Office 2010 Transformation: Stress Management Plan Essay

Introduction

To work in a team is not an easy task because a number of goals have to set and achieved, and certain issues should be considered. A good project manager has to be prepared for various situations, make fast and reasonable decisions, and pay attention to each detail and person in a project. Conflicts are hard to avoid in life and work. People try to use different methods to succeed in stress management and conflict resolutions.

The project manager should usually take responsibility for the work, develop a stress management plan considering such factors as motivation, teamwork, mentoring, and communication and synthesizing the sources of stress and conflicts, personal traits, and dysfunctional organizations, and help all team member to pass an adaptation process successfully. This paper aims at creating a stress management plan to help people pass through the Office 2010 transformation process.

Important Factors in Stress Management

The project management environment undergoes numerous changes and improvements almost every minute (Kerzner, 2013). The project manager has to be ready to meet and communicate with people, create oral and written reports, resolve conflicts, mentor employees, and develop plans A, B, C, etc. The presence of stress situations is evident and cannot be neglected. Some organizations address the experts to develop appropriate relations within a team and with stakeholders (Mills, 2008). Still, many project managers prefer to develop plans independently regarding a number of issues. The current stress management plan depends on the following factors:

Motivation

The team should be properly motivated to accept the Office 2010 transformation, and the manager has to understand what kind of strategy (personal styles, career stages, professional values, or situational considerations) is more appropriate (Flannes & Levin, 2005). The current project is based on the identification of career values.

Communication

The project manager should understand that organizational and conflict communications differ considerably and should be properly organized (Rahim, 2010). In this project, more attention is paid to conflict communication as a part of the stress management plan.

Leadership and mentorship

The manager should perform the role of a leader and a mentor in a team to comprehend what employees expect and how they can achieve the goals required. The identification and combination of responsibilities turn out to be a crucial step that cannot be avoided. The leader of this project (this kind of change) has to explain the necessity of the transformation and introduce the factors that can play important roles in a working process.

These factors help to start developing a stress management plan in a short period. Still, there is one more thing that has to be discussed before the plan’s development.

Role of a Project Manager

To succeed in developing a stress management plan, a project manager has to identify and comprehend his/her role in a project and the possible impact on the work of other people. This Offices 2007-2010 project expects from the manager the completion of the following functions:

1. An intelligent leader: a person should understand why the changes are necessary;
2. A powerful motivator: the manager should explain the team why and how to accept the changes;
3. A reasonable supporter: the manager needs to know how to protect each employee from stresses caused by the necessity to accept the change;
4. A good analytic: a person has to identify the outcomes of both cases: if the Office 2010 project is accepted and not accepted by the team;
5. A mover: as soon as the manager clarifies the benefits of the project, it is necessary to use various circumstances, analyze situations, and talk to people and achieve the required goal.

Kerzner (2013) admits that the project manager is responsible for developing, coordinating, and integrating activities among employees in regards to the options and functional lines of the project. The manager is usually challenged by the necessity to combine the functions of a project leader (consideration of goals, resources, conditions, etc.), a mentor (attention to the workers’ needs, expectations, and motifs), and an analyzer (communication and reports to sponsors and other stakeholders, who need to control the development of a project).

A good project manager should understand that there are many decisions to be made, many plans to be developed, and many people to cooperate with. That is why stress should not be the reason for frustrations or inabilities to complete the required amount of work according to the deadlines. Project managers should learn the peculiarities of stress among employees and think how to manage stress situations using a properly created plan.

Goals of a Stress Management Plan

Before start working on a new stress management plan, it is necessary to understand its goals and identify the expectations. A plan is created to:

1. Realize why stress situations take place;
2. Avoid some conflicts and activities that lead to stress;
3. Know how to cope with stress at work;
4. Help employees overcome stress challenges;
5. Recognize emotional, physical, organization, and spiritual aspects of work (Tummers, 2013);
6. Have a guide on how to communicate with people;
7. Understand what employees may expect from a project manager;
8. Learn weaknesses and strengths of the project;
9. Get an idea of how to succeed in completing the task;
10. Promote a psychologically stable atmosphere in a team.

Not all project managers can identify and comprehend all these goals. They try to create projects and plans but fail to understand what benefits (except financial benefits or losses) they can get at the end.

Preparatory Issues of the Stress Management Plan

This section is a kind of introductory part of a properly developed stress management plan. To succeed in planning, a manager has to clarify the reasons for why a team may need stress management activities and what issues are expected to be solved.

The main sources of stress in the project under consideration are:

• The necessity to increase working hours because of the necessity to learn the peculiarities of a new Office program;
• The inability to gain control over work and participate in all decision-making processes;
• The lack of social support;
• The unclear identification of roles and responsibilities in a team.

In addition to these factors, it is also necessary to remember about the possibility of the situations when people suffer from stress because of personal reasons, misunderstandings, or frustration. Though the project manager should not follow personal lives of the workers, it is necessary to remember that some problems can take place out of work.

Another important aspect of the stress management plan is the nature of an organization. If the analysis of the project proves the presence of organizational insanity, pluralistic ignorance, or poor communication, the company may be defined as dysfunctional. The team and its leader become the slaves of the process that cannot lead to positive results. People do not enjoy the work, cannot perform their duties properly, and do not understand what is going wrong. They face physiological and psychological challenges. Emotional changes and personal needs become important. Employees have to be more motivated and supported. It is the time when a manager should make use of a stress management plan.

Finally, the plan should be based on the personal traits that can be defined with the help of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test (Flannes & Levin, 2005). Project managers may need help that can be found online. Still, even some beginning plan should be developed according to the skills of a manager. A person should know and comprehend his/her abilities. The test clarifies if a person is an extravert or an introvert, relies on intuition or senses, makes use of feelings or thoughts, benefit from judgment or perception. In the project under analysis, it is identified that the manager is an extrovert with definite abilities to rely on senses, think, and judge the environment in which it is necessary to work.

Such type of a project manager tells a lot about the possibilities and possible ideas for a plan. It is expected to have clear and reasonable suggestions that can help to overcome stresses or reduce the level of stress in a short period. The project manager expects the employees pass an adaptation period successful and painlessly because all points and explanations should have grounds. The attention to the basics is the best opportunity to help the team and make sure the Office 2010 project can be completed on time.

Stress Management Plan

The reduction of conflicts and stress is the main goal of the offered plan. In fact, the project is not complicated. There is just a necessity to motivate people and explain the importance of the transformation. The following steps and activities can be used as a good guide to rely on while stress management.

1. The definition and essence of stress should be given. It is not enough to say that stress is the reason for some working problems and challenges. It is necessary to comprehend how stress can be developed and what situations may lead to the development of stress in a team.
2. The evaluation of the employers should be developed. A good leader knows the qualities and abilities of each member of a team and chooses the most appropriate ways to use them in practice.
3. The identification of the sources of stress should take place. For example, if the source of stress is the lack of time, the best option is to think about the awards that can be offered to people and cover the discontents connected with a situation. The ways of how stress can be developed vary (Kerzner, 2013). One person or the whole team may feel tired or depressed, be physically or emotionally exhausted, feel unhappy or trapped, and suffer from anxiety or hopelessness. All these sources of stress usually have an emotional character. Still, the outcomes can be in health and physiology.
4. It is suggested for a manager to focus on a moment not to get distracted. Some breathing exercises can be offered to the manager and the team to calm down and get a chance to think about everything logically.
5. The recognition of the employees’ needs and manager’s expectations has to be done. It is not necessary to focus on some working needs. More attention should be paid to personal needs based on human emotions. As soon as the members of team are satisfied, they get more chances to avoid or cope with stress.
6. The analysis of the costs of stress is necessary. Employees and their managers have to understand what can be lost or gained because of stress. The peculiar feature of stress that it is not always negative. Sometimes, people are able to create powerful ideas and projects because of stress. They are challenged and need to prove their worth. The emotional change can lead to a new approach to work.
7. A To-Do list has to be created by the leader and offered to the employees. It should help the team members to understand what their manager expects from them and how they can start working. This particular point of the plan can be extended with the help of the work of an Indian writer, Sharma (2009), who offers to promote a DO-IT-NOW activity. Each letter of this phrase has its meaning and helps to manage time. Time management is one of the main steps that are taken to overcome stress challenges. A person should be ready to Divide everything that have to be done, Organize the materials that can be used, Ignore distractions that can prevent the completion of the work, Take time to learn and analyze every detail of the project, Not tomorrow the work should be begun, Opportunities have to be considered, and Watch out for time that is spent on reading, analyzing, evaluating, and deciding (Sharma, 2009). This strategy can be used in this project as well.
8. Physical exercises should be offered together with some emotional training because employees have to forget about the working challenges and focus on something distractive (not harmful to health). At the same time, distraction is required only in the middle of the offered management plan.
9. Yoga and meditations are the best means to cope with stress at work and home. It is possible to provide employees and managers with free yoga courses at the company’s expense. Not much money should be spent for corporate customers, motivation is considered, and the results should be great.
10. Finally, common entertainment or party is a chance for the organization to spend some time together and do not think about work. It can be easier for the manager to understand the employees and their needs, clarify what can be offered, and have fun with people, who may have the same interests. Humor is also a part of an entertaining program. Employees can share their problems in a humoristic way so that the manager can clarify how the situation can be improved.
11. There are many companies that have special rooms for taking rest, crying, grieving, etc. It is also possible to create such room and provide each person to use it any time it can be necessary. There is no need to make each employee visit this room regularly day by day. As soon as the need takes place, a person is welcome to visit it.
12. If no options are appropriate for the company, an expert can be hired to work with employees and help them cope with stress. Many psychologists are trained to work in specialized companies. They learn the sphere of work and evaluate possible challenges and troubles. As soon as the situation is clarified more or less, the expert offers several options and discusses them with the manager.

All these ideas can be used separately or together as meaningful parts of one plan. They can help to reduce stress when employees are forced to accept some changes (like the change connected with the Office 2010 project). The same methods can be offered to project managers, who want to improve or develop corporate culture. Organizational behavior and the duties of each worker have to be identified without stress and accepted as a crucial aspect of a company. Stress is a result of personal discontents and common misunderstandings. People have to be ready for stress and learn how to cope with it. The offered plan can be used in different spheres, and the team that has to accept the Office 2010 change project can benefit with it as well.

Adaptation and Examples of How the Plan Can Work

It may happen that a project manager and employees have a good stress management plan. Still, they have no ideas on how to use it. In such situation, it is better to provide such groups of people with clear examples and explanations of how the adaptation process can take place. For example, almost each hospital has a kind of “crying room”. Stress is a frequent condition for many nurses and medical workers. They have to cope with it individually or in groups.

They use the possibility to stay alone, think thoroughly about the actual problem, and find out the best solution. The same rooms but more technologically supports are used by Google employees. Its CEO, Larry Page, takes care of its people and offers the best options: comfortable chairs or sofas, entertaining channels, sports, etc. A restroom in a company remains to be a good and not expensive idea for many organizations.

Another example of how people can cope with stress is entertainment and parties. It does not mean that employees have to drink a lot to forget about personal or working challenges. It is very important to think about the entertaining part, develop some games, promote communication, and deprive people of restraint. Charity parties seem to be an interesting idea for many companies. On the one hand, it is possible to introduce a new task or option for the employees.

On the other hand, some auctions can be used to earn money and support the groups of people in need. People may offer their products for auctions. These things may be connected with the past that needs to be forgotten or the memories that disappoint. Some people would be eager to get rid of something with pleasure, and some people may want to buy the same thing and enjoy this possibility.

Conclusion

In general, work and stress are the two things that come together. People may want to achieve more. Still, because of certain reasons, they cannot meet their needs. The result is the development of a stress situation and the inability to gain control over personal emotions and feelings. The offered stress management plan can be used in the Office 2010 project and any other company. The main reason for such usability is the general approach to stress and the possibility to help people cope with their working challenges and personal problems. Project managers just need to want to help their people and follow the plan offered.

References

Flannes, S. & Levin, G. (2005). Essential people skills for project managers. Vienna, VA: Management Concepts.

Kerzner, H. (2013). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. New York City, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Mills, G. (2008). New benchmark study on project management offices shows consistent, 2-year trend delivering quantifiable value. Business Wire. Web.

Rahim, M.A. (2010). Managing conflict in organizations. Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Publishers.

Sharma, U. (2009). Stress management through ancient wisdom and modern science. New Delhi, India: Excel Books.

Tummers, N. (2013). Stress management: A wellness approach. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.