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A Definition of Stress

What is stress? How would you define stress?

There must be hundreds of definitions of stress. We use the term in everyday language - as a noun (a 'stress'), a verb (to 'stress') and even an adjective (a stress _____). And stress means very different things in psychology, biology, engineering, music and geology. Check out the wikipedia entry for stress and you'll see what we mean.

Because of our work as stress management consultants, we prefer definitions that focus on the risk that stress poses to people and organizations. In this regard, it's a good idea to distinguish stress from pressure.

A good example is the definition of stress from the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE)..

"Stress is defined as ‘the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them’. This is distinct from normal workplace pressure, which can create a ‘buzz’ and be a motivating factor. This adverse reaction can seriously affect the mental health of employees, for example through anxiety or depression, and also have a significant effect on their physical health."

HSE expand on this definition somewhat in defining work related stress...

“By the term work related stress we mean the process that arises where work demands of various types and combinations exceed the person’s capacity and capability to cope. Think of this as ‘bad work’. It is a significant cause of illness and disease and is known to be linked with high levels of sickness absence, staff turnover and other indicators of organizational underperformance - including human error.” (For more on HSE's overall approach to stress management, check out the video page. We've also included the video on the definition of stress at the bottom of this page.)

This negative, risk-focussed view of stress is very different from the way stress was defined through much of the 20th century. Some definitions of stress back then focussed on physiological responses while others, confusingly, stated that there was both 'good' stress (known as eustress) and 'bad' stress (known as distress). Check out the wikipedia entry for the Canadian Endocrinologist, Hans Selye, for more on this way of defining stress.

An emphasis on risk assessment and risk management when defining stress is helpful because in gets rid of this confusion. Stress represents a risk to our well-being and performance at work. It occurs when the pressures or demands upon us, which may and / or may not be work related, become 'excessive' and beyond our ability to cope. There is therefore no such thing in this perspective as positive stress. The consequences and outcomes of stress are profoundly negative (and costly!) for people and for organizations.

The debates about how to define stress will no doubt rumble on. We'll leave the last definition of stress to colleague, Professor Derek Mowbray. who describes stress like this:

"Stress is at the wrong end of a continuum that includes the stimulus of pressure, the semi-stimulus of tension, the diversion of strain, and the disaster that is stress. Stressed people do not concentrate and tend to freeze in the face of anxiety. Failure to treat and eliminate stress often results in serious physical conditions."

You may of course have a different definition of stress, which would not be at all surprising. given the number of different perspectives and the different ways we use the word in everyday language.

For this website though we adopt a definitive stance which is the risk-focused perspective above. It's only sensible to do this, because of the legal implications (statutory and common law) related to the foreseeable risk from work related stress. Hence, if you're at all concerned about minimizing the risk from stress to the health and well-being of your employees (and the organizational costs of stress), the best advice is to adopt the HSE definition of stress above.

If you want a succinct explanation of HSE's definition of stress, check out the video below:

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