Thriving Under Stress

What helps employees to perform well and stay healthy under high levels of stress? What are the factors that distinguish those employees? What are the best ways to recover from a stressful day at work? How can employees proactively address stressors they encounter at work, and how can they move from "coping" to "thriving"? Can stress even have positive consequences?Most employees can recall times when they have dealt with the stress they were under at work, even coming out stronger as a result of performing well under difficult conditions. Yet many approaches to stress at work view stress as a toxic experience that should be avoided at all costs, and do not recognize how stress might be used to facilitate personal growth, professional development, and higher levels of performance. In this book, Britt and Jex describe how stressful working conditions canproduce positive outcomes when employees approach demands in the right way, focus on the meaning and significance of their work, and recover appropriately from stressful working conditions, both during the day and when at home. The book encourages employees to view themselves as active constructorsof their work environment who are capable of proactively addressing many of the demands they encounter, instead of being passive recipients of work stressors. To help readers reach the goal of thriving under stressful work, application exercises are provided in each chapter of the book. In these exercises, employees consider how they are currently responding to work stressors, how they might identify the significance and importance of their work, and identify ways they can better recover from work demands. Given the importance of managers in creating the conditions necessary for employees to thrive under stressful conditions, each chapter alsoincludes a box with recommendations for managers who are looking to reduce the negative effects of stress at work, enhance the positive effects, and create a work environment where employees can thrive.

The book is exhaustive in talking through every possible aspect of the study of workplace resilience. . . [it] is surely the equivalent of a 6 month course at the hands of the authors, with all the ins and outs of resilience clearly investigated., The book encourages employees to view themselves as active constructors of their work environment who are capable of proactively addressing many of the demands they encounter, instead of being passive recipients of work stressors.

Thomas W. Britt is Professor of Psychology at Clemson University. He has published a large number of empirical articles and book chapters, has been an editor for a book and 4-volume series in the area of military psychology, and is the co-author (with Steve Jex) of the book Organizational Psychology: A Scientist-Practitioner Approach (Second Edition). His articles have been published in leading journals such as The Harvard BusinessReview, Psychological Review, Psychological Bulletin, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the Journal of Personality, and the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology.Steve M. Jex is Professor of Psychology at Bowling Green State University. In addition to his academic work, he has held Guest Researcher positions at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and most recently at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Jex's research has focused primarily on the role of individual differences in the stress process and his work has appeared in leading journals such as Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal ofOrganizational Behavior, Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, Work & Stress, and Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology. His research has been funded through multiple contracts from the Department of Defense.