Mehmet Hişyar KORKUSUZ1 Ersoy KUTLUK DEVELOPMENT OF

Transkript

Akademik Sosyal Araştırmalar Dergisi, Yıl: 3, Sayı: 18, Aralık 2015, s.124-150
Mehmet Hişyar KORKUSUZ1
Ersoy KUTLUK2
DEVELOPMENT OF MANAGERIAL PSYCHO-SOCIAL WELD
POOL FOR BALANCING POLITICAL STRESS
Abstract
Modern people are encumbered with business and/or stress every time.
Examination of these two concepts together gives the key of success and
satisfaction. Therefore, efficiency which is the goal of production is carried
through with paying attention to human factor. These issues and facts those are
necessary for management is also true to all political and social area and politicians
as well. Policy makers can encounter different and multidimensional events in
today’s political life. These events leave them in case of taking decisions those
results would be a versatile and effective. This situation creates stress on the
politicians. Coping with political stress that occur as a result of internal and
external factors and balancing its negative effects are important for achieving
success. In this process with strengthening the psycho-social opportunities and
weld pool, process of coping with stress will attain a certain balance profile in time.
Keywords: Political Stress, Management, Organization, Coping with Stress, the
Model of Seesaw.
POLİTİK STRESİN DENGELENMESİNDE YÖNETSEL
PSİKO-SOSYAL KAYNAK HAVUZUNUN GELİŞTİRİLMESİ
Özet
Modern insan hemen her an iş ve/veya stres ile yüklüdür. Bu iki kavramın birlikte
ele alınıp incelenmesi başarı ve doyumun anahtarını verir. Böylelikle üretimin
amacı olan verimlilik, insan faktörü de göz önünde tutularak gerçekleştirilmiş olur.
Yönetim için gerekli olan bu konular ve gerçekler siyasal ve sosyal alanın tümü ve
1
Assistant Professor Doctor (Mehmet H. Korkusuz has been appointed as Asst.Prof.Dr. to the Istanbul
Arel University Dept. of Political Science and Public Administration, in 2012). Now he is going on his
academic study and research freely in Berlin and Istanbul, [email protected]
2
Assistant Professor Doctor (Ersoy Kutluk has been appointed as Asst.Prof.Dr. to the Istanbul Arel
University Dept. of Political Science and Public Administration, in 2012). He is going on his academic
study and research freely. [email protected]
125
Development of Managerial Psycho-Social Weld Pool for Balancing Political
Stress
siyasilerin kendileri için de fazlasıyla geçerlidir. Politika yapıcılar günümüz siyasal
hayatında farklı ve çok boyutlu hadiselerle karşılaşabilmektedirler. Bu olaylar
onları neticeleri çok yönlü ve tesirli olabilecek kararlar almak durumunda
bırakmaktadır. Bu durum ise politikacılar üzerinde stres oluşturmaktadır. İç ve dış
faktörlerin etkileri sonucu oluşan politik stres ile başa çıkılması ve olumsuz
tesirlerin dengelenmesi başarıya ulaşılabilmesi için önem arz etmektedir. Bu
süreçte psiko-sosyal imkanların ve kaynak havuzunun güçlendirilmesiyle stresle
başa çıkma süreci zaman içerisinde belli bir denge profiline kavuşacaktır.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Politik Stres, Yönetim, Örgüt, Stresle Başa Çıkma, Seesaw
(Tahterevalli) Modeli.
Introduction
Management phenomenon as old as history reached passing through humanity’s
agricultural, industrial and communications revolutions process to management concept and the
idea that aims to be modern, rational, effective and efficient. Global trends affect all grounds
and countries and also administrative structure and functioning of the countries in today’s
world. Politicians, business managers, and all decision-makers should overcome this trend with
accurate information and methods.
When we look at the science related to management, an interdisciplinary case stands
out. Anthropology, sociology, psychology, political sciences, economy, biology, ecology,
mathematics and philosophy are between these disciplines. Social and behavioral disciplines
especially political science which management is in relationship need to assess with the purpose
of performing targets effectively and efficiently3.
It can be said that, the essential factor which acts as reflex in the organism that causes
functioning of managerial/administrative system is stress. The functions which installed on a
system/organization can carry out with the level of knowledge and skills of human factor.
Today’s world, the factors that determine the quality of the human factor must be purify from
stress or minimizing negative effects of stress beside training and specialization factors. Today,
the most important factor which keeps healthy a human is level of stress. But, at the same time
stress may be commented as impulsive power. We accept that ‘optimum level of stress’ may be
benefit for managers and policymakers. Negative effects of stress occur when exceed point of
optimum level of stress. In this article, it is aimed to reach optimal stress level with a new
balance model.
I. Stress Concept and Stress Perception
Richard S. Lazarus gives detailed information us about origins of the stress concept. In
the 14th century, the word ‘stress’ was first used in a nontechnical sense to mean “hardship,
straits, adversity, or affliction.” In the late 17th century, a physicist-biologist, Robert Hooke
made a strong contribution by formulating an engineering analysis of ‘stress’. He scrutinized the
practical question of “how man-made structures should be designed to carry heavy loads
without collapsing.” His analysis revealed three basic concepts, load, stress, and strain. “Load
refers to external forces, such as weight; stress is the area of the bridge’s structure over which
3
Atilla Baransel, Çağdaş Yönetim Düşüncesinin Gelişimi, Volume 1, Second Edition, İstanbul, İstanbul Üniversitesi
Yayınları, 1979, p.56-63; Tamer Koçel, İşletme Yöneticiliği, Eleventh Edition, İstanbul, Arıkan Basım Yayın Dağıtım
Ltd. Şti., 2007, p.7.
The Journal of Academic Social Science Yıl: 3, Sayı: 18, Aralık 2015, s. 124-150
Mehmet Hişyar Korkusuz - Ersoy Kutluk
126
the load was applied; and strain is the deformation of the structure, produced by the interplay
of load and stress.” This approach greatly influenced 20th-century stress and emotion models of
stress, which used the conception of load “as an external force exerted on a social,
physiological, or psychological system.” Now we use stressor as the external input, and stress
response or reaction as the output 4.
Walter Bradford Cannon (1871-1945) used the term stress as “a perturbation of somatic
homeostasis by external threats that induce a mobilization of bodily resources to contend with
the circumstances”5. Hans Selye (1907-1982) recommended the following definition for stress:
“Stress is the nonspecific response of the body to any demand”6. John M. Ivancevich and
Michael T. Matterson have described stress as “adoptive response, mediated by individual
characteristics and/or psychological processes, that is a consequence of any external action,
situation or event that places special physical and/or psychological demands upon a person”7.
Terry A. Beehr and J. E. Newman have stated stress as “a condition arising from the interaction
of people and their jobs and characterised by changes within people that force them to deviate
from their normal functioning”8.
According to Öztürk, the stress is any factor that may unbalance an organism. Stress can
be defined in levels of Biological (for example, cerebral Infarction), psychological (eg, deep
guilt sense), sociological (eg, economic crisis, migration). The Stress may occur within the
organism's own (eg, perception strongly banned urge from the inside) or may come from
external. When the stress factors are dominant on strength of a person, defenses of person and
coping facility may be insufficient. This condition is called misbalancing9.
The phenomenon of stress is one of the most important factors which affects
relationships between people and should be considered to be successful in management. We
must know what the stress is and what the sources of stress are, so we can develop the coping
ways with stress. We should not put forward for that stress is bad and unwanted due to relating
with some negative words like tension, anxiety, oppression, conflict, distress, frustration and
slog. Stress in some degree is inevitable for success. In 1952, Bazarus, Deese and Osler had
emphasized on impact of different situations on the success. Research that is done for determine
circumstantial characteristics and differences, they determined individual differences are as
important as changes related to the situation. Jessie Bernard divides stress into two headlines as
pleasurable (eustress) and unpleasurable (distress). In fact, distress is a subjective discomfort
sense for a person against unlikable postures 10.
Stress has described in four levels as mild stress, moderate stress, severe stress and
panic. In each of these levels, individual is sensitive against environment. First level of being
concerned with the environment is being awake. Being awake shows level of mild stress,
4
Richard S. Lazarus, Stress and Emotion: A New Synthesis, New York, Springer Publishing Company, Inc., 2006,
p.31-32.
5
Conveys from Cannon; Robert L. Woolfolk, Paul M. Lehrer and Lesley A. Allen, “Conceptual Issues Underlying
Stress Management”, Principles and Practice of Stress Management, Paul M. Lehrer, Robert L. Woolfolk, Wesley
E. Sime (Edited by), New York, The Guilford Press, 2007, p.6-7.
6
Hans Selye, Stress in Health and Disease, Boston & London, The Butterworth Group, 1976, p.15.
7
Conveys from Ivancevich and Matterson; V. G. Kondalkar, Organizational Behaviour, New Delhi, New Age
International Publishers, 2007, p.177.
8
Conveys from Beehr and Newman; Kondalkar, Ibid, p.177.
9
M. Orhan Öztürk, Ruh Sağlığı ve Bozuklukları, Sixth Edition, Ankara, Hekimler Yayın Birliği, 1995, p.14-15.
10
S. Sorias, “Stresle İlgili Kavramlar ve Stresin Psikiyatrik Bozukluklardaki Önemi”, Ege Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi
Dergisi, Volume 26, Issue 2, 1987, p.887.
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Stress
individual understands more difficult than before. Individual's skill of connecting and
comprehending are reducing in second level of concerning with the environment. In this step,
individual can’t pay attention what goings-on around, but individual can notice if another
observer point out to condition on live, this shows level of moderate stress. Muscle tension,
heart palpitations, stomach complaints and sweating occur in this level. If awkwardness about
comprehend to going-on environment increases, stress increases so third level condition arises
as severe stress. Individual notices only details and feels unrest of physically and emotionally.
Although details are noticed but relations between them are not noticed. In condition of stress
too high, move to level of panic, awkwardness occurs about communication and functions,
individual cannot come to life even if he or she is stimulated by others11.
Human and stress relationship is emphasized on the need to focus on studies about multi
disciplines in the context of management fact. In this point, the issue of stress and individual
psychology should be emphasized. It should be noted that, in here fact is not decisive alone. The
basic thing is personal comment in condition. This commenting realizes on two steps 12:
1-Primary Situational Assessment: “Does this situation threaten my goals or is it
neutral or even favorable?” If people have the impression that a situation is a threat, they
instantaneously know that things cannot stay the way they are: Either the situation or the acting
person himself or herself has to change, and even the anticipation of a need for change may be
enough to create stress.
2-Secondary assessment: A second assessment, equally holistic and subconscious,
follows the first. This time it comprises a comparison of all available resources with the
situational demands: “Will I be able to manage this critical situation?” Depending on how this
assessment turns out, different strategies will be applied to deal with the stressful situation.
Basic characteristics that play a role in the assessment, mark stress and led to the
emergence of conditions that vary person to person are ‘private psychological characteristics’ 13.
The key notion is exist of ‘threat’ on mental level in psychological analysis of stress, end of the
primary and secondary assessment. In this decision, the person’s perception style of the
situation is emerged as fundamental decisive element. Prejudices and perceptions 14 which are
gained from our past experiences determine selectivity and preparation with our needs and
motives. The important thing for stress is; whether event is perceived as ‘threatening’ by person
11
Yücel Ertekin, Stres ve Yönetim, Ankara, TODAİE, 1993, p.6.
Conveys from Lazarus; Michael St.Pierre, Gesine Hofinger and Cornelius Buerschaper, Crisis Management in
Acute Care Settings: Human Factors and Team Psychology in a High Stakes Environment, Berlin-Heidelberg & New
York, Springer, 2008, p.106.
13
Acar Baltaş and Zuhal Baltaş, Stres ve Başaçıkma Yolları, Twenty Eighth Edition, İstanbul, Remzi Kitabevi, 2012,
p.34.
14
Behaviors are derived from needs and steer with motives. Behind of all moves, there is a motive that causes them.
These motives are shaped with individual needs and the way of the perception environment. Although there are the
gradation of different needs, Maslow’s gradation of needs is widely accepted in psychology. In this gradation, there
are physiological/biological needs on the first and the lowest (physiological-safety-love/belonging-esteem-self
actualization). However, it is possible to turn to the satisfaction of the complex psychological needs at higher levels
after satisfaction of these needs. Hierarchy of needs is the most fundamental element in perception. Human must
satisfy his or her needs starting with the bottom step. Human percepts different in accordance with his or her needs
even shaped objects of external world (Fred Luthans, Organizational Behavior, Fifth Edition, New York, Mc GrawHill, 1989, p.240-242; Baltaş and Baltaş, Ibid, p.35-36; Ruhet Genç, Profesyonel Yöneticinin Yöntem ve Kavramları,
First Edition, Ankara, Seçkin Yayıncılık, 2009, p.120-122).
12
128
or not. Individual differences are caused by psychological separations, needs and past
experiences are not generally current, these are private15.
Personality should be handled in this context. Personality is the most characteristic and
original entire of the emotional state of people structure, their patterns of behavior, their
interests, their abilities and their other psychological characteristics. In the definition of
personality, there are ‘self’ reflecting psychological continuity and ‘character’ reflecting
individualized characteristics on different personalities. Term of self includes the individual idea
and emotions, ideals and capabilities; so and character includes these characteristics turning into
action and individual differences 16. Personality can be defined as complex psychological
attributes unity that affects an individual’s distinctive behavior patterns in different situations
and times. In the definition of personality, the structure and source and relation of personality as
the primary purpose and that predicting the behaviors and events based on personality
assessment as secondary purpose are discussed17. It is known that there is a close relationship
between the results of stressful situations and succeed or fail with different personality and
character structure. There may be very different sources of motivation and expectation goals
starting from the most fundamental needs to getting the supreme and high saturation goals.
Fulfilling the supreme needs that can be called self-realization shapes the character of the
individuals, their environment and their education and habits.
As it can be seen that there is a link between stress perception and individual
psychology. Coping with stress, learning accurate methods, and improving recourses are
important to succeed in managing and decision/policy making process.
II. Understanding the ‘Political Stress’
Politicians are obliged to make decisions which may give very different result in
internal and external politics. Political leaders could take decisions in foreign policy that
impacts are very comprehensive as declaration of war, peace negotiations, cooperation between
countries, economic sanctions and environmental issues. In such decisions, leaders are
influenced by domestic factors, international factors, psychological factors and decision
environment. If we focus on the psychological factors that influence the decisions of political
leaders beliefs, emotions, personality, leadership style have drawn attention with stress level 18.
For example, international crises entail perceived threat and accordingly high levels of stress to
politicians. Time constraints and uncertainty are major causes of stress in crisis situations. In
such cases stress may cause anxiety. Stress can also effect information process negatively and
cause missing the right information and alternatives by politicians. Stress also can cause
politicians’ overestimation about capabilities of their opponents. Extreme stress can even cause
panic. “Studies have revealed that stress leads to decreased focus, regression to primitive or
very elementary decision styles, an increase in errors, and tendencies toward random
behavior”19.
15
Baltaş and Baltaş, Ibid, p.37-38.
17
Richard J. Gerrig and Philip G. Zimbardo, Psikolojiye Giriş: Psikoloji ve Yaşam, First Edition, Gamze Sart
(Translated by), Ankara, Nobel Akademik Yayıncılık, 2012, p.407-408.
18
Alex Mintz and Karl Derouen Jr., Understanding Foreign Policy Decision Making, New York, Cambridge
University Press, 2010, p.3-4.
19
Mintz and DeRouen, Ibid, p.28-29.
16
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Stress
It is argued that cognitive functioning could deteriorate under stress. Stress gives rise to
cognitive errors and biased attitude 20. Time constraints would have a negative impact on
decision-making that one of the most important function of policy makers / managers, “A
reduction in information search and processing; neglect or denial of important information;
using noncompensatory choice strategies; forgetting important data; wrong judgment and
evaluation”21.
Politicians can live bumpy period during his/her political life. For example they may
lose in elections. In such cases, not only politicians but also his family members are involved in
this process under stress. This type psychological pressure causes various difficulties in
politicians’ private lives 22.
Irving Janis identified five major risk factors cause deficient (foreign policy) decisions
containing “a forceful leader whom others seek to impress, intense group cohesiveness,
isolation and secrecy from others, a lack of clear decision-making procedures, and stress
arising from a crisis mentality”23.
Many studies indicate that stress has an impact on the decision-making process. In a
crisis situation when time is short and the threat is high, sleep deprivation is experienced24.
Stress leads decision makers to cognitive rigidity and cause restrictions on creative problemsolving skills. Attention of person contracts in stress conditions. Person under stress could not
focus on a subject for a long time. He/She has difficulty in consider multiple alternatives at one
time25.
It is known that elites (decision makers, legislators, political appointees, politicians etc.)
can become more rigid in their views under stress conditions. They quickly and easily believe
that “the so-called adversary is in charge” and they should pull the strings. They minimize the
options under consideration, and “focus only on the present”26.
The political psychology provides informative data in some areas such as terrorism,
conflict resolution and crisis that plays an important role in international relations. Crisis
situations push leaders to be condemned to predetermined standard operating procedures. In
these circumstances, the decision maker may have to implement decision strategies based on
“preplanned war games”. In times of crisis, extreme or prolonged stress creates obstacles to
make accurate and appropriate action of individuals. Catastrophic and traumatic events (war,
terrorist action etc.) cause stress because this events uncontrollable, unpredictable, and filled
with ambiguity. If we put it another way “stressors that we don't anticipate and can't control
are worse than those that we expect and can try to accommodate in certain ways”. Actions we
20
Dan Zakay, “The Impact of Time Perception Processes on Decision Making under Time Stress”, Time Pressure
and Stress in Human Judgment and Decision Making, Ola Svenson and A. John Maule (Edited by), New York,
Springer Science+Business Media, 1993, p.60.
21
Zakay, Ibid, p.60.
22
Spyros D. Orfanos, “The Spelling and Seduction of Michael Dukakis”, Politics and Psychology: Contemporary
Psychodynamic Perspectives, Joan Offerman-Zuckerberg (Edited by), Brooklyn, New York, Plenum Press, 1991,
p.75-76.
23
Jost, John T. and Jim Sidanius, “Political Psychology: An Introduction”, Political Psychology: Key Readings, (Ed.
John T.Jost and James Sidanius), New York, Psychology Press, Taylor & Francis Books, Inc.,2004, p.10.
24
Rose McDermott, Political Psychology in International Relations, The United States of America, The University
of Michigan Press, 2004, p.129.
25
McDermott, Ibid, p.129.
26
Margaret G. Hermann, “Political Psychology as a Perspective in the Study of Politics”, Political Psychology,
Kristen Renwick Monroe (Edited by), New Jersey & London, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.,. 2002, p.52.
130
thought they are risky and would be terrible are also causes stress “for example, the series of
hijackings on September 11 made many people more afraid to fly because they could not
determine what that event meant for the future safety of airline travel”. Especially such terrorist
acts constitute high stress on both humans and decision-makers. Because “people do not know
what to expect next”27.
If we want to better understand a political leader, we need to know something about
his/her personality and background. “A leader’s background can be influenced by several
factors: political beliefs, political style, motivation for seeking office, responses to stress,
manner of recruitment, amount of past political experience, and political climate”28.
James David Barber carried out influential studies on U.S. presidents. He argues that
personality shapes behavior. According to Barber, “a leader’s behavior is patterned by a
combination of his character, worldview, and style”29. Personality traits are reflected in the
implementation of political leaders. Jimmy Carter’s grandiose and narcissistic personality
reflected in his decision during the crisis emerged in Afghanistan resulting from Soviet
aggression. Idiosyncratic personality characteristics can be decisive on the results in a crisis
situation30. According to Winter, “power changes people... being the target of others’ power can
certainly have traumatic effects”31. Barber’s remarkable hypothesis suggests that “a politician
attempts to recreate the conditions that brought him his first success all throughout the rest of
his political career (even when the environment changes)”32.
Correct decision/judgment is considered to be the outcome of complicated information
processing based on “an extensive information search, an understanding of probabilities and
the rules of logic, an exhaustive consideration and reconsideration of alternative choices,
flexibility, open-mindedness, an ability to understand and appreciate other viewpoints,
resistance to conformity and obedience pressures, and so on”. Most of the political decision,
especially making under stress, does not meet these criteria 33.
There is a bond between the charismatic political leader and their supporters. By way of
this bond individuals can give their own control to the leaders (by proxy). He is deemed more
able ‘to cope with environmental stresses’ successfully. It is one of the most important reason of
this confidence34.
Climates and attitudes of international politic psychology are very vital to understand
better states and NGO's policies and individual actors’ behaviors too. Cooperation and
governance methods and capacities are very important to solve the accumulated complex
27
McDermott, Ibid, p.151-174.
29
McDermott, Ibid, p.222-223.
30
Betty Glad and Brian Whitmore, “Jimmy Carter and the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan: A Psychological
Perspective”, Politics and Psychology: Contemporary Psychodynamic Perspectives, Joan Offerman-Zuckerberg
(Edited by), Brooklyn, New York, Plenum Press, 1991, p.141.
31
David G. Winter, “An Intellectual Agenda for Political Psychology”, Political Psychology, Kristen Renwick
Monroe (Edited by), New Jersey & London, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.,. 2002, p.388.
32
33
Peter Suedfeld, “Postmodernism, Identity Politics, and Other Political Influences in Political Psychology”, Political
Psychology, Kristen Renwick Monroe (Edited by), New Jersey & London, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.,.
2002, p.323.
34
John L. Sullivan, Wendy M. Rahn and Thomas J. Rudolph, “The Contours of Political Psychology: Situating
Research on Political Information Processing”, Thinking About Political Psychology, James H. Kuklinski (Edited by),
New York, Cambridge University Press, 2002, p.34.
28
131
Stress
matters. More than discrimination tendency, interdependency process is focused on real issues
of this particular sphere of human beings.
It is known that, political actors and managers carry out their activities within a
particular organization. External factors that affecting decision-makers should also be
considered with their psychological state. Leader’s ability to balance internal and external
pressures brings him success 35.
III. Organizational Stress Factors and Their Effects
Organization and stress get a great meaning when they come side by side. The idea of
the formation of organizational restructuring comes from the idea of not meeting all individual
needs and desires. People see that people need the help of others to meet their needs due to lack
of ability, strength, time or stamina. When unity is created, much more work than a single
person can do is noticed. The basic idea that organization concept based on is instituting
coordination of efforts with cooperation. Furthermore, the presence of some goals that can be
achieved and compromising on these goals are required to be effective coordination. The
concept of organization also based on the idea that is realization of some common targets with
coordinating activities. Division of labor is made among organizations, if a function is need for
more than one person. The concept of division of labor and coordination is also tightly linked to
each other. The concept of organization can be defined in accordance with this information as:
“it is the rational coordination of the activities of a group people for carrying out an open and
common purpose in the hierarchy of authority and responsibility”36.
According to Lysons, there are two aspects of organization. One of them is ‘the formal
organization’ and the other is ‘the informal organization’. The formal organization is ‘the tip of
the iceberg’. Policies and procedures, spans of control, organization charts, organization mission
statements, task definitions and descriptions, production efficiency and effectiveness measures
are the formal aspect of the organization. The informal aspect of organization is at the bottom of
the iceberg. Emotional feelings, needs and desires, personal and group goals and perceptions,
personal animosities and friendships, grapevines, group norms and sentiments etc are the
informal aspect of the organization. “The informal organization arises from the interaction of
people working in the organization, their psychological and social needs, and the development
of groups with their own relationships and norms of behavior, irrespective of those defined
within the formal structure”37. These determinations show the importance of the organizational
psychology and the social structure of the organization. Managers/administrators who want to
achieve the organizational goals should consider interpersonal relationships and
individual/personnel psychology. Diminishing stress and increasing social skills will empower
the organization.
The subjects as assessed work-related stress factors can be grouped under the following
headings; workload, change, evaluation, job characteristics and problems from monotony 38:
1. Workload: Many aspects of job contain stress factors (stressors). Excessive workload
stress is the leading of these factors. Excessive workload is divided as terms of quality and
35
Ertekin, Ibid, p.6-7.
37
Conveys from Lysons; Laurie J. Mullins, Management & Organisational Behaviour, Ninth Edition, England,
Pearson Education Limited, 2010, p.94-95.
38
36
132
quantity by psychologists. Quantitative workload is understood as doing a lot of work and
finishing in a certain period of time. And qualitative workload is understood as accomplishing a
very difficult job in a certain time.
2. Change: Other faced stress factor is related with change during doing a job. If
individuals enjoy jobs which exciting to them, they are affected much less by stress. But, if they
consider stress as a spooky factor, they can be adversely affected by stress.
3. Evaluation: Another stress factor is business evaluation related with job. With
evaluation that is subjective and inadequate, a person lost jobs or may not reach higher positions
so evaluation is effective in an individual's career and organizational position.
4. Relation between job characteristics and its stress (role conflict): Some jobs are more
stressful due to nature of them than others. Individuals who faced with stressful condition are
influenced by environmental factors (external) and (internal) factors sourced from them. Workrelated stress can eliminate control of individual in environment and reduce individual's sense of
self-confidence. Also; at this point; sense of duty is one of the individual characteristics that is
needed to focus. Duty is related with sense that a person makes his or her job best. The height
of sense of duty can reduce consisted problems. If individual exhibits type A behavior, he or she
is attracted attention his or her characteristics such as impetuosity, impatience, be exposed to
time pressure, sense of challenge the responsibility. The stress factors which are related directly
with job represent environmental conditions which give rise to reaction. Work-related stress
factors are directly related to various business and roles that are made by people in an
organization. These are closely related to situations such as ambiguity of role, conflict of role,
distress of duty, excessive workload, development of career, bearing responsibility.
5. Monotony Business and Stress: Different business groups do their own work in their
unique order. Rhythm reduces work accidents. But monotony having a more different meaning
reduces automation business efficiency, sensitivity and attention. Monotony causes to
corruption, deviation and injuries in other several cognitive functions (such as perception,
attention, memory, motor performance).
It is seen that the reasons of stress which is one of the most serious problems in
management has resources related to business, organizations and individuals. Individuals feel
alienated them to the job in the bureaucratized organizational structures. On the one hand,
extreme specialization and business segmentation; on the other hand, the employee who have
difficulty in communicating between increased organizational steps, are under pressure. The
other cause of work-related stress is extreme demands of administrator. New demands
imbalance individual and prolong the duration of actual work. So; this is caused that job move
to home and new problems occur in the individual’s private life39.
Fred Luthans collects sources of stress in the organization under four different groups.
Sources of stress are related to organizational policies, the organization's structural
characteristics, physical conditions and organizational processes. As long as organizations grow
and have a complex structure, sources of stress affecting individuals also increase so situation
arises which organization can control more difficultly40.
39
Ceyhan Aldemir, Alpay Ataol and Gönül Budak Solakoğlu, Personel Yönetimi, First Edition, İzmir, Barış
Yayınları, 1993, p.182-183.
40
Luthans, Ibid, p.198-199.
133
Stress
Mc Grath puts forward that effects of stress in organizations usually could arise from
different these sources 41:
1-Task-related stress (job’s complexity and uncertainty and excess workload)
2-Role-related stress (conflict, uncertainty, work intensity)
3-Stress from the behavior environment (the impact of crowds, etc.)
4-Stress from the physical environment (extreme cold, the presence of opposing forces
etc.)
5-Stress from the social environment (interpersonal disputes, stress related to private life,
isolation and loneliness, etc.)
6-An individual's self-related stress (an individual's state of anxiety, detection order...).
Stress plays an active role in environment of economic and political uncertainty and an
environment which has rapid technological change. Interpersonal demands that create pressure
among the workers come into play as stress resources like task and role demands. As an end of
the potential sources stress, the employee’s family problems in own personal life, economic
problems and natural persons features are effective as personal factors. One of the interesting
features of the source of stress is the increase exponentially. Each new and perpetual stress
source increases the individual’s stress level. It may be like a last straw when it is added to high
levels of stress42.
Image 1: Tension Sources, Individual Variables, Relationships between the Results of
Symptoms and Tension43
41
Conveys from Mc Grath; Ertekin, Ibid, p.13.
Stephen P. Robbins and Timothy A. Judge, Örgütsel Davranış, First Edition, İnci Erdem (Translated by and Eds.),
Ankara, Nobel Akademik Yayıncılık, 2012, p.609-611.
43
Conveys from Sekiou ve Brodin; Aldemir, Ataol and Solakoğlu, Ibid, p.186.
42
134
Tension sources in individual, individual variables, the results of symptoms and tension
are given above. In the light of these data, managers and personnel can see chart clearly and find
an opportunity minimizing the source and effect of tension for increasing efficiency.
Physiological stress arises among individuals appear when a threat with the scarcity of
resources, emerging loss of resources and the failure of efforts to new access to resources. The
central element in loss and gain cycle is ‘understanding how people can reaction, response to
stress’ in both cases. According to this theory, it is discussed that job/work/occupational stress
and inadequate coping processes cause loss of resources. There is a progressing of spiral
developing as much as how a reduced resource pool of individual at the end of this dynamic
process; resources will be reducing more rapidly and burn-out will occur. However, this process
does not follow the one-way cruise. Spiral of gain may affects in the opposite direction to
increasing resources in the opposite direction of the spiral of loss and the process of wasting
syndrome by promoting cross-reaction. The process of coping that will be emerged with more
consistent and more effective participation leads to both the enrichment of resources and
increasing of gain44.
Image 2: The Spiral of Sources Gains and Losses
That this model is designed in a spiral arises from assuming that both losses and gains
may be in narrower distances and smaller volumes. This approach that is highly likely inspired
from Watson and Crick’s core model of the DNA double helix in genetics was formed with the
prediction that more information, effect and response may emerge in less and a small volume. A
process that is gradually narrowing may turn to similarly a process that is gradually growth and
enrichment. Undoubtedly important things are the opportunities and resources of social
environment and the purpose and tool balance of all the management and organization as far as
individual attitudes, perceptions and behaviors. If tools and mechanisms that can be realized
targets can be evaluated in a good way by a successful management, losses and narrowness can
be prevented.
44
Petra Buchwald, Nicola K. Schorn and Stefanie Morgenroth, “Resource Gains and Losses in Teachers”, Stress and
Anxiety: Application to Education and Health, Petra Buchwald, Kathleen A. Moore and Tobias Ringeisen (Eds.),
Berlin, Logos Verlag, 2011, p.71-73.
135
Stress
In this context, to understand the leadership style of the manager is important for
personnel. “Learning to live with other people is one of the most stressful aspects of life.” “The
relationships among co-workers can provide valuable support or, conversely, can be a huge
source of stress. Stress among co-workers can arise from the competition and personality
conflicts usually described as office politics”45.
Decision-makers who want to reach to the organizational goals could accept
psychological dimension of the human factor as a unique area. This understanding could make a
contribution to lowering the impacts and consequences of crisis/problems to an acceptable level
on the organization and personnel. “When managers who run the strategic management
process, make safe estimates thereby foresee the crises and conflict areas, and having a flexible
organizational psychology to accommodate to this conditions could provide to attain the
objectives”46.
When looking to manage based in the organizations and stress relationships, it is
possible to make the distinction between managerial stress factors in the organizational
boundaries and stress factors which caused by external interventions to organization. Image
related to this case is seen below:
Image 3: Managerial Stress Recourses 47
45
John Arnold and others, Work Psychology: Understanding Human Behaviour in the Workplace, Fourth Edition,
England, Pearson Education Limited, 2005, p.405-407.
46
Mehmet Hişyar Korkusuz and Ersoy Kutluk, “Stratejik Yönetim Sürecinde Krizler ve Örgüt Üzerindeki Psikolojik
Etkileri”, Ufuk Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, Volume 4, Issue 7, 2015, pp.21-22.
47
Conveys from Blau; Ertekin, Ibid, p.16.
136
The boundaries of influence and intervention which may come from outside with its
own internal structure and functioning of the organization will emerge as a result of own
decisions, actions and operations of manager. The manager’s personality profile, perception and
vision and accumulation may play a decisive role.
Organizational change and stress management plays a decisive role on both
understanding of the change dynamics and controlling the individual and organizational stress.
The nature of the workforce, technology, economic shocks, competition, social trends and world
politics is changing through and through48. In fact, seeing change as a strategic concept means
confirming prevailing of dominant hegemonic mentality implicitly. At this point, it should be
reminded that change is tactical concept.
We primarily concentrate on the sources of stress that are work and job related, as you
read. It is very important to remember that all types of life problems and events and changes and
transformations can lead to stress. Main point is to handle the different situations according to
real and rational methods. How is it going on and in which way the travel goes? Whether our
problem solving technics and improvement of weld pool and decrease stress or our weld pool is
getting smaller and than face burn out.
IV. Challenges and Opportunities in the Context of Social and Psychological Codes
There are the differences among personals about be affected stress and it is known that
people who work the same work side by side are not affected by stress at the same level. If a
person like his or her job and get a great satisfaction, he or she is protected from the harmful
effects of stress. In contrast, if a person does not get satisfaction from his or her job, he or she is
vulnerable to harmful effects of the stress. It should be noted, two factors reducing stress; are
work-related independence with higher job satisfaction and the case of using power. These are
not the only factors that cause individual differences. Other factors such as social support,
ability to do job well and personality can be summarized 49:
Social Support: Social support mechanisms related to the individual’s family and social
environment is another factor that occurs a sensitivity to stress. Individual who perceives alone
himself or herself in social relations considering a rich person are more vulnerable to stress. On
the other hand a person's health status is effective in stress sensitivity. It is known that a person
who is in good health is affected less that a person who has a bas health situation.
Ability to do the job well: Making a good job, to be successful, and be able to finish and
the needed skills in this issue is effective on the resistance of people to job stress. While
employees who have a high ability consider a work as easier and stress free, others who have
low ability consider a work as difficult and more stressful.
Personality: Studies on personality traits show that some personality traits make
difficult to fight against stress. They are listed as people who have dominant hostility sense,
people who blame themselves in every condition, and people who have overly sensitive and
emotional senses. On the other hand, those who have dominant egoistic personality trait
consider events as either very good or very bad (‘all or nothing’ rule), and those who are
inadequate in relation to the environment and are called childish fail to cope with stress. These
properties and behavior extend adaptation process of human against stress and prevent the
48
49
Robbins and Judge, Ibid, p.590-592.
137
Stress
establishment of a healthy balance. External conditions are not fixed and completely taking
control of these conditions is not seemed possible. However, recognizing conditions allrounded, being flexible towards the changes, creating the most appropriate one for ourselves
and our environment are needed 50. Knowing the personality traits of employees is important for
management's success and fighting against stress. Personality; is an expression of distinctive
and unique condition of human; and it is unity of behavior pattern, feelings, abilities and
psychological characteristics. Especially A and B type personality are discriminated in the
literature51. A type personality is described by Friedman and Rosenman as “it observable any
person and it is a actionary and emotional complex situation of a very much achieving success
goals which feed desire to fight aggressively. Humans prioritize their condition with this
attitudinizing against other objects and persons who can confront”52. People having an
extrovert or introvert personalities is important for stress and fighting with it. Introverted people
prefer autonomy in tension and conflict situations. They are self-directed intellectuals, artists,
idealistic, emotional and passive. Extroverted people are active, friendly and work-oriented.
Both of them interact socially in an adequate level. Latter kinds of people are affected very little
from the tension and feel anxiety because they perceive that problems do not originate from
themselves but from environment; but former kind of people may be under the severe stress.
However, if a very intense tense appears, extroverted people can feel tense 53.
The process of dealing with situations that create stress is called ‘coping’. This process
takes two forms. In the first, person will change ‘specific’ problem or find a new way to avoid it
in the future. This is called problem-focused coping. In the second, person may make an effort
to ease feelings which combines with a situation creates stress. This process is called the
emotion-focused coping. In fact, when many people face with a situation that creates stress, they
resort to both of them54. The situations of coping with stress are directly related to contriving
style, intensification style, culture and social fabric and personal attitudinizing. At this point,
rational or emotional approach can be activated.
Two basic methods may be concerned for coping with stress techniques. The first of
these individual coping strategies; the other is organizational coping strategies. Individual
coping strategies are55:
1- Exercise: It is discussed that people of all ages might be more successful in combating
stress doing activities56 such as walking, jogging, and swimming.
50
Type A personality traits: Always in motion; walking fast; eating fast; speaking fast; impatient; trying to do more
than two things at a time; cannot overcoming leisure; obsessed with numbers; measuring success as a quantitative;
aggressive; competitive and feeling constantly under time pressure themselves constitute their characteristic. Type B
personality traits: they have some characteristics such as not worried about time; patient; rigid and non-crusher;
playing for fun not to win; which is in a comfort away from guilt; without the red line which feels under pressure;
having soft style and being not hasty. It is considered that A type people have a more risk about suffering from heart
diseases than type B people. Type A personalities are more successful than type B personalities, it is emphasized that
A type personalities do not have superiority in top managers (Luthans, Ibid, p.202). Because of the fact that Type B
personalities are more patient and have a broad overview, a significant superiority of type A personality cannot be
discussed the terms of compliance with this location.
52
Conveyer Luthans, Ibid, p.201.
53
Ertekin, Ibid, p.83.
54
Rita L. Atkinson and others, Psikolojiye Giriş, Fourth Edition, Yavuz Alogan (Translated by), Ankara, Arkadaş
Yayınevi, 2008, p.509.
55
51
138
2-Relaxation techniques: Relaxation techniques such as biofeedback and meditation are
effective to eliminate stress and cope with prolonged stressful situations 57.
3-Self-control: Some specific control mechanisms that people can develop its own may
play an important role.
4-Cognitive therapy: Some clinical psychologists study on coping with stress developing
rational sensory models beside self-control techniques.
5-Creating Net-works: Researches related to social psychology show social support needs
of people. And, it is detected that trusted emphatic colleagues and friends groups play role on
the formation of trust.
Work-related stress factors become chronic in the process and if they are not supported
and fed by sufficiently individual and social resources, they may expose with wasting syndrome
which is after the resistance. In order to prevent the wasting syndrome, coping strategies,
opportunities and resources need to be enriched and strengthened. Giving place to the model
which is related to coping with stress and burnout syndrome will be beneficial.
Image 4: Theoretical framework of the study58
How the motivation of the acquisition of new resources increases in the process of
coping with retirement stress for older couples, process of coping with stress will also be
successful to this extent and a positive stress will uncover a situation called eustress. Loss cycle
will become a part of activity in the case of lack of new resources and investment and so
disstress namely negative stress will appear. In these processes, the decisive thing in gains and
56
“However, most people have some coping strategies that are unhelpful, such as drinking, smoking, or eating too
much as a way of comforting themselves” (Gladeana McMahon, No More Stress: Be Your Own Stress Management
Coach, First Published, London, Karnac Ltd., 2011, p.16).
57
Taking place ‘relax exercise’ recommended 5 or 7 times in a day is helpful. These bodily movements that are easy
to applications can be easily made every day in the home, workplace or the road. (In this technique which is made in
open air if possible but is made everywhere easily, a deep breathe is taken and it is bated, it is counted until 3 and
breathe is expired. If this activity repeats every day 5 or 7 time, it leads to very effective results in terms of relaxing).
58
Petra Buchwald and Nicola K. Schorn, “Burnout in Student Teachers”, Stress and Psychosocial Resources, Pagona
Roussi, Eleni Vassilaki and Krzysztof Kaniasty (Eds.), Berlin, Logos Verlag, 2008, p.24.
139
Stress
losses is the availability and assessment of present resources. If which sides that are loss and
gain preponderate, positive or negative stress will manifest in connection with this case 59.
There is an interesting determination in the program of coping stress and related to
similar situations for youth living in rural areas: a more productive coping process occurs and
the risk of depression decreases depending on the degree of resources owned and its height. As
for that the appropriation of resources is less to what extent, the non-productive coping
processes was pointed out in this extend so a higher risk of depression is faced with 60.
Image 5: Resource acquisition and loss in study61
Research about coping against stress and burn-out syndromes on college students shows
that exhaustion or burn out appears in the situation of continuing chronic job stress and limiting
renewable resources. Burn out can be seen as a combination of chronic job stress and
insufficient dealing process with decreasing and cycle of the depletion of the development
resources. Going towards a healthy gain cycle is observed in cases of successful coping
strategies and resources sufficiently favorable62. Availability of different sources in the coping
stress process will be inversely proportional to the burn out syndrome. Otherwise, it is seen that
scarcity of resources will remove opportunities that are coping with stress and in this situation
exhaustion will be in a consistent relationship with burn-out syndrome.
Taking control of the sources of stress, eliminating it if possible, getting rid of its effect,
trying to increase resistance of people against stress making them more powerful and equipped
are targets of organizational stress management 63.
The causes of stress in a work are not known of ‘What's the next step?’ and ‘how to
do?’ It is known that the struggles to rise in administrative levels lead to stress on managers at
59
Buchwald and Schorn, Ibid, p.21-24.
Chelsea Eacott and Erica Frydenberg, “Building Coping Resources of Rural Youth”, Stress and Anxiety:
Application to Adolescence, Job Stress and Personality, Kathleen A. Moore and Petra Buchwald (Eds.), Berlin,
Logos Verlag, 2009, p.32-33.
61
Buchwald and Schorn, Ibid, p.47.
62
Buchwald and Schorn, Ibid, p.45-47.
63
Şule Aydın and Ali Şahin Örnek, Kriz ve Stres Yönetimi, Second Edition, Ankara, Detay Yayıncılık, 2008, p.214228.
60
140
all levels and it adversely affects the health of them. Managers should have knowledge about
some methods that can reduce stress 64:
1-Solid and stable hierarchical layouts should be created and this should be supported and
controlled with a good personnel system.
2-Managers who esteem not rising the way they want in managerial levels should assess
themselves honestly and neutrally.
3-They should effort to become more conformist in managerial tasks and roles.
4-Manager should know themselves and they should tell committed works, encountered
difficulties and environmental limitations correctly and they should benefit from praise, should
be able to open the way for the rise.
According to Gerald Kushel, managers should organize effective thoughts for specific
purposes. Seeking “good stress, not toxic distress” is one of ‘The Ten Effective Thinking
Imperatives’65. Byrne and Barling emphasize that project leaders need to understand how well
goals are understood by team members. “Situations with unclear goals can lead to higher levels
of employee stress”66.
According to Fred Luthans’s model which is developed about the job stress and
contains stress factors originating organization, strategies that can be applied for this issue may
be these67:
1-To create a supportive organizational atmosphere: organizational atmosphere which is
inflexible and not suitable with personality is the stress factor on its own. Strategies that can
overcome this situation may convert the organizational structure to status that include existing
participation68 in decision-making processes and occurring communication flow to upper levels
in the most appropriate way. This kind of changes in structure and process might create a more
supportive organizational atmosphere for workers and may prevent or reduce job stress.
2- Enrichment of task (job) design: Job enrichment is occurred with development of
factors related to the content of the job (area of responsibility, approval authority, increasing the
opportunities for success, providing development opportunities), also it is occurred with
improving the basic characteristics of the task (possibility of acquiring different skills,
description and the importance of task, capability to make autonomous decisions and feedback
system); therefore, positive progress can be recorded in the aspects of motivational state,
experience, sense of responsibility etc. Enriched job design will remove stress factors arising
from regular and routine activity settings. It is considered that all individuals react positively to
64
Conveys from Norfolk; Ertekin, Ibid, p.32.
Gerald Kushel, The Inside Track to Successful Management, London, Thorogood, 2003, p.100.
66
Alyson Byrne and Julian Barling, “Leadership and Project Teams”, The Psychology And Management Of Project
Teams, François Chiocchio, E. Kevin Kelloway and Brian Hobbs (Edited by), New York, Oxford University Press,
2015, p.140.
67
68
Jerrold Greenberg also emphasizes the importance of participation. According to Greenberg “One of the factors of
the workplace and of the organization’s modus operandi that is related to stress is the degree of participation”. He
says “The person who reports high participation shows: low psychological strain; low role ambiguity; high
utilization of administrative skills and responsibility; good working relations (with others); positive attitudes toward
work; high production” (Jerrold S. Greenberg, Comprehensive Stress Management, Twelfth Edition, New York,
McGraw-Hill, 2011, p.327).
65
141
Stress
enriching task design. This situation may have the incremental effect of job stress for workers
who do not have growth expectations and/or are afraid of making mistakes.
3-Clarifying organizational roles and minimization of conflict: role conflict and
ambiguity in role was identified as the main individual stress factors at first. For the success
employee, task should be cleaned of all the uncertainty that preventing understanding of it with
revealing expectations of every works clearly, sharing of information about that business,
providing the needed support.
4-Producing a career development path and plan and providing an effective consultation:
organizations show a seasonal and temporary interest in career planning and staff development
traditionally. Individuals are obligated to decide alone about career progression and strategies or
utmost they listen to fatherly advice of chief time to time. This situation is similar with that
trainer who consults a lot of student in a big university tries to interested in hundreds of names
which cannot be separated from each other in the computer.
These are some effects of stress-based problems in organizations: centralization;
absence of long range planning; decrease in innovation; scapegoating; resistance to change;
increased labour turnover; lowered morale; loss of credibility of senior management; conflict.
In this work environment, levels of creativity can suffer 69.
Time management is one of the used effective methods for coping with stress. Effective
time management can alleviate some stress70. The identification of priorities, adherence to them,
and not wasting time with needless works of others, delegating employees who have sufficient
knowledge and skills are necessary for a successful time management application 71. Stress
experienced in certain tasks that has certain starting and ending times is mostly improve the
performance of people72.
There is a research on museum directors conducted by Puffer and Brakefield: this
research show that doing simple duties prevents a low level of stress and doing difficult duties
prevents a high level of stress. According to the study; sales managers who are more cultured
and do simple duty are more effective in sales management than those who are less cultured
and do simple duty. Image that summarizes the process of coping with stress is showed below.
The stress-related steps are presented from beginning to end in this image:
69
Ashley Weinberg, Valerie J. Sutherland and Cary Cooper, Organizational Stress Management: A Strategic
Approach, First Published, Great Britain, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, p.108-109.
70
Brian Lomas, Stress and Time Management, First Published, Great Britain, Rowmark Limited, 2000, p.18.
71
Öznur Aşan and Eren Miski Aydın, Örgütsel Davranış, Halil Can (Eds.), İstanbul, Arıkan Basım Yayım Dağıtım,
2006, p.256-257.
72
142
Image 6: The process of coping with stress73
Factors which cause the formation of efficient working environment in the field of
management science are discussed. Attracting more and more attention in recent years
‘humanization of working life’ issue is important. Measures put forward in the context of
humanization of working life could include74:
1-The existence of the necessary conditions for that a business is made reliable and at will
in the short and the long term
2-Being doable business without causing any somatic disorders that require treatment in
humans
3-Not constituting business an obstacle for individuals feeling good in the psychic aspect
and enhancing job satisfaction
4-Contributing business to development of individual’s personality
5-Acceptability of the business in terms of suitability of the situation of employees by
individuals and communities (if we pay attention, it is said that especially 2, 3 and 4 of these
criteria is related to job stress, administrators should actualize remedial application)
If you look at stressful cases, you can see lack of information first and insufficient
experience second. In this picture problem is clear. The more you learn the more you solve the
problems. But stress in politics is a quite different from other stress producing factors. That is
why we intended to unveil politically motivates stress occasions. A politician faces many
problems in his life. Before the politic system he must care remarkable check and balance
system in his mind and heart and behaviors. In the beginning enlargement of scala is not so
effective or to some extend can be tolerable but it is getting heavier and stimulates unpredictable
results in time. Symptoms have been converting diseases day by day unless you have not
understood them truly. This people govern us so that we will be affected also with this unseen
stress virus. As a matter of fact there is a stress cycle in community too.
73
Conveys from Puffer and Brakefield; Ertekin, Ibid, p.61.
Mustafa Yaşar Tınar ve Bahattin Taylan, “Çalışma Yaşamının İnsancıllaştırılması Konusunda Türkiye’deki
Öncelikler”, 2. Ulusal Ergonomi Kongresi (Adana, 23-26 Mayıs 1989), Ankara, Milli Prodüktivite Merkezi, 1989,
p.60-71.
74
143
Stress
V. Optimal Stress Level
Contemporary managers are in the opinion of presenting services as fast, cheap,
efficient and quality at the appropriate time and place. Increasing the quality or production of
service depends on primarily the human element beside other elements. Effectiveness of
employees to what extent is explained with the relationship between stress and productivity
levels. This relationship of stress with job performance is known as reversed U. Productivity in
image which is given below according to this relationship, is in optimum condition when stress
on workers are in moderate condition. If the stress is too much or too little, efficiency declines.
Manager who is overwhelmed with work or is not ready for this work is in the ascent or descent
position on reversed U curve but he or she is not on the optimal (most appropriate) efficiency
region. Being employees and managers in this area generally is seen required for success. Being
stress level on efficiency region shown in the diagram has importance. Some precautions such
as reorganization of work, stress planning, and personnel recruitment for delegation might be
put into practice in this issue. If individuals realized that faced situation is tense, they raise the
level of stress. The level of the stress returns to normal with overcoming of situations that cause
stress. People always prefer to stay on stress levels which are more appropriate to them 75. Some
of the positive effects of an optimum stress load on performance are expressed in the YerkesDodson Law76. According to Yerkes-Dodson Law; a certain level of excitement is necessary to
achieve good results in a job. However, if this level is exceeded, success reduces, concern
arises, and fatigue and errors are increased77.
Image 7: Reversed U relation78
A different modeling about reversed U relation was developed by Skinner and
Mersham. Some stress events can give you happiness whereas in some disaster situations,
unhappiness table may arise. People have different peak performance in the face of amount of
stress. This 'eustress' (for positive stress) is a valid state. Too much or too little stimulus can
75
James Campbell Quick and others, Preventive Stress Management in Organizations, Washington, DC, American
Psychological Association, 1997, p.4-5.
77
Aşan and Aydın, Ibid, p.254.
78
Conveyer Ertekin, Ibid, p.62.
76
144
lead to negative stress. Negative stress is known as ‘distress’. There is also the cumulative
property of stress. Sometimes small stresses lead to serious negative stress thereby
accumulate79.
Image 8: The relationship between Eustress (positive stress) and Distress (negative
80
stress)
When the process of stress was examined in terms of the management, balance,
restraint, stability and so called optimum point level is the position of that the success,
happiness and satisfaction are sustained. The minority or majority of this level is resulted as the
poorness and reduction of the performance in the administration profile.
VI. In the Pursuit of the Balance of Administration and the New Model Attempt:
Seesaw Model
The factor that makes this system healthy is the regular operation of the recent balance.
This operation is in the shape of pendulum move. When the balance that is result of this move is
broken, trouble indicators are demonstrated and the axis of the balance becomes unbalanced.
Stress resulting from the personal perceptions in a general way, despite the differences of the
levels of perceptions, exists from this pendulum. In the fast change of atmosphere of nowadays,
the intensity and destruction of the causes of the stress are so obvious. In this modern age in
which the balance always exists in different levels, (or possible to say the post-modern age) for
the healthier life, the people always need to follow the balance level sand or need to form the
balance in the rhythm of the of the pendulum move81.
In the organization, a manager in the position of the locomotive carries all the
responsibility of the business. The heaviness of this responsibility can increase or decrease
according to the level of the personal success. The level of stress of the manager is generally
determined – if the other factors are insulated- by the personal capability and the success of the
processing of this capability. The success of the managers whose capability keep the
organization longer, can be possible through the supply of materials such as technical,
79
Chris Skinner and Gary Mersham, Disaster Management: A Guide to Issues Management and Crisis
Communication, First Published, New York, Oxford University Press, 2002, p.135-136.
80
Skinner and Mersham, Ibid, p.136.
81
Mehmet H. Korkusuz, Kamu Yönetiminde Stres Algısı, İstanbul, Hayat Yayıncılık, 2012, p.216.
145
Stress
economical and humanistic ones. To provide the accessories to the manager who we have to
admit his capability because he is in the position of the administration in an organization is seen
as the way to minimize the manager stress. The manager gains the meaningfulness within the
organization. What expects from a manager is his ‘public sphere’ that is given to him related to
the organization. As that ‘private sphere’ that is unrelated to the organization is expected to be
purified from the stress and do not reflect it to the organization is expected from himself, to
expect the minimization of the factors of the stress in the public sphere is the right of the
manager, as well. To provide this, there should be a healthy exit way that the manager does not
get stuck in between his private life and the organization activities. The manager stays in the
balance and keep fit between the private life and the organizational structure through the
foundation of a mechanism that the roles support each other positively 82.
To mention about the seesaw model that can be encountered in real life is useful here.
Whoever gets on the seesaw alone, he/she always stands on the ground. A German adage that is
“There is no right to fall down for the one who is on the ground” (Vom Boden fällt man nicht)
reflects this situation.
The basic parameters of the seeking of the balance that is the basis of the development
of the administration and the administrator are offered here in the shape of the model “Seesaw”:
Image 9: Looking at the Dynamic Stability In the administrative stress: Seesaw Model 83
82
83
Korkusuz, Ibid, p.217
Korkusuz, Ibid, p.223.
146
A successful leader can improve the stress levels resulting from the inner and outer
factors through the “stress learning and the education of the stress” that he performs as active
and goal-directed towards an active accord and the dynamic balance point. It is possible that the
inner and outer factors can be delivered to a certain decision point via the conceived, perceived,
interpreted, organized and united attempts as well as the practices that are formed by an active
combination and tension84.
According to Heider, there are 2 basic motives in the humans: They are the motives that
are the formation of a consistent as well as the compatible remark and the controlling the
environment. One of the justifications of the satisfaction of them is the capability to predict the
other people’s behaviors. The key factor here is the capability to make sense of which
tendencies are behind the people’s behaviors. In order to predict and check what is going on in
our environment, there is need for the constitution of the jurisdiction and the opinions about the
inner dispositions of the others85. In the real world that consists of ones spoken to, we face with
the impact or the interactions of infinite factors. Historical, social, environmental as well as
personal features, characteristics and preferences indistinctly show us the picture of the moment
that we live. The entire of the picture and the connection of sense become clearer.
Shortly, we can describe the matter of the administration as the formation of the
balanced, effective and successful relations between the people, administration and the sources.
In this point, actually the human is on the core of the relations between all the other humanhuman, human-society and human- nature relations. The production services of the people
reaches to the scale factor of the civilization through the construction of a socio-politic system
via the culture and economy. In this manner, every administration forms one of the milestones
of a certain civilization project. In the race of the civilization, people and the administrations
are racing with each other, as well86. In this civilization race, ‘the key’ is ‘a successful
administration and the administrator’ who can open the gates of the progress and development
with this key.
Conclusion
The stress is called as the ‘disease of the age’. But everywhere and every time, there is
always stress. The ‘zero stress’ means death in a way. The hurtless impact of the stress
energizes the people. The leaders try to increase the productivity of the staff through minimizing
the harmful effects resulting from the stress. These attempts cause to come up the term of stress
management. Generally, stress is the collection of psychological and physiological responses
that emerges when the desires overcome the resources and capabilities of the people to response
and also that the personal features and psychological processes indirectly affect. If the stress is
not occurred, motivation and the creativeness cannot be happened. Because living means to face
with and struggle with the stress, it should be taken in a certain degree.
Modernity brings rapidly changing and movements in social life. Because of this reason
increasing speed produce naturally ‘Stress’. Where is the matter, there is the solution. We can
find our key to open the gates of stress if we find out real correspondences on our subjective and
84
Korkusuz, Ibid, p.223-224.
J. L. Freedman, D. O. Sears and J. M. Carlsmith, Sosyal Psikoloji, Third Edition, Ali Dönmez (Translated by),
Ankara, İmge Kitabevi, 1998, p.128-129.
86
Mehmet H. Korkusuz, Mukaddime’den Muahhire’ye: Modern Dünya’nın, Ulus-Devlet’in, Din’in ve
Milliyetçiliklerin Ekonomi, Kültür ve Siyaset Atlası, Second Edition, İstanbul, Bilge Kültür Sanat Yayıncılık, 2012,
p.650-651.
85
147
Stress
objective environments. Social life and political life goes on hand by hand. Today’s societies
have been affected much more by stress. Moreover the society, politicians and their team are
also under pressure of stress. Effects of stress appear in social and political lives either vertical
level or horizontal level. By means of many agents we are all exposure to stress such as the
overload working, heavier conditions and ambiguous future. Each part of every-day life is
directly bounded by stress producing components. Particularly, politically motivated stress
extends in a country just like a rail way networks. In order to diminish and control people’s
stress levels, politicians and their men have to learn about and balance their distress moods.
Eustress (positive) and distress (negative) people can play constructive or destructive roles in
communities.
Personality shapes behavior. A leader’s behavior is patterned by a combination of his
character, worldview and style. Personality traits are reflected in the practice of political leaders.
Correct decision/judgment is considered to be outcome of complicated information processing.
Many of them particularly making under stress, does not meet these criteria.
We accept that ‘optimum level of stress’ may be benefit for managers and
policymakers. There is link between stress perception and individual psychology. Coping with
stress, learning accurate methods and improving resources are important to reach the goal in
managing and decision / policy making process. Stress leads decision makers to cognitive
rigidity and cause restrictions on creative problem-solving skills. Time constraints and
uncertainty are major causes of stress in crisis situations. Optimal stress level is rational and
acceptable. And we presented a new model in this article. Seesaw model is a good example of
the dynamic stability in the politics/administrative stress. A successful leader can improve the
stress levels that resulting from the inner and outer factors by doing “the stress learning and the
education of the stress” in active and flexible way of life.
It is very valuable information to remember that all types of life problems, events,
changes and transformations can lead to stress. One can infer obviously that controlling,
overcoming and balancing of stress is a very vital subject for social and political life. And it
should not be forgotten that learning to live with other people is one of the most stressful
aspects of life. There is no possibility for a distressful world but living in a peaceful world that
stress does not control is that everybody deserves and hopes.
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