Both work life and family life are important to executives in any business organization and if they are not maintained properly, it creates stress and strain in work life and in turn results in various diseases. This further decreases the work efficiency of the executives and may also result in premature retirement. In this regard, a survey on work life and family life interface and its effects on the work stress and strain was conducted. A Bangalore-based public sector unit was selected for the study because it is a Research and Design oriented organization where the executives have to spend most of the time in the company. This study was carried out by collecting secondary data from various books on stress and strain management and collecting data from the executives of the unit.
The origin of the concept of stress predates antiquity. The word 'stress' seems to have come into English language (via Middle English) from the Old French word `destresse', which meant `to be placed under narrowness or oppression' (Old French estresse). In its Middle English form it was therefore `distress' and it is only over the centuries that the `di' sometimes got lost through slurring, leaving us with two words `stress' and `distress' which have now come to carry rather different meanings, the one ambivalent, the second always indicating something unpleasant.
In terms of its origins, therefore, `stress' has to do with constriction or oppression of some kind, and `distress' the state of being under this constriction or oppression. But modern English seems to need a word that lies partly way between `pressure' and `emphasis', carrying something of the potentially painful connotations of the former and something of the more neutral connotations of the latter, and with the course of time `stress' has become that word.
Stress is a demand made upon the adaptive capacities of the mind and body. Stress in individuals is defined as any interference that disturbs a person's physical or physical wellbeing. It occurs when the body is required to perform beyond its normal range of capacities. Hans Selye has defined stress as, "the non-response of the body to any demand made upon it."Hans Selye's (1956) "General Adaptive Syndrome (GAS)" has been widely held as a comprehensive model to explain the stress phenomenon. This three-stage model states that when an organization is confronted with a threat, the general physiological response occurs in three stages: |
