erload can create stress. Overload can cause an individual to work long hours, resulting in fatigue, increased accidents, and a negative attitude toward the job or coworkers. Conversely, if an individual is under loaded, then boredom can set in. Bored workers often avoid work by staying home more frequently and by searching for alternative employment (Ivancevich, 1998).
Role conflict is of equal significance as a source of stress. The ways in which an individual behaves in a given job depends on many factors. A combination of the expectations and demands an employee will place upon himself or herself and those of co-workers results in a set of forces called role pressures. When a situation arises in which two or more role pressures are at odds, role conflict emerges. Role conflict is said to exist whenever compliance with one set of pressures makes compliance with another set difficult, objectionable, or impossible. The effect of role conflict is to undermine a peaceful work state and to lead to physiological and psychological changes (Ivancevich, 1998).
Coping with stress has become a major concern among human resource managers. The cost of stress in the workplace has been estimated by Ivancevich (1998) to be at least $150 billion per year. There are two ways of coping with stress. The first is to eliminate the stressor by changing policies, organizational structure, work requirements, or other material features of the job or workplace environment. The second approach is to address stress individually or organizationally by means of interventions such as stress management seminars, stress reduction programs, counseling, and job enhancement. Ivancevich (1998) says that during the past 20 years, stress management programs have met with variable success.
Wojcik (1999) contends that workplace stress is a major hazard that is responsible for fully one-third of all workers' compensation claims. Stress cuts product...