented work environment
g. Improve Communication

NEGATIVE EMPLOYEE ATTITUDES AND WORK BEHAVIORS

Beyond the role of negative emotions, what are some negative employee behaviors that are of major
concern to organizations? I/O psychologists have investigated counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs),
which are deviant behaviors that are harmful to an employee’s organization and its members.
Counterproductive work behaviors include such things as stealing from employers, vandalism, sabotage,
harassment of coworkers, deliberately missing work, and using drugs or alcohol on the job.

Examples of Counterproductive Work Behaviors

(CWB’s)
Said something hurtful to, or made fun of, a coworker
Acted rudely or publicly embarrassed a coworker
Taken property from work without permission
Falsified a receipt to get reimbursed for more than you spent on a
business expense
Taken an additional or longer work break than is acceptable
Come in late to work without permission
Neglected to follow your boss’s instructions
Used an illegal drug or consumed alcohol on the job
Dragged out work in order to get paid overtime
Discussed confidential company information with an unauthorized person
Made a derogatory ethnic, religious, or racial remark at work
Littered your work environment
Intentionally worked slower than you could have worked