Stress and Empowerment - Essay Example

University Stress and empowerment: How empowerment could reduce stress in the construction industry By Name City Date Executive summary Stress and empowerment are two concepts that share an intricate relationship in organization management. In today’s workplace, the role of stress form an essential basis for the adopting of empowerment strategies. This is because stress in sectors such the construction industry continue to escalate the negative impact of stressors. This report offers a comprehensive view of stress highlighting some of the causes of stress within the construction industry. The focus is one factors such as work demand, long working time and other factors. In addition, the report give a succinct account of the impact of stress factors. The other part of the report focuses on empowerment. The report defines empowerment and illustrate how companies could use empowerment to reduce stress. The thrust of the report is the connection between stress reduction and empowerment, which outline a tool companies could use to reduce stress among construction employees. Table of Contents Executive summary 2 1.0 INTRODUCTION 4 2.0 STRESS 4 3.0 EMPOWERMENT 6 4.0 LINKAGE BETWEEN EMPOWERMENT AND STRESS REDUCTION 8 5.0 CONCLUSION 9 6.0 REFERENCE LIST 10 1.0 INTRODUCTION Stress continues to be one of the main concerns in the construction industry. There is no doubt that stress is a common denominator in every industry, but the role of stress in the construction industry cannot be underestimated. Today, the construction industry is among the most vibrant industry given the ever-increasing need for building and construction. Across the globe, the need for construction services has pushed the work of construction to a higher level than before. Consequently, most of the construction companies have experienced an increase in the demand for work and professionals, as well. The increase of work demands among construction work has been responsible for the increase of stress among construction workers. Today, most of the construction workers face high psychological demands for their work, which cause significant level of stress. However, some organizations recognize the role of empowerment in mitigating the impact of stress, which are diverse and with far reaching impact. In Australia, stress is among some of the issues affecting the construction industry, but empowerment presents an opportunity to mitigate stress. The need to explore empowerment approaches is a critical step in reducing stress among construction workers. 2.0 STRESS There are many definitions of stress, but scholars agree that stress result from adverse reaction employees develop due to excessive demand of work. Indeed, the ever-increasing demand for productivity and growth in the working industry remains as the main reason why may construction employees have stress. There is no doubt that pressure is an essential part of work, but too much pressure is detrimental to the health of employees.1 The Health and Safety Laboratory in Australia found that about 5% of employees in the construction industry report to have levels of stress. 2The stress were a result of psychological pressure and body tension such as muscle and joint problems. In other countries, stress is also of much concern. For instance, workers in the Dutch Construction industry believe that work pressure is high and detrimental to their effectiveness at work.3 Stress among construction workers is an important factor that affects the performance of workers. In the construction industry, increase in work demands has a significant impact on the performance of employees. This is because stress levels affect the psychological and physical wellbeing of workers. When workers are under stress, they tend to lose concentration and this affects their commitment to work and complete tasks satisfactory. Work related stress affect the effectiveness of workers in completing work deliverables. In addition, stress among construction workers may necessitate workers taking and this reduces the time they spend on their work. The impact of absenteeism among construction workers is significant because it affect the performance of the contractor and their completion time of projects. A wide array of factors that cause stress among construction workers. In the construction industry, the demands of construction work and other factors add to the complexity of the construction work and fuel prevalence of stress among workers. Within the construction industry, the demand for building works is a cause of stress as contractors strive to meet the demands of clients. In addition, there are some work give employees little control over their work as all workers have to do is complete projects according to plans. The lack of control and heavy workload are critical stressors for large number of workers in the construction industry. Other stressors include long hours that workers have to endure when working on projects. Today, the competition among construction players has created a demand for contractors who take the least amount of time to build structures. Taking a short time, however, creates stress among workers. Project managers and construction employees also experience stress because of having little time with their families and friends, but having to commute from one place to another where there are current projects. Lastly, the danger that characterize construction work is another source of stress among construction workers.4 The lack of social support and the dangers of construction work increase the stress among construction workers. 3.0 EMPOWERMENT Many research works underscore the importance of empowerment in developing the potential of workers within various organizations. Today, organizations have recognized that employees who wield high levels of empowerment tend to have high level of productivity that those who lack empowerment.5 According to Kondlkar, empowerment refers to a management tool where managers delegate additional responsibility to employees basing the decision on the experience, knowledge, ability, and power with the ability of enabling autonomy and increasing the quality of work.6 The emphasis of empowerment in today’s organization stems from the need of manager to equip employees with information that enables them to achieve self-identity and realize self-efficacy.7 With increased globalization and increasing demand, organizations face today, the importance of empowerment has never being higher. The benefits of empowerment in the workplace constitute the main thrust pushing organizations to adopt various employment strategies. Today, employees with high levels of empowerment have the ability to produce high quality work deliverable. This is because empowerment focus on enabling employees make correct use of tools and resource available at their workplace. In addition, empowerment has the potential of increasing independence of employees who can work on various tasks without constant supervisions. The ability of workers to make decision concerning their work represent a significant impact of empowerment. In any work environment, the empowerment of employees give them an opportunity to achieve confidence in their work, which is synonymous with improvement in quality and a boost in job effectiveness. Because of the positive effect of empowerment, companies that adopt this concept into their employee’s development benefit from having employees who are effective and capable of handling the various challenges of work. This is because empowerment give employees a robust platform to make correct decision and use various tools and opportunities to mitigate challenges they face in their work.8 Most important, empowerment enable organizations to develop their employees into responsible tasks force capable of accepting the outcomes of decisions they make when handling various tasks. There is no single approach to achieving empowerment in an organization, but companies can pursue various strategies that underscore various empowerment efforts. There some organizations who adopt democracy in the workplace as a means of improving participation among employees. When there is bureaucratic management style, employees can achieve less autonomy or exercise their own decisions at work. However, creating a job environment that allow participation is key in creating empowerment. A change in management style thus creates a suitable environment where employees receive empowerment. Training and development of employees is another aspect of creating empowerment within an organization. Every employees has a potential that could unlock the self-efficacy of an employees. However, training and development unlock that potential and introduces empowerment to an organization. For most organizations, training and providing empowerment resource is a robust way of installing empowerment among employees. Creating teams and providing support is another approach to empowerment.9 This approach stems from the understanding that teamwork galvanize relationships and improve commitment to work. These traits are necessary in improving quality of work, reliability, and independence, which describe an empowered workforce. 4.0 LINKAGE BETWEEN EMPOWERMENT AND STRESS REDUCTION The negative impact of stress at the workplace has been the driving factors for a solution that mitigate stress among employees. Among the solutions of stress, a wide array of research work agree that empowerment is a necessary tool for reducing stress. Empowerment has emerged as one of the critical approaches of reducing the impact of stress such as among construction workers. The connection between empowerment and stress unsecure the role of empowerment in enabling employees experience less stress in their workplace. While job stress occur because of employee’s reaction to stressor within their job environment, empowerment enable workers to react appropriately.10 The goal of empowerment is creating self-identity among employees and enabling them make decisions, accept outcomes of decisions, and react to work challenges on their own autonomous. These traits are essential in enabling construction workers reduce the impact of stress as applying the concepts of empowerment produce positive outcomes. For instance, the demands of construction work such as long hours of work and dangerous workplace could easily create stress, but an empowered employee will use his skills and experience to ensure safety and apply best practice to finish any work. In addition, the management emphasis on democratic leadership, an element of empowerment, has the potential of creating a stress free environment where workers have control over their work. 5.0 CONCLUSION The impact of stress in any workplace are diverse and with far reaching effect. Today, the construction industry represent one of the job sectors where workers experience high levels of stress. In any workplace, stress corresponds to the negative reaction workers have towards adverse conditions in their workplace. In the building industry, work demands, long working time, dangerous workplace, and frequent commuting create stress among employees. Such stress could affect the wellbeing of workers and reduce their productivity due to sickness or lack of concentration. However, empowerment, which focus on enabling workers to be autonomous, independent, and agile decision makers, offers a promise of mitigating stress. Due to training and development programs, companies can empower their staff. Creating participation and focus on teamwork is also part of empowerment. Through empowerment, works can turn various work conditions to their advantage. For instance, a worker could react flexibly to work demands by using technology or teamwork.11 In addition, empowerment allows workers to plan and apply best practice in tacking their work. Even with stress being on the rise, empowerment offers a robust tool companies could use to deal with stress in their workplace. 6.0 REFERENCE LIST Baker, Tim. The 8 values of highly productive companies: creating wealth from a new employment relationship (Bowen Hills, Qld: Australian Academic Press, 2009). Burke, Ronald J., Sharon Clarke, and Cary L. Cooper. Occupational health and safety. Farnham, Surrey: Gower. 2011 Haak, René. Regional strategies in a global economy: multinational corporations in East Asia. München: Iudicum. 2004 Kondalkar, V.G. Organizational Effectiveness and change management PHI Learning PVT Ltd. 2010. Savery LK, Luks JA. The relationship between empowerment, job satisfaction, and reported stress levels: some Australian evidence. Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 22 (2001): 97-105. Srivastava, U. R. Shift Work Related to Stress, Health and Mood States: A Study of Dairy Workers, Journal of Health Management 12 (2010): 173-200 Read More