Recent Institute Research in Overview 

The following paper was published in Job Stress Research, the Journal of The Japan Association of Job Stress Research, vol. 4(1), March 1997. It conveniently provides a single-source comprehensive overview of the workplace research as well as the individual research programs currently being conducted by the Canadian Institute of Stress. Please note: This paper has been translated from English to Japanese and then [by permission] from Japanese to English, creating some reading awkwardness.

THE THIRD WAVE OF STRESS SCIENCE
CONTROLLING FUTURE SHOCK TRAUMA IN WORKPLACE HYPERCHANGE

Richard C.B. Earle, Ph.D.
Canadian Institute of Stress

ABSTRACT

Workplace hyperchange, causing chronically high job stress and low work satisfaction, is shown to triple rates of (a) worker disability and (b) symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). "Third wave" stress science -- integrating biology, psychology, sociology, and management science -- is shown to be three times more effective in protecting workers from the trauma, disabilities and productivity losses that grow in conditions of hyperchange.

Third Wave stress control programs protect workers on all four sides, namely:

i) Biological protection -- preventing fatigue, build-up of stress hormones, and damage to normal biochemistry in the individual

ii) Psychological protection -- enabling the worker to reestablish a new, more coherent and satisfying "marriage" with radically changing conditions in their work

iii) Social protection -- transforming relations with co-workers from an incidental by-product of work into a more actively supportive resource for day-to-day coping with change

iv) Organizational protection -- wherein new management practices increase industrial productivity (and product quality) by seeking, as a primary goal, to control stress and to increase satisfaction for workers.

And, while providing more than 300% greater protection for workers, Third Wave methods cost, on average, only 40% more for an industrial employer to implement ....................... resulting not only in much lower rates of disability but also in very substantial increases in productivity (13.8% in one year)

"Job losses are not the result of some temporary downturn in the economic cycle but are the result of structural change .......... The lights are going out for whole categories of employment. We are entering an age of hopelessness, an age of resentment, an age of rage."

Professor Ian Angell
London School of Economics

Introduction to Hyperchange

Occasional changes, in work or personal life, are exhilarating and challenging. Past that point, rapid, unpredictable change is simply wearing and stressful, as seen during the past 10 years in North American corporations. In this period: nearly half of all companies were restructured; over 90,000 firms were acquired or merged; 240,000 companies were downsized; nearly half a million simply failed.

Even change has changed. In the past, we experienced and learned how to deal with "more" changes, and with "faster" changes. These hard won learnings, today, have limited value, since most here-and-now changes are no longer linear, i.e. moving in old familiar directions, only faster. Hence the term "hyperchange". Hyperchange is only secondarily about speed. It is mostly about novelty and unpredictability.

For example, consider the nuclear power generating corporation which, until recently, was the largest design-and-build construction company in North America. Now, there is literally nothing to build. Or, perhaps, the 90-degree turn (some would say 180) faced by a digital switching telecommunications manufacturer when they discovered their market had become digitally saturated. No longer able to remain, first and foremost, a manufacturer, they are becoming leaders in software-based, value adding applications for the switching equipment they had already sold. The change has been enormous. Only 21,000 of the 1991 staff of 40,000 are still with the company.

Most profound and widespread amongst the unforeseeable changes are those faced by employees, at all levels and of all professional stripes, who are now slowly realizing that job security no longer exists. The unspoken marriage (for life) contract has been badly weakened, if not broken, in even the most traditional of corporations.

In addition to career and job uncertainties, "Information Fatigue Syndrome (IFS)" is hyper-stressing many executives who claim so much new and often conflicting information is arriving so quickly that they find themselves paralyzed by it, unable to reach the confident conclusions and decisions required if their business is to succeed in hyperchange. Predictably, traumatic effects on both health and performance are an increasing risk.

The Trauma of Future Shock in the Workplace

The hallmarks of hyperchange for occupational health and for workforce productivity often include rapid increases in such problems as employee fatigue, anxiety, depression, emotional and soft tissue disabilities, plus corresponding decreases in quality of work and in productivity per hour worked.

Humans' development of Post Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD ) is, in the general case, seen as the result of hypermobilization (i.e. chronically elevated stress) in our response to undeniable threats to one's life, associated with a pervasive sense of helplessness and , eventually of hopelessness about one's ability to deflect or otherwise influence these threats.

As conventionally defined , PTSD is a typical response to events which threaten either one's physical life (e.g. survivors of battlefield combat or certain police work), or one's life as a viable, valuable Self (e.g. survivors of rape or of recurring physical or emotional abuse).

Rationale for a More Useful Definition of PTSD : Trauma as a Process, Not Simply an Event

Rapidly growing numbers of workers who have been labelled as "survivors" of workplace "downsizing" or of "restructuring" are showing the diagnostic profile of PTSD seen in survivors of concentration camps and in soldiers returning from international peace keeping missions, namely:

i) reexperiencing (in dreams or thoughts) events which previously resulted in feelings of vulnerability, helpless rage, and of a devalued or degraded Self;

ii) emotional numbing and a social contractions in relationships both within and outside the workplace: and

iii) sleep disturbances, mood elevation and depression, fatigue, and more frequent, longer lasting minor illnesses.

In some more turbulently changing industries, at least 30% of workers could fulfill diagnostic criteria to be treated for clinically significant depression or, should our following hypothesis be confirmed, for a diagnosis of PTSD .

Once it is accepted that chronically elevated levels of stress (of catecholamines, opioid peptides, and glucocorticoids) can equally arise (a) from a process as from a single event, an (b) from a profound sense of threat to Self as from a threat to life and limb, then only one further assumption need be granted . Namely: The self concept of most adults (currently employed or not) is as much or more deeply rooted in their work roles than in any other role they play -- incluing the roles of spouse, parent, or friend.

In fact, one's confidence and satisfaction in these latter roles are strongly influenced by the assets -- psychosocial as well as (current and projected) financial assets -- developed in one's work life.

In summary: Threats posed by hyperchange to the worker's current sense of control and projected predictability in work roles can be and , in this paper are hypothesized to be, amongst life's most stressful and traumatic.

Not only does this chronic stress predispose to and precipitate both emotional and physical illness, chronic stress can also perpetuate these illnesses to a duration and a severity that result in a person's becoming disabled, unable to continue working.

For working adults the stress-based probability of becoming disabled is very significantly increased when the worker has been experiencing less and less satisfaction from their work.

By 1991, it was clear that the hallmark of industrial hyperchange for many workers is a combination of high job stress PLUS lower job satisfaction. So, in our research, a central question became: Do these conditions of hyperchange result in higher rates of (a) worker disability in general, and (b) Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, in particular?

Here are our findings in a representatively wide range of 1870 workers in hyperchanging workplaces:

Principal conclusion: When combined, high stress and low satisfaction at work -- the hallmarks of hyperchange -- dramatically increase rates both of (a) overall worker disability and of (b) symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Second Wave Stress Science is Limited in Understanding or Preventing Future Shock Trauma

Applications of theories and research findings concerning job stress have resulted in much smaller improvements in these health and disability problems than had been hoped for. A primary reason for these limited improvements is that existing or "second wave" stress science has also been limited in its theoretical comprehensiveness and in its applied strength by its fragmentation into four largely isolated sub-sciences, as follows:

i) clinical science of the physiology and biochemistry of stress;

ii) study of psychological factors, especially cognitive factors in stress and coping;

iii) sociological factors supporting or buffering individuals; and

iv) management science focusing on the organization and technology of work as they impact the worker.

Twelve years ago, the Canadian Institute of Stress began to systematically integrate the models, the methods, and the findings of these four sub-sciences within a model for a much needed "third wave", transdisciplinary science of human stress.

A Scientifically Based Stress Control Strategy for Hyperchange
-- for Individuals or Corporations --

Ten years' industrial research involving 3740 working adults in 21 field experiments  have provided the scientific foundation for a stress control strategy built around two essential principles, namely:

Principle #1: Individualized stress control prescriptions (Rx) work best.

Because individuals differ greatly in their genetics, in their experiences, in their attitudes and habit patterns, and in their circumstances, it is not surprising that our research has repeatedly shown that individualized stress control Rx's which respond systematically to these differences are approximately three times more effective than one-size-fits-all prescriptions. More detail is found in my book, "Your Vitality Quotient".

Principle #2: Stress control prescriptions which integrate biological, psychological, and sociological and management science factors (biopsychosocial Rx's) work better and last longer.

In experiment after experiment, we found that people maintain excellent health and cope more effectively with hyperchange when they are supported by a prescription that integrates biopsychosocial factors, as compared to strategies focusing on only one or two of these factors.

I will shortly describe four types of methods whose combined effects produce powerful protection and effective weapons for coping with the stress of hyperchange, including:

1. nutritional supplementation targeted to offset the specific effects of chronic stress on the body's biochemistry and related performance

2. stimulation of neuropeptides both to reduce fatigue and to block the person's accumulation of dangerously high levels of stress hormones

3. deepened awareness of three psychological resources which promote more stable and stabilizing problem solving by the person

4. relationship management methods

1. Vitamin - mineral supplementation to maintain or restore the biochemical equilibrium which may be damaged by chronic stress hormone overload

Even today, more is known about the impacts of stress on the nutritional status of farm and laboratory animals than on humans. However, that has been changing. In 1979, three Nobel Prize laureates began collaborating with Dr. Hans Selye to identify these impacts. Their first and still most dramatic finding was that whether a chronically stressed research Subject had a small-scale or had a large-scale deficiency of vitamins in their body, the ratios between these deficient nutrients remained the same across the more than 270 Subjects they initially studied. Further research confirmed two further facts, namely:

i) the severity of the nutrient deficiencies was very strongly correlated with the severity and the duration of the stress these Subjects had been experiencing; and

ii) when a further 623 Subjects were treated with a moderate dosage of the deficient nutrients formulated to precisely match the stress-based deficiency ratios discovered in the earlier study then (a) their nutritional biochemistry returned to normal ranges within four months, and (b) their abilities to tolerate laboratory induced stressors was significantly superior to a random sampling of "normal" working adults.

The Canadian Institute of Stress has continued to refine this Anti-Stress formula in its clinical research and in many of the industrial field experiments to be reported in this paper.

2. Transcutaneous stimulation of opioid neuropeptides to reduce: Fatigue, impaired psychomotor performance, and brainwave hyperstimulation

It has been known for almost 20 years that levels of various opioid peptides, notably the beta endorphins, increase as organisms' stress levels rise. Initially such increased peptide levels were believed to be primarily a direct result of rising stress hormones (catecholamines, glucocorticoids).

More recently this view has changed. The opioid peptides are now increasingly seen as being an equally fundamental and parallel biochemical process whose primary purposes are (a) to act as a "stress breaker", to directly interrupt escalating stress hormone levels and their fatiguing (or necrotizing) consequences, and (b) to act to restore a dynamic equilibrium more conducive to health and effective functioning in the stressed organism (or person).

Recent technological advances as seen most fully in the small portable "Codetron" device developed by Professor Norman Salansky (Senior Clinician, Canadian Institute of Stress) has (a) incorporated a randomized pattern of electrical stimulation, thus overcoming the brain's blocking response, and (b) more sensitively tuned the stimulation to the EEG pattern which optimally promotes individuals' internally self-regulating production of the opioid peptides ................ resulting in rapid reversal of fatigue states, and in restoring a normally functioning (pre-stress) brainwave pattern.

And, because the person's own cortical processes regulate how the neuropeptides are secreted, therefore stimulation by the Codetron is medically safe.

[As a footnote, I will also mention that Dr. Salansky is now also developing a Low Energy Photon Therapy (LEPT) technology for preventing fatigue as well as possible atrophy of the hippocampus in the brain when the organism is about to endure hyper-stress experiences. This prevetive application of LEPT technology has proven effective in animal experiments when applied 15 minutes prior to exposure to both acutely and chronically stressful events. Future applications of LEPT technologies in human hyperchange -- whether in aerospace or business situations -- are promising.

3. Development of three stabilizing psychological resources

Most working adults are more "married" (more intensely, deeply, and broadly anchored) to their work than they are to their husband or wife.

Please note: While this observation may (or may not) be well accepted by Japanese people, we in North America have been, at most, only partially aware of it until quite recently.

As we find in at-home marriages, so it has been true in most individuals' "work marriages" (marriages to their work) that one of the two partners tends to adopt the role of the "stable, dependable and nurturing" partner. Until recent workplace hyperchange, this stabilizing partner has been seen to be the corporate employer. This is no longer true in many workers' experience.

From the worker's perspective, their corporation has made many radical, unexpected and, to employees, unexplained changes which seem to be inconsistent and often mutually contradictory or simply "crazy" changes. The worker's sense of coherence -- that their corporate marriage partner can be depended upon to act predictably into the future -- is both the primary casualty of hyperchange and the root cause of stress-based trauma for many workers.

To restore this sense of coherence and, thereby, to cope with destabilizing periods of hyperchange, tomorrow's worker must develop three quite new psychological resources. In effect, they must be prepared to take on equal or greater responsibility than their employer for maintaining stability in their work marriage.

These three stabilizing psychological resources are, although often assumed to be quite basic, not widely found in most workers or executives. To cope with hyperchange, each worker must develop:

i) A clear, conscious and practical awareness of the specific kinds of work experiences which give them satisfaction. They must know, in specific terms, what experiences give them the feeling that they have had "a good day at work".

Surprisingly, perhaps, 87% of North American workers are not consciously aware, in an actionable way, of their personal "work satisfiers". Until recently, the vast majority have taken work satisfaction (of whatever level) for granted, assuming that satisfaction resides in the situation and, therefore, that they had no active role to play in maintaining or improving their level of satisfaction at work. So, of course, they had little or no awareness of their work satisfiers. With workers unaware of their satisfiers, work satisfaction has historically been a largely random, hit-or-miss experience.

Clearly, because (a) many of the "old" satisfiers found in the "old" (pre-hypercahnge) workplace have disappeared, and because (b) reduced satisfaction plays a major role in the traumatic consequences of hyperchange, therefore workers must be helped to become more consciously aware of what their work satisfiers are ........... of what experiences they should be looking for or seeking to create in their "new", changed workplace.

ii) As is true for work satisfier, each worker must have a clear, practical awareness of the strengths they bring to their work if they are to restore their sense of coherence and control in a hyperchanging work situation.

As a psychologically stabilizing resource, "strengths" go far beyond simple knowledge and skills. Strengths include such basic traits as creativity, tolerance for ambiguity, a focus on results, a sense of humour, willingness to teach and help co-workers, ability to communicate complex or new ideas, to work in a team, to take on and then later relinguish a leadership role, etc.

iii) Planned action to stabilize and improve one's work marriage is essential ............... based on the worker's clarification of both the work satisfiers they wish to experience more often, and the strengths they can bring to their work team.

As shown in blood sample measurements of workers' stress hormone levels, simply becoming more practically aware of their personal satisfiers and strengths leads to significant decreases in workers' stress levels.

And, much greater, more stabilizing improvements (as seen in measures both of health and of productivity) are observed when workers develop and then act on a personal plan for (a) gaining more frequent experiences of their work satisfiers during the work day, (b) by taking actions that make their strengths more obviously valuable to their co-workers and their manager.

For example, a foreman in a steel plant who both found satisfaction in and had a strength for motivating groups of people by giving "pep talks" volunteered to give brief safety lectures to all shift groups in his factory. His taking this creative step not only improved his marriage to his work, but also is given credit for reducing the plant's accident rate.

4. Win - Win management of work relationships

Our 10 years' industrial research has proven even greater health and productivity improvements in hyperchanging workplaces where the employer also takes action (in addition to actions by workers) to stabilize the work marriage relationship.

We refer to such action by employers as Lose-Lose : Win-Win problem solving within work teams.

While operating somewhat like a typical Quality Improvement (Q.I.) program, Win-Win problem solving is different from Q.I. programs in two powerful ways, namely:

i) Win-Win problem solving does not only seek a "win" for the corporation (i.e. an improvement in productivity or in quality). Win-Win problem solving focuses only on those changes which will result equally in a win for the corporation and, at the same time, a win for the team's workers (i.e. a decrease in unnecessary stress, and / or an improvement in their satisfaction).

ii) Win-Win problem solving also requires that the team's process for identifying each Win-Win solution must begin with precisely identifying the underlying Lose-lose problem (i.e. precisely how both the workers and the employer are experiencing negative outcomes).

In conditions of hyperchange (stress is up; satisfaction is down), it is almost impossible to stabilize and improve the work marriage until, at the employer's initiative, workers and management take shared action to reduce or eliminate at least some of the specific workplace circumstances which workers are experiencing as unnecessary Lose's for themselves.

The Power of Transdisciplinary Third Wave Stress Science versus Second Wave Stress Science

Based in the 21 industrial field experiments conducted by the Canadian Institute of  Stress, we have been able to systematically compare the effectiveness of (a) the narrowly focused interventions of "Second Wave" stress science versus (b) transdisciplinary Third Wave interventions to control the stress of hyperchange.

Here is a brief summary of our research findings:

PRINCIPAL RECOMMENDATIONS FOR A STRATEGY
TO CONTROL STRESS-BASED TRAUMA DURING WORKPLACE HYPERCHANGE

HIGHLIGHTS OF STRESS SCIENCE FINDINGS

1. Third Wave stress science prescriptions, focusing on Biological + Psychological + Sociological factors, are three to four times more powerful in protecting health and productivity in conditions of workplace hyperchange than Second Wave prescriptions which focus on only one or two sets of these factors.

2. Of all single-factor methods for controlling the stress of hyperchange, Biological methods (vitamin-mineral supplement plus stimulation of neuropeptides) are the most effective.

3. This power of Biological methods to control stress is more than doubled when combined with psychological plus sociological methods.

4. For improving work satisfaction, psychological methods are the single most powerful intervention. This power is more than doubled when combined with sociological factors.

5. To produce improvements in engagement and resulting productivity measures, biological and psychological methods have only limited power. Sociological methods, focusing on the workers' relationship with their work and with their co-workers are much more powerful.

6. The "post traumatic stress disorders" caused by hyperchange are most efficiently reduced by combining biological and psychological methods.