REVIEW OF THE

LITERATURE

1
 REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
Uncontrollable Stress and the Dumbing Down Process

Research by Dr. James Pennebaker of Southern Methodist University has demonstrated a

very serious consequence of uncontrollable stress on thought processes. In an experiment
performed by Dr. Pennebaker, subjects wrote about whatever was going on in their mind
- their "stream of consciousness." One group was subjected to a loud noise in the middle
of the exercise and told there was nothing they could do about it; they had to "grin and
bear it." The other group was subjected to the same loud noise in the middle of the
exercise, but they were told they could have the noise stopped if they chose. The results
were both fascinating and disturbing in their implications for organizational performance.

The group that had no control demonstrated a significant deterioration in their thought
process during and after the noise. Their thinking became unemotional, unimaginative,
and dull. It was as if they became temporarily dumb in order to endure the stressful
situation. Even more interesting was the other group's response. "although they were told
they could stop the noise if they needed to, not one person chose to do so. Therefore, they
experienced the same amount of unpleasant noise as the group which wasn't given that
option.

Despite being subjected to the same amount of noxious noise, their thought process
remained unaffected. They engaged in deep, reflective, creative thought. Thus, it wasn't
the negative external situation, but the perceived lack of control, which resulted in a
diminished thinking capacity. The operative term here is perceived. This study and others
like it show that even if a person's perception is wrong - if in fact they really don't have
control, the effect is the same as if they truly had control. It's the perception, the belief,
that matters.

Closely linked to this sense of perceived control is predictability. "s long as a person (or
lab rat for that matter) knows when the next painful situation will occur, they do not
2
suffer the same kind of psychological and physiological harm as those who don't know
"when the other shoe will drop." Simply knowing creates a feeling, even if ill-founded, of
control.

Most organizations have no idea just how much employee stress costs them each year. A
1990 study by the Princeton, NJ, firm of Foster Higgins & Co. indicated that corporate
health benefits cost the average company 45 percent of its after-tax profits. With research
implicating stress in 60 percent to 90 percent of medical problems, companies cannot
afford to ignore the huge health-care expense employee stress creates.

Although the relationship between stress and health care costs has received considerable
attention, the true price tag is far greater than health care costs alone. Studies show that
stress adds to the cost of doing business in a number of ways. In this article, we will
explore the depth and breadth to which employee productivity and well-being is
compromised by stress.

Just How Costly Is Employee Stress? To paint a complete picture of how stress costs
organizations would require a far longer article than space permits, but we will address
some of the most serious consequences of employee stress.

Absenteeism

Stressed-out employees are more likely to miss work both as a coping mechanism and
due to health-related problems. A recent study published in the American Journal of
Health Promotion found that workers experiencing high stress were over two times more
likely to be absent more than five times per year. Lost productivity and replacement costs
make absenteeism a costly consequence.

Workers Compensation Claims Stress-related claims have skyrocketed. The California

Workers' Compensation Institute (CWCI) reports that the number of workers
compensation claims for mental stress increased by almost 700 percent between 1979 and
1988. Nine out of ten stress claimants ended up receiving compensation benefits. "Job

3
pressures" account for nearly seven in ten stress claims, according to the CWCI. In
Maine, stress-related claims have increased by 1,000 percent since 1985, according to
Bureau of Labor Standards statistics.

Litigation

Litigation is becoming an increasingly more common occurrence - not just in the workers
compensation system, but in employer-employee relations. The feeling of powerlessness,
a major contributor to employee stress, also contributes to the desire for retribution.
When people feel helpless, when they feel they have no control over their lives, they are
more likely to resort to extreme measures. In our litigious society, many organizations are
reluctant to identify and address worker stress, fearing that admitting workers are stressed
would provide "ammunition" for employee lawsuits. Although understandable, this
approach creates the opposite effect. Stacey Moran, Ph.D., co-author of St. Paul Fire and
Marine Insurance Company's landmark report, American Workers Under Pressure
Technical Report, addresses this issue: Discovering specific stressors and dealing with
them is by far the best course of action for organizations. There is a better likelihood of
litigation if a company ignores stress-related problems than if it addresses them up-front.

Grievances

Frequent grievances are both a legitimate warning sign that organizational problems exist
and a less extreme way of expressing powerlessness, which in itself indicates
organizational problems. Robert Rosen writes about the connection between
organizational climate, employee stress, and grievances in The Healthy Company. Rosen
tells the story of a Safeway bakery manager whose department averaged 75 to 80
grievances a year. By honestly addressing his managerial style and cultivating a very
different workplace environment, he saw grievances drop to just one in a five-year
period. The effect of a grievance goes far beyond the employee and his or her supervisor.
On average, every filed grievance translates into approximately 80 hours of lost
productivity by the worker filing the complaint and by co-workers due to morale

4
problems, according to an article published in the Personnel Journal. Turnover Forty
percent of employee turnover is related to stress, according to a study by the Bureau of
National Affairs. When companies consider the cost of lost productivity and of recruiting
and training new employees, stress-induced turnover is a very expensive problem. In the
previous example of the Safeway bakery manager, his efforts at creating a more worker-
friendly atmosphere translated into a turnover decrease from as high as 100 percent in
some positions to a department average of 10 percent.

Accidents

Stress causes a narrowing of attention, preoccupation, and fatigue - a sure recipe for
workplace injuries. Stressed-out employees trying to do more with less are also likely to
take shortcuts which lead to accidents. "With increasing work demands and time
pressures, people are less likely to take safety precautions, use proper equipment, and
implement appropriate body mechanics," states Jonathon Torres, M.D., of Workmed
Occupational Health Services, a Maine-based company. Workers who report high stress
are 30 percent more likely to have accidents than those with low stress. Stress-related
accident claims are, on average, two times more costly than non-stress-related cases,
reports the Harvard Business Review. Accident claims also have a psychological
component. The connection between stress, employee satisfaction, and claim filing
cannot be ignored. A study of 3,020 aircraft employees showed that employees who
"hardly ever" enjoyed their job were two and one-half times more likely to report a back
injury than those who reported "almost always" enjoying their job.

Errors of Judgment and Action

When people are under stress, they become preoccupied with the issues troubling them.
Stress also causes attention to narrow, creating a sort of "tunnel vision." This makes the
stressed-out employee more susceptible to missing environmental cues and information
required to make both effective and safe decisions. Stress also dulls the thinking process.
This is because endorphins - nature's painkillers - are released under stressful situations.

5
Besides killing pain, these natural chemicals also dull our ability to think and feel. Under
extreme or unremitting stress, people become intellectually, emotionally, and
interpersonally dull. This can result in costly - and sometimes life-threatening - mistakes.

Conflict and Interpersonal Problems

With a more diverse work force, the increased use of teams, and our increasingly more
service-based economy, interpersonal demands on employees are increasing. This in itself
creates tremendous stress. In fact, St. Paul's report indicated that interpersonal demands
due to working with team members and supervisors were the most significant cause of
burnout. Thus, in today's workplace, we have people who are already under stress from a
variety of causes put into an interpersonal context that, by its nature, is very stressful.
Being already stressed-out, they are less likely to respond appropriately and
constructively, further heightening the likelihood they will find such a demanding
interpersonal context even more difficult and depleting.

Violence

More than half of 500 managers from both large and small companies surveyed in 1994
reported incidents and threats of violence in the previous four years, according to a study
by the American Management Association. Homicide accounted for 17 percent of all
deaths in the workplace. A study by Northwestern National Life showed that workers
who feel unsafe suffer the same level of stress as the actual victims. Violence is both a
cause and a consequence of employee stress. The stress brought on by interpersonal
challenges and conflicts, combined with the fact that many people are operating just
below their "boiling point," creates a potentially volatile situation. Conversely, the threat
of violence or an actual violent episode in the workplace creates tremendous stress.
Although the roots of violence cannot be traced to a single factor, stress is clearly a
significant contributor. This is especially true in cases where powerlessness and
helplessness play a central role in a person's stress. The more powerless people feel, the
more likely they are to resort to violence.

6
Customer Service Problems

Having stressed-out and depleted employees serve the public virtually guarantees
alienated customers. This can have very serious effects on the bottom line. According to a
study of over 100 companies by Frederick Reichheld and W. Earl Sasser, published in the
Harvard Business Review, a 5 percent reduction in customer defection translates into
anywhere from a 30 percent to an 85 percent increase in corporate profitability. Thus,
even a relatively small percentage of customers who aren't completely satisfied with a
company's service can result in a huge loss in profitability. The connection between
happy employees and satisfied customers is obvious, yet so often ignored. In recognizing
this connection, Daniel Steininger, CEO of Catholic Knights Insurance Company, cuts to
the chase: Would companies have to train their employees to smile and be friendly to
customers if their employees felt good about - and loyal to - their organizations?

Resistance to Change

Many attempts at organizational change and improvement fail because of employees'

resistance to change. Well-intentioned attempts at improvement are sabotaged because
would-be change-agents ignore, to their peril, the connection between stress and the fear
of change. Human beings, just like other mammals, are "hardwired" to revert to familiar
routines and behavior patterns when stressed. This makes sense in an ancestral survival
context. In such a context, if you were being chased and had to seek shelter, you wouldn't
want to be thinking about all the possible escape routes. You don't want to spend time
thinking and deciding in this situation. You want to go on "autopilot" and follow the
familiar route that has proven successful (i.e., it enabled you to survive) in the past. This
hardwired survival mechanism wreaks havoc in today's climate of rapid organizational
change. As a person's stress level increases, that person is more likely to operate out of
this primitive, hardwired response - clinging to the old ways, the tried and true, even if
they are no longer effective. Research shows that stress is also connected with
"neophobia" - fear of novelty. Animals, which are naturally curious and motivated to
explore new environments, avoid new objects and places when stressed. We see this

7
throughout organizations everyday. As people become more stressed, the new and the
different triggers fear. Millions of dollars are wasted on organizational change efforts that
end up being sabotaged and on program implementation delays caused by this innate
resistance to change and novelty triggered by stress.

No Time to Do It Right

Although the tangible costs of employee stress are staggering, it is probably the less
definable costs which are most serious. Perhaps the biggest and most unrecognized loss
of all is the sense of not having the time to do it right. It's difficult to measure "what
might have been" in terms of lost opportunity and unrealized potential. But the price is
still there. Stress costs organizations dearly in terms of decreased quality and
productivity. Says Jack Quirk, training and development director for Blue Cross/Blue
Shield of Maine: The major price a company pays for stress in the workplace, along with
the human price, is that their ability to make process improvements nearly always stops.
With overwhelming workloads, you have people going so fast, they don't have the time to
make the process better. It creates a terrible cycle of trying to work harder and harder
because the volume you have to put out is increasing, but you aren't doing anything to
make the process more effective and efficient.

Quirk likens this pervasive problem to Stephen Covey's "sharpening the saw" analogy. In
his book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Dr. Covey describes a woodsman
feverishly trying to saw down a tree. When asked how long he had been working, he tells
the onlooker that it's been about five hours. When the onlooker suggests stopping, resting,
and sharpening his saw, the woodsman informs the onlooker he can't do that, he's too
busy sawing. He's so busy working hard, he doesn't have time to work smart. Too many
companies get caught up in this "fool's cycle," as Quirk calls it. By pushing employees
harder and trying to increase output, without taking the time to examine and improve the
process, companies create a cycle of diminishing returns.

Companies "don't sharpen the saw" in two ways: First, the people who are most likely to

8
have process improvement ideas - the people who actually do the job - are so busy trying
to "saw" that they don't have time to think about how to make the process more efficient.
Thus, value-improvement ideas, which can only come through reflection, are never
generated. Second, because they are so harried and taxed, workers don't have the energy
or motivation to do this important "thought work." Their depleting intellectual and
emotional resources are focused on survival, not on improvement. They work harder and
harder, but with diminishing gains. They end up burned out, continuing on like the living
dead; they exit the organization through a disability; or they find another job.

The Loss of Intellectual Capital

Besides the lost opportunity of continuous process improvement, organizations pay for
stress in terms of overall loss of intellectual capital appreciation. Intellectual capital is
defined as the combined knowledge, know-how, proprietary expertise, and wisdom of a
work force. Experts identify intellectual capital as the key competitive advantage in the
21st century marketplace. Only organizations that are perceptive, nimble, and responsive
to market demands and customer needs will thrive. Unfortunately for most companies,
their work force is under such stress, they are none of these. At the most basic level, the
more stressed-out and depleted a person is, the less that person cares about excellence
and innovation. As mentioned earlier, he or she is just trying to survive. But the roots of
the problem go far deeper.

At the most fundamental psychological and neurobiological levels, stress compromises a

person's intellectual and emotional capacity. Stress makes people less intellectually and
interpersonally intelligent. Research shows that when people are in high-stress situations
over which they have no control, their thought process becomes more rigid, simplistic,
and superficial. This is hardly the mind-set for innovation. Decades of research on
"Learned Helplessness" has shown that the more helpless and disempowered a person (or
any animal, for that matter) feels, the less likely that person is to come up with effective
coping responses. Studies with humans shows that in high-stress situations in which they
have no control, their ability to perform mental tasks and solve problems is diminished.

9
Intelligence isn't just about "figuring things out." It's also about "figuring people out" or,
more accurately, understanding how to bring out the best in others. Strong interpersonal
skills and the kind of organizational synergy and customer loyalty they create are a
tremendous source of intellectual capital. Again, many organizations fail miserably in this
category also - and at a very steep price.

In high-stress, disempowering environments, people are less capable of empathy and

interpersonal sensitivity. As their feelings are numbed by the psychological and
biochemical consequences of stress - as their attention becomes focused on their own
problems - people become increasingly more insensitive to the needs of others. We see
this in the dull, disinterested eyes of the clerk staring at us from across the counter. We
see this in the amazing acts of interpersonal "cluelessness" we have all experienced at the
hands of people who were supposed to be serving us. This lack of interpersonal
intelligence - or "Emotional Intelligence," as Daniel Goleman, author of the book
Emotional Intelligence, calls it - is rampant in today's organizations. It also costs
organizations dearly in terms of lost customers and lost productivity due to organizational
conflict and morale problems.

In a high-stress, disempowering environment, what is rapidly becoming recognized as an

organization's most important asset - it's intellectual capital - not only becomes illiquid, it
also depreciates. The downward spiral of high stress, diminished performance, and
negative consequences creating more stress results in a gradual erosion of an
organization's intellectual and interpersonal capacity.

The Benefits of Doing It Right

Although we can't measure the "what if," we do have compelling evidence about the
opportunity loss when we see the "before and after pictures" of companies that have
instituted management and compensation systems more favorable to employee well-
being.

10
Kevin Paulsen, a consultant from W.M. Jackson and Company, a gain-sharing firm in
Marion, IN, reports that gain-sharing programs, which link employee effort to rewards,
often result in productivity improvements of more than 20 percent in the first year.
Interestingly, three serendipitous by-products of these programs are reduced absenteeism,
lower workers compensation costs, and fewer grievances.

This makes common sense, but seems to be ignored by so many organizations. Creating
an organizational climate that encourages and supports people to perform at their best -
and rewards them accordingly - not surprisingly creates a happier, healthier work force.
Companies included in Robert Levering's book, The 100 Best Companies to Work For in
America, have more than twice the earnings per share and more than twice the rate of
stock appreciation as the average Standard & Poor's 500 company. These companies offer
a glimpse at both opportunities lost by not addressing how worker well-being affects the
bottom line as well as guidance about how to "do things right."

The Hidden Costs of Trauma In The Workplace

Although the emotional effects of trauma have been well publicized, we have just
scratched the surface in our understanding of the damage it causes. The depth and breadth
of trauma’s effect on our workforce is far more serious than many people realize. Trauma
impacts every aspect of a person’s effectiveness in the workplace. Traumatized workers
are compromised in their ability to learn, think, manage change, and relate to others.
They are more likely to have mental and physical health problems, including depression
and substance abuse, two of the costliest health problems in the workplace today.

By understanding and articulating to decision makers how their organization is affected

by trauma, workplace wellness consultants can make a major economic and humanitarian
impact on the workplace. By helping organizations both prevent and respond to trauma,
workplace wellness consultants can help them cut costs and improve productivity. The
most obvious impact on the bottom line would come from increased productivity and
decreased health care costs. Organizations would also save training and organizational

11
development dollars which are often wasted because traumatized workers’ can’t
effectively integrate and implement these initiatives.

Regardless of how "state of the art" or "cutting edge" such programs may be, they fall far
short of their potential when the people expected to utilize them are compromised
emotionally, physically, and intellectually. Trying to teach communication skills, TQM,
or team approaches to a traumatized worker is like giving gourmet cooking lessons to
someone who has been ravaged by starvation. They will be too depleted, preoccupied,
and overwhelmed to care about, absorb, or act on what they are taught.

To help organizations respond to this need, we need to understand how trauma affects
people and how this translates into the workplace. In this article, we will explore how the
cumulative effects of chronic and acute stressors result in worker trauma and how this
trauma affects a worker’s:

 Intellectual abilities

 Creativity

 Productivity

 Ability to manage change

 Response to diversity

 Interpersonal capabilities

12
What is Trauma?

Trauma is the experience of being psychologically overwhelmed. When traumatized, a

person is rendered impotent. At that moment, they are incapable of coping either
intellectually or emotionally.

Research has shown that trauma leaves a person changed both psychologically and
physiologically (Van der Kolk and Van der Hart, 1991). Trauma alters a person’s thinking
patterns, emotional responses, and even biochemistry (Van der Kolk and Van der
Hart,1991; Van der Kolk,1994). Trauma survivors frequently experience depression,
anxiety, difficulty responding to new situations, rigid thinking, defensiveness, paranoia,
aggressiveness, over-reactivity to mild stress, and increased health problems (Van der
Kolk and Van der Hart,1991; Van der Kolk,1993; Van der Kolk,1994).

Trauma can come from a single catastrophic event, such as violence in the workplace, or
a series of less dramatic stressors which, through their cumulative effect, create
debilitating psychological and physical changes. Cumulative Emotional Trauma is
created by the combined effects of stressors such as demeaning work conditions,
worker/job mismatch, prejudice, unclear job expectations, impossible workloads, abusive
treatment by peers or superiors, emotionally draining interactions with difficult people,
and job insecurity. Although not as cataclysmic as a major violent episode in the
workplace or a natural disaster, these factors chisel away at a worker’s sense of security,
value and well-being.

Although we often refer to the more chronic sources of trauma as "stressors", we need to
recognize their cumulative effect when assessing the damage they cause. Like
Cumulative Trauma Injury sustained from repetitive movements, Cumulative Emotional
Trauma doesn’t result from a single dramatic incident, but from the accumulation of
microtraumas over time. Although each individual incident is not incapacitating, when
we add them together in an unrelenting stream; they create debilitating psychological and
physical effects.
13
Thus, trauma can come from a single, cataclysmic event or the cumulative effect of
multiple stressors. Whichever the cause, emotional trauma results in emotional,
intellectual, and physiological damage which reverberates throughout a person’s life.

What Determines Whether A Person Is Traumatized?

Not all stressful events are traumatic and not all people respond to the same stressful
event the same way. Both individual and situational factors influence how a stressor
affects a person. The following factors play a significant role in whether a person is
traumatized.

Control - The less control a person feels they have over a stressful situation, the more
traumatic it will be (Seligman,1972; Sauter et al,1989). Years of research has shown that
when a person perceives they don’t have control over a stressful situation, the deleterious
effects are much more extreme than those experienced by people who are subjected to the
same stressor, but perceive they have control (Pennebaker, 1990; DientNetguru
Solutionser,1989).

Thus, it isn’t the direct effect of the stressor which is so psychological damaging, but the
sense of having no control, which results in serious trauma. This has been demonstrated
in the workplace, where the degree of control a person has over their job has been shown
to affect their stress level and prevalence of occupational health problems Sauter et
al,1989; Gehlman,1992).

The less legitimate control a person has, the more likely they are to attempt inappropriate
control through violence, territoriality, resistance to change, and other counterproductive
behaviors. A 1986 study on how stress leads to counterproductive behaviors estimated the
annual cost of such behaviors to business at Rs50 billion (Kuhn,1988) .

The Ability to Comprehend and Make Sense Out a Situation - The more

14
incomprehensible, the more "mind blowing" a situation, the more traumatic it will be.
Events which are extremely confusing and disorienting render ineffective the person’s
accustomed ways of making sense out of the world (Tomb,1994).

Predictability and Certainty - Research on both laboratory animals and humans has shown
that the more uncertain and unpredictable a stressful situation, the more traumatic it will
be (Seligman, 1972). Conversely, when people have enough information about a
challenging situation to predict what is going to happen next, they are less likely to feel
threatened and overwhelmed. Even if the information isn’t pleasant, it is less stressful
than not knowing.

A recent study on organizational change by Keita and Jones (1990) identified uncertainty
and unpredictability as key factors in whether organizational change will result in
employee mental and physical health problems.

Individual Resiliency or Emotional Toughness - Whether an event is traumatizing or not

also depends on the individual. Not everyone responds identically to the same stressor. A
person’s "emotional toughness" mediates the effect of a stressor (DientNetguru
Solutionser, 1989; DientNetguru Solutionser, 1991; Loehr, 1994). Research shows that
emotionally resilient people not only have a different attitudinal response to stress, but a
different biochemical response as well. The biochemical response of people with low
resiliency not only makes them less likely to respond successfully to the stressor, but also
makes them susceptible to illness later.

Although emotional resilience probably has an innate component, research has shown
that emotional resiliency can be developed by programs which utilize the sequencing of
activities involving moderate physical and emotional stress followed by recuperation
(Loehr, 1994).

Self-Efficacy - A person’s sense of self-efficacy understandably influences their emotional

response to a stressor. Those with high self-efficacy, perceiving themselves as capable of

15
responding effectively, tend to "rise to the occasion" when faced with a stressor
(DientNetguru Solutionser, 1989; Loehr, 1994) . Stressful situations bring out their best.
Those with low self-efficacy, on the other hand perceive themselves as incapable of
responding effectively. Because they "know" they will fail; they feel threatened by the
challenge and give a half-hearted effort which is not representative of their true
capabilities. Their ineffective responses, generated by their attitude, lead to unsuccessful
outcomes, which then reinforce their sense of low self-efficacy.

This creates a vicious downward spiral; their deteriorating sense of self-efficacy makes
them less capable of dealing with subsequent stressors, further reinforcing their sense of
low self-efficacy. Conversely, people with high self-efficacy experience an upward
"success spiral". Because they bring a positive expectation to challenges, stressors bring
out their best. Not only does this increase their chances of generating an effective
response, it also decreases their chances of being overwhelmed by stressors, thus
reinforcing their sense of self-efficacy.

A Support System - Not surprisingly, people with a good emotional support system can
withstand stressful situations more easily than those who try to tough it out alone
(Sarason et al, 1990). A good support system isn’t just measured by the number of people
one can talk to, but the quality of the interactions. Friends and family who are negative or
only reinforce a person’s helpless view of the world will obviously not have the kind of
beneficial effect as people who can be supportive and encouraging.

The Context - If a potentially traumatic event takes place in a context where people can
talk about it without having to pretend to be tough or unaffected; they can work through,
and let go of, the painful emotions triggered by the event. If the incident takes place in a
context where there is a "no talk rule" and being emotional means being weak, they are
more likely to hang onto, ruminate about, and be traumatized by the event.

16
Trauma, The Mind, and The Brain

Understanding the problems trauma poses in the workplace is easier when one
understands how trauma affects a person psychologically and neurologically. To keep this
from becoming a technical treatise, we will only briefly discuss this topic. We will
discuss enough, though, to help makes sense of trauma’s effect on worker performance.

Our Three Brains

In his landmark research on the brain and behavior, Paul MacLean (1983,1993) coined
the term Triune Brain to reflect how our brain acts like it is composed of three separate
sub-brains. He labeled these brains the Reptilian Brain, the most primitive brain region,
the Paleomammalian Brain, the next most primitive brain, and the Neomammalian Brain,
the most recent "addition", which corresponds to the Neocortex. He called the most
primitive region the Reptilian Brain because of its hypothesized reptilian ancestry.

MacLean proposed that as the brain evolved and grew larger over millions of years, it
retained the original structures of the more primitive brain possessed by reptiles.
According to MacLean and others, we inherited not just these structures, but the instincts
and survival responses hard-wired into these structures. MacLean named the Reptilian
Brain the "Primal Brain" because it generates our most primal, instinctual urges and
responses.

As evolution progressed and mammals evolved, the "latest model" of brain became more
complex and capable of greater intelligence. This "new version," the Paleomammalian
Brain, enabled early mammals to engage in behaviors, and respond to the world in ways
that reptiles, with their simpler brains, could not. Because nature doesn’t eliminate
structures which are already working, the Paleomammalian Brain was "added onto" the
Reptilian Brain like an addition to a rambling farmhouse.

This more modern, although still very primitive, brain surrounds the Reptilian Brain. The

17
Paleomammalian Brain plays a major role in our emotional responses, memory, and our
ability to form emotional bonds. MacLean referred to the Paleomammalian Brain as the
"Emotional Brain" because of the integral role it plays in emotion.

Finally, as mammals evolved and became more intelligent, the Neomammalian Brain
formed, surrounding the two more primitive brains. MacLean called the Neomammalian
Brain, the neocortex, the "Rational Brain" because it is the neural seat of rational, logical,
and abstract thought. The thought processes which appear to be uniquely human reside in
this region.

Each of our three sub-brains has a different biochemistry, different responses to the
world, and a different "mentality" (MacLean, 1993). The Reptilian Brain and the
Paleomammalian Brain, having been around for millions of years longer than the
neocortex, are much more primitive in their ability to process information and respond to
the world. Their responses are more like one would expect from our Paleolithic ancestors
or an animal.

To simplify our discussion, we will at times combine these two sub-brains and refer to
this region as the Primitive Brain when we contrast the thought process of the neocortex,
our Modern Brain, with these more primitive regions. Although the Primitive Brain
affects many aspects of our life and helps explain many of our confusing, conflicting
responses to situations, we will focus on how stress and trauma bring out the worst of
these phenomena.

Emotions, Intelligence and Creativity

Our ability to think and function is directly related to the emotional state we are in. We
have all experienced this when we were so upset we couldn’t think straight, words
escaped us, and we mumbled inappropriate comments. Later when we calmed down, we
could think again. Once out of that state, our intellectual abilities returned.

18
When we feel relaxed and safe, we have access to our full intellectual capabilities.
Studies on creativity and learning show that emotional safety is essential to optimal use
of the human intellect (Rose,1985; Kline, 1988) When we are under stress, we begin to
lose our more advanced intellectual capabilities. Leslie Hart (1983) labeled this
"downshifting". When we downshift, we operate in a more primitive, rigid, simple-
minded way. Caine and Caine (1994) write:

When we downshift, we revert to the tried and true... Our responses become more
automatic and limited. We are less able to access all that we know or see what is really
there. Our ability to consider subtle environmental and internal cues is reduced. We also
seem less able to engage in complex intellectual tasks, those requiring creativity and the
ability to engage in open-ended thinking and questioning. (pg. 72)

Thus, when a person is under extreme stress, they become less flexible, less creative, and
less intelligent. In this state, they operate at only a fraction of their creative and
productive potential.

Becoming Primitive

When we downshift, the brain region necessary for effective intellectual functioning, our
Modern Brain, gets overwhelmed. Because we still need to function and respond, we use
our Primitive Brain. As mentioned previously, this "brain within a brain" interprets and
responds to the world in a much less intellectually sophisticated way than the Modern
Brain.

The Reptilian region of the Primitive Brain is most relevant to our discussion because it
is believed to be the repository of primitive "hard wired" survival responses related to
executing daily routines, protecting one’s territory, and establishing dominance and
control (MacLean,1983). We have all experienced Reptilian Brain responses. Two
common examples are feeling uneasy when our routine has been interrupted and feeling
angry when someone sits in our favorite chair or at our desk without asking. Despite

19
telling ourselves we shouldn’t be upset, we are; the survival programs of the Primitive
Brain have been activated, sending us signals that something is wrong.

When our more sophisticated, intellectually advanced neocortical capabilities get

overwhelmed; these primitive responses engage; resulting in aggressive, inflexible, and
territorial reactions. We see the Reptilian Brain in action when people feel emotionally
threatened. They become aggressive, defensive, and rigid. We see it in people who are
feeling insecure and become "control freaks". We see it in turf battles, power struggles,
and mindless insistence on doing things "like we’ve always done them."

The effects of trauma on the brain pose serious problems for employers who are trying to
cultivate a productive workforce. Chronically stressed employees, because of
downshifting, end up operating out of their Primitive Brain. Unless we want employees
who are acting according to the law of the jungle and who are using a small fraction of
their intellectual capabilities, we need to create environments which allow the more
intellectually and socially advanced processes of the neocortex to be engaged.

What Happens When We Don’t Address Trauma?

To illustrate how trauma affects our efforts at cultivating more effective workers and
organizations, let’s take a few of today’s popular training and organizational development
initiatives and examine how they are compromised by employee trauma.

Managing Change

Personal and corporate survival requires the ability to embrace and respond effectively to
rapid change. The accelerating rate of change are usually cited as the greatest source of
stress for today’s workers. The interplay between the brain and overwhelming stress
creates a vicious cycle which interferes with a person’s ability to cope with stress. The
overwhelmed person, operating out of their Primitive Brain; will likely be very rigid,
territorial, and wedded to the "old ways".

20