AFM280 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Convenience Store, Cash Register, Call Centre
17 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Chapter 6
STRESS
• “tatisti Caada estiates that a thid of Caadia okes feel thei jos ae uite o eteel
stressful
• Stress is defined as a psychological response to demands when there is something at stake for the
individual, and when opig ith these deads ould ta o eeed the idiidual’s apait o
resources.
• Stressors: demands that cause the stress response
• Strains: negative consequences of the stress response
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
• Different people might experience different levels of stress even when confronted with exactly the
same situation
WHY ARE “OME EMPLOYEE“ MORE “TRE““ED THAN OTHER“?
• Transactional theory of stress: explains how stressors are perceived and appraised, as well as how
people respond to those perceptions and appraisals.
• When people first encounter stressors, the process of primary appraisal is triggered.
• Primary appraisal: evaluation of whether a demand is stressful and, if it is, the implications of the
stressor in terms of personal goals and well-being.
• Example of primary appraisal
• Job of a cashier at a well-run convenience store
• Cashiers engage in routine sales transactions with customers
• Well trained cashiers would not likely feel that these transactions are taxing their
capacity
• Job demands that tend not to be appraised as stressful are called benign job
demands
• However, if the cash register and credit card machine break down often in another store.
The cashiers over there would be more stressed.
• The cashiers in this store might appraise the stressful situation as one that prevents
them from achieving their goal of being viewed as an effective employee by others.
• Consider another store where there are even more responsibilities such as training new
employees for the cashier.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
• Employees here, even though feel stressed, they might appraise these demands as
providing an opportunity to learn and demonstrate the type of competence that
often is rewarded with satisfying promotions and pay raises.
TYPE OF STRESSORS
• Dealing with machine breakdowns has no benefit to the employees in the long-term. These are
called hindrance stressors
• Trigger anger and anxiety
• Dealing with additional responsibilities has a long-term benefit, these are called challenge stressors-
perceived as opportunities for learning, growth, and achievement.
• Trigger pride and enthusiasm
Work Hindrance Stressors
• One type of work-related hindrance stressor is role conflict, which refers to conflicting expectations
that other people may have of us.
• E.g. call centre operator are expected to contact as many people as possible over a given
period, but also spending quality time for each person contacted.
• Role ambiguity refers to the lack of information regarding what needs to be done in a role, as well
as unpredictability regarding the consequences of performance in that role.
• Often experienced by new employees with shit supervisors
• Role overload occurs when the number of demanding roles a person holds is so high that the person
simply cannot perform some or all the roles effectively.
• Daily hassles, reflects the relatively minor day to day demands that get in the way of accomplishing
the things that we want to accomplish.
• E.g. deal with unnecessary paperwork, equipment malfunctions, conflict with co-workers,
and useless communications.
work challenge stressors
• Time pressure- a strong sense that the amount of time you have to do a task is just not quiet
enough. Some people appraise these situations as more challenging than hindering.
• Work complexity refers to the degree to which the requirements of the work, in terms of
knowledge, skills, and abilities, tax or exceed the capabilities of the person who is responsible for
performing the work.
• E.g. giving people jobs that require skills and knowledge that the people do not yet possess
to train future executives and leaders. People like these stress because its worth the
learning.
• Work responsibility refers to the nature of the obligations that a person has toward others.
• E.g. the level of work responsibility for an air traffic controller who may be accountable for
the lives of passengers is very high.
Non-work Hindrance Stressors
• Stressful demands outside of work that have implications for managing behaviour in organizations
• Work-family conflict, a special form of role conflict in which the demands of a work role hinder the
fulfillment of the demands in a family role (or vice versa).
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Job of a cashier at a well-run convenience store: cashiers engage in routine sales transactions with customers, well trained cashiers would not likely feel that these transactions are taxing their capacity. Job demands that tend not to be appraised as stressful are called benign job demands: however, if the cash register and credit card machine break down often in another store. Type of stressors: dealing with machine breakdowns has no benefit to the employees in the long-term. These are called hindrance stressors: trigger anger and anxiety, dealing with additional responsibilities has a long-term benefit, these are called challenge stressors- perceived as opportunities for learning, growth, and achievement, trigger pride and enthusiasm. In the first example the employee used avoidance to reduce the stress. You do(cid:374)"t ha(cid:448)e (cid:272)o(cid:374)t(cid:396)ol o(cid:448)e(cid:396) (cid:272)ha(cid:374)gi(cid:374)g the (cid:271)oss"s (cid:271)eha(cid:448)iou(cid:396). Tend to get in conflict with peers over competition. Their hard-driving competitiveness makes them hypersensitive to demands that might affect their progress toward their goal attainment.
