UNIT 2 OCCUPATIONAL STRESS,

BURNOUT, HEALTH AND WELL-

BEING
Structure
2.0 Introduction
2.1 Objectives
2.2 Occupational Stress
2.2.1 Brief History of Occupational Stress

2.3 Definition and Approaches

2.4 Occupational Stress Models
2.4.1 Institute for Social Research Model
2.4.2 McGrath’s Process Model
2.4.3 Beehr and Newman’s Facet Model
2.4.4 Demand Control Model
2.4.5 Person Environment Fit Model
2.4.6 Comparison of Occupational Stress Models

2.5 Burnout
2.5.1 Emotional and Physical Exhaustion
2.5.2 Lower Job Productivity
2.5.3 Over Depersonalisation
2.5.4 Causes of Burnout
2.5.5 Symptoms of Burnout
2.5.6 Reducing Burnout
2.5.7 Coping with Burnout
2.5.8 Organisational Strategies
2.5.9 Individual Strategies

2.6 Health and Wellbeing

2.6.1 Work and Health in the Changing Economy
2.6.2 Psychosocial Stress and Stressor at the Workplace
2.6.3 Theoretical Models of Workplace Stressors and Health

2.7 Workplace Intervention

2.8 Let Us Sum Up
2.9 Unit End Questions
2.10 Glossary
2.11 Suggested Readings

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 Occupational Stress,
2.0 INTRODUCTION Burnout, Health and
Well-being
Individuals working in any kind of organisations in the present days are bound to
experience some level of stress as the demands at the workplace are constantly
increasing. The complexity of the jobs and the competition of the various products
are placing high pressure on the employees to use more creativity and innovation
which is leading to a feeling of Burnout which is a level of exhaustion. Burnout has
adverse effect on the health of the employee. Employees are finding it difficult to
cope though they are making immense attempts to safeguard themselves against
stress and burnout. The time has come where it is not enough if the employees alone
take steps to fight against the stress. The organisations should also find ways of
sustaining the well-being of the employees. Intervention techniques have to be stringently
employed to promote the workers physiological and psychological well being. In
this unit we will be dealing with occupational stress, and the various approaches to
occupational stress. We will then discuss the occupational stress models and compare
them across the models. This will be followed by a discussion on burnout syndrome
and the causes thereof as well as strategies for preventing the same. Discussing work
and health in the changing economy we will be dealing with psychosocial stress and
stressor and the theoretical models at the workplace. We will then elucidate the
various interventions that could prevent as well as manage workplace stress.

2.1 OBJECTIVES
After completing this unit, you will be able to:
 Define occupational stress;
 Elucidate the models of occupational stress;
 Describe the effect of Burnout on employees;
 Explain how to cope with Burnout; and
 Analyse factors conbtributing to Health and Wellbeing in organisation.

2.2 OCCUPATIONAL STRESS

Research has shown that when an individual is consistently exposed to stressful work
conditions it is harmful to him/her and it may have a negative impact on their efficiency
and effectiveness. Organisational Stress plays an important role in negative outcomes
such as increased healthcare costs, higher rates of absenteeism and turnover. It also
contributes to increased number of ‘on the job’ accidents and reduced productivity.
There is an increasing trend toward job related workers compensation claim due to
the harmful effects of occupational stress. In the past compensation for work related
injuries was limited to physical injuries only, which could have been caused by some
physical event or stimulus. However of late more and more countries are recognising
the legitimacy of physical and even psychological injuries that may be caused by
some stressful aspect of the work environment that is not physical in nature. (For
e.g. an over demanding supervisor or even workload)
Occupational stress can have impact even on the society as a person who is
experiencing constant stress on the job will not function effectively in other roles such
as a husband or a wife, a parent, a neighbour and a community member. Though
failing to perform these roles may not have a direct negative impact on economic
cost, but will definitely have an effect on the society in one form or the other. 21
Occupational Health 2.2.1 Brief History of Occupational Stress
Psychology
A well known Psychologist Walden Canon who was a pioneer in the investigation
of the relationship between emotions and physiological responses had also coined
the word ‘homeostasis’. He was the one who conducted some early scientific
investigations in the field of occupational stress and pointed out that the stressful
condition on the job are typically perceived as aversive events that require some
adaptive responses designed to return the employee to normal functioning.
However the first scientific investigation of stress are attributed to Hans Selye (1956)
who developed the ‘General Adaptation Syndrome’ which consists of three stages:
‘alarm, resistance and exhaustion’.
In the ‘alarm stage’, the physiological resources of the body are mobilised completely
to deal with an impending threat.
In the ‘resistance stage’, the body recognises that all of its resources may not be
needed and mobilises only those that are necessary for dealing with the stressful
situation.
In the ‘exhaustion stage’, when the organism finds that whatever it does, there is no
difference in the situation and the body’s physiological resources are depleted, a
second attempt to mobilising the physiological resources takes place. If this attempt
does not neutralise the threat, it may lead to permanent damage to the organism or
what is termed by Selye as diseases of adaptation.
Selye has mainly focused on the physiological reaction to aversive physical stimuli
and he never attempted any research at the workplace. The first large scale
research was undertaken at the University of Michigan’s Institute of Social Research
in early 1960s. The most noteworthy contribution of this research is the focus on
psychological factors in the workplace that may be stressful to employees.
Psychological factors represent aspects of the work environment having to do with
interaction with other people. The primary focus of Michigan researchers was on
what they termed as “role stressors” which are aversive working conditions associated
with behaviour, that is expected of each employee in an organisation.
After this research, not much work was done on this concept in the Late 1960s and
early 1970s. However, Terry Beehr and John Newman have done a comprehensive
review and analysis of the occupational stress literature and published in the Journal
of Personnel Psychology in 1978. This compilation is generally regarded as an
important scholarly work and has been frequently cited. Their work actually altered
many organisational psychologists views and pointed out that occupational stress was
an issue which is worthy of attention. After this, there was a steep increase in the
research of occupational stress.
Self Assessment Questions
1) What is meant by occupational stress? Explain with suitable examples.
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 Occupational Stress,
2) Give a historical account of occupational stress and the research I this area Burnout, Health and
over a period of time. Well-being

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3) In about five lines explain about the general adaptation syndrome.
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2.3 DEFINITIONS AND APPROACHES

Over a period of time, researchers from various fields have evinced interest in the
field of occupational stress and an abundance of research was contributed from
various professional streams. To capture the interdisciplinary nature of the occupational
stress, Beehr and Franz (1987) proposed that occupational stress can be approached
from four different perspectives:
1) Medical
2) Clinical/Counseling
3) Engineering Psychology
4) Organisational Psychology
Let us take up each of the above and discuss in detail.
The distinguishing feature of ‘medical approach’ to occupational stress is a focus in
the contribution of stress in the workplace to employee’s health and illness. Most
of the research done in this area is by physicians, nurses etc. and when seen from
this perspective the stress at work is considered as a pathogenic agent that contributes
to disease conditions.
The ‘clinical counselling approach’ to occupational stress emphasises the impact of
stressful working conditions on mental health outcomes like depression and anxiety.
According to Beehr and Franz (1987) this approach focuses more on treatment than
on research. In other words, they focus more on developing methods to relieve
stress related symptoms and therefore more often the researchers are from clinical
or counseling psychology background.
The ‘engineering psychology approach’ to occupational stress focuses on the sources
that originate from the physical work environment. These include, work schedules,
pace of work, or the designing of the employees work stations. The emphasis is
more on physical environment as a source of stress, that is the interface between
employees and the physical environment (also termed ‘human factors’).
An example of this is the height of the tables, the length and heaviness of the tools
or the placing of switch boards and other knobs etc. which are frequently used by 23
Occupational Health the employees. They should be placed in such a way that there should be least
Psychology
exertion on the senses and body parts of the employee.
The ‘organisational psychology approach’ to occupational stress focuses on what
were previously defined as psychosocial sources of stress in the workplace. This
implies two things: one the focus is on cognitive appraisal or the process by which
employees perceive the work environment and decide whether it is stressful or not.
Second is, the sources of stress when employees interact with others. If these
interactions are forceful and unpleasant, people experience stress and this affects the
overall organisational effectiveness.

2.4 OCCUPATIONAL STRESS MODELS

To guide both research and organisational efforts and to reduce stress some theoretical
models of occupational stress have been developed, which are as given below:
 Institute of Social Research (ISR) Model
 McGrath’s Process Model
 Beehr & Newman’s Facet Model
 Demand-Control Model
 Person-Environment Fit Model

2.4.1 Institute for Social Research Model

It is an offshoot of the research conducted at the University of Michigan’s Institute
for social research over a period of time. It is known as ISR model of occupational
stress mainly because the researches were conducted at the Institute of Social Research
of the Michigan University.
This model begins with the objective environment which essentially includes anything
in an employee’s work environment like the number of hours worked, the amount
of responsibility, the extent to which interaction with others is required and so on.
The next step in this model is labeled the psychological environment. The employee
here is perceiving the objective environment and appraising and making judgements
as to whether it is threatening. This is the key component of the organisational
psychology approach. Once the environment is appraised, the result may be immediate
and it can be physiological, behavioural and emotional response on the part of the
employee.
Physiological changes that are commonly evolved by stressful situation are increase
in heart rate, blood pressure and respiration. Immediate behavioural responses could
be decreased effort or an inability to concentrate and emotional responses may
include increases in both anxiety and depression symptoms and a decrease in job
satisfaction.
Depending upon the severity and duration of the immediate responses, the result may
be adverse change in mental and physical health.
Then next component in the ISR model is the impact of individual differences in all
the process of the model. People obviously differ in their genetic makeup, demographic
characteristics, personality traits and the quality of interpersonal relationships with
24 others. Any or all of these may impact the manner in which people perceive the
objective environment, their immediate response to perceived stressors and ultimately Occupational Stress,
Burnout, Health and
whether stressors lead to adverse mental and physical health. Well-being

The model has served as a conceptual guide for many researches of organisational
stress, and therefore it has been quite influential. There are some weaknesses of this
model, like its generality and simplicity. Some of the important arguments can also
be that certain variables and processes have not be explained like, accounting the
employees effort to cope with stressors, or acknowledging that stressors may impinge
on the employee from outside the organisation.

2.4.2 McGrath’s Process Model

McGrath has proposed a theoretical model that focused on the performance related
implications of occupational stress. This model conceptualises the stress process as
a four stage, closed loop process.
The 1st stage represents situations that employees encounter in organisations. Then
they are perceived as a cognitive processes and when these perceptions are negative,
this signals the presence of stressors.
In the next stage, the model proposes that after a situation is appraised, the individuals
make decisions about how they will respond to the stressor. Once the decision is
made, the individual engages in some form of overt behaviour. Sometimes this
behaviour, may have negative implications for performance (e.g. reducing effort)
though this does not happen always. For example suppose an employee is confronted
with a stressor (e.g. conflict with a co-worker) he may choose a more adaptive
response (e.g. talking rationally to the person) and alter the situation in a favourable
manner.
There are some positive features to this model and the most important among them
is the recognition that responses to stressors involve conscious choice on the part of
the employees. As McGrath has incorporated decision making in his model he was
considered as a person who is ahead of this times.

2.4.3 Beehr and Newman’s Facet Model

This model proposes that occupational stress process can be broken down into a
number of ‘Facets’ that represent categories of variables to be studied.
The Personal facets represents the stable characteristics which are brought to the
workplace by the employees. The variable here are of demographic characteristics
(like age, gender, race) and personality.
The environmental facet, in contrast, represents the stimuli in the work environment,
which the individual employee must confront. These include characteristics of the
work performed (e.g. Level of complexity) as well as the nature of job related
interpersonal relations.
The next is the process facet at which the person’s and the situation’s characteristics
interact. This is the point at which the employee appraises the work environment and
decide whether it is harmful or not.
Once the environment is appraised and the employee perceives stressors to be
present, there may be a variety of consequences for both the individual employee
and the organisation as a whole. Thus the ‘human consequences facet’ represents the
different ways, in which employees may respond to stressors, and which can have
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Occupational Health implication for each individual employee (e.g. health problem, substance abuse etc.).
Psychology
In contrast the “organisation consequences” talks about how an employee’s responses
have implications for organisational functioning (higher rate of absenteeism and
turnover).
Depending on what outcomes the individual organisation will have, some response
will be required and this is called the Adaptive response which calls for efforts on
the part of the individual and organisation to respond adaptively to stressors.
An adaptive response of an individual could be exercise when he /she feels tense or
anxious. On the organisation side, it may attempt to institute flexible work hours if
it finds that there is increased absenteeism of the work force.
The final facet in this model is the “Time”. This facet has an impact on all the other
facets. The time facet recognises that the employee’s appraisal of the environment to
determine what aspects are stressful and responding only to them, are set in temporal
context (for e.g. finishing a product at a targeted date. This is temporary stress and
will pass when the work gets completed with a small delay). In some cases, this
process can be very short or it can occur over a period of several years.

2.4.4 Demands Control Model

This model was proposed by Robert Karasek in the late 1970’s and has limited
scope than the other models. According to him, when employees face heavy Job
demands and have little control over their work, it is the most stressful situation in
the workplace. Karasek (1979) has used the term ‘Job Decision Latitude’ to
denote control over the work situation. The best example for the model is the typical
work in the scientific management wherein the employees were provided with
challenging goals, in the form of production standards, but did not have control over
things, such as the design of work, methods and the scheduling of rest breaks.
Research using this model has examined health and physiological outcomes and some
other research has investigated psychological outcomes which have shown the
limitations of this model. However the recent tests of Demand Control model have
shown that the interaction between Job demands and control may be more complex
than what was originally proposed by Karasek as some researchers found that they
could predict higher level of blood pressure among employees who reported high
self-efficacy. This suggests that having control over one’s work tasks is helpful to
an employee, only if he or she feels able to perform those tasks (i.e. has high self
efficacy).

2.4.5 Person Environment Fit Model

This is another model of occupational stress which has great implications for many
organisational phenomenon. The historical roots for this model can be traced back
to Kurt Lewin for his interactional psychology. As you may remember, Lewin
believed that human behaviour is a function of interaction between the person and
his environment. Therefore the most important aspect to organisational stress is the
degree to which there is a fit between the person and the situation.
Suppose the employee perceives that the work environment is stressful then there is
a lack of fit. The general idea of this Person Environment fit is very simple but there
are many ways in which fit and misfit between an employee and the work environment
can occur. According to Kristof (1996) fit or misfit can happen, when the employee’s
26
skills and abilities match or do not match the requirements of the job he or she is Occupational Stress,
Burnout, Health and
performing. Suppose an employee lacks the skills and abilities to perform the job, Well-being
he / she will feel inadequate or when he/she has good skills and abilities and the job
requirements are not upto his/her capabilities, there too an employee can end up
getting bored, frustrated and dissatisfied with the job. In either of the cases, the
employee will perceive the job as stressful.
The concept of Person environment fit or misfit can also occur at the macro level
of analysis. For example suppose the employee places a high value on individual
accomplishment and the organisation in which he works values teamwork, working
in such an environment can be very stressful to the employee.
This approach is found to be quite useful to occupational stress researchers and over
the years many refinements have been made in this area.
The major limitation of the Person Environment fit approach is that compared to the
environment component, the person component has been studied and measures have
been researched to reduce employee stress. Not much work has been done in
attempting to measure and find organisational characteristics and thereby bring about
the required changes.

2.4.6 Comparison of Occupational Stress Models

After going through the occupational stress models, some comparisons of the relative
merits of each model is made. In terms of usefulness all the models score well on
it. However the ISR model and Beehr & Newman Facet model have greater scope
for research because these were found to be relatively easy to use and clarify the
focus of a stress related organisational intervention.
The demands-control model has received the most empirical scrutiny but the results
have always been mixed. This may be due to the fact that the conditions under
which demands and control interact are very complex.
The P.E fit approach has also received quite a fair amount of empirical testing, but
the research has not been much in the context of occupational stress.
Self Assessment Questions
1) Describe in detail the Institute of Social Research model.
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2) What is McGrath’s Process Model? Explain.
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3) Discuss Beehr Newman’s Facet Model in detail.
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Occupational Health .....................................................................................................................
Psychology
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4) Discuss demand control model in terms of occupational stress.
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5) Discuss briefly the person environment fit model of stress in occupations.
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2.5 BURNOUT
A specific form of employee stress is burnout over the years they have been many
attempts to define Burnout, but only in the year 1982 a proper definition could be
given by Malasch. Burnout is a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation
and reduced personal accomplishment that can occur among individuals who do
people’s work. i.e. people in service oriented organisations such as teaching, health
care, police or military services banking insurance etc. It is often the most conscientious
employees who suffer burnout syndrome. Their loyalty and commitment make
unreasonable demands upon their time and energy. Their adherence to these demands
reduces the boundaries between life and work to such an extent that they live to
work. But, in return there is usually no recognition for their high involvement with
work, which leads to a sense of burnout. Sufferers lose their sense of care for their
co-workers, become cynical, defeatist and disillusioned and experience a deep sense
of failure and this leads to a high level of stress. This further leads to a feeling of low
self-esteem and low self efficacy.
Burnout as this definition views, is a function of following three concerns, viz.,
i) Emotional and physical exhaustion
ii) Lowered job productivity
iii) Over depersonalisation
Let us deal with each of these in detail.

2.5.1 Emotional and Physical Exhaustion

This is an inner condition caused by various personal and organisational factors.
Personal factors are marital, legal or financial problem. These issues can become so
important in the life of a worker that there is a good chance of giving up or resigning
to them. i.e. worker begins to feel helpless, losses sight of reality and there is a
change in his / her behaviour. When these problems take their toll on the workers
28 they begin to feel inadequate in handling their personal situation.
2.5.2 Lowered Job Productivity Occupational Stress,
Burnout, Health and
This can be a cause and also a result. Workers generally like to produce. When Well-being
workers are busy, they feel they can achieve positive results, salary increases,
recognition, advancement etc. Then the work that is being done does not feel
burdensome. The workers are motivated by the challenge.
In contrast, when some constraints and demands emerge and lower the productivity
then problems occur. These constraints and demands impinge on the workers’ welfare
and make them less productive, less happy and less motivated.

2.5.3 Over Depersonalisation

With the technological advancement, most of the jobs are becoming automated. This
dehumanizing aspect coupled with many rules and regulations are causing undue
hardships on the remaining workers, and is leading to reduced interpersonal
relationships.
This is causing early burnout of workers.
However, it is important to notice that none of the concerns have referred to long
term boredom as a true reason for burnout.
Burnout was also defined as the unreleased stress and its physiological activation.
What was once a high useful mechanism has become maladaptive.
Self Assessment Questions
1) Define the term Burnout and name the three main concerns.
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2.5.4 Causes of Burnout

Generally the factors contributing to burnout can be identified as:
 Organisational characteristics,
 Perceptions of organisation
 Perceptions of role
 Individual characteristics
 Outcomes
These variables can lead to burnout, but the presence of any of them does not
guarantee that burnout will occur. It is the individual’s capabilities to work under and
handle stress that determines whether one would experience burnout or not.
Because of this contingency, stressful conditions result in a two-phased outcome. The
first level being the stress itself and the second level being the problems that crop up
from the manifestation of this stress.

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Occupational Health Variables found to be significantly related to Burnout
Psychology
Organisation Perceptions Perceptions Individual

Characteristics of organisations of Role Characteristics Outcome

Caseload leadership Autonomy Family/friends

Satisfaction Support

Formalisation Communication Job Sex

Turnover rate Staff support Involvement Age

Being supervised

Staff size Peers Work pressure Tenure

Clarity Feedback Ego level
Rules and Accomplishment
procedures

Administrative Innovation Meaningfulness

support

Source: Baron Perl man and [Link] Hartman, “Burnout: Summary and Future Research,
“Human Relations, 25, No.4 (1982), 294. Reprinted by permission of Plenum Publishing
Corporation.

2.5.5 Symptoms of Burnout

When stress reaches the optimum level i.e. when the individual cannot handled it any
longer and suffers from its effects, severe changes start appearing. These can be in
the form of health, attitude, emotions or the relationship with others. Moreover there
can be adverse changes in the behaviour like alcoholism, substance abuse etc. Thus
burnout is a multifaceted phenomenon and is a by product of both personal variables
and organisational variables.

2.5.6 Reducing Burnout

Organisations are consistently attempting to reduce the stress levels of employees by
establishing proper procedure, before the workers get burned out. Although, so far,
no clear cut remedies are available. Some techniques have been proposed.
Identification: The analysis of the incidence prevalence and characteristics of burnout
in individual, work group, subunits or organisations are done to obtain indices of
stress and burnout.
Prevention: This is an attempt to mitigate the burnout process before it begins.
Mediation: This is a procedure for slowing, halting or reversing the burnout process.
Remediation: There are some techniques for people who are already burned out
or are rapidly approaching the end stage of this process.
The above four techniques are coupled with the four specific areas of concentration
to obtain a 4 x 4 matrix. This matrix design specifies as to which techniques best fits
which level of burnout. The following figure shows how burnout intervention works.

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 Occupational Stress,
Burnout, Health and
Well-being

Goal of Intervention
________________________________________________________________________
Site Intervention Identification Prevention Mediation Remediation
________________________________________________________________________
Personal Self-evaluation Professional Stress
Individual
Evaluation training/ Management
Counseling
Orientation
Interpersonal Peer feedback Supports Creative Group
Groups Supervision Counselling

Workplace Formal surveys Professional Job redesign

Job/career Development changes

Organisational Performance Organisational Quality

Employee
Monitoring development assurance assistance
_______________________________________________________________________
Source: Whiton Stewart Paine, ed. Job Stress and Burnout (Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage
Publications, © 1982), p.20, Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications, Inc.

The key point here is that only after making an accurate identification of the level of
burnout, the programme is tailor made to meet the individual need. However, the
changes do not concentrate only on one factor. Any change planned for one area will
invariably effect other areas. Therefore new training programmes have to be developed
and implemented to enable the changes to occur.
Thus, Burnout is a costly affair for any programme to help alleviate these problems.
Most of the programmes attempt at doing two things: i.e. increase productivity and
make the job more pleasant for the worker.
To this end organisations are making efforts to systematically study each job and
redefine it in such a way that if proper equipment and working conditions exist, a
more productive work force will result. But to bring about these changes a great
amount of effort is required on the part of the personnel. They have to see that the
compensation for these new jobs is competitive and equitable. Therefore new job
description have to be written and systematic process of job evaluation have to be
done. Training becomes a compulsory process, to help employees adapt to their new
endeavours.
Finally, some programmes which help in reducing the stress must be offered to the
employees like diet control, aerobic exercises, health screenings, smoking cessation
and assistance to ‘look off’ from drinks and alcohol addictions. Some progressive
companies are putting these practices to use are dealing with stress in a proactive
way rather than in a reactive way.

2.5.7 Coping with Burnout

Pareek (1994) has likened stress to the electricity and the person to electric bulb.
If the voltage is low (i.e. work underload); the bulb will not glow. If the voltage
exceeds the capacity the electricity can burn out the bulb. It is only when the voltage 31
Occupational Health is just right (optimised stress) for the bulb it will function with maximum efficiency.
Psychology
Since burnout is defined as the end result of stress experience an individual should
attempt to handle it adequately i.e. channelise it well stress should be taken as a
challenge. An employee should search for methods to overcome it, only then he can
have job satisfaction, become creativity and make better adjustment to life and work.
A phenomenon know as ‘glow up’ has been given by him in contrast to burnout. He
says that being aware of the factors which contribute to burnout can help us to avoid
this stage. It will help us understand how we can convert the energy to lead to glow
up. The figure given under will show factors producing burnout and glow-up and the
conversion strategies.

2.5.8 Organisational Strategies

How organisation can help overcome burnout: “Organisational strategies”.
Burnout and creative supervision: Research has shown that burnout is caused due to
the interaction between intra-individual sources and intra-organisational sources. The
role of the supervisor becomes very important here as he/she has a great potential
for reducing stress and building health. Work related skills and self esteem can be
promoted by the supervisor and he / she can also encourage peer support and
improve the communication channels.
Unfortunately, many supervisors are found not to have proper supervisory knowledge
and skills. They themselves do not have proper role clarity and end up experiencing
role stress. If they can overcome their own problems, they can use their creativity
to help the worker overcome his / her problems by:

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i) Facilitating communication: Here the misunderstandings and rumours can be Occupational Stress,
Burnout, Health and
removed. Most employees play organisational games which can deplete their Well-being
emotional and mental resources and in turn reduce productivity. A supervisor
can enhance the productivity with straight forward and open communication. He
should adopt assertive communication which helps him express his thoughts,
feelings and beliefs in direct, honest and appropriate ways.
ii) Evaluation: Since it is the supervisor’s prerogative to evaluate employees’
performance, employees are usually wary of him / her. A creative supervisor
should use proper methods of evaluation and gain the confidence of the employee.
This in turn will build new skills in the employee instead of being afraid of the
evaluation process.
iii) Decreasing job pressure: As one of the major reasons for burnout, creative
supervisor should sort out the duties of a subordinate so that the jobs can be
handled properly. Many a times, the employees do not possess the knowledge
and skills to perform all the jobs. Therefore he / she should use mentoring and
help the employee to prioritize and enjoy doing the work.
iv) Creating channel for peer support: The most essential factors for employees
are the kind of emotional dependence and social support they experience.
Therefore the supervisor can encourage team work instead of dealing with them
individually.
v) Dealing with the personal problems of the employees: All most all workers
have some personal problems. A supervisor who is empathetic towards the
subordinates understand and help them to overcome the problems present in his
work situation and can develop proper methods to cope with them and tackle
the problem of burnout easily.

2.5.9 Individual Strategies

i) Listen to one’s body: With some amount of tuning into their body needs
people can easily recognise the symptoms like chronic fatigue, tense muscles,
depression and lethargy which give the message that the body cannot take it any
longer.
ii) Take control of one’s stress perception: one should not blame the external
environment / situation for their stress. One has to accept that it is one’s own
perception which makes one stressful. One should develop the attitude that, one
can strive hard to change the unpleasant stresses and realistically accept those
that cannot be changed. Besides this one should also be able to recognise what
they can change and what cannot be.
iii) Lower one’s expectation: People should be able to recognise their capabilities
and strengths and set goals accordingly. One should not set goals which are not
obtainable and feel as a failure. We should also lower our expectations of other
people, which will make us emotionally detached. The most important way of
dealing with burnout is take control of the condition.
Self Assessment Questions
1) Explain how the organisation can safeguard an employee against burnout.
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Occupational Health
Psychology 2) What are the ways in which one can control burnout?
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3) What are organisational stratagies?
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4) What are individual strategies?
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2.6 HEALTH AND WELLBEING

For most people, work is the primary source of income. At workplaces people are
exposed to physical hazards like toxins, noise or ergonomic misfits. Besides these the
psychosocial hazards like the experience of loss of control, humiliation, failure or
unfair treatment cannot be ruled out.

2.6.1 Work and Health in the Changing Economy

So far the occupational safety and health research has been primarily concerned with
injury prevention and physical hazards at the work place, but off late the focus is on
the psychosocial conditions of workplace, which are of great importance in a changing
economy. The new economic developments like downsizing and outsourcing have
led to intensified work and the societies are now recognising that stress levels at the
workplace are constantly increasing.

2.6.2 Psychosocial Stress and Stressors at the Workplace

The definition of the term stress needs a little clarification here because a psychosocial
‘stressor’ at the workplace is a factor in the work environment which by itself or in
combination with other factors has a potential negative effect on the worker. These
factors could be unrealistic workload, time pressure, high emotional demand, lack of
job security etc. A person would show stress reactions when these factors are
difficult to control and if exposure to them are chronic. These stress reactions have
the potential of creating severe psychological and physical health problem which get
manifested in the form of cognitive, emotional, behavioural and physiological
dysfunctions.

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2.6.3 Theoretical Models of Workplace Stressors and Health Occupational Stress,
Burnout, Health and
There are two theoretical models: i.e. Demand-control-support model developed by Well-being
Karasek and the effort-reward imbalance model developed by Seignist.
Demand-control-model
In this model it is assumed that job strain increases the risk of psycho-physiological
stress reactions and subsequent ill health especially cardiovascular disease. Further,
if an individual is also exposed to low social support from coworkers and supervisors,
a three way health hazardous interaction of high demand, low-decision latitude and
low support is assumed, which is called as iso-strain.
In the next model i.e. effort-reward imbalance model there is a mismatch between
high effort and low reward and leads to stress reactions and disease.
There is a third variable in this model which is called a “work related over commitment”
which is a personality aspect which makes certain individuals more vulnerable to
experiencing psychosocial stress reactions. These models have been extensively tested
mainly for the cardiovascular disease and also for musculoskeletal and psychological
disorders. Several studies have shown that exposure to job strain, iso-strain and
effort-reward imbalance could result in increased risk of ill health. However, the
results are not conclusive.

2.7 WORKPLACE INTERVENTION

There are three levels of workplace intervention. i.e. the individual level, the group
and the organisational level.
At the individual level the intervention is through providing health education, using
personal protective equipment. A workplace intervention programme that attempts to
improve employee health behaviour is to advise the person to eat less fat, to do more
exercise, to better cope with psychosocial stress. The work environment also tries
to support this by providing low fat food choices in the cafeteria, limiting excessive
overtime, some employees are given time to exercise, reducing exposure to
psychosocial stressors.
As for Group intervention, the approach is one of helping employees and others to
cooperate with others and ensure social support.
Organisational intervention refers to the improvement in working conditions and
circumstances. Since these interventions focus only on the behaviour modification
method, a broader and more comprehensive workplace interventions should be
planned which address working conditions as a means of improving employee’s
health.
Generally organisation intervention are time consuming, expensive and difficult to
design, control and evaluate. In addition a number of barriers have to be overcome,
as they are viewed as interferences into the existing system of the company.
Thus to overcome these obstacles certain crucial factors have been identified which
are felt as successful interventions. These are given below:
i) Support from top management as well as relevant actors within the company
like unions, employees, health and safety experts etc.

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Occupational Health ii) A clear determination of aims, tasks, responsibilities, planning and financial
Psychology
resources.
iii) A detailed problem analysis in order to choose and plan the right intervention.
iv) A strong focus on organisational changes complimented by person-directed
measures.
v) A participative approach (worker involvement during problem analysis and
development of appropriate solutions).
vi) A long term perspective that allows continuous improvement of the intervention
measures.

2.8 LET US SUM UP

We have studied about the harmful effects that can impact a worker, when he/she
is consistently exposed to stressful work situations. Five models of occupational
stress have been discussed i.e. the IRS model the importance of the objective
environment and psychological environment has been discussed and their effect on
the worker has been shown in McGrath’s process model the cognitive processes that
takes place at work environment has been discussed and if there is a negative
perception of the work environment, he says stress is experienced. In Behr and
Newman’s model, they say that occupational stress process can be broken down
into number of facets and depending upon what outcome the individual and organisation
will have, some responses are made which are called as ‘Adaptive responses’ to
reduce the levels of stress. In the demand control model, the Job decision latitude
has been emphasised which denotes the amount of control the individual will have
over his work situation. Lastly the person environment fit models, shows us to how
important it is to have a proper fit between the person and the environment if one
should avoid the feeling of stress i.e. an employee should feel that the job is the best
fit for him / her, if he / she should enjoy the work. Lastly the efficacy of the models
have been discussed.
Our next focus was on burnout, which is an offshoot of excessive stress. Workers
experience, emotional and physical exhaustion, give lowered job productivity and
become depersonalised when they experience burnout. It is also found that people
who have high aspirations and strong motivation are the ones who experiences
burnout. The causes, symptoms, methods of reducing and individual and organisation
coping methods have been extensively discussed and we turned out attention to
health and well being wherein, the psychological stress and stressors at the workplace
have been identified and how to intervene and promote health has been discussed.

2.9 UNIT END QUESTIONS

1) Define occupational stress. Trace the brief history of occupational stress.
2) Discuss the various Occupational Stress Models.
3) What do you understand by the term Burn Out? What are the symptoms of
burnout?
4) What are the various methods by which one could manage burnout ina
workplace?

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5) Discuss the concepts of health and well being.
 Occupational Stress,
2.10 GLOSSARY Burnout, Health and
Well-being
Occupational stress : Stressful condition at the workplace which can
have negative impact on the effectiveness of
the worker.
Exhaustion stage : The body recognises that there will not be any
difference in the situation.
Burn Out : A stage beyond exhaustion, where the organism
cannot handle the stress and severe changes in
the person’s emotions, attitudes and personality
take place.
Iso-Strain : When there is low social support, a three way
health hazardous interaction of high demand,
low decision latitude and low support is
assumed.
Work related over commitment: It is a personality aspect which makes some
individuals more vulnerable to experiencing
psychosocial stress reactions.

2.11 SUGGESTED READINGS

Agarwal, Rita (2001) Stress in Life and Work, New Delhi, Sage Publications.
[Link],D.A & Robbins,S.P (1993) Personnel/ Human Resource Management
IIIrd Ed., New Delhi, Prentice Hall India.
Sutton, S, Baum,A, & Johnston, Maries (2004) (editors) The Sage Handbook of
Health Psychology, New Delhi, Sage Publications.

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