Corporate Training Magazine

How Hardy Is Your Organization?
Vol 3 Issue 1 - Jan 2007

By Barbara Semeniuk and Dr. Leslie Furlow

Are you feeling exhausted at work? If so, you're not the only one. And companies that don't address this issue are leaving millions on the table.

It's reported that stress as part of mental illness has become the number one cause of workplace absenteeism. Evidence of emotional exhaustion can clearly be seen in the workplace as employees are being asked to do more with less. They feel a sense of powerlessness and loss of control, which creates a vicious cycle of escalating stress.

In a survey conducted in 2002 by researchers at Charles Sturt University, nearly two-thirds of respondents (65.5%) experienced moderate to high levels of emotional exhaustion. Research also shows that this condition is particularly common at the executive level of organizations.

According to Dr. Christine Mastach, vice-provost at the University of California Berkeley, emotional exhaustion is one of the three components of the burnout syndrome, the other two being depersonalization and a feeling of low personal accomplishment. In her book The Truth About Burnout, she described emotional exhaustion as the feeling of being completely drained--whether it be physically, emotionally, intellectually or socially.

Emotional exhaustion is characterized by feeling drained, frustrated, fatigued and not engaging with fellow employees. Depersonalization results with a calloused response where empathy is lost and people are treated like objects. These individuals will tend to blame other people for their problems, or feel persecuted. When they began to lose productivity and focus, they cannot deal with problems effectively, cease to be positive role models, and no longer seek to understand other people's issues. They see work as a chore and are no longer excited about their job.

If burnout is present in the management ranks, the problem is exacerbated. As they no longer model appropriate positive behaviors, their frustration and irritability are reflected in their subordinates. This engages a feedback mechanism which further increases workplace stress, creating a toxic workplace environment, where absenteeism increases and productivity plummets.

The Hardiness Factor
On the other side of the coin is hardiness, a personality construct consisting of commitment, control, and challenge, which offers a research-based answer to workplace stress and exhaustion. Hardiness has been shown to reduce unplanned absenteeism (or mental health days), increase productivity and decrease unwanted staff turnover by as much as 63%. It has also been successful in fostering teamwork and indeed friendship amongst participants, serving to break down 'silos' within highly bureaucratic organizations.

Research has also shown that hardy individuals perceive less stress and thrive in challenging environments. Hardiness provides the necessary skill set to address burnout effectively. For many companies, growth is hampered by huge payments they must make to disabilities resulting from stress related illness and accidents.

The good news is that hardiness can be learned.

The Practice of Hardiness
Hardiness training and development focuses on building attitudes that reinforce self-belief, performance, efficiency, leadership, and collaborative spirit. The process is development in the true sense of the word and requires organizational commitment from the senior management. This involves a clearly defined and supported vision in addition to managerial resources that improve management's relationships with supervisees, supervisors, and the organization. Policies and procedures that enhance and foster hardiness adaptive behaviors are another integral part of the equation.

Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, authors of The Leadership Challenge, point to three ways for an organization to create a climate that develops hardiness and helps them cope more effectively:

Build commitment by offering more rewards than punishments
Build a sense of control by choosing tasks that are challenging but are within the person's skill level
Build an attitude of challenge by encouraging people to see change as full of possibilities

So, how hardy do you want your organization to be? The choice is yours.