Review the stress management section. Which methods are easiest for you to follow now? Which methods should you consider in the future? As a manager, which methods can you put into effect for others?

STRESS MANAGEMENT

Stress management has a goal of maintaining stress at an optimal level for the individual and the organization. Not all stress should be reduced, because some stressors are unavoidable, and some amount of stress is not bad for many people.

Individual and organizational stress management strategies fall into three groups. Stress reduction strategies aim to decrease the number of stressors affecting a person. Stress resilience strategies try to increase a person’s ability to endure stressors and not feel dysfunctional results. Stress recuperation strategies aim to help the person bounce back from the stress response without physical harm. Some research suggests that combined individual and organizational strategies have the most positive effects on reducing stress effects on individuals.

The stress management strategies described in this section have been widely discussed in the popular press and by medical practitioners and stress researchers. Some reviews of the stress research literature show mixed results for these strategies. Other reviews of empirical stress research point to positive effects of many strategies described in this section. The effectiveness of diet, aerobic exercise, and physical fitness are well understood. Existing empirical research points to their recuperative and resilience effects.