The Hindu Business Line : There can be positive response to stress

Stress is a mind-body response to demanding and/or emergency situations, reads a definition of the dreaded word in Positive Organizational Behavior edited by Debra L. Nelson and Cary L. Cooper (www.sagepublications.com).

The stimuli, called stressors or demands, may involve roles at work, policies and job conditions. `Distress' arises when stressors are perceived to be either threatening or harmful; being negative and dysfunctional, distress can lead to absenteeism and employee turnover. There can also be positive response to stress, or eustress, argues the book. A recently promoted individual, for example, may display eustress, experiencing "joy and satisfaction associated with the recognition of achievement and excitement about the opportunity to pursue new goals and challenges at work."

Most work situations, though, "elicit a mixed bag of both positive and negative responses in individuals." However, the authors are confident that "the relationship between positive, emotional, attitudinal, and behavioural responses and valued outcomes at work will be strongest when both employees and their supervisors develop relationships where they can engage each other in meaningful dialogue about important, challenging, yet shared understandings about what is expected at work." A book that can increase workplace productivity and satisfaction.

Joy of the first story

Joseph, a student of Kottayam College, went to attend the annual boat race. The race was a spectacular regatta, crowded and full of excitement, narrates T.J.S. George in Lessons in Journalism: The story of Pothan Joseph (www.vivagroupindia.com). "Joseph's fertile imagination took over and he spent the night composing a report on the event. As he later described it: `Into the uneventful story I inserted a yarn about a kid escaping drowning by clutching at a twig. No drowning man is ever known to have caught at a straw, nor has any person searched for a needle in a haystack. Indeed, some proverbs are not worth a straw. But the editor of a weekly journal in Madras to whom I had posted my report apparently was fond of proverbs and turned my version into superior fiction to illustrate the saying about the drowning man and the straw. The initials P.J. at the bottom of the four-inch paragraph so thrilled the author, aged 14, that he read and re-read it at least 41 times.'" Entertaining and educating read.

Tailpiece

"Is it true that the tender issue."

"Uh!" "... has run into rough weather?"

D. MURALI

http://BookPeek.blogspot.com