Kanter’s Theory postulates that low stress levels are advantageous to empowering people. Having dealt with the causes and consequences of stress, means of lowering stress levels will now be discussed. According to Luthans (2011:298), strategies for stress are divided into individual coping strategies and organisational coping strategies.
Individual strategies for managing stress Exercise
Individuals can reduce their own stress levels by involving themselves in physical exercises, such as stress aerobics, walking, jogging, swimming, and riding a bicycle. The involvement in exercises has good benefits for the employee as they increase lung capacity and provide mental diversion from work pressures, thus lowering the work- related levels of stress (Robbins & Judge 2013:637). People who involve themselves in exercises experience less tension and stress and they become more confident, than people who do not participate in physical activity and tend to become depressed and to
experience negative consequences of stress such as hypertension and heart diseases (Moorhead & Griffin 2012:192).
Relaxation
Relaxation assists in reducing a person’s arousal level and helps one unwind, psychologically and physiologically. Psychological relaxation promotes feelings of well- being, peacefulness, calmness and a clear sense of being in control and it reduces tension and anxiety (Gibson et al 2012:218). Other relaxation strategies that a person can utilise include soothing background music, avoidance of distracting thoughts and negative events and adopting a comfortable position in a relatively quiet place (Newstrom 2011:419).
Time management
Time management means making optimum use of the available time (Meyer et al 2009:230). Time management assists in stress reduction. In order to effectively deal with delegated tasks, the employee can put together tasks that need to be carried out by classifying them into three categories namely critical activities that must be performed, important activities that should be performed, and optimal things that can be delegated or postponed (Moorhead & Griffin 2012:192). Managers can also conduct workshops and teach employees on how to manage time in order to reduce their stress level.
Organisational strategies for managing stress
In the following section strategies for managing stress are discussed. Managers can utilise the strategies to lower the stress levels of their employees and promote empowerment of employees working in their organisations.
Supportive work environment
Mullins and Christy (2013:109), suggest that it is important for managers to ensure that employees are treated with respect. Managers should create a psychologically supportive and healthy work environment. This means that treating people with
consideration, respect and trust, giving full recognition and credit, getting to know members of staff as individuals, and placing emphasis on end results could lead to reduction of stress (Mullins & Christy 2013:109).
Promotion of good work relationships
Managers should encourage good work relationships among employees in order to prevent and to minimise stress. The nursing unit manager can promote team building and teamwork by creating trust in the nursing unit through openness, honesty and respect between staff and demonstrate respect by treating the staff as professionals and adults. The creation of trust also means that the manager should take into consideration the knowledge, skills and experience of staff when delegating responsibilities (Meyer et al 2009:286).
Organisational programmes
According to Griffin and Moorhead (2014:195), organisations are also responsible for assisting employees in managing stress. These authors further suggest that managers should ensure that work schedules are designed in such a way that they do not cause stress. For example when scheduling off duties policies should be implemented in order to ensure that employees get enough time to rest (Meyer et al 2009:218). Managers should also ensure that work overload is prevented by ensuring that delegated duties are within the capabilities of the employee. When delegating tasks or activities to employees, the manager should analyse the individuals’ skills levels and abilities to evaluate their capabilities to perform the various tasks and to determine characteristics that might prevent them from accepting responsibility for the task.
Creation of career development opportunities
Tyson (2015:204) states that organisations should provide career management policies and establish a committee which will focus on the identified development needs of individuals, their motivation and intentions, the opportunities available and the needs of the organisation. Organisations have the responsibility to encourage employees to become independent in managing their career development and to acquire new knowledge and skills through lifelong learning, assisting the employee to develop the
capability to maintain current employment or to seek another job if necessary (Wilton 2011:347).
A research study conducted by Wang, Kong and Chair (2011:242) on job stress levels and coping strategies employed by Hong Kong surgical nurses revealed that workload, lack of support, inadequate preparation, and conflict with other nurses were the most frequent stressors experienced by them.
The study (Wang et al 2011:242) further indicated that the three frequently used methods to cope with stress were evasiveness (avoidant activities used in coping with a situation), confrontation (confronting the situation, face up to the problem, constructive problem solving), and optimism (positive thinking, positive outlook, positive comparison).
Evasive strategy
In employing this strategy the nurses preferred to ignore the problem and not discuss it with others because they felt that this approach might help them save face and disclosing the problem to others might be viewed as the nurse’s incapability. These nurses avoided discussing their problems with their supervisors because they thought that it would affect their job appraisal.
Confrontive strategy
This is a strategy which emphasised problem-solving by means of planning to keep the situation under control. The confrontive coping strategy was rated as the most effective coping strategy and its use showed correlation with reducing stress levels. This method could result in achieving better cognitive appraisal and a more positive emotional response.
Optimistic strategy
This strategy was seen as effective in dealing with nurses’ job-related stress. Optimistic thinking was seen as helping the individual in maintaining a positive focus and continually making efforts to cope with difficulties at work.
In addition to the above three strategies, the following section focuses on how stress could be lowered in order to facilitate empowerment of employees in the workplace.
Social support
Social support refers to the amount of perceived helpfulness derived from social relationships. It can be derived from talking to a friend, and can comfort a person who is suffering from stress (Kreitner & Kinicki 2013:555). Social support is also used to reduce the level of stress. It includes two internal sources namely co-workers and supervisors (Seo, James & Price 2004:439). Social support can be emotional expressing concern, indicating trust, boosting esteem and listening. Social support is also seen as a network of assistance activities, interactions, and relationships that give employees the satisfaction of having their personal needs acknowledged (Newstrom 2015:418).
Kreitner and Kinicki (2013:555) divide social support into four types: Social companionship refers to spending time with other people in leisure and recreational activities as a means of support. Esteem support involves providing information which conveys the message that the person is accepted and respected despite the problems or inadequacies that have occurred. Informational support is evident in the assistance provided to help define and understand the problem in order to cope with the situation. Instrumental support entails the provision of financial aid, material resources or needed services.
Social support is also viewed as the comfort, assistance, or information a person receives through formal or informal contacts with individuals or groups (Ivancevich et al 2011:258). Social support can be effective in managing stress, and managers can be of assistance to employees suffering from stress by making them aware of the availability of external and internal social support systems. There are other support systems that employees can use in order to deal with stress such as family support, peer group support, and the support of people who once had similar problems (Marriner-Tomey 2009:44). Support groups can assist the stressed employee by spending time with the colleague and involving themselves in activities such as playing basketball. This will assist to reduce stress (Griffin & Moorhead 2014:195). Social support includes non-work support sources such as neighbours, care givers, health professionals and self-help
groups. These sources of support can assist in lowering the stress levels of employees (Ivancevich et al 2011:248).
Employee assistance programme
According to Kreitner and Kinicki (2013:560), an employee assistance programme refers to a number of programmes aimed at helping employees to deal with personal problems like substance abuse, health-related problems, family and marital problems and other issues that interfere with job performance. Ivancevich et al (2011:262) state that an employee assistance programme also assists employees who have stress- related problems. Managers can make use of the employee assistance programme by referring employees who are experiencing stress, life trauma, life change, alcohol abuse and other emotional problems for counselling. Managers could also provide information to employees about the availability of an employee assistance program and counselling programmes in order to allow members to make informed decisions.
Application to Kanter’s Theory
Moorhead and Griffin (2012:180) define stress as a person’s adaptive response to a stimulus that places excessive psychological or physical demands on the person. There are factors in the workplace that could lead to stress, namely task demands, physical demands, role demands and interpersonal demands (Griffin & Moorhead 2014:185). Managers should create workplace environments where sources of stress are identified and limited, and make sure that effective strategies are implemented to lower stress levels where they exist in order to empower employees to manage their own stress situations (Meyer et al 2009:279). The creation of a workplace environment that ensures that there are effective strategies to lower the stress levels in the workplace is in line with Kanter’s Theory which indicates that the leader’s empowerment behaviour leads to decreased levels of job tension and increased work effectiveness (Davies, Wong & Laschinger 2011:634).