A model about the organizational stress management.

Titu, Mihail ; Bucur, Viorel ; Ghitescu, Teodor 等

1. INTRODUCTION

Position holders in any organization are specialists in various fields who, by means of specific technical methods, perform activities in the area of production, services, research, etc. in view of accomplishing organizational objectives. Each position holder is a well-educated and professional bio-individual, interacting with other job holders, its constituent elements as well as its environment, receiving and transmitting "stimuli", thus requiring permanent biological and behavioral self-adjustment. The emergence of stress is connected with the understanding of this complex process of human self-adjustment to internal and especially external stimuli. There are at least two study patterns of self-adjustment: cybernetic pattern, exclusively based on the interactions due to natural energies as well as on their analysis by formal mathematics methods; the present paper sets forth the study of human self-adjustment (especially position holders in organizations) based on the Jay Forrester pattern, to which one can add the indirect self-adjustment loop, based on intellectual energy and adapted in keeping with figure 1. Figure 1 exemplifies the self-adjustment process of bioenergy recovery, consumed in any kind of activity, by means of human feeding flow, which is different to any other animal, due to the existence of two categories of self-adjustment loops: direct self-adjustment loop, due to natural stimuli (under genetic supervision), similar to any other animal; indirect self-adjustment loop, due to intellectual energy (employing the degree of flow knowledge and its dependence on other personality flows). To the decision element of the loop we have added self-adjustment parameters required to the feeding process by this form of particularly human energy: the adequate level of food in the stomach determined by intellectual methods, NNFfl and feeding time selected by intellectual methods as well, TAI. Obviously, the decision center on the intellectual adjustment loop is placed on the area controlling human thinking and not within the hypothalamus, where the reflex feeding center is placed. The descriptive pattern explains the fact that the feeding flow (consumed bioenergy recovery) can be shaped on: an input (feeding) rhythm, RH, which is accumulated in the real level of stomach food NRH. NRH value is compared on the natural negative reverse connection to the necessary value NNH, genetically designed in the hypothalamus for each bio-individual. Whenever there is a significant difference between NNH--NRH, the bio-individual is urged by means of the feeding reflex arch to look for food. After getting it, the RH feeding rhythm depends on the available time for TA feeding, subconsciously determined and which can be mathematically expressed as: RH = (NNH-NRH)?TA, [food units/time unit]. The rhythm expresses the dynamics of feeding flow, while the real level of NRH stomach food, the condition of the feeding flow. (Forrester, 1979), (Ghitescu, 2006)

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

2. SELF-ADJUSTMENT OF POSITION HOLDERS IN ORGANIZATIONS

Unlike any other bio-individual and due to "knowledge"--the synthetic expression of human education, the human being benefits of an additional negative reverse connection self-adjustment loop called in indirect loop. This loop makes all feeding processes aware by means of maternal language, at a different knowledge level (intellectual energy) form one individual to another, in keeping with the available information about healthy food and the influence of feeding on other subsystems of personality. The educated human being in his relation with food, by means of the indirect loop, has a different feeding rhythm than the uneducated human being (specific to the animal bio-individual). The difference is required by the following information: Good manners require that the food is placed on the plate, all the necessary cutlery will be prepared, thus modifying the TA feeding time into TAI; If the food contains elements contrary to medical specifications, then the NNH necessary level of food changes into NNHI; If the food is contrary to moral principles (in keeping with specific religious beliefs and dogmas), then RH=0, therefore the individual will look for adequate food and will change the corresponding TAI into NNHI; The feeding rhythm, RHJ= (NNHI-NRHI)/TAI [food units/time units] due to the loop influence, is different to the rhythm determined by the natural loop, the direct one, and this will be the real rhythm; The output rhythm is not determined by the input rhythm (as in the cybernetic pattern), but it is influenced by another real level of the same flow, or on a different flow, and it might have the two categories of self-adjusting loops: natural and intellectual. (Bucur, 2002). The above-mentioned pattern, called realist pattern explains in a more accurate manner than the cybernetic pattern, the self-adjustment difference between the educated individual and animal, by the existence of two categories of self-adjustment reverse connection loops: a direct one, based on natural energies (bioenergies), and the other one, indirect, exclusively based on intellectual energy, artificial energy, obtained by means of human education (knowledge). (Forrester, 1979), (Ghitescu, 2006), (Goupil, 1991)

3. STRESS SOURCES AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON THE SELF--ADJUSTMENT OF MANAGEMENT AND EXECUTIVE POSITION HOLDERS

Should we accept the fact that this pattern expresses more accurately the differences between self-adjusting processes of human beings and animals, then we can also understand the self-adjusting differences among various position holders, having only executive or leadership positions, or mixed positions. Due to increased specialization (acquiring knowledge about job-related technologies and processes), the position holder becomes a self-adjusting "energetic amplifier", with two other self-adjusting loops presented in figure 2: Direct loop, specific to executive positions, by which the position holder amplifies his own bioenergetic component, by means of natural energy resources provided by employed technologies in order to produce goods in a greater quantity and of a better quality compared to the situation of using only bioenergetic resources acquired genetically. Bioenergetic self-adjustment on each flow involved in the position responsibilities can be explained by means of the pattern in figure 1; Indirect loop, specific to management positions, by which position holders can influence subordinated organizational sub-systems, employing exclusively intellectual energy. Therefore, any manager can be considered an "amplifier of amplifiers", and each stimulus conveyed to subordinates will be further amplified in keeping with the amplification coefficient of each executive position holder. The manager, as a personality, will of course be subject to self-adjustment loops explained in figure 1.

[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]

Figure 2 may represent a starting point in the creation of new and more accurate analysis patterns of organizational stress. (Forrester, 1979), (Ghitescu, 2006)

4. CONCLUSIONS

Stress factors are different for managers and executive staff especially because of the two categories of self-adjustment loops explained in figure 2, but they are also similar due to the self-adjustment loops explained in figure 1. The present study aims to accomplish some instruments for the assessment of stress factors and their influence on organizational processes in keeping with the patterns in references and books relying on the patterns presented in figures 1 and 2 on a minimum of two categories of loops for the two extreme types of organizational positions: self-adjustment loops in keeping with bioenergetic flows (natural energies); self-adjustment loops in keeping with intellectual energy flows (artificial energy). (Titu & Oprean, 2008).

The figures evince the following: self-adjustment is a bioenergetic process where the carriers of adjustment energy forms are components of the human personality. Therefore organizational stress can be referred to exclusively at the component of human resources of the organization; stress can be explained by an imbalance between consumed and regenerated energies or each flow of the personality subsystems due to different categories of stress factors. Therefore, the definition of assessment instruments for the stress level is directly related to the description of complex personality patterns which should evince, in a descriptive and assessing manner, the interconnection of natural energetic flows with intellectual ones. Such patterns can be quite accurate to the real ones, by means of multidisciplinary research: medicine, labor psychology, ergonomics, ecology, management; the general stress level of a position holder is the result of an interaction among stress factors level (usually external ones) with the self-adjustment rhythms for each personality flow (internal processes), where each flow has two categories of loops: direct and indirect; there are several similar categories of stressors between executive and management positions, there are also different categories of stressors due to the predominant form of energy employed in the accomplishment of job objectives: natural energies for executive positions, and intellectual energy for management positions; even within the same category of stressors, there is a difference in the action of stressors, between executive and management position holders, due to the statistical average value of sensitivity thresholds on each self-adjustment loop; regeneration of each category of consumed energy during self-adjustment processes has different conditions for the two categories of position holders: for the executive, the conditions are predominantly determined by management quality; for the management, the conditions are predominantly defined by the external environment.

The above-mentioned statements lead to the following conclusions: Predominant internal stress sources for executive position holders; Predominant external stress sources for management position holders. (Forrester, 1979)

5. REFERENCES

Bucur, V. (2002). Management. Management of Organisation, Napoca Star Publishing House, Cluj Napoca

Forrester, J. (1979). The Principles of Systems, Technical Publishing House, Bucharest

Goupil, G. (1991). Stress Intelect, Coresi Publishing House, Bucharest

Ghitescu, T. (2006). Educational Management of Systems, Matrix Rom Publishing House, Bucharest

Titu, M. & Oprean, C. (2008). Strategic Management, University of Pitesti Publishing House, Pitesti