Stress And Counselling,

Emerging Issues And

Challenges
What is Stress?

 Stress refers to disatisfaction.

 Physical, psychologicaland behavioural

deviations of employees.
 “The interaction of the individual with the

enviornment.” –Ivancevich and Matteson

 “Stress is a condition arising from the

interaction of people and their jobs and

charecterized by changes within people that
force them to deviate from their normal
functioning – Beehr and Newman
Contd…

 Stress is positive or negative

 Positivestress is of good feeling- promotion

at another location
 Negative stress – change in physical,

psychological condition
 Stress demands either fight or flight
Symptoms of Stress:

Nervousness Too
Emotional
and tension Instability much
Alcohol
and drug
Digestive
problem

Feeling of
inability

High
Stress
blood
pressure
Uncooperative
attitude

Inability
to relax
Sleeping
Chronic problems
worry
Job Stress:
 Environmental stressors

 Organizational stressors

 Group stressors

 Individual stressors
Causes of Stress:

 Environmental stressors

 Due to fast technological changes

 Family demands and obligations
 Economic and financial conditions
 Caste, relocation and transfers
 More and sudden change will bring a
change in the employee – death of the
spouse, divorce
Organizational Stressors:

 Can be caused by the policies, Strategies,

Structure, design, process and working
conditions.
 Downsizing can cause stress to an employee.
 Pay difference to women employees and

overload of work, Crowded work area noise,

heat, pollution, strong odor, poor lighting.
Group Stressors:

 Lack of group cohesiveness: Creates

conflicts
 Denying opportunity and non- acceptance
 Lack of social support
 Interpersonal and Intergroup conflict
Individual Stressors:

 Role conflict and ambiguity: Individuals ply

different roles. Sometimes they clash
 Personality traits
 Life and career Changes-
Slow change- getting old
Sudden change- death of the spouse
Frequent and sudden change in ones career
 Type A Type B

Is always moving Is not concerned about time

Walks, eats, talks rapidly Doesn’t brag

Is impatient Is patient

Does two thins at a time Plays for fun

Can’t cope with leisure time Relaxes without guilt

Is aggressive, competitve Has no pressing deadlines

Constantly feels pressure Is mild and never in a hurry

Consequences:

a) Physical: blood pressure, cholesterol resulting

in heart attacks, arthritis
b) Psychological: anger, anxiety, depression,
nervousness, irritability and tension which
may lower self-esteem, inability to co-
operate, concentrate, make decisions and job
dissatisfaction which leads to poor job
performance
c) Behavioral: under eating or over eating,
sleeplessness , increased smoking, drinking
and drug leading to absenteeism and turnover
Stress Management

Stress affects employees health and

performance. Therefore it needs to be
managed. Some specific individual
techniques;
a) Physical exercise
b) Behavioral self-control: Control the situation
before the situation can control you
c) Networking: Sharing and helping
d) Counseling
Organizational coping strategies:

a) Having clear objective and commitment to

achieving it.
b) Effective utilization of human resources to
achieve the goal
c) Organization must be adaptable to the
changing social, economic, political and
technological changes.
d) Carefully devised path to achieve the
objective
Counseling
“Counseling is a process through which one person
helps another by purposeful conversation in an
understanding atmosphere. It seeks to establish a
helping relationship in which the one counseled
can express their thoughts and feelings un such a
way as to clarify their own situation, come to terms
with some new experience, see their difficulty more
objectively, and to face their problem with less
anxiety and tension. Its basic purpose is to assist
the individual to make their own decision from
among the choices available to them”.
(British Association for Counselling)
Contd…

“Counseling is the discussion of an emotional

problem with an employee with general
objectives of decreasing it”.
(Keith Davis)
Objectives of the employee counseling:

a) To solve various employee problems

b) Provide help for adjustment and
improvement
c) To help conflict resolution
d) To improve communications and
interpersonal skills
e) To provide effective feedback
Employee Counseling Skills:

a) Communication skills
b) Skills for managing feelings
c) Problem clarification skills
d) Motivational skill
Types of counseling :

a) Directive counseling: Listening to the employee,

deciding with him what has to be done and
encouraging and motivating him to do so.
b) Non-directive counseling: allow the person in
emotional turmoil to talk out problems and
resolve difficulty with minimum directions.
Counselor should listen to the counselee.
c) Four stages
1) Involving
2) explanation
3) resolving
4) concluding
c) Interactive counseling
 Stress is common
 Managing Stress is important

Ineffective management of stress may lead to

loss to the employee and the organization
but the loss to the person concerned should
concern a person concerned
 Counseling is not advising

It is more listening than directing. A good

counselor is an asset to the organization and
a savior to the counselee
THANK YOU