Psychological Hazards in the Workplace - Term Paper Example

Research report Workplace health hazards [Name] [Unit] [Date] Table of contents 1.0 Introduction 4 1.1Research problem 5 1.3 Research questions 6 2. Methods 6 3. Findings 7 3.1 Occupational diseases 7 3.2 Psychological hazards 11 4.0 Conclusions 15 References 17 Executive summary This report analyses various hazards in workplace by focusing on occupational infectious diseases and psychological hazards. Places of work are very important and should always be based in promotion of wellbeing and health. Health in the workplace has become a major issue in public health for the employers and various levels in the government. Various occupational diseases cause work related infections. Among the common and serious diseases in Australian context, include Q-fever, Legionnaires, tuberculosis, brucellosis, and others. It is suggested that various improvements in monitoring and control of work-related infectious diseases needs to be made. This is done by concentrating mostly on the occupations which tend to have higher infection risks. Psychological hazards in the workplace lead to development of stress that is work-related and include harassment and bullying, customer aggression and occupation violence, fatigue as a result of long working hours and shift work, demands that are beyond the capacity of the worker to deliver, drug and alcohol misuse. It is suggested that good relationships between workers and superiors and among members of various work groups are very important for the health of both individuals and the organisation. 1.0 Introduction Places of work are very important and should always be based in promotion of wellbeing and health. In modern world, many people spend more of their time in their places of work. This shows the need to provide people with adequate knowledge and skills for healthy lifestyles in workplace. Health in the workplace has become a major issue in public health for the employers and various levels in the government. Moreover, health in the workplace is in the process of gaining momentum at an individual level in the organisations. Health is equally important for successful and productive businesses, for work, thriving communities, and an economic development that is sustainable of every nation. However, the conditions of the environment and substances that we are usually exposed to can lead to a long-term harm to us in matters of health (Tubre 2000). Most health hazards in the places of work are not obvious like slippery floors and unguarded equipment. Many of the health hazards in the workplace are unseen and are produced by the company in the process of its production. The employees themselves may create other problems. In any of the cases, these hazards can be seen to be of more danger to health and safety of the workers as compared to the obvious ones such as slippery floors. Regardless of the intensity of their effects, they all need to be addressed. Some of the common exposure to hazards in our places of work includes; excessive vibrations and noise, chemicals and other materials that are hazardous, extremes in temperatures, biohazards such as manmade and naturally occurring, ergonomics hazards such as equipments that are designed poorly in a way that the workers are forced to work in their unnatural conditions, and the familiar hazards that are safety related such as blocked passageways and slippery floor. Such hazardous substances require various preventative and precautionary measures as they are more widespread in the workplace than most of the managers realise (Aronsson 1999). There has been a rise on hazards related to the workplace despite presence of various measures that are taken to prevent them. Through the shareholders’ integrated efforts, there has been development of programs based on occupational safety and health. These programs are designed to promote a working environment that is safe and healthy. The main health risk varies according to different places of work and they depend of the type of work that is performed and the type of materials used. Ingestion, inhalation or absorption of hazardous material will lead to health problems that end up being chronic but they may not main risks in many places of work but are very common in chemical industries. Without work, money is not available and without the money, food, shelter and all those things that prolong the human life as well as giving him or her healthy life will not be there. Thus, work is very essential in our life but we should also wonder how exactly our places of work can influence our health. This report analyses various hazards in workplace, what causes them, the current methods for addressing them, why the methods have not been successful previous and suggests the ways of reducing them. The report will focus on occupational infectious diseases and psychological hazards. 1.1Research problem Although there have been significant strides made in addressing of problems related to workplace hazards, the increased occurrence of workplace hazards is raising anxiety and has prompted conduction of this research. With the significant effects related to the industrial hazards, this issue cannot be underestimated and its calls for a need to look for a solution to the problem that has threatened many peoples’ lives within Australia and across the world. 1.3 Research questions The paper addresses the following questions: 1) What are the causes of the health hazards related to the place of work? 2) What are the effects of the health hazards related to the industries? 3) Who are the major victims related to the place of work health hazards? 4) Why are the existing measures unable to solve the health hazards related to the workplace? 5) Who are the major players in the attempts to look for solution to industrial health hazards? 2. Methods Mixed methods of research were employed in carrying out the research. The major source of data use was secondary data from the internet from the government agencies’ and hospital’s websites (Truscott et al, 2010). The entire population was reflected by use of adequate sample (Wisdom et al, 2012). The data collected was used in analysis based on the methods of descriptive statistics. Addressing of these hazards required a recognition, evaluation and control process. First, the possible exposure hazards needs to be recognised which involved reviewing of standards of governments on exposure of various occupational health hazards. With identification of the possible hazards, the evaluation process involved determination of how severe the hazard was which involved comparison to determine whether this risk may be within tolerance. Finally, the control involved determination of the ways employed in controlling or reducing the hazards. Thus, the entire process involved the following: 1) Hazard identification 2) Determination and of the hazards and assessment of the risks 3) Evaluation of the results 4) Evaluation of the necessary measures that were laid down and implemented 5) Measurement of the effectiveness of implementation of the measures 3. Findings 3.1 Occupational diseases There are various occupational diseases that cause work related infections. Among the common and serious diseases in Australian context include Q-fever, Legionellosis, tuberculosis, brucellosis, other zoo noses, hepatitis A, B and C, HIV/AIDs and others. Causes There are various factors that are work related which expose the workers to contraction of these infections. These include the increased likelihood where an organisms that is effective gain an entry into the human body in the workplace such as through needle stick, cuts or sharp injuries, and dermatitis, coming into contact with those who have increased prevalence of contracting such infectious diseases, working in conditions where there is a potential of infectious organisms endemic, increased susceptibility to various infections as a result of workplace factors and contact with animals with high prevalence of contacting the infectious diseases (Bell 1997). Q-fever’s main occupational sources that cause infection include cattle, sheep and goats and wild animals such as birds and kangaroos. This acts as a risk exposure to abattoir workers, stock transporters and workers, farmers and laboratory workers (Anonymous 2004). Hepatitis lead to liver infection and its main occupational sources the causes infection to human other colleagues with higher disease prevalence posing a great risks to other colleagues that one comes into contact with in the workplace. Legionnaire’s disease is caused by legionella bacteria where in case of an occupational setting; it results from water aerosol exposure in pooled warm water especially in cooling tower for air conditioning. The disease then multiplies among the workers in their places of work and the surrounding community such as in mining industries, and entertainment joints (Coward 2004). Tuberculosis caused by mycobacterium bacilli affect the lung. The occupational group at high risk is the health care workers and they develop tuberculosis from exposure that is work related. Other workers with greatest exposure to this risk are clinical laboratory workers, farmers and staff in funeral parlour (Saunders 2003). Measles is another outbreak that affects workers in every working environment. Health workers are at higher risks of contracting measles due to contact with affected patients. Other workers in various industries are also affected by their colleagues and this makes the disease to spread within workplaces and to the entire environments (Lambert et al. 2001). SARS is an illness considered respiratory and is caused by corona-virus. Health workers are the first to be affected as they provide care to the patients. In addition, other cases are expected if an affected person attends work leading to multiplication of the disease to other people in the workplace (Fielding et al. 2004). Leptospirosis is spread by animals and they are transferred through dairy and meat cattle and also native rats. Main source of infection is soil and water infected by infected animals’ urine. The occupants affected are workers in dairy and meat industries, and farmers. Brucellosis is caused by cattle, goats, pigs and dogs and is most transferred to people through meat and milk. This affects the entire community in case of consumption of affected animal products. Anthrax is another animal related disease where the mostly affected occupants are workers in abattoir and farmers where it is then transferred to other people in various workplaces through infected people (National Health and Medical Research Council 2003). Effects The occupants at risk include the healthcare workers, childcare workers, game industry workers, farmers, and meat industry workers. Health care workers have the greatest exposure to of work-related infections as they work on patients and coming into contact with infected material through sharp injuries and other exposures. The workers in mining industries, construction workers, automotive part and ship repair workers, sewerage workers and workers on air condition maintenance and the surrounding community are also exposed to risks of legionnaire disease (Stojek and Dutkiewicz 2002). In addition, the meat, livestock workers are exposed to such infections especially the Q-fever and brucellosis. Source: Work-related infectious and parasitic diseases Australia, April 2006 Weaknesses of current measures The main control strategies for prevention of the infections that are work related include vaccination, additional and standard precautions, training and education, and employment of protective clothing where applicable. However, various studies have shown that a lot of people who are working in groups are at great risks as they are not vaccinated fully against these infectious diseases. This makes them exposed to more risks of contracting the disease and affecting their colleagues (Murray &Skull 2002). This also shows lack of training and information for employers and workers on the importance and availability of vaccination for various workgroups. Although the value of additional precautions and standards that are properly instituted in the setting of healthcare and other places of work is an approach that is accepted widely, evidence from shows that employment of this approach not regarded as comprehensive (Coward 2004). In addition, in current environments, most owners of businesses are more focused on increasing or maintaining their profitability, thus, they tend to forego some of regulations for controlling the health of their workers. This leads to great exposures of different work related infections due to negligence. Recommended possible solution of the hazard It is suggested that various improvements in monitoring and control of work-related infectious diseases needs to be made. This is done by concentrating mostly on the occupations which tend to have higher infection risks. Such occupations include health care worker, dairy and meat workers and any type of group worker that could increase the risks of spreading of work related infections. There is a need to instil more strict regulations in order to promote safe working environments for employees and to ensure that the employers also give priority to the health of worker as it is for the firm’s profitability. 3.2 Psychological hazards Psychological hazards in the workplace lead to development of stress that is work-related. These hazards include harassment and bullying, customer aggression and occupation violence, fatigue as a result of long working hours and shift work, demands that are beyond the capacity of the worker to deliver, drug and alcohol misuse. It was realised that psychological hazards have increased in previous years due to a number of factors such as increase in intensification of work, change of practices in organisations, change in social expectations in the way various employees are usually treated by their supervisors, fellow workers and managers. Current hazards are becoming more complicated to investigate and define. Various factors outside the places of work can lead to individual stress. Thus, management, detection and regulation of stress that is related to work place present different challenges to regulators and employers (Zohar 1999). Risks associated the stress related to work Stress related to work leads to various costs generated by the employees as a result of increased presenteeism and absenteeism. Being absent means that there is time that is taken off from working due to the stress that is related to work while being present leads to loss of productivity when the employees attend work but due to illness, and various conditions the employees end up not functioning. Being present but not working results to reduction of productivity of the individual by more than a third. Combination of presenteesim and absenteeism exposes the employers to a great risk of losing the profitability of the firm (Peter 1997). There are also more risks associated with re-staffing and re-skilling the staff turnover. A lot of workers also resign due to accumulated stress as before the stress that is work related come to a point of complete destruction of their current job’s productivity. In such circumstances, the employers end up bearing the costs due to reduced productivity of stressed employees and as a result of remaining in the job with very low capacity to perform in their current jobs. In addition, stressed employees also require more supervision as it is realised that they lose morale and productivity in the performance of their work (Tubre 2000). From research it is clear that the risks associated with costs incurred in work related stress is significant to the business and various organisations. It is suggested that there should be a guidance that is consistence on management of stress that is related to workplace. These would play an important role in reduction of stress in workplace and in turn lead to reduction of costs that are incurred by organisations because of stress. Risks associates with bullying in the workplace Bullying in the workplace is one of causes workplace stress related. There was a great variation of the risks of cost of harassment or bullying within Australia. Estimates from various countries showed that there were a great number of people experiencing the incidences of bullying. In the United Kingdom, more than 10% of the population conducted were exposed to bullying while more than 21% were exposed to bullying in United States. As a result of bullying in Australia, there was a big loss recorded in terms of costs in various businesses due to bullying in the places of work. In Australia, it was also estimated that about 2.5 to 5 million people are exposed to the risks of bullying in the course of their working. There was also declined in labour productivity and opportunity costs in intra sector. The costs of bullying in intra sector include lack of taking up promotion activities as a result of stress, lack of attending training as a result of stress and causing of negative impacts on the creativity and motivation of workers which leads to reduction of profits and growth in the companies and negative impacts on brand name in case of bullying thus, interfering with the goodwill of the company. There are also risks associated with absenteeism, turnover on staff, compensation and legal costs, early payouts on retirement and redundancy. There are also hidden risks as a result of consumption of management time in bullying claims, investigation, bullying allegations in grievances procedures and support services which include counselling. Other risks involved are costs in loss of productivity due to reduction of victim performance with continuation of work, victim replacement with an inexperienced one leading to staffs that are less productive, loss of co-workers and internal transfers. In addition to risks involved due to costs in employers’ company, the bullied victims also face significant losses. These include withdrawal and isolation, fear of loss or dismissal of job and promotion opportunities, anxiety, stress, low self esteem and various symptoms of mental health and various physical symptoms. Other risks involved due to the effects of bullying include costs die to medal and health services for treatment of the bullied victims, support of unemployed victims who have lost their jobs due to workplace stress and various legal issues in terms of pursuing of complaints. Psychosocial risks The situations of work end up being stressful when they are viewed to involve essential demands on work which may not be matched well with skills and knowledge or the competencies of the needs of the workers. This was observed especially in the cases where the workers had no control over their work and tend to be less supported in work (Cox et al. 1990). It was also evidenced that the poor working conditions are also associated to ill health. It was realised that men are associated with psychological distress in their job strain while women are associated with injury during work due to strain. Among women, job insecurity was very high while both sexes had high demands in terms of work injury. Low levels of social support, decision latitude and demands that are psychological are risk factors that are related with poor health and long absence due to sickness. Work injury was also associated with high demands and violence or workplace bullying from public was also significant in increased poor health, work injury and long absence due to sicknesses (Devereux 1999). Relationships with colleagues, superiors and subordinates It is suggested that good relationships between workers and superiors and among members of various work groups are very important for the health of both individuals and the organisation. Most of women experience anxiety due to interpersonal relationships that are interpersonal and the workers that get high stress levels and illnesses related to stress report lack of support mainly from the people under control or their colleagues. Low support in interpersonal relationships has also been reported to lead to emotional exhaustion, high anxiety, and low satisfaction in job, job tension and increase in diseases that related to heart. Mistrust in co-workers leads to high role ambiguity, lack of job satisfaction, poor communication and poor well being psychologically. Emotions that are strong such as envy within employee, jealousy in workplace were some of the things to be blamed for various outcomes such as violence and harassment in the workplace. The relationships within employees that are good will offer attachment and support and will also bring positive effects within the workplace. Social relationships in and outside the workplace will also play a role that is moderating and the effects of psychological hazards exposure tend to be more pronounced in matters where little support is provided by relationships. Social support was observed to provide three effects on the relations in work stressor- strain and include experienced reduction in strain, mitigation of the perceived stressors and a stressor-strain that is moderated (Viswesvaran et al 1999). 4.0 Conclusions The report has analysed various hazards in workplace with more focus on occupational diseases that cause work related infections and Psychological hazards in the workplace that lead to development of stress that is work-related There are various occupational diseases that cause work related infections. Among the common and serious diseases in Australian context include Q-fever, Legionellosis, tuberculosis, brucellosis, other zoo noses, hepatitis A, B and C, HIV/AIDs and others. Infectious diseases that are work related are essential cause of morbidity related to work in Australia and also across the world. However, it is difficult to assess the extent of this problem in an accurate manner. For most exposures to risks of health, there are devised approaches for prevention but use of some of control measures has not been effective or optimal It is suggested that various improvements in monitoring and control of work-related infectious diseases needs to be made. This is done by concentrating mostly on the occupations which tend to have higher infection risks. Such occupations include health care worker, dairy and meat workers and any type of group worker that could increase the risks of spreading of work related infections. There is a need to instil more strict regulations in order to promote safe working environments for employees and to ensure that the employers also give priority to the health of worker as it is for the firm’s profitability. Psychological hazards in the workplace lead to development of stress that is work-related. These hazards include harassment and bullying, customer aggression and occupation violence, fatigue as a result of long working hours and shift work, demands that are beyond the capacity of the worker to deliver, drug and alcohol misuse. It is suggested that good relationships between workers and superiors and among members of various work groups are very important for the health of both individuals and the organisation. This is because Low support in interpersonal relationships has also been reported to lead to emotional exhaustion, high anxiety, and low satisfaction in job, job tension and increase in diseases that related to heart. Mistrust in co-workers leads to high role ambiguity, lack of job satisfaction, poor communication and poor well being psychologically. Emotions that are strong such as envy within employee, jealousy in workplace were some of the things to be blamed for various outcomes such as violence and harassment in the workplace. 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When Things Go Wrong: The Effect of Daily Work Hassles on Effort, Exertion and Negative Mood, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, Vol. 72, pp 265-283 Read More