Case Analysis Stress Takes It's Toll

Introduction

Individuals encounter stress constantly and on many different levels whether at home or at work. Everyone copes with stress differently. The intention of this project is to analyze a case study and also to better understand stress management and it’s causes, effects, symptoms and possible solutions.

1. Summary of the case Stress Takes Its Toll

Mark Kelly was a fairly good University student who had a lot of fun. Mr. William Loude  a surveyor who he worked for in the summer, hired him after graduation. Mark having a steady job, achieved his goal in marrying Shantel McKenzie in four months. Shantel worked as an Accountant for a company in the printing business and a year later they had their first child. Mark was shocked and wasn’t ready to give up his independence of having his own paycheck and having fun with his friends playing football and cricket. His pay wasn’t much so Mark asked for a raise and he got it. Two months later Mark became a crew chief after the former one quit. Mark became terrified that he would get a job that he couldn’t handle because he had been complacent and was never interesting in becoming an expert in the field. Mark found it hard to adjust and picked up old habits of smoking. He was also afraid that Marvin Peart would one day take over his job because he was doing his Masters Degree in Surveying. Shantel started to work nights to take care of the baby. She hardly saw Mark but when she did, she mostly spoke about migrating to the USA or Canada where surveyors were paid five times more.

2. List of Organizational Behaviour issues identified in the case.

Accountability

Behaving Ethically

Communication

Job Security

Managerial Control

Role Ambiguity

Role Overload

3. Signs of stress that Mark Kelly exhibited in the case.

According to Robbins (2005), stress is a dynamic condition in which an individual is confronted with, an opportunity, constraint of demand related to what he or she desires and from the outcome is perceived to be both uncertain and important.  It can also be defined as the physical and psychological response to perceived environmental threat.  Robbins (2005), further stated that there are three symptoms of stress which are  physiological (how our body reacts), psychological (how we think and feel) and behavioural (how we behave).

 In this article, Mark Kelly went through a series of events in roughly two years. After getting a steady job and marrying Shantel McKenzie in four months, a year later they had their first child. At this point, Mark experienced the first sign of psychological stress, shock. As the article stated, the baby came as something of a shock to Mark. Mark was only 23 years old and he was not ready for the responsibility of providing for and taking care of a child on the limited funds that he had left after paying his bills and purchasing food. Mark now had another mouth to feed and as a young man, his social life was also affected in a negative way. In the article, Mark enjoyed playing football few nights a week with his UTECH mates and spending Sunday afternoons on the cricket field. Now all of that had to be compromised for the baby. Notwithstanding this, due to his distress, he felt burdened and asked his boss Mr. William Loude for a raise in which he got.