Psychological Stress in the Workplace - Essay Example

Business Psychology Introduction Over the last few years workplace health and occupational stress has generated great concern within different national as well as international organisations. Due to the rapid changes in global economy the work culture of organisations are getting more inclined towards increasing the work speed, competition and efficiency. Economic imperatives and the increased urge to retain the competitive advantage have resulted in uncertainty and restructuring in business operations. These changes in the organisational practices, rules and regulations are generating chronic stress within the workforce of different organisations (Sonnetag, Ganster and Perrewe, 2009). According to a statement of World Health Organisation, occupational stress can be described as the responses of employees against different work pressures and demands that contradict their capabilities and knowledge (Sonnetag, Ganster and Perrewe, 2009). In earlier years, occupational stress was mostly related to various traumatic and life threatening events such as injury and violence. Over the period of time the pattern of work related stress has moved towards chronic stress. This kind of stress mainly generates emotional pressure within the workforce which may lead to financial as well as human resource loss for organisations (Sonnetag, Ganster and Perrewe, 2009). The further discussion of this study will illustrate various reasons and sources of occupational stress in the current business scenario and the possible solutions to generate a healthy work environment for employees. Discussion Numerous researches have demonstrated that near about half a million population in the UK are experiencing work related stress. Every year occupational stress is causing a loss of near about 3.7 billion pounds to different industries of the UK (Sonnetag, Ganster and Perrewe, 2009). A number of researches have suggested that the absence of various motivational factors is the major cause to create workplace stress for employees. The Herzberg’s hygiene theory has described that deprivation of a number of factors, such as work condition, company policy, supervision, job security, salary and benefits can create dissatisfaction within the workforce of any organisation (Jansen and Samuel, 2014). The financial rewards related to any job role may not be considered as the prime motivator to the job satisfaction but it plays an important role to enhance the lifestyle of the employees. The financial gains through various job responsibilities also work as an indicator towards individual’s value and worth to the organisation. Therefore, inadequate payment and benefit structure against overloaded work may lead to dissatisfaction and occupational stress (Jansen and Samuel, 2014). Absence of job security also plays an important role to create distress within the employees of any organisation. The organisational policy of temporary and contract based employment is influencing the fear of skill redundancy and job loss within the employees. This situation is also provoking occupational stress within the temporary workforce of any organisation. Work overload and lack of supervision are affecting the organisational work culture as well as the mental peace of the employees (Jansen and Samuel, 2014). Often the achievements of few talented employees cause overload of unrealistic expectations and deadlines on the entire workforce. This unmanageable overload of responsibilities results in developing mental stress within the workforce (Jansen and Samuel, 2014). The continuous application of advanced technologies in the work processes is also causing strain within certain parts of the employees who are facing difficulties to cope up with these frequent changes (Jansen and Samuel, 2014). The Maslow motivational theory has extended the perception of the Herzberg’s hygiene theory. According to Maslow’s theory, employee motivation is not only dependent on providing proper work condition, safety, job security, benefits and good wages, it also requires to satisfy the higher needs of employees such as self-esteem, self-actualization and organisational as well as social recognition (Latham and Pinder, 2005). Lack of involvement in the decision making procedure and insufficiency of control over different aspects of job may cause low self-actualization within the hard working employees. Providing less importance towards the suggestions and recommendations of the employees also results in generating distress within the employees of various organisations. The absence of innovation and creativity in the job roles and the monotonousness of day to day operations also hamper the motivation of workers which therefore results in downfall in job satisfaction and productivity (Latham and Pinder, 2005). The effects of workplace pressures or stress differ from person to person depending on individual differences. The globalization of businesses is allowing organisations to recruit candidates from different geographical, social, cultural and economical backgrounds. Researchers have explained that this procedure is generating inter-individual differences within the team members of organisations in terms of their personality, social support, status, ethnicity, gender and age. These differences generally determine the ability of different employees to cope up with the stressors within any workplace (Perrewe and Ganster, 2011). Poor relationship within different members of any team can be considered as one of the major reason behind the work related stress. Poor leadership management towards Individual differences, such as social status, ethnicity, language and culture, may lead to aversive behaviour within different team members which can also results in the isolation of different team members. These kinds of situation generally create dissatisfaction within different individual in the workplace which subsequently results in occupational stress (Perrewe and Ganster, 2011). Apart from the team and individual differences, improper psychological contract between employers and employees can also cause occupational strain within the workforce of any organisation (Gakovic and Tetrick, 2003). Psychological contract within the workforce mainly describe the unwritten expectation of employees towards their employers. Most of the employees across various organisations in the world expect a number of variables from their employers such as different rewards and rights in exchange of their loyalty and work (Gakovic and Tetrick, 2003). The psychological contract mainly includes proper wages, benefits and medical facilities. Poor physical work condition, lack of proper guidance, absence of proper supervision and inadequate communication procedure are the major reasons that can generate dissatisfaction within the employees of any organisation. These breaches of psychological contract can damage the relationship between employees and management that eventually leads to reduced productivity, employee disengagement and workplace deviance (Gakovic and Tetrick, 2003). The Equity theory of J. Stacy Adams has also evaluated that the employees of any organisation prefer to create a balance between their input towards the organisational works and its perceived outcome (Woodley and Allen, 2014). The fairness of this outcome is hugely dependent on the productivity and loyalty of the employees. On the other hand, the unfair distribution of the outcome may leads to distress within the workforce of any organisation (Woodley and Allen, 2014). For instances, the poor wages structure of Nike Inc. had created strain within the workforce of China. Various divisions of Nike in China had experienced a huge number of employee stress and dissatisfaction due to their forced over time and poor wage structure. The differences of pay structure within various divisions of Nike in China and other locations of the UK and US were certainly generating stress within the employees. These practices had caused a loss of employee loyalty and rapid turnover rate within the China division of the organisation (Rayton and Yalabik, 2014). To perform the organisational jobs effectively the workforce requires appropriate and adequate equipments, communication system, training and resources (Beehr, 2014). The Expectancy Motivation theory of Vroom has described that the availability of right resource and equipment assists the workforce to connect with the management. According to the author, it also helps them to gather necessary information about the organisation and their roles and responsibilities (Beehr, 2014). Therefore, these facilities assist the organisation to generate the job satisfaction of the employees. On the contrary, insufficiency of these facilities causes uncertainty regarding the responsibilities of the employees. It also restricts the workforce to conduct their job smoothly and perfectly. Hence, this situation generates distress within the different segments of employees in any organisation (Beehr, 2014). Minimizing the level of occupational stress is very essential for the management to create a healthy organisation. Proper job designing and goal setting procedure are the major requirement to eliminate stress and dissatisfaction of the workforce (Coetzee, 2013). The management can provide adequate job satisfaction to the workforce by meticulously designing their career which will provide proper and challenging job responsibilities as per the skill sets and knowledge of the employees. The employee career designing program needs to properly evaluate the skills, capabilities and personality of the employees (Coetzee, 2013). The Holland Occupational Theme or the RIASEC model provides an in-depth idea about the different personality as well as skill set segmentation of the potential workforce. This model generally classifies the workforce in different sub-segments as per their skills and competencies such as realistic, intellectual, artistic/ creative, cooperative, enthusiastic and conventional (Coetzee, 2013). The assessment of the personality of different employees within the workforce will also assist the management to create an effective and efficient team structure. These procedures will enable the management to reduce the stress of the workforce by efficiently managing the conflicts regarding individual differences of the team members (Coetzee, 2013). Proper designing the career of the employees also help the management to improve the self-actualization of the employees by highlighting the exceptional skills and competencies of individual employees. This kind of motivation generally supports the concept of Schein’s ‘Career Anchors’ which mainly assist the employees to analyse their proper organisational expertise such as technical, managerial and entrepreneurial expertise (Chapman and Brown, 2014). After defining the career of each employee the management need set proper goal for each employees of the organisation. The goal setting procedure must follow the five principle of Lockes Goal-Setting theory (Ross and Altmaier, 1994). The management need to clarify the job designation and roles and responsibilities of all the employees within the organisation. They need to motivate the employees by frequently providing challenging goals. The management also need to secure commitments from the workforces to assess their understanding of the employees regarding the required skills and competencies. They must consistently provide feedbacks to the employees to resolve the confusions of the workforce. Finally, the management must ensure that the work is not becoming too overwhelming for the employees. They also need to keep a close eye to judge whether the employees can cope up with the responsibilities or not (Ross and Altmaier, 1994). These goals of the management can be actualized by the use of proper job design techniques such as job specialization, simplification and enrichment (Parker, 2014). Job specialization technique will allow the management to provide all the required details for the specified position of the employees. This procedure will reduce the ambiguity of the employees regarding their job roles and responsibilities (Parker, 2014). The management also need to simplify the job responsibility of the workforce by dividing it into various small and easily attainable portions. This will assist the management to reduce the distress of the workforce caused by huge and unattainable workload (Parker, 2014). Different researchers have also argued the requirement of job enrichment besides job specialization as it can allow the management to provide intrinsic motivation to their employees. Monotonous job responsibilities can create boredom within the employees which can also reduce their efficiency and productivity. This situation may also lead to higher turnover rate as employees will always seek for more rewarding job roles. Job enrichment technique can be described as a vertical expansion of the job roles that influences the efficiency of the employees by adding more diversified responsibilities and freedom to work. This procedure will motivate the employees to provide their best performance to the organisation. It will also bring rewards and recognition to the exceptional performers within the employees (Parker, 2014). The meticulously designed career and job structure may witness failure due to the absence of proper training and learning facilities (Harteis, Rausch and Seifried, 2014). The management need to provide proper learning spaces to the employees though frequent training materials, interactive and role play programs. The management can also utilize different communicational channels and advanced technologies to impact knowledge and guidance to the employees. This learning procedure will allow the employees to gather in-depth idea about the organisational roles and responsibilities. This learning also helps the workforce to incorporate smart and easy way to complete any challenging job. Hence, this procedures will assist the management to reduce the work related pressure and ambiguity of the workforce. It will also improve the communication and relation between the employees and employer (Harteis, Rausch and Seifried, 2014). Conclusion The analysis of different sources and theories has evaluated that the major seasons behind the occupational stress within workforce are the overwhelmed and complex job responsibilities and the improper communication channel between the employer and employees. The inadequate scope for job learning and training is also diminishing the work motivation of the employees. The analysis has depicted that the unsuitable job roles and responsibilities also hamper the economical gain of the employees in any organisation which eventually escalate the stress and dissatisfaction among the workforce. Therefore, the discussion has illustrated various career and job design strategies to provide effective solutions to create a healthy work atmosphere across the organisation. These strategies influence the management to reduce workplace distress by providing challenging and easily attainable job roles to the employees. Reference List Beehr, T. A., 2014. Psychological Stress in the Workplace (Psychology Revivals). London: Routledge. Chapman, R. J. and Brown, L. B., 2014. An empirical study of the career anchors that govern career decisions. Personnel Review, 43(5), pp. 717-740. Coetzee, M., 2013. Psycho-social Career Meta-capacities: Dynamics of contemporary career development. New York: Springer Science & Business Media. Gakovic, A. and Tetrick, L. E., 2003. Psychological contract breach as a source of strain for employees. Journal of Business and Psychology, 18(2), pp. 235-246. Harteis, C., Rausch, A. and Seifried, J., 2014. Discourses on Professional Learning: On the Boundary Between Learning and Working. New York: Springer. Jansen, A. and Samuel, M. O., 2014. Achievement of Organisational Goals and Motivation of Middle Level Managers within the Context of the Two-Factor Theory. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 5(16), pp. 53-58. Latham, G. P. and Pinder, C. C., 2005. Work motivation theory and research at the dawn of the twenty-first century. Annu. Rev. Psychol., 56, pp. 485-516. Parker, S. K., 2014. Beyond motivation: Job and work design for development, health, ambidexterity, and more. Annual review of psychology, 65, pp. 661-691. Perrewe, P. L. and Ganster, D. C., 2011. The Role of Individual Differences in Occupational Stress and Well Being. United Kingdom: Emerald Group Publishing. Rayton, B. A. and Yalabik, Z. Y., 2014. Work engagement, psychological contract breach and job satisfaction. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25(17), pp. 2382-2400. Ross, R. R. and Altmaier, E. M., 1994. Intervention in Occupational Stress: A Handbook of Counselling for Stress at Work. United Kingdom: SAGE. Sonnetag, S., Ganster, D. and Perrewe, P., 2009. Research in Occupational Stress and Well being. United Kingdom: Emerald Group Publishing. Woodley, H. J. and Allen, N. J., 2014. The dark side of equity sensitivity. 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