Occupational Health Psychology: The Challenge of Workplace Stress

Constant and rapid change, which is a characteristic of all organizations today, demands that, as workers, we develop the ability to anticipate and adapt to change whilst minimising stress and disruption. ′Survival of the fittest′ is no longer the rule but rather ′survival of the fitting′. This book is about developing this ability to adapt, both at an individual and an organizational level and, in the process, developing more effective organizational and personal resources and skill.
At an individual level, the negative effects of stress are various: loss of creativity and effectiveness, loss of work motivation and pleasure, and various psychological and physical complaints.
For organizations, the effects of high levels of stress are just as concerning:

lower productivity and poorer quality
failing communication and conflict
high turnover of well–qualified employees
high costs of sick leave and work disability
negative public relations.
Stress is a valuable indicator of individual and organizational health and well being. This book outlines a 7–stage project management approach to stress which identifies both personal and organizational sources of stress and examines the different ways in which individuals characteristically react, whilst an extensive Addendum offers a range of positive interventions.
This book is intended as a textbook for HR professionals, consultants and line managers as well as individual employees interested in tackling stress in the workplace. The highly structured approach and the frequent use of Self–Assessment Questionnaires and Points for Reflection make this book a valuable teaching and self–learning tool. Above all, it is a practical guide to the problems of workplace stress.

Spis treści:
1. Introduction.
2. What is stress?.
3. Stress reactions and sources of stress.
4. The approach.
5.Addendum: Interventions.

Nota biograficzna:
Marc J. Schabracq teaches courses on work and health psychology at the University of Amsterdam and is a consultant in human aspects of production and change to both profit and non–profit organisations. He is well known as an author of 17 scholarly books and over 100 articles as well as media appearances and a novelist. Together with Cary Cooper and Jacques Winnubst, he is also editor on the internationally known Handbook of Work and Health Psychology, published by John Wiley.
Cary C. Cooper is Professor of Organisational Psychology and Health at the Manchester School of Management, UMIST. He has authored over 80 books and 300 scholarly articles on different aspects of occupational health in general and stress in particular, and is a frequent contributor to the media. He is founding editor of the Journal of Organisational Behaviour, co–editor of Stress Medicine and the International Journal of Management Review. He is a Fellow of the BPS, the Royal Society of Arts, the Royal Society of Medicine and the Royal Society of Health. Currently, Professor Cooper is President of the British Academy of Management, a Companion of the Institute of Management and a Fellow of the American Academy of Management.
Cheryl Travers teaches in the Business School, Loughborough University, where she has held several post the most recent being Director of Doctoral Training. Her research interests and publication are various: occupational stress, management of change, women in management, and the impact of personality type on adaptation to work. She acts as a Consultant in most areas of management development, in particular, stress management and the management of change, to clients in both the public and the private sectors. She is co–author with Cary Cooper, of Teachers Under Pressure: Stress in the Teaching Profession, published by Routledge.
David J. van Maanen is a psychologist and business administration consultant on the implementation of change in both profit and non–profit organisations. His work includes coaching managers and teams in goal–setting and realising change. He also teaches the subject of organisational health to post–graduates in the Netherlands.

Okładka tylna:
Constant and rapid change, which is a characteristic of all organizations today, demands that, as workers, we develop the ability to anticipate and adapt to change whilst minimising stress and disruption. ′Survival of the fittest′ is no longer the rule but rather ′survival of the fitting′. This book is about developing this ability to adapt, both at an individual and an organizational level and, in the process, developing more effective organizational and personal resources and skill.
At an individual level, the negative effects of stress are various: loss of creativity and effectiveness, loss of work motivation and pleasure, and various psychological and physical complaints.
For organizations, the effects of high levels of stress are just as concerning:

lower productivity and poorer quality
failing communication and conflict
high turnover of well–qualified employees
high costs of sick leave and work disability
negative public relations.
Stress is a valuable indicator of individual and organizational health and well being. This book outlines a 7–stage project management approach to stress which identifies both personal and organizational sources of stress and examines the different ways in which individuals characteristically react, whilst an extensive Addendum offers a range of positive interventions.
This book is intended as a textbook for HR professionals, consultants and line managers as well as individual employees interested in tackling stress in the workplace. The highly structured approach and the frequent use of Self–Assessment Questionnaires and Points for Reflection make this book a valuable teaching and self–learning tool. Above all, it is a practical guide to the problems of workplace stress.