Can you think of someone you know who suffers from job
stress? If so, you've probably noticed evidence of strain,
like increased use of sick leave, chronic anxiety, or
irritability. Have you ever wondered why many other people,
who experience the same job stress, don't show similar signs
of strain? After all, if job stress afflicts one person with
negative symptoms, shouldn't it also afflict others?
Pamela Perrewe, from Florida State University, believes that
people possess an ability to neutralize job stress. She
believes that people who use this ability sense the same
stressors everyone else feels, but these stressors don't have
negative effects for them. She also believes this ability
can be learned by people who currently don't use it and that
people who suffer from symptoms of strain due to job stress
can be helped by learning and practicing its component
skills. The ability which she feels offers this protective
effect is interpersonal effectiveness.
Professor Perrewe studied 230 Brazilian petroleum workers
and their supervisors. She collected data on strain,
including blood pressure, physical complaints, and chronic
anxiety, and she also collected perceptions of interpersonal
effectiveness. She gave people a list of six statements that
described this skill and asked people to react to them with a
similarity rating: "This statement does (or does not)
describe me." The more they believed these statements
described them, the higher their level of interpersonal
effectiveness. Here are the six statements:
As job stress increased, people who reported low levels of
interpersonal effectiveness revealed rapidly rising symptoms
of strain, including rising blood pressure, chronic anxiety,
and physical complaints. People reporting high levels of
interpersonal effectiveness had a much lower rise in symptoms
of strain, and their blood pressure even fell.
For Ms. Perrewe, this was strong evidence to support her
claim that interpersonal effectiveness neutralizes job
stress. She explains the process this way:
When people are in a setting that is important for their
well-being (like a job), they continually monitor their
ability to function. As long as they feel confident that
they can handle the demands placed on them, then job stress
does not cause strain and symptoms don't appear. But when
people lose this confidence and believe that the demands of a
situation will tax or exceed their ability to cope with
them, then job stress leads to the strain that causes
troubling symptoms to emerge, e.g., high blood pressure.
When people believe they are skilled in interpersonal
relationships, they view others as a source of support to
help them in difficult circumstances. It is this confidence
that interferes with the connection between stress and
symptoms of strain. It neutralizes it, Perrewe says.
Interpersonal effectiveness can be learned, and the
statements listed above suggest ways to do so. Each
statement implies exercises. For example, the first
statement involves knowledge of other people and imagination
of their thoughts and feelings. Learning this skill would be
helped by practicing it. The second involves hospitality,
and learning appropriate rules for hospitality and adopting
these practices should lead to increases in this skill.
Rapport can be developed by asking people questions that
allow them to talk about themselves. Being known by another
person builds rapport. Finding common ground with another
person is a negotiation skill. Learning to get others to
respond positively to you involves making requests in an
appropriate way once the foundation has been prepared for a
positive relationship, such as finding common ground between
two parties.
Professor Perrewe believes that interpersonal skill is an
antidote to the debilitating effects of job stress. If we
can coach people who suffer from stress to improve this skill
and to practice it, then their confidence should increase and
their symptoms of strain should diminish. It's another way
we can help.
Reference: Perrewe, Pamela, Kelly Zellars, Gerald Ferris,
Ana Rossi, Charles Kacmar, and David Ralston (2004)
Neutralizing Job Stressors: Political Skill as an Antidote to
the Dysfunctional Consequences of Role Conflict. Academy of
Management Journal, 47 (1), 141-152.
Supervision Findings, by James Larsen, Ph.D.
An Antidote for Strain
New research into job stress reveals a skill that protects people from suffering strain.