Occupational Stress and Job Satisfaction - Assignment Example

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 3 Case overview 3 Case Analysis 4 Occupational stress and Job satisfaction 4 Work values and Job satisfaction 5 Self Perception and Positive thinking 6 Emotional intelligence 7 Differences between ‘male’ and ‘female’ models 7 Conclusion 8 References 9 Introduction This paper provides an overview of Isabel Stewart’s thoughts and findings from her own working environment and an in depth analysis of the case situations. Stewart feels that she is losing ground to some one who has only been there for few years. From being a sort of competitive minded, or more negative behavioral, she becomes a positive thinker and finds out the ways in which her colleague could earn what she failed to achieve. Being energetic, responsible and abstaining from absent mindedness are some factors that can really tend a worker to be more triumphant in the job. This paper analyses the occupational stresses, work values and job satisfaction. It also analyses ‘male’ and ‘female model’ differences which was a concern for Stewart thinking the differences between these models. Case overview Isabel Stewart, a highly experienced corporate tax lawyer at Austin and March Law firm in Philadelphia, is concerned about a junior male lawyer who is able to secure some extents of better works and to take over ‘big deal’ cases. It is not the compensation paid that she becomes dissatisfied with, but feeling of competition with a very junior person in the next office makes her think negatively and sense of complex to work with a ‘male’ guy turns her more mentally stressed. Stewart is quite different in the ways she thinks. While dealing with matters, instead of intellectual appeal, she gives importance to works in career terms. Being aware of her managerial and decision making skills, Stewart always looks forward for opportunities to improve her skills further yet. Accepting the projects or works as opportunity can be regarded to be more right way than taking it as ‘favor doing’. Stewart realizes that as a lawyer, she could have satisfied the client saying ‘I would really like to do that project’. Moreover, those who succeed in their work are not just sitting for the work in the last minutes but take it as a challenge and they are neither irresponsible nor absent minded even in the cleanliness of their desks. Stewart realizes that successful people are very energetic in doing the projects. She feels that ‘male model’ is some sort of ‘challenge’ characteristic by which one seems to be attacking the work and then making it wonderful. According to her finding out, male model is frenetic style, by which they put much efforts and energy in way more quickly moving fast and jumping around. ‘To be specific’ in dealing with clients is as imperative as quality of the work. Stewarts finds that those guys who are very specific in approaches having absolutely right and accurate answers for every thing they deal with are successful in satisfying clients. People want to get specific answer like what exactly they have to do instead of giving few choices and asking them to pick one. Stewart finds that she is different from male colleagues in the way of personal or involvement with people. She was even uncomfortable to have lunch with clients and staying away from most public meetings or parties. People who do best are never self-aware of what they do. Case Analysis Occupational stress and Job satisfaction Stress, in general, can be defined as the reaction of individuals to demands (stressors) imposed upon them (Erkutlu & Chafra, 2006). It refers to situations where the well-being of individuals is detrimentally affected by their failure to cope with the demands of their environment (Erkutlu & Chafra, 2006). It is a mental and physical condition of dissatisfaction which affects an individual’s effectiveness, creativity and even personal thoughts. Isabel Stewart is dissatisfied with the job as there is one male worker who takes over big deals which are supposed to be handled by her as she is more senior and experienced. Among the stressors that give dissatisfaction to an employee are some factors of career development like lack of job security and relationship with others. Job satisfaction is an independent variable which will influence the level of productivity and absenteeism. There is a negative relationship between the level of satisfaction and the rate of absenteeism that can be seen obviously in the works of Stewart and she realizes the fact that a succeeding worker can never be absent minded. Work values and Job satisfaction ‘According to Simon’s theory, individuals who assign high priority to values related to altruism are less willing to evaluate personal costs and benefits when processing social information because engaging in personal evaluations limits the importance of information an individual obtains from others, (Arciniega L M., González,L 2005). Workers who assign high priorities to other oriented values tend to pay less attention evaluating personal costs and advantages when processing social information. Here, Stewart has assigned high priority to the values related to the altruism and hence is less willing to evaluate personal costs. According to Locke’s classical job satisfaction definition, this construct consists of evaluating hoe the needs of a worker are satisfied with the presence of certain conditions, or the achievement of goals in the work that are designed to the value priorities of the subject. (Arciniega L M., González,L 2005). According to Equity theory (Arciniega L M., González,L 2005), a worker is always setting up a process of comparison between him or her and a social referent that can be either internal or external to the organization. Stewart always thinks of comparison between her and her colleague who occupied in the next office and over took ‘big deals’ from clients. Self Perception and Positive thinking Perception is an individual’s window to the world. Perception is a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions so as to provide meaning to their environment. The most fundamental set of observation is related to self perception or self esteem. Figure shows how perception works Self esteem, which also can be termed as positive self perception, occurs when an individual experiences the times or things of achievements in which good things are achieved. Once these achievements completed, the individual finds out successes and accepts them. Isabel Stewart, though initially she finds it difficult with the guy in the next office who catches ‘big deals’, later she could realizes that there are differences that made him more competent regardless of seniority or pay. When an individual perceives the interaction with environment of colleagues and peer workers a successful behavior and attitude will affected in different ways. The individual who has experienced success will automatically trend to develop an optimistic out look and foresees future success. This optimism tends to help in achieving positive expectations. ‘Moreover, the optimistic outlook coupled with early successes builds a reservoir of strengths to draw up on when negative experiences are encountered’. (Harris O.J, & Hartman S J 2001) Emotional intelligence In 1995, an American Harvard Management specialist Goleman coined the term emotional intelligence that refers to the ability of an individual to sense and understand their own and others’ emotions and to apply that understanding to achieve an outcome. The theory explains why some workers have problems after early career success. Problems arise because of their inability to recognize and understand their impact on others rather than to a lack of expertise. A study of the US based company found 90 percents of the problem that affected its employees performance are unmeasured. It is because of that they related to lack of interpersonal skills, stress, emotional conflicts and personal health rather than absenteeism. The generation of emotions in response to the stressors in workplace and the after effects of these emotions on behavioral performance is moderated by emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is thus can be viewed as to moderate the relationships between affective events, affective responses and behavioral responses. Stewart realizes that accepting a task as opportunity is more appropriate way than taking it as a ‘favor doing and shows her ability to understand own emotions. Differences between ‘male’ and ‘female’ models Isabel Stewart realizes some differences between ‘male’ model and ‘female’ model in the works as her male colleagues are energetic and frenetic while ‘female model’ approaches projects in a reluctant manner. ‘In response to Gallup Poll, women executives said that one of their biggest disadvantages as women at work is male chauvinism. Not being taken seriously, not being included in social conversations and activities, and being patronized, especially by older men, are seen as other disadvantages’ (Harris O.J, & Hartman S J 2001) One of the most important factors in workplace of women is the family responsibility they put up with. This may be the important factor that tends a ‘female worker’ to be quite absent minded with work and non-energetic in workplace. Research also shows that women up to an extent not socialized or not being involved in social gatherings as men. ‘Women are more likely than men to feel controlled by factors in the environment. It is called external locus of control’. As a result, women are prone to downplay their own abilities and to feel like an imposter when they are successful’. (Harris O.J, & Hartman S J 2001) Women often feel uncomfortable to join social gatherings, making demands that are in their own interests and even to ‘have lunch with clients’. Conclusion The paper presents the behavioral cases of lawyer regarding perceptions, attitudes, emotional feelings, and emotional intelligence. The lawyer, Isabel Stewart, is dissatisfied with a peer worker in the very near office who markets against her the way she would market against a competing business. This event makes her think of many positive attributes that she is supposed to have in order to make sure of better competency. This work analyses the cases of emotional intelligences by which she understands herself and realizes the values that she needs to have. It also tends her to think about ‘male’ and ‘female’ model differences that have greater variances and impact in workplace. References Arciniega L M., González,L (2005) Other-Oriented Values and Job Satisfaction1 Problems and Perspectives in Management Erkutlu, H. V., Chafra, J. (2006), Relationship between leadership power base and job stress of subordinates: example from boutique hotels, Management Research News, Green berg J (2003), Organizational Behavior: The State of the Science, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Harris O.J, & Hartman S J (2001), Organizational Behavior, Haworth Press Kreitner R andKinicki A, Organizational Behavior, 8th Edition, Publisher: McGraw Hill, Stroh L K, Northcraft G B & Neale A M (2001) , Organizational Behavior: A Management Challenge, Third Edition, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Read More