Introduction
The effective management of human resource is the means through which organizations can succeed in continued growth and financial stability. The discipline of human resource development has been considered to be based on the theories of not only economic and systems but also on the psychological theories of the surrounding the human resource department.
However, there has not been enough exploration on the implications associated with the economic theories on the human resource development theories. In this context, human resource development entails the process which focuses on bringing out the best of human expertise with the sole purpose of improving and maximizing the performance of n organization.
The dominating theoretical understanding of human resource development is the integration of all theories that may seem to be significant in an organization’s operations as well as promoting result oriented functionality. This can only be achieved by human resource development through creation of a much friendlier working environment by improving the health of workers from a psychological and social perspective (Swanson, 2008, p. 1).
This paper examines the need for the human resource development department to keep checks on the well-being of the employees by discussing the possible factors that may affect the well-being of the workers with much emphasis on stress audits.
Assessment of the psychosocial workplace
With the increasing competition in markets, human resources get under a lot of pressure to produce high quality products and services in order to maintain the organizations’ position in the market. Such pressure may be prolonged enough to cause strain on the employees. This could affect the physical, psychological and behavioral capabilities of the employees.
Physical strains affect the employees’ to perform bodily duties due to muscle aches, headaches, and other discomforts in the body. This has been confirmed in various researches which show that some disorders such as musculoskeletal are a result of workplace stress. Psychological strain mostly affects the employees ability to perform effectively hence may cause a reduction in productivity.
They are indicated by depression and anxiety both of which relatively causes job dissatisfaction. On the other hand, behavioral strains involve the unusual and most likely unethical behaviors on the part of the employees at the workplace. They include addiction to alcohol or medicines, uncontrollable consumption of food and most importantly, unprofessional interaction with other workers or even superiors.
Consequently, when employees are strained the organizations get affected too. For instance, absenteeism may result from employee stress especially where the strain is a result of poor working environment. Losses incurred during compensation to stressed or injured employees are likely to result (Thomas, butts, Vandernberg, Dejoy and Wilson 2005, p. 4790.
Similarly, compensation on workers and expenses on health schemes increase. This is where the human resource comes in to ensure that the psychosocial lives of the employees are maintained steady by creating favorable working environment which would then result to healthier production.
However, many organizations do not pay much attention to workers’ stressful conditions but rather leave it to the employees to deal with it. Organizations should therefore work more on employee stress and this entails getting involved in individual level stress management and not just organizing stress management courses and that is it.
This entails the participation of the organization in identifying and implementing effective stress busters. The most effective method that is appropriate for human resource development is the use of stress audit which is a systematic tool used to measure stressors as well as stress busters in a workplace environment.
Stress audits are effective in identifying performance related stressors that would not have been identified in the traditional assessments of human resource development.
Despite the fact that stress audits are meant to address organization related stress, there is also the need to examine the most recognized stressors especially those that promote the health of the employees. This entails the assessment of organizational factors that affect the physical, social and psychological being of the employees (Quill, 1999, 19).
However, the most effective factors to assess are the range of work load on the employees, the behavior of the workers’ supervisor, social support availed by the organization to the employees and the control method used by the organization on the workers. These factors are significant to all organizational settings and have most impacts on the employee performance and behavior.
The aspect of job control entails the extent to which workers are allowed to have control on their duties. According to research, worker who have low control over their jobs are less healthy than those with high control. It is obviously stressful for anyone to be controlled in all aspects of work.
Therefore, addressing stress associated with low job control should not, by any means, involve the implementation of more control from the superiors. However, increasing the job control should be carefully undertaken to avoid giving the employees certain responsibilities that they view as legitimately their superiors’.
The most effective measures to solving this problem would be re-scheduling tasks, work policies and duty procedures as well as including breaks for resting. These physical arrangements help workers feel more at ease with their work.
Work overload, on the other hand, refers to a situation in which workers have too much work and a limited time to do the work. This may be referred to as quantitative work load with a qualitative work load involving a situation where workers have complex duties which may cause strain on them. Generally, work overload has serious effects on the health of workers including heart related conditions.
The effect of work load on employees may increase due to the need of workers to balance between work and life and this is precisely what results to signs of strain. This could be solved by utilizing organizational resources as much as possible as well as giving employees time to recover from such work-related pressures (Hood 2001, p. 165).
Similarly, lack of support especially from the managers is one of the greatest contributors to employee stress. Social support such as being attentive to workers and offering them ideas and counseling services are some of the important ways of giving social support to employees.
Instrumental support is as important as social support especially through helping workers in aspects such as advising, coaching, job training or by mentoring employees. Social support is not only important in promoting health in organizations, but at all levels of individuals’ lives.
Psychological health is better supported through social support from family, friends, work mates and job managers as well. On the other hand, social support is significant in the work place as it helps transfer the skills attained from the training session to the real working environment.
Social support can be created by emphasizing on team work and cooperation between all stakeholders in an organization. This prevents employees from strain that results due to tension and emotional tiredness.
Work supervisors have great influence on the employee’s well being since they determine how workers feel about them and how well or bad they perceive them. Inconsiderate supervisors may cause psychological strain on workers by being too hard on them and pressuring them especially on work load related matters (Kahnweiler, 1991, p. 347).
This is because supervisors are in charge of job delegation and planning and it is precisely how they do this that affects the employee performance and health. Supervisor self reflection is one of the significant ways in which originations can foster in efforts of trying to avoid compromise on the psychological health of employees.
Conclusion
As much as all organizations want to succeed especially in maintaining their market positions in the competitive world of business, they should also understand the need to maintain good health for their employees because they are the foundation to the organizations’ performance.
Since most workers get stressed due to work related issues, it is the duty of human resource development to ensure that favorable working conditions are created for the employees in order to promote healthy performance (Biggie and Hunt 1992, p. 623).
Psychological fitness is the most important tool in work performance and as long as workers are not provided with environments that promote psychological health, their performance can never be as efficient as the organizations want it to be.
All in all, the workers should work alongside their superiors towards ensuring maximum production in organizations by devoting themselves to their work but in a healthy way. However, one question which arises from this paper is “who is to blame for organization’s poor performance both in production and in the market?”
Reference List
Biggie, M., and Hunt, M. (1962). Psychological foundations of education: An introduction to human development and learning. Universal digital library: Harper & Brothers.
Hood, P. (2001). Human resource development: motivation and movement. Management in education 15 (19).
Kahnweiler, W (1991, November). HRD and empowerment. Training and development. New York: EBSCO.
Quill, W. (1999, summer). The psychology of human resource development; a consequent of radical cultural change in America. Journal of business and psychology, 13 (4).
Swanson, R. (2008). Economic foundation of human resource development: advancing the theory and practice of the discipline.
Thomas, W., Butts, M., Vandernberg, R., Dejoy, D., and Wilson, M,. (2005). Effects of management communication, opportunity for learning and work schedule flexibility on organizational commitment. Journal of vocational behavior, 68 (2006) 474-489.