A Little Bit of Stress Is Useful
“A little bit of stress is useful – it keeps people in their toes. ” Discuss. In order to answer this question one must first define the various elements in the question. Stress can be defined as ‘The harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources or needs of the worker’ . One can define useful, as stress making a person happy, productive and efficient. Also in terms of an organisation making it successful, efficient and effective.
You should use more industrial words here eg producing more units Millions of people suffer from stress on a daily basis. Stress can affect a person’s physical health such as increased heart rate and rise in blood pressure, and can affect a person mentally such as depression. This in turn for organisations can be devastating and potentially detrimental, as this can lead to poor industrial relations and high absenteeism, ‘IHC estimates that 13. 4 million working days a year are lost to stress’.
On the face of it this would suggest that stress is indeed a bad thing. Indeed a study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that those participants who experienced chronic high stress on the job had a considerably greater chance of suffering another heart attack than did those in less stressful jobs. Furthermore there were many cases in world war one of sudden deaths to soldiers who had not endured any wounds, these men probably died of shock when responding to stress.
In 1967 Holmes and Rahe carried out a study now called the stress scale where they looked at 5,000 medical patients’ medical records as a way to determine specifically which stressful events caused illnesses, in hierarchical order from the most stressful events to the least. Death of a spouse topped the list followed by, divorce, martial separation and a jail sentence. All these events are intrinsically negative and as such it would be easy to conclude that stress is bad for anyone as it is caused by bad events.
However Hooshmand conversely states that ‘stress is just another misunderstood term in the medical practice’ he goes on to say that ‘the phrase any stress is bad (is) nothing further from the truth’. Indeed Lazarus mentions how ‘Hans Selyve suggested two types (of stress) distress and eustress. Distress is the destructive stress illustrated by anger and aggression and it is said to damage health. Eustress is the constructive type, illustrated by emotions associated with emphatic concerns for others… ompatible with or protective of good health’ This is significant, according to Selyve and Lazarus there is, as mentioned above, a ‘distress’ type of stress which is bad- this is where there is too much stress. For example if a manager were to give a deadline which was impossible this may over stimulate and de motivate an employee causing them to do no work. But also mentioned is a ‘eustress’ type of stress which can be seen as ‘useful’ and healthy ‘keeping people on their toes’.
This would be where there are small amounts of stress for example if a manager was to set a strict but reasonable deadline it may push the employee on to work harder, stimulating an increasing the employees energy levels to meet the challenge . This shall be mentioned in more detail later on in the essay. Although Lazarus goes on to mention that this hypothesis ‘has not been adequately supported…. by empirical research’ there is other evidence to support this claim of eustress. In 1908 Robert M.
Yerkes and J. D. Dodson created an experiential relationship between performance and pressure, now known as ‘Yerkes-Dodson Law ’. The law shows that performance actually increases with pressure i. e. stress: the eustress that Selyve went on about, but only up to a point. When levels of pressure become too high, performance decreases, this is known as distress. The process is illustrated graphically as a rounded, inverted U-shaped curve which increases and then decreases with higher levels of pressure.
Clearly according to this law one wants to reach the optimum stress levels which is small amounts of stress to keep one on its toes but not too much as this could lead to depression and potentially heart problems. It is now important to look at specifically how eustress can help and be healthy for you. From ‘Yerkes-Dodson Law’ it would not be unreasonable to suggest that eustress is basically stress in small, not large amounts. Leitnerpg states that ‘according to Allen 1983 eustress represents challenge and stimulation for healthy growth and development’ this would suggest that eustress stress gives you the competitive edge roviding you with focus and determination. There are many examples above of stressors likely to produce distress such as divorce but Leitner mentions stressors which produce eustress such as ‘roller coasters and skiing’ It is important to note that people are actually paying for these stressors, thus they can be considered useful stresses. Some people even thrive on the excitement of stresses this can be best shown in adrenaline junkies, as they seek activities that increase their hormone adrenaline production. Examples of these stress seekers include racing car drivers, politicians and bungee jumpers.
It is well known that many employees will leave there work to the last minute they need the stress and adrenaline to get their work done, if there is no stress it is probable this work would never be done. Indeed it is possible to have stressors which can cause both eustress and distress such as exercise, which can be considered a eustress, but when overdone can lead to injuries and illness. Selye points out that ‘whether an activity produces eustress or distress depends on the participant’s perception of the activity’ this can be supported by a quote from Shakespeare ‘things are neither good nor bad, but thinking makes them so’ .
Indeed everyone is different when dealing with stress whether stress is good or bad for someone depends on that person. This can be supported by Type A and B personality theory created in the 1950’s . This puts people into two groups . Type A people are according to Friedman, M. & Rosenman ‘impatient, excessively time-conscious, insecure about their status, highly competitive, hostile aggressive, and incapable of relaxation’ . They established a link between type A people and coronary heart disease after analysing data from thousands of people who had beforehand been placed into either type A or Type B group.
Whilst type B people are almost the opposite of type A people, relaxed in nature with no sense of time urgency and less easily stressed. Quote The above evidence would suggest that the amount of stress does not matter to a great extent but what does is the type of person as, according to this theory there are two types of people, type A personalities will deal worse with stress than type B personalities. It would not be unreasonable to suggest that a small amount of stress for type B personalities maybe good for that person ensuring they are focused and have more of a sense of time urgency, however the same amount of stress mposed on a type A personality could caused aggravation, anxiety and maybe even heart problems. Indeed some employers will look for employees who not only can naturally deal with stress but actually thrive on it. An example of this can be given of Alan Sugar who makes it clear in the program the apprentice that he is looking for people who can deal with stressful situations by testing them as part of the recruitment process . An essential part of the recruitment procedure is to be able to keep your nerve and defend yourself in the public forum of the board room, an artificially created stressful environment.
In this day and age there is bound to be stress due to the nature of work and the fast moving environment around us, it is how we deal with this stress which can determine whether this stress is useful or not. ‘Yerkes-Dodson Law’ dictates that if there is too much stress this can reduce the performance of the individual, thus it is sometimes important for the individual to be able to reduce this stress in order to produce optimal performance. Indeed Ward states that ‘in learning to manage stress effectively you may come to believe that the experiences of stressful periods may become beneficial to you. There are many different ways of dealing with stress and how well you deal with stress will determine how it affects you. A person can exercise to help reduce stress, ‘exercise creates a sense of confidence and control, which reduces stress’ this does not mean just occasional exercise but exercise on a daily basis if possible. Exercise also directly leads to relaxation of the body which can help reduce stress. Having the required sleeping hours is also vital, this will refresh yourself making you feel better the next morning and ready for work.
If one does not have the required sleeping hours necessary it can lead to tiredness which can lead directly to stress. So far mainly people and employees have been looked upon, it is important to look at how organisations as a whole deal with stress and if they find it useful or not. Organisations are becoming more and more aware of the importance of stress and its impact on employees. Ward mentions some ways in which companies are taking action to combat stress ‘more are referring employees for health and fitness tests. Others are running stress management courses and providing stress counselling for employees’ .
In view of this one can clearly see how important stress is in organisations. Some company’s thrive on stress these mainly seem to be financial orientated organisations. Who are and need to be extremely competitive with other similar organisations, this stress pushes the organisation on to its limits increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the company. It is not uncommon nowadays for organisations to deliberately impose stress on employees; this can be done by paying employees with high commissions, meaning they are not guaranteed money at all.
Some employees actually enjoy this stress, they enjoy the challenge and the buzz. Indeed this can be directly linked to job satisfaction. Other organisations in the health field such as hospitals try to reduce stress, as they feel any stress imposed on patients could be dangerous, one of the things they do to reduce stress is painting the hospital walls green as it is proven that green is a low stress colour can decrease stress. Clearly in the health field stress is deemed as bad but maybe in the financial field stress is seen as useful pushing on the company to success.
Thus the usefulness of stress depends upon which type of organisation it’s for. Obviously though too much stress in a financial organisation can cause absenteeism which will ultimately lose the company money. To conclude with regards to organisations as a whole, it just depends on the type of organisation to how useful stress is. In terms of individuals, small amounts of stress which Selye describes as eustress can help keep people on their toes, keeping them focused and acting as a stimulant, pushing them on to work. However it can completely depend on the person.
A Type A person may not be able to take that stress and instead of ‘keeping them on their toes’ may cause panic and anxiety. Nonetheless, in saying this, as Yerkes-Dodson law dictates some stress is needed to achieve optimum performance and give people a challenge, which increases job satisfaction. Thus it would be accurate to conclude that ‘a little bit of stress is useful – it keeps people on their toes’. You would improve the structure if you cross reference more eg when you are talking about how stress needs to be in the right quantity, it might be helpful if you mention that later on you will be talking about how stress an be controlled. If you need to add any more – you could talk further about the work life balance – ie however stressful the job – outside activities are essential A further element you could talk about – when discussing different personalities – is that what is stressful for some is not for others. A good example might be of mothers who stay at home and look after children – for some this is v stressful and for others it is an ideal environment. You could also add an international dimension eg in France there is huge job security and longer holidays (I think) in America holidays are short and there is v little job security
