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David
Lee
Consultant
Speaker
Author |
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For
More Information:
David Lee, Principal
HumanNature@Work
P.O. Box 430
Bar Mills, Maine 04004
Tel: 207-929-3344
E-mail: info@HumanNatureAtWork.com |
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AR
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Employee
Stress and Performance |
| By
David Lee |
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| Originally
published in Training Scene |
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Creating a high performance
organization is a popular theme in the training
and development field. To survive in these
competitive times, companies can't afford anything
less. Creating a high performance organization
requires understanding what factors influence
performance. One of the most significant factors
is stress.
Historically, stress has been viewed as an
inevitable consequence of work life; or at
most, a health care issue. Neither view begins
to capture just how costly this problem is
to employers. Research shows that stress interferes
with human intellectual, emotional, and interpersonal
functioning. In fact, nearly every popular
training and organizational development initiative
is directly compromised by the intellectual,
emotional, and interpersonal consequences of
stress.
Initiatives like The Learning Organization,
Process Re-engineering, Diversity Training,
Collaborative Team Work, and The High Performance
Organization are all impacted by the way people
are affected by stress. In this article, we
will highlight some of the research findings
and discuss their implications for today's
organization.
Stress, Threat, and "Numbing Out"
When animals, including human beings, are exposed
to potentially life threatening situations;
their bodies release endorphins, which are
nature's pain-killer. This makes sense from
a survival perspective. If you are being attacked
by a predator and are injured, you don't want
to be focusing your attention on how much you
hurt.
This response doesn't just happen in response
to tangible, visible threat; it is also triggered
by potential threat. Thus, if we feel threatened
or fearful, our body releases endorphins. This
sets the stage for serious intellectual and
interpersonal consequences; because endorphins
dull both our ability to think and our ability
to feel. Effective decision-making and interpersonal
skills require both.
Implications for the Workplace
In workplaces where people are constantly afraid
and insecure, employees are at risk of "numbing
out" to protect themselves. We see it
in the blank faces of clerks, the lack of enthusiasm
by front line workers, and in the remarkably
insensitive ways managers and employees treat
each other. The very mechanism which allows
a person to survive an emotionally painful
environment also makes it difficult for them
to respond sensitively and empathetically to
others. The organizational conflict and customer
service consequences of this are obviously
very costly.
This numbing process affects far more than
the interpersonal realm of organizational performance.
It affects all aspects of decision-making,
innovation, and safety. With their thinking
impaired, people are at greater risk of causing
serious mistakes and accidents. They are also
obviously less likely to make wise decisions
and create process improvements.
Stress and the Loss of Creativity
Creative and innovative thought are is at the
heart of the learning organization. An organization's
ability to innovate is perhaps the most important
source of competitive advantage. Organizations
who know how to stimulate and leverage innovative
thought are able to respond more rapidly and
resourcefully to market changes and customer
requirements than their slower, less innovative
competitors. Despite the tremendous contribution
innovative thought makes to organizational
survival, most organizations don't realize
how they prevent such thought from being exercised
in their organization. The typical high stress
workplace the physiological and psychological
affects of stress on the human brain and mind
compromises such creativity and innovation.
Studies show that when people are under stress,
their thought processes narrow. This narrowing
of attention, by definition, prevents divergent
thinking, which is the foundation of creativity.
Divergent thinking is the ability to see connections
between very distantly related ideas and context.
It is an important component of "thinking
outside the box." When people are stressed,
they are able to perceive obvious connections
and associations between ideas. When people
are in a positive emotional state, their ability
to make more distant, novel connections and
associations increases. Thus, stress compromises,
at the most fundamental neurological level,
one of the foundational skills of creativity
and innovation.
Uncontrollable Stress and the Dumbing Down
Process
Research by Dr. James Pennebaker of Southern
Methodist University has demonstrated a very
serious consequence of uncontrollable stress
on thought processes. In an experiment performed
by Dr. Pennebaker, subjects wrote about whatever
was going on in their mind - their "stream
of consciousness." One group was subjected
to a loud noise in the middle of the exercise
and told there was nothing they could do about
it; they had to "grin and bear it." The
other group was subjected to the same loud
noise in the middle of the exercise, but they
were told they could have the noise stopped
if they chose. The results were both fascinating
and disturbing in their implications for organizational
performance.
The group that had no control demonstrated
a significant deterioration in their thought
process during and after the noise. Their thinking
became unemotional, unimaginative, and dull.
It was as if they became temporarily dumb in
order to endure the stressful situation. Even
more interesting was the other group's response. "although
they were told they could stop the noise if
they needed to, not one person chose to do
so. Therefore, they experienced the same amount
of unpleasant noise as the group which wasn't
given that option.
Despite being subjected to the same amount
of noxious noise, their thought process remained
unaffected. They engaged in deep, reflective,
creative thought. Thus, it wasn't the negative
external situation, but the perceived lack
of control, which resulted in a diminished
thinking capacity. The operative term here
is perceived. This study and others like it
show that even if a person's perception is
wrong - if in fact they really don't have control,
the effect is the same as if they truly had
control. It's the perception, the belief, that
matters.
Closely linked to this sense of perceived control
is predictability. "s long as a person
(or lab rat for that matter) knows when the
next painful situation will occur, they do
not suffer the same kind of psychological and
physiological harm as those who don't know "when
the other shoe will drop." Simply knowing
creates a feeling, even if ill-founded, of
control.
Implications For The Workplace
One obvious implication of this research is
that employee intellectual functioning can
be very powerfully influenced by their environment.
In workplaces where employees feel helpless
and disempowered, they are less likely to think
in intelligent, creative ways. Another important
implication, and this is born out by other
research, is that perceived control plays a
major role in whether a person is affected
by a potentially stressful workplace. Workers
in jobs with similar demands, but different
levels of control, exhibit very different psychological
and physiological responses. With the same
demand level, workers in low control workplaces
are significantly more affected by their work.
Thus, when workers have little control over
their work and feel powerless in general, they
are more likely to suffer from the kind of "dumbing
down" that Pennebaker's work demonstrated;
and which we see in organizations throughout
America.
In thinking about organizational implications,
we need to realize that the word "perceived" in
the term "perceived control" is important.
It is important because in reality, there is
no way we can create a workplace in which a
person has total control over their work and
over their destiny. No organization can guarantee
lifelong employment, no one can foresee market
changes or economic downturns. But, as long
as people have open lines of communication
and know that they can get the information
they need - even if it's "we don't know
yet," they experience a sense of control.
Thus, organizations which enable open, honest
communication create a context in which people
are less likely to be stressed out, and because
of that, more likely to utilize their capabilities.
Summary
To create a high performance organization,
an organization which brings out the best in
its people, we need to understand how stress
affects people's intellectual, emotional, and
interpersonal functioning. By drawing on the
wealth of research available, we can make recommendations
which increase the probability that people
will not be compromised by stress, but instead,
perform at optimal levels.
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About the Author: David Lee is an internationally recognized authority on organizational and managerial practices that optimize employee performance. He is the author of Managing Employee Stress and Safety, as well as dozens of articles on employee and organizational performance that have been published in trade journals and books in North America, Asia, Europe, and Australia. For information on his programs and service, click here.
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