IBPS RRB PO Mains 13 Oct 2019 Paper

Question Numbers: 152-156
Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
Stress, a potential danger to a person’s health and well-being, is a “product of the transaction between an individual and its environment”. It is commonly experienced negatively if perceived strain outweighs available coping resources. The workplace is considered as a source of strain that causes stress leading to detrimental health effects. Evidence shows that workers and executives in middle management positions are more susceptible to increased stress levels compared to, for example, top managers. Based on the effort–recovery model (ERM), the workplace is associated with effort expenditures that can develop into severe and chronic load reactions if recovery is insufficient or incomplete. Thus, recovery as a process of “psychophysiological unwinding” appears to play a major role in stress reduction and can act as an intervention in the development of long-term negative health reactions to normal stressors at work.
Stress in the workplace has a detrimental effect on people’s health. Sufficient recovery is necessary to counteract severe chronic negative load reactions. Previous research has shown that vacationing for at least seven consecutive days provided an efficient recovery strategy. Yet, thus far, the effects of short vacations and the mode of vacation (whether at home or in a new environment) have rarely been studied. We investigated the immediate and long-term effects of a short vacation on well-being and perceived stress and whether the mode of vacation impacted these results. Data was obtained from 40 middle managers (67.5% men and 32.5% women). The intervention group spent a short vacation in a hotel outside their usual environment. The control group spent their vacation at home. Results indicated that one single short-term vacation, independent of the mode, has large, positive and immediate effects on perceived stress, recovery, strain, and well-being. Strain levels decreased to a greater extent in the intervention group compared to the control group. The effects can still be detected at 30 days (recovery) and 45 days (well-being and strain) post-vacation. Encouraging middle management employees to take short vacations seems to be an efficient health promotion strategy; environmental effects seem to play a minor role.