Blackwell Reference Online

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Stress in organizations is common: between 26 and 40 percent of workers in the USA and in Europe experience their work as very stressful. Healthcare costs are 46 percent higher for workers who experienced high levels of stress ( Sonnentag and Frese, 2003 ). Other costs are low organizational commitment, absenteeism , disability pensions, and mortality rates. Illnesses that are affected by stress at work include immune system problems, psychosomatic complaints, coronary heart disease, depression, and possibly cancer. There is disagreement on what stress really is. On the most general level, one can differentiate between three stress concepts: (1) the stimulus concept; (2) the response concept; and (3) the transactional concept. The stimulus concept focuses on situational conditions or events (e.g., stressful life events). The reaction concept concentrates on physiological reactions (i.e., stress exists if an individual shows a specific physiological reaction pattern) ( Selye, 1983 ). Both of these positions have their shortcomings, as they do not take into account that different situations can result in the same physiological response and different physiological reactions may appear in the same situation. The transactional concept brought forward by Lazarus and Folkman (1984) assumes that stress results from a transaction between the individual and the environment, including the ... log in or subscribe to read full text