WHO ARE YOU?

The past two weeks we looked into stress, factors that cause stress and some ways of managing stress. We classified stress in constructive stress and destructive stress, realizing that stress does not always act as a negative influence on our lives. Constructive stress in fact acts in a positive way for the individual or organization, while destructive stress or distress is dysfunctional for the individual and the organization. Excessive high levels of stress can overload and break down a person’s physical and mental systems. Performance may suffer and workers experience illness brought on by very intense stress and they may react by being absent from work, making mistakes, causing accidents, dissatisfaction, reduced performance or even unethical behaviour, like cheating. Factors that cause stress can be classified into three categories: work factors, nonwork factors and personal factors. We concluded that if all workers face stress to a certain extend it is important that managers recognise stress as people display certain stress related

Casual about appointments

Not competitive

Never feel rushed

Take one thing at a time

Do things slowly

Express my feelings

Many outside interests behaviour. The key thing is to look for changes from normal patterns, like from regular attendance to absenteeism, from punctuality to tardiness, from diligence to carelessness, from a positive attitude to a negative attitude, from openness to resistance or from cooperation to hostility. The role of stress in the work setting is complex, with constructive stress facilitating performance and destructive stress reducing performance and impairing the worker’s health.

It is thus very important for management to find a good fit between the individual, the work environment and the amount of job stress involved. Such a fit stimulates productivity without damaging health. Having said that, people react and respond differently to stress they are exposed to and some people can endure more stress than others. One orientation towards the differences in personalities in relation to stress, is the Type A and Type B orientation. To get a feel for this orientation, take the following quiz. Circle the number that best characterises you on each of the following pairs of characteristics.

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Never late

Very competitive

Always feel rushed

Try to do many things

Do things fast

Hold in my feelings

Few outside interests