Annotative Bibliography
Colligan, W.T, Higgins, M.E,(2005). Workplace stress: Etiology and the Consequences. Journal of Workplace Behavioral Health. Vol. 21(2) 2005.
This journal focuses on workplace stress by identifying factors that contributes to stress at workplace and the resultant impact of stress on employees productivity and personal life. Managers can play a critical role in reducing or eliminating stress on epmloyess by creating a conducive work environment, providing employees assistance program in stress management and identifying and reducing work tension between individuals or groups in a work setting. This would results to improved productivity and improved workplace dynamic.
Richardson, M.K, Rothstein, R.H, (2008). The Effects of Occupational Stress Management Intervention Programs: A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology. New York. Vol. 13, No. 1, 69-93.
This article looks at the different Stress Management Intevention (SMI) programs used by organizations and their effectiveness in managing stress at work. A stress management intervention is a program that seeks to reduce work-related stressors so as to minimize the negative results of exposure to these stressors. To determine how effective the SMI implemented in an organization is, researchers can examine the outcomes at organizational level in terms of productivity or at individual level by observing the psychological or physiological measures.
Michie, S., (2002). The Causes and management of Stress at Work. Occupational Environment Medic. London. Vol. 59, 67-72.
In this journal, Michie looks at some causes of stress at work and how it can be managed. Stress at work can be caused by internal factors at work such as the pressure of work deadlines, job insecurity, complex tasks, long working hours, poor relationships at work between employees, work overload or external factors such as family demands or long commuting hours. This is in employer’s long term economic interests to help minimize or eliminate stress. Since stress is likely to lead to high workers turnover, absence, early retirement, reduced productivity as well as client satisfaction. The stress can be managed at individual level like training and psychological services like clinical or occupational counseling, or at organizational level interventions like restructuring work or providing psychological support such as social supports or simply employees participation in decision-making processes.
Saha D, Sinha R, Bhavsar K., (2011, April 15). Understanding the Job Stress among Healthcare Staff. Online Journal of Health and Allied Sciences. Mangalore, South India.Vol 10 (1) 2011.
This research article evaluates the sources of job stress among healthcare workers to identifying measures on how best to reduce work-related stress. Small payment of employees and work overload were found to contribute immensely towards stress at work. The working conditions are the primary source of stress but with a sound management intervention such as proper workload management, adequate staffing, improved payment, recognition of efforts along with ongoing training and stress management support would improve the productivity of the workforce.
Introduction
Workplace stress is defined as the change in an individual’s physical or mental state in reaction to shifts in the work environment that pose a challenge or harm to that individual.This applies in particular when the job requests do not match the worker’s capabilities, resources, and needs. Stress can be divided into two categories; that is eustress also known as positive or good stress with positive effects on an individual. The second category, on the other hand, is distress which comes with adverse effects.
Globally documented as a challenge to personal physicall and mental health,besides organizational health, stressed employees are usually found to be unhealthy, less motivated, less productive and less safe at work. An organization’s competitiveness in the market is determined by the productivity of its' workforce. It is, therefore, necessary for managers in an organization to make proper interventions and help manage the well-being of employees and provide support to them whenever in stress so as to realize their maximum potential and productivity in their work. Better employment practice should include evaluating the risk of stress amongst employees, identify causes of stress at work and determine who is at risk to be affected and finally deciding what can be done to prevent stress at work.
Results
Stress is not only a bodily response to a difficult or stressful condition. It is a contact between that individual and the source of demand within their environment (Colligan and Higgins, p 92). Different factors contribute to workplace stress. These factors are associated with workplace stress and health risks. They can be categorized as those brought about due to the content of work and those related to the social and organizational setting of work. Example of factors associated with the job include work overload, pressure to meet deadlines, the complexity of tasks, long working hours and poor physical work conditions like space (Miche, p3). The role of the employee in an organization regarding responsibility also contributes to stress, as there are times where workers in an organization are required to perform multiple functions simultaneously, particularly when the work is unclear, and there are conflicting roles and boundaries. Other causes pertain to the promotion at workplace, work security, and career development, especially in the current time of technological changes where employees’ roles could be phased out by inventions that limits opportunities for their creativity. Aside from that, interpersonal relationships between workers in the workplace and group dynamics have been found to be among primary factors of stress.
The staff’s emotional, behavioral, physiological and cognitive response to stress is directly related to the characteristic of the cause of stress, the resources available to the employee to prevent pressure, as well as the employee’s personal characteristics. Based on this, individuals can react differently to stressors in an organization. To some, stress can propel them to achieve their personal goals and come out shining through the challenging moments. However, to some individuals, it can be burdensome with significant impact on their mental, emotional and physical well-being. It is important therefore for managers to understand the causes of stress and strategies that can be implemented to help prevent or overcome them. This would result in improved employee’s performance and productivity. Even though stress at work can be external, for example, family demands or any other personal problems at home, it is advisable to the managers to show social support and care in such moments. Such encouragement or aid in time of need would still enable the employees to perform productively at work.
Recommendations
As a recommendation, to reduce or eliminate the stress within the work force, it is vital for every organization to have a Stress Management Intervention program. These interventions can be grouped into primary, secondary or tertiary interventions (Richardson and Rothstein, p70). In primary interventions, the sources of stress at work are identified. After the identification, the working conditions of the employees are changed or improved, creating a conducive environment that enables them to be productive without any undue pressure. An example, in this case, is reducing the workload by distributing work among employees or employing adequate staff to cater for the job demands (Saha, Sinha, and Bhavsar, p4). Managers should do a job analysis to determine the number of resources and skills required to complete a given task before assigning the work correctly. Where the organization falls short of the necessary manpower or financial capability to hire new resources, the work can be subdivided into small tasks and assigned to different employees with regards to their skills. The organization structure can also be altered in terms of management, in either the supervision or transfer of employees to departments they best fit in based on their skills to ease the complexity of work, flow of information in addition to distributed decision making with the focus on removing stressors from the workplace.
When it comes to secondary interventions, the focus is to reduce the severity of stress symptoms by helping employees improve their transaction with the environment. This is the widely used intervention that has proven positive results based on their outcomes .Here managers provide employees with access to stress management programs or health services to help them manage stressful situations in the form of training. Employees will be trained how to use behavioral skills like the change of diet, deep-breathing, meditation, exercise, time management, goal setting and relaxation methods to get rid of the psychological and physical side effects of stress. The tertiary interventions are almost similar to the Secondary one though here programs are not just to take employees through training that can reduce stress symptoms; they are also meant to treat the health conditions of workers through free and confidential access to qualified health professionals.
Conclusion
Stress in the workplace has a cost to both an employee in an organization as well as the organization as a whole regarding psychological, physiological and financial costs. The performance of the employees goes hand-in-hand with the prevailing work conditions besides the well-being of an individual. Heart diseases, immunosuppression, and chronic pain are some of the physical disorders of stress that affect productivity in an employee. Depression, persistent anxiety, pessimism, and resentment are psychological disorders associated with workplace stress. The stress can lead to hostility between employees or with their managers, interpersonal conflict, small production, high staff turnover or low morale in the workplace. The cognitive behavioral training designs to educate staffs on the role of their beliefs and emotions in managing demanding situations and to provide them with skills necessary to revise their opinions to facilitate adaptive coping is touted to be one of the best intervention to alleviate stress.
Successful interventions should involve both an employee and the organization by providing training that helps one to identify the stress and the cause, the approach or method to be used to tackle them. Collaborative decision-making processes and problem-solving processes in an organization increases support and improve communications in an organization reducing frictions between employees or workgroups besides on-the-job training on how to cope with stress and resolve conflicts. By creating a conducive work environment and providing social support to employees in distress, the management can be able to motivate their staff to reach their full potential with significant improvement in production. This, in turn, translates into a competitive organization in the market with a healthy workforce.
References
Colligan, W.T, Higgins, M.E,(2005). Workplace stress: Etiology and the Consequences. Journal of Workplace Behavioral Health. Vol. 21(2) 2005.
Richardson, M.K, Rothstein, R.H, (2008). The Effects of Occupational Stress Management Intervention Programs: A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology. New York. Vol. 13, No. 1, 69-93.
Michie, S., (2002). The Causes and management of Stress at Work. Occupational Environment Medic. London. Vol. 59, 67-72.
Saha D, Sinha R, Bhavsar K., (2011, April 15). Understanding the Job Stress among Healthcare Staff. Online Journal of Health and Allied Sciences. Mangalore, South India.Vol 10 (1) 2011.
