A STUDY ON THE STRESS MANAGEMENT OF THE STAFF WORKING IN THE REGIONAL TRANSPORT OFFICES IN GOVERNMENT OF TAMILNADU SYNOPSIS

Stress is the body's reaction to a change that requires a physical, mental or emotional adjustment or response. It can be caused by both good and bad experiences. When people feel stressed by something going on around them, their bodies react by releasing chemicals into the blood. These chemicals give people more energy and strength, which can be a good thing if their stress is caused by physical danger. But this can also be a bad thing, if their stress is in response to something emotional and there is no outlet for this extra energy and strength. Stressors are the causes of stress and include any environmental conditions that place a physical or emotional demand on the person. Stressors are found in the physical work environment, the employees various life roles, interpersonal relations, and organizational activities and conditions. Conflicts between work and non work obligations represent a frequent source of employee stress. Two people exposed to the same stressor may experience different stress levels because they perceive the situation differently, they have different threshold stress levels, or they use different coping strategies. Workaholics and employees with a type of behavior patterns tend to experience more stress than do other employees. Stress is an adaptive response to a situation that is perceived as challenging or threatening to the persons well-being. Distress represents high stress levels that have negative consequences, whereas eustress represents the moderately low stress levels needed to activate people. The stress experience, called the general adaptation syndrome , involves moving through three stages: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion. The stress 1

model shows that stress is caused by stressors. However, the effect of these stressors depends on individual characteristics. Stress affects a persons physiological and

psychological well-being, and is associated with several work-related behaviors. High levels or prolonged stress can cause physiological symptoms, such as high blood pressure, ulcers, sexual dysfunction, headaches, and coronary heart disease. Behavioral symptoms of stress include lower job performance, poorer decisions, more workplace accidents, higher absenteeism, and more workplace aggression.

Psychologically, stress reduces job satisfaction and increases moodiness, depression, and job burnout. Job burnout refers to the process of emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced efficacy resulting from prolonged exposure to stress. It is mainly due to interpersonal and role-related stressors and is most common in helping occupations. Organisational level stressors: i. Organisational Climate: A high pressure environment that places chronic work demands on employees fuels the stress response. ii. Organisational Structure: It defines the level of differentiation, the degree of rules and regulations and where decisions are made iii. Organisational Leadership: Represents the managerial style of the organisations senior executives. iv. Organisational Changes: When changes occur, people have to adapt to those changes and this may cause stress. v. Occupational Demands: Some jobs are more stressful than others. Jobs that involve risk and danger are more stressful.

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Work Overload: Excessive work load leads to stress as it puts a person under tremendous pressure.

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Work Under load: In this case, very little work or too simple work is expected on the part of the employee.

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Working Conditions: Employees may be subject to poor working conditions.

The research problem addresses the issue of learning to manage stress taking place on broad walks of life and not just in formal contexts. The objective of the research is aimed at developing a system whereby structure could be given for inclusion in formal human capital management systems in managing stress. The researcher considers amongst other the role of organizational objectives, in determining required skills to cope up with stress. This research which is mainly going to be based on the primary data collected from the staff of Regional Transport offices in Tamilnadu on what are being expected by them to have a positive self image. This study will be further strengthened by the data on employee self management by the staff of RTOs in Tamilnadu State, so that what is expected by the public as the enhanced performance of them in doing their duties with out any malfunction. ************************