Stress: Interpersonal Demands

In the last byte, we looked at role related issues that act as a source of stress. In today's byte, we look at Interpersonal demands that act as a source of stress.

We could look at interpersonal demands in the following categories:

1. Emotional Toxins
2. Sexual Harassment
3. Poor Leadership
4. Trust Related

We quite sometimes find an individual with abrasive personality and a find a set of emotions like anger, guilt, shame, fear etc come in immediately. These emotions make us feel "ill". These spread through the work environment and cause a range of disturbances - this is one potential source of work stress.

Sexual Harassment is a gender-related interpersonal demand that creates a stressful working environment both for the person being harassed and for others. A vast majority of sexual harassment is directed at women in the work place is a chronic yet preventable workplace problem.

Employees who feel secure working with strong, directive leadership may be anxious when handling an open management style. Those comfortable with participative leadership style will not feel comfortable with a very directive leadership. Poor leadership in organizations and excessive, demanding management styles are one of the leading sources of work stress.

Trust is an important characteristic in any leader-follower interpersonal relation. This is the reason why in most cases, a slight threat to the reputation of the employee with her or his supervisor may be especially stressful! Diversity amongst the project groups could act as a hurdle in building a trusting relationship.