Stress Management
● What is stress?
○ Stress is a feeling of emotional or physical tension.
○ It can come from any event or thought that makes you feel
frustrated, angry, or nervous.
○ Stress is your body's reaction to a challenge or demand.
○ Stress is often referred to as negative, but it can sometimes be
positive.
○ The perception of the situation determines whether it is worth
stressing over.
● Types of stress:
○ Functional stress is good stress; it's just enough stress to prevent
you from failing, spurs you on, and motivates you to give your best.
○ Dysfunctional stress is bad stress which is debilitating, prevents
you from coping and has a negative influence on your life.
● Causes of stress in the workplace:
○ Work overload/unrealistic targets.
○ Procrastination.
○ A lack of power (employees feel irrelevant and that their opinions
are not heard).
○ Long working hours.
○ A lack of finances/human resources or physical resources affecting
the employee's ability to achieve goals.
○ Change in the job description (the job responsibilities), changes in
management, or technology (there will always be resistance to
change).
○ Conflict in the workplace (confrontations with managers or other
staff).
○ Suitability for a role (the employee may feel incompetent, causing
burnout).
○ Inadequate training (leading to role overload where other staff
members have to take on extra work).
● Personalities and stress:
○ There are two broad types of people in the world: Type A and Type B
personalities.
○ People with Type A personalities often struggle to resolve conflict
and manage their stress. Working with a Type B personality can help
them find the middle ground.
○ The opposite is also true: where Type A personalities may feel the
urgency in getting a task completed, whereas Type B personalities
may not be as task-oriented and rather more people-focused. This
can cause conflict.
● How to manage stress:
○ Be aware of your present stress levels and what creates stress for
you.
○ Predict stressful situations and make changes where possible.
○ Apply good time management skills.
○ Accept those things that cannot be changed and focus on the things
you can control.
○ Set realistic goals and targets.
○ Avoid conflict.
○ Get enough sleep.
○ Eat healthy meals.
○ Exercise regularly.
○ Find something that helps you relax.
○ Make time for holidays.
○ Follow a balanced lifestyle.
○ Visualise yourself in a relaxing place.
○ Plan ahead and be prepared for what you have to do.
○ Do not procrastinate.
○ Prioritise what you have to do each day.
○ Treat yourself kindly.
○ Spend time with family and friends – talk and laugh with them.
○ Accept that change is inevitable.
○ Arrive slightly early so you don't have to rush.
○ Breathe deeply.
● Stress and the relevance to the business world:
○ Employees who have dysfunctional stress are less productive,
unmotivated, more emotional, and vulnerable to not coping with
the demands of their job.
○ This can lead to employees taking more time off work and an
inability to perform. This results in a cycle, as this will increase
stress on the employees.
○ If stress is not managed effectively it can lead to low productivity,
resentment in management, negativity among staff, lack of
confidence in ability and future prospects, poor work ethic, negative
public relations, resignation of highly-skilled staff and a lack of
skills in the business, inability to control and lack of systems, poor
health, and long-term financial loss.
○ Business managers must ensure they try to reduce employee anxiety
and stress as much as possible to ensure they remain productive and
efficient.
○ Managers must provide a working environment that is conducive to
functional stress and motivate employees to achieve the business
vision.
Crisis Management
● What is a crisis?
○ A crisis is a situation that is out of your control.
○ It is a difficult or dangerous situation that needs serious attention.
○ A crisis causes a huge and sudden increase in stress levels.
● Causes of a crisis:
○ Physical danger (natural disasters such as fires or floods).
○ Personal issues (health, fear).
○ Interpersonal issues (relationships, death, depression).
○ Social issues (war, politics, violence).
● Stages of a crisis:
○ There are three stages in a crisis situation: Pre, Mid, and Post-crisis.
○ Pre-crisis: This is the calm before the storm. It is important that
management ensure a risk management strategy has been put in
place to reduce the impact of any unexpected threats. Be aware of
potential dangers and monitor events to be prepared in case
something develops into a crisis. Risk management is a technique
often used by businesses to pre-empt a crisis. Not every crisis will
present warning factors.
○ Mid-crisis: This is when the crisis breaks out. Management must
prioritise safety and try to regain control of the situation.
Communication is essential. Once a crisis breaks, there is seldom
time for planning. Safety and regaining control of the situation is
always the most important priority. Gathering factual and accurate
information about the situation is key. Communication during a
crisis situation is often difficult but it is crucial in maintaining
control of the process.
○ Post-crisis: After the crisis situation, the business must deal with
the consequences and count the costs. Employees may need
counselling and strategies will need to be put in place to prevent
such an occurrence from happening again. Loss, injury, or even
death may have resulted, and business managers must deal with
each of these issues. Counselling of the crisis was traumatic for all
staff may assist in healing. Learning from mistakes by analysing the
situation, including the results, and the actions that may have
changed the course of events, is crucial if the crisis occurred as a
result of negligence or error in judgment; this step will assist in
ensuring it does not happen again. Strategies must be put in place
to prevent future occurrences. Developing coping skills is also part
of this stage.
● Relevance to the business world:
○ With the unpredictability of the economy and numerous factors
affecting the business on a daily basis, things can constantly go
wrong.
○ Examples of crisis situations in the business environments:
■ Micro environment: Employees getting injured or off-sick,
financial issues, floods, fires.
■ Market environment: Suppliers not delivering on time,
improper or unsuitable stock, trade unions organising strikes.
■ Macro environment: Interest rates, unemployment,
population explosion, environmental damage, tax increases,
legal issues, load shedding.
○ All of these are related, as one problem in one environment could
have a knock-on effect on the other environments (micro, market,
macro).
○ Example: A flood (macro) could destroy a warehouse full of stock
(market), which could lead to unhappy customers who cancel their
orders (market) and this has a financial implication on the business
(micro), leading to retrenching staff (micro).
○ Businesses must try to pre-empt these issues as far as possible and
ensure they have a plan of action should such a crisis occur. This is
called risk management.
Change Management
● What is change?
○ One of the most common causes of stress in a pressurised business
environment is CHANGE.
○ Sometimes it is necessary to make changes in the business to avoid
future problems.
○ Change is a process that takes people, employees, and organisations
from the way things are currently being done to a new way of doing
things.
○ It could be a new process in customer service or a change to the
working environment.
○ During change, people tend to experience fear and resistance and
may have negative expectations.
○ Managers need to manage the situation with sensitivity and
remember that everyone responds to change differently and will
have different needs and personal goals. This process of guiding
employees through the changes required is known as change
management.
● Causes of change:
○ The causes of change can be internal (come from within a business
or organisation) or external (from the market or macro
environments).
○ Internal causes of change include: New business goals or objectives,
New policies, processes or procedures, Restructuring of the
organisation, Bringing in new employees, Retrenchment of
employees, New management. These relate to the micro
environment components: Vision, mission, goals and objectives;
Organisational culture; Organisational structure; Resources;
Management; Eight business functions.
○ External causes of change occur in the market or macro
environments. Businesses have little to no control over these
changes but they do affect the way the business operates.
Businesses need to adapt to these change. These relate to the market
environment components (Customers, Suppliers, Competitors,
Intermediaries, Unions, Civil society) and Macro environment
components (Physical/natural environment, Economic environment,
Legal and political environment, Institutional environment,
Technological environment, International/global environment,
Social, cultural and demographic environment).
○ Specific external changes mentioned include: New competitor
entering the market, Competitors introducing new products to the
market, Suppliers introducing new pricing structures,
Increase/decrease in availability of goods provided by suppliers,
New government or political leadership, New policies and
legislature, Changes to international relations, Increase or decrease
in poverty/unemployment/HIV/AIDS, Increase or decrease in
inflation or interest rates, Advances in technology that affect the
production processes.
○ Changes can also arise from both internal and external factors.
Examples and potential strategies for addressing them are provided
in the sources. These include:
■ Unemployment
■ Globalisation
■ Affirmative Action
● Managing change in the workplace:
○ Guidance for managers on how to deal with change is provided
using the acronym CHANGE.
○ C - Consult those involved. Consider everyone's personalities and
how they will respond to change. Communication is always key with
change to calm people's fears and make them feel comfortable that
they know what is going on in the process.
○ H - Have the necessary information to answer any questions and to
offer explanations of different scenarios that could happen with the
change.
○ A - Alternatives. Consider any alternatives to solutions or options
staff may suggest.
○ N - No change will happen without resistance. Be prepared for this
and keep your emotions in check.
○ G - Give people as much time and resources as possible to help them
adapt to the change.
○ E - Evaluate what could have been done differently to expedite
(make it more efficient and faster) the process.
● Theories of change management:
○ There are a number of theories of change management or models
that can be used by businesses to assist with the change
management process.
○ It is essential that people are guided through the process of change
to avoid it having a negative impact.
○ Two different theories on how managers should manage change are
discussed: Kotter's 8-step model and the ADKAR model.
○ Kotter's 8-step model for leaders managing change.
○ The ADKAR model of change management:
■ A - Awareness of the need for change. Communication is key.
■ D - Desire to take part and support the change. Moving from
fear to hope.
■ K - Knowledge of how to change. Provide education, training,
and mentors for staff.
■ A - Ability to implement the change. Skills, practice, and
coaching is required.
■ R - Reinforcement to sustain the change. Reward, recognition
and celebration.
Stress, crisis management, and change management are interlinked. Neither of
them is properly managed, a crisis ensues. In addition, due to the advancement
of technology in the modern world, we interact easily with those individuals and
businesses in our immediate environments as we do with those across the world.
This results in a large number of conflicting goals, ideas, and values that will
lead to greater stress and crisis situations. The most important aspect is to be
part of the solution and not part of the problem. It is necessary for both
employees and managers to equip themselves with the skills and the tools to be
able to grow through change and manage stress levels. In the words of Socrates:
"The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but
on building the new".