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Unit 12: Handling Stress at Workplace

as a human being but as a numbered object. These factors combined together lead to a feeling Notes
of low personal accomplishment. According to a study conducted by Advani, it was found that
organizational politics and coordination expertise was significant in influencing burnout level
among software professionals. While organizational politics had a greater influence on emotional
exhaustion and depersonalization aspects, coordination expertise had a greater influence on
the personal accomplishment aspect of burnout.
According to Etzion the characteristics which are found to be associated with high degree of
burnout are as follows:

1. Burnout candidates experience a great deal of stress as a result of job-related stressors.
2. They tend to be idealistic and self-motivated achievers.
3. They often seek unattainable goals.

12.7.3 Behavioural Consequences
When stress becomes distress, job performance gets affected and workplace accidents become
very common. High stress levels impair our ability to remember information, make effective
decisions, and take appropriate actions. Some of the initial behavioural consequences of distress
are sleep disorders, change in eating habits, increase in smoking and alcohol consumption, and
nervous behaviour such as rapid speech, stuttering and rude behaviour towards others. Negative
stress causes even very polite and sober people to shout at their colleagues or subordinates.
The most extreme form of distress results in workplace violence directed towards self or others
resulting in suicide attempts or physical attacks on others.

Figure 12.4: Yerkes–Dodson Law of Arousal

Stress–Performance Connection
HIGH

P
E
R
F Optimal
O
R
M
A
N
C Alertness Anxiety
E

Sleep Disorganization

LOW MEDIUM HIGH

STRESS

Performance decline is another major outcome of negative stress. It is estimated that nearly
75% of all work loss is due to stress. The relationship between stress and performance can be
explained with the help of a violin string. For a violin, an optimum degree of tension is
essential to play on it; similarly for an effective performance, optimum level of stress is

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