Resilience in the Workplace for Personal Well-Being - Thesis Example

Literature Review: Organisational Psychology In the present time, business is the key factor that rules the world. The history of time has seen different kinds and natures of business and, as change is the only static thing, with the passage of time we are seeing and will continue to see much more. Any business when escalates from its formative phase, it requires an organisation to nurture itself to a matured phase. But as it enters into this phase, it becomes further vulnerable to the exciting challenges that create a tension between the organisation and its people or employees. Placing leaders in the role of organisation, both leaders and employees need to be inculpated in ensuring enough organisational flexibility to endure themselves into the future that is prone to change and the change of changing essence (Friedman, Merle, 2005). This paper reflects a relatively new concept known as Resilience that can handle this new wave of organisational change and sets a cohesive and conducive vibration within the organisation that helps maintain the spirit of the employees and the organisational productivity during the ever changing changes of ups and down. Resilience is that power which builds the strength to fight back any adverse situation. And more an employee can perform this; more mutually beneficial it is for both the employee and the organisation. It paves the way for flexibility and innovation skills that result in deep and constant renewal capacity of revolutionary thinking, totally free from any conventions and of new markets where no one sets in before (Friedman, 2005). This is the essence of what is called Resilience. In basic sense, Resilience is an attitude, which is directly co-related with an individual’s development and well-being. When the mind and the body are strong enough to face the wicked wind of stress, downfall, impossible deadlines, unpredictable changes and the unsaid agitation of personal or organisational instability; it is rest assured that the person is conjuring the power of Resilience, the power of fighting odds thus to set a harmony. In surge of increasing the organisational bottom line most of the organisations have downsized their workforce leaving less people to do the work and following this retrenchment the core of people have been termed as the working wounded! The long-term effect of such occurring is known as the survivor syndrome; like soldiers left intact after a war and lurching guiltily on their survival. The modernization of human civilization led to innovation and adoption of improved technologies into our daily life and especially in production and business (UNCTAD, 2007). While most of the scholars and academicians believe that, technology opens the door of an “Eldorado” (a place of riches and opportunity), some other posses some different thoughts. The technocrats (technical experts) believe that such coexistence generates new breed of knowledge among the workers (termed as ‘knowledge workers’) and thereby are of great benefit to the production business system (Gaimon, 1997, p.1308). The interaction between man and machine was actually initiated through industrial revolution in England. The industrial revolution multiplied the British production manifold and it may be considered as one of the most primary footsteps of machines into human domain (Form, 1987). This change began to mechanize the power of resilience of the workforce. As Zuboff expressed that before automation, the success of a production system and its perfection was profoundly dependent upon the employees’ own skill that he has developed over years of practices. After the adoption of automation, a front line worker does not need to be present near the machine and can actually operate through a mere click of the mouse or buttons. Such a transformation often incorporates some grain of doubts into the mind of the worker and breaks down the previous cohesiveness among the workers and the machines – “It is very different now…. It is hard to get used to not being out there with the process. I miss it a lot. I miss being able to see it. You can see when the pulp runs over a vat. You know what’s happening.” (Zuboff, 1988, p.59). First of all, he feels vulnerable to the thought that whether this will actually work. Again he often feels uncomfortable that his reputation might come to a risk if the computer faces any problem or is not performing rightly its actions. In her own words, Zuboff explains almost as a narrator: “I feel uncomfortable being away from these sights and smells. Now I only have numbers to go by. I am scared of that boiler, and I feel that I should be closer to it in order to control it.” (Zuboff, 1988, p.63). Workers have often reported that as per their experience, they felt that the production is not going correctly but they are helpless and the manager have always held the technology above the workers’ decision. Interestingly, the managers also believed that such techno averseness is a mark of conservatism and unwillingness on behalf of the worker. A little in depth analysis of the workers’ psychology could put further light to this matter. Previously workers’ capability and prowess used to determine the success of a production system. Now machines have replaced their actions and this has generated a feeling of loss of importance and pride among them. In words of Zuboff, “Workers reiterated a spontaneous emotional response countless times – defined by feelings of loss of control, of vulnerability, and of frustration.” (Zuboff, 1988, p.63). Again, more importantly, automation has been followed by a series of labour retrenchment over the years and workers are getting more and more concerned about keeping their place in a company. This often imparts a feeling of techno averseness within the workers. To some of them, participating in the production process directly was a feeling of joy. Now restraining themselves from that action is only adding to their dissatisfaction and imparting emptiness. According to a study published by United Nation, the indicated cost due to work related depression Europe and in the United States is $110 billion per annum. Another study predicts that depression due to changed lifestyle of globalisation and technology boom will become most costly and widespread of all diseases. The psychological disorder problem on the workplace has a serious effect not only on the individual but also on the productivity of the organisation. Employee’s performance, frequency of illness, absenteeism, accidents and attritions are the consequences of mental-health status of employees and ignoring seriousness of these problems will be extremely fatal for an organisational psychology. (Friedman, 2005) Due to a gross malfunctioning in the organisational psychology the engagement or commitment rate of employees at work has dropped. As projected by Gallup organisation, in the year 2001 there were less than 30% of employees in the United States, fully engaged at work and after 3 years in a job, 22% are engaged. In the international study of 2004 the Corporate Leadership Council (CLC) reported a 70% of organisations sought of increase in greatly or somewhat engagement of workforce. Talks are there of Spiritual Turnover; people being present physically but not engaged deeply. Thus to give a sense of facelift of the employee’s spirit, introduction of empowerment in the organisation is an essential tool (Spreitzer, 1995). At the time of global competition when change requires from the employees to initiate innovations, Psychological Empowerment has become a major position to place the employees to feel the power; rather the authority to achieve the bottom-line (Drucker, 1988). As Gray Hamel opines the Organisational Resilience which can be procured by the empowerment in the Organisational Psychology is basically a formula, where the rate and extend of the strategic transformation gets divided by the cost of the organisation itself and the trauma of the people in the organisation, maintaining the constant changes (Friedman, 2005). Empowerment is such a tool that is runs parallel to the Resilience. Empowerment is the concept where the employees their self-efficiency. Thus they get a scale to measure their worth in the organisation (Conger & Kanungo, 1998). Any organisation that can inculcate this practice among its employees can possibly solve the most global and burning issue of the time. It is about checking the attrition rate, as a dissatisfied team member can influence the morals of those who are around by the negative vibes, which can create a detrimental damage to the organisation. It is a Viral Effect. These types of intricacies are common in the employee as well as the Organisational Psychology and the organisations are dealing with these disgruntlements on a daily basis. The Human Resource Department is trying to spread the concept of Empowerment in the organisation to retain the talents that they have invested on. The acceptance of Empowerment concept will reflect a set of four cognitions as increased intrinsic work motivation. They are Meaning, Competence, Self-determination and Impact. Meaning is the value of a purpose, judged in relation of a person’s own ideals or standard (Thomas & Velthouse, 1990). Competence is the self-efficiency of an individual and belief in capabilities of doing work with skill (Gist, 1987). Self-determination is an individual’s sense of choice of initiating and regulating action where as competence is the mastery of behavior (Deci, Connell & Rayan, 1989). Impact is the degree to which an individual can influence the strategic, administrative and operating system of the organisation (Ashforth, 1989). Thus, Psychological Empowerment is a motivational construct reflected in four cognitions. A bird’s eyes view shows the macro aspect of the global market psychology too. After all it is also a significant barometer of an individual’s economic satisfaction. According to Julian Callow, chief European economist for Barclays Capital, London; with the rise of productivity and labour force expansion the potential growth rate rises. Here the problem with Europe is that its immigration and birthrates are not as high as United States (Carter, 2007). Thus demography is also a factor to consider as the population of a country is the most vital power of that country, which also known as the manpower and in further stage human resource in an organisation. The concept of Demographic Shift has put forward a phrase called Working Family has been coined in the year 1980 where a stiff graph has been recorded of the married women joining industry when the place of work and the family were more clearly separated. This increase in the participation represented a trend that started way back in 1920s’. Women in labour force created a significant movement of social and economic empowerment in the modern United States history (Hayghe, 1997). On this attitudinal and demographic shift Industries have tailored the working family’s official policies. The main focus was to help the women employees better segregating the space between work and family (especially to take care of there young children) to be more efficient and productive worker (Schein, 1990). Thus, it is a common consent that this is no ordinary time and the business environment is not just changing but creating different avenues. No longer is it only about making money and measuring the bottom line as the advent of Gobalisation has changed the entire DNA of modern business. The concept of forecasting to avoid the impact on organisation and employees by using trend study or historical data has gone obsolete as the changing face of business is extremely unpredictable and the only surety are the changes which never repeat (Friedman, 2005). Thus, sudden changes will come which may even taste bitter, but the Resilience mechanism is the only way left to shape up things and situations to boost employees back to normalcy. In nutshell, it is the Resilience that heals the psyche of the employees from the adverse organisational situations and further, the employees heals the wound of the organisation from the pressure and change of the globalization and the changing business environment. This whole phenomenon is the Organisational Psychology that looks after its employees and thus looks at its own well-being. Effort has been taken to understand the mentality of the employees in disguise and activity to prop them up. In fact there cannot be any better feelings than be appreciated and recognised for the work done well. Organisations can celebrate the talent by the award of excellence or by tied up with prestigious club memberships. Recognition of talent is a proven way to motivate the employees most. At times it acts much more than money. A simple pat on the shoulder or a word to say ‘well done’ can be enough to work for it. Rewarding impact can be motivational by giving feedbacks and recognition on the contribution of their shared vision. Applauding efforts by sharing it in the organisation will give the employees a sense of their worth. Encouraging efforts and appreciating hard work will accelerate the want of performing even better and maintaining the pace at any condition. Is Resilience the fountain stream of Optimism, Passion and Thrive? References 1. Ashforth, B. E. (1989). The experience of powerlessness in organizations. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 43: 207-242. 2. Carter, D. (2007). U.S. Growth Expected to cool, Falling Below Pace in Europe. The New York Times. Retrieved July 20, 2008, from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/25/business/worldbusiness/25oecd.html 3. Conger, J. A. & Kanungo, R. N. (1998). The empowerment process: Integrating theory and practice. Academy of Management Review, 13: 471-482. 4. Deci, E. L. Connell, J. P. & Rayan, R. M. (1989). . 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Paper presented at the Ninety-Eighth Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association, Boston. 12. Spreitzer, G. M. (1995). Psychological empowerment in the work place: Dimensions, Measurement and Validation. Academy of Management Journal, vol. 38, No.5, 1442-1465. 13. Thomas, K. W. & Velthouse, B. A. (1990). Cognitive Elements of Empowerment. Academy of Management Review, 15: 666-681 14. UNCTAD (2007), “Globalisation and the Least Developed Countries: Issues in Technology”, United Nations Ministerial Conference of the Least Developed Countries, Issues Paper. Available at: http://www.unohrlls.org/UserFiles/File/LDC%20Documents/Turkey/Technology-Final.pdf. 15. Zuboff, S. (1988), In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power, Basic Books. . Read More