Rlchard Pettlnger

Recent studies

Recent studies have tended to concentrate on different aspects of stress management. At both macro and micro levels they have looked at how to reduce stress levels in working environments and also at the human and economic costs incurred.

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Goodness of fit

Furnham and Schaeffer (1984) ² proposed the concept of ‘‘goodness of fit’’ between individuals, their organization, and their occupation. This reinforced the subjectivity of stress – the fact that one person ’s stress is another’s interest, stimulus or indifference. The key is to ensure that individual professions and occupations provide the ‘‘right amount ’’ of stimulation, creativity, drive, reward, challenge, and progress. Where these are out of harmony with each other, symptoms of stress such as frustration, con flict, dispute, and other behavioral and attitudinal prob- lems are likely to occur. This again reinforces the need to understand stress as a key aspect of management knowledge and expertise.

Karoushi

Tubbs (1993) ³ identified Karoushi or ‘‘stress death’’ during studies of patterns of work in large corporations in Japan. The original hypothesis was that the sheer physical and psychological demands of working long hours every day meant that people were dying of exhaustion.

Tubbs found however that the killer – the last straw – was stress. People who worked long hours felt that they had to and that they had no control over their working lives or the demands placed on them by their employers. Many depended on the overtime to make ends meet, to provide for wives and children, and to ensure social standing. It was these pressures that caused death, not the long hours themselves.

COSTS

The costs of stress to employers, as well as employees, have never been fully or completely calculated. However, a variety of individual studies and statistics give a clear indication.

A UK labor research department report published in 1983 stated that there were then three million excessive drinkers in England and Wales, and 850,000 problem and dependent drinkers. About one in twenty- five of the population in England and Wales, and possibly as high as one in ten in Scotland, may be personally affected by severe alcohol-related problems.

A survey by Canada Health Monitor (2000) found that 25% of workers reported stress, psychological or emotional problems arising from work

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(as opposed to 9% who said that they suffered from workplace injury, and 9% who said they suffered from illness brought on by bad working conditions, noise, dust, heat, and cold). It was estimated that the cost of stress to Canadian industry, commerce, and public services was in the order of Can$300,000,000,000 per annum.