Stress at Work: The Manager

The complexity of industrial organizational life is a source of stress for managers. Brummett, Pyle and Framholtz (1968) suggest that managers are suffering extreme physiological symptoms from stress at work, such as disabling ulcers or coronary heart disease (CHD), which force them to retire prematurely from active work before they have had an opportunity to complete their potential organizational life. These and other stress-related effects (e.g. tension, poor adjustment, etc.) also affect the family, becoming potential sources of disturbance. Thus stress pervades the whole quality of managerial life. The mental and physical health effects of job stress are not only disruptive influences on the individual managers, but are also a ‘real’ cost to the organization, on whom many individuals depend: a cost which is rarely, if ever, seriously considered either in human or financial terms by organizations, but one which they incur in their day-to-day operations. In order to do something positive about sources of stress on managers at work, it is important to be able to identify them. The success of any effort to minimize stress and maximize job satisfaction will depend on accurate diagnosis, for different stresses will require different action.