Site administrator Don't allow stress to undermine your performance and your mood. Rather, allow your performance to handle your stress, and your mood will take care of itself.
The word stress has become synonymous with every negative emotion we feel, especially when pertaining to the workplace. However, this is partially incorrect, because stress can have positive effects as well. In fact it does so all the time! The problem is just that we don't recognize our driving motives toward high performance as stress related.
In order to link stress to spirituality in the workplace we will first have to provide some clarification about the two phenomena.
As you may have distincted by now, that stress has two faces, a constructive and a destructive one. Schermerhorn (2002, p. 405-406) explains it excellently by stating that the constructive version of stress is the one we need to obtain performance excellence: It enhances the quality of our work, encourages us to work harder and to become better at what we do. Destructive stress on the other hand, is the infamous one that we dread because it puts excessive pressure on us, which may lead to low performance, absenteeism,
burn out, low self esteem, or even withdrawal.
That explained, the conclusion could be drawn that every good manager should try to detect how much stress each one of his or her employees can handle.
Understandably, this will vary from one to another. However, it is worth the time and effort for the simple reason as stated hereafter: If people are provided with work that brings about the right amount of stress within them, meaning that it represents an interesting challenge to their capabilities, creates an opportunity to prove themselves as well as a motivation to obtain training in order to perform even better, they will undoubtedly like what they do.
Job satisfaction will hence be established in their lives and their mood at work as well as outside will improve. Besides, they will increasingly feel better about themselves knowing that they are valued for what they do and that their efforts and progresses are recognized.
And with this enumeration of experiences we practically defined the concept of a spiritual workplace: one where everybody is happy, motivated, and respected. A simpler cycle is hardly thinkable: constructive stress leads to constructive behaviour and, consequently, a constructive workplace. That's how stress can add to the spirituality in your workplace!