Organizational Behavior: Stress and the Salesperson

Stress and the Salesperson

After reading the case of Andrea and the issues she is having, I have come to the conclusion that she is suffering from distress. Distress is defined as a “pain or suffering affecting the body, a bodily part, or the mind” (Distress, 2011) and there a couple different types of distress. Andrea appears to have more mental distress than actual physical distress with how she is more so carrying on in her head than actually acting out or developing ulcers.

Since Andrea is being asked to possibly take on more clients, one of her causes for distress is called quantitative demand. This type of distress can occur when a higher workload is asked of someone and they are unable or unwilling to adjust. Andrea also appears to have some work role distress given all of her issues with how she is forced to have client calls when her boss tells her and only when her boss tells her. Andrea is currently having active behavioral reactions which occur when someone is trying to escape the distress. She is often talking about quitting work and just leaving the entire situation which fits active behavioral reaction definition. Given some her sleeplessness and headaches, she is also having physical reactions. In Andrea’s current state, she is in the elastic limit stage. This is an extremely critical stage as your body is telling you to change your stress as you are nearing your threshold. If Andrea’s environment doesn’t change she will reach the last stage which is the rupture point. The rupture point stage can “cause some severe and permanent mental and physical damage” (Drafke, 2006).

Andrea is currently experiencing a lot of frustration and she is responding in many different ways. Negativism is a major response that Andrea is having and it is geared towards her boss Brad. She states several times that she hates him which is a negativism response to her frustration. Resignation is another response from Andrea. When she states that she...