Learned resourcefulness

From the previous overview of the literature, it is easy to understand that job stress is not good; more significantly it is not benign, job stress can be very harmful with physical and emotional effects. And, economically speaking, job stress can influence the quality of job performance since the poor combination between job

demands and job resources is within the context of actual job/task performance.

Therefore, what are the necessary skills to prevent employees or employers from experiencing debilitating stress and, instead, to have good job performance?

2.2.3.1 Learned resourcefulness

Learned resourcefulness (LR) is considered as an important skill in improving one’s confidence, sense of stability, and ability to manage stress (Rosenbaum, 1990 in Duangduen, 2007). Rosenbaum (1990) noted that LR helps people promote their ability in coping with a stress. Also, according to Rosenbaum (1983 & 1990) in McWhirter, Burrow-Sanchez & Townsend (2008), LR is “an expansion of well-learned behaviors and cognitive skills” that each individual consolidates from experiences in their lives to cope with stress effectively and execute self-control successfully.

2.2.3.2 Preventing job stress through self-control

LR is a self-control behavior that necessitates individuals having to go through a process of cognitive change in their negative thoughts. LR skills include “reformative self-control, redressive self-control, and perceived self-efficacy for coping”. First,

“reformative self-control” are those skills to solve problems effectively; oftentimes, strategies to postpone instant gratification. Second, “redressive self-control” is the use of positive instructions in thought, mood, and control. Finally, “perceived self-efficacy” is the belief in the effective coping skills when one must face with stress (Rosenbaum, 1990).

The study of Rosenbaum (1980) as well as Rosenbaum & Jaffe (1983) indicaed that people with high LR and resourceful individuals will solve their stressful situations more effectively by using their self-control skills. In another research conducted by Rosenbaum & Ben-Ari (1985) the role of LR was examined in the appearance and generalization of learned helplessness. The results of these studies (Rosenbaum, 1980;

Rosenbaum & Jaffe, 1983; Rosenbaum & Ben-Ari, 1985) concluded that the differences of each individual in LR played a crucial role in the response of those individuals to stress. Moreover, the negative effects of uncontrollable failure were moderated by the self-control of each individual. Self-control implies self-leadership since one’s inner voice/dialogue is the key decision-making process from which a choice is made to take

a particular action; self-control means embedded and internalized as opposed to being other-directed.

2.2.3.3 Preventing job stress through self-leadership

What are some of the most important characteristics that firms look for in their employees? Leadership potential, ability to work on a team, and good communication skills are among the most commonly listed personal characteristics of an ideal worker.

Amongst the very top, most important employee characteristic is self-motivation. Manz (1983, 1986, & 1992) has extensively explored self-leadership which is defined as “the process of influencing oneself to establish the self-direction and self-motivation needed to perform”.

According to Neck & Manz (1996) self-leadership theorists supposed that individuals mostly regulate their actions through behavior, cognition and thought-formation activities. The five main activities of self-leadership strategies are indentified as follows: (1) personal goal setting (Strickland & Galimba, 2001), (2) constructive thought patterns (Neck, Stewart & Manz, 1995), (3) designing natural rewards (Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001), (4) self-monitoring (Bopp, Glynn & Henning, 1999), and (5) self-reinforcement (Logue, 1995).

The first step is personal goal setting; the individual will set up goals for his/her own work. Personal goals when set by the individual tend to be more specific, relevant and challenging than if given by the boss. In this step, self-leadership is concerned with setting goals by oneself rather than goals set by supervisors. Employees who demonstrate self-leadership are able to more often motivate themselves and perform better by being self-aware, engaging in self-rewards, changing their environment whenever necessary and implementing a variety of ways to set their goals. The level of self-awareness in setting personal goals requires a relatively high level; having a good assessment of employees’ present performance before establishing meaningful goals for personal development is necessary.

The second step of self-leadership strategies is constructive thought patterns or called “thought self-leadership”. Before starting and while performing a task, employees should have positive thoughts about their task outcomes. This makes

employees more motivated and better prepared in their task accomplishment after engaging in positive self-talk and mental imagery.

According to Neck & Manz (1992), self-talk and mental imagery have been examined in various studies across diverse work settings. “Sports psychology, clinical psychology, counseling psychology, education, and communication” have all been addressed by scholars in examining the performance effects of self-talk and mental imagery. Neck & Manz (1992) argued that “the cognitive strategies of self-talk and mental imagery can significantly impact the success or failure of an organization’s members”. Almost reported, research studies provide convincing evidence for this relationship. For instance, self-talk happens in any situation whenever a person talks to himself/herself about his/her own thoughts/actions (McShane & Glinow, 2010). Manz (1983, 1986 & 1992), and Neck & Manz (1992) have suggested the importance of self-talk in improving the personal effectiveness of both employees and managers is great, always readily available - no gap between the perceived need and the resource to meet that need. Mental imagery is defined as “the mental invention or recreation of an experience that in at least some respects resembles the experience of actually perceiving an object or an event, either in conjunction with, or, in the absence of, direct sensory stimulation” (Finke, 1989). Similarly with self-talk in that the imagination resides with the domain/control of one’s mind, mental imagery is captured in these words by Manz in 1992 “We can create and, in essence, symbolically experience imagined results of our behavior before we actually perform”. From these views, mental imagery is thus considered as mentally practicing a task and imagining successfully performing that task before it is actually completed.

The third step is designing natural rewards. Employees can alter their tasks and work relationship in order to make their jobs more motivating and perform better;

traditional rewards are often financial or materialistic. Most people often have enough discretion in their jobs to make slight changes to suit their needs and preferences; even slight changes can yield tremendously positive effects (Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001)

The next step of self-leadership strategies is self-monitoring. It is defined as

“the process of keeping track at regular intervals of one’s progress toward a goal by using naturally occurring feedback” (Bopp, Glynn & Henning, 1999). People who can

exercise control over the timing of performance feedback will perform their tasks better than do those decided by others’ feedback (Bopp, Glynn & Henning, 1999).

The last step is self-reinforcement. Self-reinforcement often occurs when an employee has control over a reinforcer but does not take the reinforcer until completing a self-set goal or when an employee decides to do a more pleasant task after he or she completes a task that he/she dislikes (Logue, 1995).