MANAGING YOUR OWN BEHAVIOR: CAREERS AND

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Chapter
Six
MANAGING YOUR OWN BEHAVIOR CAREERS AND STRESS
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After reading this chapter you should be able to
1. Understand socialization, and identify the
stages through which it develops. 2. Explain what
mentors are, what they do, and the benefits as
well as costs of mentoring to both mentors and
their protégés. 3. Describe how people choose
their careers, and explain how the nature of
careers has changed in recent years. 4. Explain
how the careers of women and men differ,
including the so-called glass ceiling.
5. Define stress and distinguish it from
strain. 6. Describe the major organizational and
personal causes of stress. 7. Describe the
adverse effects of stress, including burnout, and
explain how individual differences play roles in
such effects. 9. Describe individual as well as
organizational techniques for managing stress.
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Organizational Socialization - the three-step
process through which newcomers become
full-fledged members who share its major
values and understand its policies and
procedures
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Getting In What Happens Before People Are Hired?
- pre-entry period How do we learn about
organizations? - several sources - employees of
the organization - published material -
representatives of the organization
Reducing entry shock with realistic job
previews Entry shock - confusion and
disorientation experienced by newcomers whose
expectations about an organization are not
met Realistic job previews - accurate
information about what working in the
organization will be like - increase job
satisfaction and reduce voluntary turnover -
caution best applicants most sensitive to
negative information about the job
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Breaking In The Encounter Stage - begins when
employees actually assume their new duties -
learn what organization expects from them and how
to be participating members of their work
group - face several challenges - master
skills required for the new job - become
oriented to practices and procedures within
the organization - organizational culture
Settling In The Metamorphosis Stage - may be
marked by a formal ceremony - employees make
permanent adjustments to their jobs -
organizations treat them as if they will be
long-term members of the work team
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Mentoring - process in which a more experienced
employee -- a mentor -- advises, counsels, and
otherwise enhances the personal development (and
career) of a new employee -- a protégé -
protégés receive more promotions and higher
compensation
What Do Mentors Do? - assist protégés in many
ways - provide emotional support and inspire
self-confidence - nominate protégés for
promotions - provide opportunities for protégés
to show off their competencies - suggest
personal career strategies - protect protégés
from the consequences of errors
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How Mentoring Relationships Form and Change -
result from a complex selection process in which
both mentor and protégé play active roles - pass
through four distinct phases
Phase 1 Initiation - lasts 6 months to a year -
learn what to expect from each other
Phase 2 Cultivation - lasts an additional 2 to 5
years - bond deepens between mentor and
protégé - protégés career begins advancing as a
result of mentoring
Phase 3 Separation - begins when protégé feels
it is time to assert independence - stressful
period for both mentor and protégé
Phase 4 Redefinition - occurs after a successful
separation - bond based on friendship - mentor
and protégé roles fade away
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Career - the evolving sequence of a persons work
experiences over time - people currently hold
different conceptions about careers than
they did in the past
Choosing a Job Making Vocational Choices -
influenced by several factors Person-job fit -
personal characteristics make people more suited
to some jobs than other jobs - better the
person-job fit, the greater the job
satisfaction Job opportunities - beliefs about
the future of jobs - focus on jobs believed to
offer growing opportunities
Changing Nature of Career Plans - single-track
career paths are becoming the exception rather
than the rule - careers involve lateral moves,
rotation through several different
jobs, geographic relocations, and periods of
time spent as an independent contractor or
subcontractor rather than a full- time
employee - employees should view their careers
as a series of opportunities for gaining new
proficiencies that will increase their value
on the job market
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Entrepreneurship Should You Start Your Own
Business? Entrepreneur - an individual who
starts her/his own business
Entrepreneurship - career path for increasing
number of people because of - low job
security in traditional organizational jobs -
growing desire for independence and
autonomy, particularly among the young -
media coverage of entrepreneurial success
stories - risky career choice - high failure
rate - profitability attained only after
several years - sharp increase in personal
work load - requires a solid business
background and study
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Careers of Women and Men How Similar Are
They? - benefits of training greater for men
than for women - work experience and education
provide greater training opportunities for men
than for women - a spouse and dependents enhance
experiences of men more than of women -
collegial encouragement more closely related to
managerial advancement for men than for women
Female style of managing - less concern with
status and hierarchies - greater willingness to
compromise and mediate
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Careers of Women and Men How Similar Are They?
(cont.)
Glass ceiling - barrier preventing females from
reaching top positions in many organizations -
often takes subtle forms rather than overt
discrimination - barriers have lessened during
recent years, but have not been eliminated
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Stress - a complex pattern of emotional states,
physiological reactions, and related thoughts
occasioned by external demands - can have
devastating effects on nearly all aspects of
human behavior and organizational functioning
Stressors - various factors in the external
environment that induce stress among people
exposed to them Cognitive appraisal - determines
whether a factor acts as a stressor -
perception that the situation is threatening -
threatening situation is beyond the persons
control
Strain - the accumulated effects of stress,
primarily deviations from normal states or
performance, resulting from exposure to stressful
events
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Figure 6.10 Distinguishing Among Stessors,
Stress, and Strain
Stressors (physical)
Stressors (psychological)
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Work-Related Causes of Stress - work environments
may be highly stressful Occupational demands -
some jobs are more stressful than
others depending upon whether they - require
making decisions - involve constant
monitoring - require repeated exchange of
information - occur in unpleasant physical
conditions - involve performing unstructured
tasks - involve dealing with the public
Conflict between work and nonwork - stress
produced by competing demands Role conflict -
incompatible demands on an individual made by
different groups of persons - effects lessened
by social support in work setting
Role ambiguity - stress produced by uncertainty
about how to meet the requirements of the job -
differs greatly from culture to culture
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Figure 6.11 Culture and Role Ambiguity
2.55
2.45
2.35
2.25
Role Ambiguity
2.15
2.05
1.95
1.85
1.75
U.S.
U.K.
Korea
France
Mexico
Nigeria
Australia
Germany
Indonesia
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Work-Related Causes of Stress (cont.) Overload
and underload - stress produced by too much or
too little work Quantitative overload -
situation requiring individuals to accomplish
more work than they can in a given period of
time Qualitative overload - belief among
employees that they lack the skills and
abilities to perform their jobs
Quantitative underload - situation in which
individuals have so little to do that they spend
much of their time doing nothing Qualitative
underload - lack of mental stimulation
that accompanies many routine, repetitive jobs
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Work-Related Causes of Stress (cont.) Lack of
social support - isolation poor situation in
which to experience stress - presence of
others can be very effective way of dealing
with stress
Sexual harassment - unwelcome sexual advances,
requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or
physical conduct of a sexual nature - can be
subtle as well as overt - may be increasing in
US workplaces
Responsibility for others - motivating, punishing
and rewarding, and communicating with other
people leads to higher stress than dealing with
other organizational functions
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Causes of Stress Outside Work - events outside
work settings often causes stress that persists
and may affect work Stressful life events -
traumatic events or significant life changes -
more stressful, greater the likelihood of
illness - typically are rare events
Hassles of daily life - countless minor
irritations that make up for their low intensity
by their high frequency - more daily hassles
experienced, the greater the levels
of self-reported stress
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Stress and Task Performance - stress exerts
mainly negative effects on task performance --
even at relatively low levels because - even
relatively mild stress can be distracting -
prolonged or repeated exposure to even mild
levels of stress may exert harmful effects on
health - may produce high levels of arousal,
leading to choking under pressure
Exceptions to the general rule - large individual
differences in impact of stress on task
performance - some individuals seem to rise to
the occasion - view stress as a challenge, not
a threat
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Stress and Psychological Well-Being Burnout - a
syndrome that results from prolonged exposure to
stress and consists of Emotional exhaustion
- chronic state of physical and emotional
depletion Depersonalization - development of
callous, cynical attitudes about ones career
and work Reduced personal accomplishments -
tendency to evaluate accomplishments at work
negatively
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Stress and Psychological Well-Being (cont.)
Some major causes of burnout - prolonged
exposure to stress - belief that one has lost
valuable resources that will reduce the ability
to cope with work demands - job conditions
suggesting the ones efforts are useless -
feeling that one is trapped in an unfair
situation - leadership that does not provide
consideration
Effects of burnout - has deleterious
consequences - impairs ones physical
condition - causes changes in ones behavior -
leads to counterproductive work performance -
increases voluntary turnover
Preventing burnout - provide effective ways to
cope with stress and inequity Reversing burnout
- short breaks, days off from work, and
vacations all are effective in allowing an
individual to recover from emotional exhaustion
and depersonalization due to stress
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Stress and Health The Silent Killer - strong
relationship between stress and personal
health - leads to both degenerative as well as
infectious diseases
Individual Differences in Resistance to Stress -
Type As less resistant to effects of stress than
Type Bs - other personal characteristics (e.g.,
optimism and hardiness) also influence the
effect of stress on personal health
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Personal Approaches to Stress Management Resilien
cy - learning ways of minimizing the degree to
which stressors adversely affect
us Physiological techniques - relaxation,
meditation, and napping - people can learn
to induce relaxation whenever they feel
themselves becoming too tense
Cognitive techniques - reduce worrying - avoid
awfulizing and catastrophizing - magnifying the
effects of failure, imperfection, or thoughts
of rejection
Lifestyle management - getting ones body into
proper shape - balancing life activities
Time management - take control over ones
actions - set priorities and stick to them -
avoid distraction by others - delegate
responsibilities to others
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Organization-Wide Strategies for Managing
Stress Family-supportive practices - designed to
reduce work-family role conflict
Special corporate programs Stress management
programs - systematic efforts by organizations
designed to help employees reduce or prevent
stress Wellness programs - variety of training
programs (e.g., exercise, nutrition training)
designed to promote healthy employees Employee
assistance programs - plans that provide
employees with assistance with various
problems including substance abuse, career
planning, financial and legal problems)