Rlchard Pettlnger

Specific problems

Stress is caused when bullying, victimization, harassment, and discrim- ination occur and are allowed to persist. It is also a serious problem when an individual comes across an aspect of organizational or occu- pational malpractice and feels powerless to do anything about it. Each of these stems from the illegitimate use of power by individuals, groups or the organization as a whole based on:

» position, rank and status;

» resource command and control; and

» physical power, strength, and size.

WHAT IS STRESS MANAGEMENT? 11
The most common outputs are:
» sexual harassment, usually of female staff by males;

» threatening behavioral and physical violence towards an individual or group; and

» threatening attitudes and behavior towards subordinates by seniors involving the misuse and abuse of disciplinary and poor performance procedures; and in many cases, this is compounded still by adversarial general attitudes that may be summarized as: ‘‘If you do not do this work or want this job, there are millions out there who do.’’

Roles

Roles are combinations of behavior and activities undertaken by people in different sets of circumstances. Everyone performs a great variety of roles during their lives (see Figure 2.1). Each role has expectations, pressures, rewards, and consequences. There are overlaps between each and measures of honesty, discord, and conflict.

Professional/Occupational


Employee
Family Person
Parent

Child Aunt/Uncle

Holidaymaker

Individual
Entertainer

^{Sports person} Shopper
Reader