Pamela's Theory Of Workplace Stress

One of the inevitable certainties of modern occupational life is stress. According to Greenberg (2012), stress and psychosocial stressors have the ability to adversely affect both the individual and organization. To illustrate workplace stress in practice, the case study of Pamela Perkins will be used. Undoubtedly, Pamela’s new role as a managing director of a chain of daycare centres has been quite taxing, owing to a number of factors ranging from work overload and home-to-work interface, which have affected her stress levels.

Firstly, stress can be defined as physiological and emotional reactions that occur when faced with demands, whilst stressors refer to demands encountered during our daily life that are either physical or psychological

A contemporary theory (CT) of stress allows for an interaction to take place between the individual and their environment, which is subsequently different from previous theories that have focused more on stress stimuli and stress responses (Cox & Griffiths, 2010, p.36). In addition, one type of CT would be the interactional theory (IT). Specifically, according to Cox & Griffiths (2010:37), IT focuses on the design of the situations that give rise to the experience of stress and place less weight on the processes involved and the individual’s coping ability. For instance, in Pamela’s case, IT will focus more on situations like significant life changes such as a new job, role changes and interpersonal conflict within the

Such as dealing with aspects of work design, organizational structure and managerial problems such as improving communicative channels (Randall & Nielsen, 2010:91). Therefore, because PIs tackle problems head on they do not necessarily serve as a preventative measure but rather as an alleviative measure. In contrast, secondary interventions (SIs) are ameliorative and are aimed at modifying an individual’s perception of stressors by reducing/eliminating the harm to employees (LaMontagne et al., 2007; Randall & Nielsen, 2010:92). According to Randall and Nielsen (2010:92), SIs focus on training employees to respond in a positive way to taxing situations by either thinking or behaving differently. Alternatively, tertiary interventions (TIs) are reactive and are aimed at employees who are already experiencing problems with their well-being, like Pamela ((LaMontagne et al., 2007; Randall & Nielsen,