State Probation Officer Stress and Perceptions of Participation in Workplace Decision Making - Admission/Application Essay Example

The stress level has a deep impact on the performance of an individual as well as of an organization. Slate, Wells, and Johnson (2009) in their article “Opening the manager’s door: State Probation Officer Stress and Perceptions of Participation in Workplace decision making” have discussed the impact of stress the probation officers face in relation to decision making in their offices. The paper is based on a survey of personnel on probation in a southern state. The results of this survey have proved that the job satisfaction level of employees is very closely related to the perception of their work and their involvement in decision making. A lot of literature has been written so far in the field of probation officers and work-related stress. However, this paper can be considered a pioneer in its own sense as the area this study specializes in is not the one most of the researchers have given attention to.

Human resource is the most important asset for businesses today. Considering the importance of this resource, continuous evaluation and assessment thus becomes important. Probation is common thus, and the stresses related to being on probation are also common as a result. The stress factor added in the pressures of the job by probation makes the situation tougher for the new workers. Every organization depends on its human resource. There is no other resource for an organization that can beat the importance of human resources to a company. According to this study, the performance level of human resources can be badly lowered due to stress. Probation along with other factors remains to be one serious factor that creates job dissatisfaction in employees.

The paper has brought in the limelight a lot of research done on job stress which is related to criminal justice. Probation caseloads have increased at a very fast pace, as usual, the probation officers are in touch with many practitioners of justice.  As per physicians who offer primary care to the office workers, 85% of accidents happen to employees who are extremely stressed and the majority of them are on probation. For maintaining a good reputation as a responsible and reasonable organization every company wants to avoid accidents. Also, from an economic point of view, accidents may sometimes become a serious burden for the organizations. Stressed-out employees can become a serious source of frequent accidents. For getting the best out of an organization’s employees, providing them with a stress-free work environment is very important.  

The paper also points to the studies highlighting the fact that stress is basically a nonspecific response of a person’s body towards any regular situation. Stress thus creates different types of reactions even in your workplace which otherwise might not be the case. To avoid employee dissatisfaction from their jobs, stress due to work-related factors should remain in control. Under stress, any employee can react in a very nonspecific and problematic way. The only way of avoiding such embarrassing moments is to offer a stress-free work environment. It is a tendency that stress at workplaces is felt more by the employees still on probation. Their job satisfaction level is not very high due to the same reasons.

Another factor the paper points out is that the probation officers have higher stress levels than the others. Probation officers who are married are more stable in their jobs and their stress levels are lesser than the unmarried people. Also, the job satisfaction level of married employees is better. Another reason for the creation of stress for probation officers is the fact that in probation, the officers have to take up more load than any regular job. This is an added stress. Also, employee satisfaction greatly depends on the factor that decision-making at the workplace is fair or not. Any work environment promoting equality and fair decision-making tends to see an increase in the job satisfaction level of its employees. Trust in fair decision-making is very important.

The probationers fall short of being productive in nature. This is true in cases of criminal justice as well as for people who have joined a certain workforce recently and are still on probation. They fail to provide their full share as a productive citizen of the company for the same reason. At this stage, the employees still do not have full confidence in the work-related decision-making times.