The article explores the varied dimensions of stress and lays down essential guidelines to combat the incidence of stress in an organizational context. It looks at the various causes, symptoms, and strategies adopted to cope with stress and manage it effectively. The article also makes an attempt to analyze whether stress is for real or is just masquerading as such because of a person's erroneous interpretation of the situation. The article is thus an honest endeavor to paint the elephant's portrait in full glory.

Stress is a part and parcel of our very existence, and probably the only stress-free state is death. However, it's only now that stress has assumed such pandemic proportions because of the complex business environment we live in. Simply put, stress makes us sick and slowly paves way to some modern diseases leading to emotional turmoil, psychological imbalances, physical burnouts, etc. These ultimately lead to a plethora of ailments like heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, ulcers, asthma and what not. As Harrison (1976) puts it, "Stress is a consequence of a disbalance between a person and his or her environment, and the perceived inability to manage the hurdles and resultant demands." Eminent behavioral scientist Stephen Robbins opines that "stress arises from an opportunity, demand, constraint, threat or challenge when the outcome of the event is important and uncertain."

More typically, stress is associated with constraints and demands. The former prevents one from doing what one desires, and the latter refers to the loss of something that is eagerly desired. These two conditions need to be fulfilled for potential stress to be transformed into actual stress.

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