Материал: Management-and-Organization-Behavior

will have more control over their work and work environment. Placing employees to positions that match their competencies can minimize role related stressors. Noise and safety risks are stressful, so improving these conditions would also go a long way to minimize stress in the workplace.

Family-Friendly and Work-Life initiatives

The most common work-life balance initiatives are flexible work time, job sharing, telecommuting, personal leave programs, and childcare support. Many firms have flexible timings with regard to the hours, days, and amount of time employees want to work.

Job sharing splits a career position between two people so that they experience less time-based stress between work and family. They typically work different part of the week, with some overlapping work time in the weekly schedule to coordinate activities.

Telecommuting reduces the time and stress of commuting to work and makes it easier to fulfill family obligations, such as temporarily leaving the office to pick up the kids from school. Research suggests that telecommuters experience a healthier work-life balance. Employers with strong work-life values offer extended maternity, paternity, and personal leaves to care for a new family or elderly parents who need assistance. Childcare support reduces stress because employees need not rush to drop off their children and less worried during the day about how well they are doing.

Withdraw from the stressor

Removing the stressor may be an ideal solution, but that is not always possible. An alternative strategy is to permanently or temporarily take employees away from the stressor. Permanent withdrawal occurs when employees are transferred to other jobs.

Change stress perceptions

You have earlier learnt that employees experience different levels of stress in the same situation because of their perceptual differences. Therefore, changing perceptions of the situation can minimize stress.

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This strategy does not involve ignoring risks or other stressors. Rather, it involves strengthening the self-efficacy and self-esteem of a person so that job challenges are not perceived as threatening.

Control the consequences of stress

Managing workplace stress also involves controlling its consequences. Research studies show that physical exercise reduces the physiological consequences of stress by helping employees lower their respiration, muscle tension, heartbeat and stomach acidity. Beyond fitness programs, some companies offer wellness programs that educate and support employees in terms of better nutrition and fitness, regular sleep, and other healthy habits. Another way to control the physiological consequences of stress is through relaxation and meditation.

Employee Assistance Programmes

Now-a-days many large firms offer employee assistance programs in the form of counseling services that help employees overcome personal or organizational stressors and adopt more effective coping mechanisms. Personal problems and family problems are solved through these programs. Employee assistance programs can be one of the most effective stress management interventions where counseling helps employees understand the stressors, acquire management skills and practice those skills.

Receive Social Support

Receiving social support from co-workers, supervisors, family, friends, and others is one of the more effective stress management strategies. Social support refers to the person’s interpersonal transactions with others and involves providing either emotional or informational support to buffer the stress experience.

Social support reduces stress in at least three ways. First, employees improve their perception that they are valued and worthy. This, in turn, increases their self-esteem and perceived ability to cope with the stressor. Second, social support provides information to help employees interpret, comprehend, and possibly remove the stressor. Finally, emotional support

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from others can directly help buffer the stress experience. People seek out and benefit from the emotional support of others when they face threatening situations.

Review Questions

1.What is job stress?

2.What are organisational stressors?

3.How do stress levels change from one individual to another?

4.What strategies do you adopt for managing job stress?

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Lesson - 19 : Communication

Objectives

After reading this lesson, you should be able to:

ӹӹUnderstand The Process Of Communication;

ӹӹKnow The Types Of Communication;

ӹӹFamiliarize With The Barriers To Communication And How To Overcome Them.

Lesson Outline

ӹӹMeaning & Definition

ӹӹCharacteristics Of Communication

ӹӹElements Of Communication

ӹӹBarriers Of Communication

ӹӹReview Questions

Communication is perhaps as old as the human civilization. Its origin can be traced to the growth of the human society. In the primitive stage of human society, man satisfied his wants which were limited to the basic needs of food, clothing and shelter by his own efforts. Life was isolated and there was little communication. But while man hunted for food, he too was hunted by wild animals. He lived in constant danger. The common need of protection led to group life. Communication was in the form of codes, indications, signals and expressions. As group life developed and wants continued to increase, forms of expressing ideas in languages developed. Science entered the field and means of oral communication developed. In the present day world of mass production, involving large number of personnel, communication is the vital need at every step in industrial and commercial activities.

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Meaning

Theterm‘communication’isderivedfromtheLatinword‘communis’ which means common. The term communication is used to signify the act of transferring ideas or receiving it by any means-word of mouth, the telephone, telegram, letter, message etc. In an organisation managers have to communicate constantly. If we observe the activities of any manager, we will find that he is busy writing a letter or receiving one, meeting a worker or a group of workers or his superior attending a conference or addressing one, telephoning or discussing a project with an expert, negotiating terms and so on. Managerial functions are discharged through communication. Direction, guidance, delegation of authority, assignment of duties etc., are done through communication. Thus communication is not a one way process.

Definition of Communication

The term “communication” is freely used by everyone. It is one of the most frequently discussed subjects in the field of organisational behaviour. According to Louis Allen, Communication is the sum of all things, a person does when he wants to create an understanding in the mind of another. It involves a systematic and continuous process of telling, listening and understanding.

According to Keith Davis, “It is the process of passing information and understanding from one person to another. It is essentially a bridge of meaning between people. By using this bridge of meaning, a person can safely cross the river of misunderstanding that separates all people”.

Thus, in reality communication is the sum total of direct or indirect, consciously or unconsciously transmitted words, attitudes, feelings, actions, gestures and tones. Even silence is an effective form of communication. A twist in the face is often more expressive than a 100 words put together. Tone very often than not, conveys the meaning of the words uttered.

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