Individual and Organizational Approaches to Manage Stress in the Workplace - Essay Example

Critically evaluate individual and organizational approaches to manage stress in the workplace Stress at workplace is a critical issue, which if not managed properly stress would cause health and nonattendance problems. This in turn would diminish the organizational and individual productivity. However, the fact is that there are very few employers who know about stress, understands how it affects the people within the organization, how to recognize them and handle them (CIPD 2008, 2). This study aims to evaluate the implication of stress, the causes of stress at workplace, and evaluate the approaches to recognize and handle stress in the organization. The individuals in the organization must take initiatives along with the management to eliminate stress from the internal environment. Stress is a standard term which is used in the society to describe the feelings of a person who is under pressure, depression, or any kind of tension. Stress is not an injury or disease, so employees cannot claim compensation for the same unless and until stress results in physical injury. The mental injury that occurs due to work-related stress is known as psychological damage. The symptoms that are usually seen in such circumstances are anxiety, adjustment disorder, depression, and trauma. These injuries are compensable under the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act of 1988 (Australian Government Comcare 2008, 5). In order to better explain the stress at workplace and its effect on the well-being of an individual, the stress models would be scrutinized to comprehend the complex association between the stress at workplace and its negative effects on the physical and psychological health of the employees. The Demand-control-support theory or model projected by Karasek suggests that, the increasing and decreasing demand may result in a negative outcome. This means the employees who have high demands at workplace have less control over their work; therefore exposure to stress is high. Similarly the employee whose demand is low is also stressed because he/she feels inferior to others. The revised theories in this model also state that in both the cases the probability or risk of illness is high due to social pressure (Karasek et al. 1981, 694–705). Similarly, Siegrist’s effort-reward imbalance model discloses the imbalance that lies between the effort of the employees and the rewards at workplace. So failure of an employee to receive reward or recognition at workplace also results in depression and anxiety (Simone, Semmer, and Elfering 2005, 31-43; Ganster, Dewyer, and Fox 2001, 954–64). The Demand-control-support theory or model projected by Karasek and the Effort-reward imbalance model focus on the relationship between the work and health. However, certain characteristic of the new working realities goes ahead of the core construct of the two previous models. These models do not consider future aspects of multicultural, highly flexible and aggressive workplace. Majority of the theories and models only focus on stress only related to work, but nowadays stress within organizations is also erupting due to interaction between the cross-cultural groups. The Cognitive Activation Theory of Stress (CATS) stated by Ursin and Eriksen focuses on stress of an individual in the organization. They portrayed that when an individual is unsure of the future actions or results that would reap from the present activity, it may develop a feeling of stress within the individual (Grebner, Semmer, and Elfering 2005, 31-43). Stress has always been indicated as an after effect of excessive work pressure, but in the present times there are various other psychological factors which would be discussed in the study to identify the causes other than just work pressure. Issues like discrimination, organizational change, and re-establishment of professional status, job crisis and demands, and individual characteristics of several employees are the various factors mainly leading to stress rather than just work pressure. Discriminatory attitude is generally not seen in multinational companies because of globalization and workforce diversity, still in some situations people working in countries, other than their home country, face issues of discriminatory attitude and pessimistic reactions at workplace which not only de-motivates them but also lead them to depression and health problems creep in. Nowadays organizational frameworks are in a process of continuous change based on the requirement to increase productivity and improve efficiency. In an attempt to cope with the existing process, the employees face several barriers. Further, the management of the organization imposed some new system which the employees or employee might fail to receive or understand at the same pace. This leads to accumulation of pressure on the employees. Sometimes adjusting to a new work environment takes time due to language barriers or any other problems. So adapting the new organizational culture creates anxiety within the individual, which leads to stress. The demand at workplaces as described in Demand-control-support theory is also a cause of stress. Individualistic character of a person is also a major cause of stress because these individual cannot share their feelings with others and prefer to remain aloof. Neither do they want others to know about them, nor do they allow anyone to peep into their life (Australian Psychological Society Limited 2012). These persons develop a feeling of depression and stress due to their individualistic habit. Since, they are not team players, therefore co-workers or employees try to avoid these sort of individual, which further add to the problem leading to mental illness. After studying the nature and causes of stress in the organization, an analysis of the approaches that is taken to eliminate stress at the workplace would be discussed. The motto would be to analyze the steps or approaches at organizational level and at individual level because employees under stress cannot be productive nor can they generate revenue for the company. The Health and Safety Executive have stated certain guidelines for the employers and organizations to deal with stress at workplace. Six key areas have been covered for assisting employees in reducing stress and depression, such as demand, support, control, relationship, change, and role. Demand includes the working patterns, pressure and the environment in which the employees work. The employer must ensure that work is divided between employees uniformly. The working environment should be friendly and the work culture should be such that employees can also incorporate their ideas, rather than just following instructions. The next principle is support, which signifies the encouragement, resources or sponsorship that the employees receive from the company they are working for. Not only the management, but the co-operation from line managers, co-workers and subordinates is necessary to work efficiently. Similarly, control, indicates the extent of flexibility an employee is given by his managers to apply his/ her ways or ideas while working on a project. Superiors must be guides in organization, but flexibility should be given to the subordinates to integrate their skills and expertise too. Welcoming ideas and providing flexibility would make the employees more focused towards their work (Health and Safety Executive n. d.). A positive relationship should be there within the organization among every individual irrespective of the position he or she is in. This is because extremely practical and professional environment restricts the growth and development of positive and harmonious relationship. It also gives way to extensive competition and also infuses grapevine within the organization. So positive relationship would create transparent environment where employees would approach each other in times of pressure or stress and sort out their issues rather than suffering from anxiety. It is also the duty of the management to explain the duties and role of the people from time to time, so that conflicting roles within the organization do not create problems. Finally change is inevitable yet problematic when it comes to handling employees in this scenario. Human being by nature is resistant to change, so managing the human resource based on the changing goals of the organization is a critical issue. Extensive flow of communication at every level of the organization would keep every employee connected to each other. In this way managing and handling employees during change would be much easier. Moreover, involving every employee in the change process would give them opportunity to contribute towards many important tasks in the company, which would in turn give them a feeling of satisfaction and happiness. The University of London (UCK) has stated guidelines for controlling and managing issues and stress at workplace. In order to manage stress, both the managers and the staff should be aware of the causes of stress, which may be personal, organizational and environmental in nature. The managers should work with the individuals in the organization and assist them in identifying the reasons for stress at individual levels. This is a joint approach of dealing and managing stress within the organization. This allows the individuals to recognize their accountability and role in the workplace in relation to stress at workplace, and also help them to approach their superiors or managers for discussing the issues causing stress for them. Another way to assist employees in managing stress is through counseling and several programs of employee assistance. Organization may arrange counseling sessions for the employees, or even have an in-house counselor to address to the psychological and stress related issues of the employees (Sutherland, and Cooper 2002, 159-169). Generally it is seen that most of the line managers in the organization do not have the skill to assist the individuals in understanding and helping them reduce excessive stress. Absent management is another method which plays an integral part in stress management. It is essential to help individuals return to their work as soon as possible, as it would not only be financially beneficial for the person but for the company too. So finding the causes and frequency of absenteeism of the employees, and providing solutions for such problems would be beneficial for the employees and profitable for the companies too. For example, Google provides their employees the facility of laundry in the office, because they do not get ample time nor have enough energy to wash their clothes after office. So this is just an example how Google understood a simple yet practical problem of the employee and took steps to assist them (Ward, and Abbey 2005, 82-100). The causes of stress may vary greatly due to the nature of the work, so the strategies that need to be formulated for stress reduction need to be formulated accordingly. However, few strategies are there which can be applied by the organizations irrespective of the industry type or the nature of stress. Providing a fun environment, which would include humor and laughter would automatically de-stress the employees. Working on the basis of priority is also another method which helps the employees to work systematically, rather than preferably choosing the easy tasks first. This would increase the work load of the employees further leading to stress. The employees should be encouraged for the good performance, and they should be allowed to have their personal enjoyment and life too. The working hour should be fixed, and should not be extended regularly, as this reduces the efficiency of the individual and induces fatigue. The individual too must take certain steps so as to avoid stress or anxiety in the workplace (Carroll 1996, 25-30). The first important thing is to understand the signs of warning. Personal care is very important in such cases, such as maintaining healthy habits, enjoying leisure time with family and friends, try to finish the work in office, get enough sleep, etc. Individuals can also reduce work load through prioritization of their work. Emotions at work place should be managed and the better techniques to reduce individual pressure or stress should be studied and followed. Lastly, communicating with co-employees and managers, and sharing a friendly relationship with the organization also assists in dealing with stress (Segal 2012). It can be concluded that since the level of competition is increasing within the organization, stress is bound to increase, but it is the duty of the management along with the human resource department in the organization to take care of the individuals and take measures to reduce stress. Initiatives from individual employees are also helpful in assisting the managers to create a better working environment. References Australian Government Comcare. 2008. An Organizational Approach to Preventing Psychological Injury. Canberra, Australia: Commonwealth of Australia. Australian Psychological Society Limited, 2012. Workplace Stress: Environmental and Individual Factors. Accessed December 31, http://www.psychology.org.au/publications/inpsych/stress/. Carroll, Michael, 1996. Workplace Counseling: A Systematic Approach to Employee Care. California: SAGE. CIPD. 2008. Building the Business Case for Managing Stress in the Workplace. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Ganster DC, DJ Dewyer, and ML Fox. 2001. “Explaining Employees’ Healthcare Costs: A Prospective Examination of Stressful Job Demands, Personal Control, and Physiological Reactivity.” Journal of Applied Psychology. 86: 954–64. Grebner, Simone, Norbert K. Semmer, and Achim Elfering. 2005. “Working Conditions and Three Types of Well-Being: A Longitudinal Study with Self-Report and Reading Data.” Journal of Occupational Health Psychology. 10(1): 31–43. Health and Safety Executive, no date. What are the Management Standards? Accessed December 31, http://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/standards/index.htm. Karasek, Rober, Dean Baker, Frank Marxer, Anders Ahlborn, and Tores Theorell. 1981. Job Decision Latitude, Job Demands and Cardiovascular Disease: A Prospective Study of Swedish Men.” Am J Public Health. 71(7): 694–705. Segal, J. 2012. Stress at Work. Accessed December 31, http://www.helpguide.org/mental/work_stress_management.htm. Sutherland, Lucy, and J. P. Cooper. 2002. Strategic Stress Management. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Ward, Jane Cranwell, and Alyssa Abbey. 2005. Organizational Stress. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Read More