WORKPLACE STRESSORS AND MANAGEMENT 1
Reducing the Impact of Workplace Stressors
Ifunanya B. Onuchukwu
Department of Applied Psychology, Liberty University
PSYC 516-D02: Industrial/Organizational Psychology
Dr. Gilbert Franco
November 26Th 2020
WORKPLACE STRESSORS AND MANAGEMENT 2
Reducing the Impact of Workplace Stressors
According to (Jex & Britt, 2014), stress can be defined in a number of ways, but
researchers lean more towards the stimulus-response definition where ‘stimulus’ is referred to as
some type of force acting on the individual and ‘response’ is said to imply the way in which the
employee reacts to stressful work conditions. In the purview of the stimulus-response definition,
three distinct terms are elaborated. These include stress, stressor and strain. The term stress,
refers to the sum-total of the challenges which the employee experiences in the work
environment, while stressors refer to the challenges that demands adaptation on the part of the
employee and strain is a term used to explain the maladaptive ways the employee may respond to
stressors.
Model of Stress Applicable to Postal Worker Job
The occupational stress model that best suits the postal worker job (from my perspective)
is the ‘person-environment fit model’. This model proposes that if the personality of the
employee tallies with the environmental structure of the job, then you can describe the employee
as fit for the job and there will be less stress. Conversely, if the personality of the employee
contradicts the environmental nature of the job, you can say, the employee is unfit and at such
state, this employee views their work as stressful.
Take for an instance, an individual who does not like the outdoors being employed as a
mail man/ woman. The personality and characteristics of this individual is in sharp contrast to the
job description of a mail carrier. The mail man/ woman’s job is mostly outdoors, dispatching
mails to mailboxes. So, if for any reason, the wrong personality type is hired for such job, the
WORKPLACE STRESSORS AND MANAGEMENT 3
result will be the employee having a continual stressful work conditions because there is ‘person-
environment unfit’.
Stressors Likely to Influence Postal Worker Job
The nature of the mail man/woman job makes him/ her prone to stressors such as:
1)Workload: “Workload has been defined as the amount of work an employee has to do
in a given period of time, (Jex & Britt, 2014, p.225)”. The area mass to be covered by the mail
carrier may introduce a stressor, especially in a situation when there is an adverse weather
condition.
2) Interpersonal Conflict: Interpersonal relationship is unavoidable in most job
descriptions and with the job of the mail carrier, the interpersonal relationship may extend
beyond colleagues at work and extending towards the public. I have met mail carriers who greet
you with such beaming smiles to brighten your day, but that responsibility can as well introduce
some stress to them given the unpredictable nature of human being.
3) Emotional labor: This refers to the emotional drainage that the employee could
experience as a result of the demands of their job. The mail man/ woman has a life and other
engagements outside of their job which could combine with their specific in-role performance
expectations to introduce stressors into their life.
How to Reduce Perceived/ Felt Stress on the Postal Worker Job
The stress level of the worker can always be minimized by proper organizational support
which might include socializing the employee on stress management skills, providing easy
WORKPLACE STRESSORS AND MANAGEMENT 4
access to the necessary information that can make on-boarding easy and also the organization
providing proper supervisor support.
Another very important means of reducing perceived or actual stress would be for the
employee to develop personal coping skills. The bible says in Proverbs 8: 12, ‘I, wisdom dwell
with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions’, (NKJV). The ability to device a
means of absorbing the stress from the job demands and still be effective at work would be by a
blessing of wisdom and wits. Every employee should seek for such wisdom.
WORKPLACE STRESSORS AND MANAGEMENT 5
References
Jex, S.M. & Britt, T. W. (2014). Organizational Psychology: A scientific-practitioner approach.
3rd (ed).
The Holy Bible (NKJV)
