Directorate of distance education master of business administration

Work-Related Stress and Management of Stress
 
 
Stress is a particular relationship between the person and the 
environment, which is appraised by the person as positively challenging 
or negatively taxing or exceeding his or her resources and endangering 
his or her well-being. Stress is described as a dynamic condition in which 
an individual is confronted with an opportunity, constraint or demand 
related to what he or she desires, for which the outcome is perceived 
simultaneously to be both uncertain and important. For example, 
employees might be stressed when performance review is taking place, 
during which a person is unsure of the nature of the ratings he or she 
would receive. At the same time, the person is fully aware that while 
a good review might lead to tremendous improvement in pay and 
positions, a mediocre or poor rating could lead to being removed from 
the job. Though the stress might be work-related, they might have been 
caused by personal factors, or job-related factors.
Different types of Stress affects people’s work lives. Not all stress 
would be termed as bad and therefore, the goal of stress management 
is not to entirely eliminate stress from people’s lives. Stress can have 
positive effects. Positive stress or Eustress can help people to respond 
quickly and with adequate force in times of emergencies such as avoiding 
an automobile collision, moving away from flying objects, fighting a fire 
etc. Positive stress is useful in speeding up the pace of work to meet 
deadlines. It helps one to push one’s limits to improve performance 
rapidly and to realize one’s fullest potential over a period of years in 
career.  
Neu-stress is a type of stress that is neither helpful nor harmful to 
the persons who are stressed. Stress could be sometimes anticipatory in 
which arousal is stimulated by an expected stressor.  This is often caused 
by inadequate preparation or pessimism. Current stress is arousal that 

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takes place during an experience. Stress could also be residual at times, 
in which the arousal continues to remain even long after the stressful 
event has passed. Inability to overcome the trauma of an event is the 
cause of residual stress. Lack of support during and first aid immediately 
after stressors could be the causes of residual effects on people.