Workplace Stress - Assignment Example

Running header: Workplace Stress. Student’s name: Instructor’s name: Subject code: Date of submission: WORKPLACE STRESS Introduction Today, workplace related stress has become a well documented problem among organizations than ever before. For instance, surveys conducted recently reveal that 70% of employees in the USA experience workplace stress. According to Knight (2008), stress is the process through which one responds to a situation considered demanding, challenging or threatening to his/her health and is associated with declining productivity, absenteeism, poor health as well as interpersonal aggression. This therefore implies that workplace stress is not only a threat to the worker's welfare but also to the organizational vigor. according to Bradley and southland (2004),a labor force survey conducted in 1990 revealed that 55% of all reported cases of stress as well as 50% of all exhaustion cases are work related (caused by work). This paper will explore the issue of workplace stress in detail. In so doing, the paper will examine whether workplace stress is a human resources management issue or a health and safety issue. the paper will also examine the various causes of workplace stress as well as the various approaches for dealing with workplace stress. The paper will then conclude by suggesting the most effective approach that organizations should employee in dealing with workplace stress. Defining workplace stress Stress results from physical, social, economic, emotional or other factors that call for change. Workplace stress therefore can be defined as the harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when there is a conflict between job demands on the worker and the amount of control the worker has over meeting the demands. in other words, the combination of high demands in a job and limited amount of control over the demands often results to workplace stress. Workplace stress can have multiple or single origin and affects both the worker and the employer alike. According to Richmond (2005), Fear of job redundancy, layoffs due to an uncertain economy, increased demands for overtime due to staff cutbacks act as negative stressors. Employees who start to feel the "pressure to perform" can get caught in a downward spiral of increasing effort to meet rising expectations with no increase in job satisfaction. The relentless requirement to work at optimum performance takes its toll in job dissatisfaction, employee turnover, reduced efficiency, illness and even death. Absenteeism, illness, alcoholism, "petty internal politics", bad or snap decisions, indifference and apathy, lack of motivation or creativity are all by-products of an over stressed workplace. This demonstrates how negatively workplace stress can impact on both the employer and the employee. Literature review This section examines the available literature by various scholars regarding workplace stress. Knight, F2008, Workers stressors, role based performance and the moderating influence of organizational support, Journal of applied psychology, vol. 94, pp.256-262. Knight critically examines the various causes of stress among workers in the work place. He states that the management has a role to provide a conducive working environment in a bid to minimize workplace stress. As such, he sees good human resources management practices as a key to stress free working environment. Murphey, J2007, Managing stress in the work place, International Human resources Management Journal, vol.25, no.10, pp.19-25. Murphey is of the view that workers should be given some control over how they are to achieve their targets. He also sees having clear set out responsibilities and reporting channels as critical in avoiding workplace conflicts which often lead to workplace stress. His views are supported by various studies carried out in various countries in an effort to come up with measures of overcoming workplace stress. Keegan, W2006, Human resources management issues in the contemporary organisation, London, Rutledge. Keegan views workplace stress as a major challenge to contemporary human resources managers. He claims that the human resources management function has a role to ensure a conducive working environment for employees. This is because satisfied workers imply improved productivity for the organisation. He however suggests that both the workers and the organisation have a role in minimizing workplace stress. As such, he sees the role of the employee as that of identifying stressors and avoiding them. On the other hand, the organisation should provide tools that will facilitate the worker in performing his/her duties in addition to provision of a conducive working environment. Is workplace stress a human resources management or a workplace health and safety issue? Whether workplace stress is a human resources management or a workplace health and safety issue is debatable. This is because poor human resource management practices usually lead to workplace stress just like compromising workplace health and safety standards. thus, in establishing whether workplace stress is a human resource management or a workplace health and safety issue, there is need to examine the causes of workplace stress, its effects as well as the various approaches used in its management. Causes of workplace stress The approach adopted in dealing with workplace stress will greatly depend on the nature of the stressor. Murphy, 2007 identifies six factors that cause workplace stress. The factors include factors unique to the job, role in the organisation, career development, and relationship at work, work-life balance and organizational climate. This implies that workplace stress is more of a human resources management issue than it is a workplace health and safety issue since organizations can overcome all this causes through sound human resources management practices. a) Factors unique to the job These are factors to do with the nature of job that one is performing. They include the amount of workload, hours of work, the meaningfulness of work as well as the physical environment in which the job is performed. Factors such as lack of autonomy in ones job, having skills that do not meet the job demands and lack of appreciation are known to cause workplace stress. Similarly, isolation in the workplace leads to emotional stress. b) Role in the organisation The role that one plays in the organisation can also lead to workplace stress. This is especially when there are conflicting job demands or multiple supervisors supervising one employee. Similarly, ambiguity or lack of clarity about responsibility and expectations has been known to cause workplace stress. c) Career development Career development which a vital factor in enhancing job satisfaction is a factor that can lead to work related stress. lack of career development opportunities as well as lack of job security which subjects an employee to constant fear of redundancy that could result from lack of work to do or being laid off is a major cause of workplace stress. in addition , under or over promotion usually lead to workplace stress. d) Relationships at work Poor interpersonal relationships in the workplace greatly contribute to workplace stress. This is especially when there is conflict between the worker and his/her supervisors, coworkers or subordinates. Similarly, workplace stress can result when the worker is exposed to the threat of violence and harassment in the workplace (Keegan, 2006). In addition, lack of systems to report and deal with unacceptable behavior could lead to workplace stress among the workers being subjected to the behavior. e) Organizational climate The organizational climate to which the employee is subjected could lead to workplace stress. This is greatly determined by the management style adopted by the organisation. For instance, are employees allowed to participate in decision making? What are the communication patterns? Are employees engaged when undergoing major organizational changes?. In addition, lack of perceived fairness in dealing with employees is a major contributor to workplace stress. The effects of perceived stress on health are magnified when employees feel they are not being fairly treated. f) Work-life balance This can contribute to workplace stress when there is role and responsibility conflicts and when an employee's family is exposed to work related hazards. Effects of workplace stress As earlier stated, workplace stress affects both the worker and the organisation as a whole. It has been established that physical effects of stress range from strokes and heart attacks, ulcers and similar gastrointestinal disorders. In addition, continued stress leads to a weak body immune system that causes frequent colds and similar illnesses. Psychologically, workplace stress has been known to cause anxiety, panic attacks and even depression. in addition, stress resulting from workplace aggression leads to physical and mental distress which causes reduced productivity, loyalty and commitment. According to Harmon (2010), workplace stress resulting from violence in the workplace results in trauma related illness and even post traumatic stress disorder. At worst, workplace stress has been known to result in death of the victim. The organisation also looses a lot as a result of workplace stress. 70% of lost work days are attributable to workplace stress. Additionally, 70% of the visits that workers make to health providers are stress related. This in no doubt results to enormous health costs to employers. it is estimated that the American employer spends more than $200 billion annually in terms of stress related health costs. In addition, workplace stress usually has a direct effect on how workers handle their jobs. Workers under stress make more work related mistakes, hardly concentrate, they are disorganized and usually show a ‘don’t care’ attitude towards their work. In fact, a recent research revealed that about 15% of workers quit their jobs due to reasons related to workplace stress. Approaches to workplace stress management The approach to be adopted by the organisation for dealing with workplace stress will greatly depend on the stressor. As has been established, workplace stress is not only detrimental to the employee but also to organization’s vigor. This implies that organizations must come up with effective approaches towards workplace stress management if they are to achieve maximum productivity and minimize workplace stress related costs. It should also be noted that causes of workplace stress are human resources management related issue as established above. it is for this reason that the workplace stress management approach adopted by an organisation need to involve both the worker as well as the organisation. Workplace stress management approaches are therefore classified into two as follows; Organizational approaches towards workplace stress management. The organisation through its human resources department has a great role to play in effective stress management. As such, the organisation should come up with effective strategies for managing stress within the organisation. Some of the approaches that the organisation can use in managing workplace stress include; i) The organisation should encourage more organizational communication with the workers to avoid role conflict/ambiguity. Effective communication will also aid in changing the workers' views (Ornelas, S2003). As such, the organisation should identify communication symbols that are less likely to be misinterpreted by the workers. ii) Involvement of employment in decision making as well as increased decentralization plays a great role in reducing role stress. In addition, the workers should be given more say in their work, greater responsibility, independence and meaningful and timely feedback. iii) Reward and compensation- the organization’s reward and salary structure should be fair and just. The workers who achieve and over exceed their target should also be appreciated. This will go a long way into increasing job satisfaction and hence eliminating workplace stress. iv) In a bid to increase job satisfaction and hence reduce workplace stress, the organisation should have an effective hiring and orientation procedure. The organisation should also endevour to promote job rotation and enrichment. v) The organisation through the human resources department should establish a reporting and feedback mechanism so that workers will air any problems they may have with the organisation. This way, employees will feel appreciated. This will ensure workplace stress is greatly reduced. Individual workers' approach towards stress management Workers can also play a great role in dealing with workplace stress (O'Rilley, 2008). This is because workplace stress is mostly caused by factors that workers have some level of control on. Some of the approaches that workers can employ include; i) Proper planning of their work so that they can achieve their target on timely basis and thus meet work pressures without getting stressed. ii) Encouraging a healthy lifestyle by taking regular sleep and adopting healthy eating habits and relaxing techniques. iii) Building social support by having close connections with peers willing to listen to their problems and hence boost their confidence. iv) Employee counseling so that employees become aware of their strengths and how to develop strengths and eliminate weaknesses. In addition, employees should seek career counseling in a bid to reduce career related ambiguities. By adopting the above strategies, both the organisation and the employees will create a conducive working environment which will be devoid of work related stress. This will not only boost the workers health but also the organizational performance as a result of increased employee productivity. The best approach towards workplace stress management As earlier explained, the approach adopted by an organisation to manage employee stress will depend on the situation at hand. However, the best approach that every organisation should adopt in managing workplace stress is two fold. On one part, the organisation should address workplace issue through providing workers with the right tools as well as developmental opportunities that will maximize their performance and at the same time enable them to more effectively balance their duties (Keynan, 2008). such tools could include establishing a knowledge based system which will give employees access to resources that are critical to their job performance at an advanced level; training which is tailored to address their increased responsibilities or provision of new career paths which grants them a picture of new opportunities for advancement and what they require to capitalize on the opportunities. Secondly, the organisation should deal with the human resource function image problem through more tightly linking the human resource professionals to the businesses. This will ensure that the function is more in tune with the employees' needs (Wright, 2007). Such an adjustment may call for assigning of human resources officers to work directly with individual functions or departments, tailoring of the human resources services to specific departments depending on their unique job demands, creation of new performance management capabilities that will enable the function to offer incentives and award employees depending on their new roles. This will create an organisation that is sensitive to employees needs and that promptly responds to employees problems. In employing this approach, the company will be successful in effectively managing workplace stress. Conclusion As has been established above, the major causes of workplace stress are human resources management related issues. This implies that with proper human resources management, organizations will be able to minimize work related stress to the minimum and hence be able to meet their organizational goals. Although, the effects of workplace stress have a direct effect on employees’ health, they greatly affect the organisation in terms of productivity and costs associated with days off as well as treatment. This implies that poor human resources management which leads to workplace stress will be unable to meet organizational goals of employees’ satisfaction as well as efficiency. Thus, while many see workplace stress as a workplace health and safety issue, it is a human resources management issue and the human resources departments have a great role in ensuring a stress free working environment. It is for this reason that the best approach towards workplace stress management calls for restructuring of the human resources department so as to make it more sensitive to employees needs in addition to providing them with tools that help in the effective performance of their duties. Finally, it is the human resources management function that should provide clear job descriptions to avoid any conflicts that could lead to stress. This is in addition to offering counseling services whenever employees seek for it in their effort to cope with workplace stress. References: Knight, F2008, Workers stressors, role based performance and the moderating influence of organizational support, Journal of applied psychology, vol. 94, pp.256-262. Bradley &Richmond, V2005, stress management in the workplace: Taking employees’ view into account, Employees counseling today, vol.6, pp4-9. Richmond, B2005, Coping with problematic relationships in the workplace: Strategies that reduce burnout, International Communication Associatiation, vol.1, pp3-11. Murphey, J2007, Managing stress in the work place, International Human resources Management Journal, vol.25, no.10, pp.19-25. Keegan, W2006, Human resources management issues in the contemporary organisation, London, Rutledge. Ornelas, S2003, New developments managing job related stress, Equal opportunities international, vol.22, no.2, pp.64-70. O'Rilley, S 2008, making work better, Occupational health, vol. 60 no.11, pp.22-24. Harmon, G2010, Human resources management, Sydney, Prentice Hall. Keynan, L2008, A manager’s guide to less stress, Employment relations today, vol.35, no.19, pp.85-89. Wright, J2007, Stress in the workplace: A coaching approach, Work, vol.28, pp279-284. Read More