Re‐thinking organisational stress: the transition to the new employment age

Stress has been largely addressed from an individual perspective yet a strategic initiative on stress can only be achieved by understanding stress as part of the fabric of organisation life. Organisation membership and work require psychological adaptations by individuals in order to accommodate the demands of the organisation. The organisation develops mechanisms for protecting individuals from psychological disturbance and the individual adapts to the organisation. Organisation change will raise some of the concerns that have been kept unconscious by the adaptation process. This requires that psychological adaptation be re‐worked. However, in the new employment age, employees will need to be more mature and autonomous. This requires that different processes be adopted. A model is presented that provides insight into the adaptation process at three levels, including unconscious adaptation, an understanding of which will be necessary to address stress in the future.