Managing Stress: Emotion And Power At Work - Softcover

Newton, Tim; Handy, Jocelyn; Fineman, Stephen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0803986440 ISBN 13: 9780803986442

Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd, 1995

Synopsis

This volume provides a thought-provoking and timely alternative to prevailing approaches to stress at work. These invariably present stress as a ′fact of modern life′ and assume it is the individual who must take primary responsibility for his or her capacity - or incapacity - to cope.

This book, by contrast, sets stress at work in the context of wider debates about emotion, subjectivity and power in organizations, viewing it as an emotional product of the social and political features of work and organizational life.

Tim Newton analyzes the historical development of the dominant `stress discourse′ in modern psychology and elsewhere. Drawing on a range of perspectives - from labour process theory to the work of Foucault and Elias - he explores other possible ways of understanding stress at work. He offers a cogent critique of the typical stress management interventions in organizations through which employees are supposed to increase their effectiveness and become `stress-fit′. With contributions from two colleagues, he explores various ways of `rewriting′ stress at work. Together they emphasize the gendered nature of stress, the collective production and reproduction of stressful work experiences, and the relation of stress to issues of emotion management and control in organizations.

About this title

About the Author

Tim Newton is Lecturer in Organization Studies in the Department of Business Studies at the University of Edinburgh.

Jocelyn Handy is Lecturer in Psychology at Massey University, New Zealand.

Stephen Fineman is Reader in Organizational Behaviour in the School of Management at the University of Bath.

From the Back Cover

For Sociology cataloguesThis book provides a thought-provoking and timely alternative to prevailing approaches to stress at work which invariably adopt a highly individualistic model of its causes and appropriate management. Stress is deemed a `fact of modern life' and it is the individual who must take primary responsibility for his or her capacity - or incapacity - to cope, outside or inside the workplace.Stress at work in addressed in this book in the context of wider debates about emotion, subjectivity and power in organizations. The book analyzes the historical development of the dominant `stress discourse' in modern psychology and elsewhere. Alternatively possibilities for understanding stress at work are then presented, drawing on a range of perspectives including the work of Foucault and Elias. A cogent critique of typical stress management interventions in organizations is outlined, and finally the authors explore various ways of `rewriting' stress at work, including recognition of its gendered nature, and that stressful work experiences can be collectively produced and reproduced.Through its exploration of Foucauldian and Eliasian perspectives on stress and emotion, the book is of particular relevance to current debates concerned with the sociology of the body.

Edition details

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0803986440
• ISBN 13: 9780803986442
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192