Lay Representations of Workplace Stress - Essay Example

Introduction Stress has emerged as one of the most sought topics in the Western Society as the changing work scenarios has affected people. Stress has entered the public domain and has created increasingly problematic situations to deal with it. Considering the manner in which different theoretical models have been developed has highlighted the need to find out a process through which stress related factors can be controlled (Karasek & Theorell, 2010). Swan Care is a government funded aged care facility. As a service providing company, it is expected that Swan Care delivers quality services and fulfils satisfaction of consumers are vital. Most of workers in aged care facilities experience a high workload and shortness of staff, which are contributing to high stress levels at work. The contributing factors that worsen the stress levels of Swan Care workers must be identified and analyzed. Different theoretical models will be adopted in order to understand the nature of stress that workers of Swan Care experience. Stress management strategies may be developed accordingly. Strategies to reduce stress levels will be formulating according to the stress factors and the nature of stress. Factors that leads to stress of Swan Care workers 1. High workload and shortness of staff Workers at Agedcare facilities commonly face similar problems and stress factors. The fore and utmost factor that contributes largely to raised stress levels would be the workload. Due to aging population and recruitment issues of new workers, the number of aged care workers is reducing. This puts a lot of pressure onto the existing workers with large workload and working overtime. It is even identified that Swan Care people are overburdened with work which thereby transforms to risk of job security which leads towards job strain (De Witte, 2009). This is supported by the fact that the temporary negative impact has an effect on the mental health of employees which further increases and intensifies the degree of stress (Burchall, 2004). This brings forward the fact that job characteristics are not static and different factors influences and characterizes changes based on perception, experience and attitude of people leading to varying degree of stress (Kasl, 2008). 2. Low pay The employees at Swan Care facilities are not compensates according to level of work undertaken by them which has increased the level of stress (Rick, Briner, Daniels, Perryman & Guppy, 2001). Employees despite carrying out the additional role of performing for the organization are not provided with proper compensation both with regard to basic salary and perks has impacted the degree of confidence and commitment level and led towards stress among the employees. Thus, the job requirement does not match with the remuneration that is given to them. This requires that the method must be valid as well as reliable which requires that the job characteristics in Swan Care needs to be evaluated correctly so correct remuneration is provided (Dewberry, 2004). 3. Working condition This at times lead towards varying degree of stress which needs to be monitored so that better control can be exercised and an environment can be developed which will aim towards improving the working conditions. This will help to reduce the level of stress and help to generate positive results. There is a popular belief that certain working conditions and job characteristics lead towards outcomes which are undesirable leading to stress among employees (Hemingway & Smith, 2009). Some of the characteristics which seem to part of Swan Care are long working hours, huge responsibility, ambiguity regarding the roles within the organization and autonomy. The different stressful characteristics results in harming the overall progress of the employees. The above stated reasons lead towards a culmination of confusion and disorder which thereby lead towards job strain and causes stress among the employees. Working well model The theoretical framework developed by Farrell and Geist-Martin (2005), highlights the importance of identifying the different stress related issues and developing a mechanism through which better control can be exercised. This requires that different stress related issues associated with the job characteristics and working conditions are clearly identified so that steps can be taken to bring a change in it. This will help to develop the required skills and orientation through which better training and other methods are used to reduce the overall stress that employees experience. This will thereby create the required positive result and will help to create an environment through which better productivity within the organization can be experienced. The advancement of technology, together with increased multiculturalism, has created more globalized and diversified organizations. This has related to an increase in stress related culture as the work is dependent of a number of factors and a change in one or another factor has an influence on stress thereby leading to a point where the stress level increases and has an impact on the performance of employees (Smith & Ellsworth, 2007). The difference between the opinion of individuals and groups further intensifies the stress related factors. Individuals perceive that an outcome arises due to lack of effort or ability but others might perceive the same as being imposed by different external factors which has made it difficult to carry out operations in a normal manner (Perrewe & Zellars, 2009). Swan Care which is looking to control and deal with such stress related issues needs to develop a control process for all stress-related events and stimuli which will consider the different ways and mechanism through which stressor can be appraised and a mechanism to deal with stress can be ascertained (Lazarus, 2003). This at times would require unlimited resources so that the different stress related factors are correctly identified and based on it steps are taken which will reduce the impact of stress on employees. Swan Care due to the varied influence of different external factors have resulted a change in stimuli which has influenced the work place action and brought about a change in the behavior of occupational citizenship and increased the rate of absenteeism (Kinman & Jones, 2005). This needs to be addressed by ensuring that a work culture which promotes better intertwining of the goals through a method of reducing the stress related factors will help to reduce stress. This requires that the method must be valid as well as reliable which requires that the job characteristics in Swan Care needs to be evaluated correctly so that a basic framework through which stress related factors can be identified is correct. This will help to develop the required skills and orientation through which better training and other methods are used to reduce the overall stress that employees experience. Strategies in order to overcome stress To deal with the issue of stress related factors in Swan Care it is imperative that the different psychosocial risk factors are identified and the degree to which they have an influence on stress related factors is determined (Rick, Briner, Daniels, Perryman & Guppy, 2001). Since, different features of the work settings along with work characteristics influences and causes stress it will require proper identification of those so that different measures can be used for stress related issues. This thereby proposes the use of different observation ratings, measures of production, and interviews however the most commonly used are self-report methods. To gauge the effectiveness of the manner in stress is a worrying factor at Swan Care self administered questionnaires are used to find out the different surrounding factors which have an influence on stress. Using a process of questionnaire will help Swan Care to understand the manner in which better understanding can be ensured which can be established through this method as the questionnaire is less expensive, easy to administer and facilitates comparison thereby providing an opportunity to understand the different work related factors which results in stress (Landsbergis, Schnall, Belkic, Baker, Schwartz & Pickering, 2001). Swan Care thereby looks at using Job Content Questionnaire (Karasek, Brisson, Kawakami, Houtman, Bongers & Amick, 2008) which will help to understand the manner in which individual perceptions of psychological demands; decision latitude, social support, physical demands and job insecurity citing good reliability for most scales have an impact on the level of stress. This thereby helps to bring forward some of the important areas which Swan Care needs to consider in the job so that stress related factors are reduced and better productivity can be generated. Having job autonomy and skill variety will ensure that the job characteristics influences the employees to work harder and will act as a tool through which stress gets reduced (Parker, 2003). This has to further include employee morale, motivation and satisfaction as the ability to ensure that the different areas are well met will ensure that stress level reduces and the contribution of the employee towards the bigger picture improves. This has to be matched by additional responsibility being taken by Swan Care where they need to conduct and sustain robust testing for longer period of time so that the different stress related factors are clearly identified. This will require viewing job characteristics as being dynamic which which change over time, shaped by context and politically, socially, culturally and economically dependent will help to identify the different factors which results in the reduction of stress (Newton, 2005). This will require the use of individual and discursive method so that the different needs of the employees are understood and based on it a framework through which stress can be reduced is identified. It is true that eliminating stress totally is not possible as it is difficult to establish the link between work characteristics and psychological outcomes. This thereby makes the implication of different methods to reduce stress difficult and is based on guesses and cannot be accurately determined as in case of Swan Care (Per Oystein Saksvik, Mikkelsen, Bohle & Quinlan, 2000). Swan Care by focusing on areas like unfair, unpleasant or dangerous working conditions to employees can identify the different stress related areas and based on it can develop the required dimensions through which stress can be controlled (Barley & Knight, 2002). This aspect needs to be considered carefully as it could otherwise result in a situation where employees can easily convince the management regarding the different stressful work they undergo which could lead towards hike in salaries and other perks (Van Maanen & Barley, 2004). This will thereby have an impact on the performance for Swan Care as it would further multiply stress and thereby lead to a situation where the productivity of the employees decreases and creates complete disharmony within the working environment. Just looking to implement a method of educating the employees will not serve as a tool through which stress related issues can be dealt and needs to ingrain the different self held perceptions for better working conditions. Since, the growth of media has popularized the manner in which stress related issues have impacted the performance of employees so looking to deal with those will requires special efforts (Harkness, 2005). Since, there is no clear depiction of what actually causes stress and the manner in which it can be reduced so it becomes comparatively difficult to formulate a strategy which will work on all occasions (Goldberger & Bretzniz, 2003). This thereby requires that Swan Care looks towards identifying the different stress related issues and factors based on the work settings and need to evolve a process using the different theoretical models which will help to reduce the level of stress and improve the overall level of performance. Conclusion Stress thereby has an impact on the performance of employees and it is difficult to explicitly identify the different reasons which has attributed towards stress. There is a popular belief that certain working conditions and job characteristics lead towards outcomes which are undesirable leading to stress among employees needs to be ascertained by Swan Care. This will thereby help to understand the perception of people based ion questionnaire survey which will help to find out the different areas which when focused on will reduce stress. The theoretical model Farrell and Geist-Martin also focuses on the same and highlights the manner in which organization based on individual perception, attitude, values, work stimuli and others to find out the manner in which stress influences employees. This will thereby help to keep the required focus and develop a method for controlling stress in Swan Care. References Barley, S.R. & Knight, D.B. (2002) Toward a cultural theory of stress complaints. Research in Organizational Behaviour, 14, 1-48 Burchell, B. (2004) The effects of labour market position, job security and unemployment on health. In Gallie, D., Marsh, C. & Volger, C. (Eds), Social change and the experience of unemployment. Oxford: Oxford University Press De Witte, H. (2009) Job insecurity and psychological well-being: Review of the literature and exploration of some unresolved issues. European journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 8, 155-177 Dewberry, C. 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